She found it about ten minutes’ walk up the street. It was an impressive, double-fronted shop with lots of glass, chrome and mirrors. What she could see from the street looked like a normal hairdressers with rows of swivel-chairs in front of brightly-lit mirrors and ladies of a certain age catching up on the latest gossip while their roots were touched up or their split-ends trimmed. Close to the front was a small reception counter which seemed to currently be un-manned. At the back, however, Beth saw a curtained doorway with a counter in front of it where a woman in her mid-thirties with straight black hair and what in nearly any other profession would be considered too much makeup, was sat, frowning slightly at her computer screen. Beth was sure that beyond the curtain must be where the more specialised treatments took place and that the black-haired lady was who she needed to talk to. There was an electronic pinging sound as she pushed open the door.

“With you in a second, darling!” a blonde woman called over her shoulder before saying something to the older lady who’s hair she was working on. Beth waited obediently by the front desk for only a few moments, wondering as she always did what exactly caused that distinct and instantly recognisable “salon smell”, before the hairdresser came over. “Sorry to keep you waiting, darling.” She smiled. “What can I do for you?”

“I.. umm…” Beth felt a little embarrassed and lowered her voice. “I have this leaflet?” she showed it to the woman, “And I was hoping to talk to someone about the meat-girl treatments?”

“Yes, of course!” The woman smiled warmly, putting Beth at her ease. “Go and have a chat to Samantha down the back there and she’ll tell you what we can offer and get something worked out for you. Sam?” She shouted down to the black-haired woman who looked up from her computer and gave a practised, customer-service smile, “Young lady to see you!”

A little tentatively, Beth made her way down the middle of the shop to where the woman, who was apparently called Samantha, was waiting for her, There were two chairs on the customer side of the desk and Samantha invited Beth to sit down.

“So,” Samantha faced her and smiled, “what bring you to see us today?”

“Well, I was given this leaflet,” Beth pushed the glossy flyer that she had been clutching in her hand across the desk, “and I wanted to ask about the meat-girl treatments.”

“Okay, lovely! Is it for yourself?” Samantha asked. Beth nodded nervously. “Lovely!” Samantha exclaimed again, opening up some kind of form on her computer. “I just need to take a few details to get us started, are you happy to go ahead with that?” She ran through the usual questions of name, date of birth, contact details etc. then came to the slightly more specialised questions.

“Now you said you were seeking the treatments for yourself?” Samantha confirmed. “Has your meat been registered?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Beth frowned a little, remembering what Mr Thomas had said, “Well, the registration’s being done online this afternoon, it might have gone in already?”

“But you don’t have a registration number that you know, yet?” Beth shook her head. “Not to worry, a lot of girls don’t when they first come in and some never do register – they just want the treatments to know what it might be like if they ever do decide to volunteer.”

“Oh I’m definitely getting cooked!” Beth chuckled, “I promised, after all!”

“Do you have a processing date?” Samantha asked, still with a smile. Beth looked a little blank, a reaction that Samantha was quite familiar with, so she rephrased the question in the way that most girls found easier to understand. “Do you know the date when you will be cooked? Has it been planned?”

“Oh right, yes!” Beth replied, feeling a little silly. “Next Saturday.” Samantha selected the following Saturday from the drop-down calendar that displayed when she clicked on the relevant box.

“Oh, that’s soon!” Samantha grinned at her, “Congratulations!” Beth smiled a little weakly. She had totally come to terms with the idea of being cooked and eaten and was even, on some level, looking forward to it a little but she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about being congratulated on it as if it were some kind of achievement!

“Nearly done.” Samantha assured her. “Just a couple more questions then we can get to the interesting bit. Do you have any medical conditions such as asthma or diabetes?” Beth shook her head. “Do you have or have you ever experienced an allergic reaction to any cosmetic or food products?”

“Not that I can remember, no.”

“And finally, is there any chance that you could be pregnant?”

“No!” Beth laughed, “Not unless it’s some sort of miracle baby!” Samantha allowed herself a small chuckle as she completed the form setting up Beth as a customer on their system.

“So,” she turned away from the computer, “I see you’ve read our list of treatments. Is there anything particular that caught your eye?”

“Well I definitely want the body-hair removal.” Beth pondered for a moment, “But I also really like the idea of the tenderising massages and the flavour-enhancing body-rub.”

“All great and very popular choices!” Samantha assured her happily. “Now, you said you’re being processed on Saturday. Do you have much in the way of plans for the rest of the week?”

“Well I’m not going to school any more!” Beth laughed, starting to relax a little, “But I am working Thursday and Friday afternoons, then it’s Saturday of course. Not going to be around much after that…” Samantha laughed too, glad that the teen who had looked so nervous when she walked in was starting to feel more at ease.

“It’s really a question of whether you want a one-off treatment,” Samantha explained, “or whether we book you in for a number of sessions during the week?”

“I wouldn’t want to have to spend all day every day here,” Beth mused, hoping she did not come across as rude, “but I don’t mind coming more than once. What did you have in mind?”

“Well most of our treatments work best on completely hairless skin,” Samantha took out a laminated sheet with a lot of similar information to the leaflet only going into more detail, along with prices and typical duration, she pointed to different parts of it as she talked, “so I’d recommend you start with the hair removal but, since there’s nearly a week before your processing, it’s likely it will have started to grow back before then so I’d recommend another treatment as close to then as possible, perhaps around lunch time on Friday?” Beth nodded her agreement. “Great! Well we actually have an open slot this afternoon so, if you wanted to go ahead, I could book you in for initial hair removal, which I promise is actually a much nicer experience than it sounds, and a massage. Would you be interested in manicure and pedicure?” Beth examined her healthy but unadorned nails. She had never really thought about that before.

“Sure!” she grinned, “Why not?” Then she remembered the other thing on the flyer that had caught her attention. “And the flavour-enhancing rub?”

“We can certainly do that!” Samantha smiled, “And if you are not too pressed for time, we have a new treatment you might be interested in that makes your meat extra tender and flavoursome. I must admit,” she gave a little giggle, “I tried it myself just to see what it’s like and I can really recommend it!”

“Oh?” Beth asked, “What is it?”

“It goes with the flavour rub,” explained Samantha, “a sort of extra stage to it really. You get the rub at the end of the massage then we wrap you in towels that are soaked in a more watered-down version. You lay in the small sauna for about an hour and it really soaks in. It’s a bit like being marinated I suppose!”

“Wow that sounds good!” Beth grinned, really starting to look forward to being pampered in a way she never had been before nor had expected to want. “So how many sessions are we talking about, do you think? And for how long?”

Samantha turned back to the computer and made a few mouse clicks, checking the appointment schedules and suggested duration of the various treatments. She scribbled a few notes in pencil on a piece of scrap paper on the desk and made a couple of quick calculations.

“Okay,” she turned her body back towards Beth but kept her eyes on the screen, “How about I book you in for a three hour session, starting in about twenty minutes, which will include hair removal, massage, flavour rub and sauna, then you come back on Monday and Wednesday for ninety minute sessions first thing in the morning so you’ll have the rest of the day to yourself. Then Friday we’ll book you another three hour session for a final hair-removal which doesn’t take as long the second time, a massage, rub and sauna session then your manicure and pedicure. How does that sound?”

“That sounds perfect!” Beth enthused. “What would the total cost be?” Samantha totted up the different treatments then turned the screen so Beth could see before applying the discount from the flyer as well as an additional 10% for having booked multiple sessions in one go. The figure was high but well within the amount Beth had thought to allow. It would still leave her with a fair bit for movies, magazines, a couple of theatre trips and anything else she wanted to try to cram into her final week. She enthusiastically agreed and checked that it was okay to pay in cash.

“Of course it is.” Samantha smiled. “I’ll give you a print out and you can go pay at the front while I let Carolyn know to expect you and what treatments you’re after.” A few minutes later, after paying the blonde woman who had greeted her when she came in and sending a quick message to her parents to let them know what she was doing so they wouldn’t worry if they couldn’t get hold of her, Beth was met by a pretty woman in her early twenties with light-brown hair who introduced herself as Carolyn and ushered through into the back section of the salon beyond the curtain.

Beyond the curtain, Beth found herself in a sort of waiting room with several doors leading off it, presumably to the different treatment rooms. In between the doors were the kind of low-maintenance house-plants common in offices and waiting rooms. In the middle of the room was a three-quarter circle of sofas with a table in the middle on which were two jugs – one filled with water and the other with what looked like orange juice. There were a few magazines scattered around too, and gentle, inoffensive music was playing.

A pretty girl of around ten with long, straight, golden-blonde hair was sat on one of the sofas idly leafing through a music magazine, dressed in a white towelling bath-robe and apparently nothing else. She looked up as Beth came in and gave her a little wave which Beth returned with a smile.

“Here’s a robe for you.” Carolyn handed a fresh one to Beth from a shelf near the doorway. It was neatly folded and very soft. “There’s changing cubicles over there, please take off all clothing and jewellery.” She pointed to the left-hand side of the room where Beth saw a series of curtained-off areas like changing rooms in a clothes shop, next to which were a set of lockers with keypad locks. “You can pop your bag and clothes in one of the lockers. You don’t need a coin or anything, just select a code when you close it but please make sure it’s something you can easily remember,” she chuckled, “otherwise we have to call the manufacturer to send someone out to break back into it and that can take far too long!”

“Has that happened?” Beth asked.

“Far more times that it should!” Carolyn gave an amused sigh. “So please make it memorable!”

“I will!” laughed Beth. All the cubicles were currently empty so she selected one and pulled the curtain across. It felt a little pointless as she was sure she was going to be naked for the treatments, not to mention when she was actually cooked, but she supposed this little courtesy made it easier for the girls and women coming in to adjust. Plus some people didn’t seem to mind being naked but had reservations about being watched getting undressed. It was certainly rarely as glamorous as the movies made it seem, plus she knew some women were self-conscious about wearing mismatched underwear and that sort of thing so she supposed a lot girls and women would be happier to go in dressed and come out naked without anyone seeing what happened in between.

There was a peg on the wall which Beth hung the robe up on and a small built-in bench that she set her bag of book on then sat down to remove her shoes and socks. Then, for the second time that day, Beth took off all her clothes. She did not put the robe on immediately but stood and stretched, liking the feeling of the warm, slightly scented air on her bare skin, then she folded her clothes into a neat pile so that they would fit easily in the locker. She then slipped on the robe which felt like being caressed all over by a cloud, tied it around her waist and pulled back the curtain.

The girl was still sat there but she did not see Carolyn. The available lockers all had their doors hanging slightly open so Beth selected one of the larger ones that could easily accommodate her bag of book too and stashed her belongings safely inside. For her door code, she chose her birthday – easy enough to remember. It gave her a slight pang of sadness to realise that she had experienced her last birthday and hadn’t known to make the most of it at the time. She quickly pushed the thought aside. After all, she may not be getting another birthday but she was about to be pampered and spoilt through the week at the end of which would be a party with her as centre of attention for at least part of it so that more than made up for it.

“Hi.” she smiled at the blonde girl as she sat down on the sofa and picked up one of the magazines, assuming she was supposed to wait for further instructions. “I’m Beth.”

“Maddie.” The girl smiled, “Only don’t let my mum hear you call me that!” She rolled her eyes. “Are you bring processed soon?” She used the same slightly euphemistic term Samantha had used, leading Beth to assume that this was not the girl’s first visit.

“Yeah,” Beth smiled, still getting used to the idea of how normal it all seemed, “I’m going to be cooked for some friends’ birthday party on Saturday.”

“That sounds really nice!” Maddie looked a little wistful. “I think I’d have preferred that. At least it sounds like fun and you know who’s going to be eating you.”

“I’m hoping it will be.” Beth replied, slightly unsure. “What about you? Are you going to a restaurant or something?”

“Some high-class butcher my mum knows.” the pretty little girl sighed. “Pretty sure that’s the only reason she had me in the first place honestly. She even made Sidney my middle name!”

“Wow..” Beth was not quite sure how to respond to this. “That sounds… are you okay with it?”

“Just looking forward to getting it over with, honestly!” replied Maddie. “Oh I don’t mind the getting butchered part, I’d have probably wanted to do that sooner or later anyway.” She gave a little giggled before looking irritated again. “Just wish Mum hadn’t made it into such a project! Seriously, every time she has friends over she makes me come downstairs and take my clothes off so they can see how my meat is coming along! Plus I have to go to the gym three times a week as well as my dance and gymnastic classes. I guess my meat had better be damn delicious!” She laughed.

“Yeah, I really don’t think I’d like that either.” Beth commiserated, pulling a slight face. “But at least you get to come here, right? That’s got to be nice?”

“Yeah it is!” the blonde girl admitted. “I’ve got two more weeks before my appointment with the butcher!”

“Have you met him?” Beth asked, curiously. “You said he was someone your mum knows?”

“Yeah, only a couple of times. Once at one of mum’s parties and then a couple of weeks ago when he came over to inspect my meat and tell my mum what I needed to be eating and what exercises I needed to do before my processing day.”

“Did you have to get naked for him?”

“Yeah but he was very professional.” Maddie shrugged. “I actually didn’t mind it as much as in front of mum’s friends. At least he talked to me as if I was a real person in the room and not like I was some cardigan my mum had knitted or something! Honestly, I don’t really care where my meat ends up.” She leant forward and took a sip of orange juice from the glass in front of her. “Mum’s obsessed with the idea that I have to go somewhere fancy where rich and important people will buy my meat but I don’t see what difference it makes? Honestly, more than once I’ve thought about just running off and volunteering at the kebab shop down the road just to spite her but, knowing my mum, she’d sue them to Kingdom Come and I don’t really want to get anyone else into trouble.”

“Your mum sounds a bit…” Beth began then caught herself, not wanting to be rude about someone she had never met, especially not someone else’s parent. She had learned in her relatively short life that family members often liked to trash each other but would instantly turn on any outsider who said something bad about their parent or sibling.

“Yeah!” Maddie sighed again, “Tell me about it!” There was a click from the opposite side of the room to the cubicals and lockers. Beth looked up, realising for the first time that there was a toilet there. “Here she comes now.” Maddie spoke in hushed, urgent tones, “Don’t say anything, will you?” Beth smiled and mimed zipping up her lips which made the younger girl giggle. A tall woman in expensive clothes and and blonde hair styled in such a way as to give her the permanent appearance of wanting to speak to the manager emerged and sat down next to Maddie.

“They’re always running late, aren’t they?” She muttered to her daughter. “I shall have to have a word! This is simply not acceptable!”

“Mum, my appointment’s not for another five minutes!” She pointed to the elegantly stylish clock on the wall.

“Yes but we arrived half an hour early!” Her mother insisted with the angry determination of someone who has not even considered the possibility that they may not be in the right. “They should know that we’re busy people and have got you in earlier.”

“You know you don’t have to wait for me, right?” Maddie tossed the magazine back onto the table and took another sip from her glass of juice. “You go do whatever it is you need to do and just pick me up afterwards.”

“Oh no!” the woman shook her head indignantly. “Not after that time they cheated us out of time we’d paid for!”

“Mum, I told you that was…”

“I arrived to pick her up three minutes before her appointment was due to finish,” the woman turned to Beth, apparently noticing the red-head for the first time and seeming quite pleased to have a new audience to rant to, “and she was already dressed and waiting for me! They cheated me out of time I’d paid for! I pay good money for Madison to have her treatments here and I expect to get what I pay for!”

“I keep telling you,” Maddie rolled her eyes, “I went in ten minutes early because somebody hadn’t shown up fro their appointment and I could go straight in rather than waiting! We actually got five minutes extra that day!”

“If they take you in early that’s their problem!” the woman, about whom Beth could find nothing likeable at all, insisted. “That shouldn’t be taken off the time at the end of the session!” Maddie did not reply but Beth had to put her hand over her mouth to hide a smile as she saw the young girl mouth “Two more weeks” to herself at least three times like some kind of mantra.

“We’re terribly proud of Madison, did she tell you?” the woman asked before ploughing on without waiting for any kind of response, “we pre-registered her on her sixth birthday and since then we’ve religiously followed the Hendricks diet and exercise plan and now she has been accepted by one of the most exclusive butchers in the country, Morgan and Davies, do you know it? Madison’s meat will be made available to some of the most rich and powerful people in the country. What about you, dear?” She asked Beth condescendingly. “Which plan have you been following?”

“I’m sorry?” Beth furrowed her brow a little.

“Well I know Hendricks isn’t for everyone,” the woman sniffed, “it requires an awful lot of discipline and will-power. But I do know some girls who have managed good results on McArthur, as long as they follow it properly.”

“I guess I’m on the only-found-out-two-hours-ago plan.” Beth replied sarcastically, really disliking the woman’s snobby attitude and feeling very sorry for her daughter who, rather surprisingly given her upbringing, seemed quite sweet. “I’ve agreed to be cooked for some friends’ birthday party next weekend. This is pretty much the first thing I’ve done towards it,” The woman seemed to actively recoil, “oh, apart from eating a massive burger of course!” Beth finished with a triumphant flourish.

“I see.” Maddie’s mother replied primly, looking down her nose at the teenage tomboy even more than she already had been. “Well I suppose quality is not so important for private get-togethers but establishments like Morgan and Davies require the very highest standards, it is what their customers demand!”

“Good for them!” Bath sat back in her seat, her natural politeness quickly being overcome by the woman’s rudeness and the realisation she really had no need to be polite to her. “My friends seemed to think my meat was plenty good enough for them and at least I know my meat’s going to be enjoyed, not sent back to the kitchen by some snob looking to make a point or have the tiniest bite tasted them set aside by some model or actress who is watching her figure! Sorry.” She glanced apologetically at Maddie but the young girl just shrugged and pulled a “well what can you do?” kind of face.

“Well, I never!” exclaimed Maddie’s mother, primly, folding her arms and looking away, presumably trying to work out if she could add a disrespectful customer to the list of complaints she planned to present to the next member of staff she laid eyes on. Fortunately, before the situation could escalate any further, Carolyn appeared from one of the treatment rooms, apparently having been getting things set up.

“Maddie? Beth? We’re ready for you now if you’d like to come through?”

“Her name is Madison!” the woman practically thundered, “And I will thank you to call her by her full name! I didn’t spend weeks picking the perfect, beautiful name for her to have it chopped in half by some lazy girl who probably can’t even spell it!”

“No, but you spent ten years raising her so she could be chopped into many pieces by some fancy butcher.” Beth muttered under her breath. The woman shot her a deadly look. She had not been able to hear exactly what Beth had said but was almost certain it was something unpleasant directed at her.

“I’m sorry,” Carolyn replied in her very best customer service voice, “we like our clients to relax and therefore call them by whatever name or title they find most comfortable.” She turned back to the girls. “If you’d like to come through?”

“Ignore her.” Maddie sighed after Carolyn had closed the door to the treatment room, leaving her mother huffing and fuming outside. “I prefer Maddie.”

“I know you do,” Carolyn gave a cheeky wink, “and I know how much she hates it, which is why I ‘forget’ from time to time!” She made air-quotes around the word “forget” and Maddie giggled. “Okay,” Carolyn consulted the notes on her clip-board,” I see this is your first hair-removal treatment, Beth?” She nodded, “And Maddie, it’s been about a month since your last one so we’ll treat this like a first session for you too. You’re both signed up for the same treatments today so we thought you might prefer company? We can treat you entirely separately if you prefer? We have facilities for up to six clients at a time and you are our only two right now.”

“No, that’s fine.” Beth smiled. “It will be nice to have someone who’s done this sort of thing before to chat to, I feel like a total newbie! If that’s okay with you, of course?” she asked her new friend.

“Of course!” Maddie grinned, “It will be great to have the company and anyone who can stand up to my mum like that has to be pretty cool!” Both girls giggled, Beth feeling slightly ashamed of her outburst but, at the same time, recognising that it was perfectly justified!

“Lovely!” Carolyn smiled. “Now if you don’t mind just popping your robes off, we’ll get started.” Maddie quickly untied her robe and hung it on a peg on the wall with no concern what so ever. Beth recalled how she had told her she was often required to strip off for her mother’s friends so being nude in front of two young women probably felt like nothing at all to her! Realising she had no need to feel embarrassed here after being naked in her employers living room, Percy’s five year old fingers exploring her wet pussy, Beth took off her robe too and hung it next to Maddie’s.

“You have a nice body.” Maddie complimented her as casually as if she had been complimenting her hair-style or new jacket. “Honestly I think most of these special diets and exercise plans are a con, I know Mum swears by them but…” She shrugged. “I’d be happy eating you for my birthday dinner!” She laughed. Beth blushed a little. She knew this was a compliment but it still felt a little strange, bordering on awkward.

She looked a Maddie’s newly-exposed body. Although still a year or two off puberty, she had pleasingly feminine curves and a very cute butt. Her legs were long, shapely and toned, her tummy flat and her nipples small, pink and perfectly round. She was trim without being skinny and toned without being especially muscular, retaining a delicate look of all-over softness. She could easily have modelled for the guide for preteen meat-girls that nestled among the other books in Beth’s locker, as something girls wanting to become meat should aspire to. Perhaps the specific diets were a bit of a con but the healthy eating and regular exercise classes had clearly paid off in creating a pretty-much perfect meat-girl. Beth was surprised to find that she was not jealous, rather the fact that Maddie considered her meat of equal quality felt like even more of a compliment.

Beth took a moment to look around the room that they were in. It was white, tiled and rather clinical but with a nice warm temperature. The same gentle music form the waiting room was floating through speakers mounted high up on the walls. From the feel of it on her bare feet, the room had some kind of under-floor heating. Set into the floor were two baths or small pools filled with what looked like water but with a slightly purple tint. There were steps down into them, rails to hold onto on the side and a something that looked a little like a large porcelain horse-shoe at one end that Beth quickly realised must be a kind of head-rest so the occupant wouldn’t have to worry about keeping their head up out of the water as they relaxed.

“Now,” Carolyn began, “I know you’ve done this before, Maddie, but it’s Beth’s first time so I’m going to explain the process. I’ve called one of my colleagues in so we don’t end up with one of you waiting and getting cold while the other is being treated. You may have noticed that the water is a slightly funny colour?” Beth nodded, “That’s because it has a chemical in that reacts with the gel we’re about to rub on.” Carolyn explained. “This is a much safer and more pleasant method than the creams you can get for use at home and certainly better than shaving. I know Sidney’s and some other restaurants use mild acid showers but those can be quite unpleasant too and require a lot of protective wear to use which really spoils the fun of the whole experience!”

Beth could not help but shudder a little. Even ‘though she was sure it had been designed to be perfectly safe and she knew it would happen in the last half hour or so of a girl’s life anyway when she really shouldn’t be too worried about self-preservation, the idea of standing under a shower while acid burned away her body-hair sounded quite horrific! She was very glad to be spared that experience.

“The gel actually feels really nice!” Maddie told her. “I used the cream once at home with a friend who was being cooked with for some big family dinner and it made me look like I was sunburned all over! Mum was so made, that almost made the itching worth it!” she laughed at the memory. There was a knock at the door and Carolyn opened it to let another woman in, the oldest that Beth had seen working there. She looked to be in her early or mid fifties and had a very pleasant, motherly way about her. Beth could not help but take an instant liking to her and her warm smile.

“Hello, girls.” The newcomer smiled. “I’m Brenda and I’m going to be helping Carolyn out, since there’s two of you. Oh,” she recognised Maddie from a previous encounter, “Hello again, near! Getting close to the big day now?”

“Two weeks!” Maddie grinned. “Two weeks then no more of my mum’s crazy diets or having to show off my naked butt to her friends so they can tell her how clever she is!” Brenda gave a little chuckle but was clearly a little uncomfortable. There seemed no hint in anything Maddie said or did that she was unwilling to be butchered but all the salon staff who encountered her really wondered if she’d ever had any meaningful choice in the matter. Her pushy mother seemed to have been grooming her since birth to be the perfect meat-girl and, while they were sure her meat would ultimately be a treat for the high-class clientele of the butcher who would process her, they could not help but feel rather sorry for the girl. After discussing it amongst themselves, they had all decided that the best thing they could do for her was to make sure she enjoyed her visits as much as possible and saw them as pampering sessions for herself rather than as part of her mother’s all-encompassing regime.

“So anyway, as I was saying,” Carolyn continued, picking up a large plastic tub, stirring it and spooning up some of the neon pink goo within, allowing it to slowly gloop back into the pot so the girls could see, “the gel is much safer and more comfortable than any other method I’m aware of. The two chemicals need to interact in order to work so there’s no problem if a little of the hair on your head trails into the water, and it results in absolutely no burning, soreness, redness or itching as is too often the case with other hair-removal treatments.” Both women put on disposable gloves like a surgeon or nurse might wear and picked up pots of the pink gel.

“Okay,” Brenda warned Beth as she approached and knelt down in front of her, placing the pot by the teenager’s bare feet, “this might be a little cold at first. Ready?” Beth nodded and Brenda took a handful of the gel, rubbed it in her gloved hands for a few moments to warm it a little and began applying it to the naked girl’s belly. Beth found that it tickled a little but was not uncomfortable. Brenda was clearly a practiced hand and worked quickly, covering her up to her neck as quickly as Carolyn seemed to be covering Maddie’s much smaller body. Even when rubbing the gel on Beth’s small breasts or between her legs, there was no sexual element – Brenda went about her task like a nurse caring for the elderly or a grandmother bathing a toddler.

“Now, you’re going to be in the baths for about forty to forty-five minutes.” Carolyn explained once both girls were thoroughly coated from the neck down in the gel. “Part of the reason for the lack of side effects is that the gel reacts very slowly with the chemical in the water. It’s fine if you feel like going to sleep, a lot of girls do. At least one of us will stay in the room with you at all times. Once you come out, you will be completely hairless, apart from on your heads, of course, and we can proceed to the next part of your treatment.” The women helped the girls down into the tubs, holding their hands and they gingerly made their way down the steps. The water was deeper than it looked, coming up to Beth’s naval and Maddie’s chest, just below her nipples.

Beth pushed her way through the pleasantly warm water to the far end and made herself comfortable in the headrest which, she found, also had the effect of pushing the rest of her body down slightly so she was completely submerged with just her perky pink nipples cresting the surface occasionally when she took a deep breath.

“I’m going to turn the music up a little,” Carolyn told the girls, “and turn the lights down to make it easier to relax. The warm water will help soften you up for your massages too.” She turned two dials on the wall near the door, taking the light down to a very soft, orange glow like a night-light and turned the music up just loud enough to be listened to comfortably without straining but not so loud that it would be annoying if the girls wanted to chat. “Either Brenda or I will be in the corner here all the time,” she pointed to what looked like a bar stool in the corner, “but pretend we’re not here. This is your time.” She opened a drawer under the table where the jars of gel had been returned and retrieved a well-worn paperback, a romance novel of some kind, then sat down and lost herself in its pages.

“How are you going to be cooked?” Maddie asked after a few minutes of relaxed quiet.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Beth admitted, “but I think it’s going to be the spit. I kind of assumed it would be when they asked me and they didn’t say it wasn’t.”

“Ah.” Maddie replied before going quiet again for a few minutes. “I wish I could be cooked alive,” she said eventually, “I really like the idea of going in the oven like a Christmas turkey.”

“Couldn’t you ask the butcher to sell you whole?” Beth suggested, “Then someone can buy you and cook you at home. From what your mum said, the people who go to his shop would easily be able to afford you all to themselves!”

“He doesn’t sell live meat.” Maddie sighed. “Something to do with standards and how people pay for his skill as a butcher rather than just the meat itself. If he did sell me whole, it would still be headless, gutted and cleaned.”

“Oh.” Beth wasn’t really sure what else to say. “Has he discussed how he’s going to kill you at least?” she asked after a little pause. “Will he cut your head off?”

“Apparently he prefers to hang girls upside-down and cut their throat then leave them to bleed out.” Maddie explained dispassionately. “That’s what Mum told me anyway. She got some guy at the gym to hold me upside-down by my ankles so I’d get an idea of what it felt like. That wasn’t awkward at all!” Beth could not see Maddie with her head in the support forcing her to look straight up but she was sure that the younger girl was rolling her eyes, something she quite understandably seemed to do quite often.

“And how did it feel?”

“Weird,” Maddie replied with a rather hollow laugh, “and it gave me a headache, the way all the blood rushed to my head. Although I suppose if my throat is cut I won’t have to worry about that for too long!”

“True.” Both girls went quiet again for a few minutes before Maddie asked another question.

“So who are these friends you’re being cooked for?” she asked. “You must be very fond of them if you’re willing to do that for them?”

“These adorable little twins that I babysit for,” Beth couldn’t help but smile when she thought of Jennifer and Percy, “a boy and a girl. They’re turning six.”

“Aww that’s really sweet!” Maddie exclaimed. “Do you know who else is coming to the party?”

“No, but I’m guessing some other children around the same age and their parents, maybe a couple of brothers and sisters too. I hope there’ll be enough meat to go around!” Both girls giggled.

“Maybe one of the guests will find themselves on the menu too!” Maddie suggested playfully.

“Nah,” Beth laughed, “they had a really good look at me earlier, they should know how many to invite!”

“Yeah?” Maddie was curious. “Did they say what they wanted to eat most?”

“Jennifer was pretty keen on my boobs,” chuckled Beth, “and Percy seemed to have his eye on my butt, although he found my pussy pretty intriguing too!”

“Ha!” Maddie laughed, “I hear some of Mum’s richer friends are already reserving cuts of me. They won’t tell me what, ‘though. Although probably not my boobs as I don’t have any!” She tilted her head forward and inspected her flat chest, patting it with her hands. “Kinda wish Mum would let me wait a little longer so I can grow some, but apparently he pays more by weight for girls who haven’t started puberty yet. That’s why she picked now.”

“But if she waited, surely she’d get more for you over-all?”

“Well yeah but she’s obsessed with quality and my meat being the absolute best!” Maddie informed her with another audible eye-roll, “She’s timed it so I will have grown about as big as I can grow before puberty, that way she can brag that the butcher paid his highest rate for me but also pocket the most possible cash.”

“I see.”

“Something to do with hormones changing the flavour of the meat or some nonsense like that.” Maddie sighed, “I reckon it’s as made up as her meat-girl diets she gets so excited about.”

“No offence,” Beth reflected, “but listening to you makes me damn pleased I’m being cooked by friends at their house rather than going through that kind of system. I know being served at a restaurant is supposed to be quite fun but I think this would still be top of my list.”

“Probably for me too, if I got to choose.” Maddie agreed. “But you met my Mum!”

“Yup.” Beth replied with a sigh of her own before closing her eyes and letting the tranquil music wash over her as the warm, chemically enhanced water caressed her delicious young body.

The warm water, which was gently churned by jets along the side and bottom of the pool, presumably to stimulate the chemical reaction, felt incredibly sensual as it lapped against Beth’s skin and the dim lighting, coupled with the soft music, created an incredibly romantic atmosphere. The thought of becoming meat or, more specifically, being naked in front of a garden full of virtual strangers who wanted to eat her was, Beth had to admit, albeit somewhat reluctantly, incredibly arousing and yet, assuming Percy’s clumsy probing didn’t count, she had not taken an opportunity to explore those feelings.

“Do you ever,” she asked tentatively, in a quiet voice, “when you’re in here, you know?”

“Sure!” Maddie laughed, “In fact I’ve normally started by now. I was just being polite since you were here.”

“And they don’t mind?” Beth thought of Carolyn sat not too far away with her book, at least half aware of everything that was going on in the darkened room and especially in the pools. She supposed that if a meat-girl were to be left unsupervised and happened to drown it could open the salon up to all sorts of legal problems, not to mention those girls who were not necessarily destined for the table but wanted the experience anyway.

“Nobody’s told me off yet!” replied Maddie with a cheeky giggle. “I don’t know if there’s any actual rules saying whether it’s allowed or not but everyone who works here knows that most of the girls they deal with don’t have that long left so are happy for them to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t interfere with the treatments.”

“And the chemicals don’t cause any harm if you, you know,” Beth could feel that she was blushing, “get them inside?”

“Tingles a bit,” Maddie admitted, “but that’s it. Feels rather nice really! Oh and don’t worry, these rooms have to be completely sound-proof. Nobody out there is going to hear anything we do.”

“How do you know?”

“Well have you heard my mum yelling at anyone since you’ve been in here?” laughed Maddie. Beth conceded that she had not. “Do you really think she’s just sat out there quietly with a coffee, minding her own business?”

“From what I’ve seen, I’d say that’s unlikely!” Beth agreed with a chuckle. Thus reassured, she tentatively reached between her legs. This was not the first time she had ever done this, of course. The first had been when she was eight and one of her friends had shown her what to do on a sleepover. It had felt nice but not exactly been mind-blowing. Over the next few years she had tried again a few times, usually when she was having trouble getting to sleep as she had been told it could help, then when she had been close to twelve and her body was beginning the transition from a child’s to a woman’s, she felt the urge to try again and had suddenly understood what all the fuss was about!

As she worked her finger tips rhythmically back and forth Beth imagined standing in the Thomas’s garden, stark naked with all eyes on her. She imagined being rubbed all over with oil until she glistened like a golden statue then being held down and the spit was pushed through her lithe young body, the first and only penetration she would ever experience.

From the rapidly-lapping water sounds coming from her direction, it was clear that Maddie has wasted no time getting down to business either and Beth couldn’t help wondering if she was thinking about her soon-to-be fate too or whether there was something else that occupied the fantasy life of a little girl who had, to all intents and purposes, been born to be meat. Despite her new friend’s assurances about the room being sound-proofed, Beth was still aware that there were two other people in there with her so stifled her own moans as she did a home when she knew that her parents were in their bedroom just one thin wall away. Maddie on the other hand had no such hang-ups and was gasping and yelping with all her might as she fingered herself to climax.

As she bit her own lip to keep from crying out, Beth was sure she heard an indulgent chuckle from the corner of the room but she did not mind. As the aftershocks receded she closed her eyes and allowed her body to relax. In almost no time at all, she was asleep.

In her dream, Beth was floating in the middle of the ocean, naked and without a care. The sun above her was warm and bathed her face, breasts and belly the way the salty water bathed her from below. She felt totally at peace, as if everything in the world were as it should be. If asked to come up with one, she could not have thought of a better description of Heaven.

After a time, her dreams were interrupted by a voice which at first seemed to come from all around her, as if from the ocean itself. The sun above her shone more brightly and she had to turn her face to the side to avoid its glare. Then she realised it was not the sun but the over-head lights of the room which had been turned back up and the ocean in which she floated was not the ocean at all but the purple-watered pool that she had all but forgotten about.

“Sorry to wake you, girls.” It was Brenda who had clearly swapped with Carolyn while Beth had been asleep and, she assumed from the way the lady was talking, Maddie had been too. “But it’s time for your massages and I knew you wouldn’t want to miss those!”

Beth blinked a few times to pull her consciousness back fully into the room and unhooked herself from the neck rest before walking to the far end of the small pool and accepting Brenda’s offered hand for support as she climbed the steps and into the warm air where she was handed a fluffy white towel to dry herself with. Maddie was already stood drying herself as Beth began to pat herself down. The feeling of the towel against her skin was different from what she had expected so she dried her hand then rubbed her finger-tips gently over a dry patch of skin as if discovering it for the first time.

“I’ve never known my skin to feel like that before!” she exclaimed, “It’s like velvet! So soft and smooth!”

“That’s because you’ve never been truly hairless in your life before,” Brenda explained with a smile, clearly used to this surprised reaction from girls experiencing the sensation for the first time, “even when you were a baby. Your body is normally covered pretty much all over with tiny, very soft hairs and now they’re gone!”

“Wow!” It was all Beth could say as she finished drying herself then looked down, twisting her body this way and that to inspect it, realising with amusement and a little excitement that this truly was the most naked she had ever been! Maddie was entertained by the older girl’s reaction but not in a mocking way – she remembered how it had felt the first couple of times, even if it was something she was quite used to now.

Both girls put on their robes and followed Brenda out into the waiting room where Maddie’s mother could indeed be heard remonstrating with Samantha at the desk the other side of the curtain about the price of the treatments, ranting that since they were regular customers they should be entitled to special rates and taking great offence at the suggestion, when Samantha phrased one of her responses in what Beth imagined to be an intentionally antagonistic way, that they would not afford the package Maddie was currently enjoying. The blonde girl simply rolled her eyes at the teen and they went through the door that Brenda was holding open. Carolyn was waiting for them in there with two other young women they had not met before. Both were pretty and athletic and looked to be in their early twenties. One had her brown hair on top of her head in a messy bun and the other wore her blonde locks in a ponytail.

There were two massage tables in the slightly harshly-lit room which seemed quite a contrast to the room with the pools. They were covered in dark red faux-leather with white cotton sheets, folded into thirds to form a strip down the middle, presumably so the girls’ skin would not stick uncomfortably to the covering.

“This is Trish and Amanda.” Carolyn informed the girls, This time it did not seem as if they were familiar to Maddie. “Our two newest masseuses. You girls are really in for a treat!” The young women grinned at the meat-girls who waved and grinned back. “I’ll leave you to it.” Carolyn smiled, backing out of the room, “Have fun!” She closed the door behind her.

“Right, ladies!” The blonde who’s name badge identified her as Trish grinned, “Robes off, please.” The girls happily complied and hung their robes on the provided hooks, standing naked in front of the two new women and awaiting instructions. “If you’d like to hop up on here,” Trish looked at Beth and patted one of the tables, “and you go with Amanda.” Beth hopped up onto the table with no problem while Amanda helped the shorter girls by hooking a stepping stool out from beneath with the tip of her shoe and holding Maddie’s hand as she got up. The same gentle music as everywhere else was playing through the speakers in this room but at the lowest volume of anywhere the girls had been yet.

“Have you ever had a massage before?” Trish asked as Beth lay on her front, her arms crossed under her face.

“Once on holiday.” the relaxed teen replied. “It was quite nice.”

“”This might be a little different from what you’ve had before.” the young woman explained. “This is very much a deep-tissue tenderising massage to improve your meat rather than to relax you, although hopefully you will enjoy it too!”

“Sounds good!” Beth smiled, thinking of her little friends’ happy faces as they tucked into her freshly-cooked meat. It was a pity, she thought, that she would not be around to watch them enjoying their birthday dinner but she satisfied herself with her imagination. “Whatever makes me the tastiest I can be!”

Trish began the massage with Beth’s shoulders, pushing hard and releasing tension the teen didn’t even know she carried there! On one level, it was painful but on the other hand the relief was exquisite! Gradually, the young woman who was clearly an expert in her profession worked her way down the back, causing Beth both to worry that her spine might crack under the pressure but also that it would be a remarkably small price to pay! Next, Beth felt Trish begin to kneed her buttocks and couldn’t help wondering if they really would be her tastiest part. Once the masseur had worked her way all the way down to the girl’s feet, she asked her to stretch out first her left arm then her right, working those muscles as hard as she had done anywhere else before asking Beth to roll over onto her back.

The time, Trish began with the ends of Beth’s legs and worked her way up, paying particular attention to her thighs. The massage did not omit the girl’s belly and prime fillet but it was when Trish reached her chest the Beth’s heart began to beat faster. The young woman took one of the teenager’s small but round breasts in each hand and began to kneed and squeeze like they were bread dough. Despite the confusing mix of pain and pleasure sensations she experienced as Trish did her work, it felt no more deliberately sexual than when Brenda had applied the gel with her gloved hands. In fact, it felt to Beth exactly as Trish had warned her it would be – that she was nothing more at that moment than a piece of meat being tenderised.

“Can you stand?” Trish asked after completing the massage and leaving Beth to rest for a few minutes.

“I think so?” She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the table. She hopped down and immediately regretted it as the muscles in her legs refused to support her, having been aggressively pummelled into delicious softness. She grabbed the table for support and steadied herself.

“Don’t worry!” Trish laughed, “A lot of girls have that problem!”

Since she was a fair bit smaller than Beth, Maddie’s massage had already finished and she was stood with her back to Beth, holding the edge of her table while Amanda rubbed her back with some kind of clear oil which Beth assumed was the flavour-enhancer that had been discussed.

“Right!” Trish grinned, squeezing a thick, clear gel into her hand from what looked like an over-sized toothpaste tube, “This bit is a lot more fun and I’ve never known a girl not enjoy it. So, front or back first?”

“Back, I guess?” Beth suggested tentatively, figuring it would be a lot easier to support herself on her unsteady legs if she stood like Maddie. By the time she needed to turn around, she would hopefully have regained a little more control of her overly-relaxed limbs. She turned and braced her palms against the table, her shapely rump sticking out towards Trish and her back slightly curved.

This substance felt different from the hair-removal gel. It had a coldness that was nothing to do with the temperature, as if something in it was penetrating down through Beth’s skin and into her freshly softened-up muscles. It had a scent that reminded her very vaguely of mint but that was not it. Unlike Brenda and Carolyn, Trish did not wear gloves and the sensation of warm hands rubbing the oily gel into her completely hairless skin felt so nice. As she had done with the massage, Trish began with Beth’s shoulders and worked her way down via the buttocks to her legs.

“There we go!” Trish smiled, standing up and wiggling her own shoulders to loosen them up, “All done on one side. Turn around for me?” Beth did as she was asked, feeling more confident on her legs now, and leant back slightly, her elbows resting on the table. She saw that Amanda was finishing up Maddie’s arms and the smaller girl’s toned young body gleamed with the same substance with which she was now being coated.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Maddie grinned as Trish began to rub the gel into Beth’s breasts. It certainly felt more relaxing in that area than the massage had done.

“Mmhmm!” Beth couldn’t help licking her own lips a little as Trish worked her way down her belly. “I hope it works.”

“Like you wouldn’t have been delicious anyway!” giggled Maddie, making Beth blush a little.

“I just want to taste my absolute best for my friends.” she replied with a warm smile which very quickly turned into a gasp as Trish slid her lubricated fingers all the way inside her with far more practised finesse than Percy had used.

“Told you this bit was more fun!” Trish winked at her as Beth looked down in surprise. “We need to make sure every last bit of you is delicious after all, don’t we?” Maddie, who had experienced this rub several times in the past and knew exactly what to expect, giggled as she watched her new friend trying not to show just how much she was enjoying herself!

A few minutes later, when the rubs were complete and the girls stood in their robes once more, waiting for the next stage of their treatment, there was a knock on the door. It was Brenda, come to collect the girls and take them to the sauna.

As they trooped through the waiting room once more, Maddie’s mother was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did Mum go?” the young blonde asked a little warily. “She said she was going to stay here and make sure, in her words, you didn’t try to cheat her by giving me shorter treatments!” Beth wondered how many times a day Maddie ended up rolling her eyes thinking of or talking about her mother and how many times it would take before they rolled clean out of her head!

“She’s out the front yelling at someone on her phone!” Brenda replied with a wry chuckle. “She was doing it in here but we told her she was disturbing the other customers and had to either calm down or go outside! She didn’t seem to be in the mood to calm down any time soon so went outside to continue berating whichever poor soul is on the other end of that call!”

“So sorry you have to put up with her!” Maddie apologised, sounding as if she genuinely meant it. “At least it’s not for too much longer.”

“Oh that’s okay, dear.” The mature woman smiled down at the little girl. “I’ve been working with the public one way or another for nearly forty years. It would be a sorry state of affairs if I couldn’t handle the occasional spoilt brat like her who thinks the whole world revolves around her and that everyone else exists exclusively for their convenience. No offence!” She added hurriedly, glancing down at Maddie and remembering it was the girl’s mother she was describing in such scathing terms.

“Hey, don’t apologise!” Maddie laughed. “I know exactly what she’s like! Honestly, getting away from her is the best bit about being butchered.” This comment made both Beth and Brenda feel a little sad.

“Well we’re certainly going to miss you here.” Brenda assured her. “Whatever issues we may have with your mum, you’ve always been an absolute delight!”

“Aww, thank you!” Maddie blushed a little.

“Here we are!” Brenda grinned, pushing open the door and ushering the girls inside. Once again, they found Carolyn waiting for them. The door off the waiting room did not lead directly into the sauna but rather into a sort of antechamber where there were pegs for the robes and wooden barrels where towels were soaking in a liquid with the same vaguely minty smell as the rub. At the back was a glass wall with a door which led into the sauna itself which seemed to be a traditional set-up with tiered wooded benches.

“Here were go, girls!” grinned Carolyn once the door was closed and the girls had bared all once more. She fished large towels out of the barrels and handed them to them. “Wrap these around yourselves like you just got out the shower.” The girls did as they were told. The liquid was warm and the wet fabric felt nice against their skin. “Here’s another two each.” She handed the dripping bundles to the meat-girls. “One to lay one, the other to put over yourself like a blanket in bed. You’ll find little wooden pillows in there to keep your heads comfortable.”

She held open the glass door and the wave of heat in the already warm little room hit them. Maddie went first, laying her towel out on the middle tier. Beth was a little more daring so stepped over her and took her place on the top shelf. Once they were comfortable, both girls pulled the second towel over themselves like a thin, soaking wet duvet.

“Try to lay a still as possible while you’re in here.” Carolyn suggested pointedly, not outright banning the activity with which both girls had occupied themselves in the pools but strongly hinting that it would not be appropriate. “It’s going to feel like a very long time so it’s probably best if you try to go to sleep. Remember to keep your arms covered!” With a final smile, she closed the glass door and took a seat close to the barrels. After dimming the lights in the sauna area itself to almost total darkness, she turned the music up a little.

“Any idea what Madame’s issue is today?” she asked Brenda, a little scathingly, in a quiet voice so the girls would not over-hear. “She seems to have an even bigger bug up her backside than usual.”

“Something about the butcher.” Brenda sighed. “I’m sure we’ll here all about it in due course. We usually do! You okay here for a bit?” she asked her younger colleague. “I’ll go make us both a coffee.”

The girls did not chat this time. The atmosphere in the sauna was too steamy and relaxing to really want to do anything other than just lay there. Beth was fairly sure she did not actually go to sleep this time, she seemed too aware of her surroundings for that, but she did enter an almost trance-like state. She had heard about meditation but never really tried it for herself. However, she was fairly certain that this was what it was supposed to feel like. She could almost feel her body soaking up the liquid like a sponge. She imagined it seeping through her skin and into her muscles, changing her slowly from person to food. As instructed, she lay as still as possible, although she would have dearly loved to repeat her activity from the pool but it had been strongly hinted that it would not be the right thing to do in this situation so she contented herself with trying to store as much of this experience away in her memory to enjoy later.

She listened for Maddie’s breathing – it was shallow and regular, suggesting that the smaller girl had gone to sleep again. With the heat around which bordered on uncomfortable, the hot air in her mouth and the warm, orange glow from the lights, Beth could almost imagine this might be what it would be liked to be cooked in an oven like a Christmas turkey! She was reminded again that the actual method of her cooking had not been discussed but she strongly hoped that she would be alive, at least when it started, so that she could enjoy the experience.

In her trance-like state, Beth lost all track of time. As far as she was concerned, it could have been a couple of minutes or a few days when, an hour after they went it, Carolyn opened the door and told the girls it was time to come out. The neither-asleep-nor-awake feeling persisted as Beth carefully released herself from the towels and stepped down the different wooden tiers. Carolyn was having to gently shake Maddie by the shoulder as she had indeed fallen fast asleep and did not seem inclined to ever wake up of her own accord.

As she dumped the soggy towels into an empty barrel as instructed, Beth could not get over how utterly delicious she felt – that really was the only way to describe the feeling! Right there in that moment she wanted nothing more than to walk out of the salon, naked as she was, bike to the Thomas house and demand they eat her right then and there, alive and raw like a freshly picked apple! He managed to control her impulse. After all, she reminded herself, this was only her first of three booked sessions and, if she felt this amazing after the first, she could only begin to imagine how she would feel by the end of Friday’s session!

Robes on once more, the girls went back out to the waiting room where, this time, Maddie’s mother was stood looking impatient and tapping her foot. Her general resting demeanour of mild irritation seemed to have bubbled over into some hot, boiling rage which she was clearly struggling to contain just below the surface.

“Finally!” she snapped when she saw the girls emerge. “Hurry up and get dressed, will you? I can’t be hanging around here all day waiting for your spoiled, pampered ass to be ready!” Maddie frowned but knew better than to answer back when he mother was in such a state. It was not exactly common but this was far from the first time she had witnessed it. Quietly, the girls retrieved their clothes from their lockers while Carolyn and Brenda tried to soothe Maddie’s mother’s anger, a fairly fruitless and definitely thankless task! Beth had hoped to be able to go into a cubical with Maddie while they got dressed and have a quiet conversation but they really were too small. Beth got dressed as quickly as possible and was out a little under half a minute before Maddie.

As Maddie emerged from her cubical, it occurred to Beth that this was the first time she had seen her young friend in actual clothes. She was dressed in expensive-looking black leggings, white trainers, a white crop-top with “Goddess” written in swirly gold lettering on the front and what Beth was fairly sure was a genuine black leather jacket with a five-pointed star made from rhinestones on the back.

The young blonde walked over to her mother who practically snatched at her hand and started to drag her out. Making brief eye-contact with Carolyn to let her know she’d be back in a moment, Beth quickly followed them out into the main part of the salon. Something that Maddie’s mother had been told on the phone had really angered her and Beth was really worried for her friend.

“Thank you for coming.” Samantha, still sat at the desk, began her normal spiel as the woman stalked past her, dragging the compliant but unhappy little girl behind her. “Would you like to book in for…”

“NO!” The woman stopped in her tracks, turned around and snapped at the unfortunate receptionist. “I doubt you’ll ever see us again!” She turned and began storming towards the door once more.

“Wait!” Beth