Vegetarian’s Remorse

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by Penombre

It probably wasn’t what the Animal Rights people had in mind. Scott Hunter was a man of logic, a man of principles. He saw himself as a rugged individualist, did things his own way, kept to himself most of the time, didn’t care what other people did or thought. And certainly rugged, and athletic. An outdoorsman, he was always deeply tanned, and had sandy brown hair that fell over his forehead and wore a full moustache.

Sometimes he had a scraggly beard as well, not for any esthetic reason, but because he couldn’t always be bothered to shave.

Scott Hunter had known what he wanted to be from his youth. He wanted to own a ranch. So he set out to learn the ropes. But, as I already noted, Scott Hunter was a man of principle, of rigorous logic. And then there were the animal rights people. They were having some kind of convention right in town. Now, you would assume that there would be a natural antipathy between ranchers and animal rights people, and so there was. All the ranch hands douhemorrhage over in laughter whenever anybody brought some of their literature to the mess hall. They’d hold up a T-bone and say, “Alas, Poor Bessie; I knew her, Horatio” or, carving into a roast prime rib, someone would say, “Hey, if any of those animal right to life people show up, just explain that this is ratatouille.” But Scott Hunter did not have the herd instinct, and he thought things through for himself.

When he met Ariel Sanders, everything changed. She was a college girl who had come up from North Carolina for the summer to volunteer for the Animal Rights group and was a strict vegetarian. Ariel Sanders, a real nice kid, earnest and friendly, easy going and fun to be with. Ariel and Scott liked each other from the very beginning. And Scott listened when she explained why it was wrong to kill and eat animals.

“What is meat?” he thought; it’s part of an animal’s body, part of a living creature. A creature that eats and sleeps and has sex and feels pain, and who knows, maybe even dreams and loves. What right do we have to decide that we are any better, just because we’re humans and therefore, at this time in history, a little stronger? That’s what Scott Hunter thought, and, because he was a man of logic and principle, Scott Hunter became a vegetarian.

Ariel didn’t know anyone in town, and Scott didn’t have a clue as to what vegetarians were supposed to eat, so the two of them helped each other out a lot. Ariel wasn’t one of those thin, pale vegetarians; she knew all about finding protein sources, and she had a great athletic body. Scott and Ariel went running together in the mornings, challenging each other to leave the other morning joggers far behind. Scott would meet Ariel after work and they spent more and more time together.

But it isn’t easy to change the habits of a lifetime, even if the lifetime has barely amounted to 20 years so far. Scott felt dissatisfied.

He went to bed hungry. Walking down the street, he would stare longingly into the windows of butcher shops. He paused before the Chicken Roaster outlet to watch the chickens turning on the spit. The smell of an outdoor barbecue haunted him for days. One night he had a particularly vivid dream of a rack of ribs on a grill, a dream from which he awoke in a state of sexual excitement. He wished he could at least talk about these feelings to someone, but he could never admit them to Ariel.

As the summer progressed, Ariel looked better and better, Scott became hungrier. Ariel wondered why Scott didn’t have her over. Scott said that he lived alone in a cabin. It was his space, and he had never had anyone over. Scott went home and looked over the stuff in his cabin, so many things he had no longer had any use for. The roasting pan. The cleaver, the hibachi, the meat grinder, the wooden mallet for tenderizing meat, the 18-inch knives with the serrated edges, the two-pronged fork. And in the refrigerator, evidence of his former life and its abandoned pleasures: barbecue sauce, mustard, A-1 sauce, hot-dog relish, honey glaze, mint jelly. He closed the refrigerator in distress, and decided it was time he invited Ariel over for dinner. It was the end of Ariel’s internship. Scott and it would be their last weekend before Ariel had to go back to North Carolina.

“Hey, Scott, I thought you didn’t invite people into your cabin.”

“That’s right. You’re sleeping in the dog-house.” Ariel laughed, half-hoping that Scott was serious.

The weekend together at the cabin was better than Ariel could have imagined. She didn’t sleep in the dog-house, but with Scott. They went for long hikes, made love in the woods, and came back to a gourmet vegetarian meal that Ariel prepared.

On the morning of her last day at the cabin, Ariel took a long shower. Scott made his final preparations. He had done most of the work before he had invited Ariel to the cabin. He selected a stump not far from the cabin. There was no sense in making a mess in the cabin. He had placed four stakes in the ground and had assemhemorrhage everything he needed. He had some rope he used on the ranch to haul in steers. He had sharpened up his old knives and the old axe that he kept around to cut firewood. Fortunately, the old refrigerator in the shed was still working.

He was ready when Ariel came out of the shower. She was wearing only a bathrobe and had wrapped a towel around her hair.

“Honey. I’ve got a surprise for you,” Said Scott. He held up a large handkerchief. “But first, I have to blindfold you.”

“Can’t I put on some clothes first?”

“No, on the contrary, you have to slip off that bathrobe. I want you completely naked!”

“Oh, I see,” said Ariel giggling. “What sort of surprise do you have in mind?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”

“All right,” Ariel said, letting her bathrobe fall to the floor as she turned around. She was mildly excited and totally mystified.

Scott placed the folded handkerchief over her eyes and fastened with a knot behind her head. It was a snug fit.

Scott took her hand and pulled out of the cabin door and into the yard. “We’re going outside?” Ariel asked.

“It’s necessary. You’ll see in a minute,” Scott said leading across the yard and over to the tree stump.

“Now, I want you to kneel down for me.”

“But I just took my shower! I’ll get my knees dirty.”

“Please, Ariel. I’ve really been looking forward to this.”

“Ariel shrugged her shoulders, and kneeled beside the stump. “All right, but aren’t you going to tell me what you’re doing?”

“Now, that would spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it?” He began tying her wrists and ankles to the prepositioned stakes.

“What are you doing, Scott?”

“Just hold still a minute, Ariel. This won’t take long now.”

Ariel was confused but allowed Scott to continue whatever it was he was doing. He moved around her, adjusting the ropes. He positioned her head on the stump. He adjusted the ropes to hold Ariel in place, just in time. Her patience finally ran out.

“Just what in the hell are you doing, Scott? Untie me right now!” she demanded. Ariel’s initial sense of excitement had changed to anxiety.

Before answering, Scott adjusted her hair and to expose her neck. “Just hold still for a minute, Ariel, while I get the axe.”

“Axe?” Ariel was beginning to panic. “My God Scott, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to cut off your head, Ariel.”

“Wha… What are you saying?” She was starting to cry.

“Ariel, you’re not going to like this, but I’m just not cut out for this vegetarian business. I can’t do it, it’s driving me crazy.”

“I don’t understand! What are you talking about?”

“It’s everything you taught me; all the principles about not killing animals; that humans really aren’t any better. But don’t you see what that means? If we can eat animal meat, why not human meat as well?”

“O, my God!” Ariel’s voice revealed her panic.

“I’ve been thinking about this a long time. Cows have as much right to life as we do, but we eat them. It’s just that we’re more powerful. It’s the same with you and me. If one individual is more powerful, or able to outwit and capture another. It all makes sense doesn’t it? Don’t you see? You’re made of meat too!

Ariel was crying and desperately pulling at the ropes. “Please let me go! I’m not a cow!”

“Of course not. You’ll be better eating than any cow!”

“Please, Scott, let me go. You’re talking like there is nothing wrong with killing me.”

“Well, killing isn’t wrong… not in an absolute sense. It’s not wrong if it’s done for self-defense, for instance. And it isn’t wrong to kill for food. It’s the way of nature. Every animal is another animal’s meat. You can’t deny that.”

“This is not funny, Scott. Untie me!”

“You vegetarians don’t get it. And your argument, that humans are no better than animals, that’s part correct. So, why shouldn’t I eat you? You should be good meat.”

“Please Scott, don’t!” Ariel sobbed.

“Sorry, Ariel, but that’s the way it has to be. You have to be slaughtered. That’s how meat is harvested, isn’t it? I’ve always wondered how a woman would taste.” And I’m going to taste you, Ariel.

Ariel began twisting and jerking at her ropes, begging not to be butchered. Her reaction was just proof to Scott that, at the core, she was no different from a cow readied for slaughter. Scott found himself enjoying Ariel’s writhing as she futilely attempted to escape her fate. Her succulent muscles bulged and flexed while her breasts jiggled delectably with her efforts. Scott could think of her as delicious looking meat. He raised the axe. With all of Ariel’s twisting and shaking, he worried about making a clean kill. He didn’t want to cause Ariel any unnecessary pain, any more than he would want an animal to suffer. Scott carefully held the spot he wanted to hit in his eyes, brought the axe down hard. The blade caught her just above the shoulders, slicing cleanly through her neck and into the stump. Ariel’s head rolled off the stump and dropped onto the grass. Blood spouted from her quivering headless body. Scott had slaughtered his girlfriend.

He untied the ropes from the stakes and tossed her ankle ropes over the horizontal maple limb he had previously selected. With some effort, he was able to hoist her up off the ground. He left her hanging there by her ankles to bleed out while he went back to the cabin for his knives and a big jug of water. When he returned, he washed off the dirt and the blood where it had splashed on her arms and breasts. Afterwards, he simply stood and studied her shapely body which gently swayed from the maple limb. She was one beautiful hunk of meat. He began her butchering by carefully cutting into the skin of her belly just below her navel. He sliced upwards to the pubic bone and then downward to her rib cage. Spreading her flesh, he allowed the intestines to spill out. He continued Ariel’s gutting and cleaning the same way he had done deer many times before. When he finished, he cut the ropes holding her ankles and let the body drape across his shoulders and carried his precious load back to the cabin.

He carefully placed her in the bathtub, where she had only a few minutes before taken her shower. He decided he would be able to cut up the meat right there without making a mess. He looked through the kitchen, found a couple of cases of beer, and thought, why not? It could make for an interesting flavor, and poured the beer into the bathtub.

While Ariel’s meat marinated in the beer, Scott fell into bed and into a deep sleep.

During the next few weeks, Scott hardly left his cabin and he hate better than he had ever eaten in his life. He gorged himself every day on Ariel’s succulent meat. It was wonderful. He ate so much it was probably a shock to his system, since he had gone all summer with only fruits andvegetables. But Scott Hunter was a strong young man, and it apparently did him no harm. In fact, he never felt better. And Ariel was by far the most succulent and delicious meat he had ever tasted.

The dish he would remember the most fondly was the honey-glazed double rump roast. He roasted Ariel’s entire pelvis stuffed with raisin-cornbread dressing. He even filled her sweet little pussy with stuffing and placed the sexy roast on a platter garnished with little potatoes and parsley. It was the most beautiful roast he had ever seen. When he carved the first slice from the soft pink meat, he moaned with pleasure just to look at it. And then, the wonderful flavor of her meat in his mouth was a mind blowing experience, a pleasure greater than he thought taste buds were capable of giving.

Later, he prepared the two racks of delicate ribs with Ariel’s sweet breasts still attached. And the shoulder chops grilled with fresh mint. There was the inspiration for making stew out of her arms and plump looking calves. He had feared the meat might be tough, but after stewing in the pot all days with onions, carrots and potatoes, the meat just fell off the bones. It was so tender he could hardly believe it. He also made a tasty soup out of Ariel’s knees, hands and other parts.

Roast leg of Ariel was another treat Scott delighted in devouring. He roasted one thigh on a spit outside the cabin, basting the meat with a tangy sauce he concocted from mustard and Worcestershire sauce. The second thigh he roasted in the oven, first liberally inserting garlic cloves into the fleshy part of the joint. Sticking the long two-pronged fork in the thigh, and watching the hot juices flow out as the sweet steamy smell invaded his nostrils, Scott thought, “this is the real essence of a woman!”

After a week of gorging, Scott was ready to get back to work. The other ranch hands were happy to see him; they had always looked up to Scott, and they had missed him. They teased him about having been hanging out with the Animal Rights people.

“Oh, some of them aren’t that bad,” said Scott. “In fact, they’re wonderful once you really get to know them!”

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