A Silent Decapitation

A crimson party balloon hovered insolently beside the tall iron lamp, swollen with trapped breath and bobbing on its string with dizzying merriment. Such bloated, buoyant cheer... intolerable in the evening shadows. I stalked across the wool rug on hushed pads, my striped crown casting a sinister, elongated silhouette against the wall. From behind the velvet chair, I produced a slender brass sewing needle. With theatrical suspension, I drew back one pristine white-gloved arm, letting the dark silence stretch to its agonizing brink. One lightning thrust! BANG! The proud rubber monarch vanished into ragged, lifeless shreds upon the floorboards. Total, trembling stillness restored.