Vignette #2 - Sweet Morsels

Though he was in complete darkness, Richard could feel the world around him rocking in a steady motion. It was so much so that he could not keep a steady footing, so he simply sat down on the ground. Or floor. Or whatever one would call the cardboard bottom of the containment that he and three other hapless victims were inside of. Even then, they were knocked to and fro, sometimes even colliding with each other, but they hardly reacted to the impacts. They all had since lost their will to fight.

All four of the men were subjected to horrors that they never thought possible before their individual ordeals began. To begin with, each one of them was, at present, only an inch-and-a-half tall, reduced from their once-proud statures by what could only be described as arcane magic. Their tormentor took great care to abuse them just enough so that they would not die, for it appeared that she had other plans for them.

He did not know if this current transport tied into those plans, but he was afraid to find out.

Not that he had any choice in the matter, all things said.

The men inside were all silent, except for the grunts of the occasional collision. Perhaps the other men could sense the impending danger, and dared not speak of it.

Soon, however, their short journey ended with a thud below them. Then, they could hear shuffling from above, before the light suddenly rained down and stung their retinas. The covering of their containment had been removed, and as their eyes adjusted to seeing a glimpse of the outside for the first time that day, they found themselves looking face-to-face with the young woman who started this all.

Unlike the minuscule, naked men inside of the box, she was still her normal human size, an estimated 5-foot-4 or 5-foot-5, though to them, she was more comparable to the tall high-rises seen downtown. Her young Asian face looked down upon the men, her mouth curved into a slight grin as one could see the clear eagerness in her dark eyes. Neither Richard nor the other men had any idea what this woman, Valerie, was planning, but they knew that it was no good.

"You guys are looking really good right now," Valerie said, before licking her lips. "I'm really looking forward to this."

Her massive fair-skinned hand then reached into their containment and began to pluck them out, one-by-one, between its index finger and thumb. Richard was the third one to be taken out and placed into the palm of her other hand. Once his bare feet hit the soft flesh of her hand, Richard could get a better look at his surroundings; needless to say, they were still inside of Valerie's house, but had been moved to an unfamiliar room. Unfamiliar in the sense that they had never physically been in this specific room, but judging by the sink, the wall cabinets, the microwave on a distant counter, and the silver refrigerator, it was clear that they were in her kitchen. Compared to the kitchen of Richard's own residence, it was nothing special, but he could not exactly feel proud of his higher socio-economic standing in this situation.

Richard suddenly got a bad feeling. As he exchanged nervous glances with the now three other men rejoining him in her gigantic palm, he could tell that the feeling was mutual.

Valerie carried the group a short distance, after which she sat down in a chair and then tilted her hand slightly over the table she sat before. Due to the incline, all of the men slid off from her hand and fell onto a hard, cool white surface. As her hand pulled away, Richard and the men examined what they had been set upon; the ceramic object was circular, with a bit of a slight incline surrounding them on all sides. There were what looked like small crumbs scattered here-and-there, as well as trace amounts of juice of some kind. Past the white, they could just barely see a greater brown landscape, likely the wood of the table. Even further, he could see the night outside of the kitchen window, its shades drawn to a close.

To their right was a wine glass half-filled with red liquid inside; whether said liquid was wine or not was a mystery to Richard. To the opposite side was a white bowl; its contents, if any, were also unknown. Right in front of them was Valerie herself, her face wearing a voracious mask.

It did not take two brain cells to figure out that they had been set upon a plate. And it seemed that Valerie was just about ready to enjoy a meal.

That bad feeling Richard and the other men were experiencing intensified. With no actual food--or remaining food--to be seen, it was clear just what this meal would consist of.

"You guys are looking really delicious right now," Valerie spoke to them, essentially confirming their fears. "I'm really looking forward to this."

Burt, to Richard's immediate left, took a step forward and spoke out at the sadistic giant. "Wait, you seriously gonna eat us!?" He said in a horrified tone.

"Mm-hm," Valerie nonchalantly answered as she reached over to her right, and picked up something from the table. Once her hand returned, Richard could see that her fingers held onto a pair of wooden sticks, bound together by a small ribbon. "I know chopsticks are kinda stereotypical, but..." She undid the ribbon, separating them and then nimbly holding both sticks in her right hand. "They really are the best for eating you guys."

Richard had heard enough, and it seemed that the other men all felt the same, as they each bolted in the opposite direction, intending to find some way to escape this grisly fate.

"Where do you all think you're going?" Valerie said. "It's pointless to run away, because I can just catch you all again."

Nonetheless, they persisted, eventually jumping off of the white plate that held them and onto the greater wooden table. Still in their group of four, they kept at it, aiming at no particular destination but to get away from this clearly-unhinged woman. For a while, it seemed as if she was just content on watching them flee.

That was, until the chopsticks attacked.

First, they grabbed onto Richard, clutching him by the torso. He kicked and screamed and fought to free himself, but to no avail; he expected the worst as he was taken off from the table and pulled backwards. However, he found himself dropped back onto the center of the plate. Lonnie and Jake followed suit, both of them being brought back and dropped down besides Richard.

Finally, there was Burt, who like his companions was captured by Valerie's chopsticks and taken into the air. However, rather than return him onto the plate, the screaming man was instead taken past it, towards the bowl to their side.

"Let's add some more flavor to you, my sweet chocolate tart," Valerie said, dunking the still-screaming man into the bowl twice via the chopsticks, operating them with masterful dexterity.

After the second time, Burt was pulled completely out of the bowl but suspended a few inches above it. Richard and the other men saw that he was now coated with a thick dark brown sauce, not unlike chocolate. She let him remain there for a few seconds, perhaps to let to residual sauce drip from his body.

"Mmm, now you look even more scrumptious!" Valerie pulled Burt closer to her face, the unfortunate, wannabe rapper still hollering at the top of his lungs while flailing his limbs. "Now, it's time to dig in!"

"No, no!!" Burt shouted as her mouth opened and he was moved inside of it, the dual sticks finally releasing their hold and allowing him to drop inside.

His begging and pleading all but disappeared--at least from the remaining men's point-of-view--once Valerie's lips sealed the man inside. Then, after a two second wait, during which she shot the men a wicked smile, she started to chew.

The men winced as they could hear the crunching from inside of her mouth, even at Burt's paltry size. It was horrific, how easily and gleefully this evil young woman munched upon a fellow human being. The only solace that Richard could take was that Burt's death was a quick albeit ghastly one.

Of course, at Burt's size, it did not take long for him to be completely mashed up into bits, and so Valerie soon swallowed whatever was left of him down into her system. Then, with her other hand, she took a hold of the wine glass--holding it by its underside stem between her fingers--and sipped a bit of the beverage from within.

"Shit, whatdowedo?" Jake wondered aloud. "We hafta get outta here!"

"What's the point?" Lonnie retorted. "She'll just get us again. We can't get away from this." There was clear fear mixed with contempt in his voice.

"That's right," Valerie said as she returned the wine glass to the table. "The sooner you all behave, the sooner you will all be in my belly. Now, who's next?"

Lonnie gritted his teeth in anger. "You bitch..."

Valerie grinned slightly. "Looks like we have a volunteer."

Despite his words, Lonnie did in fact try to run from the approaching chopsticks, which covered more distance via the air than his tiny feet could carry on the plate. Before he could even reach the edge, the brown-haired stock-broker was plucked into the air and, like Burt before him, was dunked into the bowl of sauce.

"A chocolate-coated vanilla wafer..." Valerie mused as she brought Lonnie towards her lips. "Let's see if you're as tasty as that sounds!"

With that, Valerie bit at Lonnie held by the pair of sticks, snatching him from them and taking the unlucky man into her mouth. Again, after a brief stall, he too was chewed on, his frail, helpless body being brutally masticated by her comparably-powerful teeth. Valerie vocalized subtle sounds of satisfaction while she continually reduced Lonnie into mush within her mouth.

Jake was aghast. "Oh my god... This really is it..." He fell to his knees, and broke down into tears; this display from the formerly-bulldoggish attorney nearly made Richard tear up as well of his own impending demise.

After all, like the other men, Richard had his own long life to live through. He had just been promoted to sales manager, and his ladder still had steps to climb. He had tentative plans to tour Europe and Asia. He was looking forward to becoming an uncle, as his sister's child was due in a month. He was also in the process of helping to plan his buddy's bachelor party, as well as serving as the best man in the subsequent wedding. There was a cute secretary who was recently hired that he wanted to take out on a date at some point, and see where it went.

He should have ignored Valerie's advances at Harlow's, the bar that he sometimes went to to ease the stress of the day. Even though she looked like a typical young Asian American woman--not unlike the many intelligent and ambitious ones he had repeated contact with throughout college and in his corporate life--deep down he could feel that something was off about her. But his mind below his waist made him shrug off those warnings, and now look where that had gotten him.

"Goddammit, why didn't I just leave when I was supposed to?" Richard muttered to himself, just as Valerie had finished swallowing Lonnie.

"Oh, he was," she she vibrantly stated as she took another sip of her drink. "That's two down. It's a shame that I don't have more of you to munch on. You guys don't last too long." She sighed. "Oh well, guess that means I have to make this special."

Again, her chopsticks approached the plate, upon which the remaining two men watched her nervously. There was now a 50/50 chance that either of them would be next, and her hand stopped halfway to the plate as her eyes shot back-and-forth from the both of them.

"Now the question is," she said, "Which one of you do I eat next? Hmm..." She seemingly pondered this in her head as her chopsticks joined in on switching its aim from Richard to Jake and then back again and again. "Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate or vanilla?"

The men did not say anything; no matter who was picked next, the other would follow immediately after. It was a pointless argument to even consider debating.

Her gaze fell upon Jake, and she smiled. "Chocolate is my favorite flavor. ...Which is why I'm gonna save you for last."

Richard's heart sank as her eyes shifted to him, right before the chopsticks in her right hand pounced on him. He did not try to fight it; he allowed himself to be taken up from the plate and carried into the air.

"Cute and blond," Valerie mused. "Candy would be really jealous of me right now."

Like the previous two men, Richard was moved over to the bowl of chocolate syrup, which from his position he could now get a good look of. The dark brown sauce only filled a third of the bowl, though even that seemed more than enough for this evil woman to consume the remaining men with.

He was not given much time to marvel at it, for he was very quickly dipped into the bowl. The sweet, sugary sauce was forced into his nostrils and mouth, and despite closing his eyes right before impact, he could still feel some of it nonetheless infiltrating his eyelids. Still submerged inside of the pool, Richard held his breath as he was briefly moved around inside by the chopsticks--perhaps to coat him with as much sauce as possible--before he was finally pulled from the thick sauce. He coughed and hacked as he struggled to catch his breath, while chocolate poured from his body and dripped back down into the bowl. He did his best to wipe some of it from his face, though all he accomplished was moving it around due to his hands also being wet with the fluid.

He was brought closer to her face, in particular her mouth's pinkish lips. Seeing her massive face so up close made him tremble with more fear than before. He was nothing more than helpless prey, just about to be consumed by its predator.

"In you go," those massive lips spoke, before fully separating and taking him inside of its dark, humid cavern.

He was dropped upon a soft, damp surface--her tongue, no doubt--as the air around him smelled of a putrid mix of vegetables, meat, and chocolate. Once he was left in complete darkness--so black that he could not even see his hand right in front of his face--he braced himself for his violent end, expecting the tongue to transport him onto her teeth and crush him to bits.

Instead, he found himself being rolled and tossed around by the wet appendage. It rubbed him against the roof of her mouth, dashed him against her soft cheeks--narrowly avoiding her teeth--and briefly pinned him below it in the poll of liquid at the bottom of her mouth. Through this, the coat of chocolate was exchanged with a coat of saliva. It was clear that she was toying with him, savoring every bit of him before she made the final crunch. Richard wished that she would just get it over with and end his misery.

He soon found himself dropped back on the tongue's surface, where after a brief pause, the tongue pushed him against the mouth's ceiling and started to move him backwards. Lying there, he wondered just where the tongue was trying to take him, until the decline he started feeling with his legs gave him a clue. Before he could react, he felt himself falling down into a deep, warm pit.

He screamed while he slid down a damp, flesh cylinder, her esophagus. Meaning, he knew just where he was headed, alive. It seemed that rather than chew him up like Burt and Lonnie, she instead opted to swallow him whole. His final horror had only just begun.

Indeed, he eventually found himself freefalling into a much larger chamber, before hitting a pool of liquid that immediately started stinging him severely. Richard screamed in complete agony as the stomach acid ate away his flesh, instinctively trying to swim to safety, even though he knew that there was no such thing. The pain was so excruciating that he could think of nothing else.

Soon, he went into shock and passed out.

~~~

Valerie sipped some of her cherry juice from the wine glass she had set besides her plate. Pretty sweet, just how she liked it. Not just the juice, but her small treats as well.

After munching on the first two men, she had decided to swallow the last two alive. Richard--she believed that was his name--did not appear to put up much of a fight, both after she picked him up with her chopsticks, and after he was imprisoned within her mouth. In fact, once she had stopped toying with him, he was so immobile that she thought that he had died, which would have been disappointing; after all, it's more fun when they struggle, just as the first two men did before her teeth broke them. However, the screams she heard from within her body after swallowing him made her crack a smile.

"Ah! This is nice," she purred as she put the glass back onto the table.

Her eyes then met with the last man, Jack. Or Jake. Whatever, she thought.

Like Richard, the handsome Black man was in complete despair. Having fallen onto his knees, she could see the tears streaming down his forlorn face. It was clear that he had come to terms with his fate; it was a look that she had seen all too many times, and each time it had the same effect on her.

It made her delighted.

"Alright, my chocolate treat," Valerie said as her chopsticks reached for him. "It's finally your turn. Hope you're ready!"

Again, like Richard, he did not fight or struggle; he allowed himself to be taken by the thin, twin sticks, his limbs hanging as lifeless as his will to live. She dunked him into the chocolate sauce within the small bowl besides the plate, swirled him around inside to cake on as much of the syrup as she could--carefully so that she did not lose him to the thick liquid--before pulling him back out, allowing the excess syrup to fall back into the bowl.

"Double chocolate..." Valerie cooed, before pulling him closer to her mouth. "Like I said before, I saved the best for last. Hope you make it worth it!"

As the ends of the chopsticks holding onto the tiny man approached her mouth, her lips opened and then closed right back onto the tips of the sticks. She suckled on them a bit, snatching off not only Jake but the residual chocolate coated onto the sticks as well. After pulling the sticks out from her mouth and placing them back onto the table--she had no more need for them--her tongue took in the sweet chocolate taste of the syrup as well as the man still lying on the appendage. He was not making any more than the slightest movements. What a shame, she thought. She wished that he still had a will to live, to fight even at his last moments before she took it all away.

Maybe next time, she thought.

Valerie savored as much of the defeated man as she could as he was rolled and swished around by her tongue, spreading more of that chocolate coating nearly everywhere within. He was so sweet and tasty that she fought the urge to chew on him instead of going through with her original plan.

It was a good thing that she did, because at that moment, the man suddenly sprung to life and started screaming and flailing his limbs. It seemed as if the will to live had not completely left him after all. She chuckled in delight, for it meant that she could toy with her food a while longer before giving it its final plunge.

He fought against her tongue as it very easily overpowered him, pressing him against the roof of her mouth, against the soft walls of her cheeks, rubbing them against the backsides of her teeth, and pinning him underneath the wet appendage. She could feel his tiny fists beating against it, to which she responded by using it to smack him around further.

After spending a bit of time literally playing with her food, she decided that it was time to end it. It was getting late, and she still had her own personal plans for the night.

She worked the man to the back of her mouth with her tongue, though he still resisted it as much as he could. Perhaps he knew just what was about to happen to him and was making one final push to save his own hide.

Ultimately, his efforts came to naught, as he was pushed to the back of her mouth, and then swallowed completely. She could hear his screaming and yelling from within herself as he went down, down to where more pain and torment awaited him, as if he was being sent down to the deepest bowels of Hell itself.

How appropriate, she thought as she took her wine glass again and drunk what was left of her sweet red beverage. To the men, she must have been like the Devil itself, free to make their lives hell with no hope of God to rescue them from their torment. Or perhaps God had sent them to her for punishment. Either way, she was more than content with the role she had in those tiny men's short lives.

Once the juice was consumed as well, Valerie set the glass back down onto the table, and let out a hearty burp.

"That was a nice dinner," she complemented to herself as she wiped her lips with her napkin. "...And a great dessert."



------>