Marmalade

The smell of citrus invaded my nose. It wrinkled in disgust under my blindfold. I hated citrus. “What is this place? What do you want from me?”

In response, a pair of hands shoved me forward. I stumbled, the smell of citrus becoming overwhelming. My head swam, and I swayed. I opened my mouth to demand answers from my captor. Before I got a word out, the tart flavor of citrus infiltrated my taste buds, and I gagged.

The hands grabbed my upper arms, guiding me farther forward. The citrus smell grew stronger, almost overpowering, but there was something underneath it, too. A pungent, rank smell, and something sweet.

My brow furrowed as I tried to place the smell. I’d smelled it before, I was sure of it. As I worked it out, the hands reached up and tugged my blindfold off.

I swallowed as I took in the room in front of me. A dozen massive vats filled with orange goop lined the wall. No, not goop. Marmalade. Twelve clear, floor-to-ceiling containers filled to the brim with marmalade. My stomach rumbled, and my dinner threatened to come back up.

The hands shoved me a few steps farther forward, and that was when I saw them. There was something in each vat that wasn’t marmalade. Shadows, and as I looked closer, I realized, human-shaped shadows. There were people in the marmalade. I’d never wanted to hurl more in my life.

My heart pounded in my chest, and I tried to flee. I didn’t want to—couldn’t—spend the rest of eternity in marmalade. I dodged to one side, but my captor was quick. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me into the air.

I kicked and screamed, beating his back with my fists, but he calmly carried on. He took me to the far side of the room, near the containers of marmalade, and climbed a set of metal stairs. As he climbed, I saw my fate. Another vat of marmalade, this one without a human body.

He reached the top of the stairs and patted my back. “It’ll all be over soon.”

I screamed, clawing at my captor, at the stairs, at anything I could touch, as my captor lowered me from his shoulder. Standing behind me, he ran his fingers down my arms to where my fingers gripped the railing for dear life. He pried each finger off, my strength no match for his. When he’d freed the railing from my death grip, he shoved me forward. I fell into the vat before us, quickly being swallowed by the marmalade.