Ghost Hunting

Carol should’ve seen it coming. Hindsight is 20/20, but her foresight was supposed to be 20/20 too. The questions he asked her were obvious, really. “Is this place haunted?” He asked. She responded, “Not right now, but I can see it will be soon.” “Will I be satisfied soon?” “I see you with a full stomach not too long from now.” She was too busy looking down at her crystal ball and seeing his bloated belly, to see his salivating and gaping mouth. “Will I prosper?” Her crystal ball became nearly opaque, she could only barely make out a wet, wavy surface. Then her own view went black.

Of course, she knew what it was now. It was still dark, but she could feel the texture of the man’s belly. She realized that his bloated belly was her, and also that she was perhaps going to be haunting this place soon. She had never died before, so she wasn’t sure. She pondered struggling, but decided quickly that it’d be pointless. The man who ate her was much bigger and unlikely to throw up a meal. She didn’t have much time left anyway. She heard a belch, and then the stomach compressed even tighter. She was pressed against the walls on all sides, and not to mention upside down in rising stomach acid. She passed out quickly.

*/^\*

She opened her eyes, to her own surprise. She was in the man’s chair, in her fortune telling room. She looked down, and saw through herself, as well as seeing a wispy trail where her legs once were. She looked in the crystal ball, and saw a transparent and softly glowing version of herself. She was a living (or dead rather) silhouette, appearing as if she was clothed, despite only being a uniform white.

She got off of the chair, though in actuality she was just floating a bit off the ground. She reached for the doorknob to leave the room, but found that she couldn’t touch it. She grumbled to herself and floated on through. Carol shivered, it felt very strange to move straight through physical matter. The rest of the house was abandoned as usual, except for her. She tried to go outside, but found she couldn’t. Sighing, she supposed this was the norm for ghosts. Chained to a place, needing to resolve a past matter before they can move on.

After investigating the rest of her house in her ghostly form, Carol heard someone working on the front door. She hurriedly floated back, and discovered a small group of guys; a cameraman, some other person, and the man who ate her. He was smiling devilishly looking around the house. The cameraman asked, “Hey, are you sure there’s a ghost here?” Her predator responded, “Yeah. Absolutely positive.” He chuckled to himself, patting his belly. The third person said, “Yeah Ben, if Dave’s sure, he’s sure.” The cameraman nodded and said, “Well, okay… If you say so. Are we ready to start recording this first episode of ‘Urban Paranormia?’”

This made Carol just fume. She was eaten and digested for a show? Oh, she knew why she was stuck here now. She had to get her revenge here. As they started rolling, she slipped out of sight, into the floor. Ben started, “Alright, this camera should be able to see something. Rolling in 3, 2, 1…” Dave stood in front of the camera and said, “Hello everybody. My name is Dave, and this is ‘Urban Paranormia.’ I’m here today, with my friend Ben behind the camera, and also Fred.” The camera briefly turned towards him, and Fred waved at it. Turning back, Dave continued, “You see, our mission is to find ghosts living in your own neighborhoods. We’re at this house in suburban Tennessee, where until recently, a fortune teller lived here. Rumor has it, her ghost still inhabits this place.

“Let’s first check out where she was last seen.” The group headed over to the side room, where Dave received his ‘fortune.’ “As you can see here, there’s a crystal orb, as well as some drapes and old candles. But, she is nowhere to be seen.” The camera scanned the room, with nothing but the three guys appearing on camera. They headed back out into the main room where Dave shouted, “Hello? Is anyone there? We would like to talk to you!” Fred added, “Yeah, we wanna help!” There was no response from the seemingly empty home. Ben frowned as he scanned the room for any sign of ghosts.

Dave started turned on his flashlight, and started to walk up the large wooden stairs. They creaked with every step, but he paid no mind. He knew the ghost had to be here somewhere. However, when he was nearly to the top, the wood beneath his left foot collapsed, and fell straight in. He immediately swore, though oddly enough his leg seemed to fall into something sort of wet. His flashlight was knocked out of his hands when he fell. Ben kept focus on Dave, while Fred looked around the staircase and found a room below where he fell.

Carol was floating in the closet under her staircase, as she knew she’d be able to catch him when he fell through the steps. Well, she wasn’t totally sure of the catching part until now, but she could feel the weight of his leg in her ‘body.’ She sort of jumped when Fred opened the door next to her, but all he saw was the leg dangling from the hole in the ceiling. Fred called out that there was a room, and Ben followed with the camera. Dave said, “Do you see anything around my leg? It feels kinda tight.” Fred looked around with the flashlight, but didn’t see anything. “No. I’m just gonna lift your leg back out of the hole.”

He walked forward and put the flashlight down, helping Dave out of the stairs. Carol groaned as he did so, it forced her to float upwards with his leg, as she was essentially just hanging off it. With the light down, Ben suddenly noticed something on the camera. He squinted his eyes at the monitor preview on the side of the camera, then looked back through the lens. “Hey, guys? There’s something there, I think.” Fred finished lifting Dave’s leg, so he walked over to the camera to see. “Where?” he asked. Ben pointed at what appeared to be an area of the room that was lit a bit more than the rest. The area seemed to disappear as Dave lifted his leg all the way out.

Fred shrugged, “Maybe just moonlight from the hole?” Dave interrupted them and said, “My leg still feels freaking weird.” They headed back over to the staircase as he walked back down it. He walked oddly, as if something was stuck on his foot. Ben said, “Maybe you twisted it falling into that hole?” He replied, “Nah, it doesn’t hurt. Just tight. And sorta wet, I think.” “Maybe the wood cut up your leg?” Dave sat down on the steps and rolled up his jeans leg, where he didn’t notice anything particularly odd.

Carol felt really weird at this point, she was angled oddly with Dave’s leg still inside her stomach, throat, and mouth. Dave’s other leg was close by in his sitting position, so she managed to sort of slide over, through his leg, and get it inside her ghostly system. Dave rolled down his pant leg and said, “What the heck, now my other leg has the same feeling.” He tried to stand up, and found himself unable to adjust his legs. They were locked in place. When he tried to take a step forward, he fell face-first on the ground as if his shoes were tied together. Rubbing his head, he shouted, “Jesus fuck, what the hell is going on?”

Carol was upside down now, her head sort of phasing through the floor. She couldn’t see or hear what was going on, but knew she had to act fast. His flat positioning made it easy for her to start slithering up his body, rapidly consuming him. It felt odd as her form gave way for the man, way past the capacity of what a stomach would normally be. But he didn’t go through, her stomach simply stretched to fit.

Dave became very angrily freaked out, writhing around on the ground as the uncomfortable sensation continued to slowly move upward. “What the fuck!” he exclaimed. “Fred, get me off the ground!” Fred quickly hurried over and started trying to help lift him up, but it was rather difficult. Dave used his other hand to try and lift himself up, but his legs were just acting like useless bricks attached to his body. With Fred’s assistance, he managed to slowly lean himself up against the wall, like a cardboard cutout.

While Carol was glad to see and hear again, all this shifting around was starting to make her dizzy. Either way, she was almost to his shoulders now. She almost wished she could taste him as she ate her predator, but then again the clothing would probably taste horrible. It sure didn't feel great going down her throat. She watched as Dave tried to move his arms down, probably to feel his clothes to make sure he wasn’t going crazy. Unfortunately it sealed off his fate; as his arms pressed against his sides, Carol’s ‘belly’ expanded to have the arms crammed in next to the rest of his body.

He immediately felt the slimy, sticky substance on his hands and reflexively tried to pull them away. Instead, his hands moved outward slightly before coming into contact with some sort of barrier. “Now it’s to my hands! Fuck!” Fred was rather worried as his friend was becoming increasingly paralyzed. He glanced back at Ben, who was still rolling the camera, and also shrugged. He wasn’t sure what to do besides record. He suggested, “Maybe try moving his hands for him to make sure they’re not like… stuck?”

Fred grabbed Dave’s hands, pulling as hard as he could, even leaning back on his heels. Dave’s arms were firmly caught on something, that was for sure. “It’s not working,” he said, shaking. “He’s stuck on something!” Dave grunted, “Do you see anything on the camera?” Ben couldn’t see anything through the lenses, so he checked the side monitor again. He could barely make out another light difference, which he squinted at. He said, “Hmm… maybe?” Dave responded, angrily, “What do you mean, maybe?!” Ben threw a hand in the air and said, “I mean, it might be something, it might not! The area up to about your… neck is kinda brighter than the wall behind you, but that’s all.”

Carol was nearly done. Even if they figured it out that it was ‘the ghost’ (which frankly, she figured Dave probably knew by now) they wouldn’t be able to do anything. Now that she was on his bare skin, no doubt he could feel everything acutely. Her tongue running up the back of his neck, her lips gliding across his face, and finally the crushing pressure of her throat around his head. Dave screamed for a few seconds, then started saying, “Ow!! Jesus fucking christ, god! I just had about the worst headache in my whole life.”

She belched loudly, though no one heard her. The camera picked up the sound in a less clear manner, but this wouldn’t be known until much later when they watched the video. Carol was finally able to turn around from the wall, which rotated Dave as well. The other two jumped at the sight, seeing their friend unnaturally spin. Carol looked down at her ‘body;’ her form outlined his body, and she could see him kind of wiggling back and forth. She laughed at this, but she wished she could see his face. Her body was semi-opaque to herself, so she could still see through herself, but she couldn’t see him inside her. It looked like he was panicking under a tablecloth.

She was also rather uncomfortable with being so vertically stretched, so to fix this, she flung herself downwards. Since he was still solid, this had the effect of forcing his legs to fold up. As she floated back to levitating-level, she felt her body reshape, snapping into a semi-normal position. Now her gut bulged out in front of her, rounder and right below her breasts. She sighed happily, this was much more comfortable. And it felt so, so filling. She could see why he would engage in such a terrible act, though admittedly she was also doing so. But it was a matter of revenge, not pleasure. Well, not entirely pleasure, at least.

Dave was absolutely freaked out. At this point he really did know exactly what happened. This position he was in, this feeling, he was in a fucking ghost’s stomach. He didn’t even know that was possible, until now. He thought he was just going to eat that lady and make a ghost out of her for his show. Well he did, and now that ghost was exacting poetic justice on him. He struggled, apparently floating in the air, and said, “Fuuuuuck! Guys, you gotta help me out of here. The fucking ghost got me.”

Ben and Fred just stared at him, then at each other. Fred whispered, “I-I thought ghosts weren’t real?” Ben wasn’t any less confused. He stared at the side-monitor, watching the faint light float around Dave. He started to say, “Um, should we call 911?” Dave shouted, “No! No, don’t… the police wouldn’t be able to help us. Plus it’s just a ghost, right? Just get me out of here!” In reality, Dave was worried that a police presence might lead to them discovering some evidence that he was responsible for the fortune teller’s ‘disappearance.’ He thought he’d be better off without that trouble. After all, a ghost isn’t even alive anymore. What’s the worst it could do?

Ben put down the camera on a little stand nearby, making sure it was still recording in case this turned out to not be the death of them all, and walked over to Dave with Fred. He said, “Um, okay. Fred, grab his other hand, and we’ll try and pull him out, okay?” Fred nodded, grabbing Dave’s hand again. It was even slimier than before, so he had to tighten his grip. “3, 2, 1!” They both pulled on him, and though his hands didn’t move much, they ended moving the floating man in their direction. They stopped shortly afterwards, it was about as heavy as dragging a person, even if that person was floating in the air. “Well,” Fred panted, “that did something, at least.” They looked around Dave, seeing if there was anything obvious holding him, but they saw nothing but him. Ben said, “Fred, um, where’s that flashlight? Maybe shining a light on this will reveal something.”

Fred jogged back over to to the side room that they went in earlier, and picked up the flashlight. When he came back, Ben was crouching under the floating man, patting around his shoes and bottom. Fred asked, “Uh, what are you doing?” Without turning around he reached out and opened his hand for the flashlight. Fred handed it over, and Ben turned it on, aiming at Dave. “You see this,” he said, pointing at the spot illuminated by the flashlight, “it’s kinda weird. His shoes and pants are both kinda squishy.” Fred bent down next to him to see. “And not like, rubber where it bends sorta, it’s like slimy.” Fred also felt around curiously, and some of Dave’s shoe even got on his hands. He grimaced and wiped it off on his pants.

As Dave’s friends investigated the case of the floating man, Carol sort of relaxed in the air. She wasn’t sure what would happen exactly, but she knew Dave wasn’t getting out of his retribution. She found it entertaining to watch the two mess around with him. They stood back up, wondering what they should do. Ben suddenly had an idea, and said, “Hold on, I just thought of something. Dave, we’ll be right back. We’re going to find a rope.” He started heading upstairs, and Fred followed.

Left alone, Dave decided now would be the time to negotiate with his prey-turned-predator without revealing his own deeds. He spoke out into thin air, “Um, hello, fortune teller lady? If you’re there, I just want to say I’m really sorry. I, uh, didn’t mean to eat you. I fell onto you when I tried standing up from my chair and it all just kinda went it’s natural path from there.” If he could hear Carol, he would’ve heard a cackling laugh. She ‘responded,’ “Wow. An accident? No, this was on very much purpose. You ate me for your own greed.” Hearing nothing, he continued on, “Look, I’m so sorry I… digested you. Okay? Could you please let me out, Ms. Ghost?” In response, she shook her ‘belly’ up and down, and took him flying around the main room. He cried out, “Fuck okay! Stop it! What do you want? Uh, I’ll never come back! I’ll leave you alone! I’ll give you a proper funeral!” All these things didn’t matter to her anymore, but she decided to head back to the ground. Since she seemingly complied, he said, “Thank you so much. You’ll never see me again. Can you please let me out?”

*/^\*

Fred and Ben returned with a rope that they managed to make out of bed sheets. Ben turned to Fred and said, “Alright, so you’ll stay up here and try to pull it over this railing after I give the OK, okay?” Fred nodded, and Ben headed back downstairs. He walked past the still-floating Dave, and grabbed the end of the rope as it dangled over the railing. He walked back to Dave and handed him the end of the rope. “Alright, hold on to that tight. I’m gonna try to pull you out with a cheap pully thing.” Dave nodded weakly, he felt rather uncomfortable and nauseous. He wrapped the end of the rope around his hand, holding onto it tight. Ben signaled OK to Fred, who started pulling.

Dave could feel himself lifting up ever so slightly, and then suddenly, as punctuated by a gloopy popping noise. Ben exclaimed, “Holy fuck! Fred, let go!” The rope immediately slackened, and Dave fell back down shortly. He angrily shouted, “What the fuck was that guys?!” Ben just stared dumbfounded at him, and Fred started coming downstairs to see what the fuss was about. As soon as Ben managed to close his mouth, he bent down and looked under Dave with the flashlight again. Fred gasped as well when he saw that all there was down there was a rounded out blob of blue and black. Ben leaned in to touch it, it was thick, slimy, and sticky.

“What the fuck is your problem, guys?” Though Dave had a pretty good idea. He finally looked down and noticed he was about waist-deep in denim-blue slime. He whispered to himself, “Oh no.” Carol responded, “Oh yes,” to no one but herself and the idling camera. She rubbed over her belly and let out another burp, much to her satisfaction. And he’d have to experience what it felt like to be digested awake. She imagined he’s eaten other people before, so this ought to make up for that. Though he didn’t seem particularly pained or anything. She shrugged. Ghost anatomy and ectoplasmic digestion is weird.

Ben finally answered, “Dave… you’re melting!” He didn’t respond. He already knew exactly what was going on. Although he had a feeling digestion wasn’t usually supposed to be like this. Fred stuck his hand through the goo, feeling the strangeness of it. Ben slapped his hand out of it. “Um, okay,” Ben said, “We’ll… Uh.” He had no idea what to do this time. He noted the shape that the fluid conformed to, it was peculiar. He didn’t know what it meant though.

“Okay, um, Fred. Let’s try like, lifting him up?” They grabbed his hands once again, this time trying to lift him up, to their head level. It worked, though didn't particularly accomplish anything. He was just floating a bit higher. “Alright, now let's… eugh, push him up a bit higher.” They winced as they stuck their hands into the thick soup where Dave's legs were. And Dave had a shiver go up his spine when they made contact with his solid mass. They pushed him up further, so they could comfortably walk under him, hopefully to figure out a better solution. They pulled their hands out, dripping with dark blue and pinkish sludge. Ben shook his hands around uselessly and said, “Ugh, I'm going to go find a towel. Just watch him and make sure he doesn't float away or something.” Fred nodded as Ben started walking off.

Fred looked at his hands and also tried shaking his hands around. It was gross, but he was kind of curious, actually. He tentatively licked a finger and immediately regretted it. It tasted just like he had run his tongue across a pair of jeans. He wasn't really sure what he expected. He looked up at Dave’s liquefied bottom with the flashlight. It was definitely in some sort of container, none of it was dripping on him. “Hey Dave,” he asked carefully, “how's that feel?” Dave responded, “How's what feel?” Fred clarified, awkwardly, “The um, whole… melting thing?” Dave became sort of angry and said, “It feels like nothing, dude! Where did Ben go? Are you guys even trying?”

Fred just sighed, “Went to get some towels.” Dave continued his questions with, “Can you get me down from here? I don't like being so high off the ground.” Carol obliged by dropping straight down, submerging Fred in Dave. Fred panicked, and immediately tried to get out, though he was pinned against the ground by him. His head was surrounded on all sides by the substance. It felt like dunked his head in mud. Some got in his mouth and he first spit it out, but he noticed that it tasted different than the muck he tasted earlier. It tasted like a meat sauce.

Dave was thoroughly freaked out as he pinned his buddy to the ground with his mass. He still couldn't move himself much at all, so he shouted into the air, “You leave him alone! He's not part of this!” Carol chuckled to herself and said, “Oh but I think he's enjoying himself down there!” She could feel her belly draining slightly, and guessed that Fred was enjoying the taste of meat a bit. Though she didn't want to drown him, so she moved off of him. He took a gasp of air and Ben returned right after, holding a stack of towels.

“What-- what happened while I was gone?” He took a towel and threw it to Fred, who was lying on the ground with a visibly soaked head. Before he started drying off, he licked his lips, savoring the last of the flavor. He dried while staring blankly towards Dave. He wondered if it was wrong to have liked the taste of that so much. He guessed it was probably okay, since it's some sort of weird ghost melted mix, and it wasn't like he was eating a human raw. Ben snapped his fingers and said, “Hellooooo? Earth to Fred?” He snapped out of his stupor and just said, “Oh, uh, he… the ghost fell back down onto me.”

Ben looked over at Dave who seemed to be melting even faster since he got back. The fall and splashing around had caused the digestive fluids to spread across his body even more, and it showed in Dave's drooping upper body. Even if they could get him out, wouldn't he be like half of a wax figure at this point? He glanced over at Fred, who was either drooling or still slimed. He looked at the camera, still recording this whole mess. He walked over to Fred and whispered, “Hey, I think we should just leave. I don't think we can really do anything here. And it's not like we can call the Ghostbusters or anything.”

Fred really wanted to taste the flavor of the melting Dave again. He could see that the floating man would be almost entirely liquid soon. Maybe they could just wait? He didn't think he would be able to convince Ben to try out the dissolving remains of their friend. However he never even actually liked Dave, come to think of it. But Ben was a decent person. He stammered out, “Um, sure, yeah. How about…” He glanced around looking for an excuse and locked on the camera. “Yeah, how about you get your camera and stuff and uh, go on ahead?” He gave his best convincing smile to try and seal the deal.

Ben went along with it. He knew Fred was probably up to something, but he was about done with whole ordeal, the ghost, Dave, and the mansion. He just started packing up the camera. Its battery was nearly dead anyway. He looked up at Fred who was just waiting for him to leave with that fake smile. He glanced further towards Dave, who really wasn’t even there at this point. He seemed totally out of it, and his body was just sort of melding together. Rolling his eyes, he finished packing up the camera. “Well, have fun with,” he sort of gestured around the whole area, “whatever you’re doing.” Fred just nodded a lot, and Ben finally left the house.

Fred was alone with the dissolving blob of his former friend. Dave felt very tired altogether, and wasn’t entirely sure of what was going on. He saw Fred walk up to him and muttered, “Fred…? What’s happening? Where’s Ben?” Fred didn’t even hear his words, he was focused on the melting flesh. He dragged a finger across the side of Dave’s face, and re-sampled the taste. It was still every bit as delicious, and he paid no mind to Dave’s complaints as he plopped face-first into his puddling figure. He swallowed the thickish consistency, which resembled more of a pudding than any actual meat sauce. He hungrily gulped it all down, even the thin layer of fabric-tasting pudding wouldn’t stop him.

Carol was about equally bewildered and entertained by the turn of events. She was also somewhat upset that she wouldn’t be the one to fully digest him, but either he way he was being digested. Not too big of a deal. Dave desperately tried to lift what was left of his arms-- squishy, dripping stubs-- to stop Fred. Instead, Fred just continued to drink, and actually sucked off the semi-solid arm, swallowing it whole. He gave a quick burp, and continued with his meal. Dave was powerless to stop his second consuming. As he watched Fred below him eat up, he could feel himself lowering, sinking into himself. His face molded together, and he finally faded altogether when his head joined the blob. The last thing he saw was an open mouth, strings of saliva and slime throughout as the tongue scooped in parts of himself.

After a while, when the meaty pudding seemed to run out, Fred noticed it was darker now. He leaned back, and everything was lit again-- and there was a ghost floating a few inches in front of him. He shouted and jumped a foot back, burping as jostled his stomach so. The ghost seemed surprised. She said, “You can see me?” Fred stood up and became defensive, calling out for Ben. No luck though, he already left a while back. She chuckled, “Now you’re afraid of me? You sure weren’t afraid just a minute ago.” The ghost shook her decently distended belly around, which gurgled in response. Fred looked down at his own belly, which popped out under his shirt, and jiggled around at the slightest movement. He shook his head and focused back on the ghost, asking it, “Um, what… who are you?” She gave a hearty laugh at that one. “Isn’t it obvious? You were here searching for a fortune teller who ‘vanished,’ right?”

He nodded slowly, putting the pieces together in his mind. “Well, that fortune teller was me. My name’s Carol, Fred. And I’ve been here all night! Digesting away this sorry excuse for a person.” She patted her belly again. Fred swallowed and said, “You mean, you… you ate him? Like, as a ghost? Why… why would you do that?” She smiled in a dubiously kind manner and answered, “Well, your friend there, Dave, he wasn’t the greatest person. You see, to get his ghost, he made one, personally. The same way I made him a ghost.” She gave one last belch, and started to glow. She stared at her hands, then upwards, and gave a truer smile. “Now I’ve exacted my revenge. And I’m glad you enjoyed yourself too.” She pointed at some ‘Dave’ on his face, which he quickly licked off. “You’d better get out of here before he reappears, Fred. No doubt he’ll be pretty angry.” He nodded, and kept watching as the ghost slowly faded out of view. Then, once again the dark house was alone, not even the floating blob of flesh left. He glanced around at the now scary surroundings, afraid that Dave would do the same to him that just happened here. He quickly dashed out of the house, heading back towards the dorm where Ben would be.