Skin Ch. 03

Thanks to Ruzie D for the edit.

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It's kind of difficult to describe an alien catfish/slug's stomach but I'll try. It's like, well. . . years ago I watched this old cartoon, Star Trek I think, the cartoon, not the live one with the weird guy from T.J. Hooker. Well, one episode had the Enterprise get swallowed by this giant cloud thing and the inside looked like a giant cave, only the stalagmites and stalactites looked like giant tobacco leaves and if things ran into them they'd explode. Sorry if I'm running on, it's just that you don't really get over getting swallowed by a giant slug creature, you know? And the stomach was even worse than the cartoon, especially with the things in it, those little red dots.

Wait a second, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. First I have to say the stomach was large enough to stand upright, but not by much. I had to hunch a little. Second, the walls were throbbing and making gurgling noises. Clear, slimy stuff, mucus I think, was dripping, actually pouring, from the ceiling and dripping all over me, reee-pulsive!

My x-ray contacts must have adjusted because I could see more of the stomach than the creature's body, like everything else receded to the background, see? It made it easier to see the red dots.

Actually they looked like giant ticks, sort of round, red and jelly-like. They were clinging to the walls and the tobacco leaves (maybe I should call them something else. Cilia or villi or something, whatever my biology teacher would say.) like slugs. Little vine-like arteries were spreading out from the "ticks", I guess like an infection. Some of the tobac. . .cilia were wilting.

I stood staring at the ticks, I don't know how long. It wasn't like I was stupid or anything. I put two and two together. These red things were some kind of parasite and the aliens wanted me to get rid of them. It's just I didn't want to exterminate a bunch of red alien ticks like some veterinarian. I wanted to get the fuck out of this fucking nightmare and go home. The problem was it looked easier to get in than get out. I didn't think the aliens were going to let me leave until I did something. So I picked up the hose and looked at it. The nozzle had a trigger just like a glue gun so I squeezed it.

I guess I kind of forgot how powerful fire hoses were because the next instant I was dealing with a wild snake, spewing white fluid all over the place. It kind of looked like. . .well it's kind of embarrassing. . .like. . .jizz. . .and it was flying everywhere, including on me. So now I was soaked with alien jizz, snot, and digestive fluid, not to mention that stuff they soaked me in earlier. The worst day of my life and I hadn't remotely touched bottom.

I managed to grab hold of the hose, difficult 'cause I was kind of slippery at that point, and started spraying the ticks. I noticed some jizz had already splashed a few so I saw the results. They'd shriveled up like slugs in salt and fallen into the pool on the floor. They left behind pockmarks and ulcers on the wall and cilia. I splashed them with the jizz and the sores started to close up.

I dowsed more of the ticks thinking, "This is easy, a little more of this and I'm out," but actually it was wishful thinking. I guess I was trying to keep from panicking 'cause I was really on the edge at that point. I say I was on the edge 'cause when I felt something on my leg, a sort of tickle followed by a sharp sting, I looked down and saw one of the ticks had attached to my leg. Well, you could say I tipped over.

"Fuck man!" I went and then blasted the thing with the hose. Then I dowsed myself all over. I didn't know if any more ticks were on me, maybe some were but I was panicking at the moment. I was screaming "Yaaahhh!" and blasting that hose everywhere until everything was drenched, including me. Every time I felt something on my skin, I mean it could have been dripping mucus or stomach fluid but I don't know, I screamed and drenched myself with the fluid. I don't know when it happened but sometime later I stopped.

I stood there with white stuff and alien snot dripping off me. I think I was heaving and shivering. I think I was crying too. I was scared shitless.

The liquid on the floor had a white color with some reddish streaks. What was left of the alien ticks, I guess. I looked around. There didn't seem to be anymore left. I would have been relieved, except I was still in the monster's stomach and there were still more of those ticks in the thing's body. I didn't know how to get to them though 'cause I didn't see a door or a mouth or throat going from one stomach to the other. I think the creature or aliens had that in mind though.

I have trouble figuring what happened next. I guess it's kind of like when a person vomits. The stomach churns and then it's puke time. Only I was the puke. The churning bounced me off the walls and swished me around with all that combined fluid. I grabbed the hose hoping, maybe, to use it as a line to get out. Instead puke time happened, only in reverse. It was like the first time: squeezed through a tube, organs racing by, and "splat!" I'm in another stomach.

The second stomach was larger, the cilia were bigger. I could stand without bumping my head, but this time I was hip deep in monster juice, and there were lots more ticks. They practically lined the walls and weighed down the cilia. I only had to take one look before I said "Shit!", grabbed the hose and pulled the trigger. Visions of giant alien ticks swarming all over me, sucking out my blood and organs, did a lot for my motivation.

I splashed everything in sight. The walls rained ticks; some got on me so I dowsed myself again. They didn't cling and I felt no stings so they must have been dead. I dowsed myself some more just in case. When it looked like I was finished, the churning started again and I was flushed into the third stomach.

The third stomach was just as large as the second, but with more cilia and fewer ticks. Plus the liquid had a yellowish color and the place stank like a rotted fish processing plant. I dowsed the walls and the ticks dissolved and everything but the reaction was sort of odd.

Looking back, I guess the yellow mucus and rotted fish smell wasn't supposed to be right 'cause when I sprayed the white jizz, and it mixed with the stuff from the previous stomachs along with dead ticks, the color and smell changed.

The mucus turned green and it started to give off a smell, less like rotted fish and more. . .I don't know. . .like perfume, maybe sandalwood or pine. When I finished, the floor was a pool of pink and green slime. The stomach churned, I slipped through another tube, and I was in the fourth stomach.

The fourth stomach was the smallest and crawling with ticks. All the stuff from the first three stomachs flooded the fourth, leaving me up to my chin in slime. I was pressing the trigger on the nozzle so the slime lightened somewhat. Plus the ticks were getting killed so, overall, I didn't have to do much, but for a moment there, it looked like I was going to drown in the stuff. That pissed me off. "Fucking aliens!" I thought.

Some of it got in my nose and it stung a little. A bit got in my mouth. I think I swallowed some. It tasted bitter and I nearly heaved. The crazy part was the slime actually smelled good, not like alien slug stomach at all, more like men's perfume. I didn't have much time to think about the smell. The stomach had filled completely and it looked like I was going to drown.

I let go of the hose and desperately tried to swim. Looking back, it was a mistake. I sank under "water" and saw, to my horror, the hose slither back through the tube between the third and fourth stomachs. I made a grab for it but the fucking aliens, and it had to be them, reeled it away too fast. They didn't care I was going to drown in their slug's stomach. My usefulness was over, I guess.

The x-ray glasses didn't show anymore red spots so I guess I got all the ticks. After that, why not just let me drown? I guessed they didn't want me to tell anyone, not that they would believe me. I figured I'd drown, the creature's acids would eat through that stuff the aliens soaked me in, and I'd wind up as shit to be flushed down some alien toilet. It wasn't far from my life but it still didn't seem fair. I barely noticed the stomach churn but when I passed through the last tube, I moved faster than usual.

The next moment I was in a pool of alien shit; alien shit that smelled like Old Spice and tasted like cat pee. I know 'cause I was coughing up a lot of it. I was pissed, scared, and humiliated. I mean, I was human diarrhea, fucking aliens! I heard gurgling sounds behind me. I turned around. It looked like I'd been launched some distance from the catfish/slug. The thing looked a lot better, at least from what I could see of it. The gurgles seemed happier, I guess.

A bunch of aliens were standing around the pool. Some, I swear, were smirking. The big cross alien was there. He had a disgusted look on his face. He pointed to one of the smaller aliens. The alien looked at the cross one with a confused expression. The cross alien pointed to me. The small one tried to back away but the others pushed him into the pool.

The small alien approached, looking like he was going to puke. "You think you have the right to hurl? You weren't shat out of giant slug's asshole, pal," I thought.

The little alien extended his arm, hand outstretched just within my reach. The cross alien pointed at me and then at its eyes. It took a bit and then "Oh!" They wanted their glasses back. I didn't know exactly how the big alien put the glasses on but they came off easy, sort of like peeling off a sticker. When I put them in the little alien's hand, I made sure to smear lots of slug-slime-shit on it. The little alien wasn't happy. He ran back to the others, making these "Bork! Bork!" noises. Alien retching, I guess. I looked at the big cross alien. He had a smirk. The others were tittering, laughing I guess, at the little alien. The big one raised his hand and made a gesture. It took me a second but I recognized it. "Shit! It's giving me the finger!" It's next move was to wave, "Bye, bye." And just like that I was flushed.

Well. . .sort of flushed. The floor gave way and I was rushing through a pipe with the slime water from the pool, sputtering. Then I was out of the ship and falling. My body hit something hard and out I went.

When I woke it was pitch black or so I thought, but then my eyes adjusted and I saw stars. "What?!" I thought. The ground felt cool and damp, not soft and squishy like a stomach. It tickled like, "Grass!" I sat up. I wasn't in an alien slug's stomach or on a spaceship. I was on the fifty yard line at the Roosevelt high school football stadium. I recognized the snack bar. I was also naked.

Now, I didn't experience a memory loss like I heard with other alien abductees. I remembered everything. I really didn't want to. The problem was, even though I was in the middle of a football field, naked, smelling like Old Spice, with the taste of cat piss on my tongue, I wondered if I'd had some sort of hallucination. Maybe the jocks put something in my lunch milk or something or maybe it was a bad reaction to the skin cream. It sounded better than getting abducted by aliens and forced down some monster's throat. At least that's what I'd tell the authorities when they found me, naked, in the middle of the football field. Or I could just lie and say it was a spring break prank.

Anyhow, I couldn't stand like an idiot in the middle of the football stadium, I had to get home, an adventure in itself. Think getting abducted by aliens is bad? Try making your way through a pitch black neighborhood without a stitch of clothing. I couldn't figure it out at first. The whole neighborhood was blacked out.

In hindsight, I think it was the aliens. They probably needed to stay concealed so they blacked everything out. I had the advantage of most of neighbors being gone for spring break and other vacations, and the blackout made concealment easier. Still, it was a bit dodgy.

First, I had to duck security at the football field (old man Pearson, former cop. Nice guy but a hard ass by-the-book type, not good for a naked teen streaker). Then I had to sneak and weave through backyards and bushes, avoiding the cops patrolling the neighborhood because of the blackout. Finally, just before I got home, the lights came on.

I was in Mrs. Holder's backyard and I think I set off an alarm or something. Buzzers and sirens went off and I made a run for the fence. My leap put the entire track team to shame. I think I heard Mrs. Holder scream about "Someone in the backyard!" but I could have imagined it.

The next yard was the Wallace's and their Rottweiler. How I outran it, I'm not sure to this day. I nearly wept when I finally got to my house and found the door key. My parents are the type who put keys in fake rocks; convenient for me.

I let myself in and stood in the dark living room shivering. I felt hot, achy, and feverish, plus fear and exhilaration. I hadn't much chance to look at my body. When I calmed down, my first impulse was to go to the bathroom and look in the mirror, but then all the built up adrenaline left my body and I crashed. Between the heat, the fever, and the crash, I wasn't much in the mood for a body check. So I went to my room, fell on my bed, and was out like a light.

I awoke the next morning, late morning I think. I don't quite remember 'cause. . .well, things got weird. Really weird. Weirder than the abduction.

I was still bleary-eyed from last night (or at least I thought it'd been last night. . .I'll explain later) and a little stiff. I stumbled to the bathroom to splash some water in my eyes and take a shower. When I looked in the mirror, things I didn't notice last night stared me back in the face. I took a step back. I'd say that I was shocked but, really, there's no word for what I felt. I had to look twice. I did a double, triple, and then a quadruple take. "Ho! Lee! Fuck!"

To Be Continued