Loni’s consciousness re-emerged, but he had questions right away. He believed that Trish’ body had broken him down and destroyed him. He should have been dead. But he was thinking. How could this be? He felt the acids ripping into his flesh, he felt his mind become scattered before falling into complete oblivion. Blankness. Yet, here he was. The location was non-descript, and in fact, not even describable. All he could perceived at this moment was totally blankness. Everything seemed impossibly silent. He had no sense of touch, as if he was just floating in the air in some unknown void of space. There was also no smell. It was as if he was conscious, with all of his memories and thoughts, but his sensory apparatus had been taken away from him.

As he gathered his scattered mind, that’s when he reflected on everything Trish had previously told him. The spell! The plan she had for his afterlife! This had to be the first stage of that horror! Immediately a great sense of dread rushed through him. He panicked, but had nowhere to direct it. All he had to his being were these racing thoughts and the knowledge that sooner or later that demonic witch was going to show herself again. It was then that Loni had a ‘speak of the devil’ moment.

Trish’ face appeared in front of him. Although it gave him the most minute sense of place in space and time, it was not much of a reassurance seeing the face of the horrible being that did this to him. He was able to float around slightly, but not so far as to fall out of her view. It was like he was locked on a 45 degree plane of movement that was locked on the centre of Trish’ face, her big smiling face filled with joy.

“I hope the digestion process wasn’t too harsh, little Loni!” Trish said, bursting out into a wave of laughter.

“What have you done to me?! Oh god, please, let me go!”

“Oh, it’s much too late for that now Loni, I’m afraid. Yes sir, far, far too late.” She kept snickering and smiling through her entire explanation. “You see, I couldn’t even bring you back even if I wanted to! You wanna know why?”

Loni was petrified. He didn’t know if this was but another stage of the psychological torment that Trish had been inflicting on him, to leave him questioning, or if she was genuinely telling the truth. Trish had not made herself out to be a trustworthy person in any way. But he had no choice, but to continue listening; he hoped for the best if the ‘best’ of anything was even possible at this point. He didn’t even know if he existed anymore. Was he alive or dead? He remained silent to let her continue.

“You see, Loni, my stomach has broken down your body. What was left of your physical form is now nothing more than a pile of sludge now being sucked of all of its nutrients to nourish my beautiful body! So where that does put you? Well, believe it now if you didn’t already Loni, but there is an after life. Souls normally go away to some distant faraway realm to sleep in eternal peace. It’s a really happy place. Every soul who has ever gone there, no matter how tortured during their time in the land of the living, is forever in a state of bliss. But this will never happen to you. Ever. You are now a soul without a body. A lost soul that’ll never truly enter the afterlife as our universe knows it. You are now a soul totally attached to my body, to my existence. All you’re ever going to be able to do is float around me forever, now a permanent part of my very being. I couldn’t even cast a spell using the power of the stone you gave me to change that fact. Thanks for that stone, by the way, you were a real great help with all that!”

Loni began to plead and wail. “What the fuck?! What the actual fuck?! Trish please, if you’re just toying with me, I beg you to let me go! My offer from before still stands! I won’t say a word of this to anyone! Restore my body! Put my soul back where it belongs! Or let me go to the afterlife! I don’t care which one! Just not… THIS!”

The darkness around him began to disperse as the room was illuminated with a hue of green. He could now see more than Trish’ face. He was floating in the middle of the air in Trish’ underground dungeon, where she kept all of her treasures. Loni noticed that his sense of sexual arousal had no disappeared even without his body giving him physiological cues. Trish was still in her green bikini and looked as gorgeous as ever. Her large breasts somehow looked even more impeccable in the bright green light, but Loni also suspected that with the magic of the stone that Trish was playing tricks on him. He just didn’t want to let go of the possibility that this was reversible.

What was worse was that Trish, lying about that irreversibility or not, had no intention. It could have been a total lie and it still wouldn’t help him.

Loni was able to float about slightly more around the room, and raced around Trish’ body in circles, but he couldn’t seem to get any further than two feet from her. If he tried to place some distance between himself and her, it was like there was some kind of force pulling him back in towards her. It was like an invisible rope, or swimming against impossibly strong waves. That’s when it really sank in: He really was connected to her in an intimate way that he wanted no part of.

“Well, Loni, you can keep trying to float away if you like. Try all day if you want. You’ll only tire yourself out. Do souls need exercise? I don’t think they do!” Trish said, breaking out into more laughter.

Loni was speaking, but more to himself than to her. “It’s… it’s like… I moved further away from you and then this energy just pushes me right back. How is this possible?”

“Anything is possible with magic, dear. Well… almost anything. I can’t bring you back to life. Now… let me really show you something spectacular.”

Trish walked out of the basement and headed back upstairs, causing Loni’s floating soul to be dragged along for the ride as if he was a dog on a leash. His free will was gone. He couldn’t stay in the basement if he wanted to. Where Trish went, he went. She made her way up to her bedroom and spread herself out on the mattress. Loni couldn’t help but think how incredible a sight this would have been if he was still in his human form and was about to have a night of passion with her. Everything else in the picture lined up.

“Now,” Trish said, “let’s take a look at what’s left of you.”

Trish rubbed her hands against her belly, casting a spell that seemed to create a window into her insides. It was as if her flesh had turned clear like glass. Loni looked on astounded. It wasn’t something he was expecting to see.

“Look close, Loni,” Trish urged.

It didn’t take long for Loni to notice what she was motioning him towards. Although it was little more than sludge, he could still make out of the form of a human body; his body. Trish was cradling her belly, pushing into the gaps of her flesh to shake her digestive acids around, sending waves through the pool and shifting the sludge about. All while doing this, Trish was staring at Loni’s soul with a sadistic knowing grin. She didn’t need to say anything. This was how she rubbed in his death.

“Look all you want, Loni,” she said, “but you can’t do a thing. Your body is being broken down. There’s so little of it left now. Your nutrients are being spread around to every corner of my body, nourishing my very being. It’s as though you were nothing more than a piece of lamb washed down with a dash of wine. Food. Nothing more!”

Trish then felt a sudden movement in her body. She and Loni both looked back down towards the window into her stomach. It was the log that was previously Loni’s body. It was being sucked down into the bottom of Trish’ stomach and into her small intestine, preparing for its long journey to exit Trish’ body.

Trish started to laugh at the floating soul in front of her as she lay down and continued to cradle her stomach.

“Just look, Loni. Nature taking its course! My body is ripping apart everything it wants from you and throwing the rest away. How does it feel? Hmm? Becoming little more than a piece of my poop? It must feel so damn humiliating am I right?”

Loni simply looked on, stunned and feeling utterly defeated. He couldn’t believe that the substance he was watching cruise through Trish’ body were his remains. It barely resembled a human being at this point. Even if it was a piece of food Trish asked him to look at he’d never have been able to identify it.

“Hold on, I think I misspoke. You’re not a piece of my poop. No… your body is now a piece of my poop! You though, like the conscious you, your soul? That IS me. Never to be anything else.”

It was in this moment that Loni’s future, rather than his past, flashed before his eyes. Loni was imagining all the times that lay ahead of him, and how this situation was truly permanent. He would never be away from Trish. He would never seen the outside of this lair of hers or this forest again if Trish chose to live that way. With the power of the green stone, Trish would never face death. He had already died, but he had been robbed of the entitlement that was an afterlife. As it all dawned on him, he felt sick to his non-existent stomach and panicked at the same time. He didn’t even know what the next course of action was, because it appeared begging wasn’t going to help him, and he didn’t even want to tease the idea of what verbally fighting back and cursing her name would do. This woman could inflict suffering on him in ways he couldn’t imagine. Going down that road wasn’t the way. He decided, in his emotionally defeated state, that the best course of action was to be passive and just hope that Trish had a molecule of empathy and kindness in her. Just maybe she wouldn’t make eternity more sufferable than necessary if he behaved.

Trish was rolling about back and forth in her bed, feeling somewhat of a food coma after eating Loni, but way too excited to simply fall asleep. There was too much rubbing it in and psychological torment to partake in and the night was still young.

“Oh, Loni, I can feel all the minerals from your corpse being spread throughout my blood. Your iron, your magnesium, vitamins of all types. You’re making my body so much healthier, more rich, more powerful.”

Loni said nothing. He was still watching her intestines through the fleshy window blankly.

Trish continued. “Oh, don’t be that way, Loni. You have to think about what a privilege all this is! You have just been made part of the most powerful being in the universe! Think about the role that you’re going to play in me one day conquering all of the realm! You’ll get to witness it all, be by my side… if I let you.”