HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for The Brutal Issue – sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some of our shortlisted contributors the chance to be published on our website.
Keep an eye on our social media for more great writing like this, in the run up to the release of The Brutal Issue…
This Child Had a Name
the murder of a six year old girl, in Sutton, London
David Susswein
a fifteen second rage
that now lasts twenty-three years.
I crawled into my wife’s
arms.
I fucked her.
the knuckles of my fists,
have worn no bruises
the nails of my fingers,
have no blood beneath.
the naked body of my wife
lays beneath me.
I fuck her.
she likes it. they always do.
that mewling snot-covered
rag of used diapers
at long last is silent now.
I grin into my wife’s open mouth.
spit runs down her laughing chin.
I taste it.