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How Not To Become Lunch: 47 - Don’t Walk To Class Alone
Sarabeth still couldn’t quite explain what in the broad world was compelling her toward that table again. Zachary was well tolerable, particularly for a human, but that apprehensive Ozma - ‘Ozzy’, as he went - was simply grating, and Jack… Well, Jack should have met his end in a belly days ago. Not only had he taken Fiona from her in the first place, but he’d then had the utter ineptitude to lose her himself- to Arthur Conri of all people. If she’d been around when that greedy cur had come calling for Fiona, she’d have made sure that he never got his claws into her.
And yet still, there the vampire went, walking through the noisy cafeteria in their direction.
Perhaps there was only so much she could take, sitting and listening in silence to Fiona and her new companions as they happily chattered on, herself only able to watch from afar. At the very least she might be able to air a small few of the bitter thoughts swirling around her head, even if only to Jack and his lot.
It could be that a part of her was hoping for some semblance of good news. She’d overheard that frog girl Lily muttering some gossip about Fiona and Arthur ‘doing a bit more than just hunting’ during their outdoor class that day. She desperately wanted to discard that rumor, but she knew that Lily’s boyfriend shared the werewolves’ class, so there was a credible source. Maybe a bit of her hoped that Jack might have heard something that she’d somehow missed, something to reveal that Conri’s grip wasn’t as tight as it appeared.
Or, perhaps, Sarabeth was only hoping that spending a moment with Jack might revive her appetite, as watching Fiona flirt had thoroughly killed it.
Regardless, she shifted her accurate vampiric ears from Fiona’s table to Jack’s, adjusting her walking speed as she judged the conversation, so as to keep her arrival from interrupting, an impoliteness she always sought to avoid.
“Wait, so that makes three close calls just this morning?” Ozzy asked with clear concern.
“Yeah,” Jack replied with a heavy sigh. “I’m pretty sure the stress makes it worse.” Though he wasn’t sure if it was all the sweat helping to broadcast his marked scent, or just the weight of his mental state making him an easier target.
“…Well… at least that means you were able to fight off one of them yourself, right?” he offered, trying to bring up a shred of silver lining. “I was only there to help out for two of those.”
“Yeah, and the second time he had a friend and you almost got eaten too.”
Ozzy pushed down the fear leaping out of his recent memory. He’d been quite proud of himself at the end, feeling like he’d proven himself worthy of his new place in the advanced magic class, helping them both walk away with their lives intact. But those jaws had gotten far too close for comfort. He could only imagine how Jack must be feeling.
“I mean, I appreciate your help,” Jack added, “like, a lot, but I don’t want you to end up a snack because of me.” Ozzy didn’t have much to say to that, and Jack gave another sigh. “Any words of wisdom, Zach?” He turned to look at his other friend, who’d been unusually quiet. Zach’s expression showed a bit of discomfort, but his words stole all the attention.
“We have a vampire coming to visit,” he said.
Both Ozzy and Jack whipped around in their seats, hands on their wands… only to lower their guards quite a bit a moment later.
“Come on, Zach,” Ozzy exhaled, his heart still pounding. “You could have mentioned it was Sarabeth.” Not that Ozzy fully released his wand regardless.
“Sorry,” Zach replied, and with all eyes on the approaching predator, no one noticed the little flinch in his frown.
“Afternoon, Zachary, Ozma, Jack,” the vampire greeted.
Ozzy shrunk back a bit at the use of his full name, but no one else seemed to notice- or if they did, they hid it well. Jack did his best to compose himself between Zach’s accidental scare and his own ever-present troubles.
“Afternoon, Sarabeth,” Jack replied. He couldn’t quite manage to fake a ‘good’ to go with it; unbeknownst to him the two shared that in common. Where they differed was that Sarabeth could keep her discontent quite well concealed. When she cared to, that is.
“I’d like to ask, Jack: I noticed you standing next to Arthur this morning for a moment when you arrived,” she began.
“Yes?” Jack admitted unhappily. That was not a moment he wanted to recall.
“I’m only curious to know if you could smell whatever product he must be so amply applying to bring some life to that coat of his.”
Jack nearly chuckled, barely hiding the meanspirited smirk from his face. Ragging on Arthur was probably just about the only thing that could lift his spirit at this point.
“I try my best to hold my breath when he’s around,” the boy replied, not managing to sound quite so reserved as Sarabeth, but easily matching the not-so-concealed disdain.
“I could hardly blame you. Honestly, I don’t know how someone with a nose like Fiona’s can stand to be in the same room with him, let alone at the same table.”
“I’m sure if she weren’t so practiced at ignoring scents, she would never be able to stand it.”
“Practiced?” Sarabeth sounded genuinely curious at that one.
“Oh, um, she had to get pretty good at it so she could hang out with-”
*GURGLE*
A loud, rather intense grumble from a very nearby stomach filled the air, and everyone turned… to Zach?
“Ugggggh,” the boy moaned quietly, arms wrapped around his belly.
“Zach!?” Ozzy exclaimed. Being closer, he was the one to reach over and put a hand on the now-clearly-unwell boy’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?!”
“My stomach…” the boy grumbled.
Jack glanced at his friend’s food with concern, but realized it had been completely untouched this whole time.
“I knew- oh- that cereal I had for breakfast didn’t taste right,” he added between winces.
“Oh man, I’m gonna take him to the nurse!” Ozzy said, already helping his ailing friend to his feet. “You’ll be alright, dude,” he said as he led Zach away. “Just try to warn me if you’re gonna-”
*GURGLE* “UUUUuuuugh!”
Jack watched worriedly as the pair hurried from the lunchroom, and only after a moment realized that that left him basically alone with-
“How unfortunate,” Sarabeth expressed.
The reminder of her presence gave him a slight jolt, but he turned back to her calmly.
“I hope he makes it there okay,” Jack said, imagining for a moment that he were in either of their shoes. “Everyone will hear him groaning like that.”
“No predator with half a mind would eat a sick human,” Sarabeth pointed out.
While Jack could probably think of a few predators he’d encountered with debatably half a mind or less, that did make him feel a bit better. Of course, that still left Ozzy as a potential target, but he was in the advanced magic class after all.
“I do hope Zachary makes it through and back in good health,” the vampire added. “It would be quite unfortunate indeed if I were to miss my chance at him.”
That was, admittedly, a somewhat less comforting thought.
“You didn’t go with them?” she inquired with her mild, stiff form of curiosity.
“Oh, um, Ozzy actually warned me that- at least for humans- it’s better if only one extra kid goes to the nurse. More than that and she starts to suspect you’re just looking for an excuse to ditch class, and well…”
“I see.”
Oh crud, class! It’s starting soon and now I’ll have to walk there alone! Jack realized. Suddenly, tagging along with his friends to the nurse didn’t seem like too bad of an option. But they were probably racing ahead of him by now. And even if the nurse let them go, they’d have to explain to Ms. Hali, their vampire math teacher, why they were both late, and Jack had a feeling he could guess which of her late students she’d choose for lunch.
“Well, I suppose I’ll take my leave now,” Sarabeth said politely, starting to turn away.
Vampire, math- “Wait!” Jack called, coming to a sudden realization, though he immediately composed himself when he heard how curt he’d just sounded. “Sarabeth- excuse me, but um- do you think maybe the two of us could… walk to class together?”
Jack did his best to hold a straight face and bite back the cringe as he realized how poorly that had come out. He sounded like some awkward kid who’d just blurted that out to his crush! He hoped desperately that she could tell that was not how he’d meant it, and overlook what he was sure she’d consider a very clumsy and crude address.
In fact, Sarabeth immediately understood the situation exactly. Both of them shared the same math class next period. As did Ozzy. Jack had been counting on that boy for protection, and now he was gone. Not just him, but Zach and Fiona as well. He had no one left. No one he could go to for help. No one but her.
“Regretfully, I won’t be heading straight to class. I have a stop to make for which I’m afraid I can’t have you along.”
And without another word, Sarabeth turned and walked away, with the smallest of smirks curling the corners of her mouth. After all her efforts, finally, this would be the end of Jack.
…
Come on, Jack. Don’t have a meltdown… just… pay attention, keep a cool head, and try to get a grip. These were the things Jack told himself as he walked down the hall. If only he could follow his own advice. He held his wand in his hand, eyeing nearly everyone he walked past while failing to stay inconspicuous. Not that the last part really mattered, since anyone he needed to worry about would be able to pick him out of the crowd by smell alone.
In that moment, he felt more nervous than ever. Walking to class alone was a somewhat risky move for normal human kids. A marked human on their own was simply begging for trouble. And with everything that had been happening lately, and all the close calls… well, he’d really been counting on the protection of a friend or two, if only for the moderate peace of mind. As it stood now, his practice in class and with Zach and Ozzy were the only things keeping his hand from trembling as he took his careful steps toward the relative safety of his classroom desk.
You can do this. You’ve fought off preds before. Just watch your back. Don’t sweat it. Gah! I wish I could stop sweating! Wait, is that- Oh no… Jack took a shaky breath as his eyes fell on an approaching naga. But not just any naga; this one he recognized. Well, maybe there’s a line between recognition and a flashback, but the point was that this particular predator had tried to eat him once before, all the way back on his first day.
And, speaking from experience, most preds who got a taste of him once, didn’t usually pass up a second opportunity.
Sure enough, like clockwork, he saw the little twitch in the snake-girl’s nose. And then she looked up and her odd, semi-human eyes landed on him. He’d already quickly moved to the opposite side of the hall, but it seemed the thought of him squirming in her belly was worth the slight detour. She started toward him.
His nerves shot through the roof. Nagas were large, tough predators. And this one had some weight on her, which not only meant she’d be harder to fight off, but that she’d had more than her share of successful hunts. And now his scent had caught her fancy, undoubtably reviving old memories of his taste soaking into her tongue, drawing her back to the best meal in town.
This is not good! This is not good! I might be able to push her away, but that probably wouldn’t do much. She’d just come back, and she’d probably be angry! Oh, she’s getting closer! Why do I have to smell so- Wait!
Jack raised his wand toward her, and did his best to put on a determined, threatening expression. She merely glanced around, noting that no one was with him, and then grew a little smirk, slithering even faster in his direction.
What was that spell!? P… Pu… Come on!
“Putris Eroj.” He spoke frantically, but quietly, trying not to draw any more attention to himself than necessary. His words blended into the hallway chatter, and for a moment it seemed like they hadn’t done anything at all. Bracing himself, the nervous boy held his breath as the hungry snake-girl grew closer.
…And then suddenly, her expression contorted. Her nose wrinkled back in disgust and she gave a sharp hiss, bringing a hand to her face. Jack wasted no time, rushing past her, head flicking back and forth between where he’d just been and where he was going, still holding his breath.
The naga continued to hiss, waving her hand harshly at her nose, and started to slither away as quickly as she could.
Jack let out his breath, catching only a faint whiff of his spell as he expressed his relief. That had actually gone very well; no big scene, no fighting. It seemed Zach’s idea had been dead on: with most preds enjoying nice, big whiffs of Jack’s marked scent, surprising them with a much less appetizing smell was a surprisingly decent deterrent. He’d have to remember to thank Zach next time he-
“OOF!”
One moment Jack had been patting himself on the back. The next he was face-first on the floor, with what felt like a knee in his back, and a hand- a furred, clawed hand- around his wrist. Before he knew it, his wand was forced from his grip, and as it rolled away from him across the floor, he heard a quiet little laugh. He looked up.
Atop him crouched a furred girl with a spotted coat, her canine-esque muzzle parted in a grinning smile. But her rounded ears and shorter snout- and her characteristic laugh- revealed that she was no werewolf. Jack found himself in the clutches of a hyena. And judging by the bit of drool beginning to leak from that smile, she was eager for lunch.
“That’s why you shouldn’t let your prey see you coming,” she remarked, removing her knee and flipping Jack onto his back. “But I guess tasty meals like you make some girls do stupid things.”
His wide eyes had a good look at her now: her muscular arms still pinning his, supporting most of her weight as she loomed over him, with a high-cut shirt exposing her auburn-spotted belly. He might have seen more, but while he had a good view, he had not much time. As soon as that toothy muzzle began to move closer, it was all he could look at, his gaze fixed in a terror-struck stare. And as it began to part, wider and wider, he felt the crushing fear that he might never lay eyes on anything else, ever again.
In his last moments of light, he pulled once with all his might against the predator’s grasp, trying to slip away. But she had spent her years hunting, and he had spent his sorting herbs with his aunt. The lush pink of the hyena’s maw came down to fill his vision, massive teeth passing over to cut off his view of the outside world. And then came the slick darkness of her shadowed gullet.
*GLRK*
The warm flesh pressed against his ears, her broad tongue painting his face with drool as it basked in the arrival of his exquisite taste. Her jaws squeezed in around him, purely from reflex, trying to press every tiny drop of flavor he had into her enraptured tastebuds.
He felt himself being lifted, her mouth holding his head tight while her arms supported his weight. His back left the cold ground. And his head entered the hot gullet.
*GULP*
His wrists writhed in protest, being the only parts of his arms he could freely move. The hyena-girl kept them firmly pinned to his side, even as she slid her grip lower to make room for her muzzle as it lurched beyond his shoulders. His legs were equally useless, trapped under all her weight, and increasingly his own as well as she stuffed more of his body down her esophagus.
*GULP*
Jack felt his shoulders slip past her cheeks and into her throat, her tongue eagerly stretching to lap at his chest, to soak her saliva into his clothes and moisten his skin, drawing out more and more of his incomparable flavor and getting him nice and slick for her greedy gullet.
*GULP*
As the sultry heat of the predator’s body began to envelop him, and her warm breath washed over his belly and back, he tried to feel the cool air still surrounding his legs; the sweet, lingering touch of freedom that most all others could take for granted. In his panicked, fear-stricken mind, a number of his chaotically whirling thoughts went toward his friends. They were the closest thing to hope he could grasp in a time like this, the knowledge that his friends were out there, somewhere, and that they’d managed against the odds to save him from every other single stomach so far.
*GRUMBLE* *GULP*
But that hope always seemed so, so frail and insignificant, buried within the throat of a hungry predator, where every slick muscle you could feel was fully and wholly determined to do nothing but pull you deeper. How could he dare to hope that he would end up uneaten, when this overpowering gullet was busy eagerly devouring him with wild abandon. As he lurched ever-closer to the hungry, rumbling pit below, it was easy- all so easy- to feel like nothing could possibly pull him away.
And yet still, Jack held on to some sliver of hope. His friends had come through for him every time before.
He felt his predator stand, lifting his body along with hers, getting him into a better position for another hearty-
*GULP*
He felt his head press up against the tight extremes of her esophagus, which he knew marked the final, tiny step separating him from her steamy, acrid stomach.
He gripped tight onto his hope, tighter than even the throat that bound him so ruthlessly. But as he felt the muscles of her gullet begin to shift once more, the sphincter below him threatening to unseal, he was forced to ask himself: who would save him?
*GULP*
Jack wriggled violently as he felt his head squeeze into the girl’s stomach, thrashing his arms and hips as hard as he could, to the effect of only a nice little squirm in the great bulge of the hyena’s neck.
Who could save him? Ozzy was probably doubled over in pain, clutching his belly in the nurse’s office.
*GULP*
Jack’s head pressed firmly into the excitedly eager stomach walls, making the first little bulge in his predator’s own belly.
Zach was probably there with Ozzy, watching over him like a good friend should. And even if he had decided to go back to check on Jack, he’d be returning to the cafeteria, not some random hallway.
*GULP*
Jack whimpered as he felt the oven-like heat of living, hungry flesh begin to envelop his knees. But the acid-soaked walls stretched across his face muffled his little cry, and the loud squelching and sloshing as his wriggling body was squeezed into the chamber drowned out the rest.
His mind growing even more desperate, he dared to hope that maybe some passing stranger with a wand might rescue him. It had happened before. Maybe even another predator? He was on decent terms with a couple of them, right?! There were at least plenty who might try to steal him for themselves and give him a second chance at escape!
*GULP*
Trembling, deep into the guts of his predator, he felt her hot breath cast away the last remnants of cool air, as her tongue snaked out to pull at the tips of his shoes, the very last scraps of him still part of the outside world. As the terrifying realization hit him, that he was moments away from his entire existence becoming nothing but torrid, overwhelming darkness and harsh, crushing stomach walls for the rest of his cut-short life, his mind finally went to Fiona.
Fiona. His old, good friend. She was probably still sitting with Arthur, laughing with him and the rest of her new friends, taking advantage of their last few minutes before class. She wouldn’t be coming for him. She wouldn’t save him.
This time, finally, nobody would.
*GULP*
Banging his fists into the slick, unforgiving folds, Jack felt the very last of himself slip ever-so-effortlessly down into the throat of his hungry predator. The muscles of her powerful esophagus squeezed his legs lower and lower, her belly getting tighter and tighter as he was packed inside, until finally the sphincter above him squelched shut, and it was over.
Jack… he’d been eaten.
No longer having any room to properly pound or thrash, Jack writhed as best he could, met with only joyously eager glorps and groans from the hyena’s newly-filled stomach. And all the while the reality continued to sink in, burrowing into him just like the acids soon to follow.
He was inside a predator now. All the way inside. He was just an anonymous bulge now. Another big, wiggling bump, just like the ones he’d seen on countless other students, just like the ones he’d seen Fiona carrying around. Any one of his friends could walk right past him now and not even realize it. He… he wasn’t even a person anymore, was he? No, by most standards, now he was just lunch.
*glurp* *groOOAAANN*
The fleshy walls shuddered and then squeezed even tighter with a loud squelch, overshadowed only by the even louder-
*UUURP*!
“Hehehehe…” came the hyena-girl’s laugh, vibrating around him amidst the crackles and sloshes of her active gut. “I have to say, you were every bit as delicious as the rumors promised.” He felt her pat her belly, adding to the juggles caused by his insistent, hopeless struggles. “My next class is gonna be great.”
*GUUURGLE*