He picked up the bag and set it down on the table in front of him. He had just eaten, so he wasn’t very hungry, yet he couldn’t resist the temptation. The light gleamed on its shiny plastic exterior and the glossy colors of the branding appealed to him. He could only imagine the satisfaction that he could stand to gain.
Without another thought, he tore open the bag and plunged his hand into its depths. Half a dozen chips immediately entered his mouth and he let out a small whimper of satisfaction. The saltiness soothed his desperate taste buds and the crunch felt satisfying to his ears. He grinned. He was glad that he had decided to indulge in this little snack after all.
His hands greedily grabbed more chips. The entire process repeated itself, although somehow it struck him as less satisfying this time. But he didn’t mind. There were plenty more opportunities for satisfaction to come.
And so it went. Chip after chip was shoved into his mouth, ground into small pieces by his molars, swallowed, and transported down the long winding tubes of his intestines into the bubbling acid at the bottom of his stomach. His stomach groaned and stretched to accommodate the additional food that was being piled on top of what already laid there. It tried to speak up, and cried out, “No more, no more!” But he ignored its voice. The saltiness of each chip only served to whet his appetite, and so he went on.
At some point, he stopped for a moment and was forced to feel his body. He was uncomfortably full and he felt sluggish, ready to collapse into a nap. He checked his progress on the bag. Amazingly, although he had been vigorously snacking for the past 15 minutes, the bag still appeared to be just as full as when he had started. He rummaged his hand around the bag to confirm his suspicion. There were still many chips left to devour.
Well, it must be his lucky day! He carried on, only stopping for the occasional sip of water. He must have eaten at least fifty of them, each one bringing him only a short burst of pleasure, and although at some point he tried to stop himself, he found that he couldn’t anymore.
His stomach began to really hurt. His lips felt dry and chapped from all the salt he had been consuming. In fact, each chip had started to hurt him more than the delight it could bring. Even the bland smell of a single chip started to make him queasy. He could barely stomach the idea of eating another chip, much less an actual physical one. But he soldiered on, driven by the possibility of feeling satisfaction once more, and the eventual glow of completion that he would experience once he had reached the end of the bag.
Sweat started to pour down his face as his head swam. How long had he been sitting here? He looked up from the bag momentarily and saw his reflection on the polished surface of the table: his cheeks were swollen and his stomach bulged out from underneath his shirt. He felt a swirl of confusion and fear. He could barely recognize himself anymore.
He took a deep breath and regained himself. “Okay,” he thought to himself, “just one more and then I’m done.” He turned his gaze back onto the bag, opened its mouth and tried to stare down into its depths in order to find a nice large one to finish himself off. But instead, he realized that he couldn’t see anything at all. No matter how hard he strained his eyes or whatever direction he titled the bag up to the light, the darkness stubbornly persisted. Then, just as he recognized this, he felt himself sinking. It was barely perceptible, must have only been a centimeter at a time, but he could feel his body slipping in the direction of the bag. He tried to grab onto the edge of the table to stop himself from moving, but his hands found only air as he suddenly very rapidly descended. He screamed as he shot down through the darkness, vomit threatening to rise up through his throat. Tears ran down his face as he cried out for someone to help him, but his words were dampened by the vast distance he had already traveled. As he descended, he began to lose all sense of direction as the light from the room faded. Time began to lose meaning. The only remaining sensations that he could feel were the salty tears that poured down into his open mouth, and the agony of the ever-present, ever-growing rock that swelled to crush more and more of his stomach.