Visceral
by Bernardo Villela
Malcolm awoke confused. Eyes stung from something acidic.
In pitch blackness he groped for his phone. Flashlight on.
A corrugated ceiling. No, a tunnel.
He touched the floor. Not rocky, covered in dark sludge and liquid. A muscular firmness and tissular feel. Fingerlike protuberances brushed against his hand. A noxious breeze blew.
Gaseous.
Sludge slid, knocked him about. Bumping his head into what felt like mucus, he recalled: a face fourfold his size, a gaping maw, being swallowed.
The giant thought he killed me.
Malcolm gnawed on its intestinal wall. His oxygen limited, he ate in hopes of freeing himself.
Bernardo Villela
Bernardo Villela has published the novella, The Isle of Helyr, and three short story collections, The Bloodmaster Trilogy and Teenage Death Songs Volumes 1 & 2, and has short fiction included in Coffin Bell Journal, The Dark Corner Zine, 101 Proof Horror, A Monster Told Me Bedtime Stories, Page & Spine, and forthcoming in 42 Stories Anthology, Constraint 280, and Rivet. You can read more about these and various other pursuits at www.miller-villela.com.