Part 6 - Eat and Be Merry

Night had fallen, as Mitch pulled his car into the driveway of his friends' house. "Well, here we are," he said. After Mitch powered off the car and pulled the keys out of ignition, Troy opened the passenger side door and stepped out from inside. Standing in the driveway, Troy gazed upon the house that his roommate had brought him to. It was a typical and rather unremarkable suburban home, two stories high with white exteriors and a dark roof. Light from within shined out through the curtains over each of the windows that Troy could see, and loud rock music could be heard from within the walls.

There were a handful of people talking amongst each other on the front lawn, but most of the arrivals were immediately proceeding into the house. Troy wondered just how many people were attending this "macro party".

"I can't believe I let you drag me here," Troy complained.

"Yeah, well, you should've played better," Mitch retorted as he locked his car. "Besides, it can't hurt to socialize on a nice Saturday night, right? C'mon, let's go in and have some fun!"

Troy sighed. "Why do I feel like you're gonna have a lot more fun here than I am? These ARE your people, right?"

"Hey, if you get lucky, you might find someone who may step on you."

"I doubt it." In fact, Troy was mentally preparing himself for being swallowed, perhaps multiple times.

"Not with that attitude. Now, come on." Mitch motioned for Troy to follow him, and the two men walked towards the front door, slightly opened and allowing for easy access inside.

Music blared all around them as they walked inside of what was otherwise an average suburban abode. Troy examined his surrounding, viewing the many people who were mingling, a good portion of whom carried in their hands plastic cups of some sort of beverage, more than likely alcoholic. They stood around in the halls, on the main stairs, in the doorways, and seemingly everywhere else there was light. From what Troy observed, there was a near-even split between the amount of men versus women.

A number of the women wore sandals and flip-flops, and a number of them had well-maintained, lovely feet, with a mix of nail polish colors among them. Troy could not help but feel highly disappointed that none of them would be using their feet at all during this so-called "macro party".

"Hey, you made it!" said Ethan, a dark-haired friend of Mitch's, as the two of them clasped hands with each other. He then looked behind him, in Troy's direction. "Oh, you came too, Troy? I didn't expect you to show up as well."

"Yeah, I saved him from spending yet another Saturday alone at the apartment," boasted Mitch. "You know... Brooding over girls... Playing video games..."

"Shut up, Mitch," Troy sternly ordered.

"Man, you should come out more often," Ethan said to Troy. "Lot'sa girls show up at these parties. I'm sure you'll find your perfect angel."

'Here? Unlikely,' Troy thought. "...Yeah, I guess so," he spoke.

"When are we gonna get started?" Mitch asked Ethan.

"I'll give it another half hour," Ethan replied. "Wait and make sure that everyone shows up. Then, the Hunger games can begin."

"Oh, I can't want." Mitch's head turned on either side of him, scouting out the women in the surrounding area. "I'm already picking out who I want to dive inside." He turned around to address Troy. "What about you? See any ladies that strike your fancy?"

"Uhh... I'll have to look around some more," Troy responded. "...After all... Only the best girl... can swallow... me." He said with hesitance.

"C'mon, man!" Mitch said, nudging his elbow into Troy's chest. "You've been swallowed before! Trust me, you find the right girl, you'll be crawling back for more."

"Are you sure you aren't talking about yourself?" Troy snarked. "...But I guess I'll take a look around."

"Sweet," Ethan said. "You do that. Meanwhile, Mitch I wanna show you something upstairs."

"Alright."

Troy watched as the two men ascended the nearby staircase and disappear onto the floor above, conversing with each other all the while. Troy stood there, left alone in the middle of a hall full of people, all of whom were deep in their own conversations. From what he could hear, some talked about their own lives, their interests and hobbies, and, appropriately enough, the fact that they would be consuming other party-goers quite soon.

Troy wasn't sure if he had much in common with any of the people there. Frankly, he wanted to just leave, but he had to uphold his end of his wager with Mitch.

~~~

Twenty minutes had passed. Twenty minutes that Troy had almost entirely spent sitting on the couch in the living room, browsing on his smartphone while taking an occasional survey of the exuberant surroundings. Since Mitch and Ethan had gone upstairs, a handful of people had arrived, some of which congregated in the room. Troy wondered just how many people would be showing up. He couldn't fathom that this many people even had an interest in a macro party to begin with, even if they were "vore-posers".

On his phone, he looked in his archive of text messages, and selected the exchange between Jeane and him. He wondered what exactly was keeping her from replying to his inquiry. Was whatever came up something serious in nature? Though if it was, she more than likely wouldn't have used the ":(" emoticon. Was she instead giving him the cold shoulder? Did she get cold feet on the day of their date and come up with an excuse to back out of it?

He figured that he'd give her until the end of the weekend before writing her off completely.

Leaving his text message inbox, he shifted back to his Internet browser to continue reading various web pages.

"Hey, it's you!" he heard a female voice speak from further away.

He did not pay it any mind in particular. At least, not until out of the corner of his eye he saw two blue flats on the floor in front of him. He looked up from his phone, and was met with a rather familiar brunette's face smiling back at him.

It was Rebecca, one of Mitch's one-night-stands whom he had met several weeks ago.

"You're Mitch's friend!" she said, her tone rather excited. "What's your name again... Trey?"

"Troy," he corrected. "I'm surprised to see you here."

"Yeah, same here! You come to these parties often? ...But you said a while back you weren't into being eaten."

"Mitch dragged me here," Troy said. "Otherwise I probably wouldn't have come."

"Oh, well I'm glad you did! At least there's someone I know around!" She sat down on the couch besides him. "I think I'll start with you!"

"Swell..." Troy muttered. "Still trying to see if I taste like chocolate?"

Rebecca seemed rather embarrassed at his statement. "Wait, I seriously say that?" She let out a laugh, pressing her hands on his side as she leaned against him. "Oh my god! I am SO sorry about that! I don't know what I was thinking!"

"Don't worry about it," Troy told her.

"That's a relief." She exhaled. "Anyway, what do you say? Wanna be the first volunteer to go into my tummy?"

"Sure, why not?" Troy wasn't exactly enthusiastic about her swallowing him, but as he would be stuck there for at least the next few hours, he figured that he might as well try to enjoy his time at this "macro party".

Rebecca squealed in happiness. "Awesome! Just for that, I may even swallow you twice!"

"Now, let's not get carried away," Troy chided.

Before he could say anything else, both Ethan and Mitch walked into the room, having finally returned from the above floor. Mitch spotted the two on the couch, and from his reaction, Troy could tell that he was surprised--and perhaps a bit perturbed--to see Rebecca there at all. He approached the two, as Ethan stepped closer to the center of the room, as a sandy-haired woman walked up to meet with him as well.

"Hi, Mitch!" Rebecca happily greeted as he drew near.

"Hey, Bec," Mitch replied. "Here to swallow some more guys?"

"Yep! And I have my first volunteer right here!" She wrapped her arms around Troy's left arm and squeezed tight.

"Wait, what?!" Mitch's mouth dropped agape. "Troy, you agreed to let her eat you?"

Troy nodded. "After all, it's why I'm here, right?" He said in a tired tone.

"You wanna be next in line?" Rebecca asked Mitch, and then before he could answer, "I'll eat every guy here if I wanted to! You hear that!?" She said out loud, so that everyone in the room could hear. "All of you guys are going into my belly!! All you other girls better BACK OFF!!"

There were a few chuckles, but most of the other patrons were silent, their eyes gazing upon her as if they felt that she was acting weird. Not that Troy blamed them for believing it. He wondered if she was already inebriated, though from her more composed disposition, he concluded that she was sober. Either way, perhaps there was little wonder that Mitch wanted nothing more to do with her after their night weeks ago.

"...Uh, right," Ethan said, finally breaking the silence. "Anyway, I think it's time we get things started."

There was a cheer in the room among the party-goers, as others from the halls and other rooms entered into the living room or stood at the doorway.

"As always, I'll tell you all the rules," he continued. "All us guys here will shrink down to an inch and a half--so, about four centimeters. You’re allowed to take breaks, but don't spend too long big unless you're about to leave. When you're tiny, whatever girl wants to swallow you, you just have to let her do it. But all of you ladies here are beautiful, so all us guys are more than willing to be your meals. Am I right?"

The guys in the room, Mitch included, hollered out confirmations of his assessment.

"I'm the hottest one in here," Rebecca muttered.

"Make sure you set your respawn point for the table off to the side over there." Ethan looked to his right, towards a wooden table set against the green wall; most of the men, Troy and Mitch included, did as Ethan had suggested as he continued to speak. "Don't set the respawn time to any more than five minutes. Also, I've tied a string to the end in case you want to walk around a bit, or if you want to see these lovely ladies from ground level. And ladies, please watch where you walk. None of us wants to get stepped on."

There were a few chuckles and affirmations among both the men and women present.

'Speak for yourself,' Troy thought. He looked up at Mitch, who shot him a glance in response of what Ethan had said. There was no doubt that Mitch knew what Troy was thinking. Being forced into this "macro party" just because Troy missed a crucial strike against Mitch in their game against each other stung him, and he knew that Mitch was relishing in his misfortune. Perhaps to him, it was revenge for their prior wager.

Rebecca still clung onto his arm, even as he adjusted the settings on the Minimizer program's control panel. He was almost tempted to pull away from her, but decided to bear with it. One additional change that he made was turning the Numbing level to its highest setting, effectively eliminating any pain he would feel over the course of the night.

"And as always, there's drinks, and condiments in the other room if you want to give us some extra flavor, ladies," Ethan continued. "Okay, have the guys made the changes I mentioned?"

Most of the men spoke and confirmed that they were ready, while other late stragglers made the finalizations on their own control panels. After several seconds, Ethan manifested his own control panel from his hand.

"Alright, let's get this party started!" Ethan announced. He pressed the "Shrink" button on the panel, and after it retracted into his body, Ethan's body glowed with a bluish light as he rapidly reduced in stature.

The other men in the room all did the same, including Mitch in front of Troy and Rebecca. In fact, while the shrinking light itself was not particularly bright on its own, the combination of every man in the room shrinking all at once gave the room a notable blue hue.

Troy took a deep breath, and pressed the "Shrink" button on his own panel, and he too joined the other men as he shrunk down onto their level, the grasp of Rebecca's arms gave away as his body became smaller and smaller. Soon enough, the process ended, leaving him sitting on the now massive couch, alongside the equally massive Rebecca, who simply looked down at him with a voracious smile upon her face.

All around the room, the women were retrieving their male companions from the floor. A few had even wasted no time in stuffing their "meal" into their mouths. Others carried their men out of the room while chatting with each other. Ethan himself was carried off upstairs by the woman that was accompanying him.

Rebecca leaned forward and reached down to the floor to grab Mitch. As she pulled back, she captured Troy with her free hand, her fingers somewhat curved behind him and forming a sort of wall. She brought both men to her face as her hazel eyes darted from one to the other. Gazing upon her pale, youthful, pretty face, even Troy almost felt himself becoming enamored with her, despite her overall annoying personality.

"So, we're doing this again, Bec?" Mitch keenly asked, though Troy wondered how much of it was sincere.

"Yep!" She gleefully replied. "But I wonder... Which one of you should I eat first?"

"Him!" Mitch answered rather quickly, pointing both index fingers towards Troy.

"I agree!" she said. "I swallowed you last time a buncha times, so I'm gonna try something new."

"Yeah, go right ahead!" Mitch shouted.

"Are you alright with that?" Rebecca asked Troy.

Troy nodded. "Yeah, go right ahead."

Rebecca grinned, giving Troy a good look at her teeth within her mouth. "Alright, then! Here we go...!"

Wasting no time, Rebecca's gigantic hand moved closer towards her now wide-open mouth. Troy watched--bracing himself, to be more accurate--as he drew closer and closer towards the dark cavern ahead, and as it took much nearly all of his line of sight, Rebecca's hand tilted forward, causing him to slide downward slightly. However, before he could fall from her hand, he was thrust into the young woman's humid mouth.

Landing on her wet, squishy tongue as the light from outside was extinguished, he attempted to stand up, only for her tongue to rise upward, moving him towards the back of her mouth. Troy could do little of anything as he soon felt himself plummeting off the edge, falling deeper into her throat. He could not see anything, thought he could hear her breathing, as well as her voice echoing all around her, talking about how "tasty" he was. The muscles of her esophagus constantly moved him downward, and he found it rather difficult to move any of his limbs in the meanwhile. He had no choice but to wait for his ride to end.

Troy did not have to wait long. Soon, he fell once more, this time into a thick pool of pungent liquid. Floating to its surface, he attempted to stay afloat, waiting and biding his time as Rebecca's stomach acid started to eat away at his body and clothing. He could hear the party's rock music from outside of the stomach's flesh walls, though it was muddled severely. He wished he could use his smartphone to try to pass the time in some way, but he knew that the corrosive liquid would have destroyed it by then; luckily, like his body, it too would be thoroughly repaired during his respawn.

He soon lost the feeling in his legs and arms, being unable to move either. He started to fall into unconsciousness as his body began to submerge below the sea of acid, just after he heard another object splash into the acid.

"Whoa! Hahaha, never thought I'd end up inside this chick again!" he heard Mitch's voice say out loud, the last thing he heard before he blacked out.

~~~

Ten minutes later--more than Ethan had told the men to set the respawn period to--Troy was revived onto the table from earlier, and he found himself in the company of several other men who too had also been brought back to life by the mystic program. They were talking with each other about being eaten by their respective companions and sharing their experiences, though Troy wondered just how much there was to compare when it came to being swallowed and digested as they had.

He looked around the room. A number of women were in the area, but there was no sign of Rebecca. Perhaps she had left to seek out men in the other rooms, Troy wondered. Though he wondered if any of the shrunken men had made it that far on their own, or if she resorted to stealing men from the other women.

"Hey, how was she?" A voice called from behind.

Troy turned around, finding a young blond man standing behind him. He was slightly taller than Troy, and was a rather handsome fellow.

"I saw her with you earlier," he continued. "She said that she wanted to swallow all of us, so if that's the case, I want to know what we're getting into."

Troy had no idea how to answer him. He didn't know what constituted good vore or bad vore for these people. Though considering that they more than likely were not actual macrophiles, he doubted that they could tell the difference either.

"She's fine," Troy answered with a shrug. "She's kind of an acquaintance of mine, so that's why she was all touchy-feely with me before."

"Sweet," the man said. "Hopefully she comes back and eats me next." With that, he turned and went back to join the group of men he was chatting with before.

Troy stepped closer to the edge of the table, and peered downward towards the floor. It was a long fall, though his reduced weight meant that he would more than likely survive the plunge. Either jumping down or using the rope to the side, he was tempted to go down and take a walk at ground level, at least to get a bug's eye view of the admittedly lovely women attending this party. However, if one were to accidentally step on him--even if he would have enjoyed it--the mood of the party would likely be ruined.

Still, it was not like he would see most of these people again, and he was almost pressed into taking the plunge.

However, before he could plan any further, he heard and felt footsteps approaching, shaking the table that he stood on. He and the other men behind him observed as two female party-goers approached them, standing over them as their eyes scanned each of the men on the wooden surface.

"Which one?" The petite, pixie-haired woman on the right asked.

"I don't know..." her friend, slightly taller with long blond hair and a more busty build, responded. "Why don't you pick?"

"Oh, geez. Well, alright." The pixie-haired girl peered over the men on the table, eyes examining each one. For a few seconds, her eyes locked on Troy, before the calling of the men behind him drew her away. "Oh, you all want to volunteer?" she asked, to which they happily confirmed. "But I can only pick one of you. How abouuuuut... You!" She picked out the young man who had spoken to Troy minutes before. He could see a very excited expression upon his face, while the men he was with moaned in disappointment.

"There." She dropped him into her friend's open hand. "There's your guy."

"Hmm..." The blonde brought her hand closer to her face, and her eyes seemingly examined him while wearing a neutral look on her face. "Yeah, I guess he'll do. What about you?" she said as she glanced back to her friend.

"This guy," she answered rather quickly as her massive hand fell upon Troy. Its fingers clamping on his small frame, it carried him off of the table and held him in the air. "I think this was the guy that was with that loud girl earlier."

"Oh, her?" The blonde said, a hint of contempt in her voice. "Can you believe that she snatched a guy from one of the girls in the other room?"

"I can," Troy chimed in. "She's annoying, isn't she?"

"Hell yeah, she is!" the blonde said with a laugh. "If she pulled that shit on me, I'd slap her."

"Please don't, though," the pixie-haired woman told her after chuckling. "Then we'll be kicked out for starting a fight. Besides, it's not like the guys she eats are gone forever."

"I suppose... Anyway, are you gonna dunk him into the dip?"

"Hmm..." The pixie-haired woman looked down at Troy in her hand. "What do you think?"

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Troy responded, "Not really, if you're giving me the choice."

"Well, that's that, then. You're lucky, because some of the other girls do whatever they want with the guys, even if they don't want it."

"You're too nice sometimes," the blonde said. "Since we're way bigger than they are, we can do whatever we want with them. Watch this."

The blonde chucked her tiny male "meal" into her mouth. However, rather than swallowing him, she began to chew. There were barely-audible crunches from within her mouth as her teeth undoubtedly mashed the man into a fine and grainy mush. Troy wondered if the man would be upset that he didn't actually get to experience the ride down into her stomach, something that he figured most of the men there claimed to enjoy. Soon, she gulped, no doubt taking with it the remains of the rather unlucky man.

She opened her mouth wide, sticking her tongue out as well. It was painted a rather light shade of red, which she showed off to both her friend and the men on the table.

"How'd he taste?" the pixie-haired woman asked.

"...Bitter. Yuck. Oh well. I'll just have to wash him down when we go into the kitchen."

"The taste of blood and bone never really appealed to me." Troy's captor looked down at him. "I think I'll just swallow you whole. You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess," he responded, not very eager to take another trip into the depths of another woman.

"Alright, here goes...!" With her other hand, she plucked him from her palm and lifted him higher, holding him over her head. Troy's legs swung back and forth as he was held over the petite woman's mouth, wide open and resembling more of a dark chasm.

Then, the hold she had on his body released, and he quickly fell inside, her lips closing afterwards and leaving him in damp darkness. As he fell onto her tongue, he could feel her head shift a bit, before the wet appendage moved him towards the back of her mouth. Expectedly, he soon fell backwards off of the edge, and once again plummeted into the throat. He sighed as he made this trek again, sliding through her tepid esophagus and eventually plunging into the pool of acid in her stomach.

He was soon digested by the corrosive liquid.

~~~

Minutes later, Troy had respawned onto the living room's table again, and he did not find much time for him to regain his bearings before he was taken by another young woman, who, after he resurrected, wasted little time in snatching him up and carrying him into the kitchen. Several people stood inside conversing amongst themselves; most were women, but there was also one male chatting with one of them as he sipped beer from the bottle in his hand.

The woman carrying him, a round-faced lady with auburn hair, approached the round wooden table in the middle of the kitchen, upon which were various bowls of sauces and bottles of condiments.

"So, what's your flavor, little guy?" she asked Troy.

"I'm not really feeling this at all," he responded in a subdued tone.

"Huh? Sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Can you just swallow me the way I am?"

She giggled. "Of course not! You guys taste plain without some kind of seasoning."

Troy watched as another female party-goer poured a bit of hot sauce into a small bowl on the table, before dipping the tiny man in her fingers into it and slathering as much as she could onto him. Troy could see nothing more than an orange figure dripping with the sauce by the end of it, said figure soon being sent onto a one-way trip into her mouth. However, from her wincing facial expression, it seemed that the spiciness was a bit much for her to handle, as she almost immediately rushed for the beverages and poured herself something to drink from them.

"What do you think?" Troy's captor asked him. "Wanna take a dip?"

"Not really," Troy plainly answered.

The woman frowned. "Well, too bad. Just like Ethan said, you just have to go with what we want."

"Yeah, alright." Troy sighed. "Knock yourself out."

The woman grinned. "Good! ...But I'm actually not all that big on hot sauce." With her free hand, she reached over to the table and grabbed a bottle of barbecue sauce. After twisting its cap off, she poured a small sampling of it onto a sheet of paper towel, just enough to cover nearly all of Troy's body.

Wasting no time, Troy was dunked head-first into the thick, tangy sauce. It went into his nostrils and mouth, and though he attempted to wipe it off of his face, it did little good as she continued to slather more on him. She continued to move and twist him within the mass, as if she intended to get every last bit onto his body.

Troy nearly gagged due to the sauce forcing its way into his throat. He just wanted her to eat him already and end this torture. Frankly, he had already had his fill of this vore party; he could have easily ended the effects of the Minimizer program and went home, but Mitch was his ride, and Ethan's house was quite a ways away from their downtown apartment.

Troy had no choice but to put up with it, likely until Mitch had had his fair share of being eaten.

He wouldn't have been surprised if he was stuck there all night.

Soon, he felt the woman pull him upward. He could barely see through the sauce covering his face, but he could make out the gigantic wall of her own face, though he had little time to take in the details, before the hand holding him moved him into her mouth and placing him onto her tongue, the third tongue of the night for him. Darkness came as her lips closed, and her tongue began to move him about within her mouth. It dashed him against the roof of her mouth and rubbed him against it, and he rolled with each movement it made. It was clear that she was trying to get as much flavor as she could out of him, but for him, all she was doing was coating him with her pungent saliva.

He was rolled off of her tongue and fell to the bottom of her mouth underneath it, falling into a small pool of saliva that was gathering there. Before he could do anything else, the tip of her tongue pushed him towards her front teeth, using them to put him back onto it. Her tongue briefly repeated the process of pressing and pushing him around her mouth, until its owner seemingly had her fill of it.

As he laid on her soft and damp appendage, a small amount of light illuminated the fleshy cavern. He looked ahead, just in time to see a torrent of liquid rushing in. The stream caught him and carried him away with it into the dark abyss.

~~~

"I could be at home playing the game right now," Troy muttered to himself as he laid down on the table in the living room, trying to drown out the blaring music all around him. "Or watching Netflix, or... anything, really. It'd be more fun than this."

While one could say that Troy was miserable at this party, the truth was that he did not necessarily have a big problem with being eaten. However, he found that he got much more enjoyment out of it if he was consumed by someone he had a bond with. For example, someone like Dorothy, though he was quick to move away from thinking of her. He did not want to dwell on the past, especially not after the talk he and Mitch had several weeks ago.

On the flip side, when it came to crushing, he did not care who did it to him, as long as it was an attractive woman with nice feet. Perhaps he was so into crush that he was much more lenient on who he would have do it to him. It was truly a shame that none of the women at the party were likely to partake in it themselves; after all, they came for the so-called "feast". Thinking on that did nothing but frustrate him.

"No one wants to get stepped on, huh?" he mumbled. "What a joke."

If he really wanted to, he could accidentally wander into the path of one of the female party-goers and be crushed under her foot. However, by doing so, would he be no better than that man in the park earlier, or the other one in the supermarket weeks prior? Plus, unlike them, who likely had their respawn points set up back in their residences, his was set to the table he was presently on, and thus he'd be easily caught even if he tried to lie himself out of the predicament. Either way, a crushed person likely would have soured the party, even if that person would not have been dead for long.

He sighed, before he noticed a bluish flash from behind him in his peripheral vision. The source originating from the resurrection of one of the many males who had been swallowed that night. Such a thing had become a common sight for him, and as such, he had long since stopped paying it any mind.

"...Oh, you're here, dude?" said an all-too-familiar voice from behind.

Troy sat up and turned towards the source of the voice, it being none other than Mitch.

"Haven't seen you since Rebecca swallowed us," he said.

"Yeah... I'm sure you're enjoying yourself here," Troy replied.

"And you're not? C'mon, man. All these pretty ladies here, and you're not having a good time?"

"Maybe if they were into crushing like they claim to be into vore. How long are we gonna be here, anyway?"

Mitch shrugged. "Who knows. I wanna try to be swallowed by as many different women as I can. Which is why I set my respawn at a minute."

"Won't that overload your senses?"

"Nope!" Mitch said with the biggest grin on his face.

Troy sighed. "Whatever."

"If you're really that bothered, you're free to go whenever. ...If you don't mind walking the nine miles back to the apartment."

"Why can't I just take the car? You're probably gonna be too drunk to drive anyway by the time this party is over with. Someone else can take you home."

"Why do you think you're here?" Mitch again grinned.

"...I really do hate you sometimes," Troy grunted.

"Yeah, I know." A trio of young women approached the table, and Mitch almost immediately turned his attention towards them. "Hey, ladies! Which one of you wanna have a taste of me? I promise you, I’m absolutely delicious!"

All three of them giggled, as the one in the middle took him in her hands.

"Oh, and don't forget my buddy right there," he said as he pointed towards Troy.

The women shot brief glances at each other, before the one on the left reached down and picked up Troy, holding him in between her finger and thumb as her greenish-brown eyes focused on him.

"He's just dying for you to eat him!" Mitch continued. "Why don't you grant him his wish?"

The woman holding Troy looked at him, then to Mitch, and finally back to Troy again. "Is he telling the truth?" she asked.

Troy hesitated, before feigning an upbeat tone. "Yes, absolutely! I can't wait!"

She smiled. "Well, good! In fact, I'll swallow you right now! How does that sound?"

"I have no problem with that," he answered.

"Alright then...!" As expected, she opened her mouth and practically threw him inside. Compared to the previous women who consumed him, he did not spend as much time inside of her mouth before she swallowed him.

Before he blacked out after falling into her stomach acid, in the darkness he could swear that he dashed against at least two other bodies also being dissolved away.

~~~

As the night continued, Troy was eaten and swallowed whole by various women that night, sometimes by the same woman twice. Though he breathed a sigh of relief when he was occasionally passed over in favor of another, much more eager tiny man, his reprieve would not last long before he was picked out as one of the party-goer's choice meal.

He counted about seventeen times that he had been consumed. If he had set his respawn time to a lower value, no doubt that that count would have been significantly higher.

He had long since gotten bored of this party and wanted to go home. Unfortunately, while the Minimizer program could save up to ten different respawn locations, it automatically locked onto the nearest one set up by the user. So using it to escape back home was out of the question, and with Mitch still having the time of his life, it seemed as though he truly would not leave until the party was over.

"...But you won't believe what Clark told me the other night," said a young olive-skinned woman to her friend as they both approached the table.

"What's that?" her redheaded-and-freckled friend asked.

"Get this: We were in the bedroom talking and making out, and he says that he'd love it if I squished him with by bare foot."

"Eww!! What the fuck!!" Her friend said in a clear repulsive tone that was also visible on her face.

"...I guess we were in the moment, because I actually did it." She chuckled sheepishly.

Troy's attention was perked upon hearing this.

"Wait, seriously!?" The friend was in disbelief. "Why, Taryn?"

Taryn shrugged. "If you love a guy, you have to occasionally do what he wants, right? But I told him not to get used to it."

"What'd it feel like?" Her friend almost sounded curious.

"It's like stepping on a bug, but much more messy. I mean, he was like two inches tall when I did it, but still. It was all sticky and nasty, and there was a lot of blood and stuff."

"Ugh..." The redheaded uttered in revulsion.

"I don't mind him kissing and sucking on my feet, but there's a limit. But he said that he couldn't ask for anything more than being killed by my 'beautiful foot'. After he came back... Well..." She turned towards the dozen-or-so men on the table listening to their conversation, and smiled. "...That's private."

"...Why were we even talking about this in front of them, anyway?" the redheaded woman asked, to which Taryn shrugged in indifference.

Troy recalled seeing Taryn earlier, while he was sitting on the couch before the mass shrinking occurred. Like with many of the female party-goers, he took discreet peaks at her slender feet as well. Though he could not see them now, he knew that--at least earlier, she wore flat silver sandals, with small gems embedded on the thongs. He estimated that she wore around a size 8 or 9, and her longish toes were bare of any polish, showing off their natural nails. Additionally, above her right ankle was a tattoo of Hebrew text, which Troy could not begin to decipher. Either way, her feet were quite beautiful; her boyfriend had good taste, it seemed.

Combined with her overall good looks, dark hair, and petite build, Troy found himself rather captivated by her. He was already imagining himself being smashed flat under her lovely sandaled foot, over and over again. Her boyfriend was a lucky man, even if she said herself that she didn't like crushing him.

He sighed longingly, apparently loud enough that the two giant women--now both holding a tiny man each--heard him. Their attention was shifted towards him, and their large eyes locking upon brought him out of his gruesome fantasy.

"I guess he's disappointed he wasn't picked," the redheaded woman said.

Troy waved his hands in front of him as he shook his head. "No, that's not-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the olive-skinned woman picked him up and held him in front of her face. Her dark eyes focused upon his tiny body as she displayed a toothy grin.

"Hey, weren't you with that rude girl from earlier?" she asked.

Obviously, she was referring to Rebecca. "Yeah," he answered. "She's kind of a friend of a friend."

"Yeah, she's a bitch," the redhead interjected. "She almost took one of the guys I had away, but I told her to back off."

"What does it matter if she took him anyway?" Taryn said. "He'll be back anyway, and you could just try again later."

"It's the principle that matters. I can't let her take away what's mine and have me wait for another shot."

"I think she ate just about every guy here at least once." Troy's captor turned to the men on the table below them. "You guys know who we're talking about? That loud, brown-haired girl? Did she eat all of you?"

The men on the table affirmed her inquiry.

"She got me three times!" one of them shouted.

"Well, she's dedicated, I'll give her that," the redhead said. "I'm surprised she's not full yet. Anyway, what're you gonna do with him? You're gonna eat him now or save him for later?"

"I have the guy that I'm gonna save," Taryn answered. "So I'll just eat this one now."

"Of course," Troy deadpanned as he pulled closer to her mouth.

Thus, Taryn was added to the long list of women who devoured him that night. Perhaps more than any of the other woman, Troy was more disappointed that he had been swallowed by her instead of being squashed into a fine paste underfoot.

He mulled over that as he floated in the sea of her digestive juices.

~~~

After resurrecting once more, rather than wait around for someone to pick and eat him, he decided to make use of the string that Ethan had tied to a post at the corner of the table and take a walk at ground level. Though it was not his ideal "macro party", he felt that he could at least take in the sight of seeing the many admittedly beautiful women at floor level.

He also hoped that people would be less willing to eat him from the floor. He had already had his fill of that.

After reaching the white string, he took a firm grip of it with both hands and used it to slide down all the way to the floor below. The trek down took less than a minute before his feet met with the grey carpet, to him appearing more like a vast dull field of grass, with the structures that were the furniture, shelves, and other appliances looming in the distance. Aside from that, there were a handful of women interspersed around the room, most of them talking, drinking, and even dancing. At the moment, none of them seemed interested in gathering up any of the men on the table, no doubt to their dismay.

As he stood there, he felt the ground beneath him tremble as, from the other room, the auburn-haired woman from earlier approached the table. As she stood directly overhead, completely unaware of Troy's presence on the floor, Troy took his chance to stare at her foot as much as he could. Unfortunately, she wore white heeled boots, but even the idea of them crushing him was rather enticing; perhaps he was so desperate that his usual tastes in footwear had been relaxed for the moment. However, almost as soon as she had arrived, she departed with nary a word; seemed as if she had picked out her newest victim, or meal, right away.

With a shrug, Troy began his stroll, with no particular destination in mind. The music still blared about, and through it he could also hear the footsteps of the people who were walking around the house. He wondered how many of the other tiny men had also made this journey, and how many were caught and eaten. A part of him also wondered if any had even been accidentally stepped on by one of the giant women; just from surveying the living room let him know that that was not the case, at least in this room. The blood would have soaked into the carpet if that were the case.

Far to his right were two women conversing with each other. One wore heeled sandals while the other had discarded her shoes completely, leaving behind her nylon-covered bare feet. Both drew away Troy's attention even as he walked by; if only either one of would destroy him, he wished. Particularly, the woman in the sandals, though he wouldn't have minded being trapped inside the other woman's hose.

Another woman walked by, her jean-covered legs donning black heels upon their feet which stepped right into Troy's line of sight as he gawked at the previous ladies. Like the auburn-haired woman before, she was completely ignorant of his presence below her. He briefly watched as she too walked towards the table, before his attention was turned elsewhere. On the couch was what looked like a Hispanic woman, the smartphone in her hand having her undivided attention. She too wore heeled pumps, her right leg crossed over her left as she dangled her right shoe from her foot. He imagined what it would have been like to have been inside of it.

The woman with the jeans and heels walked by again, departing into the hall through the nearby doorway. Troy followed her trail, though due to the sheer difference in their sizes, there was no way he would be able to keep up even if he ran.

Minutes later, he had reached the doorway. As the carpet gave way to polished wood, he entered into the main hallway where more people loitered about. Across from him was the entrance to another room, what looked like the dining room. Making that his next destination, he started to head towards it.

...Only for a massive foot--adorned in a flat thong sandal--to step down right in front of his path. He stumbled backwards as he took in the bus-sized, creamy-skinned ped, its toenails painted a captivating sky blue.

"Hey, you almost stepped on that guy there," said a female voice from the side.

"Oh shit, are you serious?" The foot stepped backwards, and Troy looked up to see yet another blond woman peering down at him. Her cute face bore a shocked and worried expression upon it. "You alright? You should be careful where you're going."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Troy responded.

"Good," she said with a smile, before walking on and exiting the house via the front door.

Troy sighed as he watched her leave, and he could feel his excitement bulging below just thinking about it. If only he had been just two steps ahead...


Soon enough, he reached the dining room, where more people congregated. As expected, there were mostly giant women inside, but there were a few unshrunken males as well. A couple of them chatted with the women while drinking their own beverages, while another one passionately made out with another lady in the corner. He said something to his fling, to which she eagerly nodded, before the two of them rushed out of the house, the male stepping uncomfortably close to where Troy was as they departed.

"Thank god," he said, with a sigh of relief. For all his wishing to be crushed underfoot, it would had been rather ironic--and horrific--if he met his temporary end under a guy's foot.

He resumed his walk, slowly but surely making his way through the dining room. Some of the people inside shot quick glances at him, but otherwise ignored him. One such observer stood to his right, besides the large dining table as she talked on her smartphone. From her short skirt were her long bare legs that led to her sandaled feet below, its blue straps wrapped around her ankles like a Christmas present. Like with others, she held his attention as he walked, though he soon focused back on his journey before long; he didn't want to make it too obvious what he was doing.

To his left was an entrance into the kitchen, now with less people in it than there was before. Troy did not know if it was just timing on his part, or if the party was winding down; the latter somewhat supported by the more subdued behaviors of the guests at the moment. Troy hoped that it was the latter.

Inside, he could see Taryn and her redheaded friend talking and drinking. The redhead had her hand outstretched and its palm facing upward, likely due to their being a tiny upon it. What drew his attention, of course, were Taryn's sandal-adorned feet and how its toes occasionally flexed and wiggled as she conversed. They were almost hypnotic, and once again, he imagined himself being flattened underneath them, his entire body being grinded flat into the treads of her sandal, and then smeared across the floor. He truly did envy her boyfriend, who according to her was lucky enough to coax her into fulfilling his own crushing wish. At that point, Troy knew he had to get a closer look; not close enough to touch, but near enough so that he could more easily take in their beauty.

Making that his next destination, he headed right towards the kitchen.

"Gotcha!" said a familiar female voice from behind, as fingers closed into his view from both sides.

Troy let out an annoyed sigh as the massive hands clasped around him and carried him off of the floor. "Dammit, Rebecca..."

Sure enough, as the hands opened up, he was met with Rebecca billboard-sized face looming over him, her hazel eyes still as full of energy as when they had first encountered each other that night.

"We meet again!" she said. "I was wondering where you were. Seemed like I always missed you."

"Oh, that's too bad..." Troy responded in an insincere manner.

"No problem, though. I've had more than enough to keep me occupied. All the guys here are delicious, but I think I like you the best."

"I bet you say that to all the guys," Troy deadpanned. "Wait, did you actually eat every guy here?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. I lost track of them after the 20th one. I got Mitch twice, though. ...I know I'm gonna pay for all of this later, but who cares! You have to live in the now! And I think I can fit in just one more before I call it quits."

"You should have quit a long time ago," snarled a female guest from the right.

Rebecca turned towards her. "Are you still bitter about that? You still got to eat your guy anyway, didn't you? Who cares if I got to him first?"

"Ugh, whatever." The visibly-annoyed woman simply walked out of the room.

"Bitch, you better leave," Rebecca muttered under her breath, low enough so that only Troy could hear.

"Guess you're not exactly the star of the party," Troy stated.

"The guys love me!" she replied. "I mean, what guy wouldn't want me to eat them? Anyway, let's go somewhere else."

Holding Troy in her right hand, she turned around and exited the dining room and headed into the front hallway. From there, she ascended up the stairs onto the second floor, after which she made a turn to her left. Troy observed his surroundings during this trip: most of the doors were cracked open, and some people stood in the hall outside of the rooms. He watched as the two passed by a woman who was talking with a tiny guy in her palm. From what Troy could tell, the two were talking about their own individual lives and hobbies.

"Why did you bring me up here?" Troy asked. "You thinking about doing something lewd?"

Rebecca shook her head. "No. We're going in here," she said as they seemingly reached their destination: the bathroom.

A look of horror formed on Troy's face as his mind started to picture the worst case scenario. "...Oh hell no. What are you planning?" he asked as she closed the door.

"Oh, it's nothing nasty or anything. Calm down, little cocoa."

Troy was taken aback by her nickname for him. "'Little cocoa'? ...Whatever. Then why are we in here?"

"So no one else will see us," she responded as she closed the door. "I don't want those bitches out there saying stuff when I eat you. They think that I've had enough." She rubbed her belly. "...But I guess they're not entirely wrong."

"Then don't eat me," Troy suggested.

"Of course I'm gonna eat you!" She giggled. "What else am I gonna do with you?"

"You could throw me on the floor and step on me," Troy said in a half-joking, half-serious manner.

Rebecca's jubilant expression shifted into one more foul. "Ohmigod, what? Are you serious!?"

Troy considered playing this up; it'd likely get her out of his hair at the least. However, after thinking on it briefly, he opted to not pursue it.

"No, I was just messing around," he said.

Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. What kind of people would get off on getting stepped on? Freaks, that's who."

Troy figured that he should be offended, but considering her overall brazen personality, he decided to not take it seriously.

"But if you had told me to sit on you or squeeze you in my tits, then maybe I would have considered it," she said. "..Err, you want me to do that?"

'This chick is basically just parroting what Vince Vane said,' Troy thought in his mind, though he was not necessarily surprised by it. "...No, just go on ahead and eat me," he told her.

She smiled. "Alright. But first..." Using her other hand, she reached down and forcibly pulled off both Troy's T-shirt and undershirt, leaving his upper body bare. "Wow, you got a nice chest," she said in reference to his toned abs. "I should have a taste."

Troy found himself being pulled towards her mouth. There, her large pink tongue protruded from within and licked against his tiny chest, with enough force that he lost his balance. He was pinned against her palm as the tip of her tongue continued to slather upon his body and coating it with saliva. He laid there and simply let the pink appendage do its thing; he had to admit that he was enjoying how its movement felt against his skin.

The tongue soon retreated back into its mouth, and he was pulled away from it. Then, he was plucked out of her palm with her other hand and held in it between her fingers and thumb.

"I can't wait anymore," Rebecca said. "It's time to swallow you!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Troy muttered. "Can you at least put my shirts on the table downstairs when you're done? And any other articles that you're going to remove?"

She nodded. "Sure, I can do that. But I'm not taking anything else off of you. Your fine, chocolate chest is more than enough."

"Can we stop with the chocolate thing?" Troy was rather annoyed by it.

"Aww, you're no fun. Oh well... Into my mouth you go! Hope you enjoy this!"

Troy was pulled headfirst towards Rebecca's pursed pink lips. He braced himself as he drew closer and closer into the black hole in between, until he was squeezed right through it, but only half way. Upon his legs, he could feel her fingers holding him in place as they stuck out of her mouth. Then, she started to--ever so slightly--pull him inward and outward as his upper body rubbed against the surface of her tongue inside. Soon, the tongue began to move again, licking nearly the entirely of his body as she suckled his torso. It brushed over his face, dampening it with more pungent saliva that made it difficult for him to breathe before wiping it off with his hands that he mercifully could still move around.

The tongue and the push-and-pull on his body continued for perhaps more than a minute; he had no sense of time at all while inside. Afterwards, he felt the pinching hold upon his legs relent, before he was pushed completely inside of the mouth by a force on the soles of his shoes. He fell onto her damp tongue, the entirely of his body trapped inside of this dark, humid, and caustic prison. Before his mind could wonder on about his predicament, the tongue stirred into action and, unlike when she swallowed him the first time that night, began to move him around. He was rubbed about against the roof of her mouth, pushed against her front teeth, and dashed against both of her soft yet wet cheeks. Other women that night did the same to him, so this ride was one that Troy was all too familiar with and tired of.

Troy did not even bother to keep track of how long he was at the mercy of the appendage. It continued to work him within the giantess' mouth, giving him what could only be described as a wild ride, one that completely drenched his pants along with the rest of him with saliva. He took several laps around her mouth courtesy of her tongue. Though, soon enough the thrashing stalled, and the tongue worked him towards the back of her mouth. Troy took a deep sigh, anticipating what was next for him.

He was taken down into Rebecca's throat with a mighty gulp, sliding down through her esophagus as tepid air surrounded him. Echoing from above, he could hear Rebecca laugh and speak a few words, which Troy could decipher as her saying that he was the best of them all. He did not pay it too much mind as his descent continued on.

Eventually, he reached the end of the line and plunged into the stomach acid. In the darkness filled with a bitter stench, he could see nothing as he attempted to keep his buoyancy. However, he did feel several objects also floating in the liquid; it did not take long for him to realize that they were the lifeless and digesting bodies of the other men that she ate that night. In fact, it was entirely possible that it was his own lifeless body from when she had first eaten him earlier that night.

With nothing else he could do, he waited until her body claim his life once more and absorbed him into itself.

~~~

Troy revived on the table in the living room once more, and after doing so, he had decided that that was enough; he had had his fill. He was done. He wanted out

He pulled up his phone, and looked at the time: 1:21am. He was rather surprised at how much time had passed since he was dragged to this "macro party". He hoped that Mitch was also ready to leave; after all, how many times could even a self-proclaimed "vore maniac" be swallowed before they would tire of it?

To his left were his two shirts that Rebecca had pulled off of him minutes before. In truth, Troy was surprised to see them there, as he partially did not expect her to honor his request. After retrieving both and putting them back onto his torso, Troy walked to the edge of the table. Peering downward revealed quite a fall from where he stood, but due to his small size, he was certain that he would survive it. Thinking little more on it, he leapt, plunging down onto the carpet below with nary a scratch on him upon hitting the ground.

The music still throbbed within his very being, but it seemed as if its volume had been reduced somewhat since the party started. Combined with his earlier observation of the more subdued atmosphere from the party attendants, it truly did seem as if the party itself was in its final phase.

Bringing up the Minimizer control panel from his hand, he pressed the "cancel" button at the bottom of the screen. Upon its disappearance, he was coated with a blue light as the room around him rapidly became smaller. The few people still in the room watched as he grew larger and larger until he arrived at this normal height of six-foot-even.

He let out a relieved sigh, before turning around and facing the table on which he had returned to many times that night. There stood a handful of tiny men, some talking amongst themselves while others awaited another chance at being one of the women's meals.

"Take it easy, guys," Troy said to them, before turning and walking out of the room.

Through the front hall and dining room, he headed into the kitchen, where he grabbed a red plastic cup and poured himself some red juice from the clear pitcher set on the table. Upon drinking it, he experienced a vague taste of various fruits, but it had been watered down likely due to the ice having been melted. Additionally, it was somewhat lukewarm, all-in-all making it a rather unpleasant beverage to down. Nevertheless, he continued consuming it; after all, it was the first thing he had to drink all night.

After emptying the cup of its contents, he grabbed the pitcher and poured another helping of the beverage, which he also drunk with equal fervor.

"Hey, I can get you a nice cool one from the fridge," said Ethan as he walked into the kitchen from another doorway; he had also returned to his normal size. "That one's been out for a while."

"No, it's fine," Troy replied.

"Well, if you say so... Guess things are finally winding down here."

"Yep. Well, it's late, so it's only natural. A lot of the people have already left."

"So, what'd you think of it?" Ethan asked. "Wasn't this your first time at a macro party? Did you like it?"

"Yeah, I had fun," Troy lied. "...But I think it's time for me to get outta here as well. Do you know where Mitch is?"

"Probably in some girl's stomach," Ethan frankly answered. "Actually, he said that if I saw you, to tell you that it'd be a while before he was ready to leave."

"Seriously?" Troy was annoyed, but not surprised. "How long ago was this?"

"I just saw him like fifteen minutes ago. He wooed two girls and they all went upstairs, probably to the guest room. He probably changed his respawn point, too." He shrugged. "As long as they don't make a mess in there."

Troy sighed. "Great, and he has the keys to the car. Knowing him, he'll probably be here all night."

"That's a bummer," Ethan said. "I could go and tell him you're ready to-"

"I'll take you home!" announced an all-too-familiar voice from behind.

Troy turned around, and expectedly came face-to-face with Rebecca, who was looking right at Troy with a smile upon her face. He wondered how much of their conversation she was eavesdropping on.

"I mean, I know where you stay," she continued, "and I don't live that far. I can take you home."

Troy was tempted to turn her down, but he was more eager to lay upon his own bed and rest for the rest of the night. Briefly weighing both options in his head, his desire to go home overpowered his somewhat aversion to her. Additionally, he had no idea how long Mitch would be with the women that he was currently entertaining.

It seemed that his choice was all but clear.

"Alright," Troy told her. "When're we leaving?"

"Right now," she answered, before her attention shifted towards Ethan behind him. "Thanks for the AWESOME party, Ethan! Let me know when you throw another one!"

"No prob," Ethan replied. "And Troy, I'll let Mitch know you've flown the coop."

"Good. I'll catch you later." Troy and Ethan shook hands, before the two parted ways, with Troy following after Rebecca as she led him out of the house and into the darkness of the late night outside. Unlike earlier, most of the lights of the neighboring houses had been turned off, and even with Ethan's house, there were far less cars parked outside than before.

The two approached a white sedan, and Rebecca pressed a button on her keys to unlock it, before opening the driver's side door and preparing to get inside.

"Wait," Troy suddenly said. "You're sober, right?"

"Of course," Rebecca answered. "Even I know not to drink and drive. Now hop in!"

~~~

The ride home was oddly absent of conversation thus far, not that Troy minded. However, that was not to say that the car was silent at all; Rebecca had opted to play a music CD during the drive. Troy recognized the songs as the very ones that were playing at Ethan's party. Additionally, Rebecca was singing along to them. Quite loudly, in fact.

"Oh, oh baby~! You are the one for me~!" she sung. "I will be yours if you will be my queen bee~!"

Troy mostly tried to tune her out as he looked down at his smartphone, browsing online while occasionally taking a peek at his surroundings.

"C'mon, Troy!" Rebecca said as she nudged him with her right hand. "Sing along with me! Guys are supposed to be singing this part, anyway."

"I don't know the words," Troy said. "I'm not really that big on music."

"Seriously?" She sounded shocked to hear this from him. "That's surprising."

"How so?"

"I dunno. It's just... Everyone likes music."

"I can appreciate a good tune, but if you ask me to identify the singers, then more often than not, you're outta luck."

"Oh, I see..."

After several seconds of silence, Troy decided to break it by asking her a question. "Why did you take me into the bathroom to eat me that last time? It's not like you couldn't have done what you did outside. It's not like you stripped me naked or anything."

"Oh, two reasons," she answered. "One: I didn't want those other bitches saying something about it. They were already mad at me because I out-ate them at the party. They're just jealous."

'I seriously doubt that,' Troy thought.

"Second: I had to pee," she said in a cheerful, nonchalant manner.

"Okay, TMI," Troy chided.

"Actually, I need to get home ASAP, because I can already feel all those guys trying to push out the other food I ate before."

"T! M! I!" Troy blurted in exasperation, to which Rebecca chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess I do need to work on that," she said. "Guys don't like girls who talk like that. Ethan doesn't mind, but he's like a brother to me. He's probably the only guy I didn't eat, because it'd be weird. We go waaay back."

"Is that right? So I guess you met Mitch through him?" Troy asked.

"Uh-huh! Though Mitch hasn't really kept in touch with me. I wonder what's up with that? You got any ideas? He say anything about it?"

Troy knew exactly why Mitch had not spoken to her much since their one-night-stand, though he wondered how easy it was for him to avoid her, considering her self-proclaimed close relationship with his friend Ethan. However, there was no way that he was going to tell her that Mitch thought of her as--in his words--"kind of a bitch", a statement corroborated by her actions that night.

"Not really, no," he said.

"That's too bad. I guess I was just another girl on his list." She sighed. "Oh well! Plenty of fish in the sea! There are many guys out there just dying to get with me! And can you blame them? It's Mitch's loss!"

"Yeah, plenty of wish..." Troy wistfully said as he looked out of the passenger window. "I wonder when I'll find my perfect catch...?"

Rebecca briefly glanced at him, before focusing back on the road, and then soon after singing along with the songs playing through the car speaker.



Before long, the two had driven into familiar territory: Troy's neighborhood. Tall apartment buildings and other establishments surrounded them on both sides, while a number of minor streets that they drove past led to residential areas, well-lit by the street lights lining their roads. The two also passed by a vehicle whose occupant had been pulled over by a patrol officer; Rebecca slightly reduced her speed during the encounter.

After making a few turns, she soon pulled to a curb to her right in front of an apartment complex, and the car stalled to a stop.

"And we're here!" she proudly announced. "I told you I'd get you home."

Troy looked out the window, but immediately noticed that something was wrong. "This isn't my apartment," he said.

"Wha?" Slight surprised formed upon her face.

"My place is around the next corner."

"Oh shit, my bad." She pulled off from the curb and headed towards the direction that Troy had mentioned.

In a matter of seconds, the two had reached Troy's actual apartment complex. He let out a sigh of relief upon seeing its seven-story form. He never thought that he would be so happy to have arrived home as he was that night.

"Is this it?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah," Troy responded. "Thanks for the ride, Rebecca."

"You're welcome, Troy!" She cheerfully replied. "And I really did have a good time tonight. I hope you come out for more macro parties!"

"I'll think about it," he said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and prepared to leave the car.

"...Oh, but wait," Rebecca said, now with a bit of sudden seriousness in her tone. "There's something I've been wondering about."

"What is it?" Troy asked, somewhat concerned.

"...Before I ate you last time, you said that you wanted me to step on you. Were you really just joking, or...?"

"Uh..." Troy did not expect her to bring that up, especially right before the two were to go their separate ways. He contemplated lying to her again about it and then leaving.

"Be honest. I won't judge." She smiled a rather weak one.

"But you said before that they were freaks," Troy recalled.

"Yeah, I did... But that's what Vince said, right? He's knows everything about macro stuff, right?"

Troy stared at her for a few seconds, and then sternly told her, "Vince isn't the guru that you think he is. He's just a celeb with his own likes and dislikes, and he's trying to force everyone to like and dislike what he does. It's bullshit, really. I just wish so many people weren't so easily swayed by him, but I guess that's asking too much." He realized that he had gotten rather passionate about the subject as he told her this.

"...You know what? I think I have my answer." Rebecca sighed. "...Plen-ty of fish..."

Troy got the hint. "Alright. For what it's worth, it was nice seeing you again."

She smiled, though one absent of her previous jubilance. "Yeah. Same here. You have a good night."

Troy opened the passenger door and stepped out of the car. Once he closed the door, he watched as Rebecca drove off into the dark of night, its tail-lights soon overpowered by the other lights on the road.

One could say that Troy felt as if he had been rejected. It was true to an extent, but in actuality, he never had any particular romantic feelings for Rebecca from the start. She was just too abrasive and rude for his tastes, and it was clear that she thought very highly of herself. In fact, it was nice to finally have her out of his hair, so to speak. That said, it still stung to be thought of as a freak, regardless of who believed it of you.

With her gone, Troy departed into the building behind him, his place of residence.



Having arrived at his apartment, Troy fished out his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. After entering, he locked the door behind him and immediately headed to his bedroom, keeping all of the lights in the apartment switched off and leaving the outside rooms in almost complete darkness. He walked into his bedroom, and closed and locked its door as well.

He leaned back against the door, and let out a huge sigh of relief. What a long way, he thought. A long day full of misfortune and dashed hopes. From his date with Jeane being postponed if not cancelled, to his outing with Shaniece, and to the entirely of the "macro party", it seemed as if he had definitely pulled the cosmic short straw.

Troy reminisced on some of the things that were said over the past 24 hours...

Shaniece: "That's why I don't mess with those shrinkin' people. I mean, what? They gon expect me to squish them like that? They get off on being killed? That's just trifflin'."

Ethan: "And ladies, please watch where you walk. None of us wants to get stepped on."

Taryn: "We were in the bedroom talking and making out, and he says that he'd love it if I squished him with by bare foot."
Taryn's friend: "Eww!! What the fuck!!"

Rebecca: "What kind of people would get off on getting stepped on? Freaks, that's who."

He sighed once more, before taking off his shoes and walking to his bed. Not even bothering to change his clothes, he plopped down onto it, and simply laid there, waiting for his fatigue to carry him off to slumber.

He could not help but think about the day's events, but he tried to keep his mind off of it. Instead, he tried to think of something else, something much more positive. Such as who would be the next downloadable characters in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. There were many popular choices on the online forums: some obvious such as the Inkling from Splatoon, King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country, or Wolf from Star Fox, while others were much more outlandish, such as the Shovel Knight, or Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.

"Cloud..." he said to himself. "...Yeah, right. I'm sure the odds of him getting in are the same as me finding a girl who will crush me." He pensively chuckled, before he started to doze off.



[TO BE CONTINUED]