The wave runs through my body again, there’s a tingling in my stomach, it’s nice. The pain ebbs away bit by bit, from wrist to fingers. Finally it reaches somewhere in the region of my fingertips and then disappears entirely.

I’m ready now, he can come now, my little boss. I lie on the bed in readiness. I don’t have to wait long. Footsteps on the lower floor. That can only be darling Rüdiger. He’s in a real hurry to get here.

Hans has hidden outside and is waiting for my signal. Rüdiger enters the room behind the metal door. It’s so quiet that I can hear every one of his footsteps. Now he’s on the stairs below me. The first step creaks. I feel rather queasy. Pull yourself together, no going back now, only forward.

At each of his steps the wooden stairs creak and groan. Then a pause. The noise they make probably scares him. He must be looking around, maybe he feels a bit unsure of himself.

‘Rüdiger, I’m up here, waiting for you.’

That works. He comes trudging up. First his face appears. Greasy hair combed back. I feel I weigh very little, I could grin and giggle the whole time. I hope I don’t muck this up.

With difficulty, he makes his way up through the trapdoor. Oops – on the last step he seems to stumble, catches himself just in time. I put my bandaged hand in front of my mouth. Mustn’t burst out laughing now!

Rüdiger turns to look for me. It’s not a human head on his massive body now, he looks like a fat pig. With a snout in the middle of his face. Curious, surprised, I stand up and stare at him. This can’t be true! He comes towards me, and as he comes closer his face keeps changing all the time. He looks at me out of two little round piggy eyes. His lower jaw is jutting, he seems to be grinning, and two mighty tusks come into sight. The little piggy eyes wander restlessly back and forth, searching the room. Searching it for a rival.

‘There’s no one here, only you and me.’

The pig snuffles in my direction, the hair on the back of its neck standing up. It comes towards me, its head rocking this way and that. Coming closer and closer. Pigs don’t see well, they rely on their snuffling noses to explore their surroundings. Its nose is right in front of my face. That snout is almost black, wet and shining, moving all the time. The pig breathes in deeply, then breathes out with a loud snort, a disgusting smell of carrion surrounds me.

I think the animal’s very excited. To soothe it, I run my thickly padded hand gently over the bristly hairs on the back of its neck. They look like thin black wires. I can’t feel the bristles through the thick bandaging, I can only see that they’re standing up, and they hardly give way at all under the pressure of my hand.

The pig’s little eyes sparkle at me. It snorts. The curving, dagger-like tusks are much too big for its mouth. They push the top lip up. The pig looks as if it is baring its teeth.

I’m afraid of the animal. The pig snorts several times in succession. It grabs me. I fight it off as well as I can. It stares angrily at me. I’m so frightened I can’t move. Hell, where on earth is Hans? The animal stops for a moment, seems sorry for me. Then it flings its massive body against the table. The table shoots to one side and crashes into the wardrobe.

The pig stands in front of me now, getting bigger, more than a head taller than me. I’m still standing there, I can’t do anything but stare at its great tusks. It’s foaming at the mouth. A slimy thread of saliva hangs down, gradually lengthening, comes loose and drops to the floor. Time seems to stand still.

I cautiously take a small step back. The pig puts its head slightly on one side. I must get out of here, I must get away from this beast, quick! Another step back. The bed is right behind me, I collide with it, can’t keep on my feet, I fall full length on the mattress.

The pig flings itself on me. I close my eyes, feel its weight on me, its hot breath on my neck. Its damp slobber drops on my cheek, runs on to my lips.

I can hardly move, it’s like a ton weight on top of me. I turn my head aside, open my eyes. Hans’s head appears in the opening of the trapdoor. I gasp for air, the body is so heavy lying on me. I shout as loud as I can. ‘Do something, this pig is raping me!’

The head disappears again.

‘No, no, you can’t go away. Help me, stick this pig!’

The pig is trying to force my thighs apart. I resist with all my might, I tense my buttocks. I don’t want this. It can’t do this, it’s an animal, it can’t do this.

Slobber runs along my neck, down to my breasts. I feel that moist snout everywhere, on my face, in my hair.

‘Hans, stick the pig, stick the pig!’

I see Hans coming up through the trapdoor with a long, silvery, gleaming knife in his hand.

The pig howls. The pressure between my thighs relaxes. Why doesn’t Hans help me to push the pig off? I turn, trying to wriggle out from under it.

The pig falls, turns on its own axis as it falls and crashes to the wooden floor. There’s blood everywhere, spurting and pumping out of the opened body. Guts spill out of the belly, fall squelching to the floor, spread there. I feel sick. Everything’s white and blurred, everything’s floating in the air.

I open my eyes and see that wooden ceiling again. I’m used to it by now. And to the sickness. It must be something to do with the injection.

I’m afraid to sit up. The dead pig must be lying beside the bed. Half human, half animal. I look round, everything’s the same as usual. A dream? There are gleaming dark patches on the floor, someone’s been using a wet mop on it. Is it real, then? The pig was here and Hans got rid of it?

Nonsense, there’s no such thing as a half-human, half-animal hybrid.

I stand up, climb down the wooden stairs. It’s difficult without any help. I can’t hold on to anything with my thick mittens of bandaging.

Hans is just coming up the steps from the cellar.

‘What happened, Hans?’