For Sarah, it was no longer a matter of her own survival. Assuming that she somehow took advantage of whatever razor thin opportunity might present itself for her to survive Michelle’s breakfast, what would she be surviving to live for? She might escape this bowl, but she still couldn’t get Michelle’s attention at the size. Against all odds, if somehow she managed to not only get Michelle’s attention, but was recognized as a person, she was still a speck sized person, waiting to be put out of her misery. Further still, if she were miraculously returned to her normal size, she would have to tell her Michelle that she’d eaten her boyfriend alive, and that her best friend had been left to die in the bowl. Michelle unintentionally killed two of the most important people in her life, and traumatized her own sister. That was no life to look forward to living...so why live it?
The only question that remained was how to give Michelle some closure. If none of the three of them survived, no one would be able to tell her the truth. But did Michelle need to know the truth? She certainly deserved it, but find out that you’d consumed your boyfriend without knowing would be devastating. She imagined telling Michelle that Ethan’s last moments were inside her mouth, or deep in her belly. It would have been maddening. Maybe she could lie, try to spare Michelle’s feelings. She could say it was a bug, or a mouse that killed them, possibly? Maybe they fell from a table, or died of starvation. Anything would be better than telling Michelle that her boyfriend and her best friend had both been eaten alive, or otherwise killed in the process of her eating her breakfast. That was no truth anyone deserved to live their life knowing. If she lied, Michelle would get closure, and never have to know what really happened. Afterwards, Sarah could decide whether or not living life as an insect, a parasite, really, would be worth attempting. It wouldn’t be a long, fulfilling life, that was for sure.
By now, Sarah had found yet another colored loop of artificially flavored fruit to pull herself aboard. It only took a few seconds to reach the top, the milk was relatively calm at the moment. Without Michelle’s spoon harassing the cereal around her, she was able to climb the tiny nooks and cracks and settle onto the top. From here, she could survey the entire scene. Despite the heavy onslaught of house-sized cereal bits that had been poured from the sky, there was only about two dozen pieces of cereal in the bowl. Or at least two dozen left. She hadn’t really been counting how many spoonfuls had been taken so far, she just knew that the last one had carried Ethan with it
It was a strange moment. She reflected on the events of the last few minutes for a moment, and a bit longer on everything that had transpired since they’d been shrunken. There had been so much chaos, danger, and confusion. So many death-defying moments at Michelle’s feet with loud stomps and crashes. So much screaming and yelling, not only at Michelle, but at each other. The arguments had started within minutes of the three of them getting out of their tiny car.
She remembered their first real chance at getting Michelle’s attention on the first night. Michelle had been sitting on the kitchen floor, painting her toenails. Ethan wanted to drive the car over and park near her toes, while she was looking down at them. With Michelle looking at her feet and the ground nearby, it would have been easy for her to spot them on the floor. They could even climb up her toes as she was painting them, making them impossible to miss.
Linda thought that Michelle would just think they were bugs and squish them with her fingers or underfoot, but Ethan ignored her, and kept driving.
Linda had yelled at him to stop, or let her out, but Ethan argued that they need to stick together to survive . Eventually, with Michelle’s toes looming in the distance, Linda grabbed the wheel and pulled at it erratically, causing the car to swerve back and forth. One of the worn down tires gave out and ruptured, leaving them stranded. It only took Ethan 10 minutes to put on the spare they luckily had, but that ten minutes was all that Michelle needed to finish painting her toenails. The giantess stood and walked out of the kitchen, nearly stepping on them on the way out, and carrying with her their chance for help. It was the closest they ever got to beeing seen, and Linda ruined it for them. That was the first time that Ethan had raised his voice in anger at Linda, though they’d all had a few screams, sobs, or other moments before that point.
But it was all different now. It was quiet, only the gentle lapping of milk against cereal made any noticeable sound. If not for the haunting reality of the situation, she might have been able to appreciate the serenity of it all. Not even Michelle had said anything since she’d finished with her phone call. Sarah took the moment not only to try to settle her nerves and consider possible ways to survive, but to honor Ethan’s memory. He’d always been such a sweet guy to her sister. He never tried to separate the two, and respected both Sarah and Michelle as individuals, and as sisters. He would come to her in both times of good and bad, and though he wasn’t perfect, he never once called Michelle out of her name or disrespected her. He was just a geeky little nerd who never gave up on Michelle. Maybe he was a little OCD sometimes though. And his voice...sometimes it bugged her. The one time he tried to sing karaoke had not gone well...she could practically hear it now. The high notes were like a pitchy scream, way off key. It was like he was still here, screaming at the top of his lungs...
Wait...screaming? There was no doubt, she could hear the boy’s shrieking voice. Ethan was nearby, and definitely screaming his lungs out.
“Ethan?! Ethan, where are you?!” Sarah called, looking left, right, behind, and ahead of her. How was he so close but still out of sight?
Ethan’s voice only got louder as the small splash of milk that carried him descended from above. Sarah glanced into the sky, trying not to look further than the massive spoon dangling above the bowl, or her enormous, hungry sister, staring at her phone. Instead, she saw the drop of milk landing back into the bowl, causing a small ripple throughout the milk. As it landed, Ethan’s voice disappeared without a trace, and Sarah dove into action.
“ETHAN! Ethan, hold on!” She screamed in the direction of the splash, diving into the milk without hesitation. Despite the milk being thicker and much more taxing to push through, Sarah’s desperation to rescue Ethan motivated her to keep swimming. If Ethan was alive, they could rely on each other. The future would have been that much brighter.
She heard sporadic coughing and sputtering, signs that Ethan had surfaced, and was not drowning...not yet. She pushed herself harder, not only looking for Ethan, but for somewhere to take him. Whatever he had been through had surely taken any remaining energy he had to survive. Only a few seconds’ swim away was another giant loop of cereal. She just needed to find Ethan and…
“...Sa-*cough* Sarah!!” His hand emerged from below, and Ethan managed to kick his way back up to the surface for long enough to grab his friend’s arm, before he went back under, nearly pulling her with him
“Ethan! Ethan, come on buddy! We’re gonna get you out of here!” She said, trying to remain calm. She grabbed ahold of his wrist and began to squeeze. She didn’t have the leverage or energy to pull him to the surface, obviously, but maybe if he felt her grip he would find the strength to do it on his own.
It worked. After a few seconds of no physical response, she felt him return her grip, and a moment later, he resurfaced, coughing and sputtering. He wasn’t doing well, but he was alive.
“Thank god, Ethan...thank god you’re alive. Oh...oh my god, I’m so happy…” She didn’t expect him to answer her, the words were more for herself than Ethan. He was alive. Despite all odds, he’d survived a spoonful that she’d watched her sister put into her mouth and chew. She didn’t watch the swallow, she didn’t have the heart for it. Regardless, Ethan was here now, in her arms, and with him, came back her will to survive. If there was a god, he wouldn’t save Ethan’s life for no reason. Inspired, she began to paddle. “Come on, let’s get you out of this...this stuff.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that this near tragedy had happened in a bowl of milk and cereal. She had to focus on just keeping Ethan awake and responsive. With Ethan weakly clinging to her, she began to push for that blue loop again. As she did, a shadow descended.
Michelle’s spoon was as wide and merciless as ever. Sarah had hardly gotten the opportunity to notice the change in the shadows before the metal behemoth arrived again. The head of the spoon dipped into view a quarter mile ahead of her, disappearing partially into the milky ocean. The very edge of the spoon’s head stayed above water, however, giving a very clear indication of the spoon’s path...right for them.
“NO!” Sarah screamed, watching as a spoonful of loops was collected ahead of her, including the blue one she had selected as her destination. Despite its mass, it was easily pushed along with six...seven...eight other loops, all of which were still on a deadly collision course for the tiny duo stranded in Michelle’s breakfast.
“Sa...rah?” Ethan responded weakly, his grip on her weakening some.
“Hold on, Ethan!” She replied, pulling the man as tight as she could against her. She prepared for the impact of the oversized cereal pieces around them. Within seconds, the spoonful of cereal collided with the two helpless victims, and the scene unfolded like a cinematic dramatization of a multi-car pile up, from an unfortunately real perspective.
The sound of just slightly soggy pieces of cereal colliding with each other and shifting to make room on the slowly lifting spoon grated on their ears, like massive concrete slabs tumbling over each other. Sarah felt one of them slide under them as they, too, were collected along with the small spoonful. The cereal surrounding them darkened their vision and made it difficult to see, further adding to the stress of the situation. She attempted to try pulling herself up onto a nearby loop, but her ankle caught on something she couldn’t quite see, likely a crevice in a cereal loop. Ethan, below, was still mostly floating in the milk along the spoon’s edge, but slowly coming around. The grinding sounds got louder, and though Sarah tried her best to pull herself all the way to what she hoped was safety...she suddenly felt a strong weight moving against her legs.
“Ahh...aghhh!” She whimpered, as the pressure increased. She began trying to free herself desperately as the massive piece of cereal pinned and crushed her leg, to no avail.
“...Sarah...we have...to…” Ethan, slowly regaining his full consciousness and strength began to utter.
“...AGH!” The weight and pressure became unbearable, and Sarah felt something in her right leg give in. An immense amount of pain flooded her body, radiating from the middle of her tibia up through the rest of her body. “My leg! Oh god, my leg…!” She wailed. There was no doubt in her mind...her leg was broken, and still stuck between two pieces of cereal. She whimpered, straining to move, but felt Ethan pulling himself nearby. Neither could quite make out more than the profile of each other’s bodies, and both of their eyes. Buried under the Froot Loops on the spoon, Sarah was wedged in tight, her leg crushed by pieces of cereal. Worse, they both felt the spoon they were on right itself as Michelle finished gathering her spoonful.
“It’s...it’s broken Ethan…” Sarah muttered, breathing heavily. Ethan coughed more milk out of his lungs, his body rested up again a fruit-flavored wall.
“C-come on...we just need to...”
“It’s too late…” Sarah admitted, trying not to let her voice crack. They could both feel the spoon ascending
“...Too late?” Ethan replied.
“We’re on the spoon again, buried in cereal. She can’t see us...we’re going to get eaten…” She watched her friend for a moment, resigned to her fate. Just beneath and behind him, she could make out the edge of the spoon, the bowl only a few inches below it. A sudden calmness settled over Sarah, and a thought occurred to her,. “Unless…”
“Unless?” Ethan questioned again. Sarah’s response came suddenly and unexpectedly. Due to the darkness of this spoonful-prison, he couldn’t see her foot coming. Instead, he just felt her place it on his shoulder, and push. “...Sarah, what the…”
“...please, just don’t tell her the truth. She doesn’t have to know…” Sarah said, sniffling, and uttering a somber sigh. “...goodbye, Ethan…” Using her only good leg, she summoned all of her remaining strength...and shoved Ethan’s body as hard as she could. Ethan, in his weakened and clueless state, felt himself slip off of the wall he was precariously resting on.
“Sarah? Hey, what are you...NO!” Despite his initial protest and scramble to grab something, he could not find purchase fast enough. He slipped off of the cereal and immediately over the edge of the spoon, tumbling, yet again, into the diminishing bowl of breakfast cereal.
Sarah resigned herself to her fate. She’d been right, all along. Ethan hadn’t been just to die seconds later...it was her place to make sure that he lived to comfort her sister. He was such a caring man, and Michelle would need that in a few weeks, once the police called off the search for the two missing girls.
She couldn’t see much from here, only what little light shined through the pieces of cereal she’d been collected with. Without being able to see much, the ascent to Michelle’s mouth was much less breath taking. If she shifted just right, she could peer through a few cracks and make out the colors and textures of Michelle’s face. Her sister was so pretty, prettier than her she thought, taking after their mother, where Sarah took after her father.
Again, her restricted view made everything that was about to happen much less chaotic and awe inspiring. She could see Michelle’s mouth opening, her soft looking lips parting, and a few snatches of glistening white. Her teeth --the incisors, she assumed. Sarah could make out enough pink to recognize the tongue, and enough of the darkness in the background to know that her sister’s mouth was open wide, ready to receive her.
The warmth of the girl’s breath barely, barely reached her within her fruit-flavored tomb. It would have been an enjoyable breeze after spending so much time in the cold milk. She wondered how much warmer it would be inside the mouth. She wondered if she would survive long enough to see how warm the stomach would be.
Open just wide enough to allow the spoonful in, Michelle’s mouth slipped over the pile of cereal that contained her shrunken sister. Blissfully unaware of the tiny stowaway in her breakfast, the pretty brunette closed her mouth around the spoon, lips and teeth alike sealing the captive girl within it inside. Michelle pulled the spoon out as clean as ever, allowing the cereal to settle onto her tongue, before she began chewing just another mouthful of breakfast cereal.
As many times as Sarah had gone spelunking, cave diving, or wandered through a hidden, under sea cove, Michelle’s mouth dwarfed all of those experiences by an exponential amount. She didn’t scream or panic before she was carried into her new home and final resting place. Instead, she obediently tumbled off of the spoon and onto the tongue, only grimacing as her maimed leg bounced against the spoon, bits of cereal, and the tongue itself.
As the mouth closed around her, Sarah could hear the spoon slipping back out of the mouth. The sound of metal clinking against the teeth hurt her ears, but that was the least of her worries. No sooner had the teeth closed around her, did she feel Michelle’s jaw lower, almost sending Sarah tumbling backward. As the jaw shifted to prepare for the first devastating chews, the tongue twisted into life, violently shoving the first victims toward the molars.
Sarah screamed again, not only at her leg being so roughly handled by the shoulder-high tastebuds that she was settled with, but at the quickness of the dexterous tongue. The powerful muscle shoved pieces of cereal as large as single-family homes into the towering white teeth. Covered in saliva, and without enough weight to fly across the girl’s mouth so easily, Sarah simply trickled along the tongue’s surface, bouncing against the hundreds of taste buds that covered it. She tried to grab one, but could not find a sturdy grip.
CRUNCH.
The sound of Michelle’s first thunderous chew had been terrifying when Sarah was on the other side of the lips. Inside the mouth, however, it was enough that Sarah’s peaceful, reverent fear of the situation evolved back into panicked, screaming terror. Michelle’s teeth were monoliths of pure destruction and death. Anything that neared them would meet its demise in a hurry, and Sarah, staring up at them, was only the next sacrifice.
A single chew had sent the world into a flurry of chaos. Bits of destroyed Froot Loop suddenly rained down upon her as the first chew finished, teeth colliding around the tiny girl menacingly.. Sarah immediately turned over and covered her head, burying her face against the tongue as her clueless sister continued to chew.
CRUNCH.
CRUNCH.
The chaos erupting in her mouth went unnoticed by the giantess enjoying her breakfast. Typically she tried to eat very politely, keeping the sound of her crunching to a minimum. But she was home alone, and after that annoying conversation, she just wanted to enjoy her food. Having hardly chewed her previous bite, Michelle scooped up another load and delivered it to her mouth, chewing extra loud this time.
Sarah had descended into hysterics as the terrible, wicked world inside her sister’s mouth did everything in its power to destroy her. Bits of cereal crashed all around her, and soupy, sticky saliva constantly tried to pull her in one way or the other. She could hardly get her bearings, much less prepare for the future..
“Please don’t eat me Michelle…! Please, please…” She begged through her sobs, praying that the hungry goddess would stop chewing long enough to answer her prayers.
Light emerged from beyond the lips, and for a moment, Sarah could see everything.
The war zone that had erupted in the girl’s mouth was on full display. Bits of saliva stretched from tongue to the sky, rather the roof of the mouth, as distant as any sky Sarah was concerned with. Remnants of her mouthful were lodged in various places around the tongue and teeth, dangling from the dripping saliva, and gathered the gumline. But Sarah put all of that to the side. She focused on the parting lips and widening teeth.
The spoon arrived again, carrying another sacrifice to this hellish domain. As it moved beyond the lips, the terrible metal chariot lorded over her in service to the woman that held it. Michelle hadn’t heard her at all. Sarah was too small to be heard, especially inside of this terrible mouth. She was food now, and like any other bit of food, she would be eaten.
The mouth closed around the spoon as usual, lips sealing tight as Michelle pulled the spoon free. More terrifyingly huge loops of cereal tumbled onto the tongue, along with a deluge of cold milk within the spoon’s basin. The milk rushed along Michelle’s tongue rapidly, and Sarah was caught off guard. She was swept along the current, until it splashed into a nearby green wall, another Froot Loop. She was tossed aboard, gasping in pain as her leg once again informed her of the state of the mangled appendage. Atop the green surface of the cereal chunk, she felt her leg throbbing. She didn’t pay it any mind though, something far worse was happening. She felt the jaw shift. It lowered, just as it had moments ago.
“Michelle...no...no!” The tiny girl begged her clueless sister from within her mouth.
Following the same pattern as it had in the past, the tongue shoved the contents of the mouth, tiny girl included, over to those terrible, towering molars. Sarah landed unceremoniously, rolling across the surface of the piece of cereal. She slipped, and grabbed ahold, now dangling in the center of the loop, which had settled slightly off center atop one of Michelle’s gigantic teeth.
[Warning, descriptive violence and minimal gore.]
She let go, falling another ten feet, landing directly in the center of the loop, on the surface of the tooth. She landed on her chest with a heavy squelch, then looked left and right. Around her, red, sticky remnants of the last victim was still caked on top of the surface of the molar. She flipped over, just in time to see the surface of another tooth descending from above. Chewing had begun yet again. Sarah closed her eyes, but did nothing to stop the impact.
[Warning, descriptive violence and minimal gore.]
CRUNCH.
The world erupted again, and Sarah felt pressure surround her like she had never experienced before. Intolerable pain radiated from her toes to her fingertips, her body pointlessly sending a distress call about the state of her weakened body. She felt her bones disintegrate.
But her eyes opened again, the pressure releasing. The pain subsided, there was no use to it anymore. Sarah’s mind could hardly register it, her body was broken and dismembered. Adjusted ever so slightly to the dark, Sarah could see the remnants of her destroyed body. It was all she needed to see to realize that the end had arrived. In the last seconds of her mind’s fight to survive, she glanced upward again. The molar had raised, and prepared for the next chew.
‘I love you, sis…’ The thought crossed her mind, before the molar above descended yet again, and her consciousness faded away.
***
Michelle chewed rather harshly this time. Maybe what the guy said over the phone hurt her feelings more than she thought. Frowning, she reached for her phone and opened the contact menu.
‘Sarah always knows how to make me feel better.’ She thought, prompting the phone to begin a new message.
She quickly swept her tongue along her teeth to gather the remnants of the food that had collected there. With all of the stray bits neatly settled along her tongue, she casually swallowed her mouthful and began sending her sister a text. Maybe they could go out on the town tonight.