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“You know, Buford’s kind of right. These smoothies are sort of exotic, but I think we can do better.” Those were the words Isabella had said at the beginning of the day’s adventure. What seemed like only a minute or two later, she was pulling the white cloth off of Phineas and Ferb’s latest invention- revealing it to all their friends: The State Of The Matter Transfer Device. With this, they could turn anyone’s food of choice into liquid.
They had a good time, zapping different foods into “smoothies” and taking tastes, including a chicken and a romantic steak dinner for two, which Phineas had disappointingly declined to share with her. It was so strange to Isabella, having the familiar tastes run over her tongue like water, instead of the solid food she was used to chewing. As she drank more and more she could start to feel the strange smoothies sloshing around in her stomach as they mingled and her body began its work.
Before long, they had run out of things to liquify from the Flynn-Fletcher household, and Baljeet suggested that they each return home and bring back some foods of their own to zap. Ferb reminded his brother that they did have a few vendors nearby who could provide them with some very exotic items for potential smoothies. Phineas agreed and so everyone excitedly rushed through the gate, eager to try their favorite foods as a drink.
Since she lived just across the street, it was only natural that Isabella returned first. Something about the chicken and the steak she had tried earlier- the taste and the feel of the fluid-meat as it rolled into her throat- it was just so… enticing, so she had brought back some lamb to sample. I wonder what Phineas will bring? she thought as she walked absentmindedly through the gate into his backyard.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” came a sudden voice. Isabella squealed and nearly dropped her bag. She looked around for the source. That sounded like Candace. “Down here,” came the voice again, sounding frightened and more than a little annoyed. She looked down and noticed she had accidentally stepped in a puddle of strange orange goo, laying in the grass. Wait… was that a face!? She took a step back as she started to piece together what must have happened.
“Candace? You turned yourself into a smoothie?” she asked. “I don’t know! I was just looking at Phineas and Ferb’s newest gadget and then all of a sudden I was on the floor and then there was this bird and-” “Okay, okay!” Isabella interrupted, trying to calm Candace down. She stopped and thought for a moment.
“I know what to do!” she said with her Fireside Girl confidence. She rushed into the house and quickly returned with a sponge and a bowl from the kitchen. “Don’t worry, I’ll get every last drop of you,” she said, starting to dab with the sponge, “And when Phineas gets back he’ll be able to help.” Before long the grass was orange-free and she was wringing the last bits of Candace into the bowl. Once she finished, she placed the sponge on the ground and looked over at the gate. Any second Phineas will come back and put a happy ending to this mess, she thought.
But as she waited, she started to grow nervous. What if she had missed some and it soaked into the ground? Would they be able to fix her? What if Candace had to stay a puddle forever? Absentmindedly she became vaguely aware of something sticky on her finger. She nervously stuck it in her mouth, subconsciously trying to lick it clean.
Her eyes went wide. When she had been wringing out the sponge, some of Candace had gotten on her hands and had dried like melted ice cream. But the flavor was so much better than any dessert, it was savory and sweet and salted to perfection. She started salivating immediately, and swallowed slowly.
“What was that?” Candace asked. Isabella suddenly remembered that Candace could still feel somehow, even though she was liquid, but it seemed that that last sensation had been too strange for the puddle-girl to recognize.
I wonder what it felt like for her… when I swallowed that bit, Isabella wondered with a reluctant curiosity. Was it warm? Did it tickle? …Would it start to burn when her stomach got to work? Her thoughts were quickly forgotten as the last lingering remnants of taste washed over her tongue. She closed her eyes for a moment and shuttered. She had to have more.
Feeling a little nervous, she crouched down and leaned over Candace’s bowl, dropping her bag of lamb. She hastily stuck her finger into the orange liquid and then shoved it in her mouth before she could have a second thought. She licked at her finger vigorously, closing her eyes again to bask in the taste, still trying to maintain her composure. Candace could feel Isabella’s tongue as it moved, darting around as she did her best to savor every last trace of orange. It was the most perfectly amazing thing she had ever tasted.
“Uh… Isabella… what’s going on?” Candace asked. Being turned into soup was already unsettling enough, this was not helping. Isabella went still for a moment, then opened her eyes and looked down at Candace.
Candace looked back up at the little girl towering over her, the nervousness on her face had disappeared. And now she had a strange look in her eyes- an intense, almost cold, animalistic look. A small stream of drool started to fall from between her lips where her finger still rested. Isabella slowly removed her finger from her mouth and reached for the bowl. Her hands trembled, but her face was almost eerily calm. She picked up the bowl.
“Candace… you just… You just taste so good,” she said quietly. The little eyes in the bowl of orange grew wide as they were lifted closer to Isabella’s face.
“Isabella?!...” Candace asked, on the verge of terror, but part of her still couldn’t quite believe this was happening.
Phineas will be back any second, they both thought.
Isabella closed her eyes, and opened her mouth. Candace started to become frantic, but there was nothing she could do; she had no legs to kick or arms to wave- she could barely ripple! She stared in horror at the pink-red insides of the girl’s mouth, the white teeth that guarded the entrance and the darkened passage at the back- growing ever closer, moving slightly as she breathed. Isabella touched her lips to the rim of the bowl, and ever so slightly tipped it toward her.
It hit her like a tidal wave. The tiny bits of orange on her finger had been nothing compared to even the tiny splash that she took in next. She swished it around, almost overwhelmed by the flavor and how easily it passed over her tongue. She wanted to savor it, but the promise of even more bliss compelled her to drink more. She tipped the bowl just slightly further, trying to control herself. She went down on her knees and felt goosebumps over her entire body. She took in more and more until finally her mouth was full, and she felt the urge to swallow.
She hesitated for just a moment, knowing that once she took the next step there would be no turning back, and knowing full well what would probably happen to Candace. But no… she just could not stop now.
She swallowed; a wet gulp that she could hear squelch in her ears. And both of them could feel it: the latest “smoothie” sliding down Isabella’s throat, disappearing into her chest, to land with a splash inside her belly.
And that was it; the flood gates had opened and Isabella started gulping down the contents of the bowl by the mouthful. Candace started to scream, and reality settled in. She cried out for her brothers or her mom, but it seemed they were too far away to hear- or maybe they were just used to her yelling to ‘come quick’ and didn’t feel like hurrying anymore. Either way there was no one around to stop the little girl from devouring the first ever living smoothie- with wild abandon.
Candace could feel herself slipping down into Isabella with every gulp, mixing with the other, previously liquified contents of the girl’s stomach- blending with the other smoothies she had drank and the breakfast she’d had earlier that morning. The bowl continued to tip upward, obstructing Candace’s view of the outside world and pushing her closer to the girl’s face.
It wasn’t long at all before only a tiny bit was left: the little puddle of orange that contained Candace’s face. Isabella, feeling that she was almost finished, opened her eyes for a moment and looked at what was left of Candace.
Their eyes met for just a second, and then the bowl tipped the rest of the way and Candace’s world went pink, and then black.
*gulp*
…
*splash*
Isabella fell back on her bottom, and then reclined onto her back. Her eyes still closed, she put a hand on her midsection and rubbed lazily. Though she only rested there for a few seconds, to her euphoric mind it felt like minutes. Finally, the bliss started to fade, leaving her with a sense of satisfaction so grand that it easily outweighed whatever guilt she might have been feeling. Her stomach growled as it adjusted to its new content and no doubt set to work digesting.
After another few moments, Isabella stood up. She was full now, delightfully full. In the distance, she thought she could hear Phineas- probably talking to Ferb about the amazing foods they had acquired. She would give them an excuse, she decided, something that would let her go back home for the rest of the day. She had already had her fill of adventure. But she would have to ask Phineas to make sure this invention did not disappear; something told her she would have to do this again sometime soon.
She picked up her bag of lamb, and as she started walking toward the gate, she patted her stomach. “Don’t worry, Candace,” she said in their last few moments of solitude, “Maybe when you come out the other end, I’ll borrow Buford’s mold of you and we can get you back into the right shape.” Her stomach growled again. “What’s left of you anyway.”