Rough Justice

Chapter 2

2

Jeff knew a Taser wouldn’t directly cause you to lose consciousness and assumed he must have hit his head when he fell. It was a strangely lucid thought to have on regaining consciousness, and he assumed it was his brain’s way of trying to avoid coming to terms with the fact that there was a man stood over him with a huge pair of gardening shears.

It was the same man who’d Tasered him at his front door — he knew it was — although he couldn’t make out the man’s face behind the plastic body suit he was wearing.

He must’ve been out for some time, as not only had the man managed to put on a full plastic body suit, he’d also stripped Jeff naked and bound his hands and feet.

The man’s voice came muffled and deep.

‘I know who you are, Jeff Brelsford. Scum. Paedo scum. Do you know who I am?’

‘No,’ Jeff replied, shocked at how groggy his own voice sounded. ‘But I’m presuming you’re not a policeman.’

‘Bright lad. Although not quite bright enough to have kept off my radar.’

‘Who are you?’ Jeff asked, now beginning to panic.

The man ignored him and pointed his shears at Jeff’s crotch. ‘How’s it feeling down there now?’

‘Sore.’

‘Shame. Never mind. I’m sure the pain won’t last long. In fact, I’m sure it won’t. You should think yourself very lucky. Not as lucky as the rest of the world, though, being rid of paedo scum like you,’ the man sneered in his face.

‘What do you want?’ Jeff croaked, growing increasingly desperate.

‘Justice. Simple as that. Pure justice.’

‘For what? I haven’t done anything. Who are you?’

The man laughed confidently. ‘You haven’t done anything? Really? I think we both know what you’ve done. What you are.’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Jeff replied.

‘Oh, I think you do,’ the man said, leaning in close to Jeff’s face. ‘The Dark Web. The forum.’

Jeff hoped to God that the man hadn’t seen the glint of recognition in his eyes, but he knew the involuntary reaction must have shown. Before he could respond, a globule of saliva landed on his right eyeball.

‘You’re scum. Nothing more, nothing less. Do you understand that?’ the man said as Jeff tried in vain to lift his tied arm to wipe his eye. Instead, all he could do was to wipe it with his shoulder the best he could.

‘I’m sorry. Please. Please just let me go.’

‘You’re sorry?’ the man said, walking around behind Jeff so he could no longer see him. ‘Do you think that makes it all okay?’

‘No. No, of course not.’

‘Do you think any amount of apologising or repenting is going to make what you did — what you are — okay?’

Jeff gulped. ‘No. No, I don’t.’

The man was silent for a moment. ‘Then there’s only one thing for it, isn’t there?’

He heard the rhythmic snip, snip, snip of the gardening shears before he saw the man walk back alongside him, lean down and begin to move the shears towards his naked p***s.

‘No! Please, no!’ Jeff pleaded.

‘Shh, we’ll have no more of that,’ the man said, pushing a stale rag into Jeff’s mouth. ‘We can’t have you waking the neighbours, now, can we?’

The rhythmic sound of the shears started again.

Snip, snip, snip.

It was almost mesmerising, bewitching, and a deep part of Jeff’s brain was actually quite enchanted by the sound up until the moment the steel blades crossed over his p***s and the sound became a blistering sensation of searing pain.

Jeff could swear he felt at least one of his teeth crack as he bit down harder on the rag than he’d ever bitten on anything before.

‘Oh, Jeff,’ the man said. ‘I think I understand your perversions now. You have no idea how much pleasure that just gave me. Sharp blades, aren’t they?’

Jeff stared wide-eyed at the man as he opened up the jaws of the shears, now smeared with blood, and brought one open blade down towards his throat.

‘Good f*****g riddance, Jeff,’ the man said, his teeth bared, before bringing the blade ripping across Jeff’s throat with the movement and determination of a man trying to start a petrol lawnmower.

For Jeff Brelsford, the world suddenly got much darker.