She owned a goat and the neighbors knew it. She kept it in her backyard and would feed it in the mornings. Sometimes the neighbors watched when she fed it. The fence around her yard was low and they could see everything.

 One morning she came outside naked. The neighbors were watching her through a slit in their curtains. She was naked and carried a pail to feed the goat. They watched as she fed it, the goat’s mouth in the pail, the naked girl feeding the goat. They watched her, saw her smile as she looked down at the feeding goat. It was right there between her legs, eating from the pail. The neighbors kept watching.

 When the goat finished feeding, the girl set down the pail and stood there. She grabbed the goat’s horns and stepped closer. She spread her legs a little and the goat started sniffing her. She reached with one hand and grabbed some leftover food from the pail and shoved it inside her. The goat kept sniffing, then flicked its tongue at her, getting it inside her, getting at the food she had there.

 The neighbors couldn’t believe what they were seeing. She grabbed the goat’s horns and pulled the head closer. They could tell she was excited by the goat licking her, eating its food from her. She had now become goat food and from the look on her face as they watched through the slit she was going to be addicted, so they made a point of watching out for her in the mornings when she got off on her goat.

After several mornings of this, they noticed that the goat seemed to be more ravenous when he ate the food from her. He sometimes would buck his back legs and lunge at her, his horns at her exposed belly, naked as she was. They watched and watched, morning after morning, until one day she didn’t bring the pail, just herself. She grabbed the horns and shoved herself on the goat’s mouth. The goat lunged at her, sticking its nose in her, its mouth and tongue appearing to devour her. It kicked its back legs hard and knocked her down, eating at her, even though there was no food in her; she had become its food and it was eating, eating, eating her, not just licking like before but biting her and pulling her flesh apart, sticking its horns in her and thrashing her open, cracking bones. The neighbors couldn’t move from the slit, couldn’t say anything, they could hardly think, hardly even breathe. Their hearts were racing as they stood at the window and watched through the slit as the goat ate her, tore her belly open and devoured her insides until its fur turned from white to red.

 The neighbors did nothing, even though they knew they should. They should do something.

 But what?

By Jeff Callico