A Transgender Horror Story
Dean, a 32 year old British journalist cum author, moves to Italy with his family to write a book on “The Monster of Florence”, a serial killer who committed a slew of murders between 1968 and 1985. When on a walk alongside the Arno River, he is abducted by three men. The men drive towards the North of Italy and lock Dean up in a small cubbyhole of a three-unit housing unit. Dean realizes that ransom isn’t the reason for his abduction when he receives his first cryptic clue, which runs:
“Ciao bella to be
You reap what you sow
And pay for karmic deeds—
Good and bad—
Before you take the final bow
But die you shall not, mean Dean
Until you meet me
The grim Nemesis
Of your darkest deeds”.
What did the mastermind of his abduction mean by the cryptic words? Which “dark deed” was he referring to? And most importantly, why did he address Dean, a male as “bella (beautiful woman in Italian) to be??!”
The riddle is just the tip of an iceberg. As days pass, and Dean starts noticing “bizarre” changes in his body, he receives a series of puzzles and riddles, one more mind-boggling than another. Solving them would evidently reveal the identity of the mastermind.
Is Dean brainy enough to solve the riddles? Are repressed memories, buried deep within the subconscious, as important as waking ones?
