The Nefarious Dealings of the Commorisco Club
 
 
Chapter one: An Exquisite Meal.
 
 
Her introduction to the netherworld had been completely disorientating and happened so quickly that she did not have much time to even panic. There had been a blast of freezing air and something rose up to grip her legs, clasping them together and before she could do more that flap and sway in an attempt to regain her balance, the thing that gripped her yanked and down she fell. Through the floor and through the earth and down into the ether. She was only vaguely aware of the others’ voices crying out with her, but they were soon swallowed up by the dark freezing void into which they were pulled. Then there was darkness, sudden movement, and clawed hands that grabbed and held her, forcing her hands together and pulling her about. No matter how she moved or tried to break free, there seemed to be more large hands waiting to grab her. Her head began to swim just as the world seemed to open up, the darkness pulling away like tendrils of smoke around her. Then, just as a very large face of a very large someone came into focus, she fainted.
 
“Yes,” said a deep voice from high above her. “Yes, these will do nicely…”
 
The buffeting of the floor beneath her jolted her awake. She tried to shake away the fuzziness that made her brain buzz disconcertingly and it was only when she tried to sit up did she realize her arms had been bound to her chest and something had been placed over her mouth. Her first instinct was that it was duct tape, but when she began to pry her mouth open to try and wiggle her lips free, the material would not give and seemed almost like a second skin, moving along with with her. Her feet were unbound, but her shoes were missing. Her socks too. Everything was dark and the sound of her breathing was loud in her ears. When she stretched her leg out to try once more and sit up, it hit something cold and solid. She was not given any more time to explore her cage before everything lurched and dropped, the hollow thunk of the metal below her striking the ground. A voice spoke then, muffled by the shell of her containment and far above her.
 
“My dearest gentlemen, my lady,” said the sulfurous voice – male. “I have for you here five of the most excellent specimens, each freshly caught just this evening. We recommend all new customers to partake free of any additives, to fully experience the flavor.”
 
The sound of something tapping rhythmically against the metal, just on the other side of where her foot was, sent a sort ‘tink tink tink’ echoing around her head and the sudden realization struck her; it was a dome.
 
“You are encouraged to use whichever method you prefer,” continued the voice. “And should you need, we have hot towels for any…spillage that might occur during the course of this evening’s meal.”
 
She could hear then several low fluttering sounds that sounded like several someones…laughing?
 
“Enjoy.” And then, her dark world exploded with light. Sound, no long obstructed by the dome, flooded her ears - crisp and succinct. White stretched out before her and she blinked against the assault on her retinas. The blurry shapes of four others, people she vaguely recognized from the frat party, were there too. Their arms bound to their chests, mummy like, with wide cream colored bands. Their mouths covered with the same material. They were all looking around, confused and bleary eyed. A boy she knew from the drama department suddenly cried out, his scream greatly reduced by the white tape and his feet back peddled in a panic rush, his eyes staring up at something. A hand, large, and sporting sharp, claw-like nails rose from the dark and reached out to grab the boy’s feet, dragging him back towards itself. Deep throaty chuckles from all around them set the air vibrating.
 
“Heh heh,” chuckled the large shape attached to the clawed hand. The voice mellow and melodic. “I don’t think he likes me…”
 
The others were starting to move now in the same way as the first boy, bristling against the bands that held them as they saw whatever it was beyond the shadows and trying to squirm free. And one by one, hands far larger than they had any right to be came from the dark to grab and pull them. But she was froze with terror, not sure what to do or what was happening and unable to will herself to at least attempt to escape. A velvety chuckle from above her sent ice down her spine.
 
“Curious,” it said. “Mine doesn’t seem to mind.”
 
She could not help but look up, but knew in her heart she did not really want to look. Dull purple eyes peered at her from the dark and she could just make out the vague shape of a face. It’s mouth curved up into a toothy grin and she could not help but noticed their shape. Curved and deadly. She understood instinctual she was looking into the eyes of a predator and it was only then that she felt the stirrings of fear. He was easily fifteen feet tall, possibly more. His hands were as wide as car doors and his nails…long and sharp like knives.
 
“It seems only appropriate, my friends, that I say a few words” said one of the great monsters. The dark blob of its shape rose as though standing up from a chair and then she suddenly realized where they all had been brought. Beneath her was the cold hardness of metal. A plate. The white expanse around her, a table cloth. The monsters looming over her and her fellows…diners. And the collection of hapless college students were the acting entrees. The standing speaker continued. “It has been…quiet a journey. I believe I speak for everyone in saying that this has been a long and frustrating wait for this moment. And I thank our little friends for their…generosity towards our humble club’s good health. To happier and more content days, my friends.”
 
Answers of affirmation were had and the monster sat back down, one hand reaching out for his terrified dinner as the poor girl tried to wiggle away. A sudden shriek of fright drew her gaze away and she felt instantly sick. The boy from the drama department was dangling from the open jaws of one of the monsters. Most of him was already inside the monster’s gullet with just his legs left outside to kick wildly against his devourer’s lips. The same mouth that was curled into a cruel smile and its eyes glowing in abject delight. And with a powerful, audible swallow…the boy was gone. The monster sat back with a breathy sign of contentment, one hand resting on his visibly swollen belly.
 
“Ah,” he said, drawing his tongue across his bottom lip, and patting his satiated middle. “I do love it when they squirm.”
 
More muffled cries of terror and cruel laughter hit her ears and she swept her gaze across everything to witness something similar playing out with each of her fellow students. The monsters were leaning in, the light exposing their real selves as they took hold of their prey and set to working the screaming and crying humans into their wide eager mouths. Those jaws opened farther than looked possible and their throats bulged and contorted grotesquely around their meals. Their victims’ struggles had little to no effect and were utterly superfluous, but seemed to please the monsters greatly.
 
She mewled in fright upon seeing her monster’s hand hover above her, curling into herself on instinct and trying to wiggle away. Fingers reached down to pluck up one of her feet and he spun her around so she was face to face with him, but he did not released her leg. Instead, the thumb and forefinger rubbed her calf idly as the he loomed over her, the bulk of his upper body casting her in deep shadow, and his face so close she could feel the heat of his breathe. She could make out the bulking shape of horns protruding from the crest of his hair. His other hands drew around and cupped her back to help her sit up and she was forced to crane her head back to keep eye contact. Tears started to pool in her eyes and her stomach was clenched so tightly, it made her nauseous.
 
“Such a skittish little morsel,” he purred, violet eyes seeming to glow as they soaked her in, belaying deep predatory hunger and want. “You tremble, my dear. If you’re so cold, allow me to warm you up.”
 
He lifted her from the plate as though she were nothing, cradled almost delicately between his two hands. “Such a petite little thing,” he mused with a devious smirk, turning her head towards him. “I should think you’ll go down quite smoothly.”
 
His mouth opened wide then, jaws stretching out and a dull red tongue rose up to greet her. As she stared into what would be her death, she felt the back of her mind slip just as her she entered the hot chasm of his maw. She had not blacked out for very long, but when she came to, her shoulder was pressed down into the moist plush muscle of the monster’s tongue and her head touched the back of his throat. Her feet dangled from his mouth and cushioned by his lips as though to keep his sharp teeth from cutting into her. Faint lines of light framed the outline of his smiling lips. Animal instinct and adrenaline hit her like a freight train and she began to wildly jerk about, a pleading mantra screaming in her head. No, no, no, no, no please. Please, please, please, don’t swallow. Don’t swallow!
 
“Oh ho ho!” her devourer murmured around her, tongue pushing her up and down with each word, jostling her about. “She seems to have found some spirit at last. Mmmm. Butter and sweet cream...”
 
Time seemed to freeze for several moments as he just held her in his mouth, the broad tongue under her sweeping back and forth, soaking her clothes and skin in thick saliva. The indignity of it and sheer…disgust of it were far in the back of her mind as she concentrated on one thing alone: not to take that long trip down his throat. Her other shoulder scratched painfully against his hard pallet as he nursed her, but she could not do much beyond fruitless wiggles. His mouth was not big and she recalled how the other monsters seemed to stretch around their victims as a snake might. She had always been petite and thin limbed, so he did not seem to have any trouble fitting her inside. His fingers brushed the soles of her feet just outside his mouth and she kicked at them, the whole of him vibrating with an amused chuckle. And then the world tilted up and gravity pulled her down, the top of her head pressing against his uvula and then the back of his throat. The muscles just below her relaxed and opened and she slipped into the grip of his gullet. Once it seemed to have a good hold of her, everything contracted and she was pulled down with a jerk as he took his first real swallow of her. Pleased hums reverberated around her followed by another more powerful gulp and her chilled feet touched the hot flesh of his tongue. He played with them for a moment, seeming to enjoy the sudden temperature change, before swallowing one more time. His throat had a proper hold of her now and she went down just as he predicted. Smoothly.
 
She had no concept of what being eaten, whole and alive, would be like. But in any cartoon she had ever seen as a child, there was always a wide pocket for the character to fall into with space to move about. In the monster’s belly, there was no such space. It was like sliding into a garbage bag filled with petroleum jelly. Soft and slippery and clinging. The bands around her, whatever they were actually made of, seemed to instantly dissolve and she was able to pull her arms free at last and used them to great effect. She pushed at the walls of the monster’s stomach and her hands just seem to sink further into the supple flesh and she gave it a few kicks. There was no air and she knew she would suffocate long before his gastric juices had a chance to even start on her. As she struggled, the walls pushed in on one side and through the muscle and flesh and fat of the being who had made her his dinner, she heard his laugh.
 
“Settle in, pet. You’ll be in there for a while yet.” True terror finally seized her and everything became an erratic motion. Every piece of her jerked and flailed and pushed and kicked. If she was to be his dinner, she was going to give him one hell of a bellyache. Much to her satisfaction, she heard his grunt in discomfort. She felt his press his hands to his swollen middle, rubbing at her through his flesh. “Settle, I said. Settle. It won’t be long now.”
 
Her skin began to tingle strangely and at first, she feared she had been wrong about suffocating before digestion set in. But it did not burn her at all. A great wave of exhaustion swept through her like a pulse and her limbs felt so heavy. Her efforts lagged and slowed until she was still. “Ah,” said the monster in deep satisfaction, the velvet returning to his voice. “There we are.”
 
There came another pulse and it was as though it was sucking the life from her. Her chest heaved with labored breaths as she lay in pit of the monster’s belly, waiting to die. The material around her mouth had weakened and she was and to move her lips. Another pulse hit and she cried out in fear. The flesh cradling her trembled and a sudden rush of cool fresh air blew in from above her.
 
“Breathe...”
 
She took a deep breath that shuddered. A fog crept into her mind as deep exhaustion blurred her thoughts. Another pulse drew the last drop she had in her and she knew no more.
 
……………………………
 
Outside, the monster settled into his chair, giving his belly an affectionate pat now that his body had started in on the girl and she had finally stilled. He sighed, satiated and full. Around him, his fellows too seemed lost in the throws of after dinner bliss, their own meals still and quiet. To his fellow club members, Magnus he held up his wine goblet in a toast. “To an exquisite meal.”