A head above the rest.

He was always on at her. “Why don't you lose some weight you fat cow, no one is ever going to look at you twice looking like a sack of shit.” And that filthy flea-bitten half rabid dog of his was no better. Snapper 'its' name was. She assumed it was a male but never bothered to find out. She hated that mutt and snapper in turn felt the same about her. She couldn't say one wrong word to Snapper’s owner, without him snarling, ready to pounce at her.

Alice was her name, and the guy giving her a hard time - her father Clayton. He was a fat son of a bitch, and nearly as round as he was short. Everyday he would bark orders and hurl abuse at Alice, it was all that she could do to stand there and take it. Buts he was sick of it, so sick in fact, she vowed that if it continued, she would put an end to it - put an end to him.

It did continue for days on end. So Alice plotted; plotted every possible way to finish off that miserable fat lump of shit!

I could put rat poison in his food, she thought one evening whilst cooking his favourite - ham eggs and chips with mushy peas. She also thought about pushing him down the stairs, claiming that it happened while she was out if the police came to call. She even thought about throwing her hairdryer into the bath whilst he took his twice yearly bath, but for that she would have to wait a long time......

And so it just sort of, well just happened.

Seven O' clock Monday evening on 28th August 2008. Clayton was sitting as usual in his smelly armchair watching the T.V, waiting for Alice to come home and make his tea. Tonight she was late. She had accidently stayed at the pub with her one and only friend Sally, before suddenly realising the time. She soon rushed off home, leaving Sally to finish her Pimms and Lemonade alone.

The insults, abuse and orders began the moment Alice stepped through the front door of the dingy two-bed semi. He didn't even have to turn in his chair to throw them, just wafted a wrinkled arm clutching the T.V remote about his head and grunting. When Alice ignored him and headed straight for the kitchen to start a late dinner, he got up and followed her, closely accompanied by Snapper. As Clayton walked, he resembled a rather obese pregnant woman shuffling along the floor to the kitchen to seek out her next craving fix.

Alice had her back to him and didn't hear him come in. Closing the fridge door, she suddenly felt his hot breath on the nape of her neck.

"Got a kiss for daddy?" he snarled in her ear. He proceeded to grab her waist giving it a jiggle with both hands, insinuating that she was only good for one thing - him.

Alice felt her blood run cold. She gagged on catching a whiff of his putrid breath, smelling like something had died in there, and the smell of the B.O residing in the stale sweat patches in the arm pits of a stained shirt he hadn't changed in days - weeks even.

He spun her around to face him. Leering at her, he whispered in her ear. "Your mother wasn't much good at the good stuff, maybe it might have skipped a generation." He snorted and slapped her arse.

Alice recoiled as he began molesting her ear with his tongue - flicking it in and out of her ear hole leaving trails of saliva around the side of her face, and then forcefully pushing his hands underneath her jumper to fondle he breasts. She gulped and held her breath, eyeing the bread knife she had placed on the work top ready to use for dinner just moments earlier.

Fighting back her tears, she let him continue his sick act while she stretched out her arm in the direction of the bread knife. Her fingers walked along the wooden handle before grabbing it whole with the rest of her out-stretched hand.

This wasn't the first tie he had done this to her. Usually she would fight off is his sordid advances; but this time she let him have his moment while she composed herself knowing that this would be the last time.

"Umm....." he hissed. "You have been a very naughty girl today, and now daddy is going to have to teach you a lesson....."

As his filthy hands slyly crept down to the crotch of her trousers, Alice sprung into action.

"I'll teach you a fucking lesson!" she screamed pushing him off her and plunging the bread knife deep into his chest and wrenching it out again. She hoped to god that it had pierced his cold evil heart, but he was finished anyhow.

"You bitch!" he spluttered, holding both his hands over the gapping wound in his chest.

Blood spilled out covering his hands with a satisfying deep red wash.

Alice watched as Clayton fell to his knees. He reached out, trying to grab at her ankles before easing himself onto his side. Still clutching his chest whispering obscenities at Alice, his voice now raspy and horse, he soon lay still and lifeless. His eyes remained open, staring straight at Alice.
After a minute or so of satisfactory fulfilment it finally dawned on Alice what she had just done. Snapper, at her fathers side licking at his face, had some how realised what had just happened and was now moving towards her, growling, bearing his sharp teeth. Alice thought fast and grabbed the large piece of meat she had gotten out of the fridge for Clayton's tea, and threw it in the direction of the front room. Instinctively, the dog chased after it, leaving Alice able to lock the stupid mutt in the front room.
Sucker, she thought rolling her eyes.
In her momentary lapse, Alice had not comprehended just how much blood there would be from a single stab wound. She started to panic. How will I dispose of the body? How will I clean it all up? Will the murder go un-noticed? Her heart pounded in her chest. Alice thought of the one person who could help her. The one person she could truly trust not to drop her in it with the police – Sally.

Alice quickly grabbed the phone from its charger on the window ledge – but first she had to do something. Those eyes, staring at her; she had to kneel down beside him and close his eyes. Hesitantly, with a shaking hand, she placed the palm of her hand over her fathers eyes and brought down his eye lids. Suddenly his leg moved almost instantaneously, scaring the crap out of Alice.

He’s dead; it was just a body jerk. Pull your self together girl.

Frantically, she turned over the phone and punched in Sally’s mobile number. If she was still at the pub, she would be at the house in twenty minutes, if she was at home, even sooner as she only lived around the corner; but Alice didn’t want to leave the house, what with a dead body lying on her kitchen floor.
It rang out three times and on hearing Sally’s voice Alice broke down in tears.

“Oh Sally, I’ve done something terrible. Something really bad, you have to come right away.”

Sally would only be five minutes as she had left the pub her self soon after Alice left.

A knock at the back door made Alice jump, almost letting out a scream. She knew it was Sally, as anyone else would use the front door.

"Come in Sally," she called.

Walking into the kitchen, Sally gasped at the sight of Clayton lying a pool of his own blood on the kitchen floor.

"Alice, what have you done?"

"It just sort of, happened," Alice replied, her voice whispered and wobbly.

Sally regain her self quickly and took charge of the situation. She was now in control. She mulled over how they could dispose of the body or whether they even should. There was so much blood pooled underneath him, Sally didn't want to move him straight away, instead she shifted around and knelt down on the floor next to him just to make sure he was indeed dead.

"We could call the police ad make it look like someone broke in," said Sally. "But then again there would be an investigation."
Alice paced up and down the kitchen floor. As she walked, her eyes fell upon the bender sitting next to the microwave over on the work top; funnily enough t the same time, so did Sally's....

Both of them set about cutting Clayton's body up with two small axes, Alice found in the shed. There was also a chainsaw in there, but the time was now ten O' clock at night and they didn't want to alert the neighbours. Blood spattered all over the kitchen and themselves as piece by piece they dropped Clayton's body into the blender, then tipping it into a large mixing bowel. Clayton’s head was the final thing.

"What do we do with this?" asked Alice, holding a hand to her mouth to stop her from being sick.

"The only thing we can do," replied Sally breathing heavily from all the work. "Bury it."

They buried the head deep in the back garden. After the gruesome ordeal was over, they both got on with cleaning the kitchen and themselves. Alice wanted to feed the remains of Clayton's dog, but Sally thought it too cruel no matter how evil Alice thought that dog was. It was decided that they tip the remains over the garden. It would soon dissolve into the ground, especially with all the bad weather they'd been having of late.

"Thank you for your help," said Alice, turning to Sally smiling cautiously. "I just hope this never gets out."

Sally placed a comforting arm around Alice and let out a cautious chuckle. "Well, there’s one more thing to add to my CV!"

* * *
Three months had past since that dreadful day and Alice tried to move on with her life as best she could. She and Sally never spoke about it and decided to keep the past where it belonged - in the past.

One afternoon while Alice washed the dishes, her mother unexpectedly showed up at the house; she hadn't seen her since she left her father for another man.

"Where is that son of a bitch?" she screamed, barging through the backdoor.

Alice didn't answer her mother, just dried her hands with a tea towel. She was no good at thinking on her feet and had no answer.

"That bastard hasn't paid his share of the credit card bill in over three months!" she continued. "I'm going to kill him!"

At that very moment Snapper walked into the kitchen dragging something large, wet and dirty by his teeth. It looked like something he had dug up from the....

"Oh my god, Clayton!"

Alice's mother turned to her in horror, a demanding expression on her face as to why her ex husbands decomposing head was hanging from the mouth of his beloved pet. Alice shrugged her shoulders and smiled coyly. "O...oo...oops," came her answer. "It just sort of well, just happened."

The expression of horror on her mothers face soon changed, a grin creeping across her face, then breaking out into a fit of laughter

"Well," she said catching her breath. "He always did think he was a head above the rest."