“So you’re saying your brother had him as a 4-H project?” Mike asked.
He was a grizzled old farmer with a white handlebar mustache. Mike was assessing Brandon, measuring him from hock to withers. Troy knew that the boar was of perfect conformity. He’d made him that way.
Unfortunately, he’d had to use shape several times in a row to get the pig’s proportions right. Turned out, he could get a proper form out of Brandon, but he had to cleverly marble the fat and shape it to look like muscles. Brandon wasn’t any less fat. The spells wanted to help him, he just had to guide it. The poor pig was pretty addled by the end of his experiments.
Three days later, here was Mike, ready to pick up the pork.
“Yessir. Beautiful hog. Found him at a local fair, no pedigree… but apparently he’s perfect. Wanted to sell his seed… but, well, no pedigree. Should get 16K for him.” Troy replied.
“Yeah, well, ya ain’t getting’ 16k with no pedigree. Tell ya what, how about… Hmmm… 7K?”
“10K.” Troy said firmly.
“Sold!” The farmer shook his hand.
“That was fast.” Troy shook his head. “Let me guess, you just bought him for a bargain.”
“I did son, and you learn from this.” Mike looked him in the eye. “Figure out how to get a proper pedigree, you understand?”
“How?”
“There’s ways. Ain’t my place to be tellin’ you nothin’. You need tah figure it out yourself, son.” Mike said, collecting the pig and hauling him to the truck. “My, he is obedient. Hand raised?”
“Yes sir.” Troy said.
“Man, he sure does have some pretty blue eyes.” The farmer lifted a floppy ear and inspected him. “Well worth the price.”
The farmer wrote him a check. Troy raised a brow. A check? In this day and age?
“Don’t insult me, son. I’m good for it.” Mike smiled and hopped into his truck. “Y’all have a good day now, ya hear! And you tell your brother to steal a less conspicuous pig, got it?”
Steal? Oh, that’s what he thought he’d done. Troy waved, plastering a fake smile on his face. Then he went back inside and did another thorough cleaning. Had he missed anything?
He stood, wiping the sweat off his palms, and paced. Had he missed anything? Dustin began to whine and scratch at the back door. Troy wondered what he wanted…. oh. He got up and let the dog out in the back to do his business. Troy took a breath of fresh air and cleared his mind. He was so stressed out right now, it was crazy!
“Hey neighbor!” Clint waved from his own backyard.
The fence was tall, but not tall enough to hide Troy from view when he was standing at the top steps of his porch. Troy smiled and waved back at his neighbor. Clint was a large man, with wavy, sandy-blonde hair and a broad smile. He’d grown muscular from years of hard labor, though his belly was starting to catch up to him.
“Got yourself a dog, huh?” Clint smiled, coming over and standing on his tippy-toes to peer over the fence at Dustin as he was doing his business. “Oh, German Shepherd! Very reliable dogs. Good choice.”
“Uh, thanks.” Troy said. “He’s a very good boy, too.”
“So was that what your visitors were doing today? I saw you were selling a pig.”
“Oh, shit.” Troy replied, mouth suddenly dry as he spoke his rehearsed line. “I’m sorry. Don’t tell the landlord, but my brother wanted me to hold onto it until the buyer came to pick it up.”
“Brother?” Clint asked.
“Yeah, uh, he’s in 4H.”
“Right. Hey, whose car is parked outside?” Clint asked, watching the dog play. “I think he’s in your spot.”
Troy’s heart began to race. Of course, what the hell was he gonna do with the cars? He struggled to come up with an excuse, but he hadn’t predicted this line of questioning. But… Dustin had, hadn’t he?
“Not sure. I’ll have it towed if it doesn’t move. But I also don’t want to fuck up someone’s booty call.”
“Not your booty call?” Clint grinned.
“Unfortunately.” Troy grinned back.
“Yeah, I’d give it until noon tomorrow and if it isn’t gone by then, call the tow.” Clint advised. “If he hasn’t alerted management by then or moved the car, it’s on his ass.”
Troy nodded and went back inside. Brandon’s keys and wallet lay on the table. A strange, cold feeling welled up in his stomach as he looked at them. Brandon was gone now, the cute fat guy who’d done nothing wrong to him, who’d been so excited, sold off as a prize breeding boar.
He sat down, shaking. Troy realized he’d done something rather terrible. He could call the farmer, inspect the boar, and maybe undo what he’d done. But then he wouldn’t have 10 Grand in his pocket. And Brandon was a handsome pig, and probably happily mating sows right now, as that was what Troy had Commanded him to do.
Troy stood and ran for the bathroom, retching violently into the toilet. Shakily, he stood, wiping his mouth off on his arm and gargling with mouthwash before spitting it into the sink. He stared at his reflection in the mirror. Could he keep doing this? Would it always be this hard to do? Already he was fighting the urge to get in his car and drive straight to the hog farm and save Brandon from his fate.
And… maybe he would. Troy took a deep breath and then exhaled, trying to calm himself down. Yes, eventually, when he made enough money, he’d go back and undo the spell on Brandon and turn him into his preferred animal. He needed to relax and stop worrying about it. If he needed to, he could undo it.
He heard a ping from his computer and walked over to it. Troy’s jaw dropped. After the newest uploaded TF video, his inbox was being flooded with requests. He slowly went through them all. Could he do to these people what he’d done to Brandon?
Troy saw a $10,000 dollar offer from a studio executive in Hollywood to get TF’d. He frowned and did some research. The guy in question worked as a headhunter for a special effects company. So… talent scout, huh? Guess no one believed him when he’d told them what he did was real.
A smile crept across his face. He messaged the guy back, following the conversation pattern he’d gone through with Brandon. Then, properly set up an appointment. They’d meet tomorrow, at his place, at 2PM. No, the man would not need ‘space on his couch’, he’d gotten an AirBnB and would fly out here on a company jet, rent a car, and drive here.
Great, Troy thought, another car to deal with.
Speaking of… Troy grabbed the keys to Brandon’s car off the table and walked out of his apartment, got into it and drove. There was an abandoned lot, covered in bushes and stuff, just behind his apartment complex. He dumped the car behind tall bushes, driving it deep into the overgrowth, then got out, cleaning off the steering well with cloth, like he’d seen in movies. No one would know he was there. Then he walked out of the lot and back to his apartment.
He got back on his computer and started ransacking Brandon’s back account, siphoning as much as he could legally do without raising any alarms. Brandon was a lonely bachelor, so he could easily mooch all of his money out of his accounts before he was reported missing. $150 Grand in his retirement account, $45K in savings… he was in the money now.
Troy heard another ping from his computer and smirked.