“What’s your name?” Vanessa asked.
“Tiny,” the girl said in a squeaky voice.
“Tiny, I’m going to help you.”
Vanessa cleared away some of the sheets restricting Tiny’s legs and saw that her genitals were horribly mutilated, like mince meat pushed through the opening of a handbag. Below the mess of her vagina lay a puddle of black, watery feces. Vanessa pulled her up out of the mess, almost vomiting from the roused stench. She held the girl’s boobs close to her for support, cradling Tiny’s head on her shoulder.
“I’m very hungry,” Tiny said.
“When was the last time you ate?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been here a while.”
“Do you have any family?”
“I’m good at sex.”
Tiny gulped on the side of Vanessa’s face, the expanse of her mouth was large enough to almost engulf her head entirely. Vanessa felt warmth and an intense sucking. She didn’t understand what Tiny was doing until she broke her head free and let Tiny fall to the ground. The girl slithered across the floor towards her. Vanessa backed away and tripped on a pile of linen, falling back and losing the flame. She grabbed at the ground beside her, desperately feeling for the lighter. She lit it again as Tiny crawled over the top of her with an enormous gaping mouth, flicking a forked tongue in circles, deep in the depths of her wet and black maw. Her eyes rolled back as she lowered her head dumbly over Vanessa’s face, weighing down her prey with her mammoth boobs, a tonne each. Vanessa brought the lighter up to the top of Tiny’s gums and burnt the inside of her mouth. Tiny slammed her jaw shut, cupped her mouth and slid away leaving black entrails of slime discharging from her anus. Vanessa ran back into the hall and went for the exit again, rattling the knob. She heard her pursuer coming after her. Tiny’s hands emerged from the room, gripping the doorframe. Both arms pulled her wet mass into the hall and she turned her body towards Vanessa as if smelling her in the air.. The monster lurched forward. Vanessa picked up the chair and shielded herself, jabbing at Tiny with the four small legs.
“Stay away from me,” she shrieked.
The thing came at her, in slow and blind lunges. Vanessa saw the opportunity and jammed the chair legs into the expanse of Tiny’s mouth. Tiny adjusted her jaw to fit the thing in and began to gulp down the chair. It didn’t get far before the legs halted at the entrance of her chest and the pressure began to rip her skin. Blood spilled from internal puncturing in Tiny’s neck and she gargled a scream, her voice box so distorted she no longer sounded human. Tiny thrashed around bleeding to death and Vanessa weaved around her and retreated back to her room. She sat in a ball on the corner of her bed, holding out the lighter and flicking it on every ten seconds, terrified that Tiny, or perhaps something else, would eventually appear in the doorway. Tiny’s screams finally stopped and Vanessa calmed herself enough to sleep again.
Chapter 13
When Vanessa woke, two men were standing over her bed. One held her down as the other gagged and blindfolded her. They grabbed her by the hands and legs and strapped her down to a nearby stretcher and wheeled her into the corridor. She could smell Tiny’s remains in the hall as she passed and could hear the men kicking her body aside.
After a short journey she heard a door close behind her and the blindfold was taken off. She was in an operating room. The walls were made of white sheets stretched over metal frames, shadows of other people passed behind them. Dr. Phalanx was there with two assistants, including Dr. Ferngehn. The stretcher was placed in the middle of the room and Dr. Ferngehn clamped the wheels. He removed the sheets from over her body and peeled off her underwear and bra. Her cooked pigment looked alien to her against the white of the sheets. Her nipples, once pink and large, were now shrunken and brown. She was always warm. She could see what the doctor was doing to her, turning her into the common man’s ideal woman: a porn star. She didn’t know how snakes fit into it though. Her guess was influenced heavily by her encounter with Tiny. They were going to do terrible things to her jaw.
Dr. Phalanx stood at the side of the room with his back to her. He was mulling over a selection of balls placed in order from smallest to largest on an instrument tray.
“Size is always an issue,” he said. He turned to her holding the first ball in the selection: a tennis ball. “See this? This is bullshit. This is your upper middle-class college girl breast right here. This is turning eighteen and getting your parents to buy you boobs for your birthday. This is college blowjobs, trophy wives and swimsuit models. This is useless to me.”
He placed the ball back down on the bench and picked up the next one: a softball.
“This isn’t bad. Getting warmer. This is your high-end stripper, the redneck housewife, biker porn, Playboy.” He walked over to Vanessa and cupped her enormous breast in his cold, pale hand. The other one clasped the ball like a big ripe apple ready for eating. “Your boobs are already too big for these. They would just hang from your chest like overgrown tumors and cause your skin to stretch and sag like old bags of rice. Not very attractive.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Vanessa asked.
“Nothing is wrong with me! It’s you that’s imperfect.” He stepped back and threw the ball high up towards the factory roof. It came down somewhere at the far end of the building and something smashed. “Oops.” He went back over to the bench and returned with a red bowling ball.
“I love bowling,” he said. “I love the heaviness of the balls, the sound of the pins when they explode. It’s so simple and effective.”
He held the ball over his head and stood over Vanessa.
“I can’t tell you how much I’d love to smash your face in right now. Bowling balls have that effect on me. I always want to destroy things with them. I’d love to get a whole bunch of little babies and send them crawling down a big hill. I’d stand at the top and just randomly throw bowling balls down. Imagine how the baby would explode on impact.” He put the ball back down to his waist and stared into the distance, lost in his imagination. “Patches of stained red grass. Rotting baby limbs at dusk. The sound of cicadas and laughter; picnics with madmen by the black lake at noon.”
He broke from his daze and looked down at the ball and back up at Vanessa, who cried silently, certain she was going to die at the hands of this lunatic.
“But this is not for you. You’re a hard bag to fill.”
He walked back over to the table and hugged a beach ball, turning to her with an enormous smile. “Amazing!”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Vanessa protested.
“Yes. I am kidding. This is a pipedream of mine. Something like this would take years of stretching. And we don’t have that much time.”
He bounced the ball around the room, off the heads of his assistants, watching to see if they’d crack smiles.
He took a scalpel from the instrument tray and cut a long line down the side of the ball, the thing deflated and fell limp in his rigid hand. “I fucking hate the beach.”
He walked back over to the bench where the last ball sat and picked it up.
“I don’t like basketball,” he said. “I remember once when I was a kid, I used to think that playing basketball made you taller, and that was why the players were all so tall. It never occurred to me that tall people had decided to play basketball. It seems a little simple doesn’t it? If you’re tall, you become a basketball player. That’s it? Why not become some kind of human daddy long legs, and go around poisoning people smaller than you? Drink their blood. Rape some midgets… Options, Vanessa.”
“Are you going to put basketballs inside my breasts?”
“No, no, no. Not basketballs, just implants the size of basketballs.”
“My god!”
“It’s all a part of making you perfect. Your boobs will be small enough to keep you mobile, but too big to go out in public. You’ll be a housebound plaything. Back problems wont be an issue if you’re lying down all day, legs wide open, mouth gaping, these two giant
orbs rolling around on the top of your chest. You’ll be my best work yet.”
“That will never happen.”
Dr. Phalanx stared her down then smiled. “Yes it will.”
He turned to Dr. Fernghen. “Administer the anesthesia.”
Vanessa struggled, but soon gave up. The mask was placed over her mouth and Dr. Phalanx pressed down on her throat.
“This is just the beginning,” he said, and she faded into unconsciousness.
Chapter 14
Detective Gill entered the autopsy room where he met Forrest, the district’s coroner. Forrest had performed the autopsy on the girl found in the creek. Her body lay on its back under sharp white lights. The dog that was removed from her mouth jutted from a large metal bowl on the bench at the side of the room.
“Detective Gill,” Forrest said, “I’ve just finished.”
“What have you found?”
“Very strange things,” he said. “Come. Look.”
Gill and Forrest stood over the body of the unknown girl.
“You can see that her breasts have undergone augmentation surgery – very recently by the looks of it. The scars are still quite fresh.”
“They’re big.”
“’Bout as big as bowling balls, Sir.”
“Yes they are. What else?”
“The toxicology reports haven’t been finalised yet, but we seem to have found a number of separate DNA results from samples taken from her anus and vagina.”
“How many?”
“At this stage we’ve isolated ten.”
“Jesus. Does it look like rape?”
“It’s hard to say.” Forrest moved over to her genitals and spread her legs slightly.
“What is that?” Gill gasped.
“Her vagina has been injected with human fat taken from another part of her body – likely the buttocks. The labia has been inflated to maintain the tightness of her vagina, but you see here,” he pointed to an under section of her vagina where the flesh was marbled blood red. “The friction from the intercourse has caused the surface to open and the fat has leaked inside her vaginal canal and is rotting all the way up to her uterus.”
“That’s what that smell is.”
“Like a thousand rotting fish, sir.”
“Like a thousand rotting fish.”
“Then it gets interesting.” Forrest moved back up towards her head. “The face seems to have undergone some kind of procedure. It’s not a facelift; the scars are all in the wrong places. Some advanced surgery has taken place ranging from her eye sockets to her lower jaw. It may have something to do with how she fit that puppy into her mouth.”
“Interesting,” Gill said, scratching his chin.
“What’s interesting is the cell makeup of the skin and muscle surrounding the area. We took a sample of her flesh and found that it had an elasticity not common to rigor mortis. She’s been injected with a localized, unknown muscle relaxant that enabled the area to function while simultaneously performing movement beyond the capabilities of a normal human jaw.”
“How could she breathe with that in her throat?”
“Breathing would’ve been difficult. Only a small portion of air could get to the lungs while the dog was in her mouth. The process would involve a lot of time and discomfort and very minimal movement.”
“Like a snake.”
“Funny you should say that.”
Forrest led Gil over to the dog.
“This is where it gets really weird.”
“How so?”
“Well. As you can see, the dog’s head is almost gone, eroded away like it’s been placed head first into an insinkerator. This happened once the dog was already inside her mouth. We took samples off the dog and found that the erosion was caused by a rather acidic saliva, or a combination of that and general stomach acids. She has digestive qualities similar to that of a reptile such as a crocodile or a snake.”
“What does this mean?” Gill asked.
“The dog was already being consumed before it was entirely swallowed.”
“How can a human body withstand that kind of acid?”
“That’s what’s so amazing about it,” Forrest said. “The same toxin inside her face and neck also lines the entirety of her digestive system. Through its ability to strengthen human flesh and make it withstand enormous amounts of pressure, the acid has no corrosive effects on her organs.”
“That is amazing. This is big. There’s a lot of work gone into this girl. We’re after people who a very organized.”
“It seems that way, doesn’t it?”
“What was the cause of death?”
“It’s funny, because it could have been any number of things, considering, but this girl died from a combination of shock and malnutrition.”
“She died of hunger?”
“Perhaps that’s why she attempted to eat the dog, sir.”
“Perhaps. I can’t imagine it just crawling up there.”
“Not many people can, sir.”
Gill paced the room, shaking his head. Forrest stood and watched him, feeling the Detective’s anxiety.
“I can’t help but think this has something to do with my missing girl.”
“The Vanessa girl, sir?”
“Yeah. I think somebody out there is turning her into one of these... these Snake Girls.”
Chapter 15
Gill arrived at the house of Adam Hellier, a small flat near the river docks. He knocked on the door and heard footsteps in the house. Adam answered and made eye contact with Gill and immediately shut the door again. Gill went for the handle and then stood back and kicked it open. Adam was already running to the back of the house and Gill pursued. Adam cornered himself in the bathroom and Gill pulled his gun out and pointed it right at Adam’s face.
“Now I know you know something. Where’s Vanessa?”
“The girl had it coming to her. She was wasting her life away. She had nothing to live for.”
“She had a baby girl.”
“She didn’t give a fuck about her kid.”
“Well I do. I’m going to put my gun down and you’re going to tell me where she is.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“At the moment you are, yes. But if you help me, maybe that can change.”
“Alright. I’ll show you where she is. But this can’t get back to me. If they know I led you to them they’ll kill me.”
Gill put his gun down and grabbed Adam by the arm. “Come with me, we’re going to my car. If you try to run, I’ll shoot your knees out.”
They left the house and went to the car. Adam sweated in the passenger seat. He tried the door when Gill wasn’t looking. He was locked in.
“Is she alive?”
“I don’t know!”
“Where is she?”
“At the factories off the highway. Freemont Rd.”
Gill started the engine and they drove off.
“What’s there?”
“There’s a group stationed out there, doing experiments on people. They were offering top dollar for participants.”
“How did you get involved?”
“They approached me at work.”
“They wanted you to take part?”
“Not exactly.”
“What then?”
Adam broke down crying. He hid his face in his hands and shook his head. “They wanted Vanessa.”
“They paid you to get her for them?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a pretty low dog, Adam. Some friend you are. How much did they pay you?”
“Ten thousand dollars.”
“Do you have any idea what might be happening to her right now?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, I have some idea, and let me tell you, it ain’t pretty.”
Gill pulled the car off the freeway and they came out an underpass. Large empty fields were on either side of the road, fenced off to intruders. Scraps of highway debris littered the ar
ea like abstract sculptures in an enormous wasteland. Adam wanted to vomit just remembering the place.
They travelled a few kilometers down the empty road where it met the beginning of the forest. It started to rain. At the end of the road there was a t-intersection that led to two separate groups of factories. Adam pointed to the right. “It’s down there.”
They passed a line of abandoned factories. On the other side of the road stood a wall of forest, dauntingly black and seemingly endless – no escape.
“It’s here, it’s this one,” Adam said, pointing to the place where he’d left Vanessa. The same roller door, the log she sat on when he abandoned her. “Her car’s gone.”
“Probably at the bottom of a lake by now.”
“Oh, god, what have I done?”
They got out of the car and approached the building. Gill pressed on the bell.
“I can’t be seen here,” Adam said.
“You know what I’ll do if you run.”
“They’ll kill me anyway.”
“Don’t worry, you’re with police now.”
“That’s the problem.”
There was no answer at the door and Gill motioned Adam to follow him around to the side. Gill held his gun before him, cautious as he passed empty dumpsters and burnt out oil drums. “Smells like death.”
Gill saw a small window high up at the top of the wall. “I need to take a look. Wheel that bin over here and I’ll climb up.”
Adam pushed the bin under the window and Gill stacked some boxes on top of the lid and made his way up to the window. He looked inside the filthy glass and saw nothing but a dark, wet and empty factory floor. “There’s nothing here,” he said, and turned to Adam who’d by then vanished. “Shit!”
Gill climbed down the boxes and jumped off the bin and ran to the front of the factory. The car was still there, the keys safe in his pocket. No sign of Adam. “That little rat.”
Gill looked far down the road but couldn’t see him. He turned to the thick forest and thought he could be anywhere. He didn’t have the energy to search for him.
Snake Jaw Page 3
