THE COBALT MANNEQUIN
Kram Toille arose from his bed at the usual hour and preceded to prepare himself for the days activities.
It was Tuesday and therefore a working day. He dressed in his usual office attire and draining the last dregs from his cup of tea, opened his door and strode towards the intersection of his road and the main route to the station.
His village comprised of a number of post war properties but was mainly composed of early Victorian cottages and a mixture of late medieval and Elizabethan barns and manor houses.
However there was only one shop for the villagers and it was accompanied by a single village pub.
The shop was run by an octogenarian man named Octavius Willender who's family had moved to the village during the persecution of the Huganoughts in the 17th century and had remained ever since. Octavius was now the sole survivor of the family, as his wife had died during a robbery at the shop in 1959 and his children had perished whilst on a school trip to Aberfan in 1966.
The shop was a double fronted shop with Victorian glass panels and one small door. The shop fronts were identical and both contained mannequins dressed in an assortment of clothing. A total of five mannequins were spread across the two window spaces and the clothing was always of an antique nature.
At the intersection. Kram Toille turned left and was soon passing the shop. As usual he glanced in to the first window and noticed that three of the models were clustered together as if speaking to each other. Further more , the second window was noticeable by the fact that the remaining two mannequins were set with there backs to the door entrance, and thus the mannequins positioned in the preceding window.
Soon Kram was at the station and as he boarded hid train to the city his thoughts returned to the Cobalt mannequins in Octavius's shop. He was not sure but he thought he could remember a trickle of red bloodlike liquid falling across the cheeks and upper lip of the two lifeless mannequins in the second window.
He soon picked up his paper and turned to the quick crossword which he began to complete with a small HB pencil. His eyes glazed over as he stared at the first clue which read "Sweeney Tod was ear but not there!". As his brow began to sweat profusely he remembered that along with the trickle of blood running across the mannequins faces, a grizzly lump of red mushy flesh appeared to lay at the feet of each of the cobalt figures. The redness of the blood being extenuated by the deep blue colouring of the mannequins.
As his train pulled in to the station Kram was shaking with disbelief as he realised that his 45 minute journey had elapsed in no time at all and that he was at his destination. He trudged to his office and was soon buried in an avalanche of paper work and phone calls. He was often distracted throughout the day as his colleagues seemed to revel in discussing his mental distress by continually mentioning within their speech references to ears, Todd, Sweeney, death etc, although they were only making reference to the previous evenings TV when the crime thriller "the Sweeney" had been broadcast.
Soon his day was over and he rushed to catch his usual train home, and he was soon sitting in his Pullman carriage reading the Evening News. He gingerly turned to the back page and fixed his eyes on the crossword. His eyes scanned the clues and was dumbfounded to note that the first clue was a reference to "drinks enjoyed with surgical implements used by ships doctors whist viewing crime TV".
His train pulled in to his home station and he disembarked at a speed of knots as his feet strode towards the corner shop and the cobalt mannequins.
He was almost out of breath as he reached the shop fronts and without missing a stride he pushed the door open and entered the shop. As he entered he was greeted by old Octavius who held a huge surgeons razor in his left hand together with two severed ears in his right hand. As a scream flooded from his dry cracked lips, he turned to notice that the five cobalt mannequins were seated at a nearby table, their necks swiveled at a 45 degree angle as they stared directly in to Kram Toille's reddened eyes.
It was only then that Kram remembered the argument he had with his wife and child earlier that morning when he was shaving with the antique cut throat razor that he had inherited from his great grandfather, Todd Sweeney, many years earlier. He further remembered slashing the ear and throat of his daughter as the clung to his legs crying for her doll, and then leaping at his wife's neck, slashing her throat from ear to ear and slicing her left ear off and sticking it in her mouth as he shouted at the top of his voice "you cant hear me now can you, you bitch, leave me alone to sing in to the mirror and get ready for work.. Hi ho Hi ho.....".
Back in the shop he slumped to the ground as the cobalt mannequins slowly surrounded him and raising their razors above their steely blue bodies, fell upon his body ripping his flesh and body to shreds.
The next day the street was blocked off with regulation police tape, as the local constabulary investigated the vicious murder of Kram's wife and child. As the day dragged on, a bored policeman strolled up the road and turned left at the intersection and glanced in to the window marvelling at the realism of the five cobalt blue mannequins and the blue stained, man sized leather hide, stretched out between them, secured at each corner by the vice like grip of the mannequins red stained hands.
Standing in the other window was Mr Octavius Willender hurriedly preparing a set of mannequins in what appeared to be a scene from a prison cell, with a hangman's rope hanging from the ceiling. As the policeman turned and returned to his spot on the pavement outside Kram Toille's residence he failed to notice that the figures in the second window were clothed in police uniforms and that the face of the mannequin directly below the rope had facial features amazingly similar to his own............................
Kram Toille arose from his bed at the usual hour and preceded to prepare himself for the days activities.
It was Tuesday and therefore a working day. He dressed in his usual office attire and draining the last dregs from his cup of tea, opened his door and strode towards the intersection of his road and the main route to the station.
His village comprised of a number of post war properties but was mainly composed of early Victorian cottages and a mixture of late medieval and Elizabethan barns and manor houses.
However there was only one shop for the villagers and it was accompanied by a single village pub.
The shop was run by an octogenarian man named Octavius Willender who's family had moved to the village during the persecution of the Huganoughts in the 17th century and had remained ever since. Octavius was now the sole survivor of the family, as his wife had died during a robbery at the shop in 1959 and his children had perished whilst on a school trip to Aberfan in 1966.
The shop was a double fronted shop with Victorian glass panels and one small door. The shop fronts were identical and both contained mannequins dressed in an assortment of clothing. A total of five mannequins were spread across the two window spaces and the clothing was always of an antique nature.
At the intersection. Kram Toille turned left and was soon passing the shop. As usual he glanced in to the first window and noticed that three of the models were clustered together as if speaking to each other. Further more , the second window was noticeable by the fact that the remaining two mannequins were set with there backs to the door entrance, and thus the mannequins positioned in the preceding window.
Soon Kram was at the station and as he boarded hid train to the city his thoughts returned to the Cobalt mannequins in Octavius's shop. He was not sure but he thought he could remember a trickle of red bloodlike liquid falling across the cheeks and upper lip of the two lifeless mannequins in the second window.
He soon picked up his paper and turned to the quick crossword which he began to complete with a small HB pencil. His eyes glazed over as he stared at the first clue which read "Sweeney Tod was ear but not there!". As his brow began to sweat profusely he remembered that along with the trickle of blood running across the mannequins faces, a grizzly lump of red mushy flesh appeared to lay at the feet of each of the cobalt figures. The redness of the blood being extenuated by the deep blue colouring of the mannequins.
As his train pulled in to the station Kram was shaking with disbelief as he realised that his 45 minute journey had elapsed in no time at all and that he was at his destination. He trudged to his office and was soon buried in an avalanche of paper work and phone calls. He was often distracted throughout the day as his colleagues seemed to revel in discussing his mental distress by continually mentioning within their speech references to ears, Todd, Sweeney, death etc, although they were only making reference to the previous evenings TV when the crime thriller "the Sweeney" had been broadcast.
Soon his day was over and he rushed to catch his usual train home, and he was soon sitting in his Pullman carriage reading the Evening News. He gingerly turned to the back page and fixed his eyes on the crossword. His eyes scanned the clues and was dumbfounded to note that the first clue was a reference to "drinks enjoyed with surgical implements used by ships doctors whist viewing crime TV".
His train pulled in to his home station and he disembarked at a speed of knots as his feet strode towards the corner shop and the cobalt mannequins.
He was almost out of breath as he reached the shop fronts and without missing a stride he pushed the door open and entered the shop. As he entered he was greeted by old Octavius who held a huge surgeons razor in his left hand together with two severed ears in his right hand. As a scream flooded from his dry cracked lips, he turned to notice that the five cobalt mannequins were seated at a nearby table, their necks swiveled at a 45 degree angle as they stared directly in to Kram Toille's reddened eyes.
Back in the shop he slumped to the ground as the cobalt mannequins slowly surrounded him and raising their razors above their steely blue bodies, fell upon his body ripping his flesh and body to shreds.
The next day the street was blocked off with regulation police tape, as the local constabulary investigated the vicious murder of Kram's wife and child. As the day dragged on, a bored policeman strolled up the road and turned left at the intersection and glanced in to the window marvelling at the realism of the five cobalt blue mannequins and the blue stained, man sized leather hide, stretched out between them, secured at each corner by the vice like grip of the mannequins red stained hands.
Standing in the other window was Mr Octavius Willender hurriedly preparing a set of mannequins in what appeared to be a scene from a prison cell, with a hangman's rope hanging from the ceiling. As the policeman turned and returned to his spot on the pavement outside Kram Toille's residence he failed to notice that the figures in the second window were clothed in police uniforms and that the face of the mannequin directly below the rope had facial features amazingly similar to his own............................
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