Matt's Lunch (Skunkette/m mouse vore)
Matt's Lunch
By Strega
Matt didn't come back from lunch break that Thursday. They never found out why: his rental car was in the parking lot, his belongings in his hotel room. Even his sweater was still in the classroom. All they could say for sure was he went to lunch and never came back.
*****
Thursdays were Matt's favorite days. Well, favorite weekdays, anyway. Normally they got a half-hour lunch break, but on Thursday they got a full hour. Sometimes even more: "Go on break, take lunch, then take a break," the instructor would say with a smile.
It was so students could go the library and catch up on E-mail. Matt preferred to take his lunch and go for a walk. Today he decided to head to the clump of trees on the hill. Maybe he'd squeeze in a quick nap too.
It was a pleasant stroll through the grass to the trees, and Matt found the undergrowth beneath them was neatly trimmed. Maybe he wasn't the only one who brought his lunch up here. His mind wandered as he followed a path; when he came back to himself, the woods were darker, with a surprising amount of brush. The mossy trunks had the look of old-growth forest, nothing like the elms he'd seen earlier.
"That's funny," he muttered. It seemed like he should have come out the far side of the copse by now. Matt shrugged and moved on. You can only get so lost in a clump of trees a hundred yards across.
He heard her before he saw her; a quite pregnant skunkette sitting against a tree reading a book. She was humming a tune he didn't recognize and wore a pink sun dress with the middle open for her bulging belly.
"Oh, Hi," Matt said awkwardly. "Are you taking classes here too?"
She blinked, then put down her book and smiled. "Sometimes. I'm Suzy." She extended her hand, and Matt shook it. He thought about what she saw: a mouse-guy, average height, brown fur. Nothing to write home about, his friends joked.
"Matt," he said, and found himself sitting down. "Congratulations, by the way. Your husband must be proud." Too late he noticed she wasn't wearing a ring, not even an earring. His ears wilted.
"It's all right," she said, and patted his hand. "My lover is always pleased when I am in this condition." She put a hand on her belly, where it made a slight impression in the bulge.
"When are you expecting? You are...well, big." Matt bit his tongue. Well, he wasn't trying to pick her up.
"Oh, soon I think," Suzy said. "We skunks do these things pretty rapidly. I'll be flat-bellied before you know it." She smiled again.
Matt searched for a less awkward avenue of conversation. "It's weird," he said eventually. "From the outside I wouldn't have thought the woods were this thick."
She tilted her head. "What did it look like when you came in?"
What an odd question. "A copse on a hill of course, a few hundred yards from the training building. Which building did you come from?"
"Well," she began, and just then her fluffy tail bumped against Matt's thigh. His nose wrinkled at the powerful scent of perfume.
"Sorry about that," she giggled. "Skunk, you know. If I get a drop of spray in my tail it's impossible to get out. So I douse it."
There were pinkish streaks in her tailfur, mixed in with the long black and white hairs. Marks from the perfume, or decoration?
It seemed rude to recoil from the smell. At least it was a flowery odor, not the eye-watering stink of an angry skunk. Matt smiled politely and stroked her tail. It wasn't until he reached for his lunchbox that he realized something was wrong.
He was suddenly weak, so weak. As he leaned over for his lunch he kept on going, his arm buckling as he tried to support himself. His tail flopped listlessly as he tried to sit back up and failed.
"There's something wrong," he mumbled. "Get help." That's when he noticed that Suzy was looking at him without surprise. Still smiling.
"The perfume," he gasped, and she nodded. She stood up, stretched, and walked over to a clump of bushes. She moved lithely for a woman in her condition.
"I don't know where you came from, Matt, but you aren't where you think you are. It happens, people show up at the Swamp all the time. Sometimes they even manage to leave." Then she began to retch.
Matt watched helplessly as she threw up. She leaned forward, tail twitching, arms across her fat belly...and her belly shrank. Something white appeared in her mouth, tumbling wetly into the bushes. The more and more of them, different sizes, different shapes. It wasn't until she spit up the skull that he realized she was coughing up a whole skeleton, its bones detached from each other. Mixed in were a few scraps of sodden clothing and what was left of a shoe. Something that might have been human head-hair was wrapped around a few of the bones.
"Ugh." She rubbed her belly, which was now quite flat. "See? Before you know it I'm thin again."
"That was..." Matt stared at the bones. Most had disappeared into the bush, but the skull stared back hollow-eyed.
"They would have dissolved too eventually, like the little bones, but the flesh goes first. It's much easier to digest. Just as well, that much powdered bone can stop up the plumbing a bit. Besides, now I have room."
"For what?" Matt said, but he already knew. He twitched as she approached, but couldn't so much as raise himself on his elbow.
She crouched down next to him and grabbed his shoulders. With a grunt she got him leaned back against the tree. Briefly she went through his pockets, taking his keys, wallet and phone. Then she leaned in close.
"Nice to meet you, Matt," she said, and yawned.
Matt watched her pink maw unfold like a snake's, more than wide enough to take in his head. Past her fangs he made out the waiting tunnel of her gullet. He was amazingly calm.
"I suppose, after seeing you cough up the bones," he said, "That it's no surprise you can open your mouth so wide."
She giggled, and then all he saw was the dim pink light leaking in from the corners of her mouth. After that it was all downhill.