This was written way way after "Sport" but it fits chronologically, so I'm moving it. Figure all the "Two Bodies" ones can stay together.

Anyway, my personal suggestion is to read this while listening to Sage Francis' "Seal Lion." I originally wrote it to "A Pain That I'm Used To" (because that's what was originally playing during the scene), but "Sea Lion" fits better.

If not, once again, should read just fine on its own.

--

Dying

--

"You know, he used to slit their throats like cattle."

Her teeth grind hard into the cloth, and it tastes dirty and bitter in her mouth.

Her head pounds. Nothing is coming into focus. She can hear his words but they don't make any sense.

"Told me he used the key to unlock the soul behind their eyes."

Eyes.

Pictures snap behind her eyes. Empty orbits, jaws frozen in screams that she is unable to release. Theirs are silent; hers are trapped in her throat.

I thought it could be a saw blade of some kind.

They were keys. Kenton has the keys.

What if she were struggling?

Lack of hemorrhage in the surrounding eye tissues suggests she was already dead before the eyes were removed.

Already dead.

Her breath wheezes from her nostrils in rapid and shallow bursts. She can't breathe. There isn't enough air.

"I'm sorry, I really am."

She can hear him speaking to her. Everything he says doesn't make any sense.

Her breath is loud and constrained. Her head pounds and won't stop pounding. Her heart is going fast, and she can feel it in her throat and in every part of her body.

Her fingers dig into the hook she's hanging from, her feet stiffen on the floor.

She can't get up from the chair. It's too awkward of a position.

Blades are clean. No knicks.

She watches Kenton and he's speaking and then he walks to a table.

I guarantee, whatever you're looking for, you're not gonna find here.

What we need might be locked up some place.

Her reality is swimming in and out of focus.

Dogs bark at her back, snarl. She jumps and tries to move again but her hands and ankles are bound tight and then Kenton chips the knife between two bricks and she jumps again and her breath continues to wheeze from her nostrils.

You can see the scrapings in the orbital cavities—much rougher than the knife scarring.

She can hear her own voice, but she's not speaking.

It was done with a different weapon.

Sonovabitch.

You've seen this before?

Yeah.

"I'm not like him though."

Kenton is speaking again. She sees him through bleary eyes, glances the keys poking from his pockets.

"The things I have to do to you..."

The knife marks were made with a non-serrated blade, consistent with a pocketknife like this one. I found additional marks on C5, indicating that the throat was slashed.

What about her eyes?

The grooving in the eye sockets doesn't match anything on the knife.

"You'll be gone first."

The crenelations—the grooves carved into the bone around the victim's eyes—they were irregular like the grooves of a key.

"You'll never know a thing."

Grooves?

He must have used a key to gouge out the eyes. And he kept it near him in his apartment. That was his souvenir.

He isn't looking at her, he's just talking. Words from the past mix with his. She doesn't know what he's saying and what she's thinking.

Terror is in her heart. She can feel bile in her throat but chokes it down.

"I never expected anyone to find out."

You don't think killing Cugini ended a street war?

So my death will be justified now?

Bureau keeps a shelf on every weapon it issues. You match that slug, it points to my weapon and I go down. And the Romanos make sure I don't talk.

Well, at least I'm dying for a good reason.

Then he turns and moves closer, but first he shifts and she sees the gun in his hand. She moves away, but the rope holds her. She can't resist, she can't talk to him.

She's going to die in a warehouse at the hands of a cop.

You killed Cugini?

The gun is raised above her head.

You don't get rich working for the FBI.

CRACK!

--

You know, I still maintain that's it's a damn shame I can't use that as a cliffie, because it sure is a good one. XD

And, hazzah, I think this is the perfect one to hit the fiftieth Theme with! I know it says fifty-one, but this is the fiftieth Theme. :D