Anna’s vision was still a bit hazy when she came to, but the smell was unmistakable. The pungent, rancid, odor of rotting meat. It brutally assaulted her nostrils. The kind of smell only generated when protein products have been left out too long following a period of refrigeration. She found herself in a long, coffin-like, metal box with the decaying remnants of food products. It was August and yet steam rose from her mouth every time she exhaled.

Still in her cheerleader’s uniform, she lay horizontally in what was essentially a long metal cage. Through its bars, she observed several other identical cages in this cold, smelly room. Some were stacked upon one another all the way to the ceiling. The room’s walls were metal and there was a door at the end with a small glass window that had no visible internal knobs or handles. A row of hooks revealed beeves hanging in neat rows. Anna realized it was a meat locker. One that now served as her prison cell.

Panic set in and she began to kick at the door of the cage at her feet, clearly it was sturdy and built for containment. After screaming, crying, and struggling pointlessly for several minutes, her feet and legs ached. She then resigned herself to whimpering quietly in this dim room. She was clueless as to just how she’d been cast into this nightmare. How had she gotten here? Where was her cell phone? Why would no one heed her desperate pleas for help, and most importantly who her abductor was. Her overly protective parents had warned her ad nauseum about issues of trust and strangers, but yet here she was. Would they sell her? Violate her body? Kill her?

“No! This is about money! It’s always about fucking money with these human trafficker types! Mom and Dad will give them an amount and they’ll drop me off at some alleyway or something!”, She thought, weighing her parent’s customary solution of throwing money at every conceivable problem. “Mom and Dad will get a note or a call demanding ransom. I’ve seen this type of crazy shit on YouTube, and this will all be over soon!”, She hoped.

But nagging at her bravado were some dark thoughts in the exact opposite direction. Uncontrolled doubts that were overtaking her mind like a fever.

Intuition, a feminine “survival-voice” from deep within, or perhaps some other clairvoyant force telling her that there would be no rescue, no ransom, no hope. A voice placidly explaining that something far more sinister and complex was at work here. As the cement of these hard truths began to dry in her eighteen-year-old mind, she heard the muffled voice. It came from one of the cages in the far corner of this frigid room.

“I was invited to a Cannibal party, and they gave me the cold shoulder”, was the cryptic line that echoed across the large room.

“What?”, Was all that Anna could muster while she felt her lips and fingertips growing numb and losing feeling in the cold air. She also noted that when the girl in the other cage spoke, there was an odd squealing in between her words.

“Who are you? Why are we here? What the HELL is this place?”, Panicked questions poured from Anna’s mouth like water from a broken dam.

The girl ignored her pedestrian inquiries and continued speaking. “He has the strength and intellect of twenty men. Soldiers, police, laws, bullets, radiation, diseases. Those things mean nothing to him and soon you will begin experiencing ‘the change’”. She said, all the while squealing every few words.

“Change? What fucking change? What the fuck are you babbling about? We have GOT to get out of here, we have to call the cops, escape, or get help if we can!”, Anna rambled out. “His daughter was burned as a witch in 1347. He is an alchemist like no other, he does not age. A thousand girls like you have come and gone. Only prayer helps. It slows the transformation. I beg you, please pray,.…”, she let out, now whispering but still unleashing those apparently involuntary squeals.

Before she could utter another syllable or Anna could pose further questions, the metal door creaked open. The silhouette of a monstrous figure blocked the light. He wore a Butcher’s apron over white, blood-soaked clothes. Black galoshes rose to his knees. A shiny, bald head covered in perspiration was at the top of that mountain of a man while dark, round goggles covered his eyes. A cleaver was in his right hand. It dripped with the crimson of some recent victim. Steam rose from his clothes and flesh, and he stood still for a few moments, surveying the room. He then turned to the cage of the girl who’d spoken to Anna.

“Thou yet lackest understanding, and thy tongue will no more utter prayer.”, He announced in what was from Anna’s perspective, old English that sounded straight out of a Shakespearean high school play. He then flipped a switch on the wall that revealed numerous other cutting instruments. Attached to the side of his belt Anna could also see a bullwhip, curled up and hung on a belt loop.

From the girl’s cage a new squeal could be heard but this one was more subdued like the sound of an accident victim. The light now revealed her naked form in the cage. Her face was tucked into the corner and Anna could see countless scars along the entirety of her naked body. Some were fresh, red, welt marks. Also visible was a strange sight. What appeared to be a long, thin tail rose from the bottom of the girl’s excessively whipped back, just above her ass- crack. Anna was horrified at what this man had done and simultaneously paralyzed by the very real fear she’d be next.

“Present thyself!”, The large figure ordered. The naked girl turned slowly, and Anna had to blink once or twice. Her mind was having trouble drinking the Kool-Aid that her eyes were providing. The girl had reddish hair, blue eyes, and full lips. The front of her naked body revealed not the customary two breasts of a human female but multiple teats. Most disturbing of all the front of her face bore the unmistakable snout of a pig. Anna’s eyes also took note of a large pile of women’s clothes, shoes, purses, underwear, and jewelry in an opposing corner. The surreal and atrocious nature of what the pig-girl had been trying to warn her about began to settle in. A brief bout of denial danced in her mind like a cancer patient receiving a dark prognosis from their physician. Anna immediately began praying…