Mary Ann Nichols || Prompt #1
The girl had called herself Lolli. That was all she would offer of herself. With beautiful graying brown curls pushed back from her shoulders, the lace arm of her dress so tastefully settled on her upper arm to reveal a bare shoulder, and oh, Jacqueline did love the way that dress hugged her form, emphasizing her bosom and thin hips. Three pennies, she’d asked for, and wasn’t that just the price? Jacqueline could have afforded much more, but the girl had hardly asked for much. She paid with no hesitation.
The stable they approached was plenty isolated enough for Jacqueline’s liking. The girl wouldn’t know what was coming to her until she was already bleeding out, of course; that was precisely what she wished for. And oh, how simple it was to hide a knife in the folds of her gown. Lolli turned toward her, a smile upon rich red lips, and for a moment, Jacqueline almost considered letting her survive. She could take this girl in, could she not? She could rehabilitate her in a manner that she had never been able to do with her own daughter, no?
No, she could not. There was no saving this girl any longer. She was long since too far corrupted to be saved. If she had not been so easily paid off, even by a woman who might turn her over to the police so easily, then perhaps… Perhaps Jacqueline might have given her a chance. As it was, the girl tugged her sleeve lower on her arm, making herself more attractive to the woman that she did not know would be her undoing. It was almost a pity, really; she would look the part of a murdered whore so easily.
Stepping in close, Jacqueline’s left hand slid into the folds of her skirt, her right hand lifting to cup a snow white, albeit mildly dirt-mussed, cheek. How simple this was… She could feel the way the girl’s pulse raced under her fingertips, the way her entire being seemed to scream both fear and want in the very same motions. Perfect red lips parted, pressing against her thumb gently, and Jacqueline smiled down at her softly, ducking her head to press a far more intimate kiss to the girl’s jaw, a gentle motion that failed to hint what she was intending.
Lolli was smiling back at her even as Jacqueline took in a deep breath against the girl’s neck, determining just how sweet her blood would be. She would make a feeding out of this as well, perhaps let the girl think she might be saved by the bite – but she would not save her. The girl didn’t deserve saving, not in the least. If only she had been a bit less obvious about her lifestyle, about her desire to live on the streets and enjoy the sex that her clients so well paid her for. If only she had been better.
“You are a lovely one, little Lolli,” she whispered then; her blood would be like candy, like syrup that flowed so simply. The girl would be a perfect meal, and at last, she would give herself a great meaning to her life. She was meant to provide sustenance for the upper crust of society, no more and no less. “Such a shame that you whore yourself as you do, is it not? You could be so lovely, if you were only better. But who am I to question you, I’m sure you’re thinking. I paid for the goods, no?”
The knife moved at last, warm in Jacqueline’s palm, as she lifted her head, lacing the hand that had lingered upon Lolli’s cheek into the girl’s hair. Such lovely curls, such a beautiful compliment to the pretty white skin that it rested against. Such a waste of such prettiness. Pulling lightly, Jacqueline made the girl tilt her head back as her other hand rose, gripping the knife’s handle harder as she dragged the knife quickly across her throat, the spray of sweet blood from the wound making her only hungrier, only more desiring of the liquid that flowed down her neck.
The wound was not deep enough, however; Jacqueline couldn’t leave it just that way now, could she? The knife lifted again, pressing harder this time as she made the next cut deeper, more jagged. Ah, and there was more blood, more rich flowing. Instinctively, unable to contain her hunger any longer, she ducked her head forward, pressing it against one of the deeper parts of the wound and beginning to suck the free flowing liquid from the girl’s slowly fading form. Her pulse was weaker now, and her mouth opened and closed several times in attempts to cry out.
Jacqueline had severed her vocal chords, had opened up her jugular, had ensured nothing but a quick death for this girl that she might once have wanted to save. But she hadn’t done enough. This girl, this Lolli, this whore… She deserved worse than this, worse than the damage that she had gone through. She deserved pain before she couldn’t feel it any longer, something to wake her and make her pulse race one more time before it faded away entirely. She would appreciate that, would she not? She would appreciate the rush of life just before death stole her.
Her hand gripped the handle of the knife again as she propped Lolli up, almost tenderly brushing a thumb over her cheek. “Come now, Lolli, don’t let yourself sleep yet. You’ve hardly felt the best part. There’s a rush, isn’t there?” The knife thrust deep into the girl’s abdomen then, just where her uterus ought to be, and dragged downward, slicing her open. “There’s something great in such a pain. Something… exhilarating. Your masochism is evident, love, in the way that your heart races. Don’t you feel it? The adrenaline must be amazing, fantastic to let overtake you now.”
An easier cut this time, a more precise incision, and Jacqueline could feel the way that Lolli’s stomach was opened up, now bleeding out into the organs that surrounded it. Oh, how simple a thing that was. The innards would burn, would destroy themselves, soon enough. They’d be damaged at the very least. The whore’s own burning illnesses would leak out into other organs, making abundantly clear just how diseased she was to the rest of the world. She would never have to suffer for those illnesses now, but perhaps she would serve as an example to those she called her street sisters.
Another cut, a fourth, a fifth – Jacqueline was hardly counting now, murmuring in the girl’s ear about the good that she would do now that she was fading away, now that she was losing herself to a greater cause. She would be a perfect proof that society needed to change, lest they find themselves in such a terrible situation as Lolli had stumbled into herself. If only she would have been better, Jacqueline would simply have found a manner of saving her. Alas, she was nothing more than a street rat, a girl who deserved her terrible fate.
The wounds moved to the sides, more careful, and then Jacqueline dropped the girl at last, letting her fall into the pool of her own blood that had gathered under her. Almost finished now. She had to make a last statement, though, and so she crouched beside the girl’s body, making two final injuries – these ones on her groin, intended to make the point that these were the reason for her murder. A whore was not safe, not in this city, and Jacqueline wanted it to be entirely clear that the whore was the greater damaged one here, the problem.
It was all too simple to escape the scene then, even with the blood sprayed along her dress. Her home was all too close, and she made her way there quickly, returning to her husband’s side with little more than a soft smile and an explanation that she required feeding and had gotten her fill. It was only a couple of days later when she heard the name of her victim at last. Mary Ann Nichols, a whore who deemed herself Lolli to her clients. She was an example of what would befall the women of the street. Jacqueline smiled.
