A pair of tongs transported Dan's vibrant but inert form from the cooking pot to a temporary basin filled with ice cubes.
His boiled body nested in the frozen ice caused tendrils of steam, but the tongs dug him out as soon as he had cooled enough not to wilt the bed of greens on the serving platter.
He concentrated on moving one thin leg or one of his antennae. Nothing. He could still see and sense his surroundings, but he couldn't exert an iota of influence over his body.
"OK. Kat! This is getting serious!" Dan thought in understated urgency.
A server arrived and the chef handed off the platter with a triumphant, "The pièce de résistance!"
Dan saw five other similar platters, each showcasing a bright red lobster boiled intact in its shell.
The boisterous volume at the table rose as the servers arrived with the platters.
"Don't those look good!" One of the businessmen declared and picked up a gleaming metal pair of claw crackers.
Dan's platter ended up in front of a man just to the right of the one who spoke. He was still trying to force his body to respond with a twitch or a flex. Nothing!
He heard a loud CRACK!
The man who had celebrated the arrival of Dan and the other lobsters had wielded the crackers to shatter the large crusher claw of his lobster and used a small fork to extract the tender meat, which he gave a bath of butter before popping a morsel into his mouth.
Dan's diner picked up his own implements. "No! No! Stop!"
The man hadn't ever eaten lobster. He tried to imitate his fellow diners, but his hand slipped and he ended up wrenching Dan's claw from its socket. In a way, even though Dan felt mangled, the detached claw was easier to work between the claw crackers. Dan's crusher claw shattered with a loud CRUNCH!
The delicate meat got extracted with a fork, doused in a ramekin of butter, and then lifted to the man's mouth.
Each crack and crunch made Dan feel more queasy, as well as more aroused, as the meal continued. His entire carapace got torn apart, with less precision than the other lobsters were afforded because his diner just had to be a novice. His flurry of emotions clouded the fact that his mental faculties seemed to slow and dim as more of him got eaten.
He didn't even realize the meal had ended until the men threw down some loose bills as tips for the servers and stood from their chairs. Dan dully surveyed the carnage of shattered shells left scattered across untidy platters and the smears of butter congealing in the nearby ramekins.
"Look at you!" Kat tsk-tsked mentally as she stared down at the deserted table.
"Kat?!"
"It's me, my strange sibling." Dan felt her mental giggling rising up.
"Do something."
"Now, Dan. Pull yourself together." Kat flat out laughed at that point. "Oh, I guess that might be difficult now."
Dan felt her pick up his demolished crusher claw and inspect it. "They were hungry...and thorough."
Dan felt like he had dropped into a dark cave.
"Hold on." Kat said.
He saw a light deep in the tunnel and wondered if...
"No!" Kat commanded. "You really are a newbie. Never go toward the light, silly."
"Am I..."
"Delicious?" Kat said and plucked some lobster meat from the shell with her fingernails, popping the morsel into her own mouth. "Yes, you were."
"Kat, I didn't want... this! Am I..."
"Oh, do be quiet, Dan." She waved her hand over the lobster debris on the platter. A flash of light sucked Dan through a dark tunnel and re-deposited him inside the cool waters of the display tank.
"There you are," she said. "Safe and sound in your little lobster form. Well, until the next person orders you..."
"No. Not again." He shuddered. "Get me out of here."
"Well, here's what I think. My party is later this evening. If you can get through the rest of lunch, you know, without getting boiled, I will think about helping you out."
"But..."
"Be more careful this time," she admonished. "Gee, it's like you wanted to get picked and eaten."
"I didn't..." Dan said, without steadfast conviction.
Kat looked at her watch. "It's almost one now. The lunch rush should be over..."
Dan felt relieved. "Of course there will be lots of hungry people at my party this evening."
"But mom and dad..."
"They don't know I brought you here, silly."
"What!"
She laughed again and tapped on the glass at the front of the display tank.
"We'll see how you do with your second chance, brother dear." She smiled, waved, and transported herself out of the restaurant.