Some months later, Karen sat in a comfortable reclining chair in her new house, feeling very satisfied with herself. Not only had she moved up in the world with regard to her residence (a large 5 bedroom family-size house, rather than a studio apartment), as well as having one of the city's most powerful administrators as her personal slave, she was also sending more people to her stomach on a more regular basis. Life could not be better for her, at least, not yet.

One of the people who had nourished her hunger had been Howard Steele's wife. Her removal had been necessary, and it had been deftly engineered. Margaret Steele had, so it appeared to the press, simply flown off on vacation to Thailand and simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Most speculation figured a kidnapping gone awry, given that there never was a ransom demand. Karen had also enjoyed a vacation, and in addition to Mrs. Steele, she had come to really enjoy (human) Thai food.

Steele's management of the media had also been deft. As a bureaucrat, he knew like no other how to present a grey and dull image that sent 'inquiring minds' (ie. the press) toward more flashy stories. With another hot affair in the celebrity world, the press had soon diverted themselves elsewhere. Federal and state investigative authorities also had nothing to go on, and the Thai police found no trace of Mrs. Steele after she had left the security cameras of the airport behind.

Howard Steele had given Karen a place to live in a rental property he owned. It was spacious, with a lot of outside light but no nosy neighbors for her to worry about. She had also been given information on the daily movement patterns of homeless people as well as that of security coverage. This allowed her to 'hunt' more stealthily. Meanwhile, the city was very pleased with City Council's management of the homeless problem, and the City Council had no problems or second thoughts of taking credit for something that they had not had any hand in. Karen had also supplemented her diet with some do-gooders who had thought to investigate the disappearances of the city's bums.

Karen's change in diet had also caused her trousers to get tighter. She was gaining weight. But in addition to the tightness of her trousers around the waist, she also noticed that they were getting shorter. Yet, she was happy with herself, and did not pay this much mind.

Despite her satisfaction, however, she was not sated. Gobbling up homeless people and unfortunate impediments was one thing, but she wanted more power still. Eating people and having two slaves was not enough. She wanted more, but had not been sure exactly what until she had done some research. Howard Steele, being a long-time enthusiast for "GTS" and "vore" fantasies, had shown her some websites where people wrote stories, posted photoshopped pictures, or engaged in online roleplaying about shrinking, growing and being eaten. It was all very fascinating to Karen.

What struck her as the most surprising was that the clear majority of people participating on those websites were men and boys who fantasized about themselves as being the ones shrunken down and eaten. This made no sense to her. She understood the lust for power that she felt; that was rational. What these guys wanted was anything but rational.

Yet, while it made little sense to her, she did not let it bother her too much. She was quite happy that there were millions of, predominantly, men in the world who had an instinct for just the sort of thing she had in mind for them. Her problem was how to make use of it.

With Howard kept busy with cover-ups and other things, she delegated the research task to Mike. Mike spent his time hopping across the keyboard of a laptop, figuring out the best way to make use of the online presence of the GTS community. A prominent puzzle was that so many participants guarded their identities, for obvious reasons. Also, given the fantastic nature of the subject matter, the members of the community would be hard to convince that what Mike and Karen had was real and that they too could be a part of Karen's dominion. Mike also had to make sure that his own activities had to not come to the attention of any authorities looking for illegal online behavior.

He had, however, made some headway by participating in online forums where GTS and vore were topics of discussion. He had made contact, and allowed contact to be made with him, by way of personal messages (PMs) through the forums. Through various ways, he had come into contact with some GTS and vore enthusiasts and exchanged enough information with them so as to engineer some personal meetings.

This evening, they had arranged to meet two GTS/vore enthusiasts at a local diner. They had only given their usernames, 'minislave' and 'LadyFood', so as to protect their identities. One of them was, it had turned out, local, while the other had taken a two-day road trip to get there. Apparently, the stories that Mike had written, inspired by his relationship with Karen, had been good enough to really break the ice with these guys: so much so that they had decided to see if what Mike was saying was for real.

The two guys were already sitting next to each other at the diner, as instructed. They had all exchanged information about what they would be wearing, so that they would recognize one another. They were meeting at ten o'clock in the evening. Karen saw them and approached.

"Hi, I'm Karen," she said.

Mike had used her real name, but not her last name. 'Karen' was such a popular name that it really gave little away about her identity. She nodded with her head for one of them to move over to the other seat, so that they would both be facing her when she sat down. The one, 'minislave' as it would turn out, obeyed.

Karen sat across from them and looked them in the eyes, asserting her dominance with body language. She stood up the menus to create a space on the table that only those sitting at it could see. She then pulled Mike out of her purse and set him down on the table between the menus.

"Hi guys," Mike said, "I'm 'Scrumptious', though, as you can see, I've not been eaten yet."

LadyFood and minislave looked at him, their jaws slack. They had both been told that this was what they would see, but it they both had kept doubts about its reality. LadyFood squeezed his eyes shut, and opened them again to make sure what he was seeing was for real, and not the result of fatigue from his long drive. 'Scrumptious' was still there, standing on the table in front of him.

The waitress came, and Karen snatched Mike up quickly, dumping him back into her purse. They ordered coffee and a bite to eat.

"Wow, so it's for real," minislave said, once the waitress had left.

"Yes, it is," Karen said. "So, will you come back home with me after we eat to hold up your side of the bargain?"

Both of them nodded.

Back at the house, they walked into her living room. She sat down in her comfy-chair, which also made a good throne.

"Take off your clothes," she commanded.

Both of them did as they were told. The bargain had been that if she proved to be for real, they would both agree to become her slaves, and that one of them would be shrunken down. The other, Karen had decided, would continue to serve her as a full-grown human, though he too would be shrunk within a year. She also reserved the right to eat either of them, whenever she decided that she wanted to.

The only restriction she had agreed to is that she would swallow them whole rather than chew them up. That was fine by her, because there was nothing that she liked better than the feeling of a living person struggling inside of her stomach. She had chewed up one guy, but the experience had been nowhere near as satisfying, and she had not done it again.

When they had disrobed, it was clear that they were both extremely turned on by their situation, even if neither of them was two inches tall yet.

"Take off my shoes and socks, and kiss my feet."

They both did so and within moments they were kissing and licking her toes, soles and heels with abandon. Mike sat on her belly as she was reclined a little backward. He saw her close her eyes and savor the feeling of these guys worshiping her.

She allowed them to continue for a bit, before opening her eyes and looking at Mike. She nodded toward minislave. Mike descended her comfy throne, and walked around toward minislave. He bit the latter on the hand, and minislave slowly shrank down. He continued to kiss Karen's foot with absolute and passionate abandon as his most deeply held desire was coming true for him.

"Okay, stop," she commanded.

They both stopped kissing her feet. They opened their eyes, and LadyFood for the first time saw that he had been chosen to be the one to remain large.

*Damn* he thought to himself.

Karen walked to the cupboard and pulled out a heavy mug. Holding it with one hand, she walked back to the comfy throne, sitting down.

She pulled a little man out of the mug.

"This is Mac," she said, "I found him dumpster-diving behind a strip mall. He's been homeless for six years now."

"I like to know the people I am dealing with. Knowing that they are human beings with complete identities - real people , who think, feel and exist - makes this SOoo much more satisfying..."

As she said that, she popped Mac into her mouth and swallowed.

Seeing her swallow up another human being made minislave almost faint, and LadyFood spontaneously blew his load. Both of them threw themselves completely at her feet again, kissing, licking and sucking, like neither of them had ever done before. Their lives' desires had come true.

Feeling Mac in her tummy, and these two new guys at her feet, made Karen come as well. Mike would tell the more skeptical members of the forums about this, and she would instruct minislave and LadyFood to do so as well. Once more people were convinced, she knew her budding Empire would grow even more. These people would have skills that she could put to use for her growing power. Those that did not, would be swallowed up.