All of this had happened during a school holiday period. Colleen was a science and English teacher at the school in the village, and had used her advanced knowledge of science to build the reducing machine.
School went back, and Colleen, whose last name was Balfour, decided to confide in her best friend Frances Woodfield, who was a mathematics and cooking teacher at the school. They went to a far part of a playground and sat on a seat near the bushes, and Colleen told Frances everything that had happened.
One of her year 7 students named Henry was already playing hide and seek, and had chosen the very bushes near their seat to hide in. He heard the entire conversation and could hardly believe his ears.
“You actually ate him!” said Frances, “It’s amazing, and your secret’s safe with me.”
“That’s taken as read,” said Colleen, and raised a strawberry to her opening mouth.
Henry watched as her tongue extended far out of her mouth, saw her lower the strawberry onto it and draw it into her mouth. It was the most exciting thing he had ever seen, when combined with the revelation that she had done the same thing to a shrunken person.
After school that day, he secretly followed her home from school at a distance, to learn where Miss Balfour lived, and presumably, learn the location of her machine.
Months later, when the next school holiday period started, he bought a bottle of hair dye, and changed the colour of his hair, and fashioned a simple lock pick from a piece of wire, having seen a fictional character on television do something similar once.
When nightfall came, he made his way to Colleen’s house and lay down on the lawn outside in the dark, until he awoke in the middle of the night, certain that she had now fallen asleep. He quietly went to work on one of her door locks, and was able to gain entry to the house. There was a full moon that night. So he could do everything he needed in the house, relying only on the moonlight shining through the windows. There was no need to turn a light on. He looked in 2 rooms, before he found her machine. After experimenting with the buttons for a few minutes, he was able to operate it reliably. He took some string from his pocket and tied pieces to the on and off switches, and then held them both and pulled the on switch. It reduced him, but reduced the string as well, so that he was lifted off the ground and up to the switches, by the time he was sufficiently reduced. So he simply turned the off switch manually. Then he pulled the string off, climbed back down to the carpet, and hid the string under the couch.
"She's never been able to catch a leprechaun before, and had to settle for eating her shrunken boyfriend. If she catches me too easily, she might guess what I've done," he thought, "I want to make her believe that I am a Leprechaun. Since I'm tired now anyway, I can fall asleep on the carpet in the lounge room. Then when she arrives, she will think that I am a sleeping Leprechaun, and believe that it was her first opportunity to catch one."
He lay down on the soft thick carpet, and dozed off into a deep sleep.
He awoke to the feeling of her fingers as she picked him up. It felt lovely.
"Strictly speaking, you're trespassing in my house," said Miss Balfour in a friendly voice, which made him feel so excited and thrilled, as he already knew what she was going to do with him, "However, I will not be reporting you. I'm very pleased to find you actually. Are you a fairly young Leprechaun?"
"Yes. I'm just a boy," he answered, pleased that his tiny face with dyed hair seemed to be no longer familiar to her full sized eyes.
"Did you sneak out of the Leprechaun Kingdom in the night?"
"I snuck out late last night," he said truthfully.
"I suppose the other Leprechauns haven't told you about me so far. My name is Miss Balfour, and I have been trying to catch one of you little Leprechauns for most of the time I’ve had this house."
He realized that he needed to stay in character.
"What for?" he asked.
"To eat," she replied, "I'm going to have the most precious meal of my life, when I'm eating you. I can imagine how you must be feeling about that. However, your apprehensions will make no difference to my intentions. I don't mean to dwell on the helplessness of your position. I'm sure you're a nice little person. So I don't mean to be impolite or unpleasant. I am only trying to save us both a lot of unnecessary discussion, which cannot alter your situation."
"I think I understand, Miss Balfour. I promise I won't argue with you about this at all," he responded.
"Thank you. I think that shows a very wise young mind," she said, "Since you have accepted the situation, I would like to tell you about the good side of things. I am going to use my tongue both for licking your tasty young limbs, and for swallowing you whole. So you don't need to feel any pain from being bitten."
"Thank you, Miss Balfour. You're a lot kinder to me than a cat would be to a mouse," said Henry.
"You're welcome, little Leprechaun. Under the circumstances, I think you have been extremely polite and well-mannered. Now I won't be able to eat you today.”
Miss Balfour took down a cage from the top of a cupboard.
"I've been saving it all this time. Now that you're here, I'll have to put you inside it. I'll put some comfortable furniture from my old dolls house into the cage, while we're waiting. You'll need a bed for tonight."
"I'll be alright then," he said, "You're looking after me well, Miss Balfour."
"Well I would like to be friends with you, little Leprechaun. It's a pity that fulfilling my latest aspiration is going to demand such a costly contribution from you, and I'm very grateful that you're being so charitable and amicable about it.”
"Well I think there's something very nice about you, Miss Balfour, regardless of what you're going to do to me."
"I try to be nice to everyone," she said, "I've taught many children, without using a harsh word. I use pleasant phrases in my English classes, and ask the students to do the same. I'd like to make your time here as nice as I can as well. So how long have you been in my house?"
"Since about 11:30pm," he answered.
"I'll go upstairs and lie down on the bed. You can rest beside me on the pillow, and we shall talk some more."
She took him up and placed the furnished cage on her bedside table. Then she put Henry on the pillow beside her face.
"Don't worry. I won't ask you any more difficult questions ... Henry," she said.
"You know! I thought I was too small to be seen clearly. When did you recognize me?"
"When I brought you close to my face. You don’t look quite like a Leprechaun. You’re thinner and sweeter. I looked closely at your facial features and recognized you.”
“Are you disappointed that I played this trick on you?” he asked.
“No, little darling. I’m not disappointed at all. I just wonder how you knew about my leprechaun quest and the machine. You must have overheard me talking to Miss Woodfield about it at school.”
“I hadn’t set out to eavesdrop. I was playing hide and seek in the bushes, and you both came and sat just near me.”
"Little boy, I think it's immeasurably kind of you to go to all this trouble for me, but haven't you thought the way it will turn out? When I gulp you down, you'll be on a one way journey to my stomach. You'll be part of me forever. What makes a little boy brave enough to volunteer for such a thing?"
"There are three reasons," said Henry, "The first one is to make you happy. You have waited so long for this. The second reason is that you said you only wanted to eat one Leprechaun. This way I have saved them all from being hunted by you in the future, if they do exist. The last reason is that your tongue looked so nice, when you were eating your strawberries that day when I was hiding in the bushes. I have been looking forward to being a tasty treat for your tongue. I think that your wish will be my most thrilling experience too. The last reason is that I’m in love with you, Miss Balfour."
"You’re very kind and sweet to say such things. I'm honoured," she said.
"Are you still going to eat me then?"
She put the front of her tongue out of her mouth and pressed his face against it.
"Of course I'm going to eat you," she said, "You taste very nice, and I'm sure you'll be as lovely to eat as any little Leprechaun. I'm just a little sorry that you're not one of the Leprechaun people. I’ll put the cage away too. Since you don't want to escape, I might as well give you the maximum comfort and freedom in the house," said Miss Balfour.
The doorbell rang. She went and let in a friend of hers.
It was Miss Woodfield, the only other person who knew of Miss Balfour’s quest for a Leprechaun.
The two ladies sat at the table. Miss Balfour placed Henry on the table.
"You caught one! Isn't he handsome!" said Miss Woodfield, "I wouldn't have the heart to gobble one up, but would you mind if I licked him?"
"If he doesn't object," said Miss Balfour, "Would you like Miss Woodfield to lick you, little Leprechaun?"
"Well probably. Miss Woodfield, could you please let me have a look at your tongue, before I decide?"
"I'd be delighted," said Miss Woodfield.
She put out her tongue and Henry looked at it.
"You would be most welcome to lick me, Miss Woodfield. Your tongue looks as nice as your beautiful face."
"Thank you!" He's certainly a charming little thing, isn't he?" said Miss Woodfield.
She picked Henry up and licked him.
"He's delicious! You must be feeling very happy about it. How did you catch him, after all this time with no luck?" asked Miss Woodfield.
"I caught him sleeping on my carpet. The rest was easy."
They went on talking for a while.
"Well I won't be eating you today. There's no time. We’re going out shopping together," said Miss Balfour, “I shall take you upstairs now.”
She carried him up the stairs, and put him down on a carpeted floor inside one of the rooms.
"You can make yourself at home in the spare room. I'll come back and eat you tomorrow. Here's some food supplies too," said Miss Balfour quietly, so that Miss Woodfield would not be aware that she was leaving him on the floor, with no cage to contain him. They had kept up the masquerade that he was a Leprechaun, whom she had caught and would be eating without his permission.
Henry went to the window, which reached to the floor. He looked out, and soon saw Miss Balfour and Miss Woodfield walking across the front lawn and away. They both looked lovely.
Henry ate some of the food for a while. Then he lay down to go to sleep.
For the next two hours he thought about Miss Balfour coming to eat him, with thrilling anticipation. He was so excited. He could hardly believe it was going to come to pass.
Henry awoke the following morning, and heard the sound of the front gate, and ran to the window. Looking out, he saw Miss Balfour walking over the front lawn towards the house!
"She's come to eat me!" he thought.
She came up and greeted him with some news.
"I have thought of an enjoyable game for both of us," she said, "Here's what we'll do. It's not gone midday yet. So we've plenty of time. I'll turn you loose in the central downstairs room of the house. I'll go upstairs for five minutes. It's up to you to find your way to a door, slip under it and escape outside before I count the five minutes and come looking for you. We shall then return to this table, and you shall be my most delicious lunch."
"I'll enjoy that game very much," he answered.
"I thought you would."
She carried him to the middle of the central room, and placed him on the carpet.
"Alright, your five minutes commences when I reach the room in which you were hiding upstairs. I will use its clock to count the time."
She went upstairs.
He ran for the back room, which used most of his five minutes. He was just slipping under the door, when he heard her shoe on the top of the stairs.
"She'll be out here in no time," he thought, "I'll never cross the open lawn in time.”
He darted into the flowerbed in front of the back wall, and heard her walking towards the door. Hiding behind a mushroom, he saw her open the door and step out. She ran straight across the lawn and looked at the distant garden. Seeing nobody, she stood up and walked back. He noticed that there was no garden on the other side of the back door.
"She's guessed I'm in here," he thought.
He kept moving towards the side of the house, under the cover of several flower petals. She came and towered in front of the garden.
"There's no room to slide out under the front door. So you're either in the house, or here," she said, "If you're inside, you'll have to come out eventually, or take the risk of being caught inside. I'll start looking for you here."
She began brushing petals with her fingers, to check where he might be hiding. He reached a fully grown lettuce and thought, "She's searching the garden faster than I can run through it unseen. She'll catch up to me for sure at this rate. I'll have to hide in this lettuce."
He pushed his way between the outer leaves of the lettuce, and poked a tiny peep hole with his finger. Looking out, he watched the lovely looking Miss Balfour searching under every flower until she came to the lettuce. She then searched under every remaining flower as well.
Finally she stopped moving and said aloud, "Well, if I have to search inside for him, I might as well have some salad first."
She picked his lettuce and took it to the kitchen bench, broke off the outer two leaves (with Henry still hidden between them), and placed them into a bowl. She fetched cucumber slices, capsicum, onion rings, and baby tomatoes. She took a spoon, and carried the bowl to the front room, sat on the couch by the window, and ate.
Looking through his peephole, he stared up at her, as her pretty mouth consumed the tomatoes and then the cucumber.
"Hey, why isn't she keeping an eye on the floor?" he thought, "She's looking up all the time. If I were on the floor, she would be increasing my chances of eluding her. She doesn't seem to care. How ironic it would be, if she's given up the chase, and then eats enough of this salad to find me."
As he watched her eating the salad which covered part of his lettuce leaves, the suspense was driving him to despair.
"I hadn't thought of serving you with salad," she said suddenly, "It's a novel idea, but I'll finish the salad now, clean you up, and save you for tomorrow's lunch.”
She continued spooning cucumber into her mouth.
"She knew I was in here all along!" he thought, amazed that she had finally outwitted him for the last time, "She picked the lettuce to have another thrilling game with me. She's been eating the salad calmly keeping secret the fact that she'd already found me."
"The bulge between the lettuce leaves gave you away in the garden," she said, "I thought we'd both have a more interesting time, if I didn't tell you."
There was no further sense in remaining under the top leaf. He pushed it off him, and looked up as she reached for the lettuce and said, "Thank you."
As she used her fingers to assist with eating it, he looked up in awe and said, "You truly are brilliant, Miss Balfour. You deduced exactly which door I would run towards, and you had plans for the other possibilities anyway. You even managed to find my hiding spot and serve it in a bowl, without letting me know that you knew I was there. You're a very clever and lovely lady. You've caught me, and I'm yours to eat."
"I'm grateful for the compliments, but my intelligence has had many more years to develop than yours."
She finished the last piece of lettuce and carried the bowl to the kitchen.
"You have some salad juice on you," she said.
She picked him up.
"The critical moment for you in my mouth will be in a day's time, as I said. This is just to clean you up now."
She put him into her mouth and slid him around on her tongue. Then she took him out, drank a glass of water, and put him back in her mouth. When she removed him a second time, he was perfectly clean.
"All this time you wanted to eat a Leprechaun. Now it looks like you'll be having a garden gnome instead."
She smiled.
"You're a very special boy," she said, and took him back to the couch, where she placed him in her lap and began reading a book. He watched her fingers turning pages, the times she looked up from the book, the times she licked her lips, and the softness of her neck.
"What have you been thinking about?" she asked at last.
"You. I thought of myself only as a lunch for you to enjoy eating. I kept all my attention on you, and watched everything about the lady who has become the ultimate destiny for me. I even thought of a poem:
Her beauty, in full size, has greater appeal,
Especially her tongue, since I'll be her next meal.
I know it's not quite right, because you'll have dinner and breakfast before you eat me. I'm too young to write a full proper poem like your boyfriend did."
She picked him up and held him to her cheek.
"Darling little boy, it's the most poetic verse I have ever heard in years of reading and teaching English," she said.
Then she sat down on the bed with a pen and paper and wrote. In a few minutes, she said, "I've been studying poetry more closely since my boyfriend left me the poem he’d written. So I’ve written you a poem too:
Of you I need to make the most:
Perhaps a salad, or a roast.
With cream, you'd make a nice dessert,
And gulping you down whole won't hurt.
But when I lick you clean, I think
I won't need any food or drink,
Or other treats, like caviar.
You'll taste delicious as you are.
As surely as the sun will shine,
Tomorrow, I shall come to dine,
Without the need for spice or sauce;
And you shall make a nice main course.
He heard the poem and said, "It's very good."
"I’m going to leave your dolls house bed on the dining table, when I go to bed tonight. When you wake up in the morning, you'll be able to imagine the final scenes in advance," she said.
She carried the tiny bed to the dining table.
“Sleep well, my dear little boy. It's been a privilege to meet you."
She left the room.
The enormity of what he’d exposed himself to began to register significantly on his mind. His beautiful teacher was going to swallow him like a piece of food, for that matter AS a piece of food. When school resumed, she would be continuing to teach all the other students, who would be none the wiser about what she had done. She may well stay there until she retired from teaching altogether, with him as part of her stomach from the next morning onwards.
He thought about it for a while, and then fell asleep.
All of his dreams were about her. He did not once dream of Miss Woodfield. He was enjoying a dream, when a branch fell from a tree outside and woke him at 5am. He saw a glimmer of daylight breaking through the darkness outside.
"I'll stay awake and watch my last sunrise now," he decided.
The colours were beautiful, as they gradually filled the sky outside the dining room window. However, they were not as beautiful as Miss Balfour's pink tongue.
Henry pictured her at this moment, still dreaming peacefully in bed, either about eating him or about the further joys that life had in store for her. She would wake up without a care in the world, and spend the morning looking forward to the moment which would make him a part of her stomach forever.
She was contented, perhaps more so than she had been the day she had eaten her boyfriend. Henry’s compliments would have made her feel even better. Since Miss Woodfield was the only other person who knew of her quest, she would be enjoying a secret anticipation which even her family did not know of. He suddenly felt very special.
He was her best kept secret, and soon to be the greatest pleasure for the tongue which had captivated his eyes. He ate his breakfast, which she had also put out on the table the night before, and awaited her arrival. There were times when he replayed in his mind, the night he had snuck in and reduced himself. The more he dwelled on all of these things, the more one fact became clearer in his mind: A special bond had formed between him and Miss Balfour. Most or all of that bonding had taken place after he had reduced himself.
And she was coming to eat him for her morning meal.
At 7am, he heard her footsteps. Then Colleen walked into the dining room.
"Hello little friend," she said.
Soon she was seated at the table, and she placed him onto a plate. He looked across at her stomach, imagining how it would be to be inside it. Then he looked up further, to her long towering neck, and thought about being gulped down inside it. His eyes continued to roam upwards, to her full smiling lips outlining the beautiful mouth which awaited him, and then looked further still to the elegance in her eyes.
"Obviously, we now know that you taste as delicious as I'd hoped any Leprechaun to be. Reducing yourself only helped me to discover it sooner. Are you ready then?"
"I'm yours to eat."
She picked him up and brought him to her mouth. He awaited its opening, but instead he saw and felt her pressing her lips to his entire face at once.
“That’s for not changing your mind,” she said, “I felt sure that you would by now.”
“Would you have restored my size?” he asked.
“No. I was happy to have eaten only my boyfriend until I found you here. You’ve awakened a new pleasure, and I’d have satisfied it regardless of any change of heart you might have had. And now I shall," she said, and picked him up and licked him enthusiastically for a minute, then rubbed her fingertips across her lower lip, then returned to licking him. A few minutes later, she drew her tongue back into her mouth.
"This is the moment of truth. Goodbye little boy," she said.
She opened her mouth, placed him inside it.
The feel of her tongue below him was all that he had longed for and more. He decided to show her that even now, he hadn’t changed his mind. After lying there for some time, he eased his way into her throat himself, and felt himself sliding down slowly, until he reached her stomach.
Colleen thought about this last act of devotion and smiled warmly.
Colleen went on a sabbattical from teaching, with her tenure secured at the school, and decided to devote more time to science and inventing, which would give her an ostensible reason for posting the following job advertisement:
PERSONAL ASSISTANT – TEMP
Company director needs a personal
assistant to help with all kinds of
work around the premises. Apply, in
the first instance to:
Colleen Balfour
T/A Reduced Interest Co,
using the address or telephone number
at the bottom of this advertisement.
The only respondent to the advertisement was a young man had finished school, and put together a resume. Since he’d only who had short term part time jobs on top of his time at school, the resume looked rather light at a glance. He consoled himself with the thought that this would have been the case for anyone who had just graduated. It was hardly cause to think that an employer would not give him a chance. Besides, he had found a job that seemed to be tailored to his limited experience. He looked over the advertisement once more, as he thought about the questions he might be asked at the interview:
“It sounds like a financial loan company,” he thought, “I haven’t had any experience in that area. Let’s hope it’s an entry level position. I don’t think the mock interviews I did at the Careers Reference seminars we had in uni are going to help me much with this job.”
He put on the suit he had saved up for, and his best tie, and went to the premises that Colleen had opened in the village.
“I’m Patrick O’Murphy. I have an interview for the temporary personal assistant position,” he said.
“I’m Colleen Balfour. If you fill out this application for employment form, I will see you soon,” said Colleen.
Patrick sat on one of the velvet covered chairs and took the pen from the top of the clipboard. He had soon completed the form.
“Patrick,” she said, “Come on through.”
Colleen showed him into her office and closed the door.
She sat down, and took his resume in her hands, having prepared for the interview by having it on her desk with certain lines highlighted in pink.
“You wouldn’t be working for this office,” she said, “This is just my public front, which turns over enough consolidated loan interest to keep anyone from wondering about my more private business. I’ve just taken over the business from my retired father. Reduced interest is a play on words, which also reflects the research which has my main attention. If you get the position, I’ll be pretending to have hired nobody. Then I can start you at my private office at home. I have set up as a private scientist. There’ll be no suspicion, when you disappear that way.”
“Disappear?” he asked, “In what way, exactly.”
She turned to a cabinet beside her desk. There was a fish tank on the cabinet, and a short rod with a small net attachment beside the tank. She picked this tool up, dipped it in the tank, and moved it about.
Most of the fish were able to elude the net, but she looked eagerly at them, relentlessly pursuing them. She seemed to be enjoying the fact that the fish had no way out of the tank, and could ultimately not escape the net forever either.
In less than two minutes, Colleen had snared one of the fish.
“How long do you think these fish are?” she asked.
“From head to tail, I’d say about two inches,” he said.
“Just under two inches,” said Colleen, “Left here long enough, this fish would die without water, but I’d like him to be alive and aware of what will happen to him next.”
Colleen’s fingers manoeuvred close to the fish, until she had secured a reasonably firm grip. She brought the fish to her mouth, which opened wide.
Patrick watched, strangely caught up in the sight of her mouth, as he saw the fish sliding across Colleen’s tongue. On this occasion, she kept her mouth open, so that he could see the fish sliding out of sight and into her throat.
He watched her gulping. The movements of her neck were something he’d never considered before, when watching a woman eat, but she had drawn his attention to the fish’s perspective on its journey.
“Do you wonder what sensations the fish would be having as it reaches my stomach?” she asked.
“It may not even realise it’s done for,” he said.
“You’ve identified one of the two things that make the fish different from a human being,” said Colleen, “If a human man were the size of that fish, he would be fully cognitive of his situation and its implications. Not only that, but he might find it enjoyable.”
“Being eaten?” asked Patrick.
“Don’t dismiss it straight away,” she said, “Think of it as an Employee In-Placement Scheme.”
He checked his reaction, realising that his future career, and possibly some other rewards could depend on impressing this beautiful woman.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Think how a man dreams of getting close to a woman’s body. It becomes all he can do to stop dreaming of her, dreaming of touching her and forgetting all about the rest of the world. Would not the ability to go inside a woman’s tummy be in fact the most definitive encounter of all?”
“I never thought of it like that,” he said.
“Experiences are about excitement,” said Colleen, “So many men leave their girlfriends, and some even leave their wives, because they grow bored with their conquests, and want to find out what else is in store for them. Don’t you think this is the wrong way to treat women?”
“I have thought about that, after the books I’ve read at school,” said Patrick.
“Well wouldn’t being swallowed alive by a woman be the most exciting experience of all?” asked Colleen, “Surely after one has had that, one wouldn’t need to go in pursuit of anything else.”
“I can see your point, in a way,” said Patrick.
“So the only thing to add to the excitement for the man would be his knowledge that he couldn’t get out of the woman’s body,” said Colleen, “Would you find that exciting, Patrick?”
“It would be very exciting, I’m sure,” said Patrick, “But what would the woman do to further her excitement?”
“She would relish the feeling of having the man inside her, of knowing that all he could do was to wait to become a part of her stomach as he was added to her inner nutrients. It’s how I’ve felt about it since I was a young girl. Since the man is the one who would be converted to food, the woman would no doubt enjoy the advantages of her own situation.”
“I guess she might enjoy the taste of the man,” he said.
The employer had spent a long time discussing an unusual fantasy. It had certainly loosened up his nerves for his first major job interview. However, now that she had done this, he wondered how long she would take to get onto the usual procedure of outlining the job specification and matching the skills of his resume to the requirements of the job.
“So what do you think of the idea of a woman swallowing a man whole then?” she asked, apparently not ready to change the subject.
“It’s quite an idea on paper,” he said, “But she’d have to find a way to get him down to the size of that fish first.”
“It’s good to see such a pragmatic attitude,” she said, “I’ve been doing that research at home. I’ve created a machine that works on inorganic matter. I’ve managed to reduce plastics, wood and other materials. I believe, that with further experimentation it will work on living human tissue. So I need a test subject, who’s willing to see the whole process through. That’s why I’ve advertised this position. Most of the men I’ve interviewed are not suitable for my choices. The few who were suitable have been unwilling to take on the responsibility. So I haven’t even outlined this part of the role of being my assistant. You’re the first one I’ve told.”
What Colleen was not telling the boy is that she already had the machine fully developed and had eaten Stanley and Henry already. Colleen had merely thought that she could temporarily lead Patrick into thinking that she was still working on some shrinking technology. It would make for a greater dramatic effect later
“So you want to hire someone as a test subject for each modification you make on your reducing machine. Now I understand the pun on the Reduced Interest name of your company,” he said.
“The test subject for the reducing effect would also have to be the subject for the swallowing I plan to do as well,” said Colleen, “I’m sure that it would only take a few months of experimentation to achieve a reduction of a man to a height of less than two inches. I’d be willing to pay you ten times the award wage in the meantime. You could live extravagantly and do everything that took your fancy during that period. You wouldn’t have to save any of it up, nor any need to pay off a mortgage with it. Once we’ve achieved a full scale reduction, I can finally go ahead and eat you, whole naturally.”
Her beauty had been distracting him from realising the full implications of her explanation of his duties. Now he understood that the preamble with the fish tank was in fact the primary purpose of the job interview. This woman was actually offering to hire a man for some undetermined period of time, while she would experiment on reducing his size until he was small enough to fit into her mouth. Then, if it turned out that she could actually achieve her goal, she expected to eat him!
“It seems as though this whole job is about me helping you to become a cannibal,” he said.
“I was hoping, after I’d given you such a graphic explanation, that you wouldn’t have come to such a narrow understanding of my expectations, Patrick. Cannibalism is just the vulgar consumption of a person who’s been killed before he can have any awareness of the process of being eaten. I’m trying to create an experience where a man can savour every second of the process of being eaten alive by a woman. Do you think I’m a beautiful woman, Patrick? I won’t consider it sexual harassment, if you tell me, “The sexual harrassment laws are misused left, right and center anyway, to the point that nobody feels safe to ask anyone out. People are doing themselves out of relationships, because they’re afraid of being unjustly sued or dismissed for harmless initial first time approaches to someone they like.”
“Yes, I do think so,” said Patrick, “I mean, I think you’re beautiful, and I never agreed with some of the case precedents where those laws get misused either.”
“Good. At least we’ve come to that understanding,” said Colleen, “I’m offering you the chance to earn a lot of money in what would become your last days outside my stomach, and then to be used by me in a way that would gratify you as well, more than any man has ever been gratified before.”
“It still seems like it would be a rather one sided employment contract,” said Patrick.
“I can see your perspective,” said Colleen, and got up out of her seat, and walked around the desk to stand beside him.
Colleen drew closer and sat down on his knees and upper legs. She put her hands around his upper arms to steady him.
“I’d still like to complete the screening process of your interview,” she said, “I couldn’t even offer the position to someone who didn’t meet all the requirements of the task specifications.”
“What else are you looking for in the successful applicant?” asked Patrick, “Apart from a willingness to be reduced and eaten, that is.”
“However unusual it may be for you, this is still a job interview,” said Colleen, “You could at least show me enough respect to refrain from outbursts of cynicism.”
“I’m sorry,” said Patrick, wondering why he had jeopardised this wonderful physical contact by demeaning the woman’s quest to consume him.
“It’s alright,” said Colleen, “I respond to most comments on my vore ventures, as long as the comments are interesting. If I were hiring a secretary, I’d give you a typing test. In this case, I need to find out how delicious you are.”
“Oh.”
Colleen’s face drew close to his cheek, and then he felt the wildest sensation of his life. The tip of her tongue came out and gently sampled the taste of his flesh.
“I’m glad you shaved for this interview,” she said, “It’s more important than ever, when you’re going for a job like this one, but I’ll be feeding you a chemical that I’ve invented to halt the growth of facial and body hair anyway. Your scalp will be unaffected.”
“Most interviews don’t place such a high importance on the employee’s last opportunity to attend a luncheon … or dinner,” he said.
“Well I like what I’ve tried so far,” she said, “Let’s examine your credentials with a little more direct staff interaction.”
This time he felt Colleen’s entire tongue sliding from the bottom of his cheek, up the side of his face, to the top. She moved a little, found a dry patch of skin, and repeated the test.
“I’m very satisfied, Patrick; and surely you must have gotten a lot more out of this than you would have gained from a typing test.”
“It was … very … enjoyable,” he said.
“Well what I’m offering is just an extension of that, on a different scale, with a journey down my throat added at the end. Think about it, Patrick. Can you imagine yourself easing gently down inside my neck, and then coming to rest inside my stomach, with the most incredibly arousing physical contact then behind you, fresh in your memory, with your whole body still moist from its contact with my tongue? Think what it would be like, settling down in my stomach, knowing that my body was going to absorb you, forever. No man has ever known such a mixture of excitement and ecstasy before. When you watch a serial cliff hanger, you know that the drama will be resolved by the end of the film’s last chapter. You know that there will be a regular predictable ending. In my stomach you’d be a pioneer, with an amazing destiny ahead of you.”
“I know, but you can’t seriously expect to find anyone who wants to be eaten by you, no matter how many people you interview.”
“Maybe, and maybe not,” she said, “But I will continue my interviews until I find someone who does, and then I will continue my experiments. I will eventually reduce a man and eat him. You can pass up this opportunity, but I know you enjoyed the touch of my tongue licking your cheeks just now. I know it’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to you. I know you’ll be imagining what it’s like for the applicant who takes the job on. You won’t forget the feel of my tongue, or the sight of that fish going to its destiny. You won’t ever forget the opportunity you’re throwing away. Some people apply all sorts of misconstrued Freudian interpretations to the vore fantasy I’m trying to realise. I don’t go in for any of that nonsense. I just want to eat someone, and draw the process out a long time, so that I can really go to town, once the little man is in my mouth. But you go back to your search for a suitable career, Patrick. When you’ve been unable to secure any significant career opening as a raw school graduate, you can spend three years at university. After that, you can work hard for years and put lots of effort into courting someone, all for the limited experiences you can have in a regular relationship. You could have surpassed all of that in a few months, but I respect your decision to decline.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry if I offended you,” he said, as he got up, and walked towards the door.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, “I’ll hire a suitable visionary eventually. Although you were at the top of my SHORT LIST.”
“Believe it or not, I wish you the best with your screening process,” he said, “I’ll let myself out of the office.”
“It’s a shame you won’t accept the job offer,” she said, “I think you would most likely turn out to be by far the tastiest applicant I screen.”
Patrick went home. He could still feel the wet sensuous touch of Colleen’s tongue on his cheek in his memory. He began to wonder if his cheek had showed any moisture, when he had walked back out into the village street.
He thought about the clear sight of her tongue, before she pushed the fish onto it. Then something suddenly occurred to him. He had not been thinking of being kissed, not even by Colleen. At the moment, he had been thinking of being eaten by Colleen in exactly the way she had explained that she intended to eat someone.
Patrick realised that, as a fantasy, the thought of being eaten like that; being licked by a full sized tongue after being reduced, and being swallowed to a stomach was far more arousing than anything else could ever have been.
Had Colleen known he would feel this way?
The thrill didn’t end there. He was even aroused at the thought of sitting in her stomach, knowing she was as free as before, with him now captive inside her.
He wondered what could make a man feel like this. What could make a woman feel inclined to bring about such a thing?
For the rest of the afternoon, Patrick spent hours creating all sorts of scenarios in his mind. At the end of every scenario, he ended up sliding off the back of Colleen’s tongue, down her throat, and into her stomach, excited even more by the knowledge that Colleen enjoyed every second of it. He imagined himself encircled by Colleen’s feminine fingers, with her mouth open in front of him, slowly easing him into it, with the view of her pink tongue just below him, then touching him, touching his whole face at once. He imagined her fingers releasing him, and her lips slowly closing behind him. He imagined her tongue about to send him into her throat.
Over the next few days, he repeated this exercise again and again, creating new tales in his mind to feed the desire in different ways. In the past, he had varied the girls and ladies who had been on his mind during these moments. However, he now only thought of one woman each time: Colleen.
Patrick eventually came to accept something: It was just a fantasy like this. Done this way, it would forever remain an unfulfilled fantasy. Unless Colleen had found an employee at last, it would remain the same for her: unfulfilled.
Patrick knew what it would cost him to have his fantasy realised. He didn’t even know whether Colleen would ever be able to realise the technological development necessary to make the fantasy a reality. He just knew that he could not get over his urge to entrust his future to her attempts.
If it worked, she would enjoy dining on him, just as she had done with the fish, and he would be leaving his old life in a way that thrilled him beyond any of his wildest previous expectations.
There was no sense or rationality to it. Yet she had awakened something in Patrick which drew him to his telephone with no regard for the consequences.
He dialled the number he had been given, when she had first contacted him for an interview.
“Colleen speaking,” said Colleen.
“I’ve been thinking about reconsidering,” said Patrick.
“I don’t tend to talk specifics of business over the telephone,” said Colleen.
“Sorry,” said Patrick, as he realised that what he contemplated would need to be kept secret, out of consideration for her.
“I can see you at 3:00 today,” said Colleen.
“I’ll come in by 2:45,” said Patrick.
*******************************
Colleen looked enticing, as she opened the door to her office once more, and showed him to the couch this time. She closed the door and sat beside him.
“Now, tell me about your ruminations,” she said.
He told her, with decreasing embarrassment as she made every effort to reassure him that she appreciated his confidences of how much he had thought of her.
“So you’re finding it hard to put it out of your thoughts,” she said.
“Yes, it started that way.”
“Well I’m very flattered. Even though you’re not willing to take it on, you’ve shown you’re as enticed by the idea as I am. I never judged you for not wanting to go the final distance in reality. I’m aware of the greater benefits open to me, from such an exchange. What can I do for you, now that you’re here?”
Patrick had a thought, which had only just come to him.
“When you did the screening test, you used my left cheek,” he said.
“I remember.”
“Could you do the other one?”
She drew him closer and put her tongue to work.
“Have you found anyone else to take on the task?” he asked.
“You remember the confidentiality clause you signed on the application form?”
“The one where I agreed not to discuss the interview with anyone?”
“Yes.”
“It’s become even more important lately. I’ve run out of applicants from running the advertisement in the newspapers. I’ve had to outsource more applicants from employment agencies and consultants. You were right, when you pointed out that nobody would be likely to agree to be reduced and eaten.”
“I meant that then, but Colleen, I’ve reached the point where I’d find it harder not to.”
“Have you really?” she asked.
“Yes. Do you think there’s a real chance you’ll have the reduction problem licked?”
She laughed.
“Was that pun intended?” she asked.
“Oh, ‘licked’. No, I didn’t think that way,” he said, smiling at his own choice of words.
“Yes Patrick. I’m confidant I can do it. It might have to be done in several stages. You could end up spending a while as a midget, albeit a slimmer than usual midget, before I can get you down to less than two inches in height, but it should be possible.”
“I’d like to accept the position,” he said.
Colleen touched his cheeks, this time with her hands, and kissed him. “You should have the chance to try that too,” she said, “You won’t be able to do so with anyone else, when this works.”
“I won’t want to,” he said, “And thank you so much, Colleen.”
“Obviously, we can’t keep a written record of an employment contract spelling out your undertaking to be reduced to miniature size and eaten by me,” said Colleen, “I would be willing to accept a handshake agreement, if you would.”
“I think it would be poetic if you licked your fingers, before we shook hands,” said Patrick.
Colleen smiled at the suitability of his suggestion. He watched, as she put out her tongue, and extended each finger in turn and licked it. Then she shook hands with him. He felt the moisture of her fingers against his hand.
“Would you mind if we finalized the deal in another way?” he asked.
“What do you suggest?”
“Could I put my fingers in your mouth?” he asked.
“Surely! I’d enjoy feeling you doing it,” said Colleen.
He took turns putting one or two of his fingers into her mouth, running them firmly against her tongue, sliding them right to the back of her mouth. She giggled encouragingly.
“Just wait for the real thing,” she said, “I’ll give you the address of my research mansion now. You can report there for work first thing on Monday morning. I’ll advise the agency to cancel any future interviews, and say that I’ve decided not to proceed with filling the vacancy.”
She gave him her home address in the hills above the meadows.
Patrick had no idea whether or not she would ever find a way to shrink him. She tried weeks and weeks of tests with no success (mainly because she had temporarily removed a working part from the machine). He grew used to being surrounded by a beam of coloured light, and waiting for it to clear, once again revealing that he was full sized as usual.
The wages were phenomenal, and he enjoyed using them, and was pleased that Colleen responded to all his invitations out on dates.
She knew that all of his buttons responded to her desire to eat him.
He was now well settled into the routine of turning up to work, and doing a day as a guinea pig for the woman who had captured his heart. He had no reason to believe that such a scientifically outlandish fantasy would ever be made more than the ridiculous mental indulgence that it was.
However, what mattered most was the fact that he simply adored Colleen for having her fantasy and awakening its reciprocal counterpart in him. He loved Colleen, and wanted to be with her forever. There was still a way to do that. He would ask her to be his steady girlfriend.
Today he spent the time contemplating the best way to ask her. Would she say yes to a man she still hoped to invent the means to reduce and eat?
She did seem to respond lovingly to his advances.
Once more the light ray surrounded him, as his mind began silently reciting all sorts of romantic speeches. Patrick’s nerves were getting worse, as he knew that the day’s testing was coming to an end. He would soon have to tell her the full extent of his feelings for her. Could he go through with it? How could he build up his confidence in the few minutes which remained?