Posted by PK on October 08, 2005 at 18:20:33:
"Oh! Hello!" the girl said. It was all she could come up with as she stared at the apparition before
her. She was in shock.
"Hello," the apparition replied cordially
"If you don't mind my asking," the girl went on after a pause, hardly believing what she heard
herself saying, "What exactly are you? You look like a sort of giant toad - no offense - but...."
Toads don't talk, she thought. How had she guessed that this one would? Maybe it just had that
look about it. If you meet a giant caterpillar smoking a hookah, you just assume it's not the usual
sort. More like the sort you meet when you fall down a rabbit hole.
"I'm an Aldebaranian," the thing replied, "But Toad is close enough. Space Toad. My name's
Albert. Well, no, it's not really, but it will do."
"Stephanie," the girl said, starting to offer a hand to shake and then reconsidering. "Are you an
alien? Really?"
"Yes," Albert said, ignoring the obvious sarcastic retort. Not a lot of giant talking toads on Earth.
"Are you invading us, then? Or do you want me to take you to our leader?" This could be the
fabled First Contact.
"No, thanks all the same. I'm not invading and I certainly don't want to meet your leader."
"An explorer? Just visiting?" This was getting ridiculous. Stephanie had only gone for a walk
along the beach. Rounding a spur of the cliff she had seen this.....thing...
"More like a tourist," Albert said. A gastronomic tourist, he didn't say.
"Oh. Wecome to Earth, then." That sounded inane too.
"Thanks, but I've been here before," Albert said. "I'm just looking for a good meal."
"Sorry," Stephanie said, with a smile and a shrug. "This is a nudist beach, not a restaurant for
aliens. Unless you eat people...."
"Ah, well," the Space Toad replied. "Actually, I do. Nubile young women by preference." In fact, a
nudist beach was the nearest thing on Earth to a restaurant he could imagine. All the food peeled
and ready to eat.
"Oh." Stephanie stepped back. "Like...."
"You? Yes. You'd do nicely." The Space Toad flicked his tongue out and almost tasted
Stephanie's bare thigh briefly but she had moved out of range for more intimate contact. This
would be tricky. She was wary and alert. Time for guile. "If you don't mind, of course."
Stephanie paused in flight. "You - you're asking me if I'd mind being eaten?"
"Yes."
"Do you usually ask permission? Before you.....?"
"I do prefer cooperative meals," Albert said, evading the question without actually lying. The juicy
wench was out of range for grabbing and if he couldn't get his tongue into her pussy he couldn't
control her. His projective empathy was only suggestive without physical contact. A strong will
could resist it. Despite his larger size, physical confrontation was not his forte and he certainly
couldn't outrun her. The prospective meal was a limber specimen in her late teens, he guessed,
and if he spooked her she'd be gone. Those long legs would carry her away like the wind. No
Aldebaranian could outrun a healthy young human on the flat.
"How do you do it, anyway?" Stephanie wondered, curious now that it seemed the Toad wasn't
going to attack her. "Bit by bit or down in one?" She seemed to recall some documentary about
cane toads. She was almost sure they ate their prey whole.
"Down in one, as you put it," Albert said. "But slowly. I like to savour my meals. Dining should be
a sensual experience, don't you agree?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"Oh, for both parties, I assure you."
"Sorry," Stephanie said, relaxing slightly. "I think I'll pass on that."
"Pity," Albert said. "You'd be delicious, I'm sure." It was true. This sunkissed nymph was making
his mouth water. Those long legs, those perky little breasts...
"Er, thanks," Stephanie said, not knowing what else to say. "Look, no offense, but I think I'll be
going."
"None taken. Perhaps you could ask your friends?" Albert suggested mildly.
"You mean ask them if.....?" Stephanie trailed off. If they'd like to be munched by a monster from
outer space?
"Yes."
"Well...." This was getting ridiculous. No, it had started out ridiculous and now it was surreal.
"Can't hurt to ask," Albert said reasonably.
"I suppose not," Stephanie conceded. "Well, nice to meet you and all that..."
"The pleasure was mine," Albert said politely. It had been. Not as great as it would have been if
she'd stood a little closer, but nonetheless.
*****************************
"You won't believe what just happened to me," Stephanie exclaimed. "I nearly got gobbled up by
a giant toad from outer space."
"You're right," Barbara said drily, "I don't believe you."
"Sounds like a good story," Alison said, turning over onto her back and lifted herself up on her
elbows. Sunbathing was all very well but it did get a bit boring after a while. "Do go on."
Stephanie explained, to a mixed reception.
"He - it - whatever - asked if you'd MIND being eaten? Since when did girl-gobbling monsters get
so polite?"
"Maybe he was too tired to just grab you and gulp."
"Or too slow."
"Did he have tentacles?"
"Toads don't have tentacles."
"Sounds like my ex-boyfriend."
"Boys don't have tentacles."
"Mine did. Hands like an octopus."
"Octopusses don't have hands. Octopi?"
"Was he cute?"
"Cute?" Stephanie shrugged, trying to answer all the questions at once. "For a toad, I suppose.
He almost got me with his tongue. Tongue, not tentacles. Maybe if I'd been standing closer...."
"You'd be toadmeat," Barbara laughed. "Good one, Steph."
"I don't know," Jill mused. "I think I've heard about something like this on the Internet."
"Next to alien cattle mutilations, I suppose," Barbara mocked. "And turnips with the face of Elvis
on them."
"On Mars," Alison added.
"No, really," Jill insisted. "There are people-eating aliens on Earth, and.."
"Let me guess," Barbara said, "The government is covering it all up. Men in Black and all that,
right?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"Oh, go on Jill," Alison said encouragingly. "This is fun."
Jill glanced at Stephanie, whose look said "Go ahead. I saw the thing, if you've got something to
say about it..."
"There's a sort of giant toad who eats young women. He's supposed to be tricky and sort of
seductive. He has a hunting license from the MIB's...." Barbara smirked but caught Jill's glance
and put her hands up, letting her continue. "He's got empathic powers and this tongue..."
Alison had turned over again and propped herself up on her elbows the other way round, belly
down, hands under her jaw. "Tell us about the tongue."
Jill looked embarrassed. "If he gets it in you, you can't resist."
"In you?" Fern pressed. "You mean..."
Jill nodded. "Up inside....you know. Then you're hooked."
"What, it's got barbs on it?"
Jill was really blushing now. "No, it just gets you so turned on that you want him to eat you. It's
supposed to be sort of ecstatic."
"Supposed by whom?" Barbara said. "If this imaginary being ate somebody, how would anybody
know how she felt about it?"
"He's not imaginary," Stephanie said. "I saw him and he said he wanted to eat me." She looked
at Jill. "And he did say it would be a sensual experience for both parties."
"This is ridiculous," Barbara said. "There are no Space Toads. Elvis is dead. The government is
not being run by lizards from Mars...."
"And UFO's are just the light of Venus reflected by weather balloons and distorted by swamp
gas," Marcie added.
"Wouldn't it be cool if there were, though?" Alison said dreamily. "I'd love to see it."
"You want to see a Space Toad?" Stephanie asked. "He's right over there."
"No, I mean wouldn't it be cool to watch him eat somebody." Alison ground her hips into the sand
sensually. "Stick his tongue in her pussy and gobble her up..."
"If you want to volunteer, I'll let him know," Stephanie said.
Marcie glared at Alison. "You're kidding, right? You really want to watch some poor girl getting
eaten?"
Alison gave her a wicked grin. "Fuck, yes, I'd pay to see it. Who wouldn't?"
"You're sick."
"Children, children," Barbara said.
"Okay, right," Stephanie said. "You all think this is funny? Follow me." She marched off across
the beach. "Coming?"
"Almost," Alison quipped. "Well, what are we waiting for?" She scrambled to her feet and set off
after Steph. The others, one by one and with mixed degrees of enthusiasm, all eventually
followed.
********************************
"Well, fuck me pink and call me Charlie," Alison said. "There IS a space toad. Or something."
"Told you," Stephanie said with pardonable triumph.
"Hello, ladies," Albert said suavely. Her friends hadn't been able to resist following Stephanie
back to see him, as he'd hoped. He loved it when a plan came together. It had been an anxious
wait, ever since he'd watched Stephanie's delightful rear view receding. If only she'd come a little
closer he could be enjoying her now. Still, the wait had been worth it There were more of them
than he'd expected, but that was not a problem. He checked carefully that none of them were
carrying pointed sticks. It was difficult to keep his head when confronted with such a delicious
assortment of edible feminity, but he had learned to be wary. He'd seen a lone, naked Japanese
girl kill a Syrian squid with a pointed stick.
Barbara looked put out. "Maybe it's a hoax. Animatronics or something."
"Want to get closer and find out?" Stephanie retorted.
"Which one of you wants to be my lunch?" Albert asked politely.
"Let's draw straws," Alison suggested.
"You've got to be kidding," Barbara said.
"We haven't got any straws," Jill pointed out.
"Pebbles?" Jean suggested.
Barbara shook her head. "You're all insane."
Alison shrugged. "I just want to see him do the tongue thing," she said, her hand slipping
towards her crotch. She wasn't alone. Some of the other girls were getting a little excited, trying
not to fondle themselves too obviously. "How does that work, anyway? Steph says you swallow
people."
"Swallow people? A crude expression, really. Like saying that Pavarotti sings a bit or Bach
knocked out a couple of decent tunes. I am a Maestro of the mutually satisfying gustatory
experience."
"So you're really good at swallowing people?" Alison interpreted.
"And they enjoy it," Jill added. "Mutually satisfying, right?"
"Right," Albert confirmed. "It will be the most amazing experience you've ever had."
"And the last," Marcie noted, but nobody was listening.
"Tell us about it," Alison insisted, spellbound. "All the gory details."
There was nothing gory about it, Albert almost said, but he didn't want to ruin the mood by being
argumentative. "If you like." And he did, describing the process of ingesting his prey with
lascivious relish and lavish attention to detail. By the end of his account, he could sense that it
had had the desired effect. There wasn't a dry seat in the house, as the saying went. At the front
of the group, a delightful little specimen with short, curly blonde hair was clearly half-entranced.
Her shaven pubis made it easy to see that her nether lips were more than slightly moist, and she
was licking her lips. This had not gone unnoticed by the others.
"Go on, Fern," Alison exhorted. "You know you want to do it."
"I don't know," Fern said faintly. "I've got a Geography exam..."
"All the more reason," somebody said sotto voce.
"Not now you don't," Alison added. She gave Fern an encouraging pat on her bare buttock, her
hand slipping down slightly to goose her between the legs. Half-involuntarily, Fern stepped
forward.
Got her! Albert thought triumphantly. His tongue shot out, up between her legs, and penetrated
her lubricated slit easily.
"Oh!" Fern gasped.
"Alison, that was mean," Jill reproved. Alison just grinned and shrugged. "She was begging for it.
I just gave her a helping hand."
Fern's belly convulsed, tensing and releasing in waves. She quivered all over, but somehow
remained standing as the group watched her, almost dumbstruck.
Barbara pulled herself together. The Toad's story and performance had fascinated her despite
herself, but this was getting completely out of hand. "Get that thing out of her," she snapped,
stepping forward. Alison grabbed her shoulder to restrain her and there was a brief tussle before
Barbara threw her off. "Come on, kiddies, let's stop this right now."
"Spoilsport," Alison grumbled. "It was just getting good."
"What if he's got another tongue?" Susan said warily. "And he's pretty big. It could be
dangerous."
"I'll help," Marcie offered. "I'll hold her if you'll pull that thing out." She held Fern by the waist,
while Barbara got her hand around the pink, pulsating tongue. It was hard to get a grip on the
slippery organ. She gave it an experimental tug. A hand grasped her wrist.
"No," Fern said. She sounded calm, almost beatific. "Leave it alone. Leave me alone. I'm okay."
"Fern, snap out of it. You're in serious trouble here."
"I'm not in trouble, I'm just being eaten," Fern replied cheerfully. "It's perfectly natural. I feel fine,
never better." She grinned. "Delicious, actually." She ran her right hand over her smooth belly
and upwards to squeeze her left breast as if it were a ripe fruit. "Yummy. Don't blame him, I'd eat
me."
"You're out of your mind. Hypnotised or something," Marcie said uncertainly.
"No, I'm not crazy, I'm food, that's all. I know I'll taste good. Can you imagine what that's like? It's
amazing. Just let me get on with it, okay?"
Marcie and Barbara looked confused and uncertain. "Maybe we should...."
"Leave her alone," Alison said. "You heard her."
Fern looked at Barbara and Marcie. "Don't spoil this for me, please? Susan, would you mind
looking after my cat?"
"No problem," Susan said. "What does he eat?"
"Oh, anything really. He likes to catch mice but he'll settle for catfood if he has to."
"Okay."
I can't believe this is happening, Stephanie thought. Fern's going to be swallowed by that bloody
Toad and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it. Everybody's just accepting it.
Even Babs and Marcie have backed off. I had to prove myself right, and she's paying for it. Or is
she? She doesn't seem to mind. She shook her head, confused. Maybe this ISN'T happening
and I'm lying somewhere delirious with heatstroke.
"Fern," Stephanie mumbled but her friend wasn't listening.
"What happens now?" Fern asked Albert. "I mean, how do I get inside you? Feet first, head first,
rump?"
"Ladies' choice today," Albert said politely. "I tend to favour rump or feet, but it's up to you."
"Feet, thanks," Fern said. "I want to watch myself going in."
"How does he talk with his tongue up her snatch?" Jill wondered.
"Different speech organs, I suppose," Alison said absently, staring raptly at the spectacle and
masturbating openly. "Oh my God, she's doing it. This is fantastic."
Fern sat down on the beach. Leaning forward, knees bent and slightly spread, she fastidiously
dusted sand off the soles of her feet before lifting them into the Space Toad's open mouth. She'd
always hated gritty sandwiches on beach picnics.
Considerate little morsel, Albert thought fondly. He'd take his time with her, provided the others
didn't interfere. It had been a bit edgy there, with two of them almost breaking the contact, but
they seemed to have lost the momentum to stir the group's acquiescence. Amazing what a bit of
low-level projective empathy can do to the consensus reality. Maybe the sight of dear, delicious
Fern being devoured would inspire them to further departures. Ah, well, time for that later. A
gourmet should put cares away and live in the moment to appreciate a truly magnificent meal.
There were no further attempts to intervene in the consumption of Fern. It seemed to have
become more of a consummation, the inevitable end of the brief relationship between predator
and prey. Even Marcie and Barbara didn't object any more. Perhaps they didn't quite approve,
but they seemed to have accepted Fern's fate as a fait accompli. It was a subtle shift in their
perspective.
And they couldn't help watching along with all the others. Nobody could take their eyes off the
spectacle; it was just too fascinating. Nobody wanted to leave. They just had to watch. Well,
wouldn't you?
Fern's feet and calves were now inside the Toad's mouth and she arched herself up on her
elbows so he could begin swallowing her thighs. She dusted sand off her tight buttocks as she
lifted them up. It was a little difficult reaching her own back and shoulders in that position, but
she did her best.
"Is he pulling her in or is she feeding herself to him?" Jill muttered.
"Bit of both, obviously," Alison said. "It's a co-operative effort. I told you she wanted it."
"Maybe we should help her," Susan said, stepping forward.
"Careful, Suze, it'll get you too!" Stephanie warned.
"I don't care," Susan said. She knelt down next to Fern and began delicately dusting sand off her.
The Toad's lips, if you could call them that, were now halfway up her thighs. "Are you okay?" she
asked Fern. It sounded ridiculous as soon as she'd said it, but Fern just smiled. "I'm fine. Thanks
for joining me."
"I can't believe you're doing this. That you won't be here tomorrow. I'm really going to miss you,
you know."
"Nice of you to say so," Fern said lightly. "Of course, you could always follow me in, then it won't
be a problem."
"Who'll feed your cat?" Susan blurted. Fern laughed and, on a spontaneous impulse, Susan
lifted her head, hand under her neck, and kissed her.
"Wow," Fern said finally. "Where did that come from?"
"I don't know," Susan said, "It's just that I've always really liked you and soon you'll be all gone
and I won't be able to.....sorry...."
"Don't be," Fern said. "That was nice. Dust me some more."
Losing her few remaining inhibitions, Susan caressed Fern's firm, round breasts. Soon they'd be
in the Toad's stomach, being digested. The thought gave her a strange, bittersweet pang. Fern
was almost in to the top of her thighs now. When her pussy went in, that would be that.
Somehow it could almost be a weird kind of game up to that point, but once her sweet spot was
inside, it was official. "How does it feel?" she wondered.
"Like the greatest dining experience you ever had, but you're the dinner. Like there's this fantastic
feast all laid out and making your mouth water, just waiting to be eaten, only it's you.There's no
way it's not going to happen."
Susan's hand slid down Fern's slowly disappearing body and touched the top of her pubis. She
hesitated to touch the open slit where the pulsing Toad tongue disappeared into Fern.
"Go ahead," Fern said. "Before it's gone." She slipped her own hand up the inside of Susan's
thigh. "Can I taste yours? Call it my last meal."
Susan moved round so her knees were spread and touching Fern's shoulders. It was an odd
lovemaking position, Susan kneeling with her thighs apart facing the Toad, caressing Fern's
inverted torso with Fern's head beween her legs, tongue inside her.
"Wow. She's slurping Suze while the Toad's gobbling her. Never saw that one in the Kama
Sutra", Jill commented.
"I don't think they wrote it with Space Toads in mind," Alison said.
"I didn't know Suze was gay. Fern either."
"Fern doesn't have a lot of other options at this point," Alison noted. "Besides, the Toad that's
eating her is a male so that makes her technically bisexual. Anyway, who are we to judge? I'm
getting off just watching them."
It was a superfluous comment as the boundaries of sexual convention, morality, good taste and
common sense had long since gone down the gurgler. Sorry, pardon my Australian, been
transcended. Barbara and Marcie were stroking each other in a decidedly non-Platonic manner.
They were not alone.
Albert, eyes half closed, was in the Aldebaranian gastronome's heaven. He was in full empathic
rapport with his surrendered prey, who was enjoying the taste of one of her delicious friends while
he ate her. "My tongue to your tongue..." he thought. His days of watching Star Trek had not
been entirely wasted.
"God, you're good with that," Susan said to Fern. "It's like I'm being..."
Ohmigawd. EATEN, she thought.
Well, duh! Albert thought, catching the empathic feedback. I wish...
"Maybe he'll get Susan too," Jill noted. "She's getting pretty close."
"We can hope," Alison said. "Just imagine..."
"I can hope he gets you," Stephanie retorted. "Want a closer look? From the inside?"
Fern's pussy and hips had gone inside. She was more than half swallowed.
Susan was transfixed. As Fern went down, she was edging closer to the girl-eating, slimy
tongued Toad from Outer Space. She could almost hear Fern saying "You taste so goooood....."
but the voice was in her head. Fern couldn't talk while licking her clit. Was it really Fern making
love to her or was it...
'My prey and I are one', flashed through her mind.
That was pretty classy, Albert thought, picking up the gist of it. She's really catching the mood.
Images of Dracula and the Pod people came back through the empathic link. He didn't
understand all of it, but, what the fuck, whatever worked. Humans had such fertile imaginations.
And Fern had such great legs. He could feel her toes entering his belly while his mouth slid up to
her rib cage.
Albert had refined his tastes through experience and training. Some things, however, touched on
transcendence; experiences that carried a touch of danger along with the simple, earthy
pleasures of the epicurean. Humans sometimes....
Danger. Overload.
Epicurean? What the &^%3£ does that mean? Frellit, was this a marmalade flashback? Albert
had an unopened jar of Tiptree Gold on his mantlepiece to remind him of the dangers of
substance abuse ever since that confusing incident with the Avenging Daughter of Ishtar, aka
Sam, with the time machine and the REALLY dangerous pointy thing and the....
"The Toad thingy looks confused," Alison commented. "Maybe he's going to throw Fern up." She
sounded disappointed.
Neuroempathic overload, Albert's NN translator interrupted. Saxon sword, it added helpfully. To
access database...
Fuck off, Albert told it.
Shut down all applications and reboot, the NN nagged. Otherwise your system may become
unstable...
The neural net translator was linked to the internet, Albert remembered. That meant it was
probably infected with microshitware. Fuck OFF, he commanded. I'm trying to EAT somebody
here. The NN stopped babbling, to Albert's surprise. Then the delph went vertical. Whatever that
meant. Sideband effect, probably. Some leakage is inevitable.
It was, of course, perfectly normal for Albert to achieve empathic rapport with his prey - part of his
mind registered distaste for the term and substituted 'dinner guests' - and he'd counted on a little
overspill affecting the group, but this...
He could see through Fern's eyes and sense her tasting Susan at the same time as he was
tasting Fern. He could also feel Susan experiencing Fern's sensations and her reaction to being
devoured. His reaction to sensing that fed back through Fern, to Susan, to him...
Positive feedback loop, Susan thought deliriously. The term was something she'd got lectured on
while shagging a cybernetician. The bicarbonate pile has gone critical, she heard from the small
voice in her head that was still semi-rational. She had no idea where that came from. She
pressed her hips and crotch forward as Fern's head went in, followed by her arms and finally her
hands. Toad lips. Toad fallout.
"Outstanding," Alison said as Fern disappeared into the Toad's mouth. "I felt.."
Coming up on a contact trip is a funny thing. One minute you're thinking 'nothing's happening'
and the next....
All the furniture is in the same place but your mind isn't. It's in two places at once, if you're lucky,
and the furniture looks at you like it's never seen you before. Who are you?
Fern was dissolving in ecstasy. She didn't know in any rational sense that Aldebaranians don't
just taste with the tongue but the whole digestive system, she simply experienced it through
AlBB**/!! Knplok'' TTssskk $$9's....mind? The taste of Susan was still on her own tongue. Human
and Aldebaranian sensoria combined to produce a vector sum, a product, a..
Something else.
Albert, aka AlBB**/!! Knplok'' TTssskk $$9, not a name he normally used on Earth in polite
society - it sounded too much like a Klingon swearing while throwing up blood wine - was in
gastronome heaven. If you've ever eaten lobster thermidor after having the munchies from too
much hashish you'll understand. If you haven't, try to imagine it.
"...Like I was eating her myself," Alison continued after two or three seconds or minutes or years.
"God, I'd love to see that again."
"I felt like I was being eaten," Jill said. "Bloody Hell, does it really feel like that?"
Susan had collapsed on the sand, knees up and apart, as if offering herself. "Take me next," she
panted.
Albert was just beginning to regain control of himself. It had been a disorienting experience, but
his previous experiences as a gastronomic adventurer had prepared him for it in some part, at
least. "You can see that again. Yes, but you could always find out for yourself. Not now, maybe
later," he replied to all three respectively. That was better.
"How?" Alison demanded.
"Find out for myself?" Jill wondered dubiously. There was only one way she could do that.
"How much later?" Susan wanted to know.
"Patience, all will be revealed," Albert said. "If you'd follow me back to my ship..."
Said the spider to the fly, Stephanie thought.
"What's on the ship?" Alison persisted.
"My larder, for one thing," Albert said. "Where I store delicious morsels such as you for future
consumption."
"What's the catch?" Stephanie muttered sardonically. Well, at least he didn't mince words.
"You're going to put ME in the larder?" Alison persisted. "With the others?" Of course he would,
she chided herself. "But I...." Her imagination pictured Susan going in the way Fern had, and
then, what?
"You wanted to see me eat all your friends," Albert acknowledged. "So I'll bring you out of storage
to watch each time I have one of them for dinner. Until, of course, I decide to have you."
"You - you'll save me till last?" Alison tried hopfully, feet twisting in the sand and hands fluttering
defensively. The movement was oddly enticing.
Albert enjoyed the subtle play of lean, sweet muscles in her body. If only he hadn't just eaten.
"Not necessarily," he said. "You'll just have to take your chances."
Somehow, five minutes later, the whole group was trailing down the beach following the giant
toad, who seemed to proceed by the same kind of awkward, quadrupedal walking-shuffling
motion that Earth toads do. If anyone had expected some sort of supernormal alien agility, they
were disappointed. Unless he had some as-yet undisclosed abilities, they could have escaped by
simply running away. Possibly a brisk walk would have sufficed.
So why the hell are we still here? Stephanie demanded of herself. Unfortunately, herself had no
answers. She tried Jill instead.
"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt just to look," Jill said vaguely. "After all..." she shrugged.
After all, we've all just stood around watching while this Space Toad thingy ate Fern alive,
Stephanie supplied. After that, what the hell? She wondered what, if anything, Fern was feeling
now.
"Here," Albert announced modestly. "My humble abode." A sort of haze formed in front of a small,
overgrown cave and dissolved, revealing itself as the entrance to something. Some sort of
camouflage field, Stephanie guessed. The 'cave' was clearly artificial, composed of unknown
materials in muted, earthy colours and was lit by a sourceless light with an amber hue. Once
through the entrance, the atmosphere was slightly different; more humid with some unidentifiable
aromas. Breathable, certainly. The Toad led the party through what appeared to be an entrance
hall, through a door to what might have been a living area. He indicated another door, which
obligingly slid aside. "Larder," he said.
What the girls saw was both shocking and barely comprehensible. A group of young women, all
naked, were suspended from an overhead rack in containers somewhere between plastic bags
and gelatin capsules. Each container conformed somewhat to the shape of its occupant, like an
amoeboid spacesuit without arms or legs. They appeared to be almost alive. So did the women
inside, cocooned in a yellowish bubble-shot gel; though they were clearly not conscious they
moved very slightly, slowly and sensuously, as if in an erotic dream. Their toes pointed
downwards as if they were floating.
"Not very well stocked," Albert admitted. "I tend to stick out for quality."
"How does that...work?" Susan queried tremulously.
"Oh, it's easy," Albert said. "You just slip into one of the wrappers, I seal it up and rack you. You'll
be perfectly snug until I pop you out and eat you. That goo is marvellous stuff; it keeps you
tranquillised and oxygenated and it slips right off when you're unwrapped. Don't ask me how it
works. I'm not a food preservation technician."
"I'd love to see that," Alison said predictably. She walked boldly forward and touched one of the
suspended women. She tried to grab the woman's elegant ankle but the wrapper's resilience
defeated her. "Go on, Suze, you wanted to be next anyway."
This was true enough, Stephanie admitted.
"Just promise I'll be next in after Fern," Susan said, lying down on a table. It was a sentimental
notion, she knew, but she could almost have sworn she could FEEL Fern, still being digested,
calling to her to follow.
"Here," Albert said, handing her something that looked like a transparent, ovoid sleeping bag
lined with yellow gel. It was open at the front. "Just get into it."
Susan slid her feet through the opening at the front. How did she get the rest of her inside it?
She scrunched down on the table, wriggling her hips inside and then pulled down her head and
shoulders, popping them up again inside the top half of the bubble. No harder than getting into a
sleeping bag in an unlighted tent. The material morphed intself into her body shape. She could
see a form looming over her and felt her capsule seal shut. She wasn't anxious or uncomfortable;
she was.... neatly packaged. With a pleasant, almost orgasmic sensation of surrender, she
stopped thinking.
Albert swooped her up and attached the top of her wrapper to a nodule on the storage unit. She
was done. Another fine meal secured!
Now Susan was just another meat girl on the rack, like a side of beef at the butcher's shop,
Stephanie thought. Or a kipper in a smokehouse?
"Marvellous!" Alison exclaimed.
"She looks nice next to Abigail, don't you think?" from Albert.
"Absolutely," Alison agreed.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to guess that 'Abigail' was the one next to Susan. Both of them,
like all the others, hung naked and relaxed, heads tilted slightly forwards, looking very edible. No,
not like sides of beef, exactly. More like ripe fruit marinaded in their own juices, ready to be
plucked.
"So that's where you want to put us all," Stephanie said.
"Of course," Albert said. "I can't eat you all at once, obviously, and I don't have a lot of passenger
accommodation. It's perfectly comfortable, as you can see."
And, in an odd way, aesthetically appealing, Stephanie had to admit. The hanging array of
passive female bodies, highlighted in such an unusual way, would have made a stunning art
exhibit.
Or a nice display in an alien supermarket. "Do you ever sell them?" Stephanie inquired sharply.
Albert almost jumped. "Of course not," he snapped. "That would be illegal." Technically, it was
illegal for him to take more prey than he could actually eat while on Earth at all, but the MiB
tended to ignore minor infractions. If they discovered that he was exporting girls for sale and profit
rather than a few here and there for his private consumption, there would be big trouble. In fact,
he hated selling his precious darlings, but he had been known to lapse once or twice when
strapped for cash. He wasn't proud of it and normally preferred to avoid the topic.
"Imagine that," Freda said dreamily. "Being popped out in the middle of an alien cattle market
and auctioned as food. Surrounded by things with tentacles, lobster claws, fangs, scales and
suckers, all just waiting, drooling, to taste your tender flesh..."
"Completely out of the question," Albert said, more mildly this time. He eyed Freda appraisingly.
"I'm sure you'd bring a very good price, of course..."
Freda winked at him. "Pod me," she said. The Toad obliged. Angie and Beth went next, fondling
each other lasciviously as they wriggled into their food wrappers. Jill processed herself as if she
were simply changing outfits. Not that she'd had one on to begin with...
In next to no time, all of Stephanie's friends were bagged and ready for sale or consumption. All
except herself, Barb, Marcie and Alison.
"Put up or shut up time, Ali," Stephanie said.
"This is weird," Marcie said. "It's like I can still feel Fern being digested."
"A really good meal satisfies long after ingestion," Albert said smugly. "We're still en rapport."
And so are the rest of you, he added mentally.
"We're not going to get out of here," Barb said suspiciously. "Are we? You're just playing cat and
mouse. You can't let us leave now."
"You can leave if you like," Albert said. "Of course, I'll have to give you a flash with one of those
odd devices the MiB insisted I use in cases like this. You'll wake up on the beach. You won't
remember much, just the sort of confused impressions you get from UFO abductees. No clear
ideas where you've been the last half day or where you're friends have gone. All very 'Picnic at
Hanging Rock'. The authorities will be baffled and you'll wonder about it for the rest of your lives."
"Or we stay here and get bagged, racked and eventually eaten."
"That's the choice."
"It's a trick. If we decide to leave you'll just disintegrate us," Barb accused.
"Good grief, no, what an appalling waste!" Albert exclaimed. "Why would I do that?"
Barb's logic escaped Stephanie. If they were to be bagged or blasted, surely the Toad would just
say so. While Albert and Barb were at an impasse, she addressed Alison again. "Well? Ready for
the package trip or are you going to wimp out?"
"I'm just considering my options," Alison muttered fretfully. To Albert: "If I go, will I really forget it
all? Fern being eaten, the lot?"
Albert interrupted his fruitless discussion with Barb. "Yes. Oh, you'll probably retain some
empathic echoes filling gaps in your memory. A sense of something strange and exciting
forgotten and forever out of reach. You'll never remember what it was."
Alison seemed consumed by inner turmoil. Barb and Marcie were still seeking assurances that
they wouldn't be disintegrated in some horrific way despite Albert's insistence that he had no
such intention. It occurred to Stephanie that they might be simply seeking excuses not to leave.
Talking themselves into the fate they pretended to want to avoid. Suddenly Albert stiffened as if at
some internal alarm. "I'm afraid we're running short of time, ladies. All ashore that's going
ashore."
A predictable outcry ensued, which the Toad dealt with in a remarkably firm and diplomatic
manner. Almost incredibly, Barbara insisted on being bagged and Marcie inevitably followed.
Alison too. "I'd never forgive myself if I missed it," she explained. "Even if I didn't know." As what
passed for logic today, Stephanie reflected, it was about par for the course. "Every time he pops
me out, I'll never know if this is my turn...." She quivered and then relaxed into her capsule.
Albert sealed it and hung it up with the others. All in all, a remarkable day's catch.
"You?" he inquired politely of Stephanie.
Steph thought about it. She saw herself waking 'on the cold hillside' like the Knight cast out of
Elfland, forever loitering. She would never be able to explain what had happened to her friends,
even to herself, least of all to the endless inquiries that would ensue. She would be haunted
forever.
She looked at the rack of hanging women, each one assured of her future. It seemed that fate
had had this in mind for her ever since she met the Toad, the author of her doom. Or was he?
She hadn't had to come back. She had brought all her friends to this, by her own choice.
"I suppose you'd better bag me and hang me up with the others," she said resignedly.
"No hurry," Albert said. "I'll have to move the ship now, but there's plenty of room for one
passenger and it'll be nice to have someone intelligent to talk to."
"You're still going to eat me eventually," Stephanie half-asked.
"Oh, of course. Cheer up, it's not that bad; you'll probably enjoy it. No need to be so gloomy. Cup
of tea?"
"I'd love one," Stephanie said.