An Awfully Big Adventure – A Fantasy Feasts Story
by
Edward Hyde

(Cannibal/Teen M&F/Loli/Public/Consensual)


“Oh the cleverness of me!” Melanie chuckled, quoting the character whose adventures had dominated her life for the past two weeks as the final approval email came through for the story she had worked out for the part in honour of Jake Campbell, son of Martin Campbell MP, high-ranking cabinet member and widely tipped to be Britain’s next Prime Minister. At least this kid had a proper name that wasn’t going to get him bullied, unlike poor Strawberry Cheesecake Miller! Martin had approached her towards the end of the Miller’s Alice in Wonderland-themed party and enquired about the possibility of a Peter Pan theme for his own son’s. Melanie had taken his details and promised to be in touch the following Monday.

Of course, there was no way Melanie could put it from her mind completely while she relaxed on her day off and the very next morning she had started to read J M Barrie’s 1911 novel “Peter and Wendy”, based on his earlier, hugely successful play from 1904 entitled simply “Peter Pan”, occasionally published with the alternate title of “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”.

Customised parties, as were her speciality, always began with research. Despite the reasonable success the company had enjoyed before she joined, it had never felt enough for Melanie for a fairytale princess to arrive in her recognisable costume, just different enough from any well-known movie depiction to keep them comfortably within the realms of Public Domain, sing a few songs then get naked and put on to roast. For Melanie, who had been something of a stickler for consistency and sticking to the established rules of a universe within the shows, movies and books she enjoyed, even as a small child, there should always be a reason that the character was cooking, even if it was a silly one. Why on earth, she had wondered when working her first few parties with this company, would Snow White or Cinderella, in pretty, teenage form of course, suddenly announce that it was time for her to be cooked and take her clothes off?

With the approval of her boss, she had spent several evenings drafting simple ideas to give their parties a little more structure and provide an actual, plausible story that the children could get on board with. Beauty, for example, unofficially known as Belle, could announce to the children that she wanted to give her beloved Beast an extra special meal for his birthday, and that she was sure he would allow them to share. Snow White could express sadness that her forest friends had so little to eat and offer herself to them as a treat. This worked especially well when the children had been encouraged to come dressed as adorable critters! Of course some stories had an obvious built-in plot device that took only the tiniest bit of tweaking. One thing she was always adamant about was that there should be no expressed reluctance on the part of the meat. No pleading for their lives against a cruel villain that could distress the children and put them off their food.

In her hands, therefore, Little Red Riding Hood became a story about a girl who was on her way to make a dinner of herself for her Grandma when she meets a hungry wolf and invites him to come and enjoy her too on the condition that he help with the cooking. Not wanting the helpful wolf to get his fir dirty, Grandma would give him one of her old nightgowns to wear as an apron and a night-cap in place of hair net. The humour and familiar dialogue would come where Little Red returned from washing herself and found the wolf in the kitchen, mistaking him for her Grandma who was outside digging up potatoes. This always got big laughs from the children!

Hansel and Gretel was another easy one, with the brother and sister feeling sorry for the witch who had nothing to eat, since children were the only meat she could stomach, meaning that she had not eaten in over a hundred years, and offering themselves as a feast for to to which of course all her friends, those being the children at the party, were also invited. By the time she had worked there a year, the company had officially adopted her scenarios for all the most popular characters so that never again would a child have to wonder why their favourite Princess or other character was suddenly roasting for no apparent reason.

The Miller request, however, their first celebrity booking, had been on another level entirely, with massive budgets involved and the highest standards expected in return. Melanie’s boss had told her that if she pulled it off, he would create a new division specifically for these bespoke, high-end bookings, with access to studios that produced animatronics and ride-dressing for top theme parks to help being her ideas to life. Well she had pulled it off, in spectacular fashion, and as soon as he received the feedback from the ultra-wealthy clients who had actually paid significantly above the price they had been invoiced for because they were so happy, he had made good on his promise and put Melanie in charge of her own specialist department.

The promotion had been granted on the Monday following the Miller’s party, by which time she was ready to hit the ground running with the next project. It was important to her not only to get to understand the characters inside and out but to make sure that the portrayal was in keeping with what the children would expect. To that end, she not only read the original novel twice through but also watched all the major adaptations she could get her hands on as well as the various spin-off and sequels, be they in book, movie or TV show form.

She had not let the grass grow on the booking while she did the research, of course! First thing on Monday morning, before she even knew for sure about her new position, she had called Mr Campbell to discuss the number of guests, what kind of meat he was hoping for and the two most important questions – Would his son want to play the role of Peter Pan himself or have Peter Pan come to his party and, if so, would he want to eat him or have him remain as an entertainer throughout the party. Martin had asked for some time to think about this and chat to his wife and promised to be back in touch before the end of the day. Melanie had only just come out of her meeting where her promotion had been confirmed for her, glowing with pride, when she found the email.

It gave the number of guests, asked that most of the meat be pre-teen or very early teen girls but also asked that “something for the mums” be included. Melanie understood perfectly well that this meant a young man or older teenage boy would be joining the young girls on the menu. He also stated that Peter Pan should be a character they provide but that he should survive the party, heading off for new adventures afterwards. All other characters, he assured her, were fair game to use and serve up as she wished! He also offered a budget which exceeded even that of the Millers’ with the promise that it could be extended further if she could demonstrate why it was necessary.

Grateful for these parameters to work within, Melanie had got stuck into her research in earnest, making notes and characters and potential cooking methods as she went. It was not too long before she had an outline or at least the bones of a story. The issue now was that she had allowed her imagination to run wild with some of the cooking methods and other props her story called for and actually had no idea whether some of the designs she had sketched out with explanatory notes, as much as an aid to her own memory as for any other purpose, were even possible, let alone within the budget!

Not wanting to limit herself prematurely, she had written up her synopsis, including which characters would cook and how, and had then created a companion document detailing the as yet non-existent functional set-pieces she had dreamed up, along with some more carefully drawn illustrations to give them an idea what she was looking for and had sent both to the studio she had been put in touch with. They had seemed enthusiastic about the challenge invited her to a meeting the following Friday. Fortunately, the party was not for several months so there was plenty of time to prepare.

To her surprise, when she attended the meeting at their workshop, she found the creative team had not only created small, working models of what she had asked for but knocked up some full-size pieces in styrofoam, totally non-function of course, but enough for her to confirm that the scale and the style were what she was looking for. Using the smaller models, built to 1:6 scale meaning that they were about the right size to cook a Barbie doll, they demonstrated how each would work. Somehow it was as if they had reached directly into her brain and brought her fantastical ideas out into the real world and Melanie could not have been happier.

The casting call, she knew, would have to be made closer to the time but she detailed exactly which characters she would be utilising as meat as well as describing the method by which they would be cooked, avoiding spoilers about her fabulous inventions, of course, and the other characters who would be making an appearance, mostly played by members of her team. Having spoken to the studio she had a good idea of budget and made sure to include a little “wiggle room” in her final quote which still came in under the budget her client had set.

Within three weeks of the initial enquiry, the plot-line was approved, quote accepted and deposit paid so that work could begin in earnest on the set-pieces. Although she had other parties to organise in the mean-time, there was nothing quite of this scale which meant that Melanie could fit them in easily, utilising equipment and props they already had, augmented by the occasional off-the-shelf piece which could be quickly ordered and delivered. The studio kept her well informed of progress and she made several visits, at their invitation, to see how things were coming along. It was amazing to see the journey the commissioned pieces took from initial sketches, to computer-rendered design schematics, then the mechanical structures and finally the “cosmetics” as they were known in the trade – the finishing touches, latest skin, fibreglass moulding and of course detailed paintwork that would disguise these devices’ true nature and make them seem straight out of a story book.

Of course she kept in regular touch with her client over the weeks and moths, sending him pictures of progress and keeping him informed as to how his money was being spent. When it came to the casting the edible characters, she made sure to get his approval on all cast-members but he approved all her choices, including the one character who would not be cooked but who could not realistically be played by a member of her team – Peter Pan himself!

Honestly, of all the cast she had assembled for this party, Melanie considered her Peter to be the start find! She had distributed her cast list, specifying the character, method of cooking and the physical characteristics she required to all her usual contacts – stage schools, dance and drama clubs and schools and churches known for the calibre of the plays and concerts they put on, and as usual the recommendations had come flooding in. For more than two weeks her emails and in-tray were flooded with applications, CVs, show-reels, home-recordings and assorted photographs, always at least one naked on in the mix as required, from young hopefuls excited for the chance to give the performance of a lifetime before being feasted upon by their appreciative audience.

Deciding that she had plenty of time to find her Peter, being able to draw from a much larger potential pool of talent since the role did not come with an automatic death-sentence, she had not included Peter on her distributed cast list, not wanting to cause confusion or disappointment for any boys who might not read the details properly and be disappointed when they found out it was not also a food role.

After narrowing it down her potential cast, she had made a point of responding to every rejected application, thanking them for their interest, encouraging them to try again in the future and promising to keep their details on file for any future rolls that may come up for which they might be suitable. She had then arranged to visit the various institutions for auditions, arranging for some of the applicants who did not belong to a specific group but who had heard about the opportunity through friends and decided to try their luck to come along and join in.

It was on one such visit to a regular school known for its drama program that she had met her Peter who, to put the icing on the cake, was actually named Peter! He was older than he looked, nearly fourteen years old but very small for his age, giving him a slightly uncanny appearance that made his age hard to judge. His face was pointed, his dark brown hair a perpetually spiky mess and his grin impish and infectious. Stick a green tunic and some pointy ears on this boy and he could have walked, or rather flown, straight out of the story! Although he had left that school a couple of years earlier, he had come back to support his sister who was auditioning for the part of Wendy. Although she was not quite what Melanie had been looking for, Peter’s sister had impressed her and she promised to keep her in mind for future roles but she had then asked Peter how he would feel about trying out for the role of Peter Pan.

At first the boy had been reluctant, claiming minimal acting experience, being more into sports and free-running, otherwise known as parkour, than performing but Melanie had persuaded him to give it a try, pointing out that his free-running skills could give him just the physicality needed for the role and stressing that would not be expected to cook, at that party or at any other. She had then given him a printout of a short speech from Barrie’s original play too look over and, after only reading it twice through to himself, he had jumped up onto the stage, using the sports equipment and old pieces of scenery stored up there to leap from and to, remaining constantly in unpredictable motion as he delivered his lines. Before he even reached the final sentence and gave a loud and passionate rooster crow, Melanie had given him the part!

She was very happy with all her cast, of course – Captain Hook, a rather dashing boy named Luke who was not quite yet sixteen but was tall enough compared to the other cast that the small children at the party would definitely take him for an adult while his meat retained the tenderness of youth, Wendy, a pretty, well-spoken young lady of twelve by the name of Sophie with lovely hair which could be either dark brown or auburn depending on how the light hit it, Tinkerbelle, a mixed-race ballerina of thirteen named Miranda who had absolutely nailed her audition with her displays of athleticism and clear understanding of silent, physical comedy and finally Tiger-Lily.

Melanie had been a little torn about this casting, or of using this character at all due to the problematic way Native Americans were portrayed in the original book and play which, for all their charm and timeless magic, were definitely a product of the time they were written in, not to mention in subsequent movie adaptations. Eventually, she had decided that the character and the fate she imagined for her, one actually suggested directly by the original story, were too good to pass up and, although she had initially tried to be as ethnically authentic in her casting search as possible, she had eventually settled of a beautiful eleven year old named Maria whose grandmother on her mother’s side was Mexican and her father Italian, giving her beautiful light brown skin, long, thick, jet-black hair and big, dark eyes. She would certainly fit the party-goers’ expectations of a “Red Indian Princess” and was sure to be absolutely delicious, not to mention how exciting her final performance was likely to be!
Once the cast was confirmed, the forms signed and the purchase fees paid to their parents, there were the costume-fittings and rehearsals to attend to. Once she got word that they were nearly ready, Melanie had taken her young cast, including Peter, on a field-trip to see the specially designed set-pieces and to show how they worked. They had all been very impressed and it had made them more excited than ever for the big day!

Agreeing with the need to keep everything as authentic as possible for the children, Luke, who was left-handed, had agreed to have his right hand amputated and replaced with a hook, the fitting for which would be permanently grafted to the end of his arm. Melanie had overseen the design of the hook and its fitting. Luke had been given a sedative to make him drowsy but without putting him completely to sleep and a tight band had been fixed around his upper arm to restrict the blood flow, Powerful local anaesthetics had then been injected into his forearm and wrist, numbing it completely.

Using a heavy, old-fashioned cleaver and a wooden cutting board, a butcher colleague of Melanie’s had removed the hand with one chop. Because of the tourniquet there was very little blood but he had pushed a heated metal plate against it anyway, cauterising the wound. Then had come the fitting of the shiny steel cup that the hook itself would screw into, the sharp, potentially dangerous part having been made removable to prevent Luke harming himself accidentally in his sleep. Inside the cup was a long, thin spike which was forced down between the bones of his forearm. A screw on either side were then drilled into his bones and several smaller pins, heated first until they practically glowed, were hammered in around the bottom edge, biting into the flesh. Finally a blow-torch was applied to the metal, heating it so much that the skin beneath fused to it. It would take some getting used to and would definitely ache when the anaesthetic wore off but it would make the hook a permanent part of Luke’s body that could remain in place when he was cooked and served.

The day of the party finally arrived and Melanie, who would be dressed as a pirate and calling herself Billie Jukes for the party itself, spent the morning in the Campbell’s garden getting the equipment set up along with the other props, set-pieces and decoration that would mark the scene as the pirate’s cove, including several tons of sand which Martin Campbell had arranged himself, insisting on authenticity. After seeing his skills in action, Melanie had made sure there were several large lumps of set, be they rocks, treasure chests or pieces of wrecked boat, that Peter could leap around as he delivered his lines, giving the impression of flight.

Like at the Alice party months earlier, there was a themed table for the children to eat at and lots of outdoor games and activities to keep them occupied outside of the main event. According to her client, the young guests have been invited to come dressed either as pirates or Lost Boys which gave a broad scope for creativity so she was looking forward to some colourful and imaginative costumes! Melanie’s team would be portraying pirates, including her boss, a rather portly, balding gentleman in his sixties who had insisted on volunteering his time to play Mr Smee and had even grown a bit of a beard for the occasion! With everything set up and ready to go, Melanie drove her car back to headquarters to change into her costume and collect her eager cast members!


To be continued...