Melts in your Mouth: Calvin Gets Pranked

Calvin had arrived around 7:00. Lori had already texted him that she had their table reserved and she met him at the entrance. She made sure he took a red bracelet.

“Just go with it”, she told him, giving him a pointed, but half-smirk.

Oh boy, he thought, I wonder what she’s got up her sleave this time. “Alright”, he said.

As they meandered their way through the foyer lounge busy with people mingling, he caught a part of a conversation between two women who looked to be in their mid-thirties, a blond and a brunette.

“You’re going to be a Runner?”, the brunette asked, surprised.

“Yes I am”, the blond said proudly.

“I didn’t know women could be the Runners”, the brunette remarked.

“Oh, hells yeah they can. It’s not very common, but I can’t wait. Don’t worry, I won’t get caught, but I sure do love being chased by guys. And I talked Charles into being one of the giants. Wanna join me as a Runner?”

Calvin didn’t wait to hear the brunette’s response. He had made it past them and followed Lori into the restaurant proper.

They sat down at a table in the center of the restaurant. Looking around, Calvin saw quite an array of various types of people, from large groups to couples, from middle-aged to some who looked just out of their teenage years, ethnicities of all sorts, from groups of guys to groups of women, though often the groups were of mixed genders.

He saw that Lori had already ordered him a pint of Confidence.

He thought about the last time they had been out to dinner. He had held a pair of black Sonic Rock magnets in his hand and had kept them mysteriously hidden in his closed hand, allowing a couple of grinding sounds to be heard. When she had inquired as to what he was holding, he had told her he was holding a pair of jumping beetles. Then, as she was contemplating what that meant, he opened his hand and released the magnets, which quickly came together and made a sharp chirping noise. She had opened her mouth wide and squealed loudly, causing many patrons in the busy place to turn in her direction. Afterwards, she was very embarrassed and though they’d had wonderful sex later that evening, she had resolved to get him back. He wondered what she had in store for him.

They chatted for just a little bit, but Lori said she wanted to look around by herself for a little bit before ordering food. So while Calvin sat back and drank his pint, taking in the ambiance of the restaurant, she took a brief stroll of along the sides of the restaurant and back out into the foyer.

Calvin drank his pint rather quickly. He was thirsty and it tasted very good. As he waited for Lori, he decided to order another. The waitress was very friendly and very cute, telling him her name was Scarlett.

“Scarlett, how long have you been working here?”, he asked.

“A little over a year”, she replied.

“Do you like working here?”

“I love it”, she said, rolling her eyes to emphasize her point. She chatted with him for a bit as she serviced other tables, telling him that she had decided to forego college studies, that she was simply making too much money at her young age (she had just turned twenty-one, which allowed her to now work in the restaurant, since she could serve alcohol) to not take advantage of the opportunity.

Calvin flipped through the menu, noting the pricey costs. I wonder if that’s what Lori’s gonna do? Order a ton of food and drinks and stick me with the bill? It would not be as good as his last prank, nor as inventive, but it would sting him in the pocket book.

He waited a couple more minutes for Lori to return, wondering where she had got to. She had indicated that she just wanted a quick look around. In the meantime, Scarlett had brought him another refill.

Just when he thought that her prank was possibly to show him up, Lori returned.

“There you are”, he said, “I was beginning to think you had left me.”

“Ha, no, sorry. I just ran into an old friend out in the lobby. Hadn’t seen her for awhile”, she explained. “Should I call our waitress over?”, she pinched her finger in front of her eyes to just an inch apart, viewing him through the opening, “Hmmm, I think maybe I’d like a shrunken Calvin with a side salad. I’d call that a low-cal dinner”, she said and squealed a little laugh at her own joke.

“Ha ha. Very funny. You won’t get me shrunk down that easy”, he replied with a smirk as he browsed the menu.

“I bet you’d love it, being tiny and in my mouth, squirting your man juice everywhere, you naughty, dirty boy”, she said in a husky voice. He watched her as she slid her tongue over her lips seductively. “I suppose you’ve had plenty of time to consider your order.”

Calvin pretended to ignore her sexual ribbing, though he couldn’t suppress a smile - he loved it when she talked like this – it always got his adrenaline going. “Why don’t you give me a minute? Now it’s my turn. Sorry, but I’ve really got to pee. Be back in two shakes”, he quipped.

--

Thankfully for her, it was not a quick walk to the Men’s Room. While Calvin was away, Lori quickly got Scarlett’s attention, asking her for the papers to shrink Calvin down. Scarlett returned straight-away with the forms and a pen. After Scarlett left, Lori quickly went through and signed the forms, forging his name. She had practiced his signature to the point where she felt she could do a pretty good replica.

She handed Scarlett the forms when she saw Calvin in the distance, walking towards the table. “Great timing”, she muttered under her breath. Now it was just a matter of getting him into line.

Calvin had to piss like a racehorse, giving him a woody. He had to point his penis painfully downward in the urinal to make sure there was no splash back onto him. The Confidence pints had seemed to go right through him.

Relieved, he returned to the table to see a smiling, almost glowing Lori.

“What’s up?”, he asked, trying to read her expression.

“Nothing”, she lied with a smirk. “Hey, I have an idea. Our server Scarlett told me that Friday’s are ‘buffet night’ and she said they have quite a seafood buffet here. They’re pretty famous for it, I guess. What do you say we try it out?” She gave him a sideways smile.

“Um…sure babe”, he replied, then added, “But let’s not dither any longer. I’m famished. Where’s it at?”

“Let’s go”, she said, standing up. This was going better than expected. “I’ll show you.”

They passed Scarlett, with Lori telling her they were going to the ‘buffet line’ and giving her a wink.

“I’m sure you’ll find something up there you like”, Scarlett responded, playing along with her.

They found the line near the top of the steps. Calvin thought it strange that the buffet was upstairs, but Lori had explained that they simply didn’t have room for a huge spread in the restaurant and that made sense to his distracted mind. Besides feeling quite tipsy from the Confidence pints, he was watching the several couples in line make out with each other.

There was a lot of fondling going on. As the line moved, Lori decided to get into the act, kissing Calvin hard and boldly. Before he knew it, Lori was backing him into a booth. She pressed against his chest gently to separate herself, than put a finger up to her mouth in a hushing motion when he began to object.

“Hold on a minute baby”, she said, “they just need to scan you first to make sure you don’t have any infectious diseases.” She closed the door.

Calvin was confused. Why would they need to scan him for any diseases for a buffet? But he was in an agreeable mood and Lori had really revved his sexual engine up.

“OK sir”, the attendant Janice declared, “this is your last chance to back out. Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Uh, sure?”, he replied, not understanding the question.

A blinding flash of green light flooded his senses and he felt like he was drifting downward blindly. He took comfort that he fell over onto something soft, which completely cushioned him.

There was a loud noise and, as his sight was starting to come back to him, he saw a huge dark-skinned giantess bending over to pick him up.

Oh crap, he realized, I’ve been shrunk!

He didn’t have too much time to act, as the pretty girl took him over to a set of pots.

“Would you like to keep your hair?”, she pointed to her own hair on her head.

“Er, yeah?”, he responded meekly. He was still having a hard time processing what was happening to him.

“Hold your breath”, the girl told him.

Jinx dunked the man into the de-hairing tonic until his nose was about level with the liquid line. She kept him in there for several seconds. While she waited, she motioned to Lori and pointed to a grouping of cylinders, saying, “which flavor selection would you like for his cleaning solution? We have twelve different flavors.”

“Hmmm”, Lori thought for a moment, “let’s try tangerine.”

“Nice choice”, Jinx responded. She took Calvin out of the tonic and began to spray him off before applying the fruity body lotion.

--

“Lori, what’s going on?”, squeaked tiny Calvin from the palm of her hand as she walked back to their table.

She smiled down at him mischievously. She didn’t really intend to eat him. She just wanted to scare him into thinking she would before having him resized. This was to be the capper of all pranks and she had planned and executed it perfectly. She was also curious to see how he looked as a shrinky.

“How do you like my little mischief?”, she asked, sitting down at the table and setting him down in front of her.

“Don’t you think you’ve carried this a little too far?”, Calvin said.

“Hmmm”, she said, scratching her chin and looking up to the ceiling while she wore a smirk. “I don’t know about too far, but I would say you are almost too adorable at that size. I could just swallow you up.”

Calvin took a couple steps back from her. “You’d better not. How did this even happen? I thought you said we were going to a buffet and then”, he pointed at himself with his thumbs, “WHAM! I’m shrunk.”

Lori laughed, then leaned down and whispered. “I have to make a confession.”

Calvin looked around nervously, trying to scope out the lay of the land (table). He was undecided on whether to move closer to her.

“Come on”, she encouraged him, “I won’t bite. Promise.”

Normally, Calvin placed enormous trust in Lori, but he felt betrayed by her. This was too much and too sudden for him to wrap his mind around. But without anywhere to go, he felt he had no better choice than to comply. Disobeying her would only worsen his plight. He stepped near her mouth.

“I forged your signature”, she whispered.

“My signature? On what?”, he asked, still confused.

“On the forms that said you wanted to get shrunk”, she replied.

“But I didn’t want to get shrunk”, he stated.

“Of course you didn’t. But I wanted to see what you looked like all shrunk down, my cute little Cal”, she said, batting her eyelashes at him.

“Wait. So, you actually forged my signature to allow them to shrink me down…?”. She nodded yes. “…and…and that line. It wasn’t the buffet line?”. She grinned and nodded no.

Calvin shook his head in disbelief. “You know, you’re going to get in big trouble for this, forging my signature and getting me shrunk against my will”, he warned her.

She said teasingly, “Then maybe I should just eat you now.” 

Just when his nervous system had started to regain some level of trust around her, that statement, though said in a teasing tone, made him revert back to fear. After all, he was tiny now and she was huge. There was nothing he could physically do to prevent her from eating him if she chose to. “No no, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t tell on you. Just get me resized, huh. Then we can go home and work off all this stress.”

He was so caught up in the size of her face leaning down and peering at him, that he lost sight of her hands. He felt a pressure on his back and butt as she swooped him off his feet and brought him up to her mouth.

“How about if you work off a little energy in here?”, she said, then without another word, she brought his legs to her lips. He kicked out with both of them, but it didn’t have any impact on her and she eagerly slurped them up to mid-thigh. Looking down, she made eye contact with him and gave him a wink.

“Lori! No wa…”, he started, but was cut off as he was inhaled into her maw.

Wow, he really tastes quite good!, she thought as she swirled him about and lathered him with her saliva. The tangerine flavoring was a good choice. She could feel him squirming about within her mouth, no doubt trying to find a way to escape. She felt a slight urge to swallow him and that scared her. Without further adieu, she opened her mouth and pulled his liquid-saturated body out. She could see his little chest heave and hear him pant as he lay on her palm.

“Just kidding”, she smiled down at him warmly. “I’m not gonna eat ya, you little baby.”

“Thank god”, Calvin said, feeling relieved. He had to acknowledge it was a good prank and he had actually enjoyed being in her mouth, though he was loathe to admit it to her at his present size.

She hailed Scarlett over.

“Scarlett, can you please have Calvin resized?”, she asked politely.

“Is there something wrong?”, Scarlett asked.

“Nothing wrong. I’m not gonna eat him”, Lori stated, “ I was just toying with him. You know, sometimes guys just have to be put in their place.”

“You got that right, sister”, Scarlett said, her eyes twinkling as she accepted Calvin’s tiny form. “I’ll take care of him for you.” She walked away towards the kitchen.

Lori smiled and took a big sip of her wine. She felt so turned on by having Cal shrunk down and in her mouth. It had been the ultimate in control for her over him. She couldn’t wait to get home and ravage his resized body.

--

“Scarlett, where are we going?”, asked Calvin. He saw she was walking away from where he remembered the shrink line to be.

“Gonna get you all cleaned up so that you can be eaten. If your girlfriend doesn’t want to, I’m sure we’ll find someone else who will enjoy you. Who knows, if you’re still around when I take my break, I might even eat you up myself. You do look kinda cute.”

“Eaten? Really?! You’re just kidding, right Scarlett? Please tell me this is part of Lori’s game.”

She didn’t respond to him, but turned the corner into the kitchen, taking him over to one of the sinks. With shock, he realized she wasn’t lying to him. As she held him and moved him around in the warm water, he tried to get in a word.

“Please Scarlett. You have to understand. I had no intention of getting shrunk. Lori tricked me.”

“She did, huh?” Scarlett had heard just about every story imaginable from shrinkies who had changed their minds about getting eaten up after they had been shrunk down. It wasn’t her problem – in fact, she enjoyed playing with their scared little wits.

“Yes!”, he exclaimed after spitting out some water, “she actually forged my signature on the forms. I never signed them!”

“Uhuh”, she said, being agreeable, but not believing him in the slightest.

***

Jake, having been cleaned off by Jackie, had been deposited into the ‘willing’ bowl. There, he had waited hopefully for Jackie to change her mind and come back for him. He had struck up a discussion with a couple other guys, who couldn’t stop talking about how much they desired to get eaten by a beautiful woman or girl. It turned out both guys had volunteered to get shrunk down without a sponsoring woman and had actually looked forward to the thrill of the surprise to see who would be consuming them. Jake didn’t agree with that sentiment. He knew who he wanted to eat him and wouldn’t be happy with any other, though he was resigned to the fact that it would be some pretty girl, as he had seen a ton of them walking through the Dish.

He had reconciled his decision to get eaten with one positive. Well, atleast I don’t have to worry about taking the ACTs, he thought.

He was mildly disappointed when the blond-haired server came in and picked him up, setting him in a bowl and then another shrinky from another dish was scooped up and placed in the bowl with him. This man was older than he, probably late-twenties, and seemed extremely nervous.

“It’s gonna be ok, dude”, said Jake to the guy. “It’ll all be over soon. Just enjoy the ride. What’s your name, by the way? I’m Jake”, he held out his hand.

“Oh, fuck no!”, the guy replied. “You don’t realize – I’m not even supposed to be here.”

“Well, you did sign up for it”, reasoned Jake.

“That’s the point! I didn’t. The girl I was with, that stupid bitch, she forged my signature. I never even saw the forms and she tricked me into thinking we were in line for a buffet! You see, we like to play pranks on each other, but this…this is just carrying things way too far.”

“Oh man”, said Jake, slapping his forehead. He couldn’t resist laughing.

***

It had been some time since Scarlett had taken tiny Calvin away, purportedly to get him resized. She was completely unaware that once people were shrunk down, they were considered food and must be disposed of as such within the confines of Forbidden Dish.

Lori was now on her 3rd glass of wine and it was beginning to go to her head. Occasionally, she glanced up from her phone to surveil the comings and goings of different patrons and servers. She expected to see a regular-sized Calvin approaching her table at any moment.

She noticed that a couple had taken the table next to her. Interestingly enough, she noticed the man had a bowl with a couple male shrinkies, while the woman had a bowl with a couple female shrinkies. She grinned in amusement, then noticed Scarlett nearby and hailed her.

“Yes miss, is there something else I can get you?”, Scarlett asked.

“No, no. I’m good”, she said, “I’m just wondering where Calvin is. You took him to be resized some time ago.”

Scarlett stopped for a moment, chuckling, than responded, “Sometimes, the machines get busy and the resizing takes second priority to those getting shrunk. Just give me a minute and I’ll go check on him.”

***

The server brought out their bowls of shrinkies – they liked to start with appetizers first before digging in to their entrees. The waitress bringing out their bowls was not the one who had taken the orders. She placed the bowl of 2 willing female shrinkies in front of Douglas and the bowl of 2 male shrinkies, one willing and one unwilling in front of Nancy.

“No. The other way”, Douglas told her with a frown.

“Oh”, she said, surprised. Looking at the man to make sure he wasn’t simply teasing her, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry about that.” She quickly switched the bowls before hastily departing.

“Want one?”, he asked Nancy.

“Now, you know that I don’t eat those nasty little things”, she responded somewhat offended and scrunching up her nose in disgust.

“Oh, what?”, said Jake, confused as Douglas dipped his hands into the bowl to pick up the guy next to him, who was squirming to try to get to the side of the bowl when he was grabbed.

Douglas picked up the flailing shrinky. It was screaming something at him, but he ignored it. Most of the shrinkies he’d eaten in his trips to the Dish had yelled all the way down his gullet. This one would be no different. He popped him into his mouth before it could squiggle out of his hand, closing his mouth rapidly behind it. Douglas began to swirl the man with his tongue, tasting his body in ways that were probably not welcomed by the shrinky.

But Calvin (the shrinky) didn’t stay in long.

From his vantage point, Jake watched as the handle-bar mustachioed giant’s mouth was forced open and Calvin moved his arms in a swimming motion, trying to kick off of the giant’s tongue. His body made it out to about the knees before he was suctioned back into the mouth.

Douglas tilted his head up and made a gurgling sound as he very wetly slurped the guy down his gullet, the lump visibly squirming as it moved past his Adam’s apple.

Jake subliminally stuck out his tongue and made a pained expression (looking like Commodus in the movie Gladiator as he watched Maximus slash the throat of the centurion on the carriage). He had witnessed the harsh end of the man who was not even supposed to have been shrunk down, the recipient of a brutal prank.

“Whew. Looks like that one almost escaped you Douglas?”, Nancy said, mockingly as she picked up her first shrinky, who held her little hands out to show her willingness to get eaten.

“There is no escape from my mouth”, chuckled Douglas as he looked down at the remaining shrinky in his bowl.

Nancy laughed. “What was he saying to you?”

“Was he speaking? I dunno, I didn’t hear him.”

Jake looked around, searching for help of any kind. He saw people, male and female, at the adjacent table. From their hungry stares, he knew there would be no help forthcoming from that front. They were looking on anxiously awaiting his voring.

“Looks like you got a young’un”, Nancy observed the other male shrinky as she swallowed her tiny woman. “He looks excited.”

Hearing the woman, Jake looked down to see that she was telling the truth. His penis was hard as steel and was throbbing to his pulse despite his predicament. Oh Jesus!, he thought, as a shadow swept over him. He knew his erection was from the sheer excitement and fear of the finality he was about to experience.

“Oh, fuck no!”, Jake yelled as he was picked up and held before the face of the giant. He turned his face away in disgust as the giant’s coffee breath hit him full force. “Ughh.”

“Good. I like them the best”, said Douglas, licking his lips in readyment for his next snack.

Douglas took hold of the shrinky’s arms and dangled him by them over his face, noticing the tiny boy’s quivering penis. He gave him a lick up his front, from his genitals all the way up to his face. 

“Ugh…gawd”, muttered Jake. He felt violated and the saliva from the huge man made him feel like he had just been slobbered on by a Saint Bernard. 

The giant had lifted him higher now, so he could see right down into his open mouth. As he was lowered towards it, Jake kept raising his legs to avoid the man’s huge outstretched tongue. As he dangled, he would avoid the huge lips bobbing for his lower body repeatedly, moving his legs up before gravity made him lower them. He was in a state of panic, not wanting to get eaten by a man. Survival mode had kicked in and his heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest.

After several iterations, Jake’s face contorted into a grimace of pain as he felt the man’s mouth finally gripped him just above both knees. “Oh no!”, he screamed. Then man then moved his lips further up his thighs. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! were Jake’s thoughts before the lips moved further up to cover his groin and buttocks.

Whatever sense of pleasure could be had by his lathering was overwhelmed by the sense of dread that was happening to him. Even so, the excitement of the finality of the moment caused his cock to splurge out the juices he had churned all night long in what he had expected would be his sexual fulfillment by Jackie. It was not to be.

Nancy had watched silently as Douglas had played with his food. She saw him now slurp the clearly excited boy fully into his mouth and watched as Douglas’ cheeks flushed full with the boy’s obviously curled-up body. Douglas easily bundled the boy to his throat and sent him head first into the squelching canal. The lump squirmed until it disappeared into his chest.

And just like that, Jake was gone. Jackie, had she witnessed the event, would have smiled.

After eating him, Douglas dabbed his mouth to wipe off some of the boy’s juices that had dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. He exclaimed, “Ooh, he was squiggly. And he left a bitter aftertaste.” 

“Well, mine tasted just right”, Nancy said.

She picked up her second shrinky, a short-haired tanned brunette.

Marie was quite excited. She had talked to one of the waitresses earlier and gotten quite tipsy. On a dare, she had gotten shrunk. Shrunk and drunk, she thought to herself, giggling. She had seen the woman she’d shared the dish with get slurped down by the giant woman and now it was her turn.

Nancy picked up the eager tiny woman, who had been doing a little dance in her dish and popped her into her mouth. After sloshing her around for a little while, she swallowed her.

As she was squeezed down the woman’s throat, Marie let out a loud “Weeeeee!” It felt to her vaguely like going down a water slide until she was squeezed into a very narrow space, whereby her gleeful tone was abruptly stifled, the wind knocked out of her. A second gulp from the giantess sent her onwards, squelching her flailing form into the woman’s belly.

After swallowing her second tiny woman, the shrinky sliding smoothly down her neck, Nancy exclaimed, “Mmmm. Nice. I hope dinner gets here soon. These were nice appetizers, but I am still starving.”

“Me too”, Douglas said, taking a drink of his coffee and smacking his lips contentedly.

***

Devin learned that the other woman’s name was Kate. She seemed to have a bit of authoritative nature about her, as though she was used to ordering people around used to them carrying out her commands. He learned through conversation that she was a policewoman and a roommate to one of the popular waitresses at Forbidden Dish.

He reminisced with Andra for a bit. She admitted he had done some good work at EA Tech, but said he probably had left at the right time.  His 2-year review was coming up and the company made a habit of having their male employees that didn't measure up during review periods get consumed by their female managers. Of course, Devin, like all the male employees, was unaware of that. She had actually held it as a minor grudge against him when he had up and left. Like Devin, Andra and Michelle had also since moved on from the company, Andra taking an executive job at another company, while Michelle had actually moved back into development on a part-time basis as she focused on raising her small children.

While they talked, Devin found time to take in Andra’s body and mannerisms. He noted the many features about Andra which he found enticing.

She had a slim athletic build for her somewhat diminutive 5’3” frame. One could describe her figure as a gymnast’s medium-smallish tits, but with a tanned and well-toned base of muscular gorgeous legs  and tight buttocks, a nice waistline and beautifully curly dark brown hair. He knew she was athletic from the co-ed volleyball leagues they had played in together and from what she’d told him about her college days.

Observing her face, he observed her smooth and nubile neck as she kept her hair off of it. Moving up from there, he saw that she had perfect teeth, gorgeous high cheekbones (perhaps owing to the small portion of her Native American heritage from one side of her family), eloquent nostrils though her nose was straight (illustrating her English heritage). She had marvelous doe-shaped emerald eyes covered by the cutest eyelids he had ever seen. They were moist and fresh looking. Whenever she looked down and her dimples came out, she looked as cute as could be imagined.

Of course, she was not always smiling. She had a sneer that he found amusing and sexy, depending on her usage of it. She could raise one side of her nose and mouth while the other side remained steady.

Her sense of humor was such that she would thoroughly enjoy a move like Caddyshack, taking delight in the crude humor like any male would. When she laughed at the spur of the moment, it could almost be described as a short bark.

He also took note of her breathing. Often, when she was talking, she would end her speech with a sniff of the air, almost like she was smelling flowers in a garden. He found it extremely sexy. Perversely, he envisioned that’s how she would breathe if he was balls-deep in her mouth.

Her voice was somewhat high and girlish, though she could deepen it into a husky tone at times, especially when she whispered, which she was wont to do.

In other words, Devin had been smitten by Andra several years earlier and, in seeing and talking with her again these many years later, he instantly became smitten again. One could also say he was infatuated, for he had also thought of her from time to time.

Their initial ice-breaking done, Michelle seemed to notice for the first time the bracelet on Devin’s arm.

“Oooh, I see you got a red bracelet”, said Michelle.

Devin didn’t understand the idea behind the red bracelets nor the woman’s excited reaction to seeing it.  “Yeah, the lady at the front said that most guys get one, so…I see you all have blue ones. It’s kind of backwards, isn’t it. Shouldn’t women have red ones and guys have blue ones?”, he asked, naively.

“Oh, that’s cute”, said Kate. She was nibbling on a small plate of shrimp, dipping them in cocktail sauce.

“You do know what the bracelets are for, right?”, Andra asked, as if the answer should be obvious.

“Erm, not really”, Devin answered honestly.

“Ohh-kay then”, said Andra, displeased with Devin’s ignorance. She thought everyone knew about Forbidden Dish and how it operated.

“Shhh”, said Michelle, quietly tamping down her friend’s impatience. “He probably hasn’t been here before.”

“I haven’t”, admitted Devin. “What’s the big deal?”

"The big deal?”, Andra admonished him. “The big deal is that those bracelets are used to determine who is going to be eaten and who is going to do the eating.”

“Wait. What?”, said Devin, looking confused. “Is this some kind of…cannibal place”, he whispered the last part.

Kate laughed and Michelle chuckled, saying, “Not really. But Andra is telling the truth.”

Devin was skeptical. These women were no doubt pulling his leg. He looked around the restaurant. These people didn’t seem like the types who would resort to cannibalism. There were people of various ages, all engaged in merriment. “Come on. You’re putting me on.”

“It’s true. People get eaten here. But they’re not eaten like with a knife and fork. They’re swallowed”, Michelle explained.

Devin sat back in his seat with a disbelieving glare.

“Look over there”, Michelle pointed to a nearby table. “Look what that guy is holding up.”

Devin looked to see where she was pointing. There, a man with a mustache was dangling what appeared to be a tiny person over his mouth. He blinked his eyes – was he really seeing this. The tiny man seemed to be moving. Sure enough, he was kicking with his legs, trying to keep out of the man’s mouth. This tiny person surely did not want to get eaten, that much was apparent. As he watched, the tiny man grimaced in pain as horror as the man closed his mouth on his legs. He was done for now. The man continued to suck on the tiny guy and the tiny guy seemed to be screaming or shouting, though he could not hear anything. Soon enough, the tiny was slurped in, the man tilting his head up and swallowing, a squirmy little lump apparent as it made it’s way down past his Adam’s Apple and into his body.

“Whoa”, exclaimed Devin. “So, you’re telling me that was a real person that guy just swallowed?”

“Mmmhmm”, said Kate.

“Yep”, said Andra.

“How is that even possible?”, Devin said, dumbfounded.

Kate spoke up, explaining that Meghyn, the restaurant’s manager and partial owner, had developed the shrinking technology in conjunction with her contacts in the military. The technology had been in development for some time, for a variety of logistical benefits, but Meghyn had rolled it out for the controversial usage of shrinking humans down for consumption. With powerful allies in the military and government, she was able to get local and state laws passed to make her business legal, while the case slowly made it’s way up to the Supreme Court in a test of first amendment priveleges.

“Wow”, said Devin aloud. He was stunned. Then he thought back to the tiny boy that had gotten eaten by the man.  Putting himself in the place of the tiny guys that got eaten, he would not want to be eaten, of course, but if he had to be eaten, he would prefer it to be a woman. It was the first time he’d had a conscious thought about what it must be like to be tiny and get swallowed alive. “And guys can eat other guys? That just seems…nasty”, said Devin, a look of disgust on his face.

“No…I mean…yes, it can happen”, Kate said, “But it’s pretty rare. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen it. Most of the time, guys get eaten by women. Women, when they get eaten, it seems to be more of an equitable split on the gender of their consumer.”

As Devin and Michelle continued their discussion, Andra seemed to have shifted atleast partial attention to a group of three young men, college-aged boys. Devin noticed that one or more of them seemed to be making eyes at Andra. One of them had also recently got up and walked to an adjacent table, talking to a middle-aged couple before going back to sit with his buddies.

Perhaps ten minutes later, the three young guys got up to leave their table. Devin noticed one of them, a particularly haughty blond-haired young man, seemed to be coming towards their table, but at the last minute, one of the others pulled him along as they passed within a few feet of their table – the three disappeared into the foyer lounge area. Andra’s eyes seemed to follow them. Looking in her eyes from the side, he sensed a hunger in them, and disappointment.

Kate looked bored and left to go upstairs and visit the dance floor level. There had been a recent announcement over the intercom that Devin had missed – apparently, some unusual event was happening up there.

***

In between texts with her friends, Lori watched the man and woman at her neighboring table eat up their little shrinkies. She had listened in casually to their conversation, learning their names were Douglas and Nancy.

It had been a strange sight to watch the man slurp up the tiny men. She wondered whether that’s what the little guys wanted when they signed up to be shrunk down. She reflected on having Calvin in her mouth. Perhaps I should have just eaten him. I bet I would have enjoyed it, she thought.

Scarlett finally came back, informing her that Calvin had decided to get eaten after all.

“That little twerp”, she responded angrily, “he just couldn’t stand it that I pulled this on him. He had to go and one-up me again.” She asked Scarlett for the bill, which was rather large, since it included Calvin’s ‘shrinkage’ and ‘disposal’, as it was itemized on her receipt.

She paid the bill and, with a harrumph, slid her purse over her shoulder and left. She walked by Scarlett on the way out.

“Have a great night miss”, Scarlett said politely. ”By the way, you mentioned you played a prank on your guy?”

Lori took a moment to calm herself, then giggling, she whispered to her, “Yeah. I forged his signature on his forms. Just a little secret between us girls, right?” She gave Scarlett a big tip in cash and walked out into the foyer.

Scarlett stopped in her tracks, realizing the shrinky had been telling the truth. “Huh...”, she exclaimed.

***