Chapter Two

The last couple of days had built in Mike and Lauren a kind of fever pitch, both were nervously excited about the time to come and both talked like excited teens over the endless possibilities that would present themselves. Mike would spend the first couple of days shrunk and under the care of Lauren, then it would be Lauren's turn to spend some time as the tiny. He had spent a good few hours setting up ramps and strings around his apartment like a little network of highways and swing ropes, then used a half dose of one of the pills to prove it was safe for people to take the medicine themselves.

Despite fitting the computer with a little text-pad keyboard and the smallest, lightweight mouse he could find, he still found it difficult to effectively use the computer. He was exhausted running back and forth one side of the keyboard to the other and having to push his full body weight into moving the mouse about the foam pad it sat on. Lauren didn't help matters as she watched the whole circus played out over the web cam. Mike had tilted it down to a level that looked over his desk and her soft giggling was doing little more than mocking his best efforts. Finally he flopped over flat on his back to get a break, glad the foam mouse mat acted as a kind of mattress to his diminutive size.

Lauren saw him lying prone and a hot tingling sensation washed over her. Seeing the little man, lying flat on his back and helpless, her mind raced with comparative scenarios. Thoughts of how he would be just as exhausted after she had made him rub her feet for the evening, and the various ways she could smother him under her body while he was too tired to fight back. Meanwhile as mike recovered on the mouse mat he realised Lauren had gone rather quiet, he opened his eyes and noticed a lot of juddering coming from the camera display on Lauren’s chat window. He gazed across confused and pulled himself to his feet, standing in front of the computer monitor as the camera suddenly flipped round and strained to auto focus.

As Mike stood in front of the monitor he was met with Lauren standing high above him from the camera’s point of view, as she looked sheepishly down at the camera at her feet, a flushed smile on her face. “here’s a preview of things to come” she said smiling as she lifted her foot and stepped down on the camera, rubbing and grinding her sole into the lens to show mike exactly what he would see in the games that were to come. Her pretty smiling face gazing down at him visible only between the gaps of her toes as they rubbed and ground themselves over what would soon be his face.

The games went on for a while, Mike’s relative size meant that as she held her foot to the camera it was displayed on his monitor in almost a 1-to-1 scale, the foot almost as tall as he was small, he could almost reach out to touch it... kiss it. Soon though, they would have all the fun they could want.

It was the morning of Mikes flight out to see Lauren, he was so excited he was shaking. Packing his case was a chore he couldn’t get out of the way quick enough and before long he was out the door, on his way to the airport. Sitting on the flight he did a few sums in his head and worked out the on-set of the pill compared to the time he was expecting to meet with Lauren, he thought that if he could swallow one pill, two hours before meeting up with her, he could shrink right before her eyes and the fun could start straight away. Best to break the ice early and avoid any awkward feelings of getting down to it.

As mike left the airport and jumped into the back of a taxi cab he popped the top off of his bottle of pills. He looked at his watch, 2 hours to go until he met up with Lauren, this was going to be the best two weeks of his life! He took a pill out. It took approximately 2 to 3 hours to take effect and he figured the ride would take around half an hour. He would have an hour and a half to get himself into position and let Lauren know where he would be to meet up with him. Everything was going as planned.

Pulling up to the theatre Mike jumped out of the cab, dragging his small case with him and hurried over to the front of the theatre, he looked around to see if Lauren had possibly arrived early, but he couldn’t see anyone waiting around. A couple of benches, a hot dog vendor selling from his cart, people casually milling about the theatre entrance, to most it was another average day. Mike realised his skin was beginning to tingle, it felt slightly tighter, like tired muscles aching after a hard day.

“Damn it... Stage one of the change, stupid experimental pills, I need more time!” He thought to himself.

Looking around panicked he saw the hot dog vendor, a desperate hope came to mind; “Food! Maybe if I can dilute the pill with some food my body wont be able to process the formula as quickly.. it might buy me some more time.”

He crossed quickly to the vendor, fumbling about in his pocket for some spare change, his stomach was tight, either stress or the result of the formula taking further effect on his system. He had to get something quickly!

“Hey, I need a hotdog, I don’t care what’s on it!” He said hurriedly, but the cart owner was already busy under the metal side wall that lifted up to allow him to get to the storage area in the side. He was changing the gas cylinder in the side of the cart, taking his tools to the fitting to remove the empty gas cylinder.

The man looked up at mike over the top of the metal plate and nodded “Gimme a minute buddy, I just need to get this cylinder changed.”

Mike was exasperated “Its fine, just give me what you’ve got that’s ready!” Mike exclaimed, he felt another pang of pins and needles rush up his spine, he knew from his earlier experiments that this meant he was about to start dropping inches.

“Look pal, the dogs ain’t fully cooked and I can’t cook them till I’ve got this cylinder changed! The man answered irritably.

Mike sighed with frustration, but then went dizzy, he was out of time! His gut cramped so hard he doubled over in pain, almost falling onto the vendor’s cart as he steadied himself on the edges of the hotdog oven, staring down into the hot dogs floating about in the tepid water.

“If I could just...” He began before, with one last painful rush of tingling heat rushing through him he screwed his eyes shut tight against the pain and felt himself diminish. His shoes dropped from his feet, his shirt became far too big for him and began to engulf his body, sparing him the indignity of baring his backside to the world as his lower body slipped from his clothes.

As the cart vendor finished his task he closed the hatch in the side and turned to wash his hands in the bowl of water he kept by his stool, as he flicked the water from his hand and turned to face the man who had been so impatient to buy something “Alright then, what can I get... What the..?”

He was met with a crumpled t-shirt draped over the edge of the hatch and a case left in front of the cart, confused he made his way around to the front of the cart where he stopped, even more stunned, to find a full set of clothes complete with trainers still laced up and lying at odds to each other as though kicked off without a care.

Grumbling to himself he looked around for the prankster who had been bothering him “God-damn nut jobs” he said angrily as he kicked the clothing together into a pile and scooped it up. It was still warm which gave him an idea as to how to get his own back on the prankster.

“Lets see how funny he finds this!” he declared as he marched over to a rubbish bin and stuffed the clothes into it, ramming the case in on top. Dusting his hand of he went muttering back to his cart and sat on his stool pulling out his magazine before he realised he had left the shirt draped over the edge of the cart. Once again he strode around the cart to grab the shirt, ripping it away from the edge of the hot dog oven and in the same action slamming the lid shut over the top of it.

Lauren arrived at the theatre. She had hurried down to the meeting point because she had received a message from Mike to let her know he was going to be early. Both nervous and excited she looked about the area but for the most part it was pretty deserted. A few people were leaving the square in front of the theatre, there were a couple of empty benches and... and what appeared to be a hot dog vendor angrily forcing a bag into the top of a bin filled with what looked to be clothing. Though she thought it strange, she didn’t really pay it much attention at first. She took a seat on the bench and waited, hoping Mike would be back from wherever he had wandered off to in the time it had taken her to arrive “Probably just using the theatre toilets or something” she thought to herself to calm her mind. But despite trying, she couldn’t shake the thought that –something- was wrong.

Meanwhile things were starting to heat up for Mike. The vendor has turned the gas back on to the hot dog oven and the salty water he now found himself trapped in was starting to heat rapidly. Hot dogs bubbled up from beneath him, the hot meat burning as it brushed against his skin as he began to sweat as though he was sat in a freshly run bath. He tried to scream for help, but the roar of the fire beneath him drowned his voice out before it even reached the lid of the oven. He began to panic, screaming as loud as he could but the water continued to bubble, the hot dogs were churning now, all around they bobbed and tumbled about. Steam filled the large square oven chamber, mike could feel his skin prickling, the flesh beginning to puff and swell as he was slowly being cooked alive. Slowly, his cries for help, dipped, into weak sobs for mercy...

Lauren could not shake the thought of seeing the vendor wrestling the case in the rubbish bin earlier. It had been a full 20 minutes since she had got here and Mike was supposed to be here waiting for her. Surely he would have been back by now had he have simply been using the toilet. She stood and walked to the rubbish bin with the case sticking out of it, peering down the side of the case she could see a pair of jeans. She pulled out the case and stared at the set of clothing lying in the bottom of it, with a deep feeling of dread she looked around the bin for Mike and even tugged out some of the clothing to see if he was still in them, but to no avail.

With a sudden thought she threw the things to the ground by the bin and headed towards the vendor, he was casually reading a paper as she drew up to his cart and gave a cough to clear her throat. It caught his attention as he turned and gave her a smile “Well Hello there lady, what can I get you?” he said trying to put on his best attempt at charming the pretty girl in front of him.

"I was hoping you had seen my friend? I was supposed to meet him around here” Asked Lauren nervously. The man took a moment, obviously trying to weight up in his mind whether or not the person she was asking about was some kind of boyfriend to her “Well, wass’e look like?” he grunted.

Lauren described Mike as best she could but couldn’t do much do guess his actual appearance other than explain his features and... what she –hoped- was still his rough height. Mike had heard the entire conversation echoing through the thin steel walls of the hot dog cart but he had been slowly boiling for over 20 minutes now and his body was badly burnt, his throat raw from crying for help. He tried to scramble onto one of the hot dogs, his last chance was to get to the side walls and try to bang against the sides, but he knew he couldn’t swim through the massive slick ‘dogs. So, he began his painful scramble up onto one of them in hopes he could slide across the surface by trying to steady one of them at a time, he just hoped Lauren would keep talking until he could get across the boiling oven.

“Hmm, nope, not seen anyone lookin’ like that today, in fact the only person I’ve had here today was some fruit-loop, dumped a load of clothes and a bag and split. Hope he had something on under that gear or I wouldn’t wanna be the one to find ‘im!” The man laughed to himself

Lauren half-smiled at the joke but in the pit of her stomach she couldn't help but think something might have gone wrong. The message said Mike was already here, surely he couldn't have ditched her, he spent so much coming out here after all. A pang of doubt hit her like a knife however as she thought about how much he must have spent to come out to see her, only for him to mysteriously not be here once she arrived to meet him. She tried to shrug the thought of an elaborate hoax from her mind as she pulled her phone out once more and tried to call Mike. No answer.

Lauren began to fret as she tried once more, still no answer.

“Hey, you alright?” the hotdog vendor asked, trying once more to get her attention “Here, why don’t I fix you a hotdog while you wait for your friend eh?” He said. Lauren was just about to turn him down on his offer but having stood next to the cart for whist she tried Mike's phone her tummy gave a little growl. She laughed nervously, a little embarrassed about the noise as she explained “I left early today, I didn't get time for breakfast”.

“Can't have a pretty girl going hungry now, can I?” The man said with a wink as Lauren gave a small nervous laugh, trying not to irritate the man by showing she clearly wasn't interested.

The vendor picked out a bun, splitting it down the middle and tried to show off as he picked the ketchup bottle up, gave it a spin like a cocktail mixer in the palm of his hand and squirted a line of sauce down the middle of the bun. Thumping the bottle back onto the side he flipped the metal lid cover of the hot dog oven over, the plate making a loud clang as it slammed open onto the other side of the cart as he grabbed some long tongs and reached deep into the oven.

The loud ringing clang of the metal lid swinging open reverberated with harsh tones round the oven, making Mike flinch and clutch at his ears, the light which suddenly streamed in through the open roof stinging his eyes disorientating him as he slipped from the slick surface of the hotdog he was balanced on and once more plunged into the hot waters beneath him. He fought for his life, kicking and struggling to get back up to the surface as the hot dogs rolled about like huge slippery tree trunks above him when suddenly he was hammered down under the force of one of them pushing him deep into the over, the water badly scalding his body the deeper he went, before two fiercely cold, sharp edges clenched powerfully along the length of his body.

He felt himself being lifted out of the water, the wet soft surface of the sausage pressed into his whole front as the metal clamps which lifted him held him by pinching around his back. The air outside of the oven was chilling compared to the hot water, it took his breath away. For a moment he coughed and spluttered, trying to rid his lungs of the greasy water he’d been forced to choke down trying to save himself from drowning. His eyes cleared for a moment as he was greeted with the most encouraging sight he had seen in his life. There she was, Lauren!

Lauren dug about in her handbag and pulled together some loose change to pay for her hotdog, she deliberately tried not to notice the vendor showing off in hopes he would stop trying to flirt with her. The vendor on the other hand could see Lauren was paying no attention to what he was doing, and as such took the opportunity get a good look at her partly exposed cleavage. Slapping the hot dog into the bun he pressed it firmly down into the bun, scooped the mustard bottle up and within a couple of seconds had traced two lines of mustard down the sides of the hotdog. Next he scooped some onions up off his hot plate, threw them over the top and added one last streak of ketchup.

Mike tried to shout to Lauren but his voice was still hoarse and burned from his time in the oven, his lungs still full of fluid and then his chance was gone, he felt himself dropping rapidly. He was pressed into some kind of soft spongy blanket, but the blanket was soaked in a thick tangy red goo. It rushed up around his body, coating him in the sticky overly sweet gunk as he tried to spit and struggle to keep it out of his face. He kicked his arms and legs, trying to get the hotdog off of him but the slick meat was pressed painfully down over his body, driving him into the thick surface beneath him, then, all light was cut off once more as a thick yellow goo slide down either side of the meat to cover him completely.

The yellow goo burned at his eyes and stank of spice and it hit him “Mustard! God No!” he thought in a sudden panic, trying to renew his struggles but yet more weight kept him crammed in place. Helpless to do anything but feel the grip of the sponge beneath him loosen then tighten again as he realised he was being handed about. Mike began to cry, trying to scream out only to be choked off by the sauces surrounding him. He knew he was about to die at the hands of his giantess, his love, in a way he had previously only ever wished could happen.

Lauren took the hotdog from the vendor, handing him the money and making her excuses as to why she wasn't going to stick around for a chat. She look mournfully at the food in her hands, almost loosing her appetite at the possibilities of what could have happened as they whirled around her mind. Taking a seat on one of the benches in the square outside the theatre she took one last look around, still not seeing any sign of Mike she raised the hotdog to her mouth, opening it wide to take the first bite of her food.

Mike had no idea what was going on, he felt himself bouncing and being jostled about, the grip that held him tight inside the bun constantly shifting before all was still. His mind raced with what was going on, maybe she would bite into the hotdog near his head? That would free him enough to scream for her, beg for her to save him. Alternatively perhaps she would snip his head straight off and end his pain quickly? Part of him wished this was the case as he still suffered from the mustard burning at his red raw, half cooked body.

Lauren bit into the hotdog, her razor sharp front teeth snipping cleanly through her mouthful and taking it into her mouth. She chewed calmly, tasting the flavours she would expect to find from food like she'd had so many times before, though something was different. There was a tangy taste, almost like a penny, but only faint. It added a strangely desirable taste to the meat as she crunched down again and again, her powerful jaw muscles chewing the food into a fine paste as it mixed with her saliva.

“Hmmm, this is quite crunchy” She thought to herself, “These onions must be pretty fresh”.

She sat back on the bench and took another mouthful of her hotdog shearing another neat mouthful off with her sharp, white teeth. She sat forwards all of a sudden as she felt something hot and fluid spill over her lips and run down her chin, her hand darted to her chin as she pulled the hotdog away from her mouth to stop the stuff dribbling onto her top as she wiped the mess from her chin. She looked at her hand for a moment and saw it was deep red. She shifted her mouthful of food around in her mouth for a moment and proceeded to lap the tangy sauce from her fingers before continuing to chew her lunch.

Mike had felt everything compact around him, there was a strange sensation of his world being squeezed and squashed about him before he felt something sharp on his legs, just below his knees. The sensation was short lived though as he felt his legs warp out of shape briefly before the shins snapped neatly off from his body. The blade-like incisors made short work of his tiny limbs, putting up about as much resistance as a strand of un-cooked pasta. The little man tried to scream but his hoarse throat was instantly filled with mustard and ketchup and frying grease from the onions above.

The pain was just subsiding as his nerve endings worked through the process of shock and self preservation to close his wounds. Then the familiar feel of those deadly teeth, once one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever known, returned again to pinch his upper thighs. The pressure became intense as his thighs squashed out of shape. His flesh gave instantly as the lower teeth pushed upwards trying to lift him bodily away from the bed of the roll however the upper teeth pushed back down. His legs were rent between the two terrible forces as the teeth came together, cleanly snipping another section of his body away as his two arteries spurted blood from the stumps.

Lauren sat back chewing on the little bits of Mike she was enjoying unknowingly, the soft crunches giving way to the wet squelches of bread and meat mixing in with each other as she swallowed down her bite. Her next bite was torn away, the hot dog sprung up from the bun as it slipped from the soggy bread. Her hand reached up and poked the sausage back down again, her teeth still clenched around the supple squishy sausage before she finished her bite. For a split second, she could have sworn she heard a brutal scream.

Pulling the hotdog away from her mouth she chewed as she looked around, looking for the source of the scream, whoever it was it sounded like they were in a lot of pain, but no-one else seemed to have noticed it. She found a particularly crunchy piece of meat as she forced her molars through it, grinding it down, flipping it to the other side of her mouth and crunching it some more between her other molars, making sure it was well chewed before she swallowed. Normally she would have spit lumps like that out, she hated gristle, but this bit seemed to have a lot of the flavour soaked into it so she hated to waist it.

Mike was fading out, his breathing was barely a wheeze, his brain was on fire trying to cope with the constant influx of pain. The last bite had sliced him off at his stomach and his thoughts were filled with how Lauren would be crunching and chewing his body mere inches from him and there was nothing he could do to stop her from killing him. Just 24 hours ago he would have enjoyed the thought of such a thing but right now the only thing he could have enjoyed it with was being chewed into a juicy pulp by the woman he most admired.

Lauren looked back to her meal having given up trying to find the source of the scream but stopped short of taking her next bite as she spied a string of gristle hanging from the bun. Mikes remaining intestine was hung limp from his torso but to Lauren it was nothing but scrap meat. She gripped the hanging bit of scrap with a sneer of disgust and gave it a tug, pulling it loose from the meat and flicking it to a small flock of birds pecking at scraps nearby. She gave it one more quick look before shrugging a taking another bit.

Again there was a crunchy piece of meat in the mouthful, she was confused however to find it tasted good again. Savouring the tangy juices that flooded from the bite, running her tongue through the pieces of chewed food to help break it up and get the most out of the meal. Flipping the mashed mouthful from side to side in her mouth, occasionally having to lap the dark red juices from the corners of her mouth, she purred with pleasure. “For a street vendor, this hotdog is great!” she thought happily to herself, swallowing. Mikes final experience was far less pleasurable however as his torso was snipped from his neck, 30 seconds later his lifeless head was slipped between those large pink lips to be finished off in the hot, dangerous cavern of her mouth.

A few crunches later and Lauren cringed “Ughh! That bit is really bitter!” she declared, disgusted, and spat the chewed up mouthful into the tissue the last bite of the hotdog was wrapped in. She crumpled the last of her food into the tissue, completely put off the rest of the meal as she stood and walked to the bin the suitcase stuck out of, tossing the tissue into the rubbish and taking her phone out once more. Still nothing. “That bastard... I bet this was all one huge hoax. I swear to god I’ll never talk to that little rat again!” She pocketed the phone and headed for home, her tongue picking scraps of flesh from her teeth as she walked.