Excerpt: An Oral Supernova

If you ever wondered what eating the fabled Ghost Pepper might be like.

"An explosion of molten lava spread across his tongue, a rapid volcano-hot introduction he had never experienced. The heat hidden inside the tiny orb of sweet red flesh was so potent it warped the laws of nature. It spread to his gums, and his teeth went numb. The inside of his lips swelled, and his salivary glands shut off. He closed his eyes, traveling with the sensation, knowing it was going to intensify, breathing as deeply as he still could. Circuits and receptors began to fire from his scalp to his toes, causing a buzzing sensation throughout his body. He rocked his head back and forth to keep his neck and jaw muscles from cramping, which happened once in Bolivia. Max was twenty seconds into the journey and had reached a point already hotter than anything he’d yet experienced. Then Armageddon arrived.

Max became overwhelmed by the sensation of the skin in his mouth falling away, replaced by raw sizzling tissue. He began to sweat heavily, in waves, even at the back of his knees. Max knew enough not to open his mouth and fan the flames, which could cause an esophageal contraction, so he breathed through his nose, using techniques he’d learned in yoga class, bypassing the nuclear fire in his mouth. It was explosively hot in emergency reports from every sensor station north of his pelvis. The sweat poured like tears from his face and dripped off his chin. It had been one minute since he leaped naked off the cliff and into the jaws of the fire. Then the final attack came, an advanced layer of heat he had never believed possible. His lips began to swell, his throat to close reflexively. An oral supernova cascaded through his entire system, causing all seven of his chakras to fire off like rockets. The sensation of fireworks detonating inside him was real, filling his field of vision with starbursts, and he could feel the heat permeating through his skull as his hair became a damp, matted mass. The buzzing was so loud he was sure everyone in the room could hear it. Then his psyche kicked in and transported him to another realm."