By LilAbner (Devianart)

https://www.deviantart.com/lilabner/art/Down-the-Hatch-Part-II-522141003

Julie had wondered why the bar was called "Down the Hatch", but quickly found out: Each guest was required to swallow a live goldfish as they entered. As she closed the door behind her, she was confronted with a smiling hostess, who held up a small, wriggling fish. Not wanting trouble, Julie hesitated, and opened her mouth. The fish wriggled harder as it went in, then the woman dropped it. Julie felt the live thing twisting on her tongue, and reluctantly swallowed it down.

Walking throught the club, she noticed an unmarked door near the bar. She asked her hostess what it was for, and the woman simply said that it was the real reason the bar had gotten its name. Curious, she crossed to it and opened it, finding a long hallway to the back of the club. It led to a room that had a huge glass partition in the center, forming a sort of cage in the middle of the room.

And inside the glass cage was a huge snake, bigger than any she had ever seen. As she hesitantly approached, the reptile raised its head and gazed at her, following her motion lazily as she walked around it. She listened with horrified fascination as her hostess explained that this room was for people who were not content to simply swallow goldfish, but who intended to go "down the hatch" themselves.

As Julie stared, the hostess described how the snake had grown large enough a few years ago to swallow an adult human. Apparently the snake's owner, one of the ladies who had founded the club, had built the room and brought the snake in, raising it with this in mind. When the club closed for a long holiday, the lady had gone to the deserted club, sent the watchman home, and entered the giant snake's cage, locking herself in with the huge reptile.

Details of what came next are not known, but the woman was not seen again. Four days went by, during which nobody entered the building or looked for the woman. Even when patrons returned to the club the following week, nothing untoward was found. The snake's belly was swollen with a recent meal, and gradually shrank as the creature digested what it had eaten. For several more days the woman was not seen, and soon the others started discreetly looking for her, but found nothing.

A week after the four-day holiday, the snake finally voided its wastes on the floor of the cage, depositing a number of soft, disintegrated masses. As the cleanup crew carted them away, a man noticed that one of them was embedded with folds of shimmering black hair. As they cleaned the cage, they found the woman's clothes, folded neatly by the wall. Remembering the woman had not been seen for more than a week, the patrons felt a sudden dread. And when they discovered in the wastes a ring the woman had worn, they realized in shock what they were looking at.

The other owners tried to keep the event secret, but word got out. The patrons' reactions were not what were expected, though. One small girl quietly asked when the snake's next feeding was scheduled, and on the appointed day she came to stand by the cage door, wearing only a robe. A silent, pleading gaze, and then the attendant got up and left the room. The girl undid the robe, letting it fall to the floor behind her, swung open the cage door, and stepped inside with the snake. The heavy door swung closed behind her, locking her in. She approached the feeding tray, looked nervously at the snake, and settled herself reluctantly into its tray.

The snake approached the girl and began nosing at her, circling her as it touched her legs and waist. It looped several coils around her, took her feet in its mouth and began swallowing. She did not seem to resist its pushing its jaws up her legs, and calmly watched the reptile eating her. Soon her abdomen was completely inside the elastic neck, the mouth open to swallow her breasts. The snake kept pushing higher around her, its neck bulging with her body, until her arms were straight up beside her head. The girl stared out of the snake's mouth, her strained breath rasping in and out of her open mouth, and then she was gone, just another large lump moving slowly to the snake's stomach.

Digestion started quickly, and they could hear the girl gagging and retching in the snake's belly. Her sounds turned into screams as powerful digestive fluids poured over her, and continued for several days as the snake digested her alive. A week after that, fresh feces were found, laced with damp folds of blonde hair - the only part of her that had survived the snake's digestive process intact.

No publicity was given to the phenomenon in the club. But a list of feeding times was quietly posted next to the cage. People began putting their names on it, one next to each feeding time, mostly women. Since that time, the snake had fed well, with a new volunteer entering the cage every month. There was no shortage of volunteers willing to enter the room.

The snake treated each woman gently, sometimes coiling around her if she seemed reluctant to lie in the food tray on her own. It would then take her feet in its mouth, or her head if she preferred, and begin gently stretching itself over her. It would treat its victims with surprising gentleness, and no woman ever resisted during her long journey through the creature's neck. Its gentleness brought additional volunteers, and many cooperative young women made the one-way trip to its stomach without hesitation or resistance.

Once digestion started, their willingness evaporated, and the snake's midsection could be seen shifting and bulging as the woman thrashed inside, stomach acids pouring over her. The process would continue for a day or sometimes two, until the woman's struggles finally stopped. Then the snake would lie quietly in the cage, digesting the rest of its meal, until a week or so later it was able to void a few soft, compact masses.

Staring in fascination at the huge reptile, Julie stammered out a reply, asking when the last volunteer had gone into the cage. She learned it was just a few weeks before, and would she like to see a movie of the event?

Julie found herself in a darkened room, with a screen showing a slim, brown-haired young woman removing her clothes outside the cage door. Reaching over, the girl opened the door and stepped inside with the giant snake. She sat down and leaned back, watching nervously as the snake glided up to her. She seemed to tremble as she gazed at the creature, and finally brought her legs together, placing her feet near its mouth. The snake nosed at her for a moment, then opened its jaws and took her feet in its mouth.

Julie shivered as the huge snake began working its jaws up the woman's legs, its neck bulging slightly as her feet slid inside. The bulge moved down the neck as the snake swallowed her to her knees, curling its thick body around her back. It began stretching its mouth around her thighs, and the young woman leaned back on her hands, lifting her rear into the mouth and letting the snake swallow her. Soon her lower half was entirely inside the elastic neck.

She lay back, and the snake continued swallowing as it drew the trembling woman into its gullet. Its neck bulged with her hips as it pushed its mouth up around her chest and back. Julie could hear the woman's strained breathing as she was encased in thick flesh, her breath rasping in and out of her open mouth as the snake swallowed her. It closed its mouth on her chest, methodically working her breasts down its gullet, and she raised her arms above her head, the beast began to swallow her shoulders. She gave the camera a forlorn look as glistening pink folds extended up around her head, and saliva splashed suddenly over her face in the snake's mouth. She sank into the gullet, and coughed and gasped for breath as she receded into the darkness.

The woman's hands fumbled at the creature's lips and teeth, but soon disappeared down the dark gullet as the snake continued swallowing. No sign of the woman remained, but the snake's long neck bulged with her body. Julie could see the swollen area shifting and bulging as the woman twisted inside. The snake began to form long, S-shaped curves in its neck, rippling slowly down its long length as it forced the young woman to its stomach. Julie watched with sick fascination as the snake swallowed the woman whole.

Shots from above showed the huge snake lying on the cage floor, moving occasionally as it relaxed after its long effort. Its distended belly bulged and shifted occasionally as the young woman twisted within the thick, slimy folds. Then the snake began moving, crawling slowly and easing its distended belly across the floor as it brought its victim into the next room for digestion.

The snake lay in bed, curled comfortably around its victim, occasionally moving a few inches to adjust itself around her. Light faded in the room as night fell, and the walls took on a pale hue as the cage lights came on. Julie ran the tape forward several hours until she saw movement, and slowed to normal playing speed. What she saw was dreadful but fascinating.

Late at night the snake dozed in its bed, but now its thick midsection was shifting and bulging, and Julie blanched as she clearly heard the young woman retching and gagging inside. Digestion had begun, and Julie shuddered in horror, realizing the woman could not get out. Julie wondered wildly if the snake would vomit up its struggling victim in a last act of compassion. But the creature curled comfortably around the young woman, and settled down to digest her.

The tape cut to an X-ray image, and Julie could see the woman stretched out inside the snake. Its ribs arched delicately around the woman, encircling her body from head to toe. In subsequent images Julie could see the woman's head and hands moving. She was kicking and jerking violently in the snake's stomach, her hands clenching and unclenching in the squeezing folds. Pockets of gas began forming around her legs, and her muffled cries took on an edge of agony as acid levels increased rapidly in the stomach.

Julie felt physically ill as she watched the snake begin to digest the young woman, its swollen belly shifting and bulging as she thrashed inside. Feeling rooted to the spot, Julie breathed in ragged gasps, listening to the unfortunate woman screaming as she was digested alive.

By dawn the woman's thrashing struggles were weakening in the stomach. Her feet seemed to be dissolving as digestion continued, and x-rays showed the bones of her legs apparently losing calcium. Julie noticed with sick fascination that material was beginning to accumulate in the snake's intestines. The woman's movements were less frequent during the second day, and Julie wondered how long she would remain alive during digestion.

The next morning, the woman lay unresisting in the snake's stomach, her feet gone. The reptile's digestive efforts continued, and Julie watched in horror as her legs slowly dissolved. By the fourth day they were gone. The snake began to stir, and squeezed the rest of the woman's body into its stomach.

As Julie shivered in sick horror, the woman's pelvis slowly folded into a compact mass under the squeezing of the stomach. Unable to tear herself away, Julie watched bleakly as the young woman disintegrated in the snake's digestive system, until nothing recognizable was left of her. The snake stretched and yawned lazily in its bed, the bulge in its belly mostly gone. A large quantity of digested material squeezed slowly through its intestines as it completed the last stages of digestion in its bed.

Julie emerged from the darkroom, shaken by what she had seen. The woman had gone willingly to the snake, and let the huge creature swallow her whole. She had remained alive all the way to the stomach, and even during digestion. Julie remembered her struggles deep in the belly, and the horrifying images of the woman dissolving in the stomach as the snake slowly digested her. Julie tried to imagine what it would be like in the creature's elastic stomach, but her mind was so numb she could not manage it.

She wandered through the large room outside the snake's cage, and eventually found herself outside the heavy door where the woman had entered. She trembled as she looked down at the signup sheet, and her hand seemed to move of its own accord, taking up the pen and writing her name neatly in the space for the snake's next feeding.