Mary parked at the side of the road. She fussed with her hair in the rear view mirror, as though the first ten times weren't enough. One of her coworkers stepped out of her car farther down the road, walked up to the house, and let herself in. Mary knew she should do the same, but her legs were frozen to her seat. 

   When she finally pulled together the resolve to stand up to her boss, Jessica had immediately laughed her down and dismissed the subject. Mary would've given up right there, but it turned out that those coworkers who always seemed to ignore her were watching. They all stayed after work to stick up for her, and the next day Jessica actually apologized and admitted she was taking advantage of her work ethic and over-qualification, promising to treat her better in the future. She even said that Mary was high on the list for a promotion. There was no indication that she would stop hoarding all the male hires, though. 

   Mary was shocked that her coworkers had noticed her, let alone put themselves on the line for her. After that, all three of them came around and introduced themselves one after the other, trying to start conversations and get to know her. Mary did her best to reciprocate, as intimidated as she was. Sometime during high school, she had lost the ability to interact comfortably with her fellow women. 

   Now they had invited her to a party. What could she do but agree? Mary hadn't been to a party since early high school, and that had been a pretty juvenile one. Only two boys showed up, and they didn't even get eaten! Mary's coworkers were so mature, this would be a real party for certain. She didn't feel like she deserved the invitation. 

   Mary checked her hair one more time, and then hopped out of the car. Her feminine body heat shielded her from the biting cold; where a man would have had to bundle up against the weather, Mary was fine in just a sweater and a long skirt. Her coworker's house was a larger, newer construction than her own. A woman's touch could be seen in every fine detail of the architecture. Its pretty, pink front door got closer with every step, and Mary grew no more prepared to open it. 

   When she reached it, she settled on knocking. She could hear womanly voices from the other side, and footsteps fast approaching. The door was opened by her coworker named Authority, letting warm, peaceful music flow out onto the chilly doorstep. The woman didn't quite embody her name, being an overall relaxed and playful person, perhaps even lazy, but in that moment she certainly felt authoritative to Mary. 

   "You came!" She beamed, and pulled Mary into a quick hug. Authority was a slightly petite woman with wavy, black hair and gentle, tired eyes. She was wearing a yellow tank top and jeans. 

   "Hi. . ." 

   "C'mon, lemme introduce you to everyone!" Authority put an arm around her shoulder and walked her to the living room. Mary had been told there would be seven women in attendance including her, which was a small party by normal standards but to Mary it was well out of her comfort zone. All of the ladies were sitting on or around a long red couch and chatting energetically amongst each other. "Mary's here!" announced Authority, and everyone's attention snapped to the newcomer. They greeted her with warmth, waving and calling her name. Mary grinned defensively. 

   Authority pulled her over to a girl she didn't know. "Mary, this is Justice, my little sister! She just graduated high school last year and I'm soo proud of her! You girls have no idea how smart she is, she's going to be a scientist for sure!"

   Justice rolled her eyes. Her black hair was tied up in a ponytail, and her face was sharp and diligent, in contrast to her sister's. "Heyyy Mary~!" She said, smiling kindly. Justice certainly looked smart, but she also had an unmistakable quality of being at the forefront of female social life. Her fashion was immaculate. She wore gorgeous red earrings, a lacy black crop top, and a matching skirt. Mary did her best to smile and wave.

   Next, her coworker showed her to a girl with long blue hair sitting at the end of the couch. "This is Lily!" 

   Lily actually stood up and hugged Mary. "I'm happy to meet you, Mary!" Her voice was smooth and comforting, and the hug felt deeply validating. Still, in this circumstance it mostly just embarrassed her. Lily had gotten dressed up in a pretty white dress. 

   "It's nice to meet you too." Mary blushed. 

   "Lily is in training to be a priestess! Don't get her talking about the Mother Goddess unless you want to be listening for a few hours!"

   Finally, Authority introduced her to the last woman she didn't know. "And this is Elise! She's an absolute witch with computers!" She gestured at a blonde woman sitting atop the armrest of the sofa. Her hair was short and subtly styled, and she was wearing shorts and a red sweater with a cute picture of a snake on it. She had full lips and a somewhat ditsy expression. Elise was the one stranger who Mary had been told about ahead of time. The host, Eileen, had informed her that Elise had a reputation for being a ravenous glutton. She was only twenty three, but had apparently eaten over three hundred men in her life so far. To Mary, sitting on a high score of four, such numbers were incomprehensible. Eileen assured her that Elise was considerate and wouldn't ruin the party, but it was hard to believe. If not for the scientific advancements that allowed for the artificial creation of males to pad out their numbers, girls like this would've eaten all the men long ago. Elise grinned and waved, and Mary nervously reciprocated. 

   "And now you know everyone! I'm gonna get some more snacks, so you can take my seat!" She gestured at an empty space on the couch between Eileen and her other coworker, Lauren. Eileen was such a mature, refined office lady that it was hard to imagine her out of her uniform, but here she was in a low cut shirt and multicolored skirt. She had long, light brown hair which was normally tied up in a braid, but today was set free to flow past her waist. 

   As Mary sat down, Eileen spoke. "Hello! I haven't run into you in a few days. Has Jessica still been treating you right?" 

   "Yes. My workload is much more manageable now. . ." Mary tried to smile but it came out shaky and nervous. 

   Eileen leaned in close and whispered in her ear. "Are you going to be okay? I know this is a lot for you." Mary nodded quickly. "I'm very thankful that you came, Mary." 

   From Mary's other side, Lauren said "I had another talk with Jessica. I don't think she'll be a problem anymore. She's selfish and doesn't think about other people's feelings, but now that we've made her think about it, I think she genuinely feels bad." Lauren was a tall, imposing woman with a serious demeanor. Tonight she was wearing a simple black dress. Mary was told she had a bit of a punk phase in high school, and she easily believed it. At well over seven feet tall, she made even average sized women feel short. Jessica's face turn had to be mostly her doing. 

   As everyone else started to delve back into their conversations and the attention on her was lifted, Mary felt increasingly out of place. Should she try to join in on their conversations? She couldn't imagine how she would do that. It was only then that her eyes wandered around the room, and she noticed the boys trying their best not to be noticed in the darker corners of the room. There were supposed to be five boys in attendance, which wasn't a great ratio but it was alright for such a casual party, as far as Mary knew. One of them was apparently Eileen's younger brother, and she had made it very clear that he was not off limits. In her words from the previous week: "I've been letting him stay with me for a bit, but at this point I just want to get rid of him. Please don't hesitate to swallow him!" Mary made eye contact with a young man and instinctively licked her lips, not realizing she'd done it until fear spread across his face. Who was she kidding, if two people were going to go hungry at this party, one was definitely going to be her. Besides, she would be way too embarrassed to eat a man in front of other women. 

   A thread of the conversation caught Mary's ear. Elise asked "So Justice, what kind of scientist are you going to be?" 

   "I'm studying to be an aerospace engineer." 

   "She's a little rocket scientist!" Authority announced, bringing in a plate stacked with cookies. 

   Justice groaned, but there was a small grin on her face. Her eyes lit up as all the attention in the room fell on her. "Do you know that the Mars colony is still fairly isolated? They're doing great on supplies, but they have already eaten all of the men who came with them on the original mission. The colonization of Mars required a lot of skilled specialists, not to mention just for the journey itself, so there wasn't much room for male passengers on the crew in the first place. Even if we were to send a mission solely to resupply them with men, we would run into the same problems and wouldn't be able to send enough to last them long."

   Everyone listened attentively, even Mary was paying attention, as she hadn't found the time to pay attention to any of these current events over the past few years. Justice crossed her legs and continued, oozing with confidence. "Apparently it's having a noticeable impact on their morale, and I totally get it. These women are the great pioneers of our time, and they don't even get to eat their fill of men? It's unfair! We need as many bright minds as we can get working on improving our capacity for space travel. I'm eager to get involved with the space program as soon as possible, I think I could make a difference! I've even heard talk that we're close to making a breakthrough in developing faster than light travel, and if that's true I want to contribute my intelligence to it before I miss my chance!" 

   Justice finished with a deep breath, then directed her attention to one of the boy's hiding around the edge of the room. "Hey, you!" She snapped her fingers. "Get over here, I want to use you as a footrest!" He very hesitantly obeyed, getting on all fours in front of her. She put her legs down hard, crumpling him flat to the ground, where she firmly pinned him beneath her feet. Authority was absolutely glowing with pride!

   Eventually the ladies decided to put on a movie. What they went with was live action, and not much to Mary's taste. Some of the romantic scenes caught her attention, as they used real internal footage of the actress's stomach, but for the most part she was bored. The constant chatting between her friends had started to overwhelm her, so she left the room to find some peace before the film was over. 

   The nearest room was the kitchen. It was peaceful enough for her purposes, and the others wouldn't question her going there. She leaned awkwardly against the counter and tried to remind herself that there was nothing to fear, she was a girl too and had every right to be here! A slight movement caught Mary's eye, and she noticed there was someone else in the room with her. Next to the fridge in the corner of the room, a boy sat hiding his face behind his knees. The kitchen was an awful hiding place, but it was still one of his best options. If a guy hid too well at a party, the girls would eventually notice his absence and hunt for him, no doubt awakening their predatory instincts in the process. Mary HAD failed to notice him at first, and it was a place where a girl who notices him might already have her sights set on different food. 

   "Hello, cutie!" Mary loomed over the boy, bending over with her hands on her knees. He tilted his head to face her and opened his mouth, but failed to conjure up any words in reply. It wasn't rare for boys to be scared speechless by women, and she didn't take any offense. He looked to be about the same age as her.

   Mary sat down on the floor next to him and held him close with one arm. "Are you okay? You seem upset." He said nothing and shivered against her touch. "There's nothing to be nervous about. You were invited because we're all glad to have you here! Why not come out and play with everyone?" Mary wished she could convince herself of the same thing. The young man stayed quiet, but he seemed to accept her embrace, muscles relaxing their defenses. 

   "It's too much for you isn't it, honey? Us ladies are just too scary?" She wrapped both arms around him and pulled him face first into her chest. The way he melted obediently into her breasts made her heart swell with love. Any chance of his survival was instantly eradicated. "It's okay, I can help you join in on the party!" Mary stopped smothering him and shifted her weight on top of her prey. "You can listen in from inside me!" The boy's face was blank, emptied of any resistance. Maybe her boobs broke his spirit! Mary had seen that happen in anime more times than she could count! She dragged her tongue across his face and savored his taste. 

   She would have loved to take her time, but she was starting to get nervous about someone walking in and seeing her. Hastily, Mary willed the victim to shrink, her red glow reflecting back to her in his obedient eyes as he reduced in size. She held him with the tips of her fingers under his arms and lifted him above her head. The woman tilted her head back and opened her mouth. 

   "Wow Mary, I didn't know you were such a manslayer!" Mary yelped and dropped her prey, who luckily still managed to land on her tongue. Her face felt hot and her muscles seized up. Eileen was watching her from the kitchen entrance, hands on her hips and a delighted expression on her face. Part of her wanted to scream an apology and run away. 

   "How long have you been watching?" Mary asked, speaking around her little morsel. She wanted to just swallow him but she knew Eileen would have some reaction to that. 

   "Since you had him buried in your chest. You must have terrorized the boys back in high school! You're so kind but so. . . merciless!"

   Mary rose to her feet and brushed off her skirt. "Not really. . ." 

   Authority stepped into the room. "Is she eating someone? Don't swallow him yet, that's the first one of the party!"

   "Oh you're right!" Eileen exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "We all know what that means~!" Mary most certainly did not know what that meant. What kind of party tradition had she unwittingly stepped into? Authority took Mary's hand and led her back into the living room, where everyone's eyes were already on her. She left her standing in front of the couch and then joined the others. 

   Mary nervously rolled the boy around on her tongue, feeling expectations boring into her. "Um, what do I. . ."

   "Oh, I'm sorry!" Authority said. "I forgot you hadn't been to a party in a while. It's something that a lot of girls have been doing at parties lately. It's fun to make a big deal out of the first boy to become girlfood for the night, watch him go down and celebrate a bit!" 

   "You don't have to do anything special," Lauren assured. She now had a very obedient boy cuddled up under her arm, his face buried at the side of her breast. "just show him to us and then eat him however you like."

   Mary's eyes flitted back and forth. Hesitantly, she opened her mouth and extended her tongue, revealing the crumpled, sticky form of her meal. There were exclamations of "Cute!" and "How pathetic!" Mary flinched as Authority snapped a photo. After it felt like enough time had passed, she drew the boy back into her mouth. She still felt nervous about swallowing him in front of other people, and stalled by slowly working him to the back of her throat. 

   Authority and Justice started chanting: "Gulp! Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!" Mary finally managed to send him on his way, self conscious about the audible sound that marked his passing of the point of no return. The ladies all cheered and clapped, and Authority opened up a space on the sofa between herself and Lauren's captive. The boy looked at her like she was a goddess as she smoothed out her skirt and sat next to him. 

   Mary held still and hoped that all the attention would shift away from her before too long. She tactfully suppressed a burp, knowing they would cheer even more if they heard it. Authority leaned over and put her head next to Mary's stomach. "How is it in there? I hope you have a good time too!" 

   "I ran into that guy on the street and just handed him an invitation." Eileen added, leaning over the back of the couch. "He was so flustered, but I told him not to worry, that we'd be glad to have him! And we are, aren't we Mary?" 

   "Yes!" He made for a great snack, and maybe all that attention hadn't been SO bad. She felt just a bit more present and involved now that she had gotten through that, and the pleasurable warmth in her belly was doing wonders for her confidence! There was something nice about having so many women encourage her like that, even if she had a hard time appreciating it. 

   Mary stayed around for the rest of the movie. It still didn't appeal to her much, but she liked the happy ending where the stubborn male interest finally admits his love for the lead from inside her stomach. As the credits rolled by, the names of male actors and assistants digested during production put in parentheses under the names of the women who ate them, the rest of the boys at the party started to disappear too. 

   Lauren shrunk down the boy she had been fondling and unceremoniously tossed him down her gullet. Authority surprised Mary by pulling one of the male guests out of her cleavage. Mary never actually counted five boys, so he must have been trapped between her breasts for most of the party without anyone noticing. She took her time kissing his tiny body and teasing him, but before long he had taken the one way trip into the female digestive system too. Justice had already reduced the size of the boy she was trampling at some point during the film, and now she was taking her time mocking him while dangling him over her open mouth. "Why are you even struggling? It's not like you're going to overpower me if you just squirm enough. It's so cute that you think you have a chance!" She took a selfie with her victim in her mouth before swallowing him away.

   The last remaining male guest was aware of his predicament, and seemed to have a plan for his survival. He was scurrying back and forth, diligently delivering the girls whatever snacks and drinks they wanted, and he always asked Lily, Elise, and Eileen if they wanted anything first, knowing they were the ones who hadn't eaten anyone yet. He must have been thinking that if those girls were to fill up on snacks, they might not have any room left for him. 

   Mary was standing against the wall and munching a cookie he had offered her, watching the boy go here and there, when Elise came up beside her. "Hi Mary! I thought it was really fun when you ate the first guy! It was my first time seeing something like that too. I know you didn't do anything flashy, but I thought you did wonderfully! There's a subtle but strong femininity to the way you go about things!"

   "Thank you!" Mary didn't know how to take that coming from someone with such a formidable reputation. She felt an awkward silence begin to unfold, and made an effort to break it. "You've never seen that tradition either? Are only some girls doing it?"

   "I think it's become an almost universal thing! I haven't seen it because I never get invited to these things."

   "Because of your reputation?"

   "That's right. I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at controlling myself around men if I need to be polite, but I guess it's hard for people to believe that. That's why I'm so grateful to everyone here, Eileen and everyone else are some of the few who don't just see me as a mindless predator with no self control!" 

   "Is it really true? That you've eaten over three hundred?" Mary finished her cookie, burying her prey under another mouthful of chewed chocolate chip.

   Elise giggled. "To be honest with you Mary, I stopped counting after like, twenty! The over three hundred number that everyone knows is an estimate that my friend came up with by asking me a ton of questions about my habits. She was furious with me when I told her I didn't know how many I've eaten, only that it was well into the hundreds. She said something like, 'the great deeds of women must be recorded for future generations' and went on a rant!" 

   "Maybe she has a point?" Mary said. Part of her was beating herself up for being jealous of and intimidated by Elise until now. How could she have forgotten all the lessons that her favorite anime have to give about standing by your fellow women and trusting in the goodness of femininity? "It does make people nervous, but what you do is amazing! If you keep it up you actually will be inspiring future generations! I hear that the ratio of men to women is always going up, so we'll need more women like you to keep them in check!"

   "Aww, thanks! It actually feels great to hear you say that! I'd love to say that my reasons for being such a bottomless pit are so altruistic, but I'm just an addict. I simply cannot get enough of those little guys!"

   "Whatever your reasons may be, eating a man is always a good deed!" Mary felt like she was instinctively quoting an anime with that line, but she couldn't remember what it was from.

   "Truer words have never been spoken!" 

   "Why don't you help yourself to that last boy?" 

   "I couldn't, I wouldn't want to deprive someone else of a snack." 

   Motivated both by compassion and a desire to see such a master in action, Mary insisted. "It's not like there's anything wrong with having just one for yourself. I'm sure everyone who cared if they got to eat one today already did." 

   "Wellllll, maybe it would be okay if I ate him. Eileen is probably not going for it because she's the host, and Lily probably has a bunch of rules about prayers and stuff she has to do when eating a guy, so maybe it IS up to me to make sure he doesn't go home alive."

   Mary wasn't sure if either of those reasons applied, but she liked where this was going. "We can't just let him go undigested, can we?"

   "Right! I'll eat him then! But you should join me too, we can make it a collaborative effort!"

   Mary nodded excitedly. She was quickly growing to idolize Elise. The woman had a lot in common with the heroines of some of her favorite anime. 

   "Okay, listen to this! I've been keeping an eye on this guy. He keeps running back and forth between the kitchen and the living room delivering snacks, right? Well, I noticed that when he feels like he won't be needed for a while, he sneaks down the hall and hides in the room at the end. Probably cries or hyperventilates or something until he needs to get out here again."

   "Oh, I see!"

   "Right? I can hear him in the kitchen right now. Wouldn't it be funny if he went down the hall for some safety and found two girls waiting for him there?"

   Mary nodded. "Hilarious."

   They tiptoed past the kitchen and entered the boy's safe room. It was a small, sparsely furnished bedroom, probably for use by guests. The two agreed that Mary would sit on the bed, while Elise would wait beside the door where he wouldn't see her until he was already inside. They stayed quiet so as not to blow the surprise, but they couldn't help but chuckle at each other a few times. Games like this awakened a primal pleasure within women: the thrill of the hunt!

   After only a few minutes, the door opened in that cautious, masculine fashion. Like a rabbit who approached the watering hole at the wrong time of day, he froze in his tracks at the sight of the predator grinning at him from atop the bed. Elise slammed the door shut and lunged at him, wrapping her arms around the victim from behind. 

   "Were you trying to hide in here? Now why would you do that?" Elise's small stature was highly noticeable now, standing only a few inches taller than the boy. 

   "N-no! I just didn't want to get in the way, that's all!"

   "You know it isn't very cute when boys lie, right?" Elise stepped on the inside of his knee and brought him flat to the carpet. She planted a foot on his back before he could attempt a single struggle. "I know you were hiding. You were trying to keep yourself out of sight so no one gets the idea to eat you." 

   "That's so selfish!" Mary added. "Do you want a girl to go home hungry?"

   The boy knew he was well past the point where he could argue his case, so he just silently cried instead. "Mary, have you ever beaten a guy up? I think this is a situation that calls for a beating!" 

   "I haven't." She'd hit a few boys before, but she never took it much farther. "Let's do it!" 

   Elise aimed a swift kick at the victim's abdomen, causing him to groan in pain. Mary slipped off the bed and self consciously lifted her leg. "Just kick him Mary, you can do it!" Mary let out a timid battle cry and swung her leg at him wildly, hitting him on the rib cage. She felt a satisfying crack, and a lust for violence ignited within her heart. She slammed her heel down and struck his exposed arm as he attempted to curl up into a ball. Elise kicked him several times on the back before going for a powerful stomp on his head. 

   Once both of them had their fill of kicking his fragile male body, Elise lifted him up and held him in a standing position in front of her. Blood streamed down the side of his head and dripped from his nose. He couldn't have stood on his own. He hardly looked conscious. Elise licked some of the blood from his cheek and said "Want to punch him a bit? I'll hold him steady!"

   Mary threw herself into the task with elation, she punched him in the stomach, she punched him in the face, she even aimed for the throat. Men were certainly food first and foremost, but they were also like dolls that were meant to be broken in whatever way the owner liked. Mary wanted to twist off his limbs at the joints, and unscrew his head so slowly that he feels every little rotation as infinite agony. 

   "Mary! Stop, stop! I want him to still be alive when I eat him!" 

   Mary held herself back mid punch, suddenly very self aware and embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, I got so carried away, I-" 

   "It's okay! Honestly, that was amazing to watch! There's so much more to you than I thought!" Elise examined the boy, then said, "Look, he's even still awake! Perfect!" The boy whimpered and squirmed uselessly against her grip. He wasn't able to stand at all anymore, Elise practically carried him. Mary had smashed his throat too much for him to have a hope of speaking. 

   "All this violence is enough to make a girl hungry!" Elise exclaimed. The next moment her eyes were radiating red light. Never before had Mary seen a man shrink so quickly and seamlessly. Instead of a slow reduction, the boy simply changed from normal sized to bite sized in the blink of an eye, landing directly in Elise's hand. 

   She licked his entire body, enjoying the combination of blood and fear. Saliva dripped from her mouth as she tasted him again and again. Mary sucked the blood off of her knuckles as she watched. Elise tossed her prey over her head and gracefully snapped him up as he came down. She stuck out her tongue to show Mary how he tried and failed to prop himself up on bruised limbs, slipping on spit and sinking into the plush flesh of her tongue. Mary waved at him, and Elise closed her lips on the morsel, letting him see the outside world for one moment longer before her tongue slid across her lips and took him in with it. She swallowed with a look of pure bliss on her face, and then winked and licked her lips at Mary.

   Elise gently rubbed her stomach. "I'd almost feel bad for you, if you weren't so pathetic. Well, I'm sure you've learned your lesson! All you've gotta do now is digest and you're completely forgiven!" Elise ended the last sentence that would ever be addressed to the poor victim with a light pat to her belly, and Mary clapped in approval. The two women laughed together, and Elise flopped over onto the bed. "I need a breather after all that! That was so fun, Mary!"

   Mary let herself lie down beside her. "I'm sorry I lost control of myself. I had never felt that way before, I just got so absorbed." 

   "Seriously Mary, don't apologize! You stopped when I asked you to. I have to tell you, I went to high school with a girl who just HATED boys. She would beat them up every chance she got, and she was relentless! She killed two boys that way, that I knew of. She was really athletic and strong, but you have every bit of intensity that she did. Like a goddess of wrath! I'm just glad I got to see it, you're amazing!"

   "Thank you. . ." Mary had never been compared to a goddess before, and genuinely didn't know what to say.

   They relaxed in silence for a few minutes, their stomachs occasionally growling as they began their slow, torturous work on their male guests. Eventually, Elise said "So, you're into anime, right?"

   Mary felt called out. "Um, I am! How did you know?" She hadn't yet discussed her interests with her coworkers. 

   "I just guessed, I thought you might be since you quoted the first episode of Starlight Goddess. 'Whatever your reasons are, eating a man is always a good deed!' It is a pretty great line! I've been into anime ever since I was a kid!"

   "Oh?" Mary was excited to have something in common with Elise, but she had no idea where to go from here. 

   "I love magical girl anime the most! It's such a wonderful genre that even the pre-matriarchy ones are good! My favorite is the 2039 revival of Sailor Moon! The original will always be great, but it just makes so much more sense with a matriarchal touch!"

   "I like them too! It's much newer, but my favorite anime is Pinkblade Yumi."

   "Pinkblade is great! It was nice to see a magical girl who can get bloody without being defined by it. It always remains a cute show at heart."

   "Right! It's such a comfort for me, I can never feel down when I watch it." 

   "So, how did you get into anime?" Elise asked.

   "I grew up with it. My mom was into anime and she always watched stuff with me when I was a kid. How about you?"

   "Well, it's kind of sad."

   "I don't mind!"

   Elise rolled to the side and faced away from Mary. "So, I'm a short girl. 5'11 to be exact. Still taller than most guys, at least. But when I was a kid, I was VERY small. A lot of boys were taller than me. Other girls didn't want to hang out with me, sometimes I was told that I might as well play with people my own size. So I had a lot of male friends as a kid, but you can only go so far with people who aren't your equals. I spent most of my time at home, hiding in my room watching anime and playing video games all night. My childhood wasn't all lonely though! The internet was a place where no one knew my height, so I was able to make a lot of great friends with the same interests. It just took me a while to be brave enough to approach other girls, and it took me until I was an adult to actually be comfortable with showing myself in person and being honest about my height. Anime was at the center of my whole childhood, it's how I coped with not having friends, it's how I eventually managed to make friends, and it's probably what gave me the inspiration to be brave and take risks in the first place!"

   "Wow, I'm sorry you had to go through that!" Having reached her comfortable current height of 6'4 early in high school, her size was never a concern. Mary struggled to relate, as she felt like her loneliness in her teenage years to now was entirely her own fault. She just got so focused on what she was doing that she never made time for anyone else. 

   "Thanks, it all turned out alright so I'm not resentful or anything. In high school, a lot of the girls who used to bully me apologized to me. One of them even gave me her brother as a gift to make it up to me! For some reason that made me so mad at the time that I chewed him up right in front of her, but in retrospect it was a pretty nice gesture and I should've been more graceful about it." 

   They laughed at the anecdote, and then Mary asked "Is anime also what inspired you to eat so many boys?"

   "Oh, well I guess it might have, but that started out as more of an act of rebellion. When I turned sixteen and started to be able to shrink boys, I started bullying and devouring them constantly. I guess I figured that no one could think of me as being on the same level as them if I was constantly terrorizing them, but before long I was just doing it because I loved it! A lot of girls really hated me for being so greedy, but at least I was disliked for something I had done and not my height."

   "I have to admit. . . I didn't like you either when I first heard about you. I thought you were just greedy and selfish. I judged you without even knowing you. I had to actually start talking to you before I remembered not to doubt the quality of a fellow woman's heart. I'm so sorry." 

   Elise turned over and wrapped Mary in a hug. "I forgive you! I'm glad to hear that talking to me is what changed your mind, and I can't blame you for being intimidated. There ARE girls who will dominate a party and eat every man there in fifteen minutes if no one stops them!" 

   "Thank you, Elise!" Mary reciprocated the hug, although she was embarrassed to. After a few more moments they separated, and Elise started to giggle. "What is it?" asked Mary.

   "Do you think Eileen will be mad that we got boy blood all over the carpet. . . and the covers. . ." She slowly lifted her heel out of the sticky bloodstain it had tracked on the bed. They had really made a mess of that poor boy. 

   "Ahh. . . oh no. . ." Domestic bloodstains became considerably more common after the advent of the matriarchy, and industrious women had developed more effective ways of removing them, but it was still a hassle. 

   "Don't worry Mary, I'll tell her later! You don't have to stress about it! Maybe she'll even like it, I don't clean bloodstains at my place unless they're really bad." Mary must have continued to look mortified, as Elise stood up and said, "C'mon Mary, let's go back and see what the girls have been up to!"

   Mary sheepishly followed Elise back to the living room, where everyone was still relaxing and chatting. Justice abruptly let out a hearty burp as they walked in, and said "Mmmm! Eileen, your brother was delicious! I LOVE boys who struggle while you digest them, and this guy has been fighting for his life all night! It's like he genuinely thinks he can get out of my stomach!"

   "Ugh, I thought I taught him to be more obedient than that!" Eileen shook her head. "I'm glad you're enjoying him anyway. Finally, someone has a use for him!"

   Lauren joined in, "Mine has been nothing but peaceful. Truly a delight to have! Where did you get him, Eileen?"

   "The one you ate was the only guy here who asked to be invited! He saw me handing another boy his invite and begged me to let him come!"

   Lauren put a gentle hand to her stomach and whispered "Good boy."

   The host noticed Mary and Elise, and called out "Hey ladies! How was the last snack of the night?" 

   "Pitiful!" answered Elise with a smirk. Mary nodded silently from behind her, and the women on the sofa laughed cruelly. Everyone could see the blood on Elise's legs and Mary's arms. 

   Authority spoke up. "So whose house are we going to use next time we do this? What about Mary's, are you up to it?"

   "Ah, n-no, I wouldn't have enough room, and-"

   "She's just teasing you." Elise said. "Maybe I'll do it next time, I've got a lot of space."

   Elise took a seat with the others and the conversation carried on. Meanwhile, Mary realized she was at her limit. There wasn't an ounce of socialization left in her. It was time to escape. 

   "Um, I'm going to go now. I had a lot of fun! Thank you, everyone, for having me!"

   "Aww, are you sure?" Authority pleaded. "There's still a lot of fun to be had!"

   "Yeah. . . I'm exhausted." 

   "Thank you for coming, Mary!" Eileen said, and the rest of the girls said the same and added their goodbyes. Mary waved, and then hurried out the door.

   Before she reached the sidewalk, Elise called out from behind. "Hey, wait up!" Mary stopped and waited for her to say what she meant to, tensing up in anticipation of an accusation for some reason. Instead, she said "I wanted to ask you something before you left! Do you want to be friends?"

   "Ah, of course. I would be glad to be your friend! Girls who eat together, stay together!" 

   Elise laughed. "Now you're quoting Pinkblade Yumi at me? You're adorable!" That one Mary had fully intended. Elise beamed, and pressed herself against Mary in a warm embrace. Coincidentally, both of their stomachs gurgled at the same time, reminding them of the prey still suffering within their bodies. Neither of them wanted to end the hug for a while, but after some time they let each other go. "Bye Mary! I'll see you soon!"

   As Mary returned to her vehicle, she felt happier than she had in a long time, happier even than when she had picked up that delicious boy off the street! She had a lot to look forward to! She went through most of high school with almost no friends, and now she had several. Maybe it was really true that life goes perfectly for every woman no matter what, given a bit of patience. She certainly hadn't seen any evidence to the contrary. Regardless, she couldn't doubt that this day on its own had been perfect, no matter how much stress she had to push through. What could be a better outcome for an evening than a new friendship between women, and an agonizing death for several men?