Just A Prank

Even before entering the apartment, Graham could already hear his roommates making noise. Their voices leaked through the walls and he sighed as he turned the locks. When he opened the door the voices stopped and he was greeted by two very suspicious smiles of the other guys. The man sitting on the couch, Ellis, said, “Hey Graham! How’re you doing?” He eyed the two in response and slowly replied, “Good…?” as he put down his backpack. They let out a very brief giggle. Hudson, the younger man sitting on the floor next to Ellis said, “Hey man, you got the groceries? Man, I’m starving.”

They giggled again, they were clearly plotting some sort of joke or prank on him. Graham just disregarded it and instead excused himself to go change clothes. He paused for a moment after taking off his pants and shirt to look over himself in the mirror, not noticing anything much different. Just the same old, maybe slightly tanner. This break of undressing fortunately left him somewhat clothed for the emergency coming from the living room.

He heard one of his roommates let out a loud scream and Graham immediately darted out his room. The source of the scream was Ellis, being, unbelievably, swallowed whole by Hudson! Ellis’ legs were completely enveloped by Hudson, whose throat bulged in a rather disturbing manner. Ellis flailed his arms uselessly for a grip as he was swallowed further. Graham finally reacted, saying, “Oh shit!” and instinctively grabbing Ellis’ arms. He attempted to pull back hard on Ellis, but Hudson’s throat had a firm grip on the man.

After a while of this unbalanced tug-of-war, Graham realized he couldn’t win. Ellis’ head slid into the depths of Hudson and Graham said to him, “I’m sorry,” and tried to let go. Unfortunately for him, Ellis himself wasn’t letting go. He tried to pull himself free with greater concern, for himself, but it wasn’t long until he was able to personally experience the wet insides of another person. The warm slime across his hands sent a chill up his arms and down his spine. Finally he felt Ellis let go, but immediately after that he heard another glurk.

He looked forward and saw his wrists buried in the back of Hudson’s mouth. He tried to yank them back but was instead pulled slightly forward by the endless peristalsis. He eventually quit these struggles too and started to plead with his roommate turned predator. “Please,” he begged, “don’t do this! I can- I can go get some food, okay? I won’t tell anyone. Just please let me go.” Hudson’s eyes looked up into a blank corner, then he shrugged and continued eating his mid-afternoon snacks.

Graham took a few more moments to look desperately for some sort of salvation from being reduced to a meal but found nothing. As his search ended, his vision was obscured by the deep pink of flesh. He felt a tongue wiggle underneath his jaw, sending another shiver down his spine. It spread its saliva across the bottom of his head and neck, in addition to the other similarly wet walls of his mouth. After a moment of loitering he continued down his path, entering the heavy pressures of the esophagus. It squeezed his head and the rest of him down into the stomach, though the main sensation he could feel was the constant dragging of a tongue down his chest as he progressed.

His head was eventually squeezed out of the pressures, moving it into a rather noxious chamber. There he was able to see Ellis, placed awkwardly against the tight walls of the stomach. It was about to be a little more cramped. With each pulse of his predator’s heart he spilled into the stomach a little more, landing very awkwardly into a somewhat upside down position. When his feet finally left the throat as well, he quickly readjusted himself to be sitting up and facing the other victim of Hudson’s hunger.

The background noise of his apartment was replaced instead with a distant heartbeat and faint gurgling noises from all around. The flesh shifted constantly and it was both unbearably hot and humid. He tried to push outward on the stomach walls but it mostly rejected his advances. One sound pierced from outside, that of a belch being released from Hudson. The stomach convulsed shortly afterward with a hiccup. Graham kept pounding despite the lack of reaction, which did get a reaction this time. He felt a hand rub over his hand and back on the outside through the flesh. Then he could muffledly hear, “Hey guys, I just wanted to say: You guys were so tasty!”

Graham punched the stomach walls again and Hudson continued, “Seriously, especially you, Graham! Not really like a graham cracker at all, but still good.” He heard a deep, contented sigh. Graham shouted to his captor, “Hudson! Let us out! We’re not your food!” He felt fingers tapping against his back, then came his response: “Hmm, I think you are, right? Let’s see, I ate ya, made of organic matter, all nice and comfy in my belly there… Sounds like food to me! Maybe super raw food, but still good!” Another, quieter belch was released. Before Graham could start back up his complaining, he continued, “Yep, I think I’m just gonna go to sleep for a bit.” He yawned, “All this food’s made me tired!” The belly rotated an angle, leaving Graham awkwardly on top of Ellis. Hudson’s last words were, “G’night, don’t let the acids bite.”

Graham didn’t even know how to process this anymore, he felt completely helpless at the control of his predator. His entire space now was this very tight container totally under control of someone else who just viewed him as food! He could feel his own heart quicken, the distant heartbeat not helping. He and Ellis each readjusted themselves back to a fairly normal position now that no more movement was coming for a while. Graham could feel a leg underneath him, no doubt due to what he imagined to be a ridiculously sized belly spilling over the rest of him. He started to sob out of despair and felt a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up to Ellis, who was remarkably and almost infuriatingly nonchalant. Graham immediately blurted, “How are you not freaking out over this?” Ellis leaned forward and whispered, “Gotcha!” Graham was stunned and jerked back. He just said, “What?” Ellis smiled wider and said, “We totally got you! It’s just a prank!” Graham became irritated now, saying, “Are you fucking kidding me? Does this look like a prank? We’re inside a whole other person’s stomach like his fucking food.” Ellis frowned and said, “Yeah, but--” Graham cut him off and said, “No, you look. He ate us. He’s fucking asleep right now! If anything, he pranked you into being his food for the next two weeks!”

Ellis adamantly shook his head. “Graham, no. It’s just a joke man. We’re gonna get out of this just fine.” Graham couldn’t believe his complete disregard for the danger they were in, prank or not. He shook angrily, balling up his fists. “Oh yeah? Just a joke, right!” He gave a fake laugh that unnerved his stomach-mate, who started trying to calm him down. Ellis said, “Hey man, just relax okay…? Look, I’m sorry. We can--” Graham interrupted him again by shouting, “Here’s a prank!” and then in one quick motion, opening his mouth and enveloping Ellis’ entire head.

He spent no time enjoying anything like the other man’s taste, just quickly and forcefully swallowing the other man whole, once more. It was over in less than a minute, his jutting gut occupying the space that his roommate did. He released his own belch into the stomach, which transferred to a light belch from Hudson. Now that his mind cleared back up, he was amazed at himself. Was the capacity to eat whole other people in everyone? Either way, he also understood why Hudson ate him. Ellis was immensely satisfying. Especially the slight struggling he could feel, just divine. This would keep him fed for weeks… though he doubted he would live that long.

He could hear a muffled voice again, but from inside him. Ellis said, “Okay, okay, you had your fun. Now let me out!” Graham gave his belly a hesitant stroke, which sent a chill down his spine, but a good one. It felt great. He responded to his own meal, “I don’t see why I should let you digest out here when you can just as easily digest in there. And you were pretty delicious, you know.” He felt some stronger struggles, so he said, “C’mon, it’s just a prank right? How’s it feel now that you’re in me?” Ellis shouted, “Graham! Let me out!” Graham however, was starting to fade himself. He wondered if he was digesting already, or just passing out before then. Either way, he was glad to do so with a full belly.

*/^\*

What woke up Graham was the feeling of fresh, cool air hitting his face. It was startling, he didn’t know how long he had spent in the hot and damp chamber he was just in. Next he saw blindingly white porcelain, a bathtub. Also bright compared to the dark insides he was just in. He landed roughly into the basin and rubbed his head. He dazedly asked, “How long has it been…?” Above him, Hudson responded, “Just a few hours. I did fall asleep a little back there, eheh. Sorry about that. Hold on…” He could hear Hudson start trying to dry heave above him, so he instinctively pulled himself away. He stepped out of the tub, stretching his legs and wobbling. It felt harder to walk, and not just because he was cramped…

Graham rubbed over his belly, many sizes less than a full human but still obviously bigger than it was, and sagging slightly just below his waist. He groaned as he leaned against the wall trying to get his bearings. Hudson said, “Hey Graham, I can’t seem to spit up Ellis, do you know…” He stopped himself as he took a look at the unstable Graham, who was sporting quite the inflated stomach from when he entered. In a deeply serious tone, he asked, “Graham? What did you do to Ellis?” Even though the answer was obvious, he still needed confirmation.

Graham simply put up one finger and flipped open the toilet. He started to gag and felt something coming up his throat. Could it possibly be that his food survived this long? Then again, he survived in Hudson. It was not possible however, as illustrated by a large clump of Ellis’ clothes being ejected into the toilet. They both just stared blankly at it, though Graham started to turn around saying the usual, “I can explain…”

Hudson just shook his head and said, “Can’t you take a joke?! It was just a joke! Just swallow you up into my belly for a while and freak ya out! No harm no foul!” Graham became defensive and said, “Hey! I didn’t know that! I could’ve died in--” He let out a brief belch, only serving to anger Hudson more. “I could’ve died in there!” Hudson angrily countered, “But you wouldn’t have! Ellis told you, right? Before you fucking digested him?” Graham glanced down at the pudge Ellis left behind and then back up. He slowly said, “...No. I was angry so I thought I would eat him as revenge on you.”

The story didn’t add up, as Hudson remarked, “So you ate another ‘prey’ just so you could get revenge on me? How does that work?” Graham just bit his lip and tried to recall their conversation while he was inside Hudson to bring some lightness into the situation. He awkwardly chuckled and said, “Um, well, uh, at least he was tasty?” This caused the very opposite of what Graham was hoping for. At the remark of his best friend being treated as food, Hudson charged him. They fell to the ground and started wrestling across the apartment.

*/^\*

Mr. Gioretti walked up to the apartment that was receiving all the noise complaints. It was late in the evening, too much for all the ruckus he had heard even without the complaints. He banged on the door and said, “Hey, youngins! It’s your landlord, open up! What’s all that noise you’re making so late?!” He waited for a response through the door and didn’t hear much. He could hear floorboards creaking as someone slowly walked up to the door and unlocked it.

The door was then filled by one of the tenants, Graham he believed his name was. He was much bigger than last he saw him. Mostly fatter, but not really evenly spread. Just this massive beer gut thing. After a good long look he re-established eye contact and asked, “What’s with all the noise Graham? You know the rules. Was it your rowdy roommates again?” Graham shook his head and stifled a burp. He said, “No, actually um, they moved themselves out. I can handle the rent for the rest of the month but uh, could you put some ads for new ones?”

Gioretti nodded and said, “Good riddance. Those kids and their pranks were gonna get someone hurt someday. You alright?” Graham replied, waving away the concern, “Oh, yeah. No I’m good. Just uh, you know. Some food disagreeing with me.” Gioretti couldn’t help but look down at the gut and said, “Yeah, you know, no offense, but if you want there’s an exercise room downstairs. Access comes with the rent.” Graham smiled and said, “Thanks, Mr. Gioretti. You have a good night alright?” He started to close the door and the old landlord just smiled and nodded. He closed and locked it.

Graham fell back against the door and belched. He groaned, wrapping his arms around his incredibly large belly. Holding about a person and a half, it felt great despite the effort required to move it around. He could still faintly feel Hudson’s struggles, which delighted him greatly. He licked his lips and rubbed over his stretched skin, feeling all the lumps that Hudson’s body made in his gut. Hudson, and Ellis as well, both made great food. He was happy this ‘prank’ taught him such a great lesson.