Anniversary Dance

“So we meet again,” the Good Doctor hissed.

He began to loosen one of the thumb screws.  

She wore only panties, soaked and sticky.  
She twisted in the steel chair,
slippery with two and a half hours of
sweat,
drool,
blood
and slime.  

She began to suck in deep breaths,
desperately squeezing oxygen between the steel rods.  
Splashing bubbles of mucous
stretching strings of saliva
from her chin
to her naked belly
to the floor.

He pulled out the first screw.  
She felt the tickle of blood run down her cheekbone.  

He tenderly placed the screw next to the 6-inch plaster saw
and a 4-inch patch of fresh, tanned thigh.

The first screw loosened her jaw ever-so-slightly.  
She groaned.  Only 25 more to go.

Her breathing grew more erratic with every new hole;
each point of pressure was replaced with a bloody stream and an endorphin rush.

Another screw with bits of bone and flesh.

She began to rock the massive head-iron back and forth,
trying to shake it loose.

“Now, now my love,” he said, “we must have patience.”

Another screw.

Clang on the surgical tray.

And another.

Finally, her atrophied jaw was free.  
Terrible gagging shrieks escaped her mouth,
desperate sprays of breath and blood
painted his white mask in pinkish hue.

Seven more screws and she felt the irons begin to slip.
Her shoulders slumped
and her pale, naked body twitched,
pinstriped with dark-red streaks,
most of which settled at her panties.

Her perfectly shaved and split pubis
showed through the wetness,
soaked and crucified in burgundy.

With the last screw,
a clang
and a horrible scream,
her bloodied face frantic and contorted.  
The helmet fell heavily on her lap,
then crashed to the concrete floor.

Two cleaver chops
and her hands and legs were free.  
She fell forward,
sobbing.

She writhed on the ground briefly,
twitched once,
then lay still.

The doctor smiled at her crumpled shape,
hung his bloody, slime-covered smock on the garage door
and gingerly approached her.

He lay on the ground,
bringing his face inches from hers.  

He dabbed lovingly with a piece of sterile gauze at a hole in her face.

Her breath was returning to normal when she smiled the faintest smile.  

Her eyes were glassy as she looked up at him and said
rapturously,
“I love you, baby.”  

He licked his lips with anticipation,
“I love you too, baby,"
his pupils widened,
"now do me next!”