Callisa, Frida, Aiko and Morona stood frozen. The last few days they had spent trying to convince their boyfriend that he was not meat. That he was not for eating.
Though they had to admit he smelled so appetizing… he was so soft and juicy… he was without a doubt delicious… THAT STILL DID NOT MEAN HE COULD BE EATEN!!!
There was, however, a certain problem. Evan's personality had been so hollowed out by the meat erosion that it had shrunk down to the role of meat and their boyfriend. The result was that Evan desired to be eaten — especially by his girls.
Morona's mother, who was a psychiatrist, had diagnosed Evan with the third stage of the disease. She had also made it clear to them that if Evan told them outright to eat him, it meant he had entered the fourth phase. That meant there was no longer any chance of a cure. No one who had already reached that phase had ever been successfully treated. The academy director and at the same time a member of the council had already given them legal permission that allowed them to eat Evan without consequences if he entered the fourth phase.
Now they stood in the butchery room. Evan hung upside down, attached to the hoist. The girls could not believe what they had just heard. At least not until Evan said it again.
"I'd like you to eat me on our date today."
The entire quartet trembled. Frida leaned in. She smiled, or at least tried to, especially since her back was running with sweat.
"Evan, are you sure?"
"Yes, I want you to eat me." He thought for a moment. "I've been thinking about it a bit. I can't stand that white vixen, but maybe she was a little right. Maybe I really appeared just so the world could know my taste. If that's how it has to be, then I want it to be you."
The girls had no idea whether they should be terrified or honored, but their bodies answered for them.
Their stomachs growled loudly.
Evan smiled.
The entire quartet was on the edge of panic. Each of them was trying with full intensity to find some excuse.
"So… what's the menu?"
They trembled. Suddenly Aiko spoke up.
"Hold on a second. We can't cook Evan!"
Evan seemed to be in shock, and the other girls looked at her with hope.
"Why?" Evan asked.
"Yeah, why exactly?" Frida asked, trying to feign shock.
"Remember what we agreed on when we moved in? The one who gets Evan's consent becomes the head chef and dictates the menu, and the rest have to adapt."
"There really was something like that." Evan seemed a little confused. The other girls considered it a success. They just had to keep pulling on that thread.
"That's why Evan should choose the head chef." Aiko had an expression as if she had just blurted out the biggest stupidity in the entire history of the world, and the remaining trio of girls looked at her like a criminal.
"I understand. In that case I choose… Callisa."
"Me?!" The vixen was in shock.
They hadn't even finished blaming Aiko yet and already there was a new problem?!
"You're the best cook, you definitely have some idea."
"Well… I…"
The vixen fidgeted restlessly. Under her breath she muttered about some excuse, but when Evan smiled at her… it was like flipping a switch from reluctant girl to master chef.
She straightened up and said grandly:
"Allow me to present to you the perfect Menu."
She raised her arms.
"This can't be a great feast. This is our date, so it should have a cozy, home atmosphere. Just us and Evan. No one else."
Everyone looked at her.
"To start, a rocket salad with apple and nuts in a mustard-honey vinaigrette. The bitterness of the rocket will awaken the palate, while the sweetness of the fruit will keep it from dominating the mouth, and the nuts will add a pleasant accent."
Everyone stared at Callisa. No one protested. They gazed at her as if hypnotized.
"Main course—" she moved like the conductor of an orchestra "—something simple but elegant. Light fine dining, yet homemade." She paused for a moment. "Our beloved meat roasted whole with rosemary, thyme, sage and garlic, basted with butter and red wine."
She raised a hand. The girls were drooling and licking their lips.
"Such an exquisite roast should be crowned with a red-wine sauce."
She executed a pirouette. One hand raised high, the other lowered.
"As for the sides, they should be homemade. Roasted potatoes, carrots and onion. Plus a red cabbage and apple salad that will cut through the heaviness of the other dishes."
She raised both hands and stepped her left leg forward.
"For dessert, lemon cake with meringue that will perfectly cleanse the palate."
She bowed. With light steps she approached Evan. She hugged him and licked him. He tasted good to her.
"Is it good enough? Please say yes…"
She smiled, and then her expression instantly fell. As if she could not believe what she herself had invented and spoken. It was good — wickedly good. She looked at the others. Frida stared at her as if she had just wrecked half the street, Aiko as if at the mistress of kitchen demons, and Morona as if at the herald of death… but the worst was Evan… He seemed completely enchanted.
"I knew you'd come up with something good. So can we start?"
The girls were terrified. Not so much by what they had said or done, but by the fact that they had almost already lost control. Not so much control as the way they perceived Evan. In their minds he was becoming more and more meat. Their beloved meat that they had nurtured until this day. This meat desired them. They should eat it. Not eating it would mean denying all their love. Such thoughts flooded their minds.
The awareness that this was still Evan was like a small ship in the middle of a huge storm. The crew, however, had not yet given up.
"Hold on!!!" Frida shouted. "Foxy! Do we even have everything we need?"
It was as if the crew had finally managed to start the pump.
"Yeah, do we have everything?"
"We have to check. Nothing less than perfection is acceptable."
The girls took Evan down from the hoist and went with him to the kitchen. They were convinced that something simply had to be missing, but after a few moments they stood in front of a fully stocked kitchen table.
"Okay… how the hell do we actually have everything?" Callisa herself could not believe what she was seeing. Her gaze fell on several packs of nuts and fresh fruit.
"Well… I wanted to bake a cake… make ice cream…" Aiko explained herself.
Next were the herbs. Fresh and dried. They weren't from the store. Morona had been growing them since the first day. They were their herbal teas and kitchen ingredients. Now they had found a special occasion. Morona looked once at the herbs, once at Evan, and licked her lips when she saw him.
The best butter and olive oil in the city. A gift from Callisa's parents. They expected it would be used in the kitchen, but not necessarily like this…
The potatoes and onions had been bought by Frida.
"In a few days there's a movie marathon… they were supposed to be fries and onion rings."
They looked to the side. A crate of twelve bottles of Tempranillo wine. They had received it from Mateo as an apology. Enough for the roast, the sauce, a toast, and getting blackout drunk the next day.
The rest they had bought a few days earlier during a shopping trip.
"I wonder if we're not fighting destiny?"
"Morona, did you recover from your metaphor talk?"
"I think so, Frida."
"Better start speaking in those metaphors again."
"None come to mind."
The girls tried to find at least one snag before the ship named Evan sank in their consciousness.
"Wait… something's missing."
This time Evan spoke. Hope entered the girls.
"Oh no, the stores are closed!!! Even a break-in won't help!!!" Frida shouted, feigning frustration.
"What's missing!?!" Aiko theatrically looked around, pretending panic.
"The shortage spreads like the maw of a beast and devours all intentions, leaving only ruined plans behind." Morona had started speaking in metaphors again.
"Evan, what's missing?" Callisa asked with hope in her voice.
In answer, Evan sat down on the table.
"Now everything is here."
A thunderbolt passed through the girls' minds.
The ship Evan had sunk, and on the surface remained a single castaway surrounded by starving sharks.
All the girls seemed to lose every last resistance at once.
They looked at Evan as at something exceptionally delicious. Callisa approached him. She looked into his eyes. In hers was the passion of a lover mixed with the hunger of a predator.
"Evan," she pronounced his name extremely passionately, "I really want to eat you and I really want you to still be with me. Each of us wants that. I can barely hold myself back."
Evan placed a finger on her lips. He smiled.
"I want this to be our best date. I'm counting on you."
"It will be unforgettable… I promise." She looked at the other girls. "All right, let's begin. Frida, Aiko, wash off those lines. We'll roast him whole. Morona, help me get everything organized."
After a few minutes all the ingredients were in place and Evan was clean.
"We begin." At Callisa's command Frida and Aiko set about washing the carrots and potatoes. Morona dried Evan. Callisa looked at the table; on it was a little bowl of soft butter and herbs. A certain thought ran through her mind. She wondered how it had come to this. But that thought was immediately run over by considerations of how best to arrange Evan. At that moment her eyes fell on the roasting pan. It was the perfect size. She pulled it out.
"Irony," Callisa muttered.
"What kind?" Evan spoke up.
"This is the same roasting pan I baked you in the first time."
"Don't worry, I don't plan on running away." Evan just smiled. Callisa felt hungry.
"On the table." It already sounded like an order, and the meat quickly found itself on the table. She looked at him like a shark circling its prey. Somewhere deep down was the awareness that this was her boyfriend, but now it served as fuel for the hunger. Since this was her boyfriend, she had to roast him perfectly.
She massaged his butt. Soft. Juicy. Perfect. Since their meat itself wanted to be eaten by them, not eating it would be a crime. Exactly eating it should be their duty.
"Twine." Frida handed her the string.
"How do we tie him? I just can't get enough of looking at that ass."
A moment later Evan was tied in a position on all fours with legs tucked under and arms folded back.
"He looks delicious. I could eat him raw."
Evan laughed softly.
"He'll be better roasted. And don't waste time. Many people want to eat him."
"True," Callisa said, beginning to rub him with salt and pepper.
"Don't worry, this will be a wonderful night. Shame it's the last one." Frida licked her lips.
"That's why we have to make sure it's perfect," the vixen said as she took the little bowl of butter and herbs and then began rubbing the fat into the meat. It was like a massage. She made sure not to miss any part. When she finished, Evan glistened with butter.
"He looks wonderful," Aiko said, and a moment later grew a little gloomy, "the last legendary chapter…"
"He has to lie like that for a while. The herbs have to penetrate deep into the meat."
"I hate this moment," the she-wolf licked her lips.
"Then help me with the roasting pan."
On the bottom of the roasting pan appeared a bed of vegetables. Thickly sliced onion, carrot, herbs and garlic.
"And the potatoes?" the cat-girl asked.
"Separately. This is for the sauce. It will give it depth and flavor. If we put everything in the roasting pan, it would honestly be delicious, but too heavy and without structure."
"Morona, how's the oven?"
"The realm of heat is seized by the flames of forbidden passion that will consume everything—" she cleared her throat "—150 degrees."
"So it should be perfect when the meat finishes marinating. A little more oil and wine into the roasting pan, but not too much. This is supposed to be aroma, not stewing."
A moment later they arranged him in the roasting pan. He looked delicious.
"Now just two more accents." The vixen took an apple. "Say AAA."
"AAA." Evan opened his mouth wide and Callisa put the apple into it. Then she inserted a thermometer into his butt. Right then the oven beeped, signaling it was preheated. They opened the door and put the roasting pan with the meat inside.
For a moment they stared at the protruding ass of their dinner before Callisa clapped her hands.
"All right, let's get to the salad, sides and dessert."
The girls worked. Frida noticed Aiko.
"Carrot flowers? So you."
"Well yeah." The cat-girl blushed a little.
"Actually, when did all this happen?" Aiko asked, laying her ears back and tucking her tail. "It was so great and before we knew it…"
"That which is unknown gives no signs, hides itself in ignorance, leaving only questions. I don't know, maybe it's simply the world, the narrative… and us." Morona laid her antennae back while mixing the vinaigrette.
"You might be right, Morona," Callisa said, looking into the oven, "and to think that since moving in here we ourselves kept pushing to talk Evan into letting us eat him, and now… actually he tempted us."
They all sighed. They felt guilty, but saw no way out. They had nothing that could stop their hunger. In the past a simple "no" might have been enough. Now that "no" had changed to "yes," they had lost their resistance. To stop they needed some protest from Evan, but it was already clear they would not get one. Only the hunger remained.
After hours of preparation and basting they took him out of the oven. They poured off the meat juices from the roasting pan and prepared a sauce from them.
A few moments later they sat at a table covered with a white tablecloth. Romantic music played from Callisa's megaphone through the room. The romantic atmosphere was heightened by candlelight. On the table were bowls of roasted potatoes, carrot flowers, onion quarters and gravy boats of red-wine sauce. In front of them they had portions of rocket salad with nuts and apple and glasses full of wine.
In the place of honor was the main course. Evan roasted in herbs with golden skin. He lay curled up on the plate. In his mouth was an apple, and the thermometer in his butt had been replaced with a sizable carrot.
Callisa stood and took a glass.
"Before we begin, I'd like to say one more thing."
The other girls stood and took glasses in their hands.
"Evan, I say this in my own name as well as Frida's, Aiko's and Morona's. We really love you and want you to stay with us as our boyfriend. We tried, but unfortunately we couldn't find a place for you in this world. The only thing we managed was to deepen your role as meat. We've already tried everything. Does any of you have any idea?"
The girls only shook their heads. Callisa looked with sadness at the portion of anti-cooking potion lying on its side. The last symbolic resistance against their own hunger.
"We don't know how to give you a role in this world, so we'll make this the best dinner in the entire world."
She raised her glass.
"To Evan, our most delicious boyfriend in the whole world," they said together.
They drank a little wine.
And one last accent.
She took the gravy boat and began pouring sauce over Evan.
"Ready. Let's start the dinner."
They sat down and began eating the salad. They commented on its taste, but all of them kept looking toward the main course. Saliva dripped from each of their mouths. The hunger in their eyes was turning into a frenzied feast. Only the slight tension in their muscles was the trace of the last resistance in their bodies.
Finally the last leaf of salad disappeared. Callisa opened her mouth, baring her teeth. Streams of saliva shot from her mouth. Tears ran from her eyes.
"Time for the main course."
Every girl looked the same. Starving, yet sad and unable to hold back.
Callisa took a knife and fork and stood up.
"All right, where do we start?"
The girls' gazes moved over the roast. They were already consuming him with their eyes. Callisa could have sworn Evan was smiling through the apple.
"Maybe that juicy little butt is just begging to be eaten."
Frida was drooling the hardest. It was literally running from her mouth.
Aiko only licked her lips.
Morona's antennae danced.
Callisa slowly walked around the table and positioned herself next to Evan. She looked at his butt. Yes, that was definitely the premium part. On top of that, dripping with sauce, it looked and smelled incredible.
"This is the last boundary. After the first cut…" she had to interrupt because of the incoming saliva "…nothing will help." She licked her lips. "We'll have to eat everything down to the last bite. Does anyone have…"
Each of them knew what Callisa was asking. The answer, however, was silence.
The vixen looked at the knife. She looked at the fork.
This was already the end. The sharks moved toward the castaway to devour him.
She drove the knife into the buttock. It went in smoothly and juices flowed. The smell hit her. It was a truly unearthly aroma, incomparable to any other roast she had ever smelled.
She raised the knife.
The blade gleamed.
Slowly she set it against the meat.
She licked her lips.
She tensed her arm to begin cutting.
"Evan!!!"
Morona shouted. Callisa stopped.
"Who did you want to be in your original world?"
It was a shock to all the girls. They stood up. Callisa raised the knife.
For a moment silence fell. The silence lasted long. Too long to still have hope.
She sighed.
"It was worth a try. Let's eat."
She inhaled the scent.
She lowered the knife.
And just as she was about to make the cut…
Evan howled into the apple. He started squirming.
She had seen movements like that before. On their first date, when he had escaped from her plate.
"It worked! He's back!"
Callisa immediately set the knife aside. Somehow it had worked, but they still had a roasted Evan on the plate and an awakened hunger.
Their stomachs growled and the hunger raged.
"The potion!!! Give me the potion!!!"
Aiko pulled the apple out of Evan's mouth and Frida poured the potion down his throat. Callisa grabbed the phone and called Arslan. When the director answered she shouted:
"EVAN IS BACK TO HIMSELF!!! TELL THE DIRECTOR TO COME!!! QUICKLY, WHILE WE'RE STILL IN CONTROL OF OURSELVES!!!"
"I'm on my way immediately."