Andy Jackson: Child of Land & Sea

Men Are Pigs

Act II — Heart of the Ocean

Part V — Now it's happened, once or twice, someone couldn't pay the price...

"Welcome!" said the lady with the clipboard. She spoke like a presenter and dressed like a flight attendant. "Is this your first time with us?"

"Yes," Andy said looking around the tropical island where they had landed.

The woman looked them up and down critically. "A herbal wrap to start for the young lady. And of course, a complete makeover for the young man."

"A what?" Anthony asked bemused.

She was too busy to answer. "Are you two a couple?" she asked suspiciously.

Andy and Anthony did their best not to look at each other. "No," he answered.

"All the better," the lady declared.

"Why is that better?" Andy asked, but the woman was no longer listening.

"Right!" she said with a breezy smile. "I'm sure C.C. will want to speak with you personally before the luau. Come with me, please."

They followed her in their guards in case she turned into a giant snake or something. The place was amazing though. Everything was beautiful. There were all kinds of animals and they all looked peaceful enough. As they headed up a staircase, they heard a woman singing, her voice like a lullaby. They came into a big room where the whole front wall was covered in mirrors.

She sat at a loom. Her dark hair was braided with threads of gold and she had piercing green eyes. The hostess smiled as they introduced themselves. She looked at Anthony with a twinge of disapproval and said, "Oh, dear, you desperately need my help."

"He does?" Andy asked, giving him the once-over and not finding anything reproachable.

"Of course," she said, and Andy believed her. "Surely he isn't happy the way he is. My goodness, there's not a single person who is. But don't worry. We can improve anyone here at the spa. We'll make your outsides reflect who you are inside." She stood and guided Anthony toward the mirror. "You see, to unlock your potential, first you need to admit that you're not happy the way you are."

"I'm perfectly pleased with myself," he said, crossing his arms but sounding just a little unsure.

C.C. was not convinced. "Have you ever been in love, Anthony?" she whispered in this strange, cruel way. He stiffened and didn't answer. "You have that longing in your eyes. Do you think she'll ever love you back? Just like that? You think it's that easy to get a woman's heart?"

The smell of incense was making Andy's head spin a little, but somewhere deep in her mind she thought C.C. was being a little mean. "Well, now," she said, "I think he looks good. There's nothing really wrong with—"

"You have to decide, Anthony," C.C. interrupted, voice vibrating with poison, "if you're going to trust her judgment or mine."

"Your judgment," he said as if in a trance.

C.C. smiled and snapped her fingers making a glass filled with some sort of golden liquid appear in his hand. "Drink it," she told him.

Andy had a bad feeling about that. "Wait—" she started to say, but Anthony lifted the glass to his lips. Then he doubled over and dropped the cup. "What did you give him?" she asked C.C. Anthony's hands shriveled, curled, grew long delicate claws. Fur sprouted on his face, under his shirt. His teeth grew and he shrunk.