John had been looking forward to the flight ever since he got on board.  Although he had been allocated a window seat that was most definitely coach, it looked a certainty that the seat next to him would be empty.  A real bonus on a 10 hour flight.  However, as his watch told him that they were passed departure time, he suspected that they were waiting for another passenger.  He was right.

A woman came bustling down the gangway towards him.  The angle of his seat and the lighting in the cabin meant that he couldn’t get a clear look at her yet, but she looked tall, large and full bodied, perhaps in her early 40’s.

“Pfew,” she gasped as she sat down in the seat next to him, “That was close!”

John could best be described as slender, and not particularly tall at 5 feet 8.  However, he felt his room immediately constricted as the large lady moved about in her seat, rearranging her things and fastening her seatbelt.

John’s impression had been correct; she looked in her early 40’s, some 10 to 15 years older than he was.  He could smell an understated fragrance on her, as well as an unquestionably natural, raw human smell of someone who had been running, though it was some way from sweat.

He noticed that, as she sat down and through him a sideways glance, the tip of her tongue flicked out across her lips in what seemed to him a nervous, distracted gesture.  What else was he supposed to think? Even a creative person with a wild imagination, which John certainly was not, could hardly have envisaged how familiar he would become with those lips and tongue before 24 hours were up.

As the plane began to taxi to the runway, John flicked through the in-flight magazine, reading about restaurants he wouldn’t visit and watches he wouldn’t buy.  He began to think about the presentation he was due to deliver in 3 days time, a presentation that, as it turned out, would have to be delivered by someone else.

When he glanced up from the magazine, it was to find the older woman’s eyes on him.  Her tongue slid from her mouth once again, passing over thick lips.  She was still breathing heavily, breath which slightly disturbed the side of John’s hair, though he was not close enough for it to feel warm.  Certainly not as warm as it would feel before too much longer had elapsed.

He noticed that she had long brown hair, lustrously thick, which stretched some considerable way way passed her shoulders.

“That was close!” she said for the second time.

“I think you only just made it,”, he agreed, speaking mainly out of politeness.

Soon afterwards they were airborne.  The seatbelt sign was eventually extinguished and the in-flight service commenced.  After a drink (John took a beer and the woman next to him a gin and tonic), the meal was brought round.

“Beef or chicken sir?” the bored but attractive stewardess asked him.

“Chicken please,” he replied, and took the foil tray from her.

“For you mam?”

“Oh nothing thanks, I’m not hungry.”

“Are you sure mam?”

“Oh yes I’m fine thanks,” she said smiling radiantly at John and licking her lips for the third time, “I’ll eat later.”

“There will be another meal before we land Mam, perhaps you’ll take something then.”

“Perhaps,” the other woman said non-committally, and her radiant smiled dimmed becoming enigmatic.

John didn’t think anything of this exchange.  What was there to think after all? There wasn’t anything sinister about it was there?

After the meal John slept.  Although he didn’t know it, the woman beside him shot sidelong glances at him from time to time, that salivating tongue passing across those thick lips.  Had John known what she had been thinking, it is probable that he wouldn’t have slept as well.  Though even then, surely what the big woman was thinking was impossible.

John yawned and stretched, awaking some 6 hours into the flight.

“Excuse me mam,” he said, “But could I squeeze passed you?”

“Sure,” she said, and stepped out into the isle for him.

When John stood up, he could see that the woman was larger than he had originally thought.  She was a good 3 inches taller than he was, and much broader in the shoulder and thick in the body.  He wasn’t sure if it was her comparative bulk, the narrowness of the isle or the fact that she didn’t allow him much room, but he had to press hard against her as he made his way out.  as he squeezed passed her, he got a whiff of her breath, which was fruity sweet, almost as though she had been eating fruit-flavoured candy.

She made room for him once again when he returned from the back of the plane.

“How much longer do you think there is to go?” She said.

“Oh,” replied John in a friendly manner, “About 4 hours I think.”

“Do you have far to travel when we land?” she asked, seemingly just making conversation.

“I have to get another internal flight,” he said, “Over to Colorado Springs.”

It seemed as though disappointment flitted across her face, though this may just have been John’s imagination, he thought.

“You?” he reciprocated.

“Oh I live in Denver,” she said, “About 15 minutes from the airport.”

The second meal was brought, and again the woman declined, looking at John and licking her lips as she did so, but without a radiant smile this time.

About an hour before they landed, the steward announced that South-West had cancelled all flights to Colorado Springs as that airport had been closed due to fog.

“Damn it,” said John, “I’ll have to get a cab.”

“That won’t be cheap,” the woman next to him replied, “Around $300.”

“Perhaps I’ll stay in a hotel and fly in tomorrow morning.”

“Oh,” she said, and if John wasn’t mistaken a note of what could only be described as hopefulness had crept into her voice, “This may sound a little forward, but you can stay with me.”

John appraised the woman again.  She was not what he would have described as his type or even attractive, but she certainly had something.  Her words had been spoken in a pleasantly low register, almost as though she smoked the occasional cigarette.  She also sounded educated and cultured.

“It’s ok,” she said half laughing, “I won’t eat you.” At that moment, the strangest feeling came over John.  As the woman licked her lips for the umpteenth time and her stomach gave a low rumble, he had the disturbing feeling that she would like nothing better than to eat him, there and then on the spot.

He shook himself mentally.  How on earth could she eat him anyway? She was a 21st century American, not a cannibalistic tribeswoman from a far off land.

“If it makes you feel better,” she said, still half laughing, “You can give me $50 for the room.  It’s a big house, and you can have a choice of three rooms to sleep in.  I don’t bite.”

John would never know what made him answer the way he did, he wouldn’t have much longer to think about it either.

“Ok,” he said smiling at the woman properly for the first time, “That would be great.  I don’t really like staying in hotels alone and ordering dinner for one in a restaurant is depressing.”

“That’s wonderful,” she said, rubbing her fingers lightly on his arm.  John didn’t notice that she sounded unduly excited about how wonderful it was.  “My name’s Tina,” by the way.

“John,”, he said, extending his hand.  When she took it in hers, he noticed how much longer, thicker and broader her hand was than his.  She appeared to hold it a fraction too long, but freed it with a slight start and another smile.

The plane eventually landed in Denver,  Tina and John disembarked and actually walked towards the terminal arm in arm.  The baggage handlers were for once efficient, and even the customs officials behaved as though they had homes to go to.

“My car’s in the long stay,” said Tina, “It’s just this way.”

About 20 minutes later Tina pulled up outside an elegant and modern looking town house, and opened the door.  The hallway smelt slightly musty, as though the house hadn’t been occupied for some time.

Tina walked around switching on lights, and John saw that it had been decorated in an understated way, rather like Tina’s perfume.

Although he had helped with the bags, she had carried in a large suitcase and she was a little out of breath.  For the third time, her breath brushed against his face.

“Can I get you a drink?” she asked.

“A beer would be great.”

“Go through, and I’ll bring it.”

“Through” turned out to be a spacious living room with a 3-piece sweet, and he took a place in an arm chair.  She brought in the drink, put it on the table next to him and sat down with a deep and contented sigh.

John noticed that she had decanted the beer into a glass.  He took the drink more quickly than he would ordinarily have done.  As he finished, he started to feel very peculiar.  It wasn’t sleepiness in the natural sense, it was a cross between being drunk and being sedated.  His head began to swim uncontrollably, and the last thing he saw before he blacked out was Tina kneeling beside him, calling his name.

He wasn’t fully awake.  Someone had turned on a fan heater in the house.  It seemed like a fan anyway because the air wasn’t constantly on his face, as though the fan were rotating.  But when it was, it was stiflingly hot.  Someone was also sponging his whole body, again with a warm, wet sponge.

“It must be a big sponge,” he thought groggily to himself, “If it can sponge my whole body like that and wrap around me.”

He gradually noticed that the sponging sensation coincided with the hot air from the fan heater, an air that seemed to have a strange aroma for a fan, almost like sugary fruit.

The fan heater then seemed to laugh.

John stiffened in fear.  He didn’t realise what was happening yet, but he began to know something was badly wrong.

“Tasty,” said the sponge come fan heater, “I can’t wait to have you in my mouth.”

John’s eyes snapped open.  For a while, he couldn’t compute what he was seeing as something was blocking out the light.  Eventually he realised that he was in a vast room, with an enormous woman staring down at him, a huge smile across her enormous face.  Her tongue licked him again, the thing he had mistaken for a sponge.  He also realised that he was lying in the palm of her hand.

Judging by her relative size, John guessed his own size to be some 3 inches tall, making Tina about 25 times larger than he was.

“What? What? What’s happening to me?” He managed in a whisper.

“Ah,” she said almost tenderly, and there was no mistaking the hunger in her eyes now as she licked her lips, “I shrank you honey.”

“Why?” A silly question, he now knew.

“Oh,” she said, “because I’m going to eat you!” and she roared with laughter.  Her breath moved his tiny body across her palm, and it was oven hot.

“But I’m not sure whether to eat you now or wait until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” John said immediately.

“Think you’ll work a way out of this?” she teased, “Trust me, if I wait until tomorrow, you’ll wish I’d’ve got it over with tonight.”

“Tomorrow,” he said again.

“Ok, but I’m going to play with you now.”

Her hand moved slowly, agonisingly slowly toward her face.  Her chasm of a mouth was hanging open, far wider than it needed to in order to take in John’s shrunken body.  His head brushed Tina’s top lip as she placed him inside, laying him gently on her tongue and closing her mouth, engulfing him in darkness.

“Mmm,” she said as she began gently, ever so gently, to suck on his body, “As tasty as you looked on the plane.”

John began to scream, though his screams were soon choked off as her saliva started to fill his mouth.  He still couldn’t believe what was happening to him.  This big, 40-year-old woman was going to make a snack of him, either right then if she didn’t keep her word, or otherwise tomorrow.

As she sucked on his body, she was careful to keep him between the tongue and the roof of her mouth, so as not to damage him with what were in relative terms, cliff-like teeth.

His ears were assaulted by sounds.  The sound of Tina’s excited heavy breathing, her tongue lapping him against the roof of her mouth, blood flowing in that enormous body and the frightening sound of that terrible stomach.

After half an hour or so, she pulled his soaking wet naked body from her mouth and blew on him to dry him.  The mouth had been hot and humid, and he was glad to escape.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to get it over with?” she asked.

“Tomorrow,” was all he could say.

“Ok, but where to put you for tonight so Léonie doesn’t get you ... “

Léonie? Who or what was Léonie.

“I know,” she said, “In my old hampster’s cage.  She can’t get you while you’re in there, the bars are too small, but you can get out if you want.  I seriously advise against it though, I think Léonie would be just as happy to eat you as I would, and it may well be more painful!”

She placed him in the cage and closed the door.

“I collected Léonie from my neighbour while you were asleep, I’ll just let her in.”

John increasingly didn’t like the sound of this.  Eventually, he heard a back door slam and Tina go upstairs.

He realised that she must have left the downstairs internal doors open, as he heard someone (though he now realised it was something) moving around.

Whatever it was padded across the kitchen and through into the living room.  John’s new size meant that noises that hadn’t been significant before, were now extremely loud.  Unmistakably, he heard what sounded like a very large dog shake itself and begin to pant.

He couldn’t help it, he let out the tiniest of squeaks.  Immediately, Léonie froze and cocked her head in the direction of the sound.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” John whimpered to himself, “Please don’t let her get me.”

The dog charged across the room and threw itself at the cage.  The whole structure shook and John felt sure it would topple, perhaps the door would fly open and then .... And then ...

The cage didn’t fall,  Léonie came in again and began licking the bars,  John’s body was once again engulfed in hot breath, though this time much less pleasant.  Léonie began to bite on the bars, trying to shake them.

Léonie eventually padded away from the cage, and sat some 5 yards away, stiff necked, looking at it.

An insane urge came over John.  He had accepted by this point that he was surely going to die either at the hands of Tina or the paws of the dog, and he knew that sleep would be beyond him.

Should he get it over with now rather than wait until morning? Would there be something more wholesome about being eaten by a wild creature who hadn’t deliberately ensnared him? Even if he didn’t want her to eat him, wouldn’t it be interesting to see if he could get out of his cage and back in again before Léonie crossed the distance between them.

This was madness, the very small part of him left that was still rational tried to interject.  Madness.

John moved.  He crept forward and inched his way between two of the lower bars.  Léonie sprang.  If she had put in a couple of pads forward first, she surely would have got him.  As it was, her tongue caught the tip of his foot as he regained the cage.  Her snapping teeth nearly had him, but he was just in time.  Léonie let out some booming barks, the discharge of which blew John back across the cage and into the far corner.

John was badly frightened by this escapade, despite his impending end.  He would swear that he hadn’t slept all night, but before he knew it, a voice said

“So you didn’t get a midnight treat Léonie.  That’s good, because I want my breakfast.”

He opened his eyes to see the dog’s head right up against the cage, the slavering tongue on the bars again.

Tina shewed the dog out into another part of the house or perhaps it was outside, John couldn’t tell.

She was whistling to herself as she returned, and John could smell coffee coming from the kitchen.

20 minutes later she was back with him.  She knelt on the floor and opened the cage, reaching for him.  He tried futilely to scuttle into a corner, but she reached him easily and brought him out and up to her face.

He could see that she was dribbling slightly at the thought of her snack, and coffee breath washed over him in waves.

“Ok,” she said, “I’ve waited long enough.  You’re going to be delicious John.”

With that, she guided his head between her lips.  She held his midsection between them, his head resting on her tongue, his feet still dangling in the open air.  Eventually she began to suck on him gently again, until his whole body was in her mouth.

This time she nibbled him playfully, though occasionally hard enough to draw blood.  Her rough tongue explored him, her hot breath washed over him.  He spat out her saliva countless times.

Waves of pleasure washed over Tina as she continued to toy with her food, and to enjoy the suspense of teasing John, knowing what he must be going through while awaiting the inevitable.

The heat and humidity, the constant rubbing of that rough tongue, the trauma of the last day finally took their toll on John.  He had cried and begged for mercy, but after an hour or so of the torment in Tina’s mouth, he stopped.

Tina debated then, should she chew him or swallow him.  She opted for the latter.

John was only semi-conscious as he disappeared head first down her throat into Tina’s enormous stomach, which had waited so patiently and hungrily for its meal.

Tina felt faint stirrings from within her stomach for 10 minutes or so, but her digestive system made short work of him after that.  She was whistling once again when she left her house to drive to the airport.