Big Puppetry

“Ohhh, Mike, look at this!”

He stepped over to his girlfriend, being very careful not to bump into any of the dozens of antiquities precariously shelved throughout the shop. She had discovered what appeared to be... some sort of patched-up plushie? It was seemingly a man, dressed up like a magician, as indicated by its suit, top hat, and black-and-white wand. “A... magician?”

Hanna lifted it up, revealing it to be much flatter than it looked, besides the head and arms. Then she put it on her arm and put on a masculine voice to say, “That’s right, sir! Not just a magician, but a hand-puppet magician!”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Ha. Pretty creepy, Hanna.”

She dropped her arm and looked at him directly. “Aw, I think it’s cool! He’s a funny lookin’ little guy.”

“He is funny lookin’, but more in a ‘he gives me the heebie-jeebies’ way.”

She brought it up to his face and said in that deeper voice, “Don’t be rude, mister! I may be a bit worn around the edges but I promise you I’m fully functional and whatnot.”

‘His’ sudden appearance in his face did spook him more than he’d like to admit. The way she said that last part didn’t sit well with him either. He laughed nervously and said, “Alright, alright. Anyway, uh, you ready to leave? I think I’m done browsing.”

“Oh, sure!” She took the puppet off and weighed it in her hands for a moment. She really did like it. Something about it just clicked in her mind. “You know what, actually, I’m just going to buy this guy!”

“You--” Before he could say anything to possibly stop her, she walked past him over to the register. All he could do was watch as she handed over payment. He sighed, but he’d guess he’d have to deal with that obsession for a little while.

*/^\*

A month later, her obsession was still going strong. She had learned all sorts of new tricks with the puppet, throwing her voice, using its arms, even performing some minor sleight-of-hand with it. It was impressive at first, despite the creepiness of the puppet performing it. But after a while it was grating. He had made more than a few snarky comments about it, much to her (and ‘Mr. Magic’s’) annoyance. But to the best of his ability he clenched his teeth and dealt with it.

Hanna, of course, had plenty of fun with her new hobby. She liked perfecting the craft, performing all sorts of tricks and little acts even though her boyfriend seems utterly unimpressed, or lately, disdainful. Mr. Magic was honestly better company, a lot of the time. It reminded her of simpler sock-puppets when she was a kid. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Magic?”

“That’s right, Hanna! That man’s no good for you. Remember when he called your hobby stupid and childish?”

“Yeah, but...” She sighed. She shouldn’t be talking to her own puppet. She must be tired. “I know! I’ll show him your new coin-behind-the-ear trick.” She smiled, staring down at Mr. Magic’s googly eyes. “Oh come on, I’m sure he’ll be at least a little amused.”

Mike was sitting on the couch, watching some sports when his girlfriend emerged from their bedroom. He turned around and said, “Oh hey, want to watch? It’s actually been--” His eyes slid down to her hand and he turned back to the TV. He muttered, “Here we go again.”

She came up to the couch and kneeled so that she prop her arm up on the cushion. “Greetings, Sir Mike!” She said, in the puppet’s voice. “Sorry to interrupt this program, but I’ve learned a brand new performance of trickery. If you’ll lend me your ear--”

He pushed her hand down and looked down at her. “Look. I’m tired, okay? I just want to watch my game. You can join me, but I don’t want to see your fucking puppet.”

She stared up at him as he returned to watching football. She looked down at her hand, at Mr. Magic. It seemed almost dejected, and so did she. Silently, she got up and headed back to their bedroom. Hanna fell onto the bed like a log and grabbed a pillow to yell into. And sob into. After she recovered some, she rolled onto her side to stare at Mr. Magic. “I wish he would just support us. It’s not like we’ve done anything to him...”

“It’s not your fault, Hanna. That man wouldn’t know what entertainment is even if it crushed him!”

She laughed a little. “Still... I wish there was something that would impress him.”

“Hmm... I might have just the trick!”

“Oh? What is that?” She moved her hand over towards herself, then started whispering. “Oh! Wait, really?” Mr. Magic nodded. “Well, we can give it a try.”

A few hours later, after the game finally ended in double overtime, Mike came to bed. Holly looked to be already asleep, though she left the light on. He turned it off and quietly joined her. As he climbed into bed and pulled the sheets over, he immediately noticed something firm laying next to Holly. “What the-” He couldn’t see very well in the dark, but the white tips of a wand caught the remaining light very well. “Fucking puppet...” He muttered as he tried to pull it off her hand. Unfortunately, it wasn’t coming off. She was still holding onto it in her sleep, it seemed.

“It’s quite uncouth to grab people unannounced, Mike.” The voice was undoubtedly that of her puppet’s, being thrown to come from it. It was ‘looking’ at him, but he just groaned.

“Hanna, come the fuck on, I just want to get some sleep.”

“Well, I have a much newer trick to show off! One that’ll cut you down to size, if you catch my drift.”

The magician puppet then double tapped him on the head with its wand, much to his annoyance. He was going to say something, but he felt almost dizzy suddenly. He tried to shake it off. “Listen, Hanna--” The sound of his own voice was off. It sounded higher pitched than usual. He looked back up at the magician, who was now... Taller than him? “Wait, what... what’s happening to me?” The sheets he had pulled over himself suddenly started to swallow him up as he continued to change. He crawled back out, but when he did, he realized something terrible: he was hardly an inch high.

Mr. Magic towered over him now. Its-- His?-- eyes seemed focused on him somehow. But that wasn’t... possible, right? “Hanna?! What did you do to me?!” He shouted, as loud as he could at his size.

Hanna finally leaned up, joining her puppet in towering over him. “Oh wow, I didn’t know you’d be so tiny!” It was a little hard for her to see him in the dark, but she could tell roughly where he was. “Well, Mr. Magic told me a special trick he had, so I thought I’d let him try it out. Isn’t this cool?”

Once again, he tried to swallow his fear. “N-No! Look, can you just... unshrink me? I’m sorry I blew you off earlier, I just want to get some sleep.”

She considered it for a moment. Mr. Magic cut in to suggest, “Perhaps you should have some fun with your new toy?”

She smiled, “That sounds like a good idea. Hmm... Well, I’m like a giant to you now, huh?” She stood up on the bed, showing off the true size difference between them. Mike slipped towards her feet as the mattress bent towards them, despite his attempts to grip onto the bedsheet. Though she could hardly see him, she eventually felt him bump into her foot. “There you are! I don’t want to lose you, so I think I’ll just hold you under my foot if you don’t mind...”

There was hardly a thing he could say before he ended up right under her sole. Fortunately the mattress below was soft enough to keep him from being crushed, but only just. Her skin pressed hard into his back. All of her weight was right on him, making it hard to breathe. Not to mention, trapped between her and the mattress, it was smotheringly warm. He wondered how long she was planning on keeping him here. He wondered how long he’d last.

Hanna was tickled by the feeling of her boyfriend squirming underfoot. It felt good to be in control, for once. She grinded her foot against him for good measure. “How are you down there, my little man? Liking the magic trick so far?” There was, of course, no answer. She decided to lay back down on the bed, if only to get a little closer to hear him.

Mike gasped as the foot pressure released from him and he got a breath of fresh air, but it wasn’t long to be. He felt the bed shaking as she shifted, and then a great weight fell on top of him again, albeit not as tightly. He was underneath her, though he wasn’t sure where except... He was in a small divot. He could stand up hunched over, but if he wanted to go anywhere else he’d have to crawl. Was this her...?

As if to answer, the ceiling above him shook with a terribly loud GRRRWWWLLL. It knocked him down and confirmed to him that he was right under her stomach, her navel to be specific. Before he could get back up, or crawl anywhere, Hanna lifted up her side. A hand reached for him and grabbed him up quickly, pulling him outside. After a trip that was far too quick for him, he found himself face-to-face with his girlfriend.

“There you are!” She said, more relieved than anything. “I thought I lost you for a minute when I laid down.”

Mr. Magic rose up to their level as well and said, “It might’ve been better if you did!”

“Oh, don’t say that. He means well...”

He couldn’t believe what he was watching, his girlfriend and her puppet discussing his worth or goodness in front of him. He tried to get out of her fist, but she had a firm grip and his arms were pinned to his sides. “Um... Babe? Can you let me go? ...And unshrink me? ...Please?”

She turned from Mr. Magic to him. “Well... We will, but I want you to say you’re sorry first.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Mr. Magic added, “For...?”

Mike nearly snapped, but held it back. “I’m sorry... for... getting annoyed at you and your puppet.”

“I have a name, you know.”

He grunted. “At you and... Mr. Magic.”

Hanna smiled. “See? He did apologize.”

The magician’s arms crossed. “I’m still not convinced. I think he’s just saying it because you could crush him like an ant.”

She frowned, focusing on her tiny boyfriend. “How about a make-up kiss?”

He looked up at her massive face, her massive lips. “A-At this size?”

“I’ll be gentle,” she said before puckering her lips and leaning in. Mike cringed for a moment, but leaned forward as much as he could to meet the kiss. His head fit squarely between her lips, even getting pulled between them a bit by the kiss. Smooth, wet walls held securely onto each side of his head, squishing him and even threatening to pull him deeper. Fortunately, after some incredibly long seconds, she simply let him go. “That was nice, wasn’t it?”

Mike’s hair was frazzled and in general he was a bit wetter for the wear. Still, he did his best to grin and nod. Her more masculine voice came from his left and said, “I would like a kiss as well!” He turned to see the now-huge puppet close to his face, though tilted away to prompt a cheek kiss. He groaned, but obliged. He leaned forward again and planted a kiss on its felt cheek, the feeling of which made him shudder. Still, it seemed satisfied, moving away.

Hanna looked at Mr. Magic and asked him, “Well, do you think it’s okay now?” While the couple were waiting for a reply, they heard her stomach growl loudly. They all looked down at it, then back up. Mike sweated, wondering if his girlfriend was about to just eat him.

Instead, Mr. Magic answered, “While I did appreciate the gesture, I’m quite famished. Would you mind if I had sir Mike as a snack?”

She considered it, something that terrified Mike. “Hanna...! Please don’t eat me, I-I’m a person! Not a snack!”

She smiled innocently, even if to Mike it came off as frightening. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you. Mr. Magic’s going to do that!”

His stress eased for a second, but then he saw the puppet coming at him. She made an “Aaaaah-nomf!” sound as it approached and clamped onto his head. Inside, it was all more felt. Beneath that he could feel his girlfriend’s fingers tightly holding his head. There was even a thin layer of felt separate from the rest of the mouth, like a tongue.

While this was annoying, he wasn’t really sure where it could go from here. Her grip on his body loosened up while Mr. Magic snapped up more, moving down his body much like a snake. But he could tell he was reaching the end of the puppet’s mouth soon. Then what...? The answer soon became apparent. When his legs were the only thing dangling outside of the puppet, he found himself pressed against a felt wall at the end of the mouth. But feeling around with his hands, he could tell there was a hole in the fabric. Like… a throat?

He suddenly became upside down as the puppet's head tilted up. Somehow, he heard a gulp sound, thrown to sound like it was coming right from where he was. He started to slip in the hole in the felt, into some tighter, warmer tube. Where was he going? If he was imagining the puppet structure in his head right he must be simply falling into… her hand? But it couldn't be balled up to form such a small 'tube' while she was operating the puppet. But his surroundings felt too squishy, too alive to be a mere part of it.

After a fearfully long time, he fell out into a large, dark chamber. He landed face-first on something intensely warm, rippled, and wet. He immediately tried to back away from the ground, only to run into the same surface on a nearby wall. Everything he touched, he sank into, yet at the same time it would push back into him at times. Did the puppet… really eat him?! This seemed an awful lot like... a stomach. He started banging on the walls, shouting, “Let me out!!”

On the outside, Mr. Magic rubbed his belly. “Mmm! He did hit the spot, Hanna! Thanks for letting me eat your boyfriend.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Magic!” She was going to ask him if he was tasty, but she realized she could imagine the flavor on her tongue... Rather vividly. He was salty... Savory, even. She almost wished she had been the one to eat him. But that would be dangerous. She looked at Mr. Magic’s belly, but Mike made no imprint on him at his size. She didn’t even realize her puppet had a throat, or a stomach, but there was nowhere else he could be. She felt her stomach gurgle again and said, “I guess I should get a snack for me too.”

Mike was getting tired from banging. It seemed like neither she nor her ‘puppet’ could hear him... or they were ignoring him, if they could. But he couldn’t hear them either, even though it sounded like they were talking. The stomach gurgled loudly around him. Even though it was so fleshy, he wondered... if he was in any real danger. It was just a puppet... a magic puppet, right? A puppet shouldn’t need food. Then his world started to bounce and shake.

Was he coming out? Were Hanna and the puppet going somewhere? He wondered when he’d get out of his gastric prison. He’d never say a word about that puppet again. Or maybe he’d just try to destroy it while she was gone. Eventually the movement stopped, and he wondered what was going on out there. He heard some more chatting. Silence. Then something landed very close to him?

He walked carefully across the stomach until suddenly he stepped in... Well, something. It smelled like... chips? Another glob of food suddenly landed next to him. It was definitely barbecue chips. Was she... no, the puppet couldn’t chew things up like this. But that would mean... that would mean he was inside of Hanna. Inside her stomach. It was impossible. He had been ‘swallowed’ by the puppet. But... it was the only possible conclusion. He looked up, knowing that she was everything around him. Then another glob of food knocked him to the ground.

By the time he crawled out of the growing pile of food, they were moving again. He bounced helplessly between the walls, the food, and a growing pool of juices that splashed everywhere. Eventually they stopped, letting him catch his breath on a fold in the wall. He felt a bit singed from more than just the oppressive heat all around him. Checking his clothes, he found new holes and torn edges that weren’t there before. The revelation renewed his struggle against her stomach, trying desperately to get any attention.

Hanna walked back to her bed and laid down, unknowingly tossing her boyfriend across her stomach. She looked at her puppet, poking where its stomach would be to see if she could feel him. “How does he feel in there?”

Mr. Magic’s hand rubbed over his tummy and said, “Hm...I believe he’s not fond of it, but he feels quite good!”

She giggled. “I wish I could feel him, I bet it’d be pretty funny.” She yawned, stretching herself out, then curled up into a ball under the sheets. “You should probably let him out before I go to sleep.”

He was laying down also, still on her hand. Mr. Magic’s googly eyes fell to the side from gravity, giving him an expression as if he was avoiding eye contact. He said, “Well, why not let me hold onto him until morning? He’ll be fine in ‘my’ belly.”

She didn’t mind the idea of putting that off until morning. This whole situation was so strange, she half-wondered if it was some sort of dream. Without even a hint of concern, she agreed with Mr. Magic. “Alright... Good night Mr. Magic, thanks for helping me have such a fun night.”

He gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Good night, my dear.”

Mike didn’t hear much, but he did hear the last part of that conversation when she curled up. He had tried to yell, “No, I’m inside you!” But she didn’t hear. And soon, he could hear what was distinctly the sound of her snoring. He fell to his knees, unsure what he could do anymore. He never thought he’d go out like this... An unfilling snack for his girlfriend who didn’t even know she ate him. Eaten by a... creepy, magic hand puppet.

While she slept, he struggled to evade digestive acids as long as he could, standing on the small pile of chewed-up chips. But they offered little solace with how soft they were, not to mention the stomach itself constantly squeezing, churning all its food up. He was no different. In an hour, his clothes were gone entirely. In two, he was as well, at least in terms of consciousness. His body would take some more hours as it was stripped of its nutrients and melted into chyme, but by the time Hanna woke up again, it had all moved into her intestines.

She woke up like she went to bed, with a stretch and a yawn. She realized her bed was still empty, but that was fine, maybe Mike just left to work or something already. Mr. Magic was laying down in his spot, flat since he’d fallen off her hand during the night. She wondered... There was no way that was real, but was he still inside him? She reached her hand around inside, but she couldn’t feel so much as a lump. Shrugging, she got up and headed to the bathroom.

After he didn’t come home that night, she started to wonder what could have possibly happened. Was it her fault? Did something happen to him? It couldn’t have been... Mr. Magic, right? Did he escape while tiny, if that was even real? She tried to ask her puppet, but he wasn’t very talkative. Or rather, the illusion wasn’t working for her. It just didn’t feel as real as when she was talking to him the night before Mike vanished. With time, she moved on, still confused as to what happened to him (as was anyone else who knew him). She even moved on from puppetry like Mike had hoped, if a little later than he’d like. But sometimes... When she was dealing with someone annoying, the voice of Mr. Magic spoke to her. And sometimes, she would dream of herself and Mr. Magic dealing with them. And sometimes, those dreams weren’t.