19.

'Right, ... before we begin, you have to open your mind and not judge anything prematurely. Remember your training, it happened for a reason and its importance can never be underestimated. You see, I run a business, a rather unique business though a necessary one all the same. I am not an evil man nor am I horrible, just like the world is not just black and white ... there is more to existence than what most can know, and I am no more than a provider. There is colour, many different types of colour and you are about to see a kind of colour that I have been setting you up to see for some time now ...'

Keith listens intently to what his grandfather says.

'It has not nor will not pass to your father. He does not possess the necessary tools though as far as I can see, you do. He knows better not to fully acknowledge anything as he knows not to interfere with my business, and he will report nothing to anything or anyone. This is the way things are and this is how things will remain ... well to a degree. Some things stay within the family ... understand?'

Responding with a simple nod, Keith remains silent.

'We are about to leave this room, are you ready for what I have to tell you? Better yet, are you ready for what I have to show you?'

'Yes sir ...' a silence finally broken but in what manner?

Is Keith as ready as his grandfather hopes he'd be, or expects him to be? Or is he attempting to appease until a departure of sorts can be made. This upcoming moment is intended to be a departure, an end of a partial innocence and a beginning of a passing of the torch.

'There are two types of people in this world ... those who do and those who do not. Your father is of the latter, you and I are of the former. This is a big day, a big moment, the end of your past and the beginning of your future.'

A departure is about to get underway, and Keith can go one of two ways. His grandfather has expectations of which he is already sure. Keith, as it is may be more on the fence than one might think. Will what it is that is about to happen sway him more one way than the other? Will his grandfather's expectations sway him more one way than the other?

The metal door is reopened and the cacophony of unnerving sounds from beyond that door is louder now than at any other point he has witnessed. Keith is indeed back at The Flesh Factory and any entrance or exit made prior to now is not going to compare in any way to what he is going to experience in the here and now.

Screams, multiple screams from multiple people from within multiple places, some echo and some screams are so vile they can rip through the brain of one who may care in a particular way to what is going on. There are moans and groans and pleas to stop or pleas for help. It is obvious and clear that this place is a place of torture both or either mental or physical. It is clear only to some degree that people come here to die, not willingly of course. People are brought here, taken here to die and as it will become evident, yeah taken not brought.

This is a torture house, a murder house where people pay big money to come here to either observe or dish out said torture and pain. People will pay big money to have a place and a victim to maim and kill. And when said deed is done, they can return home to a regular life free from investigation, free from persecution, never to be a suspect in any kind of wrongdoing.

'As I have said, we provide a service here. People come here to live out a fantasy. Some people want nothing more than to have a moment as a ... let's say ... ringmaster ... others have a strong desire to cause harm, they want to be a master of torture and death. Our victims are wrong doers, criminals who has escaped judgement. You may have heard otherwise in the past. Those who escaped judgement could only escape for so long ...'

Keith listens as he also briefly observes. The door to one room is open and he sees a man dress just as how his grandfather is dressed and this man, with whom he observes, he is slicing open a young woman, a naked young woman. Her screams are blood curdling difficult to listen to.

'That young lady ... she is pretty, isn't she?'

Keith agrees that she is pretty even though she will not be for much longer.

'You may not be able to tell, just by looking at her, that she is a prostitute or was a prostitute. She is HIV positive and has infected at least twelve men with the disease. Her torturer so happens to be one of those twelve men and he so happens to be seeking revenge, or more correctly ... exacting revenge. As it is, he cannot reinfect himself by cutting her open.'

Grandfather eyes Keith's reactions ... 'don't worry ... precautions are taken that no one else will become infected unless we want them to. Now here's the thing ... you and your friends too ... if you so wish ... may inherit this magnificent place. The night you all stayed here was both a test and a trial. Over the coming months you will all be set tasks ... to further your training and when you all turn eighteen years of age you can begin making decisions as well as begin to make money. There will be sufficient incoming funds that you each will live well for as long as you live.'

Keith is not sure what to make of all this, he cannot think, and this is as much positive as it might be negative, his grandfather knows that this is a phase, a phase that will lead to acceptance.

***

On Monday the fourth of November four friends sit quietly around the school canteen lunch table they have sat at so many times before. They each are quiet ... as quiet as can be ... until they are joined by a fifth friend that is. Needless to say, there is shock. Keith Cross had not been seen since Saturday afternoon as an exit from the town hospital was being made.

'Keith ...' Alisha speaks, 'we thought ... we thought you were ....'

'Hello guys. I am fine, perfectly fine, actually I am better than fine ... I have some information to share with you all ...'

The following Saturday afternoon, Trebor Ford makes his way into that video arcade he enjoys so much and, on this day, he going to enjoy it for a totally different reason to what he is used to enjoying here. He is once again followed by three bullies, three guys who were hunters to him being prey, oh how the tides turn for it will not be long until each of those three hunters find themselves as prey ... captured prey and they each will wake separately within separate rooms at a place simply known as ... THE FLESH FACTORY ...