Madame Illusia roared with laughter at the hybrid man she had produced. Above the cylinders, Chuck's neck and head remained, is mouth now frozen in shock. Below the cylinders, everything was exactly the same as before. His legs and feet remained, the curly black hair growing on them coated in oil and grease. Strangest of all, the young man's penis and testicles was attached to the side of the bottom engine cylinder.
Chuck’s mouth was twisted in pain, a low sound of agony coming from between his lips.
“You’re not going to leave him like that are you?”, Jeff yelled at the evil pair. “This is your sickest one yet!”
From the thunderous expression that had appeared on Madame Illusia’s face, Jeff realised that he’d overstepped the mark this time. He’d managed to keep his human shape while all those about him had been transformed into a variety of lowly forms, but that was in the past. Even Stephen looked concerned as his mother’s anger boiled over. But it was not Madame’s style to let her emotions go out of control.
“It’s time to leave this place.” The Madame spoke in calm and measured tones. She walked slowly to the front door of the truck, unlatched the door and climbed in. With her foot pressed down on the clutch, she turned the ignition and pushed hard on the throttle. Chuck Jones howled in agony. Smoke billowed out from his steel cylinder torso as the cruel sorceress forced the engine to work. The young mechanic’s eyes bulged as diesel flowed through his body. The fumes died down as she released her foot and switched off the engine.
As the smoke cleared, Jeff could see that the poor man body, smoking black stubble surrounding his genitals was all that remained of his pubic hair. A spark from the one of the cylinders flared up, setting fire and consuming the short curly hairs on his legs. Unlike all the previous transformations he had seen, this one was deliberately slow and painful. What evil motivated the Madame to torture a harmless young man like this? Why couldn’t she just put him out of his misery and let him leave his human form altogether, as so many had already done?
Still Chuck howled as his legs grew thicker and became coated in shiny metal before folding right round under the cylinders. His mouth remained fixed in a tight O as the skin on his face pulled away, momentarily leaving a covering of muscle which quickly gave way to a white skull. A pipe from the truck swung over attached itself to the bony remains of Chuck’s jaw before the rest of the skull crumbled to dust and fell away.
Madame Illusia turned the ignition again and revved the engine. This time she released the brakes and the clutch and surged forward. The new engine worked perfectly. She stopped the truck, got out, and lowered the bonnet.
Her son, Stephen, previously taken aback by the viciousness of Chuck’s transformation, got into the passenger seat. He was grinning.
“How are we going to get past all those other mechanics, mother? What if they see the car?”
“Don’t worry, son. I’ve decided not to go yet. And as for seeing the truck with that grease monkey in the bonnet – well, they’ll be seeing it soon enough