It was perfectly dark, and the air smelled heavily of sugar.  I had just finished an intense ride as my container was carried up several flights of stairs, and my insides still felt like they were moving.  Fortunately, the compartment I laid in was closely formed to my shape and kept me from turning over on my face.  The hard shell around me was brittle, but hard and tight enough that I would not be able to break it or turn myself over if that happened.

My situation was uncomfortable but allowed me to play the role of a chocolate perfectly.  This was the grand finale to a week of gifts I had sent my girlfriend at work, and I was going all in for it.  First, I had been shrunk to the appropriate size at great expense, then a special 3d printer encased me in chocolate, leaving holes for my eyes and nostrils.  After that, I was placed inside a box with other candies to blend in, and a special guide printed with explicit instructions to gently crack mine open.  Finally, it was sent to an address I had provided beforehand.  All that was left was to be discovered.

A slight jolt shook the box, and a deep, muffled voice boomed from outside.  “’To: Vera, from your sweet little thing,’” it read.  “Aww, I wonder who that could be.”  After the shrinking process, I had been made to listen while normal sized people went through a rehearsed conversation to help acclimate to my new size.  It helped a little, but the sound of a familiar voice distorted in such a way threw me for a loop.  Vera’s voice was warm and sweet, and it would take some time to adjust to this new sound.

Several loud bangs reverberated through the box when she rapped her fingers on the lid.  The whole container lifted slightly then sharply dropped when the lid came off, and I felt the landing as though I had fallen out of bed.  Dim light filled the container, filtered through the think paper lying on top and peeking around its edges.  A fingertip, its nail painted red, lifted the paper ceiling away and propped it against the lid.  Luckily, that’s where the guide had been printed, so she would have no trouble finding me.

My field of view was limited by eyeholes in the chocolate, but I could see Vera clearly.  She kept her orange hair short, and the ring and two silver studs in her ears blended with her pale, freckled skin.  Her big blue eyes surveyed the array of candy in front of her, and the pointed tip of her tall, thin nose twitched while she considered what to take first.  Vera’s narrow lips parted so she could moisten them, and behind her tongue I saw a row of straight, bright white teeth.  Quickly she wiped her hand on her shimmering, cream-colored shirt, then reached into the box of chocolates.

Her dainty fingers grabbed one beside me and plucked it up, then held it in front of her mouth.  It was log-shaped, and she gave it a nice, long look.  Vera opened her lips and shoved half of it in, closing her lips around it.  She bit down, tearing it in half, then pulled the remaining half away so that it left a string of caramel that broke and stuck to her chin.  While she chewed, she pulled the caramel off with a fingertip and held it to her mouth so she could suck it off.  After several seconds of long chewing she swallowed, sending a visible bulge down her slender neck.

Vera held the other piece to her lips and let it linger a moment before opening them just enough to let it through.  Though I had not discussed this with her beforehand, I was sure she looked right at me when she pushed it into her mouth with a single shove from her finger.  Her eyes even momentarily flared wider, like she was taunting me.  She sucked on it for a bit, making her jaw move slightly up and down, before swallowing it in a single gulp.  I watched it go down, and got the distinct feeling she was teasing me.

She came back for another piece.  Initially her fingers settled around me, but then they stepped to an adjacent one.  This piece was larger, about twice as wide as her thumb, and spherical.  Vera held it in front of her mouth as though studying it, then dropped her jaw.  Her normally petite mouth opened wide, breaking the strands of saliva that formed between her lips, and I got a good view of the inside.  Surrounded by the light pink of her mouth her tongue was depressed, lying wide and flat against her lower teeth.  I could even see the ridges along her palate, though they looked more like a whale’s ribcage from here.

Vera slowly moved the chocolate between her lips and set it down on her tongue before letting go, then withdrew her fingers.  As though she knew she had an audience, she slowly closed her lips, with the last gap leaving a pinhole view of the morsel inside.  Her cheek bulged when she tossed the chocolate against it, then bit through it with her molars at a painfully gradual rate.  She carefully mashed it up, grinding it to a fine paste before swallowing.  After taking a moment so it could reach her stomach, she reached back for another.

One by one, Vera ate the chocolates from around me.  Each time she came back it seemed like she was going to grab me, then changed her mind at the last second.  Every few bites she would moan, making a deep, powerful sound that made me wish I could move my arms.  I watched every one disappear into her mouth to be chewed and devoured, waiting until it was my turn in her fingers.  Every second I waited would make it even more satisfying when she got to me and discovered I had been watching her the whole time.

When I was surrounded by a circle of empty slots, Vera hesitated.  She shifted in her seat, then turned and looked to her left.  “Hey, Zoe?” she called out to one of her coworkers.  “You want some chocolates?  I can’t finish this whole thing.”  Wait, what?

“Aren’t those from your boyfriend?” Zoe answered, her voice even deeper than Vera’s.  “I’d feel weird eating something that’s supposed to be a gift.”

Vera bit her bottom lip and replied, “Yeah, that’s kind of why I feel uncomfortable.  I’m planning on breaking up with him this weekend.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s really sweet, but I just don’t see us having a future together.  I think he knows, too.  He’s been showering me with gifts all week to convince me to stay, but I can’t string him along any longer.”  I most certainly did not know; this was the first inkling I had she was even unhappy.

“Well, if it’ll make it easier for you,” Zoe said, and Vera grabbed the container by the rim.  It rocked when she pulled it to the side, and I rolled into my compartment’s walls when she gave it a final shove.  It slid to a stop before Zoe, and I could not get a good look at her until I stopped moving.  Critically though, the guide with instructions for how to safely extract me from my chocolate casing were a foot away, and there was no chance she knew I was there.

Zoe was tall and thin, with long black hair clipped behind her head and bangs that fell to just above her thin, dark eyebrows.  She looked over the remaining chocolates with her pale blue eyes and pursed her small but full lips while flicking a small gold ring in her ear with a skinny finger.  High cheekbones with a bit of blush gave her an elegant appearance, and though her nose was tall and round it fit her face.  With her free hand she picked at the dimple in her flat, jutting chin while she considered which one to take first.

“What’s with this one you ate around?” she asked, moving the finger from fiddling with her earring to jab it at me.  “I’ve never seen a chocolate like that before.”

Casters rumbled over the floor while Vera rolled over to take a look.  With two titanic women staring down at me, I could not believe that neither of them had any idea about me.  I tried to scream, but the chocolate in front of my mouth muffled it.  “I have no idea, but I really didn’t feel comfortable eating it,” Vera answered.  “Looks a little too much like a man.”

“I guess,” Zoe replied, leaning forward a little.  She looked my casing up and down more carefully, then added, “Maybe it’s something new they’re doing.  What’s inside?”

“No clue.”  Unbelievable.  Either Vera had not so much as glanced at the guide, or she was intentionally trying to set me up.  “You don’t have any allergies, right?  You should try it out.”

“You know what, I think I will.”  Zoe grabbed my casing between her thumb and forefinger and said, “I hope it’s something delicious and exotic that you miss out on for being a picky baby.”  She lifted me from my compartment, and it felt like my stomach remained behind.  However, it caught back up when she brought me to an abrupt stop in front of her pink, glossy lips.  For a moment she held me there as though studying me, giving me nothing to see aside from those lips, then playfully boomed, “Give me something good, little chocolate man!”  Even with the protective casing around my ears, it was loud enough to make my ears ring.

Zoe’s lips parted, and my screams were squelched by the chocolate casing again.  Slowly, as though she were being intentionally teasing, she slid me into her mouth through her rounded lips.  It went so slowly that it took several seconds for me to be fully inside her mouth.  I landed on her tongue, and after a quick flick of it I was clenched between her teeth.  She pressed down, cracking the chocolate around me enough that I was able to push it off.  Freed from the constricting hardened sugar, I rolled out of it and onto her tongue just before her teeth shattered the half they still held.

The tongue jerked up and Zoe froze, pinning me against the roof of her mouth.  A horrific roar erupted around me, accompanied by powerful winds and her whole mouth shaking.  “Whatever’s in here is disgusting!” she announced.

“Sounds pretty exotic to me,” Vera mocked.  “Maybe it’s just bad at first, you should try savoring it.”

Vera’s advice may have been sarcastic, but Zoe was determined to get the last laugh.  Her tongue surged back and forth below me, repeatedly rolling my body over the same two ridges of her palate.  Saliva gathered while she sucked on me, getting thicker the longer she went.  I tried to move toward her lips, but the muscles of her tongue were too strong and held me in place.  The harder I fought, the clearer it became that I was trapped, and this time in something much more dangerous than a thin chocolate shell.

Her tongue released me, and I rolled down it to land in her frenulum.  I sank into the soft, porous tissue, then Zoe’s tongue fell back on top of me.  It pushed me further into the spongy tissue, and pushing against it only drove me further toward its base.  More saliva gathered, forming a pool around me while her tongue held me down in it.  I began to worry that I would drown in the liquid gathering around me, an even worse fate than I had imagined upon entering her mouth.

Zoe’s tongue raised off me, but before I could dash toward her lips it flattened and slid under my legs.  With a single flick she tossed me back, and after missing a final, desperate grab for her uvula I landed on her gullet.  Rivers of saliva streamed toward me, and with a horrific schulp her gullet opened.  Her throat muscles seized around my legs, pulling me down no matter how desperately I clawed at her taste buds.  Soon I was surrounded by the pressure of her muscles as they conveyed me downward, finally releasing me to fall into her stomach.

Everything burned, but I could still hear Vera joking.  “So, how was it?” she asked.  “Did it end up being delicious?”

“Yeah, actually,” Zoe replied.  Even though it felt like my whole body was on fire, I felt the horrific quakes from her voice all around me.  “It ended up being pretty good.  It was almost like they put meat in it, with a hint of sweetness from the chocolate around it.”

While Zoe discussed how I tasted, I thrashed against the walls of her stomach, trying to climb out of the pool of acid I had landed in.  It was no use, however.  My strength was sapped, and I could not even grab onto the tissue.  It did not take long to resign myself to my fate, and I gave up, sliding to the bottom of her stomach.

Vera never saw her boyfriend again.  Of course, she had no idea that she had watched him be devoured, and simply figured he had skipped town rather than face her.  As far as she was concerned, his cowardice had saved her from a difficult conversation, and if he was this fragile he would have taken it poorly anyway.  She did not grieve, or even feel the least bit bad, since as far as she knew he simply dropped off the face of the earth.  A week later, she was asking Zoe whether she had any friends to set her up with.