It was a clear day, warm but not too hot, and I decided to study on the quad. Many other students had, too; it was unusual to have such nice weather on a day off this late into the year. I propped myself against a tree with my European history textbook resting in my lap and got to work. Though it wasn’t the most interesting subject, the fresh air ought to make it more palatable, and all I had to do was get through three chapters.
One moment I was reading, and the next I was trapped in complete darkness. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were stuck to the surface I was laying on. Every inch of movement cost a tremendous amount of energy and was accompanied by an awful tearing sound. There was an intense heat accompanied by oppressive humidity, too, which burned my mouth and throat with every breath I took. Not just that, but I heard screams from all around me, some even from below. Wherever I was there were other people here, and they were just as scared as I was.
Something heavy landed on the roof, making a clatter that rattled all around me. Light flooded the enclosure, but it did not make anyone feel better. Curls of steam rushed away, carrying some of the intense heat with it, though that barely improved our situation. Most of the heat came from below, and I looked to the side to see a long, white cushion a little wider than me beneath me. Hundreds, if not thousands, of them were in here with us, bound by a ceramic wall so they wouldn’t spill out. If it weren’t for their immense size, I would have sworn they were grains of rice.
The worst, however, was when I finally looked up. Two dark eyes, almost black, peered down into the vessel, and there was a hungry gleam in them. They stood out against the pallid skin of her face, and whomever this colossus was had a small, rounded nose. An enormous pink tentacle came out to lick her narrow lips while everyone screamed for help, leaving a thin layer of saliva, and I could no longer suppress the urge. I started screaming for help too. Wherever I was, there was no way I could get out of it without someone helping even with the roof taken off.
Two long rods, dark as her eyes, plunged into the chamber, digging deep into the mound beneath me. A moment later they emerged with a mound of rice balanced atop them. Several dark spots flecked the pile of rice, and the screams inside the chamber had become a little quieter. It did not take a genius to surmise those specks were people just like me, only a little less lucky.
Her lips parted, and she shoved the mass of rice atop her chopsticks into her mouth. A moment later they emerged, cleaned from so much as a grain of rice, let alone one of the much smaller, most likely living ones. She worked her jaw, chewing the pile and mashing it into a fine paste. A lump ran down her throat, and I wondered how many people had just died. Whatever the number was, it likely did not matter to her in the slightest.
The chorus of screams went up again, hoping that she would take notice, though I doubted that would do any good. I wasn’t even sure being found by her would end well. There were definitely people in that last bite, and they screamed all the way into her mouth. Even if she had heard them, she didn’t care. Maybe she even wanted to them to scream. Instead of screaming, I strained against my starchy restraints again, and though I could not tear myself free I earned a little more freedom of movement.
She stabbed her chopsticks back into the mound of rice, making it bulge outward from the penetration. Screams erupted when she lifted it out of the bowl, more than could have been present on the surface, and I realized what particular brand of luck I had been granted. Those below the surface would be sent to her stomach with no idea what had gotten them there, while I could at least see my end coming. It was a particularly morbid thought to have while she swallowed another bite, including who knows how many people.
No matter how hard I struggled, I could not get free of the molecular bounds that held me. Even though I knew that worst-case it would just draw her attention, I began screaming again. I screamed until her chopsticks pierced deeply into the mound of rice beside me, though to my credit there was no sign she had changed her preference based on hearing me – based on our immense size difference, I doubted she could hear me. That was little consolation as I felt the ground beneath me surging from the force of her chopsticks.
I rose into the air atop a hill of rice, screaming the whole time. Once I got beyond the bowl, however, a new surge of luck hit me. With all my might I fought against my bonds one last time, finally managing to to break free. Suddenly I tumbled from the slope of rice, and in an instant I landed on the table. Temporarily stunned, all I could do was lie there while my would-be destiny got further away.
I watched her shovel the bite I should have been on into her mouth, only chewing a couple times before sending it down her gullet. That could have been me, but it wasn’t. None of these people could be saved, I realized, but I could still save myself. Everyone inside that bowl was either going to be eaten or suffocate to death, so as far as I was concerned I was the last person alive here.
She thrusted her chopsticks into the bowl again, and I began moving. While she dug into the rice I ran away from it, hoping she would ignore me in favor of the larger meal. She dug out another mound of rice and held it over the bowl, letting loose grains topple off, while I put as much space as I could between myself and the open grave full of rice. Her mountain of rice was quiet, though I could not be certain if it was because nobody on it was alive or I could not hear them. Regardless, the bite went into her mouth while I continued running.
A large, ceramic plate blocked my view of her, and I knew that would be crucial to making it out of this alive. I squeezed myself under the plate’s lip, hoping it would obscure me, and got as close to the plate’s base as I could. Hopefully she would forget about me, and then I could beat an escape once she left for the night.
A calamity arose when she pulled the plate toward her, and I did my best to move with it. There was a brief moment of silence before she moved it to the side, and the ceramic grating on wood assaulted my ears. I ran to keep up with it, though she could move it further with a finger than I could run in a minute. The last thing I wanted was to be exposed to whatever maniac was eating people whole.
I did not even have a chance to settle in before the ceramic ceiling was moved away, leaving me totally exposed to my hunter. I froze in place, crestfallen as I watched it go, until it set down with a soft thud. Despite my best efforts I had been caught in the open, and finally got a clear look at my assailant. She was clearly some sort of East Asian, with bangs a little darker than her eyes. Her collared shirt was bright white, starched so it would cling to her neck.
Her chopsticks swung toward me, and I rolled out of the way. I narrowly avoided getting caught in the grip before it clamped behind me with a loud click. I ran directly away from her, hoping that it would take a moment or two for her to realize she missed.
One of the sticks swung out in front of me and set down in my path, then chopped back toward her. It slammed into me like a tree trunk me, and I went tumbling over the rounded edge. I landed in a heap and the chopsticks set down on either side of me, trapping me between them. Between two onyx rods I was not sure what else I could do.
“What a pest.” The growl of a voice surprised me so much I froze, and it still took a moment to realize the enormous woman at the end of the table had spoken. If this was another one of her ploys, however, it worked like a charm. I stood up straight, perfectly still, and let the tips of her chopsticks clamp around me. I was powerless while she lifted me off the table, no more than a grain of rice to her grip.
There was a brief pause in front of her, and I struggled to get free. Even if her chopsticks hadn’t pinned my arms to my side, they were each larger than my body, so my chances of escaping were slim. Even though I knew it was futile, looking up at her moist lips, slightly parted in anticipation of my arrival, filled me with mortal dread. If I didn’t escape soon, they would be my grave.
The world rushed around me, and I felt like my stomach was left on the table. Most concerning, however, was my proximity to her lips. Soft, pink cushions spread in front of me while she smiled, though it did not put me at ease. Hot wind buffeted me from above when she exhaled, followed by a cold blast from between her lips. She was drawing out my torment as punishment for making her chase me down.
“Please let me go!” I begged. “You can do anything you want to me, just please don’t eat me!” The words didn’t sound like mine, but then I’d never snared between a pair of chopsticks before, so who can say that’s really me? “I guarantee I can make it worth your while!”
“But you have nothing to offer me,” she shot back. At this range her voice was more like a sonic assault, pure walls of sound that made my ears ring. “And I already have you here, so why should I let you go?” A beat passed, then she followed up with, “Yeah, I thought not. I encourage you to beg for your life though. It makes this so much more satisfying, and your little voice amuses me.”
There was hardly time to say anything before she flicked me into her mouth, though other than more pathetic begging I had nothing to say anyway. Before I even got settled her tongue slammed me against her palate, then her tongue formed a seal with her saliva. I wanted to fight the experience, but there was only so much I could do in my current stature, and she was in control of what I could do with it.
Her tongue flicked back, then her gullet opened. I landed just as her gullet opened, and her throat muscles seized me. Ultimately, I was helpless against her throat muscles, and without even the slightest gag I was forced down to her stomach.
Others came to join me soon, entwined with clumps of rice as they fell down her gullet. There was a good chance most of them were dead before they reached me, beyond any help I could give them. Her stomach acid began to burn me, and before long I could not even differentiate between the splashes from food coming into her stomach. It was not much later until I submitted entirely and gave myself up to the natural digestive processes, dead before I even passed the duodenum.