Flesh-Colored Horror - Headless Sculptures

Headless Sculptures

• Originally appeared in "Monthly Magazine Halloween" July 1995

A young man named Shimada is helping his art teacher, Mr. Okabe, pour mix for the headless sculptures the man has made for an art exhibit he is showing. Shimada's friend, Rumi, stops by to walk home with Shimada, but Shimada says he's staying late and tells Rumi not to tell anyone. They talk about art for a little bit, then Rumi leaves.

The next day, Rumi hears in school that Mr. Okabe was killed that night - a student found him in the art room with his head missing. He was allegedly alone, since students aren't allowed on campus. There's an emergency meeting, and the students are sent home. Rumi worries that she is the only one that knew Shimada was staying late at school and didn't tell anyone, but when she passes his house she decides to let it go.

The next day Rumi sees Shimada at school wearing a winter uniform and a face mask. (This is not unusual as it is seen as rude to infect your classmates and coworkers with a cold, and many people wear them to prevent infection.) Rumi talks to Shimada, but he acts strange with her, telling her how beautiful she is and how he always waited for her to come to the art room each day.

An announcement says that all students must leave the grounds, but two girls stay behind because one forgot her school books in the art room. In the art room they see a sheet covering up the bloody area where Mr. Okabe's body was found. They tip toe around the sheet but the closet door flies open and Mr. Okabe appears - wrapped from the neck down in a sheet with his jaw slack and glasses broken. He comes after them with a knife.

Back outside Shimada is trying to get Rumi to follow him back into the school. He's assuring her that Mr. Okabe is still alive but had to go into hiding. He takes her hands and she notices they are gloved and feel hard. They go inside and Rumi says the room smells like something spoiled. She notices all the statues are gone but one that is covered with a sheet as Shimada locks the art room door and takes off his mask. Rumi gasps as she sees him with a slack jaw and blood around his mouth. Shimada tells her it's nothing, but his mouth doesn't move. She asks for Mr. Okabe and Shimada takes the sheet off of the remaining statue - a woman's torso in stone with Mr. Okabe's severed head on top. Shimada reaches for Rumi and she smacks him - knocking the head right off and exposing the stump of the moving statues neck. She hits the statue with a chair, breaking it, and the female statue begins screaming at her for killing it's boyfriend, demanding her head. Rumi tries to escape but runs into more statues - two of which are fighting over one of the earlier girl's head. The story ends with Rumi cringing in terror as headless statues come at her with meat cleavers.