Lies of the Flesh by TinyDann
There was perhaps no explanation that one could give to explain why Daniel Andrews had shrunk to the small size of three quarters of an inch tall. No magical beam, no sinister potion, it had just happened. A small glitch in nature, a freak occurrence that would likely never occur again. This was of course little solace to the panic stricken young man who now sat on the floor of his small cubicle looking up at the world from an insect's point of view.
Daniel had been in this state for over an hour, he had gone through a reaction typical to finding one's self in a strange unexplained supernatural and life threatening situation. Panic, anger, fear, he had attempted to rationalize, to build for himself an explanation, and of course to forge a plan for his own rescue, but once all of the emotion had subsided, once the reality of the situation sank in, Daniel was forced to clear his mind and assess his situation.
He had shrunk, that much he could be sure of. Everything else around him was still the same. His chair, his desk, his computer, the cubicle walls. Only his clothes and what he had in his pocket, his keys, wallet and iPhone, had taken the trip to the microverse with him.
It seemed whatever had taken place did so in a very short period of time, as nobody seemed to notice, for the most part life around the office went on as normal. He could hear the gentle hum of the going's on in the building, people typing, chatting, fax machines and printers going off. Door's opening and closing, the phone's ringing. Everything was the same, only louder, and much more menacing. Every footstep, every sudden noise was that much more terrifying to Daniel now, it was relatively safe in the once small confines of his cubicle, but he knew he needed help, and help would not come here.
“Quarter to three Dan. That's what time I need that assessment on the Waterford account handed in...” Mary-Anne Lacrosse was Daniel's first encounter of the giant kind. She stood 5'5 with long brown hair, a slender athletic build and tan Caucasian skin. She had a longer nose and a prominent jaw and gray eyes that curved up just a little. She wore very little makeup, and on this day dawned a white blouse, a black skirt that went just below her knees, black open toe dress shoes with a light purple coating on her toe nails. She was a stunning sight to behold on a normal scale, but today before him Dan found himself in the presence of a goddess.
“Mary-Anne....” Dan mouthed as he watched his supervisor's displeased look at his apparent absence from his work station. “Mary-Anne” Dan spoke a little louder...as if gathering the courage to try for her attention.
“He can't still be at lunch...it's nearly 1:30...” Mary-Anne placed her right hand on her hip and shook her head from side to side with a huff. “Honestly this is just ridiculous.”
“Mary-Anne!” Daniel finally screamed and began to run towards her. It had taken him a while to gather the gumption to approach such a giant impressive and dangerous figure of a woman and a human being. He felt like an Ant next to an NBA all-star. “Mary-Anne Lacrosse! I'm right here! Mary-Anne I need your help! Something happened to me I don't know what but I shrunk and....”
Daniel slowed his running as the giantess before him went from stationary to moving quicker than he could register. Something so large moving so quickly, it didn't seem possible!
“I suppose I'll just leave a memo on his desk then.” Mary-Anne walked towards Daniel's desk and scribbled on a small sticky note dictating as she wrote. “Dan, I need that assessment by 2:45! M.A.L.” She then slapped it on his computer screen. As she turned to leave however her eyes couched the condition of his desk, papers all over the place, garbage bin full. “What a mess...” Mary-Anne's eyes scanned over the entirety of
Daniel’s cubicle with disappointment.
“D..does she see me…” Dan whispered to himself as he watched her. It seemed for a moment she was looking right at him. Her gaze froze him. There were no words to express the majesty and terror he felt beholding his supervisor at such a ridiculous size.
“Urg…” Mary-Anne turned on her heels and exited Dan’s cubicle.
“Hey come back!” Daniel spoke as she left. It didn’t matter his tone or volume, there was no way she could ever hear him. “This is crazy, how the fuck did this happen.” Daniel’s breathing began to pick up, his voice cracked and he looked around frantically. There was panic in his voice. “I’m gonna die, there’s no way I’m gonna be able to get anyone’s attention like this! I’m fucken screwed!” Dan shouted and brought his hands to the sides of his head.
Panic had taken over and as Dan sat on his cubicle floor in a tizzy, he didn’t take notice of the nightmare creature approaching him secretly from under his desk. Closer and closer the beast came. It looked like something from the farthest reaches of the human psyche. Hundreds of eyes filled its face, huge bone crushing mandibles from its cheeks, the creature had a round fat black body with hundreds of tiny black hairs jutting out from it. It stood many times bigger than Dan, easily the size of a whale to the diminutive man-mite. Six long legs propelled it forward and two more in the front it seemed to use for grasping and pulling things into its maw. The creature moved with amazing reflexes towards the screaming panic stricken Dan. Who did not notice the creature until its shadow had descended upon him.
“Bwahahaha!” Dan let out a scream from the pit of his stomach as he beheld the beast before him. “Ohhh shit!”
Dan tried to run but the two front arms of the spider landed on his shoulder and pulled him back. He turned quickly as the spider wasted no time, it had reared itself up and had begun shooting a thick white substance from its abdomen onto Dan.
“Ah! Ah! AAH!! No, get away from me!” Daniel withered and screamed as he fought against the overpowering foe. The sticky silk landed on Dan and the spider using its powerful front legs began to spin Daniel around and around, quickly cocooning him in the thick white silk.
“Oh gorse! Bugs!”
Daniel was at least halfway to a human cocoon when the spider abruptly stopped and dropped him. From what he could see the beast was scurrying as fast as it could towards the desk from whence it came. It didn’t make it very far however before a black shoe the size of an office building quickly slammed down on top of it. He could hear the crunch and pop of the elephant sized spider as the foot from above made short work of it. Saved…for now.
The foot belonged to Mary-Anne, who had returned to Daniel’s cubicle with a bankers box with his name on it. He watched, from his cocooned prison as his supervisor began to sweep everything from on top of his desk into the box, she then opened his drawers and began to pour his belongings in as well.
“I’ve had enough of this, people can’t just take two hour lunch breaks, leave their work space a complete bug infested mess and expect everything to be ok. This will act as a lesson to everyone else.” She scorned as she walked about Dan’s office removing all his personal effects and throwing them into the box.
“She’s firing me!? Holy Crap can this day get any worse?” Dan wiggled and withered for all he was worth, as his goddess of a boss went about her elimination of him and his employment. As fate would have it, things were indeed about to get worse.
“There…finished…goodbye and so long.” Mary-Anne took a few steps back to make sure she had gotten everything, with a proud look she carried the box in her arms towards the front desk.
Daniel watched helplessly as Mary-Anne began to back up, more and more until the dark black sole of her shoe was directly over him.
“Oh god…” he closed his eyes to prepare for what he knew would come. However, nothing came. Oddly, however, he felt a strange sense of motion. Opening his eyes, he came to realize she had missed him just by a hair, but enough for the sticky spider silk to catch on the side of her shoe. He was now a sticky passenger on the most dangerous ride of his life.
Mary-Anne walked with purpose along the tile floor to the front desk, depositing the box on the secretary’s desk, “Eleanor, when Mr. Andrews comes back from lunch please make sure he gets this and direct him to my office please.” The secretary looked up from the phones with a bit of a nod, took a look at the box and then back to Mary-Anne and nodded. Mary-Anne was already walking away by that point.
Daniel was in a bad state. Every time Mary-Anne took a step he felt as if he was on a rollercoaster. The “G’s” were intense with every step she took. Then there was the defining sound of her shoes making contact with the ground. Kaboom, Kathud, Kaboom, Kathud, over and over, his ears felt like they would bleed. The torture did not end until Mary-Anne had done a few rounds of the office. Occasionally she would stop to chat with somebody, before taking off once more, submitting Dan once again to the torment. Finally at her office she closed the door and moved to her desk.
“Urg.” Mary-Anne let out a soft sigh and a groan as she sat in her chair and leant back slightly. She began to rub her temples softly as she brought her right foot up to land on her desk. She pressed a small red button on her phone and said “Eleanor I need to put my feet up for a moment, direct any calls to my voicemail ok?” She removed her finger from the red button and closed her eyes once more.
Daniel felt his stomach lurch as Mary-Anne brought her foot to her desk. He struggled and lurched to free himself, the combination of it all was enough to free his cocoon from her shoe. He landed with a thump on her desk and rolled a little. The spider's silk was holding him tightly, but as the spider had not been given the time to finish its work, Daniel was finding it possible to slowly wither his way free. Once he worked his arms free, he began to rip and tear his legs and feet free. Once finished he let out a sigh of relief.
He found himself in the shadow of a colossus. Before him both of her feet, once crossed over the other, shoes arose into the air like giant towers. He could make out the crushed remains of the spider on one of her feet. This sent a chill down his spine.
“That’s gonna be me if I’m not careful.” He muttered. “Alright Dan think…how are you going to get out of this one?” Daniel scrunched his lips to the side as he pondered how to get her attention. His face lit up however as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone! “Brilliant!” he wasted no time in dialing the office number. He crossed his fingers hoping the phone still worked at such a tiny size.
“Anderson and Finch, this is Eleanor speaking, how many I direct your call?”
“Eleanor! Oh thank god Eleanor! Listen Ele I need your help! This is Dan! Daniel Andrews!”
“D..dan? Where are you on the subway? I can hardly hear you? There’s too much static.”
“H…hello? Eleanor? Ele? Can you hear me?” Dan’s voice seemed desperate.
“Just barely.”
“O..ok good…I need you to put me through to Mrs. Lacrosse’s office right away, it's very important!”
“I’m sorry Dan but she isn’t taking any calls. I’ll patch you through to her voice mail.”
“No..no Ele wait no! Ele….Eleanor! Please Eleanor, I need your……” The only response was the cheerful sound of Mary-Anne’s voice mail directing the caller to leave a message, because their call was of the utmost importance! “Fucken hell!” Daniel let out a scream and hung up his phone.
Mary-Anne brought her foot back down to the ground and pushed against her desk. She made her way across her office to a small sink where a clear tall glass mug sat. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small white and brown packet and tore the top open, pouring the powder into the mug. She then turned the sink on and filled the glass with water. The clear water quickly turned brown as it is mixed with the powder to create Iced Tea. She opened a small bar fridge and from the very top pulled out an ice tray and dropped a few cubes into her drink with a “plop….plunk…splunk.” and began to stir the glass as she walked back to her desk slowly.
Meanwhile Daniel was well into his next plan. He had begun climbing on top of her computer mouse, in an attempt to position himself in a place he was sure she would look. It was a much harder climb than he had anticipated, however he was making good progress when Mary-Anne returned to her desk. He looked back as she sat in her chair and set her mug down next to the mouse pad. The tall clear glass mug was wet from condensation and stood over him dwarfing him. It looked like enough liquid to fill the grand canyon. It was hard to believe one person could drink all of that. He had just reached the halfway point and was positioned over the right mouse button when he decided to stop to take a bit of a break.
Mary-Anne took a drink from her mug and placed it down. She then pulled her keyboard drawer out and moved her chair closer. While looking at the black screen she reached out and grabbed the mouse, clicking a few times to pull the computer out of sleep. She then waited for the computer to comply. While she waited she absent mindedly began to stir her tea using the small spoon she had left in the glass. The black screen lit up as the computer was now on, Mary-Anne returned her hand to her mouse and began to work on various things.
“No no no no no no wait! Mary-A….”
The shadow of Mary-Anne’s hand grew larger and larger as she reached down to grab her mouse. In Hindsight Dan realized this was probably not the most well thought out plan. The palm of her hand descended and Dan could see every wrinkle, every line and curve. Her hand positioned itself on the mouse body and her fingers over the buttons. The index finger on her left hand quickly landed on the right button. Dan tried to move out of the way but her reflexes were outstanding. He felt the immense pressure of her finger pressing him against the mouse button many times as she clicked and moved the mouse around to start the computer. When she pulled her hand free however Dan found himself stuck to the meaty pad of her index finger. He looked up and could see the dark underbelly of her long painted fingernail, but that was it. He was smashed like a fruit fly against her finger. Dan of course struggled to free himself, and managed to do just that actually, as she brought her hand up to her glass to grasp the spoon. Dan fell free of her index finger right before she grasped the spoon, and landed with a splash in the cold brown iced tea.
“Oh god…it's cold…it's cold!” he screamed once he surfaced. Dan began to tread water, but soon found himself in a whirlpool of terror as she began to absent mindedly stir her iced tea. “Glub Glub-wait stoppplubgurgle spit” Even when she stopped and went back to work, the liquid was rough with turbulence. Dan found himself constantly crashing up against massive icebergs and struggling dearly to keep his head above water.
“Helllggg meeegg! I can’t sguimmmmmlub!”
Mary-Anne deposited the wet spoon in her mouth to clean it of iced tea and then placed it on her desk beside the glass. As she worked she would drink, and then she would find herself engrossed in her work once more, and she would take a few drinks while she read an article or typed out something. The phone rang a few times and she would answer it, and then she would return to work. After a while a knock came on her door. She looked up with curiosity, leant back a little and grasped her glass in her hand, wrapping her fingers around it and curling her hands around it.
“Come in.”
The Door opened and in came a woman with curly shoulder length dirty blond hair, glasses, a mid to large figure with a prominent chest, she stood about 5’3 and dawned short nails, a simple blouse and pants and a necklace that held a charm of some sort that vanished into the valley of her ample cleavage.
“Oh, Karen it's good to see you, please come in.” Mary-Anne smiled.
Daniel struggled with every sip of the glass to stay away from Mary-Anne’s open mouth. She took long deep drinks and as she did Dan found himself lower and lower in the glass as the water-level lowered. Mary-Anne’s finger smashed against the side of the glass as she held the glass close to her, this blocked out the view of the outside world and gave Daniel a sick sort of confined feeling as Mary-Anne greedily claimed the glass and all it contained for herself.
“I gotta get out of here…I can’t die like this. It can’t end like this. Dammit I don’t want to die!” Daniel screamed up at Mary-Anne, who seemed busy chatting with somebody. Whoever it was, Dan could not tell as Mary-Anne’s hands blocked out all of the outside world.
Daniel pounded against the glass and splashed and screamed for all he was worth, but the defining sound of female laughter followed by loud talking and more high pitched laughter easily drowned him out. The glass and the liquid within shifted and the waters once again became turbulent as Mary-Anne slowly brought the glass up to her face. Her lips slowly parted as she tilted the glass slowly, she paused to speak.
“So then I cleared out his desk and left the box with the front desk.”
Dan could only listen to the two women discuss him, and then watch as Mary-Anne parted her lips once more and allowed the iced tea to pour into her mouth. He swam against the current valiantly, and almost made it, before an ice cube slipped down from the back of the glass and smacked into him, bumping him like a pin-ball into the open waiting mouth of his boss.
“Nooooo I was going to make it…wait…Mary-Anne! Nooo!” Dan was helpless as the torrent of iced tea carried him to the back of her throat. He was able to get a good long look at the inside of her mouth, and the back of her throat before she closed her mouth shutting out the light.
The ride down her throat was fast, and before long, he had reached his final destination, the dark confines of her stomach.
Having now been transported outside of the respiratory system, the little air that was inside the stomach was stale and tasted of acid. Before Dan could come to terms with what was happening he found himself being endlessly churned about and thrown around as the powerful muscle walls of her stomach went to work transitioning Daniel from Human being, to chyme. It was like being tossed into a washing machine, a thick mucus filled washing machine of acid. Daniel could not see a thing, nor was breathing very easy, in fact he could hardly breath at all. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone once more, and used it as a light to see what was going on.
The sight that greeted him was not pretty. The mucus filled churning inside of Mary-Anne’s stomach was a damp rank place filled with partly digested food, thick slimy mucus and churning stomach enzymes. It was a noisy place of gurgles and grumbles. Not being one to resign himself to such a fate Daniel began to immediately claw at the sides of her stomach for escape. But the walls of her stomach were wet and slippery and covered in a thick protective layer of mucus. Daniel did not give up, but he was unable to make any leeway towards the cardiac notch, the small portion way up above that led to the esophagus.
“Please…please damnit this can’t be happening!” His voice grew more and more frantic as his attempts to climb out continuously ended in failure. It was simply too slippery, too soft, and the constant churning made climbing out impossible.
Not even a minute had gone by and already Dan felt as if he could not last another second. In desperation Dan reached for his phone, a small ray of hope, he had reception! Frantically Dan dialed the office number fighting in vain to keep on his feet as the stomach walls beat and tossed him around, the enzymes were already starting to hurt as they worked on his unprotected flesh.
““Anderson and Finch this is Eleanor speaking how many I direct your call?”
“Eleanor! Eleanor! Help me! For the love of god Help me! Mary-Anne…please I have to talk to Mary-Anne!” Daniel screamed in desperate panic.
“I’m sorry Mrs. Lacrosse isn’t taking any calls right now, I’ll direct you to her voice mail.”
“Eleanor…ELEANOR! No God Eleanor PLEASE!” There was a click and then the sound of Mary-Anne’s Voice mail came up once more.
Daniel hung up and frantically began to dial another number. The phone rang, and then rang, and rang. There was no answer.
“Fuck” Daniel pulled out his wallet using his phone for light, he began to thumb through the business cards he had, one of them being Mary-Anne’s. “ha..haha! It’s here!” Another small ray of hope, her cell number was on her business card! If he could call her cell, somehow convince her to throw up!” Quickly Dan dialed the number….he waited…and waited…finally it began to ring.
Karen and Mary-Anne had been chatting for awhile, and were now contemplating something to snack on. Karen had pulled out a tin of Pringles and was munching on a few, she held the tin out towards Mary-Anne, who took a few. She was about to munch when her phone began to ring.
“Honestly….” She giggled and pulled out her phone. She didn’t recognize the number and simply put her phone down beside her.
“Whoever it is can wait, I’m hungry.” She giggled and began to munch on the chips.
“Hello, you’ve reached the voice mail of Mary-Anne Lacrosse…I’m sorry….”
“Answer your phone! Mary-Anne god dammit!” Daniel had lost his mind in panic, his skin felt like it was peeling, he was coughing and choking more than breathing, and he could hardly stand as the soft squishy walls of her stomach were beating and assaulting him from all sides. If that was not bad enough, it began to rain slop from up above.
“Oh fuck fuck fuck!” Daniel screamed as wave upon wave of masticated food began to fall down onto him. The muscle contractions grew more and more intense and Dan was jared from his position and fell forward into a pile of muck and half-digested food. Darkness overtook him once more as his phone slipped from his hand.
He fought and pulled himself to the surface, gasping for air again but more chewed up chips landed on top of him, and the stomach walls mixed and tossed it all about.
“God dammit I’m not going like this!” Daniel dove into the mess and reached around madly for his phone. It seemed all hope was lost, when he felt it in his hand and pulled it out. He fought to get to the surface again, this time the light from his phone guiding him.
He could hear Mary-Anne as she sounded from the inside, it was muffled but he could hear her, she was laughing, talking and laughing. She was going to digest him, eat him alive, and she was laughing. Daniel felt an uncontrollable feeling of hate and rage as his predator went on with her life. He was going to die alone and be forgotten. He hit the redial button…and again was given her voice mail, he hung up….and hit redial again….voicemail.
“Fucken woman! Who doesn’t answer their phone!”
Another idea hit him and Dan quickly began to type on the keyboard of his phone.
“Mary-Anne I am in your stomach…you ate me! Please just believe me! Throw me up please and you’ll see! I’m begging you…Daniel Andrews..” he then hit the send button.
The two women continued to chat amongst themselves and eat chips when Mary-Anne’s phone chimed to signal she had received a text.
“One second.”
Mary-Anne’s face scrunched into a confused look as she read the text. She scrunched her face and wrinkled her nose as she turned the phone quickly for Karen to read.
“What the hell…what a freak…”
“I know….what kind of sick game is he trying to play…” Mary-Anne gave off a shake of her head and let out a shrug.
The phone chimed once more and Karen read the message aloud, as she was still holding the phone.
“Please…this is not a joke…you have to believe me just do it…”
The two women shared a laugh together and Karen handed Mary-Anne her phone back. Mary-Anne pressed her thumb on the red hang-up button until her phone turned off and then placed her phone back into her purse with a shake of her head.
“You’re not going to send him a reply?” Karen giggled.
“Of course not, if he’s going to lie at least let it be something that is remotely believable. Honestly…I’m not at work because I’m trapped in your stomach…what a strange strange little man.” Mary-Anne let out a deep Laugh and held her belly as she did.
“Hey you never know he could be telling the truth.” Karen joked.
“Yea right! Well if that’s the case he can just stay there, hell if I’m sticking MY finger down my throat for him!” They both Laughed in jest.
As time went on Dan was positive there would be no response from Mary-Anne. He could hear every word she said from the inside of her stomach, muffled but he could make out what was said.
“S..she doesn’t believe me…oh god they don’t believe me! They're making jokes! No! Karen! Mary-Anne I’m in here! I’m here! This is not a joke!” Daniel screamed and began to punch and kick against Mary-Anne’s stomach wall. He rammed his little body into the thick stomach walls over and over and pressed himself against them clawing to get out. The thick mucus covered walls hardly moved and simply absorbed the frantic man’s vain struggle.
Dan slipped and fell face first into a pile of muck. He struggled to get up but felt a weight on his back, and then more, and more. Masticated chips landed on top of Dan pinning him down. He struggled till the end, but was drowned in stomach enzymes buried in chewed Pringles. Never to be heard from again.