chapter 1

Hours had passed since Jack had abandoned the familiarity of the one tourist town in Transylvania for an ill advised hike through the forest. It had been longer still since the path was alight with warm daytime and Jack sat for his midday meal in the shade of the sprawling trees. Now his stomach growled like it was one with the ill tempered wildlife he was sure surrounded him. Jack grinned with mad relief when he spotted the cottage, bathed in the light of a single golden lantern. "Inn" read the sign underneath.

Jacks step quickened, energized with this unexpected good luck. Before he could bang on the door it creaked open. A dainty slip of a woman appeared inside, smiling and twisting a coil of white blond hair between her pale fingers. "Come in, dear."

Jack did as he was told and the door shut hard behind him. "You poor darling," the blond purred, reaching up and loosening the straps of Jacks back pack with a seamless flick of her finger. It thudded against the stone floor as she took his hands in hers and led him deeper inside, all the while locking eyes with him, giggling sweetly at him and batting her eyelashes. Jack grinned dumbly. His mind flooded with the crystal blue of her eyes, his ears filled with the rustle of her satin dress. Instead of thoughts, these images exploded in his mind, one after the other, as she wrapped her hand around his waist and squeezed. Cluck, cluck went her pink tongue against a mouthful of bright white, arrow tipped teeth. "You're much too thin, you poor dear."

And then there was another, this one a raven haired nymph, much like the first with redder lips and even pointier teeth. "What have we here?" She cooed. Jack was pushed into a seat at the head of an endless table. "And what are you doing here? Out in the woods late at night?" Was he being scolded?

Confusion. What was I doing here? He wondered. The girls' laughed gleefully as he wracked his brain for answers. Think, damnit, he demanded of himself. The girls laughed louder and the tinkling sound filled his ears until he too, slowly at first, started to smile. The longer they laughed the wider he smiled until soon he was cackling like a hyena as the girls petted his hair.

"You must be hungry," the blond informed him. His stomach let out a wail. "You poor, poor darling. Here." With a wave of her hand the table was stacked high with warm biscuits and creamy butter, fatty meats and tart squares of cheese, potatoes mashed, fried and baked heaped with sour cream, every fattening delicacy one could imagine was set before Jack. "You don't mind if we fatten you up a bit, do you?" She asked sweetly.

One by one jack was fed every morsel of the sumptuous spread by hand. He lost track of whose hand was whose. Both were so slender and agile with fingers that lingered on his lips. He was vaguely aware when his stomach was patted, only because with every pat it pushed a little bit further into his lap. By the time the meal was through he was the new owner of a prominent pot belly. "Off to bed with you!" He was told as he was led to a spindly barred cage and promptly locked inside.

In the girls' absence the warm throb of his head cooled. What had happened tonight? Jack looked down and gasped when he saw his stomach poking out from beneath his shirt. What was this? He poked at it, disbelieving. What type of inn was this? With his mind made up to demand a change of rooms and access to the hotel gym, he let himself dream.