Bigarreaux Confits

“Jefe estúpido, cree que puede gritarme porque no sabe hacer bien su trabajo. Maldito sea.” Noemi left her supervisor’s office muttering to herself.

Her supervisor had just spent the last fifteen minutes berating her because the medical records she had delivered to him were early and not the ones that he had considered urgent and for some reason that fell on her. So he had spent the time “explaining” that she needed to get her head on straight and work on her communication skills—the bastard.

She crossed the aisles ignoring the other record managers staring at her and tried to ignore her face flushed hot with embarrassment as she slumped into her cubicle. She looked around and tried to recenter herself as she tapped her foot rapidly, settling in on the picture of her family she kept on her desk. It had taken forever to get everyone together to take it, her mom and dad, her two younger brothers Diego and Lucas, and her little sister Carla all smiling to the camera. She picked up the picture and sighed.

Her current job was as a medical records collector, which was exactly as exciting as it sounded. Doctors needed medical records from other doctors, lawyers needed medical records, and everyone was misplacing them. It was a lot of being on the phone and being condescended to. But the pay was decent and her parents needed the money so even if she spent the next thirty years getting yelled at for stupid shit, she wasn’t going to give it up.

She leaned in and laid her head down on the keyboard, it was almost the end of the day she just needed to make it through the next hour. Her relaxation was interrupted by her phone on her desk silently vibrating. She reached over and saw that it was her mother calling and slowly straightened her back and answered

“"Aló, mamá," She tried to keep her voice low as she stood up to go to the hall, most people wouldn’t rat her out for taking a personal call on the floor; but having already been chewed out once today, she didn’t want to risk it.

Her mother responded in Spanish, as she always did when it was just family. Both her parents spoke English but never spoke it at home “[My dear, I just needed to check with you if you’re picking up Carla from soccer this week and Lucas from Band.]”

It was her mother’s way to micromanage everything, Noemi tried to keep from rolling her eyes “[Yes, mama I said I’d do it so I’ll do it, you don’t need to worry about anything.]”

“[Hmmmmm]” Her mother's response to even the slightest talk back “[And you’re coming to your uncle's Birthday this weeken,d right? He hasn’t seen you in so long, we don’t want him to think you’re avoiding him]”

“So long” was a month, but if you weren’t seeing a family member every week, it was potentially enough to be considered a slight. “[Yes mama, I’ll be there. Sorry, I really have to go, I’m still at work right now and need to finish some things up.]”

“[Hmmmmm]” Noemi winced, her Mom often took shutting down a conversation before it reached the ten-minute mark as a personal attack “[Alright dear, but you call me tomorrow after picking up Carla, ok?]”

The Chilean woman sighed “[Yes mama. I love you, bye]” Noemi shut her phone and returned to work. She didn’t hate talking to her mom, her family was pretty much the most important thing in the world to her, but it never felt like there was enough time in the day to handle her family obligations, work, and to have any sort of meaningful social life. She was lucky her mom hadn’t gotten on her case about dating.

She returned to her desk and tried to spend the remaining time at work productively.

Once home, Noemi cracked open a beer and crashed into her couch. She had slipped out of her work clothes into jeans and a long-sleeved white top. She looked around at the empty apartment and as she sipped her beer was overwhelmed by a sense of loneliness. She wished she had someone she could talk to about work, about her family. It wasn’t like she was unattractive either, she often received compliments on her curly hair, and she knew from stares that men liked her breasts but none of it made a difference when she couldn’t find the time to put herself out there.

“Out there”? Where was there even to put herself out? She hated clubs, she didn’t want to use those skeezy apps, and speed dating felt like a joke. She sipped her beer, emptied it and tossed it with the other cans surrounding her couch. Maybe it was just her destiny to be alone.

She felt the **** getting to her and closed her eyes and everything went dark.

When she opened her eyes from her momentary doze, Noemi was not in her small apartment, not on her couch, as far as she could tell she was nowhere familiar. She was standing on stage, a spotlight beaming down at her as she looked out to a mostly empty auditorium.

Then she saw a man stand up, a mix of anger and fear on his face. It took her a second to recognize. It had been years since she had seen it and she muttered out a bleary “Caleb…? Where is this?”

Lucian laughed mercilessly “Oh good this one remembers you, as well she should eh Master? Contestant number five, Noemi Castro why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to the audience!”

This was the last thing that Noemi wanted to do but she found herself pivoting and waving despite her brain wanting to hide, “Alo! My name is Noemi Castro, I’m 25 years old and a medical records collector. My parents and I are originally from Chile but we moved when I was little and my mom was pregnant with the first of my three siblings. I’ve had a few boyfriends, but I’m still a virgin. I know Caleb from back in middle school when I would pick on him every day because he wouldn’t fight back.” Her eyes widened as the words left her mouth.

It was at this point that Caleb spoke up “Why? Why her?! I don’t want any of this but at least the other girls were people I liked! Why would you pick someone who tormented me for three years of my life?!”

Lucian grinned flashing his stick to get Noemi caught up to speed, “Oh doesn’t that excite you? Look at her, she’s easy on the eyes. Can’t you just picture it? The woman that made your life a living hell on her knees in front of you? Doesn’t that feel good?”

Noemi began to panic as she realized the situation she found herself in, real fear setting in at the fact that she was potentially at Caleb’s mercy. “I…I…I’m not the same person I was, please!”

Caleb was gripping the chair in front of him so hard that his knuckles had turned white. He hated this, he hated everything about this situation. All these people are being kidnapped because of him. But he most hated was how arousing the situation that the host had described had made him.

Grinning at Caleb Lucian gestured at Reyna “My dear, please take our latest contestant to her seat”

Reyna gripped Noemi’s arm “Come along now! Things will be fine you’ll see, once the transformations start it’s going to be really fun!”

Noemi’s face blanched wondering what the ridiculously proportioned woman meant by that.

Lily was transfixed watching Noemi as she went to her seat. Caleb had told her that he had been bullied in middle school by a girl but when she had pictured the woman in her mind she always was more brutish. It was hard to imagine this slender Latina doing anything like what Caleb had described.

Up front, as Reyna returned to the stage, the demon began progressing to introduce the next victim “Well we’re over the hump now, only three girls left and I think that our master is really going to enjoy them. Next to the stage Madeline Purcell!”