"(Story) Curiosity and the Kats (complete)"
By robblu (https://pastebin.com/u/robblu)

URL: https://pastebin.com/0jzqdWvT
Created on: Monday 19th of February 2018 03:15:58 PM CDT
Retrieved on: Saturday 31 of October 2020 03:16:04 AM UTC


At first, Kathy thought that what her housemate Katherine had to say was the dumbest thing she ever heard.

She said: "Is it weird that I'm kinda looking forward to this?"

Kathy looked at her friend askance. "Uh... yeah. It's weird. I mean, you CAN see what's about to happen to us, right?"

At the front of the queue and with a perfect sense of timing, the Population Control agent manning the guillotine released its blade and another one of their neighbors had just enough time to gasp before she was terminally truncated. Her head dropped into the waiting plastic bucket, her body jerked and spasmed gently a couple of times, and then two more of the PopCon agents in their clean white faceless suits (you never called them PopCorn agents if you wanted the gentle treatment) hoisted her carcass and took it to the waiting freezer truck.

Half the street was already hanging upside-down in that truck, headless and dead. They were all destined for the soup kitchen, to feed the poor and hungry.

There were only three people now between Katherine and the blade: their lovely lesbian neighbors Carol and Gina and their adopted eighteen-year-old daughter Chess at the front of the line, who was trembling as she watched the PopCon agent clean and reset the guillotine for her.

"Well, yeah, I KNOW, but..." Katherine shrugged. "It's like... I guess the worst has happened now, right?"

"Not yet..." Katy said. Up ahead, Chess whimpered and hugged her mothers as the blade clicked back into place at the top of its rail. They rubbed her back and kissed her, told her they loved her and promised that it wouldn't hurt.

"Well, no, it kinda has." Katherine said. "I mean, the worst part is when you find out you're going to die, I think. Like, when and how. Now that's happened all that's left is the waiting, and the waiting is kinda... unpleasant."

Chess bravely tore herself away from her parents. She gave them a brave little smile, turned, and stepped forward over the line into the little stockade of plastic sheeting around the guillotine. The PopCon agent wasn't unkind in the way they took her arm and guided her to the guillotine, they were just coldly efficient.

"So you wanna get this over with," Katy said. "I mean, yeah..." Chess was strapped to the board and tilted forward. Behind her, Gina and Carol held each other close. "But that's not the same as looking forward to it."

The blade fell.

"Yeah, but you gotta have a PMA, you know?" Katherine continued. "Like, count your blessings."

Chess' body was already being hauled away, and the guillotine attendant was scarily fast at steam-cleaning the machine ready for its next victim.

Katy gave her the same askance look. "Blessings?"

"Yeah. Look for the silver lining, you know?"

"You're fucking kidding me. There's no silver lining to this, Katherine."

Gina and Carol kissed, and Carol took her brave step over the line.

"No, there is. I mean, okay, I don't wanna be here either. But you gotta look for the good things in your situation. See the opportunities." she looked back at Kathy as Carol was led to the machine and strapped in. "You know?"

"What fucking opportunity? They're cutting our heads off!"

Katherine shrugged. "So we have the opportunity to find out what that feels like. I'm... kinda looking forward to that. It'll be interesting."

"...There's something wrong with you," Kathy decided. From the look on her face, Gina thought the same thing.

Katherine sighed and finally shut up just as the blade fell and ended Carol's life.

The silence stretched out awkwardly throughout the process of Carol's carcass being taken away to the meat wagon, the guillotine being cleaned and Gina being led over the line and strapped in.

As the blade fell again and Gina's head dropped into the bucket, Kathy decided she didn't want her last words to her old friend to be unkind.

"Hey... I'm sorry," she said. "I know you're just coping with this in your own way."

Katherine looked back and smiled at her. "I know. I'm sorry for weirding you out."

They hugged, naked and afraid in the street, both just seconds away from their ends. The PopCon agent watching the line broke it up and prompted Katherine toward the guillotine.

Katherine didn't resist. "Try to look on the bright side," she said, smiled, then stepped over the line and said no more. Kathy watched as she was unresistingly strapped to the board, swivelled down, thrust into place...

The blade fell, and Kathy was next.

And suddenly, she realized that she WAS looking forward to it. Now that she thought about it she only had one thing left in her life, and that was the experience of the moment. The feeling of asphalt under her bare feet, the breeze, the scent and hiss of steam as the guillotine was cleaned just for her.

A hand on her arm, prompting her that now was her turn to step forward.

She took a deep breath and crossed the line. The second hand on her arm was firm but not cruel, and she noticed the precise texture of the blue glove it wore.

The metal of the board was warm from so many women lying on it before her, as if their lives had heated it up. The strap across her back made it a little uncomfortable to breathe, but that was a sensation, something to enjoy. She wasn't going to have many more.

She relished the slight lurch in her belly as she was tipped forward. She appreciated the small, human act of kindness when the PopCon agent moved her hair out of the way and ensured that the lunette didn't pinch.

She saw every detail on the faces below her in the bucket. Chess', Carol's, Gina's, Katherine's... she could see every freckle, every little crease in the lips, every detail of their eyes, every little hair in their eyebrows. All of them had the same blank, distant expression. A slight pout of surprise. Her last breath was full of the scent of blood.

She heard every last facet of the rattling, sliding sound as the blade came down on her.

There was pain, and a kind of numb shock like the time she'd touched an electric fence. She still felt like she had a body, but like it had gone to sleep. She became suddenly and acutely aware of her heartbeat and breath by their absence.

She felt dizzy and unstable, and it hurt a little when her head fell onto Chess.' She landed with her lips pressed against Katherine's. They'd never kissed before. She laughed even though her body couldn't, kissed her friend's dead and unresponsive lips, and realized that she'd been right: Every moment was worth enjoying.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw them lift her corpse off the board, and heard the hiss of steam cleaning off her blood. She'd never seen her body from that angle before. to her surprise, she was glad of the opportunity.  Goodbye, body! 

She was definitely getting dizzy now, and she could feel something rushing up at her, something huge and powerful and unknown.  She felt her face relaxed, and enjoyed the knowledge that the last thing she would ever experience was the feeling of soft lips against her own.

She had just enough time for one last thought before death finally took her away: "So that's what it feels like..."