Claire found herself walking towards it, wincing at the loudness of her own feet against the forest floor as she observed the apple with wide eyes. She found herself salivating at the thought of piercing the flesh of such a beautiful fruit. She brought her hand up to take the apple, it falling into her hand before she even touched it. She brought it closer to her face, admiring the fruit, the smooth flawless texture of the skin, how it was perfectly symmetrical, unlike most real apples. It was truly the perfect fruit, and Temptation knew that, after all it was his doing. She couldn't resist any longer, she bit into the fruit, only to taste the most foul thing imaginable. It was like biting into rotting flesh, putrid and disgusting, but the poison only needed her to break the flesh to start acting. She started to gag, but couldn't help feel her eyelids close against her will. She tried to resist, but felt everything was too heavy.
~*~
She woke with a start, sitting up in bed. The sun trickled through the window, birds chirping. She felt the need to use the bathroom, otherwise she would have lingered in bed just a little longer. She pushed off the sheets, not noticing an unnaturally shiny apple falling off her bed and rolling across the room. She put her slippers on, padding across the floor towards the door. She made a mistake in opening her bedroom door, because her room faded from sight, sudden darkness over-taking her. "H-hello!" She called out, stumbling slightly with the sudden lack of door supporting her. She trudged forward, feeling her slippers start to dampen. "A-anyone there?!" She called out again, clutching her chest. She wasn't normally a very scared person, after all she liked to read horror stories, but everything seemed so real. These weren't pages from a book…
It wasn't until that moment did she notice the very distinct metallic smell invade her nostrils. She put a hand to her mouth, to prevent herself from gagging, closing her eyes tightly. When she opened them again she saw a tiny flickering light in the distance. It was almost a pin point, but it was still light. She took off running towards it… a mistake. She tripped over something that was squishy on the outside, but hard… almost bone hard in the center. She shivered, quickly moving her leg, feeling the wet sticky substance that was starting to coat her slippers all over her hands and knees. She moved herself onto the balls of her feet, hugging her stomach as she started to dry heave. She looked back up towards the light. It seemed so warm and friendly in this dark world. She started to move closer to it, walking slower, her hands in front of her so she wouldn't walk head first into something. A smell more than just metallic wafted from the ground. The closer to the light she got, the more she smelt a rotten, putrid smell. She gagged, automatically putting her hand against her mouth, something she regretted instantly. She started to dry heave again, feeling the sticky metallic liquid against her mouth. What broke her out of her dry heaving spell was the feeling of crawling in her slipper. Out of instinct she kicked her slipper forward, it flying off into the dark. She put her foot down and regretted it instantly. More things in the foul liquid seemed to be crawling around her foot. She gagged again, noticing that the liquid was also getting deeper and thicker the farther she progressed.
She wasn't giving up, she would get towards the light, certain it was her way out of this mad zone. She picked up her speed, hugging herself instead of keeping her hands in front of her. She felt sick to her stomach, and had a feeling whatever she ran into couldn't be worse than the squirmy creatures that were going across her foot. The light was getting closer and closer with each step she took. She couldn't help but taking off towards it again, feeling things squish under her feet as she ran. Larger and larger debris seemed to be on the ground, and it took all her focus to not slip and fall on them as she ran towards the light. She was only a couple feet away when she noticed the light was nothing more than a tea candle held by a well dressed man. He held it up so the only thing illuminated was his face. His hair was the color of fresh blood… his eyes… his eyes were the color of dried blood. He smiled kindly at her, blowing out the candle. She screamed.
"Oh Claire, sweet innocent Claire. Don't scream like that… I'm making your dreams come true." Temptation said, moving behind her, able to see in the inky black world. He gently caressed her hair with his lips, his hot breath wafting down her neck as she gulped. "You said you wanted your ex-boyfriend to suffer a fate worse than death… and the two women he cheated on you with deserved to be gutted like pigs, for that's all they were." He said into her ear, his voice low and seductive. Claire shivered against the man, and she heard him let out a almost silent moan in response. All of the sudden a spot light turned on, shining on three people chained to a throne made from decomposing bodies sewn together. In the center of the throne sat a robust looking man, around 25-26. Chained to the arms of the throne, one on either side were two young women. One had blonde hair, almost the exact same shade as Claire, both her and Claire sharing the same dark brown eye color, although it was hard to tell with the red in the chained woman's eyes from crying. On the other side was a brunette, her eyes bright blue rimmed with red the same as the other girl. Claire recognised them all right away. One was her older sister, one was her best friend… and the man in the middle was her ex. She started to panic, finding herself backing into Temptation.
"Now now… I'm giving you what you wanted. Who should be first?" He asked, licking the side of her neck, making Claire gasp and scream out. He moved his hands to her upper arms, gently holding them, moving his mouth back to her ear. He let out a slow warm breath before speaking "Hmm… Best friend. I'd believe in saving the best for last after all." He said, letting go of her and moving forward. With a wave of his hand a large steel table appeared, butcher equipment on a smaller one next to it. He walked over, reaching up into the air, an image showing the different cuts of pig rolling down from nothingness. He then walked over towards the brunette, removing her gag and binds, holding her wrists tightly.
"Claire, oh my god Claire. Help me! I'm your friend… I'm sorry, it was only one night… oh my god… help me." She cried out. Temptation tsked at her, dragging her to the table, picking her up like she was nothing and dropping her down on it. Claire stood there frozen in fear, tears streaming down her face.
"Sarah…" Claire said softly under her breath, gasping for breath between sobs, hearing her friend scream out in pain from the hard contact on the steel.
"Yes, Sarah." Temptation said, binding Sarah's hands and ankles to the table so she was on her back. Sarah could move her head freely, and once she regained her breath, she was looking directly at Claire.
"Claire… we've been friends for years… I'm sorry… help." Sarah gasped out, tears streaming down her face. The two others still tied up to the chair seemed to start a fresh bout of crying and were struggling against their binds. Claire looked over at them, and then back to her friend sprawled out on the table. She felt herself sobbing even harder, but not finding the strength to move.
"Claire my dear. Do you like bacon?" Temptation asked suddenly, picking up a rather clean and sharp looking knife off the table, looking between it and Claire.
Claire just started in horror at him, hand over mouth trying to fight back a sob. "Oh, such a pity. I find most people do like it. Maybe once I have it cooking you'll change your tone." And as he said that, a small element hovered in front and off slightly to the side of the steel table, a pan warming on top of it. Claire gasped, letting out a sob, choking on it. She fell to her knees, shaking, but unable to tear her eyes away from the morbid scene in front of her. She heard Sarah scream out in pain as the knife bit into her flesh. Sarah bucked forward, Temptation sliding the knife out, blood trickling down the blade. Claire finally looked down, trembling, trying to steady her breathing.
"C-claire!" Sarah screamed out, but Claire couldn't look up, she just couldn't. She heard he friend struggling against her binds, her body thrashing against the steel table. Claire finally looked up when she heard the sizzling of flesh. Sarah was laying there, blood oozing out of her stomach, tears streaming down her face, but she seemed to have lost her strength to flail around.
"Bacon Claire? After all, I hear long pig is rather good at this time of year." Temptation said, holding out a plate to her the most evil smile she had ever seen on his face, eyes glowing red… it was then Claire woke up for real, screaming in her bed, tears streaming down her face.
