“So you cook it in a white wine sauce?” Troy asked. “Yeah, and then garnish with parsley.” Penelope replied. “That sounds great, I'll have to try tha-” Troy started. “What up, nerds?!” Roma shouted, kicking open the door and holding up a generic 'thank you' bag from a local bodega, “Penny, you, me, bubble gum contest, right now!”

“Sure, I'm game.” Penelope shrugged. “Do you remember the rules?” Roma asked. “Yeah, we each blow a bubble as big as we can. First to pop loses.” Penelope said.

“Right. Now pick your gum.” Roma said, tossing the plastic bag towards her sister.

Penelope snagged it out of the air and, holding both handles, peeked inside. There was a seemingly random assortment of gum packets, ranging from the minty, tooth friendly kind, to the thick, sugary bricks that could probably ruin orthodontic engineering.

“Hm...I'm gonna go with Hubble Bubble.” Penelope grabbed a pack of the fruit flavored gum.

“Bad choice, it's gotta be Major League Chaw.” Roma said, picking up the sachet of shredded sugar, “Original flavor too, none of that fruit stuff.”

“I like the fruit stuff.” Penelope said, carefully unwrapping a cube.

“What do you think, shrimp?” Roma asked, giving her brother the sort of look that said 'agree with me or else.'

“I always sort of liked Bident.” Troy obliviously pinched up a pack of the gum, “See how it has a picture of Hades on it? Isn't that neat?”

“You...” Roma crossed her arms and tapped her foot, before sighing exasperatedly, “I think I'm gonna have to shrink you for such a boring answer.”

“Wh-what?” Troy stammered, “B-but that's not-” “No, she's right.” Penelope interjected, “That was the worst possible choice. Definitely worthy of a shrinking.”

“C'mon...” Troy pitifully puppeteered the image of Hades side to side, “It's not that boring, is it?”

“Oh, just shut up and shrink.” Roma said, and Troy did, whirling down into the carpet, suddenly lost in the fibers like a scurrying ant.

“Should we just, you know...” Penelope mimed stepping on a bug.

“How about whoever wins the contest gets to decide what we do with him?” Roma asked.

“Oh, I like that!” Penelope grinned, “And if that’s the case, I'm gumma win, no matter what.”

“Jesus, Penny.” Roma pinched the bridge of her nose. “And I'm gonna chews a really nasty punishment.” Penelope said.

“Penny...” Roma sighed. “It'll be gum-believable!” Penelope laughed. “Penny!' Roma shouted, “Seriously, you need to tone it down.”

“It's not my fault you don't have a sense of humor.” Penelope said, kneeling down and fishing Troy out of the carpet, “Hey, wanna stick him between the bubbles?”

“Now you're talking.” Roma smirked, “Let's do it.” Both sisters stuck the gum in their respective mouths and began chewing, easily pulverizing the shelf-stable candy into soft, malleable wads. Troy watched, grasped between Penelope's thick fingers, agape at the raw power of those jaws, mashing and deforming structures much larger than he. Whatever the outcome of this contest, he knew it wasn't going turn out great for him.

“Readyyyyy?” Penelope held up Troy so that he was equidistant from both of his siblings’ lips.

“Go!” Roma cried. Both titanic mouths started to blow their bubbles, one purple, one pink, growing at steady, similar rates, and closing in on the minuscule body of Troy. He tried struggling for a moment, but Penelope's fingers were too strong. They had not only grabbed his torso, but had trapped his arms at his sides, leaving him unable to even protect his face. The expanding monstrosities continued to edge closer and closer, their combined, cloying smell settling like a thick fog. Troy wriggled as hard as he could, managing to only pull one arm out up to the wrist.

By then, however, it was too late. Each sticky membrane suddenly pressed into his body, Penelope's fingers immediately snaking away, so that he was encased in a thin, airtight layer of both the sweet, taffy-like texture of the gum, and the slimy remnants of the twins' saliva. He tried to breath but couldn't pull any air from within the quickly warming interior, and even if he could, it would only be the carbon dioxide exhaled by his sisters.

Troy was going to suffocate, unless somebody won the contest in the next minute. Time seemed to slow down as he wildly struggled and gasped, making no impact on his cage of chicle. Finally, though, the pressure from one side collapsed completely, a sudden rush of air reaching the tiny man's lungs, giving him a moment of exuberance before realizing that he was about to be temporarily owned by one of his sisters.

But which one?

“Noooo!” Penelope cried, her bubble, now burst, now hanging limply from her lips. 

“Woo!” Roma popped her own bubble, pulled the whole thing from her mouth, and held it up triumphantly, allowing Troy to dangle loosely from the end. 

“Boo.” Penelope puffed her cheeks. “Oh, get over it.” Roma lifted the sticky string of gum higher so that Troy was swinging at her eye level, “And as for you...ready to get punished?” 

“Uh...” Troy gaped. “Well, I'm gonna do it even if you're not ready.” Roma smirked. She rolled her hands together, quickly collecting the errant gum back into a small wad, tiny Troy now wrapped up in it, his face barely peeking out from its sticky confines, “Ew, ABC gum. Only one place for that.” 

“W-wait!” Troy tried to call out, but he was already being carried outside, loosely gripped in Roma's strong fingers. Out into the warm, summer air, he was suddenly tumbling, until he and his pink cocoon landed on the ground with a soft slap. He looked up and saw the towering form of Roma, Penelope slightly behind her in the doorway. He was on the concrete step on the porch of their house. 

“You're just throwing him out? That's so boring.” Penelope said. 

“No way.” Roma said, “I just didn't want to mess up the rug. Here's where used gum goes.” 

She lifted her titanic sized sneaker and hovered it over Troy. He tried desperately to break free from the rubbery bonds, but it was no use, his limbs were too weak, and buried too deep, to make a dent. “Oooh, seems like he's in bubble trouble now.” Penelope said with a giggle. 

“I'm going to pretend this is you.” Roma rolled her eyes. With a quick, pivoting flourish she lowered her dirty sneaker sole onto the blob of gum, slowly and deliberately flattening it into the ground. The thick, tacky coating spread out as pressure mounted on Troy's little body, squeezing him more and more, but not squishing him entirely. Finally, Roma's foot would go no lower, and she tilted her shoe to admire her handiwork. There, wrapped in a bright pink aura, was Troy, still alive, face barely pushing through its rosy confines. 

“He's not mushed yet!” Penelope clapped. “Yet.” Roma said, “Wanna walk down to the ice cream 

shop?” 

“Oh absolutely, I could kill a sorbet right now.” Penelope said, “What about Troy? Think he'll make it?” 

“Who cares?” Roma snarked, taking a step and driving Troy's defenseless face into the rough cement. In another moment he was soaring, arcing through the air, and then again, crashing into the hard ground. Each step stretched his protective coating closer to its limit, pieces occasionally sticking to the ground and snapping off, until his body was nearly getting the full brunt of his sister's heavy steps. In another few feet...CRUNCH! 

Troy splattered between the sneaker and the ground, leaving a dirty red stain upon the quickly graying splotch of gum adorning his sister's foot.

“Oh, come on!” Roma shouted, roughly ripping the popped bubble from her mouth. 

“Yes!” Penelope crowed, popping her own bubble and pulling it from her mouth to hold it up in triumph. 

“This is such bull.” Roma said. “Don't be a sore loser, I won fair and square.” Penelope said. “Augh, fine.” Roma took a deep breath, “What are you going to do with him?” 

“Hmm...” Penelope smirked down at Troy's tiny body, helplessly dangling from the string of gum, “To be honest, this still has plenty of flavor.” 

“W-wait, no!” Troy gasped. “Too bad, little bug, you're gonna get gumished.” Penelope laughed. “Penny, that doesn't even rhyme.” Roma rolled her eyes. 

“Oh hush.” Penelope said, sticking the end of the stretched confection in her mouth, “Ready?” 

She began to chew and to pull the gum into her lips, each bite sucking up another inch of the sticky strands and bringing Troy closer and closer to his doom. 

“Mmmm! So tasty!” Penelope playfully moaned between chews, her mouth now large enough that the vibrations from her voice caused Troy's tiny ears to ring. Chew, slurp, chew, slurp, in only another moment, Troy was on the precipice. He looked frantically towards his other sister, her smirking face upside down from his perspective. 

“Bye, bitch.” Roma gave a sarcastic wave. Pop! Troy was pulled past Penelope's plush lips and into the stuffy, wet confines of her mouth. Her teeth and tongue were working overtime, gathering and mashing the gum into a complete wad once again. The cloying grape scent mixed with the sharp smell of his sister's saliva, creating an overpowering miasma that immediately clouded Troy's thoughts. 

“Wanna get ice cream?” Penelope said between bites, allowing brief flashes of light into the otherwise pitch black prison. 

“Yeah, I guess.” Roma said, muffled so that Troy could barely hear. 

“Awesome, let's go!” Penelope said, letting in the last bit of light Troy would see, for a while, anyway. 

“G-gah!” Troy tried to cough out the mass of spit that had just 

entered his mouth, but he was now practically drowning in it. Penelope's agile tongue maneuvered him back and forth between her cheeks, chewing a little bit here, chomping a little bit there, always in a way that the tiny boy could feel the pressure and the pain, but not succumb to it quite yet. 

Finally, however, his head managed to wriggle free from the gob of chewing gum, while the rest of his body was still thickly encased. The wad rolled to the side, and Troy's face flopped into the wet recesses of one of Penelope's molars. 

“No, no, no!” He tried his best to pull himself away, but it was too little, too late. The matching tooth fell onto its opposite like a guillotine, and...CRUNCH! 

Troy was mashed between his sister's teeth, an act which went completely unnoticed by Penelope, who continued to chew on his leftovers until the gum was dry and flavorless, thoughtlessly discarded into a street side waste bin.