Then he was looking at the ground along the length of her inner thighs once more as she walked. Damp grey tarmac was replaced by shiny grey lino as they entered the building, lino that was clearly pockmarked by years of abuse from stilettoed heels. They stopped and Blake heard his captor speaking to someone: “Anna Baptiste carrying Mr.W. Blake for immediate consumption.”

“Thank you Miss Baptiste.” Came a bored sounding female voice. “And are you to act as predator as well?”

“I am.” Said Anna.

“OK. Take a seat please.” Replied the bored voice. The term ‘predator’ intrigued Blake; it was as if it had some kind of legal connotation like ‘solicitor’ or ‘bailiff’. But he was under no illusion as to what was meant by it.

He was carried a few more paces, then braced himself as Anna started to sit down. This time his legs were completely trapped underneath her. He tried to force the material of her tights and underwear up between her buttocks to give himself room. In response she clenched her thighs together again to remind him again who’s boss, before relaxing and letting Blake manoeuvre himself into a relatively comfortable position.

Looking out beyond her knees he could see a chair opposite, and into this chair sat an exquisite pair of fishnet-clad legs beneath a black pleated skirt. The woman’s knees parted and there in the shadows the shape of a man, his arms stretched sideways over her thighs. He’d clearly been secured differently to Blake and he slightly resembled Christ on the cross, facing inwards, away from the light. He was quite still, possibly unconscious and yet Blake found himself envying the man: ‘Why couldn’t mine have worn fishnets?’ He mused.

The other woman spoke. It was Kath. She and Anna chatted carelessly until the bored sounding woman interrupted from a little way off: “Miss Baptiste to room 7 please.” Anna got up and Blake found himself once again looking down at the grey lino floor as she took him down a passageway, up some stairs, along another passageway until she finally stopped in front of a door and knocked.

“Come!” Commanded a clear voice from within. Anna opened the door, walking over what Blake noticed was a creamy white carpet, luxurious in comparison to the cold grey lino. “Morning Miss Baptiste” Came the same voice. “I’m Suzanne Mitchell and I’ll be your consumption supervisor for today and this is Miss Elena Lupescu who’s just joined the department as one of our trainee predators”.

Blake heard a thick East European accent saying a polite “Good morning” and there then followed a round of further polite greetings until Mrs.Mitchell said:

“Right, let’s have a look at your Mr.Blake shall we?” Suddenly, Blake’s prison was flooded with light as Anna lifted her skirt up around her waist. He shut his eyes til they adjusted to the light and he found himself face to face with a woman, probably in her early fifties, silver hair tied back, who was squatting  down and examining him through her bi-focal lenses. Blake took an instant dislike to her. (She’d already taken a dislike to him before she’d even seen him). “Seems to be bearing up well enough”. She observed. “Any problems Miss Baptiste?”

“No Mrs.Mitchell.” Replied Anna.

“Good. Now let’s get him washed shall we?” She was wearing white surgical gloves on both hands. In one of her hands she held a pair of nail scissors that she used to cut Blake free, letting him fall with a mild slap into the palm of her hand. Then she quickly transported him across the room and placed carefully in a glass bowl of warm slippery liquid, which smelled slightly of disinfectant.

The sides of the bowl were too high for him to think about trying to climb out, so he just knelt upright in the liquid and had a good look at the room around him. It was a small well-lit room with a single shuttered window letting in light from one side. Against the opposite wall was what looked to Blake like a dentist’s chair. The bowl in which he knelt was on a table in the middle of the room around which now sat the three women. Elena Lupescu was staring down her sharp nose at him; her eyes wide open in wonderment and eager anticipation. Mrs.Mitchell was typing something into a laptop that was perched on the table next to him. There seemed to be an air of calmness about the room so he decided to try his luck and reason with them.

“Look!” He announced, trying to project his tiny voice so they could hear. “I’m sure there’s been some kind of mix up here, but…”

Mrs.Mitchell interrupted, and talked over him: “Mr.Blake, my name is Suzanne Mitchell and I’m here on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government to oversee your swallowing by Miss Baptiste and to ensure that the procedure is carried out both humanely and…”

She looked down at him coldly. “Mr.Blake. With respect, it’s far too late for any of that now. I am here to see that justice….”

“But you can’t kill me like this, it’s sheer madness. Don’t I have a right of appeal or something?!”

She raised her voice and continued regardless: “…To see that justice is carried out and that it is carried out in accordance with the law.” Then she added: “There are no rights of appeal in matters of national security.”

“But I’ve not even had a trial, and all I did was….”

His further protests went unheard as Mrs.Mitchell continued: “I am also here in my capacity as mentor to Miss Lupescu. Shortly she will place you inside her mouth as part of her training, although she will not swallow you. Please co-operate and remember that it is within our jurisdiction to use force if necessary.”

He looked up in fear at the silent young woman who sat across the table to him, whose piercing brown eyes were locked eagerly onto him. He suddenly became very aware of his own nakedness and covered himself as best he could with his hands.

You must keep very still whilst inside Miss Lupescu’s mouth”. Continued Mrs.Mitchell. “Trainees have been known to involuntarily bite prisoners if they move about or struggle in any way. Don’t forget that you haven’t been anaesthetised yet. Now, if you please Miss Lupescu….” She turned towards the pale Romanian woman and gestured that she go and sit in the ‘dentist’s’ chair.

Blake found himself being lifted out of the bowl. He realised that pleading would get him nowhere, so his vague strategy was for now at least to co-operate and avoid any more trouble whilst he thought of a way out. He was carried over to Miss Lupescu who had settled herself comfortably in the chair with her head back on the rest. Mrs.Mitchell perched herself on a stool next to her and with her fingers firmly around Blake’s chest, lowered him down until he was hanging limply just above her mouth. He could feel the young woman’s breath blow warmly around his tiny feet and he could see her eyes beyond Mrs.Mitchell’s enormous forefinger, eyes that seemed to burn with an intense hunger. He couldn’t help thinking that given the chance, she would have devoured him there and then. He heard her mouth opening up below him. Then he was lowered until he could feel her tongue, bumpy and slippery, on the souls of his feet. He braced himself and tried to keep still. His feet were sliding backwards along the slippery surface of her tongue to where it felt hotter and smoother and when they came into sudden contact with her soft uvula, she gagged and he could feel the silk like flesh at the top of her throat open up and a great dollop of saliva wash between his toes. She gently closed her lips around his waist.

This was the first time that Elena Lupescu had ever had a live shrunken person in her mouth. Despite projecting cool indifference for the benefit of the other two women in the room, her heart was racing and she ached desperately to be able to let Blake slide all the way inside and feel him squirming and struggling helplessly in her throat. She found she couldn’t resist exploring and tasting the delicate form of the tiny man’s legs and bottom with the tip of her tongue. He felt and tasted so real, so alive. She was gently tickling his thighs with her teeth when she noticed something hard pressing against the inside of her upper lip. Her expression changed and she glanced almost guiltily up at Mrs.Mitchell, who noticed with a frown the tip of Blake’s tiny erect penis nonchalantly popping out as if for a breath of fresh air.

“Yes, well, never mind about that.” Muttered Mrs.Mitchell. “In my day we were allowed to put a stop to that sort of thing with our teeth. Just ignore it, it happens from time to time.” She let Blake slide a little further down into Elena’s mouth, thus removing the offending object from sight. Elena‘s taste buds were now being hit with a powerful flavour, which she would later describe as “Being like the taste of fear itself.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and a picture of her mother entered her mind. Elena’s mother had been taken away from her when she was still very young after the mysterious disappearance of their student lodger. She’d never seen her again. One cherished memory she still had of her mother was that of her smiling down at her when she was hardly more than a baby at their home in Constanta, Romania, whilst on the wall above them hung a portrait of the beloved Elena Ceaucescu, wife of the president of their country and the mother of the nation. “She would have known how to deal with these idiots who pretend to run our country now” her mother would often say. Indeed at the height of her powers, Elena Ceaucescu was said to have been chauffeured around the streets of Budapest in her black limousine, on the lookout for ‘dissidents’ whom she would get her maid to shoot with a shrinking gun. After which she’d either swallow them there and then in the back of the car or take them back to the palace to be consumed later. It was rumoured that after she and her husband had been shot following the revolution, her stomach had been ripped open and the partially digested remains of two men and two women had been found inside. It was further rumoured that one of the men, presumably her very last meal, was still alive and that he subsequently made a full recovery, going on to use his valuable ‘inside’ knowledge of the human body to become a renowned surgeon at the Bucharest Central Hospital.

Elena’s ambition was to learn to be like her mother. One day she would return to Romania and track down the ‘vermin’ who were responsible for her mother’s disappearance and then deal with them in her own special way.

She opened her eyes again and looked at Blake. She was fascinated by the combination of both fear and arousal that she could see in his miniscule face. She had produced a mouth full of saliva, which she carefully swallowed. Blake felt her throat open up beneath him as it washed past his feet and he understood how easily she could swallow him whole if it wasn’t for Suzanne Mitchell’s tight grip around his chest.

“Thank you Miss Lupescu, please release the prisoner now” said Mrs.Mitchell. Elena opened her mouth and Blake was lifted out into the cool air of the room once more. A single strand of saliva stretched like elastic between his foot and Elena’s lower lip. It eventually broke and splashed back onto her pale chin. She kept her hungry eyes fixed on him as he was taken away from her, whilst delicately wiping her chin clean with a tissue.

Mrs.Mitchell put Blake back into the bowl, which had been replenished during his absence (Presumably by Anna) with a cooler and fresher liquid that smelled slightly of lemon. “In a few minutes Miss Lupescu” she said, “you’ll be able to witness at first hand as Miss Baptiste swallows the prisoner, and this afternoon I’ll be able to let a prisoner enter almost halfway into your throat. Then the prisoner will be female and therefore potentially far more resistant ….”

But Blake had stopped listening after the words “In a few minutes…” He was running out of time and he didn’t know what he was going to do. He knelt down in the bowl with the liquid up to his chest and washed Elena’s thick and slightly opaque saliva from the lower half of his body.

He looked up at Anna who was sitting a couple of feet away from him. She was calmly watching and listening as Mrs.Mitchell spoke to Elena. Despite the fact that she was about to eat him, he couldn’t help noticing just how serene and beautiful she was. Some of her shiny hair fell over her face, which she elegantly swept back with her fine long fingers. Her brown eyes sparkled; they looked so big and kind. And her rounded lips were sheer perfection. From somewhere deep in his mind rose a yearning to actually surrender himself to her and let her swallow him whole. But for now, his instinct to survive still held sway and he tried to push the idea out of his mind.

He noticed the golden crucifix that hung round her slender neck. ‘If only I could talk to her’ he thought, ‘if I could appeal to her as a Christian, surely a woman wearing a crucifix would know right from wrong, she must possess some humility or compassion.’ He tried to shout up to her, but not so loudly that the Mitchell woman would notice. “Anna… Anna” he called. She didn’t hear him so he tried again a bit more loudly. ANNA…ANNA!” This time she heard him and she turned to look down, but just at that moment Mrs.Mitchell’s clear and authorative voice rang out, causing her to look away again.

“Now then! Time for you to take up your position Miss Baptiste” called out Mrs.Mitchell as Elena vacated the ‘dentist’s’ chair. Unlike Anna, Elena stared longingly and menacingly down at Blake as she sat behind the table. What she had just experienced had stirred something inside her and would indeed have had him all the way down her throat there and then if she’d been able to. Blake was conscious of her gaze, aware of his own nakedness again.

Anna sat down on the ‘dentist’s’ chair with Mrs.Mitchell still perched on the stool next to it. “How many is this now Miss Baptiste?” Mrs.Mitchell casually inquired as she reached up for something on a shelf behind Anna’s head.

“This will be my thirteenth, Mrs.Mitchell.” Replied Anna earnestly.

“Good… good“ replied the older woman, not attempting to hide her disinterest. “Now, open wide for me please.” Anna opened her mouth wide, the inside of which lit up as Mrs.Mitchell placed a small endoscope inside. Instantaneously, the pink and glistening interior appeared on the screen of the laptop, which sat on the table next to Blake. He shuddered at the sight of it. His impending doom suddenly becoming more of a reality.

Mrs.Mitchell also turned to look at the screen. “Nice teeth Miss Baptiste, you obviously look after them well.” She remarked carelessly as she moved the endoscope around inside Anna’s mouth, checking for who knows what. “Were you a dentist by any chance Mr.Blake?” she called back to him, neither expecting nor waiting for a reply. “If you were, then I’m sure you’ll appreciate Miss Baptiste’s teeth when you meet them.” She removed the device from Anna’s mouth and the screen went dark again. “But no” she continued “I don’t suppose you were a dentist were you Mr.Blake? Dentists tend not to become rebels Mr.Blake; I’d say that rebelliousness is a luxury dentists can’t really afford. Isn’t that so Miss Baptiste?”

“Indeed Mrs.Mitchell.” Replied Anna, obediently.

“ Imagine if dentists were all to become rebels Mr.Blake,” she continued, “or imagine if people like Miss Baptiste and I, the kind of people who actually keep this country running, imagine if we were all to wake up one morning and decide to become rebels. Is that the kind of world that you and your ilk would like us to live in Mr.Blake?”

Blake let the distorted logic of her argument pass him by. He was too busy trying to work out how to speak to Anna alone. He realised that his only chance would probably be when she’s actually about to put him inside her mouth.

“Indigestion tablets Miss Baptiste,” announced Mrs.Mitchell, handing Anna two small white pills, which Anna popped into her mouth and quickly swallowed. “Now please remove your top Miss Baptiste,” said Mrs.Mitchell. Anna did as she was asked, unselfconsciously revealing her two exquisite dark breasts, between which her crucifix then settled with the tiny figure of Jesus now facing inwards, as if shying away from the real world and finding comfort there.

 Mrs.Mitchell now produced an ultrasound device from somewhere, which she placed just below Anna’s left breast. She turned again to look at her laptop. “You may as well have look too Mr.Blake,” she remarked, “That’s where you’ll be heading very shortly.”

With a mixture of fascination and disgust, Blake looked up at the screen. It was a grainy black and white image and he couldn’t make out much at first, but then he noticed two little white objects moving downwards, one after the other before they settled upon what he realised must be the floor of Anna’s stomach. Then he could make out the folds of flesh that were the sides of her stomach; they were moving about rhythmically and soon the tablets started to break up and dissolve. He turned away in horror and dismay.

Mrs.Mitchell put down the ultrasound device and walked over to where Blake sat in the bowl, carrying with her a syringe. “Your anaesthetic Mr.Blake,” she said as she held it over him like some gigantic javelin. He recoiled instinctively, fearing he was about to become impaled. “Listen carefully Mr.Blake. I am going to put the needle near your mouth and administer two droplets, which you must swallow. You have the right to refuse if you wish, but I strongly advise that you don’t.” She placed it in front of his face but he turned away, in no mood to co-operate. “Mr.Blake” she went on, more impatiently this time, “In a few minutes you will be inside Miss Baptiste’s stomach and bathing in her digestive fluids. It will take around half an hour before you even begin to lose consciousness. It’s really going to happen Mr.Blake. Now will you take the anaesthetic? I shan’t ask you again.” He looked over at Anna who was sitting watching him impassively. He still knew his only chance was that he’d be able to talk to her individually. But what if he failed? What if he couldn’t convince her not to swallow him? Reluctantly he turned towards the syringe and opened his mouth.

The anaesthetic tasted foul and despite gagging several times he managed to swallow two mouthfuls before Mrs.Mitchell withdrew the syringe. “Well done Mr.Blake, that wasn’t so bad now was it?” She said in her most patronising voice. “The anaesthetic will begin to take effect by the time you arrive in Miss Baptiste’s stomach.”

She glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Now,” she exclaimed, “I think it’s time that we put Mr.Blake out of his misery.” She picked up the bowl with both hands and carefully carried it over to Anna who was still seated topless in the ‘dentist’s’ chair. It was as if the two women were waitress and customer in some macabre cannibalistic restaurant. Anna cautiously picked Blake out of the bowl and held him about a foot away from her face, looking up at Mrs.Mitchell as she did so. There was total silence in the room as Mrs.Mitchell retreated to sit down again at the table. Trembling, Blake waited for the right moment to speak with Anna.

Mrs.Mitchell broke the silence: “George William Blake” she proclaimed, reading from a document, her voice ringing clearly throughout the room. “You have been found guilty in absentia…”

Anna drew him a little closer to her face. He grabbed his chance; “Anna!” he called in his tiny voice, “Anna! This is wrong. You know it is…”

“….under sub section thirty six of the prevention of terrorism act of consistently…”

“…You’re a christian Anna!…Anna!!” but she was still looking up at Mrs.Mitchell.

“…and wilfully undermining the security of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and her allies…”

“…Please Anna, I know I’ve done wrong, but please don’t eat me. Teach me how to ask the Lord for forgiveness and I’ll…”  Anna suddenly glanced down at him.

“…You have been sentenced to death by consumption, the sentence to be carried out immediately…”

“…With your help Anna, I too can follow the Lord. Anna, please, help me learn the way of the Lord, please Anna, PLEASE!!” She looked down at him and there was sympathy in her big brown eyes, but it was more the sympathy that a mother might show to a naughty child who’d just begged not to be sent to bed, not someone who was pleading for their life.

“…Is there anything that you wish to say before the sentence is carried out?” Continued Mrs.Mitchell.

“…Anna, in the name of God, HELP ME!” Cried Blake, in sheer desperation. He was still clinging to the hope that she wouldn’t actually go through with it, and indeed at the back of his mind there lingered the notion that the whole situation was some elaborate hoax, dream or fantasy.

“What’s that he said Miss Baptiste?”

“He’s asking for God’s forgiveness.” Replied Anna.

“Well, it’s far too late for that now.” Said Mrs.Mitchell dismissively. “In your own time please Miss Baptiste.”

Anna placed Blake face down on the palm of her hand and put her other hand over his back in case he struggled. Then she lifted him head first up to within an inch of her lips. “Repent unto the Lord and you shall find a place at his side this day.” She whispered.

Blake then realised that all hope had gone and. He had nothing more to say. “Repent unto the Lord…” She repeated. Blake could feel the warm moist air of her breath across his face as she spoke, and he could see her luscious tongue, pink and wet with saliva, moving around inside her mouth as she formed the words. And yes, her teeth were indeed as perfect as Mrs.Mitchell had described them.

Suddenly her mouth opened wide and the tip of her tongue came out, lodging beneath Blake’s chin for a moment, forcing his head upwards. Now he could see all the way to the back of her mouth. She thrust her tongue right under his torso as far as his abdomen and with her thumb and forefinger still around his waist, she drew her tongue back into her mouth with Blake straddled across it. He grimaced as her fearsome teeth passed over his neck. Her tongue squeezed his back against the roof of her mouth and then he felt a shift in gravity as she tilted her head back. He instinctively held out his arms in front of him and tried to grab on to her wet and slippery molars as best he could. With her mouth still wide open, he could see into the dark entrance of her throat.

Over time, Anna had become an expert at swallowing people alive and she knew what Blake would be doing to try and save himself inside her mouth. It was forbidden to forcefully subdue the accused using teeth, so she gently used the back of her tongue to help dislodge his hands, whilst waiting for enough saliva to accumulate at the back of her mouth before allowing herself to gag and swallow.

There was just enough light for Blake to see her uvula abruptly rise up, and the sudden rush of saliva made him let go of her molars and try to cover his face with his hands. Gasping and spluttering, his head then slid into the unyielding and tight confines of her throat. The air in there was fusty and hot making it difficult to breath. Anna’s vigorous tongue exerted yet more pressure against his lower body and he had enough time to recognize that he was quite sexually aroused once more.

Back in the room, Elena watched intently as Blake’s little legs kicked pathetically against Anna’s chin. Anna slowly rocked her head from side to side, then stuck the tip of her tongue right out of her mouth and lodged it up between her victim’s legs, and used it to lever his body further inside.

Blake’s body trembled and shook in one last frantic rapture. His shoulders and torso were squeezed completely into his executioner’s throat and he couldn’t move. He let out a long, muffled, yet shrill cry that could be heard clearly by the others in the room. Elena assumed it was a cry of terror, but Anna and Mrs.Mitchell surmised that there might have been more to it than that.

Elena could see a bulge that quivered inside Anna’s neck. She arched forward to witness the final moment as Blake’s feet dragged over Anna’s lower lip and disappeared. Anna continued to move her head from side to side and swallowed hard five or six times. The bulge sank and eventually disappeared from view, continuing it’s downward journey somewhere behind her shapely breasts. Anna closed her eyes for some seconds and took a series of deep breaths.

Without a word, Mrs.Mitchell came back over to Anna and sat down next to her. She picked up the ultrasound device and put it back on her belly. In reverential silence, the three women turned to look at the laptop which showed in grainy detail the inside of Anna’s stomach as it waited to welcome it’s ill-fated arrival.

For Blake, the journey along the length of Anna’s oesophagus was long and slow. As her peristaltic muscles teased and cajoled him towards his death, he could feel and hear the studious beat of her heart, unhurried and purposeful, taking the whole drama in it’s stride.

Then Elena broke the silence with a small gasp of astonishment as Blake’s head and arms suddenly appeared upside-down at the top of the screen. They hung there for a few seconds until his whole body seemed to be thrust as one down into the pit of Anna’s stomach by an unseen force. Mrs.Mitchell ordered Elena to hit a certain key on the laptop and the room was swiftly filled with the muffled sounds from inside Anna’s stomach.

Lying on his back in the darkness, Blake knew he was as good as dead. He didn’t dare allow himself to think about what was going to happen next, he just hoped that the anaesthetic would work and that the end would come quickly. The fleshy walls around him began to move and he could smell the digestive juices as they oozed out and began to soak his body. “Oh God! Oh God!” he muttered to himself. He seemed to be lying there for an eternity and nothing was happening, but then he felt an intense itching sensation on his back, so he reached underneath to scratch himself but found to his absolute horror that his skin was dissolving and coming off in his fingers. “Oh CHRIST!!” He called out in disgust. “JESUS CHRIST!!!” He cast his arms sideways away from his decaying body and lay there Christ like with them stretched out beside him, clawing desperately at the undulating stomach flesh around him. He closed his eyes and his head began to spin. Some time later he cried out in anguish one last time: “OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” Then he passed out.

The three women watched and listened to the drama as it unfolded before them. Anna, Mrs.Mitchell observed, though perfectly calm and collected like the true professional she clearly was, appeared to have a curious smile of self-satisfaction across her face. Anna was far too worldly wise to be certain that her victim had actually embraced the Lord during his final moments on Earth, but her faith was strong and she saw no reason not to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Once Blake had lain silent for several minutes, moving only with the leisurely undulations of Anna’s stomach, Mrs.Mitchell typed a brief report into her laptop before closing it down. Elena was asked to put away the ultrasound device and wash out the bowl that had held the accused.

Anna was allowed to leave. She walked out of the building and into the autumn sunshine. She would now have a week off and it would be another couple of months before she would have start preparing the paperwork for her next ‘enforcement’ case. As she walked back to her car, she could feel some movement in her stomach as it continued to process Blake's physical remains. His body and soul now her's forever.

She sat in her car, closed her eyes and said a short prayer to thank God for another sinner saved.