Piggy

Danielle opened her eyes with with a start, coming back to consciousness. Darkness greeted her, and when she tried to rub her eyes, she discovered her wrists were restrained. A click echoed in the black, and she felt air conditioning. It was then she knew she was naked.

What had happened last night? She remembered meeting up with Michelle at Charlie’s Tavern, and two cute guys buying them both drinks all night. Then someone came up to her. Danielle curled her toes trying to remember what they looked like. All that came to mind was that he wasn’t much to look at, a little bit creepy, and he wouldn’t just go away. He scared off the two cute ones, and keep telling stupid jokes and bragging about doge coin, or something. Then she was stumbling towards the bathroom, room spinning. The last thing she remembered was looking into the bathroom mirror.

Her first thought about the room was to scream. Maybe someone would hear her. She drew in a deep breath, when behind her a grunting noise began. Enough of the brain fog had cleared by this point to for he to realize that she was in a dentists chair, or similar. She wasn’t laying flat, and when she tried to look behind her, she felt the collar that was placed on her was attached to the chair, tightly enough so she couldn’t look behind her.

Another grunt, and popping of knuckles, drew in her vanishing hopes and drowned them in viscera. Some sick fuck did this too her. It must be that creeping weird guy from the bar. “Hey weirdo, you better let me go or you are in so much trouble!” Her voice cracked at the end, her bravado as mirage. Another grunt, and the sound of a heavy door protesting on his hinges, ending with the finality of a door slamming closed bottomed out her rapidly retreating calm. She was in deep shit.

***

Danielle didn’t know how long she had been out. It was impossible to figure out time in here. Outside of the shackles on her wrists, and the sticky leather on her backside, there was zero sensory information. The AC stopped, and the darkness still enveloped all.

Part of her filled with bile, and wanted to panic. If she could, she would be chewing her nails. But she couldn’t react like that right now. She was tied down to this chair.

She needed to think. There had to be some way out of this. Then a single light in the ceiling came on.

A fat person in the pig mask stood before her. Strands of cerulean hair poked out from behind the mask, and a plaid shirt pushed its buttons against a press of flesh. Plump sausages emerged from the cuffs mounted on their hands. They slid an arm behind their back, and grasped their elbow with that hand. The pig looked at their feet, and swayed.

“What the fuck pig?”

A giggle and a snort came from behind the mask.

“I’m talking to you pig. What the fuck?!?!?”

They scratched their greasy chin under the mask.

“Are you deaf? Why did you tie me up? Why did you take my clothes? Let me go!”

Another giggle, and the swine spoke. A thin reedy voice, but one that rang with a false deepness between the syllables emerged from the hole in the mouth. “No, I’m not deaf. I got you because you are a monster.”

Danielle’s jaw hit her chest. “I’m the monster? I’M THE MONSTER?”

“Oh yes, you are definitely the monster. The sad part is that you don’t know that you are. You are a bigot, a fascist and a transphobe. You are a hateful person, and I’m going to make you pay.”

A bit of sweat dripped down Danielle's nose, making it itch. “What the hell are you talking about? Do I know you? Let me go you fucker.”

“NO! NO MORE NAZIS!”

This person was clearly mentally deranged. At the moment, Danielle knew she was dead. She often had wondered what she would do when she was confronted with that. She prayed on it. And now she knew. A serene calm flowed through her. It wasn’t something she thought would happen.

“What makes me a Nazi? I’m not the one strapping women to chairs and taking their clothing.”

“You are. You are.”

“You don’t know do you? Do you even know what that word means do you?”

“I do. You are. You are. And you are going to pay for it.”

“Pay for what? Can you name one thing that I have done?”

The piggy snorted again. “I don’t have to. You are the bad girl,” the piggy slid up to the table, and one of its hands snatched out and grabbed Danielle’s right breast. “You gonna pay.”

It felt clammy and sickening. Danielle could smell its ordure, offending her nose. Its hand was strangely smooth, and soft. A low grumble escaped from their as it lightly squeezed Danielle’s exposed flesh.

“Stop touching me you creep. I don’t consent.”

Piggy pulled back their hand quickly. “I’m no creep. You are.”

Danielle’s inner calm let her annoyance come out. “I’m getting real tired of you. A fat coward who wears a pig mask. What is the point of that?”

The pig face tilted to one side. “The pig? Its a mirror for you. You given such beauty, but really ugly on the inside. You ruined a lot of lives, not just mine. You going to see how ugly you really are.”

“Ugly? Me, ugly? I have a great boyfriend, thousands of friends, and millions of followers,” the pig twitched, “would I have that if I was ugly?” Those things weren’t what brought Danielle happiness, except maybe for her boyfriend, but she guessed right that would be a soft spot for piggy.

Piggy breathed heavily. “Those people are Nazis too. They are gonna pay. Just like you. You are on the wrong side of history.”

Something clicked in Danielle’s head. “You just keep talking in slogans and talking points. Why don’t you take your mask off and have a thought of your own.”

“NOOOO! YOU AREN’T IN CHARGE BIGOT!”

Danielle was ready for it to be over. She closed her eyes, but the rabid blow never fell. She could hear heavy breathing and peeked out with one eye. Spittle dripped from the pig mask mouth hole.

“Do you even know my name?” The words slipped out, creasing the silence.

Piggy sniffled. “Of course I do. I know you.”

For once, it sounded sincere. “How do you know me? I don’t know you.”

Piggy rubbed their snout with the back of their hand. “You don’t, but you did. You were the first.”

“The first what?”

“The first who laughed at me. You made my life a living hell. You didn’t see ME!”

Danielle wracked her brain. There was nothing she could recall. “I don’t remember. Take off the mask, tell me who you are.”

The piggy’s hands trembled. It reached for the bottom of the mask, and slid it over their head. It had a soft face, speckled with a five o’clock shadow. There was something off about their face though. The eyes, a deep hazel ran through with angry red, glared at Danielle. And then she knew them.

“Barbara Felo? Is that you?”

“MY NAME IS BOB!” the knife spun out from nowhere and Barbara pressed it into Danielle’s neck, the blade tickled her sensitive flesh and blood leaked out. Panic struck back for a moment. It receded as quickly as Danielle’s heart continued to beat.

“I don’t know you as Bob. You will always be Barbara to me. What happened to you?”

“My pronouns are he/xir/xim. I never was a girl. You need to realize that.”

“I haven’t seen you in ten years.”

“I have seen you.”

“You watch my channels?”

“Of course not. I don’t support platforming of bigots like you.”

“Then how have you seen me?”

“I just know you.”

Danielle barely remembered Barbara. A weird chunky girl who wasn’t popular in high school. “I’m sorry for whatever I did to you in high school Barbara. But whatever that was doesn’t justify this.”

“My name is BOB. Stop dead naming me.”

“Did you get your name changed?

Barbara bared her yellow teeth. “No, but I am demonstrating my truth. You aren’t letting me.”

“Barbara, that is who you are. Not your truth. The truth. Can’t you see what you are doing to me is wrong?”

Barbara put back on the pig mask. “Its not wrong.”

“Don’t put back on the mask. Look at me Barbara. See ME. I apologize for making your life hell. I should have said it then, but I’ll say it now.”

“Don’t. Say. It.”

“I love you Barbara. I should have said that. You were a person who was hurting, and I didn’t help you. I piled on. And you went down a dark hole because of that. So I’m saying it now. Take my hand, and let me pick you up.”

Danielle heard herself say those words. She believed them. She saw the pain and anger in Barbara’s eyes. She knew that Barbara hadn’t heard those words in a long time, maybe ever. Danielle forgot her own exposure and reached out to this woman who was in pain.

“Come here Barbara. Hug me. Lets leave here together.”

She embraced Danielle, bending over her and wrapping plaid arms around her, enclosing her.

Then she stood up. Piggy whipped out the knife, and plunged it three times into Danielle’s chest. “Its Bob, bitch. Only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. Trans Lives Matter!”