Vivian rushed through the station checking point as quickly as she could, flashing her student pass
through the ticket machine before continuing through onto the platform. The clack of wheels
followed as she stepped onto the asphalt, her shopping bag rolling behind her as she made her way
to the seat. She looked around tensely. There were other passengers here, thankfully all of them
were either rabbits like herself or some similarly small citizen. The seat she was beside was sized for
someone larger than herself, but she was still able to jump high enough to sit on it, leaving her bag
on the ground just in front of her.
  The sun was getting low. Normally she wouldn't be this late, but the end of the semester had
prompted her to put in some extra hours in the college's study hall free from the distractions of
home, and she'd needed to make a quick stop by the supermarket on the way. There was one last
train before the sun would be down, and the city's official hunting hours would begin. As long as she
was on the train itself before then, she would be safe.
  A few minutes went by, before a flash from the digital timetable overhead to her left caught her
attention. Her heart sank, seeing that her train had been delayed by ten minutes. The sun would be
down in less than eight according to the app on her phone, leaving her with almost three minutes of
potential danger that she was fervently hoping to avoid. At least there were no predators at the
station.
  Or at least, there hadn't been before she finished that thought. At that moment, a cat walked
onto the platform from the station interior and looked towards the timetable. The orange and
striped cat was wearing a simple shirt and jeans and carrying a backpack. She seemed a little short of
breath, as though she had been expecting the train to already be here.
  Vivian suppressed her urge to leave the platform. Though it seemed likely that she would be on
the same platform as the cat when legal hunting began, she would be safe once she was on the
train. And if she left the platform to avoid the cat, she'd only be taking another, maybe more
dangerous risk.
  She kept still as the cat walked towards the centre of the platform, looking up and down. There
weren't many seats suited to her size that were still available, and it was then that Vivian realized
she was on a cat sized bench, and cursing her luck that she was on the nearest such seat to the
platform entrance. She stayed silent as the young felid slowly approached and took a seat beside
her. Unlike the rabbit, the predator was large enough to sit comfortably with both feet on the
ground.
  'Not usually so happy that a train is late.' The cat said. 'I mean, I thought I was going to miss it.'
  'Oh...' Vivian replied, struggling for words but not wanting to seem unnecessarily rude. 'Y-yea,
sometimes you thank your lucky stars that... your way home is late.'
  'Sorry, I guess you were here on time.' The cat shook her head softly with a grin. 'Didn't mean to
sound selfish there. Oh, do you go to CDPC as well?'
  Vivian glanced down at the logo on her shirt, the emblem for the Central District Public College.
Her hand lifted involuntarily to the patch on her chest. 'Y-yes. It's my first year here, been tough but
I think I'm doing alright.'
  'Sweet.' The cat nodded. 'I'm Mikaela. I've been going for two years now. Learning to be a nurse.
What are you studying?'
  'A nurse?' Vivian enquired, realizing she probably shouldn't have engaged the conversation. Then
again, if she could keep Mikaela's interest elsewhere, she probably had a better chance of making it
onto the train and keeping safe.
  'Yea, it's something I've wanted to do for a while now.' Mikaela explained, taking her phone out
of her pocket and glancing at the screen. 'I like being helpful. And I like looking after people. Even if
my only experience in that so far is looking after my drunk friend.'
  'That does sound... nice.' Vivian smiled, looking sideways and up at the cat. 'I mean, looking after
people. Not so much the drunken friend.' She started to feel a little more at ease, maybe the cat had
a big enough heart to let Vivian slip by this time. They did seem to be getting on well.
  'She's not so bad.' Mikaela shrugged with a grin. The cat looked down at Vivian for a moment,
smiling before returning her gaze to her phone. She focused on the screen and typed something for
a few moments, before putting her phone back into her pocket and sitting back on the bench.
  A few more minutes of silence followed with the sun to continue creeping lower. It would be
down in another three minutes, and the train was still not due for another five.
  'So...' Mikaela broke the silence. 'What are you studying?' She looked back down at Vivian, the
rabbit making eye contact and her lip quivered slightly.
  'Oh, I'm taking a course on law.' Vivian answered after a few moments. 'With everything changing
for... well, everyone, I figured it would be a good choice of career.'
  'Nice.' Mikaela nodded. 'I hear that is a popular course this last year.'
  'Oh yes...' Vivian replied. 'There are quite a lot of students. All the more reason to work harder
and really earn the top spot in my class.'
  'Right.' Mikaela agreed. 'It can be tough.' She looked up and set her eyes on the sun as it just now
began to touch the horizon between the buildings across the city. Once again there was a minute of
silence, and when it was over Mikaela sighed and took her phone back out.
  'Is... something wrong?' Vivian asked, ever alerted now to the fact that she was legally eligible
prey. The cat continued to stare at her phone for a few more seconds before shaking her head.
  'No, I just had to make sure of something.' Mikaela sighed.
  Vivian suddenly had a terrible feeling enter her gut, punctuated by Mikaela suddenly tenting her
fingers and cracking her knuckles. The sun was well and truly beneath the horizon now, and every
second Vivian was in a public area was a second this cat could decide she was dinner.
  'What's wrong?' Mikaela asked suddenly. 'You seem nervous?'
  'Nothing.' Vivian replied hastily. She shuffled towards the edge of her seat. 'I just need to go and,
umm, I...' She cursed her nerves and looked towards the ground as she pushed herself off the edge.
Her feet never reached the ground.
  'Don't leave.' Mikaela said softly. 'You can stay right here.'
  'But...' Vivian turned around, seeing that Mikaela was holding her up by the scruff of her shirt.
'Why won't you let me go?'
  Mikaela pulled Vivian back onto the seat and shook her head. 'I'm sorry. But if I let this
opportunity slip past, I just know I'm gonna regret it.'
  'But...' Vivian's heart began to race, the desire to squirm free and run arrested as Mikaela's arm
wrapped around her and pulled the rabbit's smaller body into the cat's own side. 'We were... Why
can't you just...' No question seemed adequate to understand how she had landed in this
predicament.
  'Just be quiet for another minute.' Mikaela said softly. The next minute was silent but for the
sound of Vivian's whimpering and a single low growl from the felid's stomach. The sound of wheels
clacking on tracks came across as the train pulled into the station.
  Mikaela's hand rested atop Vivian's head as the doors opened, the few passengers still on the
platform making their way quickly on board. Vivian managed to make eye contact with a few
passengers already on the train, but nobody made a move to help her. Nobody had any obligation,
nobody wanted to risk taking her place. Her heart sank as the doors closed and the train rolled out
of the station, leaving the cat and the rabbit alone on the train platform.
  'So...' Vivian sighed. 'This is it then? You're going to...?'
  'I'm afraid so.' Mikaela replied. Her arm lowered back around Vivian's chest and quickly and
expertly undid every button on the rabbit's shirt.
  'But... Why?' Vivian sobbed. Her eyes met Mikaela's as the cat stepped off the seat and knelt in
front of it, taking her by the arms and pulling her closer.
  'Like I said, opportunity.' Mikaela shrugged. 'I've never eaten a rabbit before, and it's not like I'm
out here every night. I might not get this chance again for a long time.' She lowered her gaze slowly
down Vivian's form as her hands worked deftly to remove Vivian's remaining clothes until nothing
remained but the rabbit's bare form.
  Vivian gasped in fear as Mikaela grasped her ankles, the cat's surprisingly strong grip holding her
feet together and bringing them slowly towards her opening mouth. The rabbit closed her eyes as
she felt the warm and moist air of the cat's breath between her toes.
  'Aaah.' Mikaela sighed before closing her lips around Vivian's shins. Vivian began to pant heavily
as she looked around for some last ditch means of saving herself. Nothing was in reach, no viable
weapon and with her feet bound she had no means of fighting back.
  'Please don't...' Vivian begged frantically, feeling the cat's gullet flex around her feet and shins as
she began to swallow. The cat's rough tongue lapped beneath Vivian's thighs as she slowly fed her
prey into her mouth. The cat's teeth pressed around her hips, scraping across her waist and
abdomen as the wider part of her body entered the salivating maw.
  Mikaela was no longer acknowledging her prey's feeble whimpering, now focused on pressing
Vivian's arms to her sides so she could begin swallowing the rabbit's torso. Vivian looked down with
wide terrified eyes. She looked into the top of Mikaela's jaw, seeing the cat's eyes narrowed in
focus. Their eyes met briefly before Vivian slid deeper with a sudden slurp.
  The cat's teeth were now pressing into Vivian's shoulder blades and breasts, and her tongue was
steadily sliding up the rabbit's back. With her arms now pinned and joining the rest of her inside the
cat's pulsing gullet, she had no way to struggle but to squirm. And even squirming seemed just as
likely to aid the cat's efforts as hinder them, so she did nothing. There was no hope anymore.
  Mikaela's hand suddenly pressed down on top of Vivian's head as she leaned back and stretched
herself upright. The new position allowed Vivian to slide almost freely the rest of the way. She
managed one final scream as the row of teeth flashed past her vision followed by the ridged roof of
Mikaela's mouth. The tongue pressed in on her head as Mikaela made her final swallow, completely
enveloping Vivian in hot wet pulsating flesh.
  Vivian felt her feet slide free of the compressing gullet in that instant, and realized with horror
that the first of her had entered the cat's stomach. It only took a few more seconds for the rest of
her to follow, the powerful throat musculature forcing her into the increasingly cramped sac that
would soon begin to destroy her.
  The sound of panting and grunting began around the squirming morsel, accompanied by a rapid
heartbeat that boomed above. It was only then that it occurred to Vivian that Mikaela had probably
never attempted to down prey of her size before. Before the Push for Equality, Rabbits had lived in
their own communities, and only rodents had any chance of living in the shadows of larger beings. It
was little wonder she had been snared by this cat. She was something new, a treat that had eluded
the felid her whole life until this point.
  Vivian had no room for any but the feeblest of squirms, her curled up body pressed into itself on
all sides by the slimy pulsing stomach walls. Every breath she took was like inhaling vomit. At least
she was likely to suffocate long before feeling the brunt of the stomach acids. She made one final
attempt to stretch her limbs out, to upset the cat's stomach enough to be thrown up, only for the
powerful musculature of the digestive sac to press her mercilessly back into place. It... was over.
 
  Mikaela sighed and hefted herself back onto the seat, cradling her distended stomach in one arm.
It hadn't been easy, but she had managed to get the rabbit down whole and alive, and relished every
slight movement coming from her belly as the rabbit made her last ditch efforts to save herself. Her
breathing was slightly laboured by the larger than usual body intruding on her lung space but the
sensation was worth the mild inconvenience it caused.
  Five minutes went by, surprisingly longer than she expected the bunny to last before the last of
the squirms finally stopped. She looked beside her, rifling through the rabbit's pants and finding the
wallet. She looked through and found Vivian's student identity card, slipping it into her pocket and
then slipping the rest of her clothes into the rabbit's bag.
  A few more minutes went by before Mikaela's phone buzzed. She checked the screen and saw the
message from Ben, he was waiting outside.
  She picked up Vivian's bag and made her way slowly back through the station house and out onto
the street. Seeing Ben waiting beside his car just a little up the road, she made her last approach and
waved. 'Heey! Thanks for picking me up. I wasn't sure you got my message.'
  'You were gonna miss your train.' Ben replied, looking up. 'I'm guessing... you found yourself a
nice plump squirrel?'
  'A cute bunny.' Mikaela corrected. 'Can you make a stop on the way?'
  'I guess.' Ben shrugged. 'You're gonna have to explain this to Therese. She was in a... mood.'
  'That's fine.' Mikaela grinned. She showed Ben the address on Vivian's card, letting him memorize
his next stop before she headed to a small machine built into the outside wall of the train station.
Inserting the card into the slot, she watched as the display brought up Vivian's picture and
information. From the list of options beneath the profile information, she selected a box that read
'Consumed,' and waited a few more moments.
  A confirmation screen followed, indicating that Vivian had been successfully logged as consumed
by a predator. The card was not returned, prompting Mikaela to shrug and return to Ben's car. Ben
had already loaded the rabbit's bag into the back seat and was waiting. He started the car as Mikaela
lowered herself into the car with a grunt. They would drop Vivian's possessions outside her house
before heading home themselves. It may have been legal for Mikaela to eat Vivian, but there was no
justification for her belongings not being returned to her family.