Meat Hooks: A Short Story

Meat hooks hung from the ceiling by thick chains, like a dozen spiders with their legs swaying below. Shredded plastic sheeting that once split the room into sections accompanied the chains. A faint blue haze tinted the room, highlighted by the subtle fog that lingered right above the ground. The air was crisp, with a sharp rusting odor accompanying it. Freezing temperatures of the room became exponential when 3 fans in strategic areas of the ceiling would kick on and circulate the frost throughout. 5 hooks hung a little lower than the others, supporting a tremendous amount of weight. 4 looked like old slaughterhouse meat left for ages, the last hook held a human. Not much life remained in the human. It was a man in his late 30s, nude, hanging from a set of 2 hooks. The hooks …show more content…
His body was thrown to the ground and could see the other hooks from a new angle. The faces of 3 men and a boy stared back down at him, scattered on the ground lay pieces of other bodies. A grumble came from the beast that had entered, "New meat" said the voice. "Clear out the old" as they turned and picked up something from behind them. Another man, fully intact from head to toe. The beast held the man up, stretched out an arm, grabbed a hook, and plunged it into the man just under the left shoulder-blade. The chains rattled as they were tightened up, lifting the man in an odd arch. The beast pushed the second hook under his opposing shoulder-blade and the chains were then violently tightened, latching the man to the fate the other on the ground just endured. The beast moved to the man on the floor and picked him up. "old meat to rot" uttered the beast, throwing the body onto another hook. This time the man would not keep breathing, the hook severing his spine, resting on the inside of his sternum. With a harsh push, the beast flung the now lifeless corpse on a chain down the room, into the vastness of other