Part One: The Melting Man
Robert ‘Melting Man’ Kellerman has long suffered a complex guilt — the kind that stems from an unhealthy appetite for women. He rents a cramped studio apartment in Fitzroy North but spends most of his time in a workshop in St Kilda. This is where he brings the girls. The workshop is cold, damp, and grey. It once housed an automotive repairs business.
On one side a half-rusted car sits, jacked up on a hoist. Its wheels are missing. All the windows have been smashed in, probably by teenagers on a late-night looting spree sometime in the 90s before the Melting Man started his work. On the other side is a tired door-frame leading through to a tired kitchenette — its orange subway tiles are peeling away from …show more content…
In the distance, hear the sound of a garbage truck doing the weekly rounds. Many girls have seen this dark interior, many young and innocent girls have waited to die in the company of the Melting Man. This one, the latest, only nineteen, has wriggled and writhed and rocked herself from screams to silence. Her white silk top has been ripped at the shoulder — a happy accident. Behind her, an exposed brick wall is scrawled over in lettering, smears of 11 lipstick red. It’s a list of names, all crossed out except for one, hers: Heidi. It isn’t her real name but the name he has given her. He thinks she looks like a Heidi.
Don’t think of the workshop as a seedy garage, but a body shop — a place of worship.
Abigail, fifteen, was the first. The Melting Man discovered her on the dodgem cars at Luna Park.
He watched as she coiled fairy floss around her tongue and sipped from an oversized cup. He watched her stumbling out of Coney Island — dizzy but smiling. At the end of the night,
Robert ‘Melting Man’ Kellerman has long suffered a complex guilt — the kind that stems from an unhealthy appetite for women. He rents a cramped studio apartment in Fitzroy North but spends most of his time in a workshop in St Kilda. This is where he brings the girls. The workshop is cold, damp, and grey. It once housed an automotive repairs business.
On one side a half-rusted car sits, jacked up on a hoist. Its wheels are missing. All the windows have been smashed in, probably by teenagers on a late-night looting spree sometime in the 90s before the Melting Man started his work. On the other side is a tired door-frame leading through to a tired kitchenette — its orange subway tiles are peeling away from …show more content…
In the distance, hear the sound of a garbage truck doing the weekly rounds. Many girls have seen this dark interior, many young and innocent girls have waited to die in the company of the Melting Man. This one, the latest, only nineteen, has wriggled and writhed and rocked herself from screams to silence. Her white silk top has been ripped at the shoulder — a happy accident. Behind her, an exposed brick wall is scrawled over in lettering, smears of 11 lipstick red. It’s a list of names, all crossed out except for one, hers: Heidi. It isn’t her real name but the name he has given her. He thinks she looks like a Heidi.
Don’t think of the workshop as a seedy garage, but a body shop — a place of worship.
Abigail, fifteen, was the first. The Melting Man discovered her on the dodgem cars at Luna Park.
He watched as she coiled fairy floss around her tongue and sipped from an oversized cup. He watched her stumbling out of Coney Island — dizzy but smiling. At the end of the night,