Chapter 2

It wasn't until the uncle tossed it into his trunk and drove off

that I realized I might be losing my grip a little.

A savory meat pie shop.

A bag of bloody kitchen scraps carried out the back. Wasn't that completely normal?

I shook my head and turned to head home.

But I'd barely gone a few steps when a moment from that afternoon flashed through my mind.

The uncle had shown me the whole kitchen, but at the very back there was a cold-storage room.

I'd started toward it when he suddenly called me back.

“It's just meat and supplies in there. Nothing worth looking at.”

Then the first batch of pies came out of the oven, and I let it go.

But now that I thought about it, wasn't meat the whole point of a savory meat pie?

So the next afternoon, I went back to the shop.

When the uncle saw me, he didn't look the least bit surprised.

“You again? Didn't you see everything yesterday?”

I made my way toward the kitchen, trying to look casual.

“There was still the cold-storage room I didn't see yesterday, right?”

He paused for a second, then laughed.

“What's there to see in there? You planning to inspect every brick in your uncle's shop?”

“Didn't dare eat one yesterday, so what about today? This morning's ten pies are already sold out. Want me to make you another?”

But all I could think of was that bag from last night, dripping red.

I shook my head.

He clicked his tongue, smiling.

“You come every single day to grab one, and when I actually offer, you won't touch it.”

I stood there, and my suspicion actually eased a little more.

Would a man with something to hide be this open about it?

That day, the uncle had seemed to be blocking me. I couldn't get into the cold-storage room.

After I got home that night, I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep.

I picked up my phone and searched for ages. The internet was full of all kinds of nonsense.

Some people said certain special kinds of meat could stop pain.

Others said that in some remote places, long ago, human tissue was used in medicine.

The more I read, the harder I frowned.

I'd studied biology. There was no way I'd believe garbage like that.

But after Aiden Lambert ate one, his cancer pain really did vanish.

After the younger brother ate one, he really did seem like a different person.

These things alone were impossible to explain in any normal way.

I threw the phone aside and closed my eyes, and then an even crazier thought popped into my head.

At one in the morning, I climbed out of bed anyway.

There was a small window at the back of the bakery.

I stepped up on the junk crate beside it and climbed in through the window.

At night the shop was so quiet all I could hear was the hum of the freezers.

I turned on my phone's flashlight and walked all the way to the very back of the kitchen.

My heart pounded as I gripped the handle of the cold-storage door.

It wasn't locked. The moment it opened, a wave of cold air hit my face.

Inside, a row of shelves stood in neat order.

I went through several boxes. All of it was ordinary.

For a second there, I started to think I really had lost my mind.

Then my phone's light swept across the very back, and I froze.

Under the bottom shelf sat a white insulated box.

I crouched down and dragged it out.

The lid was tight. It took some effort to pry it open, and inside there was still a layer of kraft-paper wrapping.

I'd just reached in when a voice suddenly sounded behind me.

“It's this late. What are you looking for?”

My whole body went rigid.

The next second, the cold-storage light came on.

The uncle stood in the doorway.

“Won't come in during the day, but you climb in through the window at night just to look?”

“You don't actually think these pies are made of human flesh, do you?”