“Are you sure this is the right place?” Stacy asked.

“The only other garage in town is run by one of my dad's friends.” Angela replied. “It's this or nothing.” Turning the wheel, she guided the convertible car into the service area.

“Yeah, but do you really think they'll be able to fix it?” the little mouse pressed.

Angela glared at her. “Well either they can or I might as well catch the next train out of here and resign myself to never going home again.” she answered.

Stacey nodded and looked around apprehensively. It was not a promising sight. No one else was around and several rusty looking vehicles were already parked inside and waiting for attention. She considered pointing out that the place looked deserted but thought better of it. Her rabbit companion was already stressed enough.

Fortunately, the area was not as empty as it had first appeared. As Angela brought the car to a stop a muscular looking lizard girl emerged from behind a van, wiping her hands on an oil-coated rag. Without even glancing at Angela or Stacey, she walked once around their vehicle, inspecting the damage. After a minute or so, she finally approached Angela's side and leaned over the door. “Mostly superficial. Should take me a day or so at the most to get it presentable, although it won't be like new. Assuming there's nothing wrong under the hood, I can probably do all that for around, let's say, two hundred?”

Stacey's heart sank. She had known this was going to cost them, but two hundred dollars? She had forty in her pocket and doubted that Angela had much more. Not to mention the fact that they really needed the car looking perfect by tonight at the latest. Angela gave her an equally worried glance, then turned back to the lizard. “Um, hi? I'm Angela and this is Stacy. Look, I don't suppose you could get it done a little faster if I told you it was a rush job? I kind of need it looking normal by this afternoon.”

“Vanessa.” The lizard replied to Angela's introduction. “Let me guess, just back from university, wanted to go catch up with some old high school friends, persuaded your parents to let you borrow their car, promised to be careful with it, and are now wishing you actually had been?”

Angela nodded weakly. “I was being careful.” She protested. “I just … well … the roads round here are a lot wigglier than I remembered.”

“Well the good news is that, assuming I drop everything else, I probably could get this done in a few hours.” Vanessa told her. “It won't be perfect mind but, assuming nobody looks too close, there's a good chance you'll get away with it. The bad news is that I'll be charging you double. It's four hundred if you want to skip the queue.”

The rabbit swallowed nervously. “I … I can't really afford that.” She mumbled. “Actually … I can't exactly afford the two hundred either. Please? Can't you help me out here?”

“You see, I'm pretty sure that I am helping you out.” Vanessa answered “I'm offering to put you ahead of all the other work I've got today. I'm giving you a knocked down rate on my usual rush job fee because I do actually have a pretty good idea of what your situation is like. Still, I'm not putting in all that work for free. If you want me to do the job then you can damn well pay for it.”

Angela's eye's filled with tears. “Please?” She begged. “I know I should have been more careful, but it was an accident. Nobody was hurt. It's only a few dents and scratches. I just need this to be okay.”

Vanessa sighed. “Look, don't cry bunny. I'm sure we could work something out. What about your mousey friend there?”

Stacey squirmed uncomfortably as she came under the lizard's scrutiny. She really wished she could simply offer to pay for the repairs. After all, she was the one who had persuaded Angela to take her out for a ride. For that matter, if she hadn't been distracting her friend then maybe Angela would have been a little more focused on the road. She did feel that she was at least partially responsible for what had happened and wanted to make it right again. Still, she simply didn't have anything like the amount Vanessa was asking. It was beginning to look like Angela might have to confess to her parents after all.

Angela shook her head. “Sorry. She's as broke as I am. Even together, I don't think we could afford your price.”

“I didn't mean getting her to pay.” Vanessa snapped. “I meant you could pay me with her.”

“But …” Angela trailed off as the full implications of that sunk in. “You mean like, to work for you, right? As an assistant or something?” She tried.

“Sure.” Vanessa snipped. “Except, instead of helping out around the garage and passing me things she'd be wriggling in my stomach and digesting.” She rolled her eyes at the naivety of Angela's question. “Now, do you want my help or not?”

Stacey's heart stopped. The lizard girl was not large. In fact she was barely taller than Angela. She certainly didn't look like the predatory type. Still, slightly larger than a rabbit was more than enough to make her very dangerous to a mouse. Moving slowly, so as not to draw any more attention to herself, Stacey carefully slid one paw to the door handle.

Angela, however, moved much faster. Grabbing Stacey by the wrist, she threw open the passenger door and dragged them both out, putting herself between the predatory lizard and her friend. “No way.” She insisted. “Look, can't we just borrow some of your equipment for a while? That way, you wouldn't have to do any work and we'd still pay you what we could afford as thanks.”

Vanessa shook her head. “You'd be getting underfoot and there's a very real risk that you'd damage something. Likely something worth more than whatever it is you are willing to pay me.”

Stacey was not exactly disappointed by that answer. She couldn't think of anything worse than to be stuck trying to hammer dents out of a car while in the presence of a someone who had openly stated their intent to eat her. She tugged gently at Angela's sleeve, trying to indicate that she would prefer to leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately the rabbit was not so easily dissuaded. “Come on? We wouldn't get in the way and I promise we'd be careful with your stuff.”

That earned her a glare from the lizard. “Oh, really? And what happened to the last piece of expensive equipment you promised to take care of? Look, you have three choices here. Either pay me for the work you want doing, accept my offer for a trade, or get the fuck out of my shop.”

Stacey flinched and tried to hide herself further behind her friend, but Angela simply bristled furiously. “Come on then.” She snapped and dragged the poor mouse back out of Vanessa's garage.

Once outside Stacey gave Angela a miserable look. “I guess we'll be going to the other garage after all.” She stated, trying not to sound too relieved. “You realize we are going to have to go back in to get the car though? Actually, do you mind if I stay out here while you get it? I'd prefer to stay away from that lizard if possible.”

“No.” Angela muttered. “There's no point in going to a different garage. Even if they didn't tell on me, they'd probably still want paying.”

“So …” Stacey winced before asking the question. “What are you going to tell your folks?”

“Nothing.” Angela decided. “We can still fix this, even without that stuck up reptile's help.”

“How?”

“Well, we probably can't make her do the work for us,” Angela admitted. “but we could force her to let us use her tools. We go back in and make one last attempt at settling this nicely and, if she still refuses, we beat her up then lock her in her office or something until we are done.”

Stacey stared at her friend in horror. “But she's bigger than us.” It wasn't the only problem she had with Angela's plan, but it was the first that she found the words to voice.

“Yeah, but it'll be two against one.” Angela answered. “And, even better, she won't see it coming until too late.”

Stacey shook her head weakly. “What makes you think she won't see it coming?” she protested.

“Simple, you just have to distract her for a moment while I get behind her. Then, I'll bash her over the head with something. There's plenty of junk in there that I could use.”

“But … distract her? How?”

“Well …” Angela at least had the decency to look a little guilty about her plan. “The simplest way would be to pretend that I was going to accept her offer.”

“What!” Stacey leaped back. “No! No way. Not even for a second. What if something went wrong? I can't believe you'd even ask me to go along with something like that.”

“Nothing will go wrong. We'll start by having one last go at persuading her to do it for some other price. If that fails, and it might not, then I'll pretend I'm willing to let her have you. It's passed lunch time so there's a good chance she won't want to eat you until evening and she might even fix the damage for us first, in which case, we could could just drive away. Even if she does try to eat you straight away, which involves everything else going as badly as it could, I'll just sneak up behind her and whack her over the head. Simple.”

“What part of 'no' don't you understand?” Stacey protested, backing steadily away from her rabbit friend. “I could die. What if you don't hit her hard enough? What if you hit her too hard? We could both go to prison. This is a really bad idea.”

“We wouldn't get in any trouble.” Angela assured her. “If she was trying to eat you then anything we do is self defense. Besides, we could probably take her even without a surprise attack. If she thought that she stood a chance against us she wouldn't have bothered trying to bargain with me would she?”

“I don't care.” Stacey insisted. “I'm not doing this. I'll help you in any other way, but not that.”

The rabbit thought for a moment. “Well … I guess if you told my parents that you were the one driving then they might let me off easier.”

“What?” Stacey shuddered at the thought. As children, Angela's parents had always terrified her and she could fully understand why the rabbit was going to such lengths to avoid getting in trouble with them. “You mean in person? Why couldn't you tell them that?”

“Yeah that would work.” Angela replied sarcastically. “Hey, sorry about the massive dent in the car that I promised I would be extra careful with. It wasn't me, it was my friend who conveniently isn't here at the moment.” Her voice returned to normal. “Sorry, but you'd have to tell them yourself or they wouldn't believe it. Unless, of course, you're willing to help me actually fix the damage.”

“But … I …” Stacey wavered for a moment. Technically, lying to Angela's parents should have been the less scary option, at least they couldn't actually kill her. It didn't feel that way though, and it would mean that she would have to spend the rest of the day worrying about what she would say when the time came. At least if they faced Vanessa again she would have Angela backing her up. The bunny was almost the same size as the lizard and, even if the worst came to the worst, should be able to hold Vanessa at bay long enough for her to escape. “Okay. Let's go with the first plan.” she decided. “But only if you promise that if this doesn't work, you'll confess to your parents yourself. I don't even have to come with you, okay?”

Angela didn't look entirely happy but she nodded. “Deal.” then took Stacey's wrist and lead her back into the garage. “Um miss? Vanessa?” She asked.

Vanessa reemerged from behind the van she had been working on. “Back again.” She noted. “Are you just here to move your heap of junk or have you reconsidered my offer?”

Stacy felt all the hairs on her arms raise up as the lizard stared at her. Quickly, she glanced down, not wanting to meet Vanessa's gaze.

“Actually, I wanted to ask if we could work off the debt instead?” Angela began. “If you'd fix this for us we'd both be willing to come in and help out for however long it took to repay you. Well, as long as that isn't more than three weeks, I guess. I've got to go back to university then but Stacey would still be here.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes. “I already told you that I don't trust you fiddling with my tools. I literally know one thing about you rabbit, and that is that you came in here asking me to cover up the damage you did to someone else's car. As for your friend, I guess she might be useful, but …” A long forked tongue slipped out of Vanessa's mouth mid-sentence and flicked in Stacey's direction. “she would probably prove too much of a distraction for me to get much work done around her.”

Stacey made an attempt to hide behind Angela again but, instead of shielding her, her friend pushed her forwards towards the hungry lizard. “Fine. If you really aren't going to accept anything else, then I guess you can have her. I really do need this fixed by tonight.”

“What?” Stacey made a show of looking shocked and betrayed. Even knowing that this was just a ploy, she was beginning to regret her decision. One thing that didn't require any acting skills was the quaver in her voice and the tremble in her legs.

“All mine, huh?” Moments ago Vanessa had been standing at the other end of the garage but she crossed the distance between them with alarming speed. A powerful scaled hand clamped itself around Stacey's neck and Vanessa forced her chin upwards to better inspect the terrified mouse. “All right. Payment accepted. The repairs should be done around six this afternoon, come back then.” Bending down she started removing the mouse's jeans.

Stacey kicked and wriggled furiously. After all, the deception only required Angela to pretend to be willing to hand her over. It would look suspicious if she was too calm about this and, besides, the more she could draw this out, the longer Angela would have to get into position. She knew, however, that she would not be able to hold the predator off for long. Vanessa was surprisingly strong and, from the speed with which she managed to get Stacey's pants down to her ankles, this was probably not the first time she had undressed a struggling meal.

“Get off, you fucking reptile.” Stacey swore. With the pants out of her way Vanessa turned her attention to Stacey's shirt. Savagely yanking it over her head with one hand, while using the other to hold her prey in place.

Stacey wriggled as best she could, fighting to keep the T-shirt on for as long as possible. With so much of it already covering her head, it was impossible for her to see what was going on, but she hoped Angela would intervene soon. Moments later, a particularly violent jerk pulled her head free and she glanced around hopefully.

What she saw made her blood freeze. Angela was not getting into position behind the lizard, nor was she looking for a suitable weapon to use. Instead, the bunny was walking away from them back out into the street.

“Angela? What are you doing?” Stacey cried. “Get behind her. I can't keep her off much longer.”

Angela turned and gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry Stace, but I don't think either of us would actually have been able to fix the damage, even with the right tools. I … well, I really need Vanessa's help here and this is the only way to get it.”

Stacey stopped fighting against the lizard and just stared at her friend. “You … you can't be serious.” She protested. “Please, Angela? You can't leave me like this.”

For a moment it genuinely looked like her friend was considering coming back to help, then the rabbit shook her head, turned, and started walking away again.

Stacey barely even noticed that Vanessa had bent down and was removing her trainers, lifting one leg and then the other in order to slide her the mouse's shoes and jeans off. Her attention was focused instead on the retreating bunny. She already knew that she couldn't escape Vanessa on her own. Angela was the only chance she had. “How can you do this to me?” She called out. “We've been friends since we were children. Is a car really worth more to you than that?” This time the rabbit didn't even glance back. Stepping into the street, she turned left and quickly vanished out of sight.

“Angela!” Stacey's scream was loud enough to hurt her throat, but it made no difference. Behind her, she could feel Vanessa standing up, adjusting her grip to make sure she always had a firm hold on the mouse as she did so.

“So, lunch,” Vanessa asked. “would you prefer to keep your underwear on, or should I remove those as well?”

Stacey shuddered at the voice behind her ear. What kind of question even was that? Of course she would prefer to keep her underwear on for as long as possible. She was already feeling horribly exposed, standing in a public place with nothing else to shield her. Not that she was likely to live long enough to be properly embarrassed about this. Actually, if she told Vanessa to take them, would that give her a few precious seconds longer for Angela to change her mind and come to the rescue? Unlikely. She couldn't even be sure that this was a genuine offer. The predator might simply be asking her preference in order to do the opposite and humiliate her further.

Either way, a low rumbling from the lizard's gut informed her that she would have to answer quickly or Vanessa would make the decision for her. “Keep.” She muttered weakly. Any hope she actually had of Angela coming back was pretty much gone now anyway. At least she could die with some dignity.

“Well then food, I skipped lunch today and my stomach has been asking for a nice plump mouse since you first showed up so, I hope you'll excuse me if I begin.”

Vanessa's long tail curled around her waist as the lizard, gently but firmly, guided her into a better position for swallowing. Behind her she could hear a soft rumble from the stomach and felt the predator tense as she prepared to gulp her little mouse down. Despite her resolution to remain dignified, Stacey couldn't help but tremble at the knowledge of what was about to come. Not that dignity had ever really been possible. She was about to be stuffed down someone's throat. She would then be churned up a pool of digestive enzymes and reemerge, a day or so later, as a little pile of shit to be flushed away. It was possibly the most degrading death she could imagine.

“W … wait?” She whimpered. If dignity was impossible then she might as well make one last attempt to save herself. “She … she was supposed to rescue me. Angela. We agreed that, if I just let her pretend to hand me over, she'd make sure I was safe. Please? I didn't want to be here.”

“Yeah, I figured as much from the way you kept calling to her. Doesn't matter much to me though. I do sympathize with your situation but you are really making my mouth water.” The forked tongue flicked out again, brushing lightly against Stacey's shoulder. “I'm sorry that your friend betrayed you like that, but it doesn't change the fact that you are my prey. No more stalling now, it's time.”

Vanessa's grip on her shoulders tightened, holding her in place. Then the poor mouse felt the predator's hot breath on the back of her head as the mouth opened. Through tear stained eyes, Stacey stared forward at the garage exit. One last time she screamed for Angela to save her before a warm damp sensation engulfed her head.

---

The sun was already starting to set when Angela returned to the garage. Stepping inside she saw Vanessa squatting in front of the car, too focused on the work she was doing to pay much attention to the intrusion. She also noticed the lizard's large and softly gurgling belly. “Um … Vanessa?”

“Five minutes.” Growled the lizard. “I've just got to cover this last scrape and we'll be done. I can't promise it will pass a close inspection, of course, but I've done my best.”

Angela couldn't deny that. The front of the car looked perfect to her. In fact, it could be considered too perfect. She was sure it hadn't looked that good before she had borrowed it. Still, she very much doubted anyone would notice. “I … thank you.” She mumbled. “Um … actually, about Stacey?”

“It's not polite to ask about a predator's past meals.” Vanessa chided then stood up, stepped back, and inspected her work.

As she moved, Angela couldn't help but notice the loud slosh as the contents of her stomach were tossed around. “I know, it's just … I do feel kind of guilty. Is … is she still alive in there?”

“You should do.” Vanessa responded. “She trusted you and paid for it. And if you really must know then no, she isn't. Or, at least, I haven't felt her moving for almost an hour now so I assume not.”

Angela winced. “You can't criticize me for that.” She protested. “You're the one that actually ate her.”

“So? I'm a predator.” Vanessa answered. “I never made any attempt to hide my intentions from her. You led her to believe that you were going to protect her, then …” she trailed off. “Eh, why am I arguing this with you? She's just a lump of meat now so what does it matter? Anyway … What do you think of the car?”

Angela forced her attention away from the lizard's full belly and back to her parent's vehicle. “It … it looks like new actually. I didn't think it would come out that well.”

A faint smile curled around the edges of Vanessa's lips. “Good. I hope it passes your parent's inspections.”

Angela nodded and climbed into the driver's seat. If it didn't, then Stacey's sacrifice would have been a complete waste. As she backed out of the garage Vanessa waved to her. “Well, good luck, and if you ever need any other repairs done just drop in. I'll happily accept mice or any other small rodent in lei of my normal fee.”

Angela nodded weakly, gave the sloshing gut that contained what had once been her best friend a final apologetic glance, then headed home. The day had not turned out anything like she had hoped and she was already wishing the holidays would end and she could get back to university.