The worst part was the darkness. Vivian had heard about people being black-bagged and disappeared, but her experience on the matter had largely been from fiction or the occasional reference in historical documentaries. She had some experience with her clients, but she was usually on the other side. Being on the submissive side of binding was something Vivian already knew she didn't like.

Fear wasn't unfamiliar to Vivian. She did her best to keep it under control, but having control of her body taken from her was a major test to her ability to keep cool. She wasn't completely helpless, however, as her abductor didn't bother to gag her. Vivian was still able to talk through the stereotypical black cloth bag.

She resisted the urge to scream so as not to provoke her captor, but she did offer pleas and bargains to which she received no response. After being hogtied, she was moved to a vehicle. Depending on the time of the flight, she might have been able to assume how far she had traveled by personal transport, but after a few minutes had passed, it was possible that the vehicle had boarded an OTech ship and jumped to any point in the universe. There was no way she could have known where she was.

Once the vehicle finally came to a stop, her captor picked her up and carried her over his shoulder into an enclosed space. The moment she crossed the threshold, the warm, humid air hit her, carrying an acrid smell with it.

"Where are you taking me?" Vivian asked with a trembling voice. Of course, her captor gave no response. She was placed in a chair and her black bag was removed.

The person before her was Dr. Ibarra with his deep red aura on full bloom. Vivian said nothing, but the recognition on her face was undeniable. The doctor did not smile. Vivian could detect his excitement nonetheless. As he turned to move to another room, Vivian took in their surroundings. She was in a dimly lit warehouse that looked like it had been abandoned for years.

When Vivian noticed the tables on either side of her, the color faded from her face. On her right lay a nude girl, not much younger than she. Her face was locked in a mix of terror and delirium. She was restrained to the table beneath her, and by the look of the bruising and sores on her back, she had been there for a while. She was incredibly skinny, and lastly, Vivian saw that she was missing segments of her arms and legs.

On her other side lay the remains of another girl. Vivian was only able to identify her as such because her beautiful, if gaunt and lifeless face remained untouched. The rest of her body consisted of a ribcage that had been neatly picked of the skin and muscle. No sign of any of her limbs remained, bone or otherwise.

It was at this point that Vivian became acutely aware of her current situation. Dr. Ibarra was the Bradbury Cannibal, and she was his next meal.

"Oh my God!" Vivian pleaded, letting her voice waiver. "Please, don't hurt me! Let me go, I swear I won't say anything."

Dr. Ibarra began to disrobe as he moved into another room. Vivian continued pleading as she moved around in the chair to inspect the room more closely. When the doctor returned, he was wearing a smock over leisurewear. He went to work collecting what remained of the dead girl, sliding the gore off the table and into a trash bag. He then started wiping the surface clean.

In contrast to the disrepair of the rest of the room, most of the usable surfaces were well-kept. After the table was clean, Dr. Ibarra gathered the rest of the refuse with the corpse in the trash bag and set it by the door. He then wheeled a medical cart over to the restrained girl's side. Vivian's seat was barely high enough to see the contents on the cart, though she could easily have assumed. She began visibly shaking but made no sound. The cannibal, however, broke his silence as he stood over her.

"Don't go anywhere," he said, before leaning down and sliding his tongue across her torso, from between her legs, up across her chest, and ending with a slurp under the girl's ear. "I will be back momentarily."

The cannibal placed a kiss to the girl's trembling brow before moving back to the entrance, picking up the bag of gore and trading his smock for a jacket on his way out.

The moment Vivian heard the door latch and a heavy lock engage, she slipped the amateurish knots binding her hands together and removed those around her ankles. Vivian, now free, quickly stood up and moved to the girl's side.

"Quetly," Vivian whispered, "do you know how long he will be gone for?"

The girl only stared at Vivian, who wasn't sure the girl was fully aware in the first place. Even if she was aware, she may not have been able to speak at all as evidenced by the long scar across the woman's neck indicative of a surgery.

"Hey," Vivian said, gently patting the girl's cheek to get her attention. "Will he be gone for at least a few minutes? Blink twice if yes."

The girl's eyes began tearing up as she stared at Vivian, then her eyes closed and remained so. Regardless of whether the girl was fully aware or simply didn't know, Vivian assumed that she had little time to prepare anything. The first thing she did was grab the large, incredibly sharp chef's knife sitting on the medical cart and grip it firmly in her dominant hand.

She then gently removed the straps tying the girl to the table, peeling them from the sores beneath. The girl was free, but she was in no condition to be moving on her own. At the moment, there was little else that Vivian could do except prepare for their would-be captor's return.

Vivian quickly investigated their surroundings for anything else that could give her an advantage, but could find nothing better than the knife she was already carrying. She did, however, find the fridge and freezer that Dr. Ibarra had been using to store the meat he had collected.

Much of it had already been prepared and packaged, and looked near-identical to pork, but one larger slab of meat still contained the skin decorated with a flowery tattoo, the sight of which made Vivian's stomach churn.

What Vivian was hoping to find were some women's clothes. She assumed that the cannibal had been collecting their things, and that there would be a stock somewhere, but the only clothing she could find was that of Dr. Ibarra himself, the same clothes she had seen him in at the gala. Of course, the clothes were too large for her. She needed something she would be able to move in, but nothing she could find was better than her bare skin. She would have preferred to have somewhere to tuck her knife, however.

The warehouse entrance didn't have enough room where she would be able to surprise their captor when he returns. Instead, she returned to the chair, then looked over to the girl on the table.

"I won't let him do anything to you any more," Vivian said. For the next few minutes, she remained in a relaxed, almost meditative state.

When Vivian heard the door creaking as it was unlocked, Vivian held her hands together, gripping the knife tightly between them and changed to a frightened and uncertain demeanor. The Cannibal returned and swapped his jacked back to the apron, then turned to look over his stock. 

"Please... please don't hurt me!" Vivian continued pleading, complete with tears, sniffles, and terrified shivering.

"Hmmm... I'm feeling something fresh," the Cannibal said as he approached Vivian. "What do you think?" He watched her shy away from him. She could tell he was feeding off her fear just by watching his feet getting ever closer. When he came to a stop before her, she could also tell that he had noticed the straps removed from his other victim.

Now was the time to strike, and strike Vivian did. She shot up, leveraging her weight on the back of the chair to latch her legs onto Dr. Ibarra's torso and twist his arm around, throwing him to the ground. Vivian left her dominant arm free and gripping the knife, ready to strike should she need to.

Dr. Ibarra struggled beneath her, but Vivian was in total control until the moment he lost consciousness. When he went limp, Vivian wasted no time binding his hands and feet, but with much more effective knots than he used on her. After the man was secured, Vivian moved to the entrance and peeked her head outside.

She didn't have to look far to see that she was still in the city surrounding the spire. It was all she needed before she returned inside. She took the man's jacket and also grabbed the black bag and moved to the girl.

"Okay," Vivian said, putting the jacket over the girl's shoulders and gently shaking her to attention. "I'm going to take you away from here, and I can assure you, you will never see this man again."

Vivian then slipped the black bag over the girls head, then picked her up over her shoulder and carried her out of the building.

They were in a heavily industrialized district, and it was very early in the morning, so nobody was around to see the two mostly naked women walking down the alleys. Vivian didn't move far before a private transport landed in front of them. Vivian stepped in and the transport lifted off and moved toward the Bradbury district, arriving in only a couple of minutes.

The transport landed near the entrance of another dark alley. Vivian stepped out and set the girl on the ground. She then grabbed a nearby rock and threw it through the window of a business along the main street, setting off an alarm in the building.

After quickly boarding the personal transport, it lifted off, and Vivian returned to the Cannibal's warehouse.