The Purple Bands - Post-Concert Surprises

Lindsay announced to the still-large crowd that Ava Max was full and that they would be letting people back down into the restaurant.

There were groans of “ohhhh” and “damn” and other complaints, mostly from the front of the line.

“Now, once you’re back inside, you have the option of turning your purple bracelets in for red or blue”, she said, hoping that some would and also hoping it would settle the restless ones down.

Saying that she did not want a rush for the doors, Lindsay indicated that people would be allowed back in, in groups of ten still and that she and the other servers, supported by a couple large bouncers would guide them in.

Lindsay picked a couple of the loudest voices that had grumbled, but didn’t restrict herself to the front of the line. She walked forward to gather the rest of her ten selections. “I’ll take you..and you…and you two”, she said, pointing the people out. She spotted the cute boy from earlier who looked like Quinn, “oh, and you can come too”, she said, grabbing him by the shirt and shoving him gently towards the doors. Quickly, she completed her selection of ten and went back to guide them through the doors.

A couple of young women right next to the doors were angry, “Hey, we were next.” Lindsay just glared at them as she walked by.

Once through the doors, she led the group quickly and efficiently to the shrink booths.

“I’ll have each of you step into one of these rooms. This is just protocol before we send you back into the restaurant.”

While a couple persons made funny faces, wondering why they couldn’t just walk out, they nevertheless were all gently herded into individual booths with the other servers assisting Lindsay.

“All clear”, said Lindsay.

Danielle walked into the area as Lindsay went about pressing the buttons to shrink the people down.

“Got one here that looks like Quinn”, Lindsay mentioned to her, “he’s in that booth over there. Saved him just for you. You owe me for that one.”

Danielle smiled, then went to the booth Lindsay pointed at to gather the tiny man.

“Hi there, little guy”, she said, bending down and picking the shrinky out of his clothes. She lifted him up in the palm of her hand and noticed he was quivering and cradling his hands over his genitals as he shifted his weight from one foot to the next nervously to try to keep balanced on the girl’s palm. He seemed too nervous to look up at her.

“Oh, you’re just a boy”, Danielle noticed as she took the little man towards one of the small private rooms to eat. She thought he looked adorable. “Lindsay was right. You do look like Quinn. A lot like him. You could be his tiny brother. What’s your name cutie?”

“Kyle”, he answered meekly, finally daring to look up at her face.

“Well Kyle, I bet you’re going to taste real good. I know you’ve probably been looking forward to this all day, am I right?”, Danielle said as she entered the private room and closed the door behind her.

“You don’t understand”, Kyle said, his voice getting louder and clearer the more he spoke, “I didn’t come here to get eaten. I came here to find my dad, to keep him from getting eaten.”

Danielle was crest-fallen. She had looked forward to eating the handsome boy and she relished the fact that he looked like her boyfriend. In a way, she would be able to have her cake and eat it too. But that was all slipping away.

“Aw…I can’t eat you now, after you told me that”, she said, pouting, “tell me, why are you here again?”

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you”, said Kyle, grateful.

Kyle proceeded to tell her his story, about how his dad wasn’t aware of what Forbidden Dish was and was just trying to get a souvenir for his little sister. And that he was simply trying to make an attempt to contact his father before it was too late.

Danielle listened to him patiently, her head propped up by her elbow, but pouting the whole time.

“I saw him go through the doors in the group just prior to mine”, Kyle told her. He knew that was the group that Ava had indicated she was full. In Kyle’s mind, there was a strong likelihood that his father was still alive somewhere, although probably shrunken down. “He might still be alive.”

She gave him an even sadder face, “I’m sorry honey. All the leftovers from that group have all been eaten.”

Kyle was horror-stricken. His father – eaten and dead. He began to cry.

“Shhh, Shhh”, she said, trying to comfort him. “Here, let me get you cleaned up.”

She padded over towards the kitchen, to clean Kyle off. He was just thrilled that she was not going to eat him, his feelings of relief tempered by thoughts of his father’s demise.

*** 

Sam was huddled in the back of a bowl of rapidly disappearing men. Ava was full by the time she got to him and despite the reassurances of the waitress, he was pretty sure that the men who had been shrunk to feed Ava were in fact being recycled to whomever wanted to be eaten. Guys were disappearing in ones and twos to be ‘returned to their normal size’. Yeah right, he thought.

That pretty waitress, Lindsay, hadn’t had an expression of ambivalence when she grabbed that one guy and hurried off with him. Sam hoped the guy was okay, but was more worried about himself. He reviewed the facts.

1) He had agreed to be eaten by a hot pop star

2) The hot pop star had eaten a bunch of people (sexy!) but was now full and therefore not going to eat Sam tonight.

3) Sam was still shrunk in a restaurant that catered to women who ate tiny men.

Sam was trying to figure things out. A few moments ago he had been pretty excited about being eaten by his favorite pop star. Now he was going to be eaten by some random girl. Not what he signed up for.

“Yeah I guess you can pick out the one you want”, said the barmaid named Colby, walking over to him. “It’s a bit unorthodox to let a customer back here but who cares?”

“Thanks again”, said the girl. Sam looked up to see she had brown hair and light blue eyes. She was very pretty. “I’m just so hungry that I can’t wait for the shrink line. I really appreciate you doing this.”

“Well, no one will know. Just hurry”, said Colby. “It’s a good thing you’re one of my regular customers. I wouldn’t do this for just anyone. Don’t tell”, she added with a sideways look at her companion.

“I won’t. Oh look at all these little guys. Hey fellas”, said the woman. She put her hands on her knees and bent down to get a closer look. Her face blocked the ceiling above them and Sam was reminded again just how small he really was.

“I’ve got bad news and good news. The bad news is that Ava Max is not going to eat any of you tonight”, the girl made a pouting face, sticking out her lower lip. “the good news”, she said, brightening, “is that I am hungry and will be willing to eat one of you tonight. Now if I could just decide on whom I want.” She straightened up and tapped a finger to the side of her face as her blue eyes scanned the tiny men. They briefly passed over Sam before moving on.

“What about you?”, she said reaching in, too fast to dodge although there was a collective “Ahh!” from the men in the bowl. The woman picked up a tiny man just behind Sam.

“Hmm. You’re a kind of ugly fellow. And I don’t wanna eat anyone ugly. Sorry. Back you go.” She placed him gently back in the bowl.

“What about you?”, the girl picked up another man and held him before her. “No. You’re scrawny. I want to get my money’s worth. And you’re barely worth swallowing you’re so small. Oh. Sorry but it’s back you go.” She returned him to the bowl as well.

Bending forward again she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she searched the tiny men. “You”, she said. “You’re perfect!”

She is looking at me!, Sam thought as she reached towards Sam. Her hand cast a shadow over the bowl. Of all the girls to be eaten by, she is not so bad. In fact, she is just as cute as Ava Max in some ways. Maybe I am lucky here.

But it was a man who had been standing directly behind Sam that was lifted behind from the bowl. “Oh you’re perfect. I bet you’ll taste perfect too! And don’t think I forgot about you, Colby dear. Here you go. She slipped a twenty-dollar bill to Colby and the two women exited the room.

--

“What’s your name, little one?”, the woman asked.

“J, James..er, Jim”, shouted Goggles nervously, adding, “I don’t want to be eaten!”

"Really Jim, you need to be more accepting. You did sign up to be eaten by Ava Max, after all. Maybe I’m not quite as pretty as she is, but I would have thought you would think I was cute. All the other guys I’ve eaten did. Plenty of guys have volunteered for me! Is it really all that bad?”

“Err, my friends call me Goggles as opposed to Jim.”

“I like Jim better. It sounds more like a person,” said the woman. “Eating someone named Goggles sounds like I’m just swallowing a pair of glasses and that’s just weird.”

Great!, thought Goggles, I’m stuck with a woman who likes calling me by my name because it sounds more like a person and she doesn’t think swallowing me alive would be weird, but swallowing glasses would be.

Ever since the woman had walked into the room with Colby, Goggles had somehow felt that she was bad news. This feeling had obviously been correct, since she had bribed Colby to get one of the shrunken men to eat.

Goggles hadn’t known he had been signing up to be eaten. He had just wanted to meet Ava. He had been shocked to learn when he had actually come face to face with his heartthrob, that she would have eaten him. It had been as if he had dodged a bullet when he found that she was full and would not be eating them.

Of course, that meant that a bunch of other poor guys had been eaten tonight, but that was their problem. He wondered how many knew that they were going to be her food. He hadn’t stopped to read that damn flyer they had made him sign. Thinking back, it had said something about being dinner for Ava. Huh. It hadn’t jumped out at him. He really should have taken the time to read it rather than just thinking with his dick. If he’d read the flyer, he wouldn’t be two inches tall, being held by a stranger who wanted to eat him and appeared to have every intention of actually doing it.

Her beautiful face seemed almost disappointed to hear that he didn’t want to be her dinner. She was still cheerful though and was taking great pains to explain how enjoyable it was for her to swallow live men. That sent a chill down his spine. It meant that she had done this before!

“Let me tell you a quick story little guy. Once, I made plans to eat a friend of mine at the Forbidden Dish. He was all excited and we showed up looking forward to a fun night. Well, what do you know but we shrink him down and he changes his mind when he sees me towering over him and ready to eat.”

“So what happened?” asked Goggles.

“Oh, we had a long talk. I explained that I came here with the intention of eating him and it wasn’t fair for him to expect me to not eat him after I’d been looking forward to it all night. Not to mention that he’d already promised he would let me eat him. I think after our talk, he saw it my way.”

“So he agreed to let you eat him?”, asked Goggles, surprised.

“Oh no. He was still scared out of his wits. But he was only two inches and he really couldn’t do anything to stop me, so I ate him anyway.” The woman smiled at him. “Really good too. I mean, I expected him to be good, but not that good. Who knew my friend would be so tasty? If I had known, I would have tried to eat him a lot sooner.”

“Oh. Perfectly understandable”, said Goggles sarcastically, outwardly agreeable, though inside, he thought the woman was nuts.

“Thanks, I knew you’d see it my way. And of course if you didn’t now, you would once I’ve digested you and you’ve become a part of me. Doesn’t that just make you excited?”, she grinned widely, like she had just won the lottery.

“Oh. Very much so”, said Goggles, hoping to keep her happy. “So what you’re telling me is that no matter how people feel, if they’re shrunk, you’ll eat them?”

“Totally! Like I would come here for any other reason”, said the woman. “And now little friend, I think your time has come.” She raised him over her mouth as she tilted her head back and opened her full, beautiful lips.

“Wait! Wait!” said Goggles. The woman paused, seeming surprised that he was still talking. “I don’t even know your name”, he said.

“Oh my gosh! I am sooo sorry! How rude of me. I’m Candace”, she said.

“Nice to meet you Candace. You have a very pretty name.”

“Thanks. I think so too.”

“And you’re very pretty”, Goggles said, not lying in the least but hoping to make the girl like him more and therefore keep him around longer.

“Thanks!”, said Candace. She obviously enjoyed being complemented. “But I’ve gotta ask you. Are you suffering from Stockholm syndrome? I mean a second ago you didn’t seem all too happy to learn that you’d be spending the night in my belly.

“Oh no. Me? Far from it! I am so excited you picked me to be eaten that I can hardly wait. I just want to draw out the experience a bit.”

“Okay!”, said Candace, brightening. “I’ll play with you on my tongue for a bit before I swallow.” She opened her mouth and Goggles was treated to another scary look into the inky blackness at the back of Candace’s throat.

“No wait! Wait!”, said Goggles urgently, “Let’s play hide and seek. There are private rooms for eating right? I heard someone talking about them. Get one of them. It’ll be fun.”

“Oh my gosh Jim. That is such a good idea! I’ve never thought about that before. You’re sure you don’t mind waiting for me to eat you a bit longer?”

Goggles assured her that he was sure.

“Okay then. Let’s go. I am sooo wicked excited!”, she said.

Candace carried him off with Goggles wondering just how he would get out of this one. He had amazed his gaming friends by getting out of all kinds of seemingly impossible situations. This would put those efforts to shame, if he could get out of this real-life danger.

***

After the first couple groups had been selected, the restaurant had strangely been re-opened to the masses and people streamed from the club down to the restaurant. Most left the building, but others remained, switching out their purple bracelets for blue and red ones, mostly red. The doors to the outside were also re-opened and regular patrons (almost all women) began to file in, to mix with the remnants of the concert-goers.

Among those who stayed were Charity Hoover and her friends. All four of them took blue bracelets and they took one of the rapidly dwindling open booths.

Also staying were Michelle and Priest. They had been near the front of the line, eagerly waiting when it was announced that Ava was full.

Now, after having entered the re-opened restaurant, the two had discussed their frustration as they meandered in the lounge area. Priest in particular seemed upset.

Michelle said, “Do you still want to be eaten?”

“I don’t know…maybe”, he said, looking about as people filed around him, some coming in, some leaving, “but it’s not possible now since Ava is full.” In truth, he really didn’t fancy getting eaten. It had only been the thought of enjoying Michelle in a carnal way that had eased his decision.

"I can eat you", Michelle offered, smiling brightly.

"Oh..ok”, said Priest, stunned, “Would you really want to?", he added, sounding a bit unsure.

"I sure would. I've been wanting to try a shrunken man forever. I can't think of anyone I'd rather try as my first."

Michelle took Priest’s hands and the couple headed over to talk to a waitress who pointed them to the shrink booth line, which was not large, but had begun to grow.

“You’ve both already signed the waiver”, the waitress said, “so you just go up to the shrink attendant and tell her which of you is gonna be supper and she’ll get you all squared away.”

Michelle practically pulled a semi-reluctant and still shocked Priest into the short line. The line moved very fast - too fast for Priest to contemplate backing out and upsetting her.

For Michelle, this would be the happiest day of her young life. After devouring Priest, she resolved to make many more trips to Forbidden Dish.

***

Sam was the last of three men in his bowl. Everyone else has been ‘Regrown’, as the serving staff had put it.

“Oh that was totally a great time!”, said Kat. She wasn’t the prettiest of women but she was still cute enough.

“I know”, agreed Jamie. She was one of the serving girls who had been grabbing guys out of the bowl all night.

“And look what we have here - leftovers”, said Kat. She didn’t work at the forbidden dish but she was best friends with Jamie.

“I know. They are leftovers from Ava’s show. I tried a few of them. They were pretty tasty too.”

“Well, should we polish them off?”, asked Kat.

“Okay”, said Jamie with a shrug. “Have you ever eaten someone who was unwilling before?”

“No”, said Kat with a frown. “Any good?”

“Depends upon what you like. Some girls prefer them that way. I don’t really care one way or the other as long as I get to eat them.” The two girls laughed together.

“Seriously, can I try one?”, asked Kat, walking close to the bowl and peering in. Sam and the other men inside began to back away.

"We signed up to be eaten by Ava Max!” said one man. “Not by you!”

“Picky, picky!”, said Kat and grabbed the man. “I wonder how you’ll taste.”

She didn’t have to wonder long. In a flash she put him in her mouth. She moved him around her mouth, obviously tasting him. She had a pensive look on her face. Then she gulped him down as Jamie picked out the other man.

Sam was beginning to shake now. He wasn’t sure who would eat him but he was obviously sure that it would be one of the two girls.

Jamie popped the other man in her mouth and swallowed as Kat was smiling.

“Hmm. Not bad. Not as good as that drunk guy I ate earlier. Do you want the last one dear?” she asked her friend.

“Sure. If you don’t want it,” said Jamie. She reached in and grabbed Sam. Being brought up to Jamie’s face, he had only a few seconds to admire her pretty face up close before being forced into her dark, wet, warm mouth. Then, in a second, she gulped him down.

It had been Sam’s fantasy to be eaten by a pretty girl since he was a kid. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the pretty rock star, the girl eating him was very pretty and he was enjoying himself. Her quick swallow surprised him – he tried to make the feeling last, but the muscles in her esophagus were simply relentless. He slid easily down her throat. As he travelled down her esophagus, he could hear muffled screaming coming from below him. He fell into the stomach and the screams became loud and clear. It was the man Jamie had eaten before him.

“Ahhh! Ahhh! Let me out!”, the man cried as the stomach acids began to burn Sam.

Sam didn’t scream. He had resigned himself to the pretty girls body. He would be dead soon but he was enjoying himself.

***

Kyle had been cleaned off by Danielle. She had been exceptionally gentle, almost maternal, in how she scrubbed him, making sure the water was just the right temperature for his comfort and giving his body a slow massage. He wondered if she had purposefully fondled his package – she had given him a kindly wink at the time, though her eyes retained a certain sadness.

Once finished, she had set him into the bowl (of unwillings, though Kyle didn’t know that at the time). Later, others had been added to the bowl and, though different servers came in from time to time, he didn’t see Danielle again. He hoped that she would come in and pick him up to be resized - his body began to feel chilled again.

It wasn’t too long before Kyle was scooped up by a waitress along with a handful of other shrinkies, set in a dish, and taken out into the restaurant to a booth. At the booth, he was more than happy to see that it was Charity Hoover and the people she had been talking to when he’d seen her at the concert. Charity had put on a brown shawl over her toga. Kyle noticed they were all wearing blue bands.

With shock, he watched at the girls ignored the pleas of his fellow shrinkies, picking them up and eating them without too much thought, laughing as they chatted away. He had been trying to yell and scream too, to get her attention, but his efforts were drowned out by the other shrinky’s similar actions.

Charity seemed to be sharing the shrunken men with the other girl, whereas the guys were eating shrunken women, of which there was only one for each in the bowl.

Soon, it was just him and another male shrinky in the bowl when it happened. He was picked up – but it wasn’t by Charity.  It was the other girl.  She picked him up by his leg, dangling his nude form in front of her as she looked at his tiny package. “Mmmm”, she hummed to herself happily, pleased with her catch.

As she brought him near her mouth, Kyle kicked free of her hand and landed on her other wrist. He managed to squirm and jump to the table, but she trapped him between her hands, saying, “Where are you trying to run to, tiny boy?”

“Stop! Stop! Please, that’s my friend Charity. Please give me to her”, he begged.

The girl smiled and paused, looking over to Charity. "Charity. I think your little friend here wants to talk to you", the girl said, smiling.

“My little friend?”, said Charity with a look of curiosity.

The girl lifted her hands with Kyle perched on them towards Charity.

"Oh my gosh, that’s Kyle!", said Charity excitedly, taking her from the other girl. She held him by the arm, observing his tiny naked body dangling in front of her face. She peered up at him with a toothy grin, "My goodness. I was hoping to get you.” His tiny form looked delicious as she surveyed it and her pink tongue glossed over her ruby lips.

“Hey Marie, can you take a picture for me?", she asked, handing her phone to the other girl.

"Sure", Marie said, taking the phone.

"Whoooa", Kyle said as he was brought into Charity's mouth, his arms flailing with the speed of the action. She deposited him on her tongue face down, his upper body sticking out as she looked over to her friend. She loved the taste of his naked flesh on her taste buds.

"Shtay eease", she said, her mouth forming the words around Kyle's body as she lifted her head slightly to angle it for the camera.

Kyle couldn't believe it. His sister's hot friend had him in her mouth, he was naked, and the suction on him was incredible, making him mewl. While it did feel great and his dick had just begun to harden from it’s flaccid state, he was still wary of his predicament as he felt her tongue lather his body. He looked up at the camera and was blinded by a flash.

Then Charity sucked the rest of him into her mouth and swallowed, the powerful muscles in her throat making quick work of him and funneling his enraptured body downward, ending his humanity instantly as his essence was transferred into food stuff for her.

"Woohoo, best one yet", she declared. She had enjoyed him immensely. After a few seconds of circumspection, she took her phone and began to type up a text.

“That was quick”, said the guy sitting next to her. “You practically inhaled him.”

“Yeah, sometimes I like to eat them raw”, Charity said, keeping her eyes on her phone as she found the picture she was looking for. In truth, she’d eaten Kyle quickly on purpose before her conscience could kick in, as she knew it eventually would.

“Can I have yours now?”, Marie asked her, reaching back into the bowl for the last shrinky.

“Sure, go ahead”, Charity mumbled as she kept typing.

--

At home, Jenny got the text and saw it was from Charity. She was interested to hear how her friend's experience at the concert had been.

"Hey girl. Just ‘Hoovered’ your little brother for dinner. He was fire!", read the caption, below the picture of Kyle in her mouth.

 Jenny dropped her phone.

***

Candace set Goggles on the table in the private room and then began to lick her lips. “This what you had in mind?”, she asked seductively.

“Actually I’m more of an ass man. Would you mind walking over there so I can watch you in motion?”

“Hmm. Okay Jim, but after that I think I’m going to eat you up. Better enjoy being outside of my tummy while you still can.”

She stood up and turned her back to Goggles and began to walk. She looked over her shoulder back at Goggles. “Like it?”

“Sure do,” said Goggles. It was a decent looking butt. “Keep walking you sweet thing.”

Candace laughed and kept going. The moment she turned her head, Goggles jumped from the table and sprinted for the door. It was closed, sure, but there was a crack between the door and the floor which Goggles decided was the best way to escape.

The trouble was that at his size everything was a lot further than he would have liked. It was a long sprint to the door and he was a bit winded when he arrived. He threw himself on the carpeting and started to squeeze under the crack, chancing a look back at Candace as he did. She was posing, her hips half cocked to one side, her jeans tight across her backside. Obviously, she thought he was still watching her.

Goggles squeezed through the door and into the hallway. Whew! That had been pretty tight even for his size. Now he just had to get out of here. Get out of here and go where?, he wondered. Well, never mind that now. I’ll cross that bridge when he came to it. For the moment he had to concentrate on escaping a building full of women who all wanted to eat him.

He started down the hallway when he heard the door open behind him and Candace come out. She spotted him at once and hurried after him. Of course Goggles tried to run for it, but there was no escape. Candace caught him in one hand and lifted him up.

“Oh Jimmy,” she said. “I can see that you never wanted to be eaten at all. Well that is just too bad. After all that teasing you did, it was a bit rude to leave the room without saying goodbye.”

“I don’t want to be a snack!” pleaded Goggles, dangling from Candace’s finger and thumb. “I never did.”

“Poor Jim. You’re just a victim of circumstance. Too bad I’m way too hungry to let you go”, she said, lifting him close to her mouth.

“Please Candace. Please!”, begged Jim urgently, “Think of how horrible it will feel for me when I’m in your stomach.”

“I prefer to concentrate on how I’ll feel with you in my stomach. That’s a date you’ve put off for far too long. Later Jim!”

She opened her mouth wide and Jim screamed, but Candace didn’t stop. She pushed him inside. Jim fought tooth and nail against the pull of her tongue, but it was no use. She easily manipulated his body.

“Mmmmm!” she said, which was so loud that it was agony for Jim. But a moment later, his pain was forgotten as she began to swallow. He stretched out his arms and legs wide, trying to prevent her from swallowing him by making himself as big as possible but she easily guided his body into her throat and down her esophagus. His body, now slick with saliva gave almost no resistance to the walls of the esophagus and he slid down, despite his attempts at the contrary. He screamed loudly as he descended, his voice reverberating in her throat and causing an echo that followed him down.

He was expelled from the esophagus into her belly and landed in hot, thick, smelly liquid with a splash. It was burning him. He tried to climb out but kept slipping back into the liquid.

Candace smiled as she felt the slight fluttering that always went with swallowing a guy. She made her way back into the club, enjoying the feeling. Before it had even died away, she had begun a conversation with a guy wearing a red wristband.

***

Adela sat down at her favorite chair in the restaurant. Most of the customers didn't like it because it was in the corner and some of the decorative plants obscured the view of the rest of the restaurant. The only other person she'd seen sit there was Martha when she was writing. Since she had seen Martha take one of the leftovers from the bowl and knew she liked her meals in private, Adela had the table to herself.

She plopped down and sat the bowl in front of her. Her stomach growled. She didn't dance or perform for them. She didn't even talk to them. She only got a brief lunch break before she had to get back to work and she was pulling a double. It kind of bordered on the edge of her personal code to eat the leftovers from the purple bands. They hadn't signed up for her, but technically they had accepted the fact that they would get eaten one way or another.

Foods at the restaurant were cooked in animal fat and there weren't enough red bands to work up a decent lunch quickly enough and, since she skipped breakfast, this would have to do. She hurriedly grabbed one of the tiny protesting men and downed him as she hummed to herself. The complaining from the bowl had gotten louder. She grabbed and swallowed another.

While she was eating, Skittles ran up to her barely able to contain her excitement.

"Guess what?", Skittles said, trying not to jump up and down.

"What?", Adela said popping the third guy into her mouth.

"Ava asked us to go on tour with her!" She could no longer contain herself. She was actually jumping now.

"Yay you!", Adela said, popping the fourth guy into her mouth, "This could be your big break!"

"I know right?", Skittles said, "You able to watch the house for a bit?"

Adela sighed. "How long?"

"I forgot to ask", Skittles said as if it was a minor detail.

"No biggie. It should be fine. Have fun, and say hi to Hess for me!"

Skittles rolled her eyes, "Sure thing", she said as she rushed out the door.

Adela's thoughts happily drifted back to Hess. His name was Jan (pronounced yahn) but most people read it as the girl's name of similar spelling, so he just went by his last name. It was too bad really. Adela liked the name Jan. She looked down at the last guy in the bowl. He was busy trying to shrink down into the bowl to make himself invisible.

"Hey, could you do me a big favor?" Adela asked the man in the bowl.

He looked up, but he stayed stooped over.

"You see, there's this guy I really like, but I'm not sure how to talk to him", she said looking like she found something interesting in her lap, "Could you pretend to be him so I can practice what I'm going to say." She blinked prettily at him and smiled.

He stared up at her. He couldn't tell if her eyes were so dark that they made her skin look whiter or if she was so pale that her eyes looked dark, but it had an entrancing effect. She was very pretty and who knows - maybe playing boyfriend for a bit might save his life.

"I, I guess I could, yeah, sure", he said.

"Oh, thank you, you're so nice", she said, "Jan, is it ok if I call you Jan, that's his name, you see?"

"Sure, sure", the tiny man said.

"Jan, I, uh, sorry I'm a mess, It's been a busy day."

"Don't worry about it. You look great", ‘Jan’ said. Gotta earn brownie points wherever I can.

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course, you always look great", he said.

"That's great, because there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a long time", her voice got lower as she talked. She gently picked ‘Jan’ up from the bowl.

"Yeah?"

"Well", she said making a more sultry face, "Ever since I first laid eyes on you", she drew him closer to her mouth. He could feel her warm breath as she whispered, “I knew, what I wanted, more than anything in the world..."

‘Jan’ was excited. Obviously she really likes this guy, he thought. This might be his ticket out of here.

"…was to eat you," Adela said.

"Wait. What?" The moment was gone.

“It's all I can think about," She said.

"Please don't! I don't wanna die!", the tiny man said.

She stopped and stared at him.

"I don't think that's what he'd say, but thank you for helping me practice," She said as she popped the last tiny man into her mouth and swallowed.

Maybe when he got back from the tour, she'd ask him for real. Who knows - he might like the idea. Her light snack was satisfying, but not filling. She could still feel the movement as she went back to work. The purple bands were not so bad after all. Adela couldn't wait for the next celebrity visit.

The End