Killing Crows

Acid

August dragged the body away down the corridor and into the basement, its head knocked on the wood each step down, It stunk like rats and alcohol. The basement was small, a dim LED light, a workbench stained with blood and paint, a whole lotta tools, Tom's easels and buckets full of paints, they were his mothers but when the divorce happened, his father never touched them they laid to rot in the dark. Tommy found painting calming, remembering how his mother used to do it. He and August would watch her when they were younger late at night, Kristin would tell them to go back to bed but would say nothing more when Tom would sit next to her watching each brushstroke. August let go of the man's legs leaving to go look for a big enough barrel and his old supply of Sulfuric Acid. August found an old freezer and dragged it over to the centre of the room, the light switch above had a sting attached to it, he pulled on it a soft sounding click turnt the switch on. The dim light lighting a small area in the middle of the room, enough light to pour sulfuric acid at 40˚C into the bucket. August picked the heavy man up carrying him bridal style over to a stained workbench, hauling him on top. The majority of the tools August left here, were still where he left them, either slightly bent or graffitied. He picked up a pair of scissors and began to cut away at the fabric that covered the grizzly man. August disliked this part, he honestly hated the human body, it was nasty and gross even his own body, August wanted to rip himself to shreds, maybe it was self hate or something more. August began sawing away, starting at joints in his leg tossing the limbs into the bucket, each motion tore at the skin, blood spraying up from each new sliced open vein, the substance coated his hands, drops dripping from his face, it tasted like metal and sickly bitter cherries. August wasn't one for drinking blood or consuming flesh, but the sicken taste brings him back to the present, like some sort of reminder of the humanity he doesn't have, like a chain wrapped around his neck, tugging him into the submissive nature of society. He never really thought that other people could feel pain, or emotions like he could, August's mind worked differently, nothing else was real. Maybe he felt a bit of regret, but what was the point if no one else was as real as he was? August thought back to Seth; his golden heart and warm skin, he felt as real as they could get, yet August couldn't shake off the feeling that Seth wasn't real no matter how hard he tried to believe so.

August picked up each body part placing them carefully into the sulfuric acid without splashing the substance. Getting to the head the solution was already bubbling and had an awful smell, hiding the bottom half of his face in his shirt, he lowered the head into the acid, closing the lid right away. August cracked the lid with a spare piece of wood to reduce it from building pressure. 'Going back to my old ways' August thought of the countless people that he's dissolved before, the news reporters being speechless while hazmat suited people carried fridges and barrels, taped up to limit the danger of spilling the liquid. He thought back to his second murder.

August when he was 16, watching the news with Tommy.

"The weather tonight is showing some furious storm clouds travelling over Arizona for-" The news reporter hesitated, quickly tapping the microphone in her ear. The scene changed back to the original reporter sitting in front of the desk, his eyes were wide and jaw ajar.

"Um. We have news from the Phoenix police station. A very gruesome scene here today" the tv showed men in hazmat suits, and a man that looked like a bee; a hero. Caring a disgusting white barrel covered in blood, the hero carried out a black container that was soon known to have been carrying organs. It switched back to the reporter he was in shook, hesitating to say anything, a bit of background noise was heard through the microphones in the studio. "... down in Arizona an old house was reported smelling foul over the past 2 weeks and have sent police to come look inside, on inspection a devastating scene was reported to have blood along the floors, bits of- flesh stuck in scissors and saws. Pro hero Stinnger is here to say a piece about the situation." The scene changed to the hero standing in front of the door of the house, inside was dark, the hazmat suit people walking in and out with chemicals on their back.