Part 6

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I slammed my fists and feet against the skin surrounding me, but the hand didn't budge, was entirely unfazed by my assault. Rather, I lost my balance and fell against the inside of the hand as I was lifted high into the air. The hand opened, only to allow two huge fingers to pluck me out, squeezing tightly around my midsection. I shrieked in pain and tried to shake off my dizziness as I was dangled at least fifty or sixty feet off the ground. As my eyes drifted upwards to the giant's massive face, my blood ran cold. I took in the same green eyes, freckles, red hair, and monstrous teeth that had been burned into my memory from the day before.

"We meet again!" the giant declared with a bloodthirsty grin. "I'm here to finish what I started yesterday." He leaned his face closer to me, seeming to expand larger before my eyes. "I thought about it, and concluded I simply couldn't stomach the thought of going to the same school, and being treated as an equal, with the likes of a repulsive human like you. So, I decided I'd put you in your place, in my stomach instead."

My eyes widened in horror. I screamed for help and flailed against his hand, desperately hoping somebody, anybody, would hear me and stop this madness. He licked his lips gleefully and opened his jaws wide. The inside of his mouth, fleshy and red, was dripping profusely as he salivated with anticipation.

"No!" I screeched.

"Yes!" the giant jeered. "Down the hatch you go!" He dangled me over his gaping maw, clearly enjoying my suffering, before dropping my squirming form inside. My screams were abruptly muffled, cutting off any chance of outside rescue. Unlike before, he didn't waste any time. I slid across his slippery tongue right into the dark abyss of his gullet. He swallowed, and I slipped smoothly down his throat.

This was the end for me. The powerful muscles of his esophagus squeezed me with suffocating force as I was dragged down into hell, powerless to stop my long, terrifying descent. His thunderous heartbeat, along with bellowing gusts from his lungs, banged in my ears as I passed through his chest. I dreaded what awaited me below. I couldn't imagine the horrors of being digested alive, but I was about to find out what it would feel like.

I reached the end of the restrictive fleshy tube, and dropped into his stomach, a fleshy sack full of gurgling gastric juices. I landed in a puddle of stomach acid, immediately feeling an unpleasant tingling on my skin as the corrosive fluids slowly began to digest me. I thrashed about blindly in the pitch-black darkness, using every last bit of energy I had left to attack the squishy, churning walls of flesh that I was imprisoned within, to no effect. The unbearable heat, acrid fumes, and rancid stench began to overpower my senses as I struggled to breathe. While I bemoaned my horrid fate, I welcomed the loss of consciousness. I didn't want to be awake for my last moments as my body disintegrated into mush. I didn't really even have time to comprehend my own death or make peace with myself before gray static invaded my vision and I faded into nothingness.

The next thing I was conscious of was a feeling of rising. I was terribly cramped, and being squished again by powerful muscular contractions in the flesh all around me, but I was no longer inside the giant's belly. I didn't understand what was going on but I wanted it to end already. My ears hurt from disgusting, deafening retching sounds. From above I saw a faint glimmer of light. Was I dying? Was this the light at the end of the tunnel people always talked about with near-death experiences? I guess I always assumed the ascension into heaven by default would be painless, less miserable, less... meaty?

As I rose up, the light coalesced into a more distinct form, outlining the shape of a gullet and uvula. My mind, still fuzzy, started to understand. With a final, prodigious spasm in the throat, I was expelled out, flying on the wings of freedom as I sailed out of the giant's open jaws. Luckily, he was doubled over near the ground so I didn't have far to fall. I hit the concrete with a painful splat, knocking the wind out of me. I gagged and coughed and greedily sucked in the fresh cool air. Somehow, by some miracle, I was alive. I had survived.

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