Ian tensed as the enormous hand descended towards him, whimpering slightly as the fingers wrapped around him, holding him in a tight grip before lifting him off the ground and quickly bringing him up to Minerva's gigantic smiling face, wind blowing his hair back as he went.
How could this have happened? He had left the room, had left Virtual reality entirely. Or at least he thought he had. Could she have infiltrated his system, and locked him into the game? He shuddered at the thought of the power she would hold over him, of the danger he was truly in if that were true. He had to get out of here, fast.
He closed his eyes. 'Exit', he thought. Nothing happened. 'Exit, exit, exit, exit!' Nothing. He heard tremendous, roaring laughter and opened his eyes to see Minerva throwing her head back in laughter. She brought her head back down and stared at him intently, before parting her lips to speak.
“I can hear your thoughts, and let me be the first to confirm your fears. You are still in virtual space, and you have no idea the immense power I hold over you. Not now, true, I can only read your current thoughts, but I think we're going to become rather close after I collect you.” She paused for effect and he gulped down on his fear, wondering what she meant by 'collect'. “You really shouldn't have skimped on that firewall. Hah, it took me thirty seconds to have your console under my complete control. Anyways...” She licked her lips, a hint of hunger twinkling in her gaze. “I think we have some unfinished business to attend to.”
She opened her mouth and let her breath wash over Ian for a moment. She brought him closer and closer to her lips, nearly kissing him as her breath blew his hair back lightly, and he pulled his head back, wincing and whimpering lightly as he tried vainly to pull himself away from her lips. She let out a loud giggle for a moment, before speaking again. “I can feel your fear...” She extended her tongue and gave him a lengthy lick across his face as he cried out in terror. Pulling back her tongue, she continued. “I can almost taste it.” She gave him a big smile, and he was about to open his mouth to protest, to demand she let him go, she cut him off. “No need for you to speak, worm. I know completely of your feelings on the matter. I know you're afraid, that you're trembling in terror, in fact, but I also know that a part of you is trembling in delight. You like this, don't you, you little masochist?”
With that, she poked at his head a few times, slightly roughly, laughing as he began to cry out in pain as well as fear, but couldn't suppress the joy at the back of his mind. “Yes, you're enjoying this, and I know you are. But this time, you're going to feel all of it. I will hear your screams this time, little one, and I will delight in them. You might not care for this next part, but you have no idea how much I will.” She gave him a wink and shifted her grip on him, holding him by the back of his shirt, and bringing him higher into the air, dangling him above her as she opened her mouth, holding back a gleeful laugh as he screamed in response to his predicament.
“Please, Minerva, I never wanted any of this. It's just a fantasy! I want to leave now, please stop all of this and let me go!” Ian said, clearly flustered and terrified.
“Mmm, I'd let you go, but your feelings betray your words. You want to dissolve in my belly as much as I want to feel your struggles on the way down. But, enough talk for now. We'll have all the time in the world for that, after all.” With this she giggled lightly and opened her mouth wide, loosening her grip on the back of Ian's shirt, letting him fall screaming towards her awaiting mouth and outstretched tongue. He landed and bounced lightly on her wet, sticky tongue for a moment, trying to lift himself off of it, to scramble away, but finding himself mired in the saliva as she retracted her tongue and closed her mouth, locking him in darkness.
She brought her tongue up, pinning him to the roof of her mouth as he squirmed, moaning lightly at his taste. She increased the pressure until she felt him crying out in pain against her, and brought him back down. She started pushing him around her mouth, wrestling him with her tongue, as he vainly pushed his arms at it in an attempt to fight it off. A giggle roared through the dark cavern as she relished in his struggles and listened intently to his thoughts, his feelings. She pushed him around her mouth further, squeezing and dragging him against her cheeks, before depositing in on her back molars and pinning him between them. She increased the pressure a bit, and lightly ground her teeth against him, becoming aroused as he started to scream out in terror. “Please, Minerva! Don't hurt me, don't do this to me-EE!” His voice shot up as he felt a few of his ribs crack, and felt an enormous pain as her returning laughter shook him with its reverberations, shaking his sensitive ribs painfully.
She again pushed him to the side of her mouth, against her cheek before speaking, her voice rumbling throughout the dark enclosure“Don't worry, little bug. I'm not going to crush you to death between my big scary teeth. I've got better plans for you.” She then scooped him away with her tongue again and sucked him to the back of her mouth.
“NO! Please, let me out! It.. it's going to be hell down there!” Ian pleaded with Minerva, hoping she would show him some mercy. She would not. He slipped down off of her slick tongue and into her throat, powerful muscles dragging him down with the aid of gravity as he screamed the entire way down. Landing in a pool of irritating liquid, he realized that he had made his way to her stomach. He moved around in the slimy enclosure, trying to find refuge from the acid that burned more intensely with each passing second. It seemed that every time he would find some place free from the acid, her stomach would shift, or a valve would open somewhere and he would be drenched in a torrent of burning liquid.
He was shaken from about inside the stomach as Minerva patted her stomach before speaking, her voice surrounding him. “Well, I'm sorry I can't stick around to relish in your torment, but I really have got to go collect you before the manual override sets in. Don't worry, I should get there in time. In the mean time, enjoy yourself in there.” She gave herself another pat and then went silent.
“Min...Minerva? Are you there? Let me out of here!” There was no answer. She was gone. But she reminded him of something. The manual override... if he was on for more than 8 hours straight, the machine would automatically shut off and return him to reality. As he melted away in the acid, his only hope, only comforting thought was that she would be too late, that he would wake up from this nightmare in reality and never return. He figured he had been here for at least two hours, but he had no idea where she could be in relation to him. If she could hack into his machine, she could surely find out where he lived, so he had to hope she would be too late, pray there would be an accident on the road, traffic, anything.
He eventually abandoned these thoughts as the pain forced itself into the forefront of his mind, feeling every bit of pain as he dissolved away, eventually dying in the simulation. She had not set a respawn, and death in the virtual world was strange. He had no tangible form, no senses. He would've likened it to existing in a dark, soundless chamber, devoid of any scents or feelings. All he had to keep him company were his own thoughts. And his thoughts centered around his hopes and fears regarding his predicament.
After an amount of time that seemed to stretch on forever with nothing but his thoughts to occupy himself with, he groggily awoke. He was still in his chair, helmet still attached. He sighed, relieved. He would have to leave his apartment, to be sure, but he would be okay. He removed the helmet as he had done before, this time sure he was back to reality. He walked to his closet and quickly put on a jacket and sat down, putting on a pair of shoes. He walked to his door and fumbled with the stubborn lock for a moment before opening the door.
He had not a moment to react. The door opened and he was on the floor, overpowered more by surprise than by physical prowess. A needle sunk into his neck and he quickly felt a liquid seeping into his veins, only then noticing the terrifyingly excited smile his attacker, Minerva, was wearing. “Got ya.. he he.” She said. He looked at her for a moment, still in shock, brought his hand to his neck, and passed out.
He came to again in a dark enclosure. His hands were bound behind his back, and his legs were chained together. He had a strip of duct tape placed over his mouth, muffling his protests and cries for help. The enclosure seemed to be moving, and would stop every once in a while, throwing him awkwardly this way and that. There was the faint sound of a motor running. This was a car, he realized, and he was in its trunk, at the whim of the driver, who was most likely Minerva, if his last memory was correct.
Eventually the care came to a stop on an incline, and he could hear a car door open and slam shut before the sound of footsteps started, though muffled by the steel fram of the car. He heard a click, and light rushed into his enclosure, blinding him for a moment. When his vision returned clearly, he saw Minerva standing over him, a familiar, victorious smile played across her lips, but malice showed in her excited eyes as they darted around his frame. He whimpered weakly under her almost lustful, hungry gaze as she began to pull him from the trunk.
“Get up.” She commanded. He complied, and got to his feet as she guided him for a moment. As soon as he was up, he tried to run away. He could tell it was secluded, and the chains at his feet kept him from moving at anything more than a shuffle. She quickly overtook him and tripped him, standing over him and staring down at him. She pulled out a knife and brought it closer to him as he whimpered, giving him a small knick on the cheek. “Try it again, and I'll cut deeper.” She hauled him to his feet and guided him into her house before ripping away the duct tape quickly.
“W-why are you doing this to me? Please, let me go and I won't tell anyone about this” he pleaded with her.
She scoffed before answering him, “let you go? Now where would the fun be in that? I've not even showed you my improved VR machines. Oh, they do things you wouldn't believe. I designed them myself, you know? In fact, I designed the model you have at your house.”
It all made sense now. She must work for a VR design company, and know all the ins and outs of the machines and their network programming. She'd had little trouble in bending the machine to her will. Still, he had to try, had to hope she would let him go. “P-please! I..I..I have a job and a life! People will notice I'm gone, and they'll look for me. You won't get away with this!”
She laughed again before answering him, “No one is ever going to find out about this. You think the police would think to check your VR logs for clues? They don't even know they can be manipulated in this way. No ones does, except for me. A small design 'flaw' I had them put in for my own personal amusement. You're going to die here after an eventful life as one of my sentient toys. You're just so much better, so much more convincing than the AI could ever be. And, well... I could never get anyone to agree to the things I'm going to do to you.” She smiled at him as she led him into a room with three VR machines, two of them occupied. “So here you will stay, and that's that. Really, you might as well accept it. It'll be easier on you that way. Now, sit down.”
She pushed him back into the vacant chair and strapped the helmet onto him, firing up the machine. As he felt his senses leaving him, his vision blurring, hearing distorted as he was switching into VR, he faintly heard Minerva speaking, “You're going to just love what I can make this thing do to you.” Before he switched completely into VR, awaiting Minerva's entrance.