‘We can be a devoted couple and honeymoon in the great cities of the world,’ she said. ‘Deep down, don’t you long to be transformed?’

I looked at her, stunned. She continued slowly, ‘I’ll make you just as hideous as I am.’

A cold sweat dampened my brow. She wanted to turn me into a monster too. I felt her stories spread through my body, corroding the foundations of my world. My ashen face made her chortle, then she gave me a rough shove. Mounting me, she beat me savagely.

My body didn’t react as I hoped. Unable to escape her grip, my addiction to her was obvious. I even begged her to hurt me. Rape me. She shrieked with hysterical laughter and granted my request.

This madness had to come to an end.

With great difficulty, I managed to control my thoughts. Six slaves had understood their plight long before I had, but it wasn’t too late. I would quit my job then and there.

Armed with what was left of my sanity, I sought to bargain with the devil. Once our abject lovemaking was over, I sat facing her.

‘I can’t be with you any more. My wife is pregnant.’

I bowed my face to hide my lie. A whiff of animal odour mixed with blood filled my nostrils. I don’t know why but I inhaled that scent deeply.

I calmed my panting and mustered the will to terminate the contract. I promised to pay compensation of a month’s wages.

Hearing this, she just smiled ever so faintly. But the disgusting boils on her face hardened and I thought I could spy evil in her eyes.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow is your last day of work.’

—

I shouldn’t have come. But some impulse had made me want to see her one last time. Like a junkie, I thought. A ritual of closure before I straightened out. A farewell of sorts to the depravity that had seduced me, which I would taste no more. The end of any story is a compromise, as she had once said.

I crouched there in the wardrobe, waiting for her, counting my heartbeats before I could finally pounce. Then I heard a heavy click. The wardrobe doors were being locked.

I called her name, hesitant, not daring to guess what was happening. She didn’t answer. My calls grew increasingly urgent, then turned into screams. This was no time to joke. Or to experiment.

The hair on the back of my neck bristled as that evil word reverberated in my head. I pounded on the solid teak. When that didn’t work I heaved against the door. It was all in vain. My rape uniform was drenched in sweat. I caught the stench of her presence. Then another smell invaded the closed space: my own piss, uncontrollable, flooding my underwear.