Swallowed by Fate
By Dann
There was no 'ploop' and he was not dropped into a spacious room which held a pool of stomach acid. He was pressed mercilessly into a muscular sac, and rubbed and thrown around, pressed firmly into the strong stomach walls. Digestion was not a slow burning acidic death, but a crushing, suffocating, humiliating end. He was being pressed into her stomach walls by her stomach itself. Pulverized and mashed, broken and torn. Acid would aid in the breakdown of his molecules.
"Oh my God, oh my God. She swallowed me, she fucking swallowed me." Dan cried out into the darkness, choking and coughing on the acrid 'air' that burned on every inhale.
There was no way out of this, no coming back from this moment. Food entered into the stomach for one purpose and one purpose alone, to be digested.
To the ravenous walls of Francine's stomach, he wasn't Daniel Gillman, son in law, he was food.
***
Fran adjusted her pillow and nestled down to sleep. She pounded her head against the pillow a few times, before letting out a content sigh, tucked her hand under her head and began to drift off to sleep. Oblivious as to the peril she had unintentionally placed her least favorite son in law in.
As Fran began to surrender to sleep, her stomach gurgled a little and she frowned, at the burning sensation at the back of her throat.
“Goddamn heart burn.” Francine sighed,threw her comforter off and heaved herself out of bed, making her way to the bathroom. She let out a small burp, rubbing her throat from the discomfort that came with her reflux.
Hastily Francine began to rifle through her medicine drawer for something to solve the problem, all the while unaware of the desperate struggle inside her body.
***
Dan felt what little oxygen he had to breathe escape as a deep bellowing sound that resonated all around him, vibrating the cavernous pit. More rumbles were felt as a great sense of turbulence added to the sickening feeling of motion.
Was she moving? Getting comfortable in bed? Had she heard his pathetic mews for life? Could she be trying to rescue him?
That was highly unlikely as the disturbance settled and the stomach continued churning the leftovers of Francine's midnight snack, mixing him in with the greenish brown chyme.
He coughed, choking in the offensive goo, chest tight and burning as his lungs begged for air.
Dan had signed himself as a goner, his entire life flashing before his eyes as memories of Donna, his honeymoon and their wedding flooded his oxygen starved brain.
How had he wanted this? Dreamt of this, begged Donna to help him fantasize about this? In his mind the stomach was a warm, comfortable hug,or a gateway to an eternal bonding moment with his beloved.
But this? This was hell, this was painful. This was dark, abyssal…completely and utterly isolated.
He wasn't aroused, he was dying.
Fate, however, would offer Dan a second chance. Rather than drown in a sea of thick soupy muck, he was jettisoned upward, through the process of regurgitation!
Shrouded in darkness, Dan was quickly expelled upward from her stomach, back through the esophagus and into her mouth, where only the faintest suggestion of light broke through her mostly closed lips.
How did this happen? To what did he owe this miracle? Dan was unsure, but he was alive and for the time being free from the humiliation of digestion.
Though hardly out of the woods.
Without a miracle, she would simply subconsciously swallow him again as soon as she felt a foreign object in her mouth. If he was fortunate he would be gnashed between her molars and spared the horror of living through the first stages of digestion.
If he was fortunate.
But the dim light gave way to blinding neon bathroom lights as Fran's teeth and lips began to part, opening a path to freedom
There was a chance now, he had a chance! Dan mustered all his strength and crawled toward the light only to be stopped by a large blue capsule pill held between enormous glossy, manicured thumb and forefinger, roughly herding him back into Francine's mouth and shoving him behind her rows of teeth.
“No! ” Dan screamed.
He had been so close, he was nearly free. It wasn't fair!
His faint hopes of finding a way to fight her swallowing reflex were dashed as a glass was raised to her mouth full to the brim with clear, cold water.
"Of course."
The glasses tilt sent a flood of
water cascading into her mouth.
“It's not fair.". Dan cried as he was carried
along with the pill, back down her throat once again he began the descent down her esophagus for the second time.
Peristaltic waves from Francine's esophagus quickly carried Dan and the pill he clung to down toward their final destination.
Dan screamed, unable to accept for a second time in one day that he was being eaten alive.
The pill however, ceased its decent, sticking to the walls of Fran's esophagus, and Dan for all he was worth clung on.
A temporary stay of execution.
***
Fran carried the glass of water with her as she made her way back into the bedroom, setting it on her nightstand and taking a seat in her bed.
She cleared her throat a few times rubbing her throat with her hand. Her hand reached for her glass idly and she took another drink to help force the stubborn pill down, clearing and rubbing her throat to assist as she felt it begin to surrender its spot.
Fran may have chugged the whole glass, her lips parting to take in more, when the phone rang.
"Urg." Fran set her glass down and reached for her phone to answer.
“Hello?" she answers with a croak in her voice"
It was Donna.
"…..woah...slow down hun. What note? What did he do?” Fran took a moment to look at the phone and gave her head a shake in amazement.
She paused to let Donna continue, the poor dear had worked herself into a tizzy.
“Why in the world would he do something like that, dear? Are you sure?"
Donna was practically screaming by this point.
"Okay, okay I believe you, calm down. That means he's probably still at home then?” Fran sat down.
Donna began crying.
“Well calm down...I'm sure he's
around somewhere...you just have to be careful. Don't want anything to happen…"
***
Dan could hear every word Francine said, as if he were standing next to a speaker at a Guns N' Roses concert.
"Donna? Donna, I'm here baby! I'm still here!" Dan cried though he was well aware of the futility in his plea.
The voice of God herself went on, bellowing as she tried to calm her daughter down
Dan felt another terrible rumble as the pill began to slip further and further down Francine's esophagus.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Dan cried, at this point this was beyond horrible, it was positively cruel.
***
Fran brought her hand to her throat and took the phone away from her mouth. She took a long drink then brought the phone back.
“I'm sorry...yes I'm still here Sweetie.” Fran began to cough violently, that last drink had fine down the wrong tube.
She brought her hand to cover her mouth and couched until the feeling of aspiration passed. "Yes, I will come over in the morning and help you look."
Donna's frantic cries continued.
"So where did you find this note?” Fran continued to talk.
***
Dan tried to hold on to the gradually deteriorating blue pill, but the first of Francine's cough tore him from his raft and forced him violently upward, back through Fran's mouth past her tongue and teeth and out into a warm, soft surface.
He was in her hand, stuck to her flesh by droplets of spittle from her cough.
"Yes dear, first thing in the morning, Gracie and Sarah too."
Dan listened to the conversation wrap up as Francine looked down at her palm, wrinkling her nose and holding her hand out like it was diseased.
"Okay…I love you, everything will work out just fine, we'll find him. Okay. Okay, yes… Bye." Francine hung up, set her phone down then reached for a tissue to wipe her hand.
Dan screamed, weak and beaten from his ordeal, watched as Fran seemed to look right at him, then cried in terror as a massive white tissue blotted out the world and swept him up.
Fran balled the tissue on her first and tossed it into the wicker trash pail, then turned her lamp off and went to sleep.