Chapter 1

“Alright everyone, dinner is ready!” Jane called the family to dinner, and everyone started to gather around the table. Her husband, John, gave her a quick peck on the cheek as he sat down. Their 3 children, ages 7, 12 and 14 all eagerly joined them, excited for dinner after a long day at school. Jane had prepared a huge feast, seemingly more than the family could eat. Even with their two golden retrievers standing by to grab any scraps, it was a huge amount of food.

“So honey, what do we have here?” John cut into his meal. “Ah, ribeyes! One of my favorites. I’m sure glad I have a wife who can cook a steak.” The family ate and talked throughout dinner, with many topics coming up. When dinner was finally over, there was still plenty of food left. Even after leftovers had been packed away.

“John, honey, do you want me to pack some more plates for you to take to your friends at the plant?”

“No, that’s ok.” He stood up to head to the living room. “Just dump the extras down the chute, we’ve got enough for ourselves.”

“Ok honey!” Jane started emptying all the plates, gristle, fat, sides the kids didn’t eat, and more down a chute that at first glance looked like a trash can. A slight cutting sound could be heard below, as if the scraps were getting chopped up as they went down.

“John honey, I’m gonna dump this extra grease from the last week in here as well, it’s getting full and we don’t need to throw it outside or it’ll attract raccoons.”

“Sounds good to me, darling.” John had already started reading the newspaper from the day, seemingly uninterested in Jane cleaning up the kitchen.

The doorbell rang, and the neighbors across the street, the Scott’s, had stopped by.

“Oh goodness, how are you two tonight? I’m sorry it’s a mess in here, we just had dinner.” Lauren Scott handed a large cake to Jane. “This is for Sarah! I know it’s her birthday tomorrow so we thought we would drop this off for her!”

After thanking them, Jane excitedly showed the cake to John.

“Look at what Lauren made for Sarah! Oh, but I think it has nuts in it. Sarah is allergic to nuts.”

John, still unfazed from his paper, simply said “dump it in the chute, too. You can’t waste a good cake. Also honey, once you’re done can you walk down to the basement and make sure the disposal is working fine? I checked the sensors the other day and it seemed to be slowing down a bit. Might have to get a new one here soon.”

Jane happily obliged, not fazed that her husband hadn’t really helped her much in cleaning up and now wanted her to check the disposal. He works hard all day, she thought. He deserves to rest when he gets home.

She walked over to the doorway leading to the basement, unlocking the door and heading down the stairs after turning the light on. Just from the top of the stairs, she did notice the breathing sounded worse. It might be time to get a new disposal, but they only had this one for 3 years! They’re not cheap to replace, just getting one out of the house requires an entire crew! At least installation is cheap, but they tended to be much smaller when first installed.

Jane entered the basement, and saw the “disposal.” A large, pale white blob took came into view, just a mass of rolls and flesh. A quick glance looking at it could tell anyone that it wasn’t healthy, and it’s skin was covered in stretch marks and angry veins. It’s limbs were almost entirely covered by flesh that had grown over them, and it was impossible to tell the gender of whatever this thing used to be.

A chute from above led to a keg like container, and from there a hose led out and into the blobs mouth. Upon closer inspection, you could see that the blobs face had almost been covered in fat, it’s eyes unable to see and ears almost shut off. If Jane hadn’t had seen the numerous wires and sensors attached to it, she would have thought it was expired. She checked their readings that populated on a small tablet, seemingly ok with the numbers.

“Well, it looks like everything is ok for now. We definitely need to get a new one in the next six months, this one is about to break!” She exited the basement, leaving the disposal unit by itself.