Chapter 2

    Jake walks over to the massive jar of peanut butter, by feel alone, and slides down against it.  He wants to cry in despair, but while his mind can feel emotion, his body no longer seems to be able to react to those feelings.  He can hear Claudia’s muffled voice talking to someone, though through the hum of the fridge kicking on, and the thick door, he cannot understand a word.  

   A  few tense minutes go by, and Jake explores the sensations of his new body.  He lifts his foot up, and brings it down against the glass with a light clack-clack sound.  He can still feel his foot striking the glass of the shelf, and his body can obviously still feel pain.

Suddenly he feels something grab control of his body, causing him to stand up against his will.  

“Uh, uh, um.” he nervously whimpers as his arms slap down at his sides, his head snapping forward.  

He tries desperately to move, but finds his new body completely unresponsive.  

A moment later the fridge opens up, causing the light bulb above Jake’s tiny head to flood the shelf with bright light.  The door peels away to reveal Claudia and her friend Julia, a young ginger who Claudia works with at the office.  

“What am I looking at?” the young redhead asks, confused.

“It’s Jake, look at him!” Claudia responds hysterically, both giant women looking down on him.

“What, this?” Julia asks sarcastically as her fingers close around the lifeless chocolate man, lifting him out of the fridge and up to her face.

“Oh my god, be careful!” Claudia screams, moving her hand towards Jake, Claudia simply laughs as she brings Jake up to her billboard sized face.

“Hon, it’s nothing but a tiny chocolate man...” Julia responds, confusion creeping onto her face as she gently places Jake back into the fridge, slowly closing the door.

“Are you ok?” Julia says in a worried tone as the door slowly closes on Jake.  The tiny chocolate man wants to scream out to Julia, but his body fails to respond.  The conversation goes on, muffled as Jake is forced to stand at attention.

Finally the front door slams closed and Jake’s body begins to respond again.  He lifts his hand and touches his face. Instead of feeling his familiar facial hair and skin, his fingertips just kind of clink against his cheek.

“Oh god, what am I?” he moans to himself as the fridge is yanked open.  The force is too much for Jake, and he finds himself tumbling onto his rear with a tiny hard clicking sound.  Claudia’s angered face appearing over him, her hot breath blasting him, causing him to shrink back into the fridge.

“Why Jake? Why did you do that?!” she asks angrily, a tear streaming down her cheek.

“I didn’t, I couldn’t move!” he calls out, holding a single arm out in front of him, as if to ward off the angry giant before him.

“You can’t talk, can you?” She asks, sniffling a bit as she withdraws her head from the fridge.

“What do you mean? I am talking, can’t you hear me?” Jake says, climbing to his feet as Claudia bends down.

“Just stop, you’re freaking me out...” Claudia says as she sniffles a bit.  “You can’t be Jake, you can’t be.” she says as she reaches a humungous hand towards him, but stops just short of wrapping her palm around his tiny body.

“Please, no don’t pick me up!” Jake pleads as he backs away from the tremendous hand.

“I am Jake!” he cries out desperately as he snaps his head towards his giant girlfriend.

“I said stop it!” she half screams as her hand turns into a fist, which pounds the ground in front of him, sending him off balance and tumbling into the wall of the fridge.  Jake slumps down the wall, his arms and legs shaking uncontrollably, his bottom lip quivering in pure terror.

“You aren’t real, and tomorrow, you’ll be gone...”  She says as she stands up, slowly closing the door.

“No, Claudia wait! Wait!” he screams as the door seals itself, the fridge goes dark, and Jake can hear her walk away.

 Time has no meaning as it rolls on, and on, and on.  Jake tries to sleep, but finds himself neither tired or able.  After what feels like an eternity the door opens again, and Claudia’s gigantic form is standing before him, dressed in her grey and black pajamas.  Pajamas that he had bought for her.  He slowly stands up, noticing that the apartment outside of the fridge was soaking in early morning sunlight.  The giant woman bends down, and her eyes narrow at the tiny chocolate man.

“You’re still here.” she says, her face softening as she gets down on her knees.

“It’s me...” Jake says as he pats his chest with his hands, timidly moving closer to Claudia’s gigantic face. Claudia smiles a little bit, but the smile quickly fades as she cups her face in her hands, crying hysterically.  

“This can’t be happening!” she bawls, her voice quivering as she stands up.  

“Claudia please, no! wait!” Jake pleads as the door slams shut, sending him stumbling backwards a tiny bit, the loud sound of glass clinking against glass filling his little ears.  

 Once again sealed in frigid darkness, Jake leans against an unknown object, and time marches forward.  minutes, turn into hours, and Jake slowly finds his mind numbing.  He is not hungry, nor thirsty, and he cannot sleep.  He is forced to just stare into the murky darkness, listening to the low hum of the giant refrigerator.   The door opens after a long while, and Claudia is dressed casually, a pair of jean shorts and a white tank top.  Her eyes are puffy and bloodshot as she reaches a hand inside the fridge, directly over Jake’s tiny body.  Jake cringes and expects to be manhandled, but her giant fingers instead wrap around a bottle of water.  He opens his eyes as he hears her flip flops scrape against the kitchen tile, he loved those flip flops...

His thoughts are shattered as the gigantic bottle is pulled out of the fridge, and Claudia’s head turns towards him.  Their eyes lock for a long moment before Claudia whimpers a tiny bit, turning her head away and closing the door.  He stands up and lashes out with his fist, hitting something hard and plastic with a hollow thunk.  

“God dammit!” he shouts, punching the object again.

“God fucking dammit!” he screams as he falls to his knees, curling into a tiny ball and shivering.

Another long period of time passes and Jake does not move.

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.” he mutters hysterically, over and over again. The fridge opens again after a few more hours, and Claudia simply stares down at the tiny chocolate man, her face a steel wall.

“You're not real.” she says, more to herself then to him.   She shakes her head and grabs a few random items from the shelf below him, an onion, and some garlic.  Without hesitation she closes the door, leaving Jake to feel more like a simple item in her fridge than an actual living being.  

 Jake thinks long and hard about a lot of things in the next few hours.  He could not really blame his girlfriend for the way she was acting, and he tries to put himself in her shoes, what would he do?  

“The poor girl thinks she is going crazy.” He says out loud, his own voice comforting him somehow. Though the next set of thoughts that enter his head make him shiver with fright.

He knew his girlfriend, they have dated for over a decade.  And when she started to get a little bit crazy, there was no telling what she’d do.  She was obviously not going to attempt to get him help, not after the Julia incident.

Time seems to march forward as usual, this time however the torment doesn't end, the fridge door does not open for the rest of the night.  The huge amount of uninterrupted thinking time starts to drive the tiny chocolate man insane.  He starts to think of himself as just another piece of food in his girlfriend’s giant fridge, which leads him to the thought of her taking him out, and devouring him. He knew that she usually had her time of the month fairly soon, and she could not resist chocolate.

“Oh god!” He cries out, his voice quivering.

After many hours Jake can feel his body reacting against his will once more, forcing him to his feet and plastering his arms to his sides. He can hear the thump of footsteps approach the fridge and the door peels away, flooding his world with light.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Claudia appears, bending down, her hand reaching for another bottle of water.

“No thanks mam” A familiar voice hits Jake’s ears, it was the town’s sheriff, Bill.

Hope floods through Jake’s mind, but it is all dashed away as Claudia simply looks down at him, emotionless.  

“So you say he was here, and he just left, without saying anything?” Bill says, scribbling notes on a small pad.

“Yes.” Claudia replies, rising to her full height and closing the fridge once more.  

“Two days ago...” She says as the door slowly swings shut, sealing Jake into his own personal hell once again.  The conversation goes for another few minutes before the front door is closed, and Jake’s body once again loosens up, allowing him to move.  

“I’m not missing! I’m right here!” he screams.  “You hear me? I’m right here!” he screams again, his voice cracking.  

The day drones on.  

Hours later the fridge opens once more, and Claudia is holding a gigantic gallon of milk, which she slides onto the top shelf.  She looks down at the tiny figure, who is slumped up against a carton of orange juice, glaring back at her.

“Oh god my back.” she complains to herself, instantly alerting Jake that her period was starting.    

She slowly lowers her eyes onto the tiny Jake, and grins a bit, giggling a giggle that sends shivers down his spine.

“You’re still here...” she says, but this time the tone of loss has faded from her voice, replaced with cold, hard denial.  

“Maybe I should...” She says as she lowers her hand towards Jake, who panics and jumps to his feet, dashing behind the gigantic Jar of peanut butter.  

“Maybe you should wh-what!?” Jake cries out, even though by now he is aware that she cannot hear him.

“Nah... I mean, you just remind me so much of him...” she says, her voice as cold as the inside of the fridge as she withdraws her hand.  

“Oh, but look, you are starting to get all cruddy.” She says as she walks away for a second, coming back with a huge ziploc bag.  She reaches a hand out towards Jake, moving the gigantic peanut butter aside with ease.  

“No, what are you doing? No!” Jake screams, backing himself into the back wall.

“Aw, don’t worry... I just want to keep you nice and fresh.”  She says to herself as her fingers wrap around his tiny body, hovering him over the open bag.  He screams as she carelessly drops him inside, causing him to land flat on his face against the clear plastic.  He can see all the way down to the floor, her perfectly pedicured toenails painted orange.  Each toe was almost as wide as him, and half as long.  His thoughts are shattered as he finds himself rolling end over end, his arms and legs pinned helplessly against the taught plastic as the bag is rolled up into a cylinder. He wiggles helplessly as he is pinned between two gigantic glass jars on the door of the fridge, the bar running across the front of the shelf coming up to his chin.

“No! ugnh!” Jake struggles as she simply looks down on him, a creepy smile playing across her gigantic lips.

“You look quite delicious, wouldn’t want you to spoil.” she says as she playfully taps a gigantic index finger, an index finger as tall as him, against the thick plastic.  Without another word, she swings the door closed, and Jake can feel himself swinging in-wards before the light is once again extinguished.