“I can’t do it, man. We gotta call this whole thing off.” Pierce sat opposed to Javi at one of the campus library’s tiny study tables, clutching his head in his hands as the pair looked over their plans for the Galaween escape room they were constructing.
“Get a grip, will you? We can’t back out now.” Javi tapped his chin with a pencil, studying the floor plan they were drawing. An intricate maze spanned the table, dotted with points of interest and safety zones. “It’s not that big a deal anyway.”
“Jackie’s going to swallow me!” Pierce said through his teeth, trying to keep from shouting in the otherwise quiet library. The library's tiny section was denoted by the yellow carpet starkly contrasting the mixed size area's green and that all the furniture was scaled down to adequately service the smaller population. Giant staff members were allowed to freely step onto the yellow carpet, but bigs were otherwise encouraged to stay clear, primarily because of how disruptive even their inside voices were to those at their feet. “Why am I the only one freaking out over this?”
“That’s a good question. Why are you so upset?” Along with the hand drawn map, the two boys brought playing pieces to represent the parties involved. The plants: Javi, Pierce, and Sam, were represented by black chess pawns. The participants were white chess pawns. Jackie was represented by a regular sized black queen that a librarian graciously lent the pair. It took up a lot of space on the tiny table and was a pain to move around, but it did provide a striking visualization. “You’re going to be in a suit. Those things are perfectly safe.”
“Yeah, skydiving is ‘perfectly safe’ too until the parachute malfunctions.”
Javi pulled out his phone and typed away, returning his attention to Pierce after a couple seconds of scrolling. “Five everyday activities vore is safer than, according to the top results on Google: riding in an airplane, driving a car, standing outside in a thunderstorm, going grocery shopping, and you won't believe number five.” He showed Pierce his screen to ensure there could be no doubts. “Skydiving.”
“Skydiving isn't an ‘everyday activity.’ Shows how trustworthy you're source is.” Javi clicked his tongue as he put his phone away. “And the rest of those serve a purpose. Getting eaten is just asking for disaster, for Jackie too. What if I get lodged in her throat and she chokes on me?” Pierce's eyes went wide as if he just unlocked a new fear. “Oh God, she's going to choke on me, and I'll be stuck inside her and…”
“Calm down. I imagine the suits are designed to prevent that.” Pierce squinted at his friend, unpersuaded by his well-intentioned assumption. “You're seriously overreacting. Vore isn't that different from having sex. Instead of going through the front or back door, you're coming in through the chimney.” Javi didn't like the blank stare the other tiny shot him. “Don't tell me you're scared of having sex with her.”
The moment lingered in hesitation, the quiet uncomfortable even by a library’s standards.
“Maybe a little,” Pierce admitted to a resounding groan. “What if I drown?”
“You're more likely to drown in a swimming pool, but that’s beside the point.” Javi pinched the bridge of his nose, his brow furrowed into knots. “If you are going to date a big, then you're going to have to grow a pair. A relationship isn’t going to last on handholding alone. You're going to have to buck up, dive into the trenches, and get yourself dirty every so often.”
“I get that. I’m not worried about the sex.” Pierce rubbed his temples as he juggled a few anxieties in his mind. “Not that worried. At least I can’t digest inside a vagina. But why vore? Why are you pushing this so hard? Are you even into it?”
“Definitely not.” The words slipped out, and Javi had to swerve fast before his friend raised a fuss. “Which is to say… I mean… OK, it's not my cup of tea. But I'd still take the plunge if my girl wanted me to.”
“Sure, it'd be different if this was something Jackie wanted to do, but I'm not taking the risk for a dumb scare in a Halloween escape room.”
There was a pause as silence permeated across the table, one more intense than before. The silence suffocated the area, so much so that it’d give even the sternest librarian chills. Javi weighed his options, pondering whether betraying a friend's trust was worth it to save her relationship with his best friend. He tried to sympathize with Jackie, put himself in her shoes, but he understood it was up to him to keep the couple riding smoothly, whether or not this was actually the right thing to do.
“I shouldn't be the one to tell you this, but you're forcing my hand here.” Javi leaned in close and gestured for Pierce to do the same. “Jackie has a vore fetish.”
“What?” Pierce asked in a voice much louder than a whisper. He fell back in his chair and then rocketed forward after processing what Javi said. “How do you know that?”
“Call it intuition. Vibes. I can tell from not-so-subtle hints she’s dropped.”
“So, you’re making shit up,” Pierce determined.
“You heard what she said the other day at the committee meeting. Those weren't the words of someone with a vague understanding of the concept. That was Jackie defending her interests.” His volume raised the more he spoke, his frustration adding fuel to his fire.
“Then why hasn't she told me?”
“Gah! You are so dense!” Javi clutched his head and ruffled his hair in a display of onset mania. “The same reason you don't tell her about how you stare at her feet all day.”
“I don't stare at her feet. I glance at them when she's not looking.” The pair stopped whispering a few declarations back, the bookshelves surrounding them fading from view as they lost themselves in their argument.
“You stare. The only reason she hasn't caught on is because she’s nearly as dense as you are.” Javi stifled a laugh. “You’re lucky it’s getting cold out. You may as well glue your eyes to the floor when she’s wearing sandals.”
“Will you boys pipe down? I swear I can hear you from the front desk.” Lynn appeared beside the table pushing a cart full of books to return. Deep into her shift, the little lady was dressed the part. A maroon cardigan draped over a collared dress shirt, and her lower half was adorned in a knee-high skirt and nylon stockings. She paused to admire the setup the guys had laid out. “What the hell’s all this about?”
“Lynn, does Jackie have a vore fetish?” Pierce asked incredulously. Lynn raised an eyebrow. Javi nearly fell from his chair.
“Dude!” The taller tiny stood and slammed his arms onto the table. He wanted to reach over and strangle his friend. “You can’t ask her sister that!”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s her sister!”
“Ssshh!” The part-time librarian held her finger to her lips, glaring towards Javi. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll have to throw you out.” Lynn pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the table, overshadowed by the towering queen piece. She crossed her arms and looked side-to-side, checking to see if anyone was within eavesdropping range. “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this table. Got it?” The boys didn’t respond, neither realizing they were expected to. “Swear to me!”
“I swear.”
“Promise.”
“Good. If I hear either of you squeal, then I’ll make sure Jackie’s next meal is packed with extra protein.” That comment netted her the reactions she was looking for: a nervous gulp and a clammy forehead. She turned her attention towards Pierce. “For starters, I’m only telling you this because you make Jackie happy, and it’s my job to make sure she stays happy. If you fail to keep her happy, if you break her heart in anyway, then I’m going to make you wish you were digesting in a giant stomach.”
Pierce had met quite a few giants in his lifetime. All of them intimidating. Even the nice ones, save for Jackie, kept him on edge. Yet none of those living skyscrapers held a candle to Lynn Richards. According to Jackie, little Lynn once took down a big bully almost single handedly. Donning a mask and gloves, she chopped the seeds of several ghost peppers into a fine dust and baked them into homemade chocolates that subbed vinegar for milk, bagging them up with a forged love letter from the bully’s crush. Next day, she slipped into the bully’s locker through the door vents and jimmied it open, allowing a larger accomplice to stow the chocolates inside. Of course, Lynn couldn’t leave it at that, deciding to spike the girl’s thermos with leftover ghost pepper dust. And by some strange coincidence, the three nearest water fountains were all out of order that day.
Those present didn’t even recognize the poor girl, her face redder than a tomato and drenched in tears and snot. Her crush had no clue what was going on, getting berated by a troll with smeared makeup and a voice hoarse enough to hurt anyone in earshot. Those two remained distant after that, even after the bully learned the truth through the rumor mill. But with no evidence tracing back to Lynn and stringent anti-bullying policies that at least kept tinies safe meant there was no clear path for retribution, the bully forced to stew under the pall of Lynn’s shadow. Suffice it to say, best picture day ever.
“How did you find out about Jackie’s special interest?” Lynn asked Pierce.
He pointed to Javi. “He told me.”
“Intuition,” Javi answered.
“I buy it. She lets her walls down around you two more than anyone else. No surprise she'd let her deepest secrets slip around ya.” Lynn twirled her long hair in her finger, one of the few visible differences between the twins besides the obvious. “To answer your question: yes, she does. When we were younger, Jackie had a bad habit of leaving her tabs open when she'd switch the computer off. I don't think she realized she wasn't turning it off but putting it in sleep mode. Anyway, after closing out of ‘Goth Girlfriend Devours Her Gut Slut,’ ‘Unaware MILF Eats Step-Son and His Friends in Yogurt,’ and ‘Domina Layla Mouthcam & Vore Tease,’ I put two and two together. Throughout most of high school, I was clearing her browser history for her until she figured out how incognito tabs work.”
Pierce stared at Lynn unblinking, his face frozen in an uneasy expression. His skin grew pale, and sweat pooled on his hands and back.
“Wow, I'm impressed,” Javi said. “Uncleared browser history is prime material for blackmailing an older sister. How sweet of you to look after her like that.”
“Jackie had enough on her plate, so I did what I could to give her less to stress out over. As far as I'm aware, she hasn't told anyone about her fantasies, and she doesn't realize I've known all this time. I imagine it's a secret she's planning to take to the grave.”
“Jackie never caught you hopping around on her keyboard?” Javi asked, grinning. Lynn cocked her head, not sure what he was getting at.
“She probably had her own wireless keyboard and mouse connected to Jackie's computer,” Pierce explained.
“Oh yeah. That's how we played games together on it. I also liked watching YouTube on her computer; made me feel like I was at a movie theater.” Lynn kept twirling her hair, reminiscing on pleasant times. “I'll admit the whole vore thing creeped me out at first. But everything I found was ultimately harmless: actors pretending to be eaten with the help of CG or obvious jump cuts. She steered clear of the sketchier sites, so I'm not worried about her breaking any moral boundaries.” The little librarian rested her hands in her lap. “That all said, how do you feel, Pierce? Afraid you're gonna wake up one morning in your girlfriend’s mac & cheese? How'd the subject come up anyway?”
“We're planning a haunted escape room for Galaween,” Javi answered while Pierce fidgeted in his seat. The other tiny looked like he’d throw up the moment he opened his mouth. “Jackie's playing our big, scary monster, and she's going to eat Pierce as one of the scares.”
“And let me guess,” Lynn said, turning to Javi, “you set the whole thing up to force these two dorks to confront their feelings and open up to each other.” Javi nodded with a big, toothy grin etched into his face. “But your boy here chickened out and you had to reveal your master plan to keep him playing your game.” That wiped Javi’s grin off as he nodded summarily. “Pssh, amateur.”
“I'm going to do it,” Pierce said suddenly, straightening himself in his seat. The others’ eyes went wide. “I'll let her swallow me.” The fire in his eyes distracted the others from his trembling hands, his skin slowly regaining color.
“Attaboy, Pierce.” Javi hooted and clapped, earning a derisive glare from the part-time librarian. Still, Pierce's response relieved her.
A maelstrom of emotions tore through Pierce. His fear remained, his doubts persisted, and his anxiety refused to release him from its stranglehold. And yet, a wellspring of motivation bubbled up from within. If this was something Jackie wanted, if this would make her happy, then he had to try. She was the best thing to ever happen to him, and if he wanted their relationship to stay strong, he'd eventually have to take the plunge.
“Who knows, maybe you'll end up loving it. Some of those videos were pretty hot all things considered.” Lynn got up and returned to her cart. “Just remember, Pierce: you break her heart, I break yours.” She patted his shoulder as she pushed her cart past him, relishing the shiver that ran down his back.
Javi donned a serious expression and leaned forward. “This is going to sound counterproductive to what I've been saying, but you're allowed to have boundaries. If Jackie truly cares about you, she'll respect that.”
“I know, but I'm willing to push them. I want to make her happy.” Pierce walked on air, visions of Jackie’s smiling visage filling his head.
“Pierce? What's the big grin for?” As if summoned, Jackie appeared crouched over the tiny table, casting it entirely in shadow.
Pierce beamed up at her. “Oh, I was just thinking of you.” Jackie’s lips curled upwards as her cheeks tinted red.
“Hey guys! Sorry we're late,” Sam called out from high up on Jackie's palm. They scanned around the mostly vacant tiny section and turned towards their transport's expansive face. “We should probably move this elsewhere. I don't think you're allowed to stay in here.”
“Right. Just let me grab this…” Jackie picked up the entire table with ease, holding it and its contents in her left hand as she lowered her right. Javi and Pierce climbed aboard, joining Sam atop Jackie's smooth, cushiony palm. The scent of peach moisturizer filled their lungs. “...and we're off.”
Jackie carried her crew over to the larger study tables on the other side of the library where they could work without fear of disturbing any tiny patrons or testy librarians.
“Hey, Jackie,” Pierce said from her palm, “I'm looking forward to participating in the escape room.”
She glanced down at him, a twinkle in her eye. “I know! I'm so excited. I can't wait to let loose on all of you.”
“Y'know, I can’t picture you as the scary, sadistic type,” Javi mentioned. “And if anything, that has me terrified.”
“Exactly!” Sam chimed in. “It's like when the chill, low-key teacher gets genuinely upset. It's so much worse when you can't imagine what they'd be like mad.”
“Well, I promise not to traumatize you guys too hard.” Jackie reached the big table and the set the little one down on it, letting her passengers off in the process. “You all will have it the roughest since you're going to be involved in every session.”
Pierce realized that meant he'd be getting swallowed multiple times and thrown up between each game. Risks compounded on top of each other, and the color drained from his skin once more. No! Stay strong! he thought, slapping the worries away. I can do it. I will do it.
“You okay, Pierce?” Jackie asked, resting her chin on the table so she was as close to him as possible. Her mouth was only a few centimeters away from the tiny, close enough to snatch him with her tongue if this were an appropriate time or place.
“I'm fine. I got a bit queasy earlier, but it passed when you arrived,” he reassured her, elated to feel her warm breath washed over him.
“That’s good to hear,” she said softly. Something was troubling him, that much was clear, but Jackie decided to take him for his word, hopeful she could help him move past whatever hardship afflicted him.