Jackie stood in the living room, well in advance of the party’s start, waiting for her friends.  She had chosen to go with a stereotypical witch’s costume this year, complete with a pointed hat and dress with a slit running up the entire length of her right leg.  A sexy witch, of course.  Lackadaisically she stirred the cauldron of witch’s cauldron where the table normally was, knowing that it would contribute nothing.  This brew was for their special guests only.  No one she really gave a shit about would be drinking from it.

The first person down the stairs was Fulda, her long, wavy auburn hair hanging loose behind her shoulders with a gold leaf olive branch on her crown.  For her costume, she had chosen the white sheet of a bed much too small for her, cinched at the shoulder with a gold ring and leaving most of her legs and chest exposed so she could show off her bronzed skin.  Her enormous brown suede boots trudged over to Jackie until she stood beside her, looking down with her intense blue eyes.  “A witch, huh?” she asked.  “Can’t say I’m surprised with all those nerd books you read.”

“And what’re you supposed to be?” Jackie shot back, shoving a lock of pink hair under her hat.  “Because to me, it looks like you just took the titan’s outfit from the monster manual and made it slutty.”

“Yeah, you got me,” Fulda admitted, throwing up her arms.  Jackie had spent a lot more time on her costume, working to sew on special brass buttons and a pair of matching, gold-embroidered black flats, while she had just thrown something together at the last minute.  “I’ve been reading your nerd shit too and thought I’d look hot as a titaness.  Can you blame me?”

Jackie licked the tip of her finger and touched it to Fulda’s exposed shoulder, making an exaggerated hissing sound with her tongue.  “Yeah, I’ll say.  Those pathetic adventurers are gonna regret they ever challenged you.”  With her pale skin it was easy to tell she was blushing, and her turquoise eyes were narrowed up at the towering woman beside her.  “Don’t count magic out before it gets a chance to shine though.  These potions are going to do quite a number on the party, I think.”  She stirred the cauldron again with a concerted effort, making triple sure the reagents were all mixed together.

Before Fulda could respond, tremendous footsteps coming down the stairs interrupted her.  They turned to see an enormous, solidly built blond turn at the base of the stairs and come toward them.  She had on purple parachute pants with sequins decorating the edges, and great red shoes with curled toes, also covered in sequins, smacking the ground as she walked.  Her midriff was left totally exposed by her top, which was essentially just a decorated bra, and her hair was done up in a long, loose ponytail, with blue eyeshadow accentuating her eyes.

“And what are you supposed to be, Helen?” Jackie challenged.  She was jealous that other people might outshine her costume despite putting in much less work.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the blond replied.  Though she dwarfed Jackie, the bigger fish here was Fulda.  “I’m a genie!  I grant people’s wishes, but in the most literal way possible.  A perfect fit for this party, I imagine.”

Before any of them could call her out another series of footfalls came down the stairs, and they suddenly had another target.  Li’s long, straight black hair went down past her shoulder blades, and her shiny black high heels clicked as she walked.  Tall black stockings came halfway up her thighs, and a plaid tartan skirt left several inches of space between them.  Her plain white shirt was buttoned so it left some of her cleavage exposed, cut so it was tight against her curves.  She was wearing thick, round spectacles with fake lenses, playing up the angle with her Hello Kitty satchel.

“You’re supposed to be in a costume, Li,” Fulda admonished her.  “This is the same shit you wear every day!”

“Is it?” the Asian woman shot back coyly.  “Because my shirt is tighter, my skirt is shorter, and I would never wear heels like these outside of a special occasion.”  The six-inch boost they gave her put her on par with Helen.  “Guys like Asian schoolgirls, you’ve been on the internet.  I think you’re just worried that I’ll be getting all the attention and you’ll be left with scraps.”

Fulda scoffed, but before she would reply someone came in through the front door.  A pale, rail-thin woman with raven black hair clipped against the back of her head and dark blue eyes walked into the living room, her suede black flats contoured magnificently around her long feet.  She was leggy, emphasized by her black stockings and navy-blue skirt that came about halfway down her thighs.  Her black shirt was surprisingly conservative for a costume party, leaving only her collar bone exposed, and a loose white lab coat ran down to her wrists and knees.  Thin, wire-frame glasses rested on her nose, but she actually needed them, proven when she pushed them up with an unpolished fingernail.

“Who the hell is this?” Helen challenged the newcomer, glaring down at her.  Gamma parties had strictly been an insider affair until now, outside of their special guests.

“Don’t worry about it, she’s cool,” Fulda reassured the woman dressed as a genie.  “This is Lana, I’ve had a few classes with her.”  Lana waved sheepishly to the women watching her approach, then went to grab a cup from beside Jackie.

“No!  You don’t want any of that,” Jackie shouted, slapping her hand away.  She took a moment to gain her composure and added, “You should get something better, this is hooch.  We’ve got liquor in the kitchen and plenty of mixers, so please, help yourself to anything in there.  You’re our guest, after all!”  Lana seemed a little confused but satisfied, and wandered off toward the kitchen.

On her way to the kitchen Lana squeezed past the last member of the Gamma gang on her way to meet the others.  Olga’s knee-high calf-skin boots thudded on the hard wood floor, her creamy thighs bouncing with each step.  White strings trailed from tight, cut-off jean shorts, and the tail of her blue and black plaid shirt was cinched around her bosom, making her modest assets seem much larger and displaying her flat tummy to the world.  Her wavy blond hair was pulled into two pigtails, and her crimson lipstick was immaculate.  When she saw the others, her gray eyes darted between all of them and the bubbling cauldron in the middle.

“How’s the brew coming along, Jackie?” she asked, stepping toward the smoking rim.  Olga had a vested interest in it, since she had synthesized most of the active reagent herself.  If it wasn’t mixing well, or even worse didn’t work, she’d have to go back to the drawing board.

“Hold your horses, cowgirl,” Jackie teased, giving the cauldron another churn.  “It’ll be ready when they get here, don’t worry.  You should know better than everyone else that you can’t rush magic.”

“You’re doing chemistry right now, not magic,” Olga corrected her with a glare.

“All the same to me.”  Jackie’s cheerful response was calculated perfectly to annoy Olga, who growled in response.  She had tried explaining concepts from her coursework to the free-spirited nerd many times, but nothing seemed to stick.  Everything that took more than a minute to understand was written off as “magic,” like Jackie legitimately considered her a wizard.  It was especially frustrating since without a doubt Jackie was smart enough to understand it, and at this point she had to be fucking with her.

When Olga stormed off, Jackie had to look down so the wide brim of her hat hid her smile.  It was so easy to piss her off she almost felt bad about it.  She bit her lip and gripped the wooden stick tighter, pressing her pink nails into her palm.  If the witch’s brew didn’t need her constant attention, she’d have to go keep pushing her.

“I’ll go get you a drink so you can be ready when we start,” Fulda offered, putting a strong hand on Jackie’s shoulder.  Then she squared her shoulders and took long, ponderous strides to the kitchen, looking even more the role of a titaness.  She spent time playing the part, slowly turning her head from side to side as she walked down the hallway like she was surveying a vast kingdom at her feet.  By the time she arrived she legitimately felt like a colossus and was surprised to see a gaggle of women almost as tall as her.

They all made their drinks as strong as possible without making them grimace: their parties were always more fun if they were toasty by the time the fun started.  The girls joked around and talked while mixing their cocktails, taking a sip between laughing and catty remarks.  Appropriately, there was a strong party atmosphere among them, and they were getting themselves ready for their particular brand of flirting – little more than a mixture of mean jabs and intimidation, if you asked anyone else.

Everyone except Lana.  She was standing outside the circle by herself, back leaning against the corner formed by the counter.  Every so often she took a sip from her cup while watching the group, trying to figure out whether she should get involved.  Her hand subconsciously moved toward the silver clasp of her small dark blue purse before she caught herself, trying to keep her phone out of her hand for a change.  Though she wasn’t terribly social she was trying to reach out and make herself more available, but these girls seemed too tightly knit.

Fulda noticed her off to the side and went over to her, leaning her hip against the counter.  She took a drink and looked down at what would be a beanpole to most people, cleared her throat, and asked, “You here to have fun, or just be a dork in a different place?”

Lana looked up at her sheepishly and took a second to order her thoughts before speaking.  “I’m having fun.”  Her voice was soft and mousy, not at all what you’d expect from a woman over six feet tall.  “I like people watching.”  Although she was telling the truth, Fulda was not convinced.  At least, she wasn’t satisfied by the answer.

“You’ll do plenty of people watching tonight, I promise,” she replied with a broad smile.  “Come on, get involved!  None of us bite.  Except Li.”  Fulda put a strong arm on her back and gently, yet firmly, pushed her toward the others.  They shifted a little to accommodate the newcomer, and she settled in between Olga and Helen.

“Um, hi,” Lana said, giving them another timid wave.  She blushed a little and looked at the floor bashfully, then continued, “I’m Lana.  It’s nice to meet you all.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen you around!” Helen practically shouted in comparison.  “You’re hot, in like a sexy librarian kind of way.  Take those glasses off and let your hair down and I bet you’re a goddess.”

“Thanks, but I need my glasses to…”

 “And your costume is real cute,” Olga cut in.  “It’s got a sense of style and leaves just the right amount to the imagination.”

“I really just put a lab coat on over my outfit, this was very last minute for me.”  With every compliment she got more embarrassed.  Lana was not only unaccustomed to being the center of attention, she actively avoided it.

“And your bone structure is remarkable,” Li stated, taking a step forward so the click of her heel on the tile punctuated the statement.  She took a second to look down at Lana, relishing every inch she was taller even though it was her shoes that gave her an advantage.  “You look fragile, like a bird.”  Lana looked particularly uncomfortable after that, though it was business as usual with Li.

Before Lana could respond there was a loud knock at the door.  “Our first guests are here!” Fulda exclaimed, bouncing with excitement.  “Helen, you run this drink in to Jackie, I’ll make sure they’re given a proper welcome.”  She handed the cup to the would-be genie and giddily rushed toward the door.  The first encounter was always so satisfying.

Fulda took a moment to calm down and get composed, squaring herself in the doorway.  She did not quite fit under it, and almost filled the frame with her sturdy build.  Slowly she drew the door toward her, revealing the eager guests a couple at a time.  Her impassive gaze swept over them, each at least a foot shorter than her, and she felt gigantic looking down at them two steps below.  “You may enter,” she declared, then stepped to the side so they had to pass beneath her arm.

It was a smaller crowd than they usually invited, though they were the same in stature.  For the most part, their costumes were low-effort and slapped together, when they bothered with one at all.  Hardly a tragedy, or even unexpected: everyone knew Halloween parties were flimsy excuses to drink and get up to mischief, whatever that might mean to them.  Fortunately, they did not need to be herded, since the low, steady trap music beat was a clear guide to the party.

When they were all in the living room Fulda came up behind them, blocking the hallway.  There was no need to trap them, though, since their eyes were already having trouble deciding which of the women to look at.  After they stood there dumbfounded for several seconds, Jackie beckoned wide with a thin arm and proclaimed, “Come, little ones, take a sample of my potion!  You’ll find it’s quite potent, and a cure for whatever problems you may have.”

The guests hurried forward to grab a cup, then took their fill by plunging it deep into the cauldron.  It was surprisingly sweet and went down easy, with only a slight aftertaste no one could quite place.  While they drank deeply the women sized them up, trying to decide which ones to take.  Over the past few parties they had developed a “feel” for their type, and with only a dozen each of them recognized at least two.  Lana was left out of this, but with such a selection she would be satisfied with the scraps.

Through charm, wit, or force, each of the Gammas peeled a pair of men away from the center with them.  The remaining two, not wanting to be seen as losers off by themselves, spotted Lana and made their way toward her.  While the others engaged in hearty and boisterous conversation Lana was practically hiding in the shadows, watching it all happen while nervously clutching her cup in front of her with both hands.  She was startled when the pair approached her, not used to being actively sought out, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she glanced down and saw two men looking up at her.

They forced small talk for a while, making sure they had enough of the potion in them for it to work.  There was only so much that could be said, and they’d heard just about every variation possible.  At the very least it was a chance for them to talk about themselves, far and away their favorite topics.  Their quarry listened attentively, none with an inkling that the impossible was about to happen.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes of faking the college courtship ritual, Jackie determined enough time had passed.  She spread her arms wide, and her turquoise eyes briefly flashed gold when she shouted, “Man to bug!”  Jets of ethereal blue light shot between each of the Gammas, forming a pentagram, and a loud, rising tone drowned out all conversation.  When it all subsided, the men had all disappeared.

Unless, of course, you knew where to look.  At the feet of each woman stood a pair of man-shaped bugs who were quite shocked by their new size.  None of them even came up to the toes of their shoes now, and all they could do was look up in silence at the woman who had chosen them.  This was no accident, however, and each man found a pair of enormous eyes staring back from atop the monolith he had just been chatting up.  For the women, the fun had just begun.

Once my cup was full, I looked up and saw the woman in the witch costume who had been stirring the cauldron practically standing on top of me.  Ordinarily she would be a little too close for comfort, but something about her was disarming.  I had not noticed earlier due to the hat, but she had soft, delicate features that were easy to look at and only helped by her crooked smirk.  With how inviting she was I didn’t even mind that I only came up to her chin and was looking up at her rather a bit.  Olga had invited me, and I was not going to be a rude guest to her friend.

“Now don’t you just look smashing,” she said, rubbing a hand on my shoulder.  Her voice was soft and playful, like someone who was used to talking their way through things.  Like everything else about her, far from unpleasant.  “I can tell you drank your milk, so your bones must be very strong if they’re not that long.”  Even though I was dressed as a skeleton it was a weird line, but still endearing coming from her.

“I’m Jackie,” she continued, giving me a gentle tug toward her.  “Or, if you prefer, Archmage Jacquelyn of the Tenth Circle.”  Her hand slid down to the small of my back, urging me to walk with her as if I needed any more encouragement.  A little on the nerdy side, sure, but the pink hair worked for me as much as it did her.  She took a drink and I matched her, taking in a little more to show off my prowess.

We stopped next to the stereo hub, or rather, the device broadcasting a Spotify playlist to the speakers.  Jackie leaned a shoulder against the wall and crossed one ankle over the other, just touching the toe of her shoe to the carpet.  She cocked her head, making her straight hair bounced beneath the hat, and circled a finger along the rim of her cup.  “So, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself, little guy?”

It was very unusual for a woman interested in me to make my height such a frequent topic, but she seemed oddly genuine about it.  I told her my name and what I majored in, and she had a surprising amount of follow-up questions.  “For someone so well-informed about chemistry I’d think you at least have a minor in it, why have I never seen you around the building?  Figure I’d remember a pretty face like yours.”

“Oh, stop!” she replied, playfully slapping my arm.  She leaned in a bit closer and explained, “I’m actually an English major with a focus on creative writing, I just make Olga think I don’t understand anything and she can’t stop herself from going on a long rant explaining it to me, isn’t that funny?”

“Yeah, I guess it is!” I answered.  She was more mischievous than I’d initially taken her for, too.  We spent a bit going back and forth, taking drinks while the other spoke.  In a surprisingly short amount of time I began to feel an inner warmth and some light-headedness, which did not take long to progress to full-on inebriation.  I could scarcely keep up with her, though I did my best to stay in the conversation.

“Excuse me a sec, I’ve got to do a thing,” Jackie said, gently pulling me away from the wall with her fingers.  I thought I had fucked up and killed her interest in me, but she hadn’t even made it past when she stopped and turned to face me, though she was looking over my head.  She threw her arms wide and her eyes flashed a brilliant gold, then a series of booming, illegible syllables emanated from her mouth, and a blinding blue light filled the room.  It was so sudden and aggressive that I had no idea what to do, it was like my brain had briefly short-circuited.

When I could see and hear again, Jackie was nowhere to be seen.  I guess I had driven her away.  All that was left in front of me was a long, steeply sloped wall capped by a low, rounded black peak.  It kind of looked like a shoe, when I thought about it, one of the shoes Jackie had been wearing.  Unable to resist I looked up, and beyond the cap an enormous ivory tower rose toward the sky, draped in glistening black fabric.  My gaze sped along the great black cliff face, interrupted here and there by the odd patch of brass or rope, until it encountered ivory again.  A familiar crooked smirk greeted me, and my eyes were met by a pair of much larger turquoise ones.  Either Jackie had found a way to make herself enormous, or I was tiny now.  Regardless, our dynamic had just undergone a serious change.

She slowly waved at me, making sure I could follow the arc of fingers several times my size.  “Hey down there, little guy,” Jackie boomed.  Her voice was no longer soft and gentle.  Now it was low, loud, and rumbling, almost unintelligible at first.  “Bet you thought the witch get-up was just a costume, right?  Wrong, as you can clearly see now.”  I wanted to shout something back up at her, but my mind was still reeling from the first sight of her towering over me.  My brain was working overtime to figure out what had really happened, but always ended at the conclusion that, somehow, she had shrunk me.

“Sad to say, but your height isn’t coming back,” Jackie elaborated.  “You’re going to be like that for the rest of your life, however long that is.  But I have a proposal for you, if you’re willing to listen.”  What else was I going to do from practically beneath her shoe?  “If you can answer three riddles right, I’ll take you on as my familiar, and we’ll get to share a very special bond.”

It sounded good, but there had to be more she wasn’t saying.  “What if I get one wrong?” I asked, finally finding my voice.

She took a half-step forward so the sole of her titanic shoe loomed over me, almost touching my head.  “Don’t.”  I guess that settled it.  My thoughts were still scrambled by the sudden change, and I was never particularly good at riddles to begin with.  It seemed my life depended on them now, so I had better shape up.

The air rumbled when she cleared her throat, and I braced for the worst.  “First one: I’m always eating, but never fill.  Some fear me, some crave me, but in the end they all become my friend, though my greatest friend of all is time.  What am I?”

This one wasn’t so hard.  “Death,” I answered with surprising confidence.  Jackie’s sole raised and I braced for impact, but she slightly rotated it on her heel.  The shoe came down slowly and laid flat to my left, pressing hard against the carpet.  She lifted her heel, grinding her foot back and forth, before setting it back down.  When she was done her sole returned to its position leaning over my head where I could see every fine detail of wear and tear in the rubber.

“Your answer satisfies.  Second one: I’m always running, but never tire.  Though I have a bed and mouth I neither sleep nor eat.  Cities and farmers alike adore me, though I bring them destruction.  What am I?”

That one was a bit tougher, but hardly unsolvable.  My first impulse was that she was talking about herself, but the last bit threw me off.  “A river,” I replied tentatively.  Again the sole raised, but this time it turned the other way.  Jackie slapped it against the ground with a crash that made my teeth chatter and leaned her weight on it, making the floor creak under the pressure.  It flipped back up, leaving an imprint in its wake, to return to its spot above me.

“Good enough,” Jackie boomed.  “Third one: what can change the nature of a man?”

Shit, I had no idea.  There were a lot of things, and the most obvious one had already been an answer.  Was she going for something more esoteric and philosophical, or concrete like the last one?  Maybe something directly related to what’s going on now?  Her foot twitched impatiently, and I knew I had to say something.  “Getting shrunk?” I guessed.  It could have been literally anything, and that was what I figured she was going for.

Jackie’s foot jerked upward just far enough that I could see her eyes over the toe of her shoe.  “Sorry, but no,” she declared, and her sole raced toward me.  In an instant it had filled my view again, and there was no time to react before it crashed into me.  Her foot bowled me over, pinning me in the soft carpet, while she leaned forward.  Gradually the pressure on me increased, making me feel even more constricted, until breathing became impossible.  I felt my bones being pushed inward, straining futilely to stay together.

Her weight suddenly surged and the shoe shifted, pressing down harder.  Pain flooded through me, accompanied by the sound of all of my bones simultaneously giving way under her.  There was no time to even scream before I was squashed entirely, no different than if I were a bug who had snuck into her room, and left nothing more than a small red stain and pool of unidentifiable viscera.

Jackie raised her heel as far as it could go, really letting herself dig press down with her toes.  She ground her foot back and forth over her victim, mashing his tiny remains even more.  When she was done she lifted her foot again, stomping on the small puddle and grinding her shoe on it.  Finally, she was satisfied, and brought her foot back down to rest.  With a grin she turned to the one in front of her other shoe, knowing he must be terrified, but that would have to wait until later.  For now, though, she felt amazing, and let the tingling sensation from smashing someone suffuse through her body.

Before I even pulled my drink out of the cauldron a strong, calloused hand clapped down on my shoulder.  There was not even time to turn and look before it pulled hard, spinning me around so fast I nearly lost my drink.  An enormous line of cleavage was mere inches from my nose, formed by the collision of two enormous breasts, the outsides draped with a white curtain.  It took a second to click that I was face to chest with the amazon who greeted us at the door.  This close to her I felt her enormity even more, a sense that only grew when she gripped my shoulder again.  She glared down at me with cold eyes while her auburn hair piled behind her shoulders.

“Come with me, let’s get to know each other,” she commanded with a stern, powerful voice.  Even if I wanted to say no – and I didn’t – I couldn’t.  She was gorgeous, with bronzed skin that made her eyes pop even more, and full, glossy pink lips that were enticing yet unreachable, like a prize jewel behind glass.  Besides that, there was also the implication: if I said no, something might go wrong for me, and since I was on her home turf it’d be a tall order to escape.  Most importantly though, hadn’t I come here precisely for women like this?

She turned to walk, pushing me along with her as she maintained her firm grip on me.  “I’m Fulda,” she said, going out of her way to look down at me.  “How are you enjoying the Gamma Tau Sigma house?”

“I’m having a good time so far,” I replied, then took a sip of my drink.  Surprisingly good, especially if it was as potent as they said.  In truth I had come here with hopes of getting closer to Jackie, but I wasn’t going to turn away from this mountain that had dropped onto my lap.  “I like your toga.”

Fulda let out a loud, booming laugh, like I had just said the funniest thing she’d ever heard.  “Thanks, dude!”  She gave my shoulder a strong squeeze, making the tendons pop.  “It’s not a toga though, I’m a titan from Greek mythology.  Or titaness, I guess.  You can call me that if you want, by the way.”  She smiled, but I wasn’t sure if she was joking.  “What’re you supposed to be?”

Next to her I felt a little overdressed in my cardboard armor, not to mention ridiculous.  “I’m a knight,” I answered, trying to match her confidence.  “You know, like Lancelot, Gawain, all those guys.  Great and powerful warriors buffeted by their honor.”

She chuckled, then yanked me to a stop.  Fulda turned, pushing me along until we were facing each other again – rather, until she could stare down at me without turning her head.  “Sort of a ‘the man makes the warrior’ thing, right?” she asked, grinning.  “I like it.  It’s funny though; the literary idea of knights originated in heroes fighting monsters.  Titans were often regarded as monsters.”  Her finger ran along my shoulder, up my neck, and along my jaw, until it hooked under my chin and forced me to look up at her.  “Are you here to fight me, brave knight?”

“That depends whether you’ve been terrorizing the villagers,” I said.  This was the strangest flirting I’d done in a while, but it seemed to be working.  “So I guess it comes down to whether you’re a good titaness, or a mean one.”

“Oh, I’m the meanest,” she answered, taking a step toward me.  Fulda was practically on top of me now, pressing against me where our bodies could meet.  “Smashing houses, freeing animals, crushing farmers and adventurers alike.  It’s a good life, dominating the countryside.  There’s just one question.”  She wrapped her other arm around my waist, securing me against her.  “I’m just wondering what you can do about it from down there.”

“I can do plenty,” I shot back.  “I may not look like much, but I’ve got heart.  Pretty sure I could take you in hand to hand, maybe in a wrestling match.”  It was more forward than I was used to being, but she was throwing out some strong hints toward me.  A little bit of wrestling might be just what was needed to seal the deal.

“Oh, you want to wrestle?” she replied with a playful smirk.  “I’m pretty sure I’ve got about a hundred pounds and at least a foot on you, but sure, I’ll wrestle you.”  In a flash Fulda hooked her hands under my armpits and lifted me off the ground, leaving me entirely at her mercy.  I was unable to even lock up with her, much less throw or sweep her.

“This might not have been the best idea,” I admitted, completely at her mercy.  “I kind of expected I’d have the jump on you when I said that.”  She was not showing the slightest amount of exertion as she held me at eye level.

“Yeah, well you didn’t,” she said, giving me a shake.  “So I think I won this little wrestling match of yours.  What do you think I should do to you, now that I’ve clearly demonstrated my dominance?”

“I guess you can do whatever you want, right?” I said.  “Personally, if I had won I’d take you somewhere and ravish you, whatever it took.  To the victor goes the spoils, right?”

“Nice try,” Fulda replied, lowering me back to the floor.  As soon as my feet hit the floor she had a palm gripping the back of my head, with another one on my back.  “I’ve heard just about every trick in the book, and this one comes up a lot.  You’ll have to get a lot more creative if you want to bed me.”

“Well then, give me a push and I’ll follow it.”  I wasn’t sure if we were still flirting or if she was just being threatening.  “You won, after all.”

“Yeah, I did.  But I think I’ll wait to claim my victory.”  It was remarkable how close she was holding me.  We were practically one, just a single entity joined where she decided we would be.  “I don’t think you’ll be able to get very far.  I’d just wrestle you back to the ground if I wanted.”

There was a brief moment while she beamed down at me, secure in her abilities.  I wanted to go after her, secure her legs and come out on top, but I figured that wouldn’t go well either.  Her legs alone could pretty well dominate me.  “Yeah, I think you got me,” I said.  “Don’t think I can really budge you as it is.”

“Good, you accept it,” Fulda replied.  “I was worried I’d have to body slam you to drive the point home.”  She had such confidence that I couldn’t counter her, even if I had the physical ability to resist her power.

I was at a loss for words, which developed into an awkward silence.  My eyes flicked down to my cup and I realized it was empty.  Before I could excuse myself to refill it, my ears were assaulted by three thundering syllables and a blinding, bright blue light shot out from Fulda’s chest.  A gasp escaped my mouth, maybe a scream, as my senses were overwhelmed.

When my senses came back it was like I had been transported to a different world.  Thick, beige plants came up to my knees, and in front of me a large, distant brown leather wall had replaced the gorgeous woman I had been flirting with.  A loud rumble filled the air, and there was suddenly a shocking amount of seismic activity.  The rumble continued, low and steady, and it began to sound like human laughter.

I looked up to find the source and my jaw dropped.  Two enormous towers rose on either side of me, their bases brown and fuzzy before transitioning to a smooth, bronze-like surface.  Unlike any other tower I had seen they flared wider as they went higher, even as they converged toward each other to become one structure.  A great white sheet obstructed my view before they met, and further up it was cinched by a broad leather strap with an even broader set of bronze embellishments in the shape of fingers.  It hung loose further up the tower until it was suddenly pulled tight against a large round bulge, seemingly the top of the building.  There were decorations on the roof in the shape of a woman’s face with bright blue eyes and finely chiseled strands of auburn hair.

The eyes blinked, snapping me out of my delusion.  This gigantic tower was a gigantic, towering woman, and the plants around my legs were carpet fibers.  Worse, she was looking down at me, completely aware I was at her toes.  I was frozen, both out of fear and awe, though I wanted nothing more than to run even if I had nowhere to go.

The tower collapsed, and a second later Fulda was squatting in front of me.  Her legs cast wide around me, framing her face as she stared down at me.  She draped her arms over her thighs, letting her hands dangle in the air and occasionally twiddling her fingers.  A smirk tugged at her lips and she boomed, “I think I’ll celebrate my victory now.”  One of her hands descended toward me, and my legs came unfrozen.

I dashed away from her as fast as I could, hopping over the carpet like it was a series of hurdles.  It felt like I was making progress, but her long fingers seized me all the same, and my legs pumped uselessly in the air when she picked me up.  My stomached dropped and vertigo made my head swim when she stood, then I felt sick when she dangled me in front of her face.  Her lips widened into a grin while her enormous face beamed at me.

The world tumbled, making my stomach leap into my throat when she fell backward into the chair.  An earth-shattering crunch exploded when her huge frame crashed into the seat, and I felt the impact travel throughout my body.  Fulda kept me in front of her face, reveling in my discomfort.

“Still want to wrestle?” she asked, her voice like a roar.  I shook my head, but she didn’t care.  “I think I’ll start with a leg-lock.”  She began lowering me from her face while pulling up the sheet with her free hand.  Fulda set me on her colossal, smooth thigh and pressed me into it with a finger.  I flailed my arms to get free, but one finger was all she needed to immobilize me.

Her other leg raised up, and I watched in shock as her calf crossed over the knee below me.  The underside of her thigh was just as smooth and tanned as the front I was held against; impossible not to notice, as it commanded my entire field of view.  It set down atop me, smushing me with its tremendous weight, and she slid her finger out from laying on my chest.  With it gone the rest of her thigh was free to drop itself on me, completing the sealed pocket her skin made around me.

It was unbearably hot, like a convection oven, and I began to sweat uncontrollably.  Fulda’s thighs started to sweat too, adding to the stifling humidity and drenching me with salty water.  I struggled to breathe but her thighs kept me from getting any air, if there even had been any to inhale.  All it got me was a mouthful of sweat that made me start gagging, though the crushing weight of her thighs kept my body from spasming in response.

The pressure around me increased as Fulda started to flex and panic seized me.  I tried to thrash and struggle, but even my fingers were held fast.  My bones creaked from the strain and I tried to scream from the crushing pain, but only managed to drink more sweat.  She squeezed harder, tighter, and I felt my bones cracking.  All at once they gave way in a flood of agony, the spots in my vision replaced by a flash of white before nothingness.

Fulda felt the tiny body squish between her thighs and inhaled sharply from the sudden rush of pleasure.  There would only be hints of a mangled corpse in his wake after the blood had been forced out of his body at such a high pressure.  She felt the pool spread, relishing the feeling as it wetted her skin.  Her dilated eyes shot to the other tiny man on the floor and she grinned, knowing that his time would come soon, and until then all he could do was panic.

Once I had a full cup, I turned around to survey the rest of the party and ran face-first into a red sequined halter top.  She hadn’t been there when I dunked my cup in so she must have crept up on me, extremely fast at that.  I craned my neck back, only to be met with the smug look on her cream-colored face.  She had her blond hair pulled up in a high ponytail so the ends drooped back down to tickle the back of her head.  “Where did you come from?” I asked, trying to conceal my surprise.

“I’m a genie, silly!” she replied with her husky voice, then giggled.  “I grant wishes.  You must have wished for me to be here, and I appeared!”

I smirked and decided to play along.  “Well if you’re a genie,” I began, “shouldn’t I have to rub a lamp to get wishes from you?  That’s how it works in the stories.”  I figured Li would be around since she had invited me, but she was off with a pair of meatheads.  With her preoccupied, I was no less happy to flirt with this blond bombshell.  As a best-case scenario, I’d score with her and make Li jealous at the same time.

“That’s a common misconception,” she replied, sliding a hand around my waist.  “You can get wishes out of genies by rubbing anything they like.” She leaned in so her mouth was next to my ear and continued conspiratorially, “You could even rub me to get a wish if that is… your wish.”  With a wink she stood back up, practically wedging my nose between her breasts.

“I could always use another wish or two,” I said, my voice muffled amid her cleavage.  “I wish…”  She rapped me on the back of the head, breaking my train of thought.

“Uh-uh,” she clicked, grabbing the scruff of my neck and jerking me away from her.  “Another little-known rule of genies: for every wish you get, I get one, too.”

I wrapped both arms around her waist, pulling myself into her again, and looked up so I wouldn’t be muffled this time.  “Well then, what is your wish, genie?”

“I wish that we could get a little distance between us and everyone else.”  She practically picked me up and carried me across the room, coming to stop in a corner on the far side.  It was hardly intimate since we were still in the living room, but it was a big improvement.  I couldn’t help but notice that Li was in the corner beside us with her brand new boy toy, and to show her how much I cared I needed to show her how much I didn’t care.

There was a bit of an awkward pause, and she prompted me, “You know, these aren’t like birthday wishes.  In fact, they’re almost the opposite: if you don’t tell me, then it definitely won’t come true.”

“All right then,” I started, a little defensive from how forward she was.  As she looked down at me from a foot above, I got a distinct feeling of hunger from her.  Or thirst.  Some innate biological need at least.  “I wish that we would make out, right now.”

It was risky, but for once taking a risk didn’t backfire.  She simply declared, in her velvety voice, “Your wish is my command,” then leaned in toward me.  If she was simply playing a part, she was doing a hell of a job at it: I wasn’t sure if I was pulling her closer, or she was pulling me.  Regardless, our lips met, and she seemed no less excited than me.  Our mouths went back and forth, attacking and defending in turn, while our tongues flicked between looking for an advantage.  Neither of us were able to gain the advantage for long before being upturned, then the other would quickly swoop in.

Ultimately though, she decided when it ended, and she separated our lips after only one passionate minute.  She looked down at me with wide eyes and proclaimed, “Okay, now it’s my turn!”  She inhaled sharply, and I stood on my toes in anticipation.  “I wish… that we knew each other’s names.”  That was a bit of a disappointment, especially considering what I thought had been our escalation.  “I’m Helen.”

I told her my name in response and started thinking of a more exciting wish than that.  It shouldn’t be too hard.  “I wish… that we could get a little more intimate, Helen.”  At the end I pulled myself into her, bringing us even closer, as if she needed more of a hint.  That ought to be enough to get the point across.

Helen put a finger in the middle of my forehead and shoved me back, forcing me to look up at her while I was pushed away.  “What a coincidence, I was just wishing the same thing.”  Her hand tipped my cup toward my lips, and the liquid began flowing into my mouth.  She kept her fingers there, making sure it kept pouring, until it was empty.  Only then, once I had cleaned every last drop from it, did she relent and allow it to drop from my lips.  “I’m just not sure you’ll like my version of intimacy.”

As though it had been pre-arranged a series of syllables belted out once Helen finished, deafening me to the peals of laughter that followed.  They were followed by an incandescent blue light that assaulted my senses, making me unable to perceive anything outside of it.  I felt dizzy and light-headed while it lasted, and the feeling endured once it was gone.

When I could see again I immediately noticed something was wrong.  Everything was several orders of magnitude larger, like it was built for a race of gigantic people.  Even the carpet seemed out of scale, and I had partially sunk into it.  At a glance, the running board on the wall I faced could have been the wall itself.  Was this the lead-in to another phase of the party, some sort of funhouse?  Strangely enough, I couldn’t see anyone else from where I stood, not even Helen, and she was hard to miss.

A deafening clap interrupted my survey and my attention snapped upward.  It looked like I was on the ground floor of a building with an open middle and the ceiling was draped with broad swatches of purple fabric, and the much larger second floor’s walls had been painted cream.  Two thick beams painted the same color stretched over the gap, angled to intersect each other.  At the point where they met was a huge cluster of material in the shape of – no, not just in the shape of.  It was two enormous hands clasped together.

“My wish came true, at least,” boomed a tremendous voice above me.  My focus shifted from the mammoth pair of hands to the building’s ceiling, where to gigantic, inlaid sapphires seemed to stare back at me.  Once my perspective adjusted, I realized those weren’t the largest gemstones I had ever seen, but eyes.  Looking down at me was Helen’s colossal face, somehow several times larger than the building I stood in.  Wide-eyed, I continued processing my situation, since none of it made sense. 

Several seconds later there were only two conclusions I hadn’t ruled out, though both were absurd.  The first was that Helen had suddenly and inexplicably grown to the size of a skyscraper and the rest of the world had adjusted for her new size.  Alternatively, I had just as suddenly and inexplicably been greatly reduced in size until I was about an inch tall, and Helen was the “building” I stood in.  Regardless, the reality was that Helen’s titanic form was crouched over me, and compared to her I was the size of an insect between her feet.

Another overpowering clap rattled my eardrums when she brought her hands together, and I uselessly clutched at my ears.  “Hey!” Helen barked, and a fleck of spittle landed in the carpet next to me.  “Bug!  Do something!  Ask what happened, beg me for mercy, run away, anything!”  I simply stood there dumbfounded, gawking up at her.  My mind was still trying to work out whether she had become titanic, or if I was tiny.

She slapped her hands onto her knees, making me flinch from the loud crack.  “You are, without a doubt, the most boring tiny person I have ever dealt with!” Helen roared, making me clutch my ears again.  Finally, a definitive answer.  “I should’ve figured Li’s guests would be about as fun as a wet noodle.”  I still gawped up at her, confused.  Was this some sort of game for her?  Had I been shrunk as a joke?

I was still struggling to come to terms with the situation when she shook her head, throwing her pillar of blond hair to and fro.  “You know what?” Helen began.  “If you’re not going to play along, I’m fucking done.”  She raised a hand from her knee and pointed it palm-down toward me, fingers together, and clenched her jaw.  Her hand reared back, and once it reached her shoulders began racing back down.

Too late I realized what was happening, but her hand was so massive it wouldn’t have made much difference.  Helen’s hand sped toward me, moving impossibly fast as her powerful arm swung it downward.  Her fingers quickly blotted out my view skyward, only to be pushed out as her gigantic palm drew closer.  The wrinkles of her palm were like crevices and the whorls on her skin more like trenches, every mark and imperfection starkly visible to me.

I only had a moment to reflect on that before her hand slammed into me.  For a split second I was prone but her hand continued its movement, compressing my body between it and the floor.  There was not even time to cry out in pain before Helen’s palm smashed me into paste.  A small mercy that the single greatest agony I had ever experienced was over in an instant, followed by feeling nothing at all.

Helen felt the joyless tiny man splatter beneath her hand when she swatted him, reduced to mush in an instant.  For good measure she repeatedly slapped the ground where he stood, mashing him into the carpet, until she was slamming her fist into the quarter-sized red circle that was left.  Her eyes flicked to the other shrunken man by her toes, easily within arm’s reach, looking at her with wild eyes.  She could have smashed him too, but it wouldn’t be sporting.  Hopefully he would be more fun to hunt than this one.

I plunged my entire cup into the cauldron, delving my arm into the smoky liquid up to my wrist.  When I withdrew it, the chilled drink gushed out of the cup and over my hand like a waterfall into the basin it had come from.  Immediately I slammed it back, pouring it straight down my throat.  It was good – not the best hunch punch I’d ever had, but up there – and while I couldn’t quite place the aftertaste, it was pleasant.  Without hesitation I dipped my cup back in for more, drenching my hand with a fresh flow of the drink.

Before I could quaff my second serving long, slender fingers wrapped around my wrist, holding it in place.  I slowly turned my head from the anticipated drink to the person who had stopped me from drinking it, expecting that I’d have to throw hands.  Instead, I found myself looking straight at the ridge of some cleavage, the breasts straining against the collared white shirt even with two buttons undone.  My eyes slid upward, but instead of the golden complexion and playful smile beneath auburn hair I expected, I saw pale, almost porcelain skin, with contrastingly dark eyes centered in ridiculous thick frames, and straight black bangs down to a pair of immaculately plucked eyebrows.

“You should pace yourself,” she told me with her surprisingly melodic voice.  “We weren’t joking about that stuff being potent.”

“Yeah?  And who’re you to stop me?” I challenged.  I was here because last week Fulda had bet me that she could deadlift me, and if I lost I would come to her party.  There was no doubt that she could, I just saw it as an easy in to one of the exclusive Gamma parties, and that was her subtle way of inviting me.  This Japanese waif, on the other hand?  If she could lift my left leg I’d be shocked.

“I’m Li,” she said, lowering my arm down to my waist.  If I had been resisting, it’d be a different story, but I wanted to see where this was going.  “I’d hate for you to black out before we get to the good stuff.”  She slid her free hand up the arm she was holding, running the tip of a finger along the troughs and bulges of my muscles.  I could tell she was impressed by the work I had put in.  “I think we could have a lot of…” she paused to bite her bottom lip, “fun, you know?”

Yeah, she dug me.  I grabbed her hand as it was tickling its way up my bicep, then pulled it between my pecs.  “Wanna go somewhere more private?” I asked.  Her ear was a bit too far up for me to whisper in it, but everyone else was preoccupied anyway, and it was quiet enough I shouldn’t have to be that close.  Her slow nod was enough to know she’d heard me, and her smile told me she was amenable.

Li leaned forward until her lips were on my ears, exaggerating how much effort she had to go through.  “How about we just go over there,” she purred, and my gaze followed her fingertip to a corner on the far side of the room.  Someone else had occupied the other corner, so that was probably as private as we could get without going up to her room, and I didn’t want to push it.

Though she pointed me toward it I led the way into the corner, pulling Li along with me.  As we walked I kept the pace slow so I’d have a chance to check her out more completely.  I dug the schoolgirl look, but she had clearly cultivated it to get that exact result.  Everything from her too-tight shirt to her too-short skirt stopping just a few inches above her stockings fed into the aesthetic calculated to drive weebs wild.  Not me, though.  Beyond that, I noticed her remarkably high heels, giving her a half-foot boost.  Without a doubt she was unusually tall without them, but she still felt the need to wear them.  While my eyes scanned back up to her dark eyes I made note of her apparent insecurity and started thinking about how I could exploit it later.

When we finally reached the corner, Li practically pinned me into it and began playing with my hair.  “So tell me, little guy,” she began, leaning even harder into me.  She was practically shoving her cleavage in my face while she leaned heavily on my shoulder, trying to assert her advantage.  “What brings you, of all people, to our party tonight?”  Her finger ran down my forehead and over the bridge of my nose until she booped the tip.  “I feel like a strong, fit guy like you shouldn’t have any problem getting party invites.”

“You’re right, but who can resist a Gamma party?  You’re the most mysterious sorority on campus, and you’ve got quite a reputation for smashing parties,” I told her.  “Besides, I felt honored by an invite from your president herself, and I couldn’t turn down that invitation.”

Li looked over her shoulder at Fulda, who was inexplicably paying attention to some dweeb who looked like he was made out of matchsticks.  “Oh… you’re here for her,” she said, suddenly lacking any enthusiasm.  “I see how it is.  You wanted her, and I’m just a consolation prize.  Go on, then.  Go crowd around her if you want, I can keep myself busy.”

“Oh no, Li, you’ve got it all wrong,” I said, trying to smooth her wounded ego over.  “Fulda got me in the door, but once I was here I discovered you.  You’re not just a consolation, you’re a prize in yourself, and I can’t believe you’d denigrate yourself like that.”  That ought to keep her satisfied for a bit.

“Well, I know that most of Fulda’s gym buddies want to wrestle her,” Li started, looking surprisingly bashful, “but so many of them never get to.  Want to wrestle with me, though?  If you win, you can take me upstairs.”

After looking her up and down earlier, I figured she’d be an easy pin.  Not only was she skinny, but those six-inch heels ought to put her off-balance.  It should be an easy match, even though I knew next to nothing about wrestling, or any martial art.  “Yeah, I’m okay with that,” I told her.  “You look like you should be a challenge.”  It was an obvious lie, since I knew I could get her down and pinned within ten seconds.

Li took a couple steps back, breaking any connection we had so we were staring at each other.  Suddenly, I felt a lot less confident.  “Okay, whenever you’re ready!”  Even without the heels she had half a foot on me, and that, along with her supreme confidence, made me think I had made a huge mistake.  Then again, she would be rather off-balance with those ridiculous heels, so I should be able to knock her over easily.

She said I could go whenever I was ready, and I took advantage of that.  I charged at her midsection and wrapped my arms around her thighs, linking them together in the back.  With a large heave I pulled back and up, which should have flipped Li onto her back, but she stood solid against me.  Repeatedly I jerked backward, trying to make her fall over, but as far as I could tell she was as solid on her foundation as a house.

“I guess it wasn’t obvious, and maybe I should’ve told you,” Li started, bending over so her hands joined around my waist, “but I’ve been on the swim team five years in a row – yes, even as a freshman here.  So while you’ve got a stupid amount of bulk, I’ve got a little more subtle definition.”  Her hands yanked upward and I was thrown upside-down, my last chance at bringing her down my hands joined behind her ankles.  After a quick shake, bouncing me up and down, she forced me to release my grip and I was left dangling upside down in her arms.

“I didn’t tell you what happened if I won, did I?” Li asked.  Smugness dripped from her voice, knowing she had won.  I was helpless in her hold, left to snatch futilely at her ankles while she controlled everything else.  The only question was what she’d make me do.  Give her a manicure, paint her nails, brush her hair until it was just right?  She could make any demand she wanted after winning our “bet” and I’d gladly go along with it.

Li had her own ideas.  She let me dangle in front of her for a while, basking in her complete victory.  I played along with her, making exaggerated grunts and half-hearted attempts to break out, acting like a complete victim.  It must have made her feel powerful, thinking she had total control over me, and I wanted to let her have the full experience.  Power was an aphrodisiac to some people, after all.

Then came the noise, three booming syllables that drowned out everything else, accompanied by a harsh blue light.  Li’s hold on me grew immensely stronger and seemed to spread, then released entirely.  There was no time to enjoy my new-found freedom, however, since something seized my foot with twice the force.  The powerless panic I had been feigning mere moments ago began to sink in for real.

When the light faded, I was so shocked I couldn’t even scream.  Li dangled me by one leg in front of her face, her black, hungry eyes bearing down on me.  Her nose alone was longer than I was, and my gaze frantically darted between features more fit for a grand monument than a person.  She licked her thin lips, sliding her pink tongue along the sensitive skin so they were covered in a thin layer of saliva.  I faintly saw my own reflection in her lenses, and the sight of my whole body hanging limply from her fingers made me feel abjectly pitiful.

“Fulda’s guests are always my favorite,” Li said, and my teeth rattled in their sockets from the power of her voice.  “Overconfident, gym-addicted meat-heads who’re just so certain I’ll fuck them if they so much as talk to me.  Making you idiots into tiny, powerless insects is one of my greatest joys.”  She batted me with a finger, a gut punch across my whole body that made me swing violently.  “Your useless bulk makes you good sources of protein, too.”

She began tilting her head back while raising me along with it, keeping me lined up with her wetted lips.  Her ghoulish intentions made a deep pit in my stomach, and I began to break out in panic sweats.  “No, Li, please!” I begged.  “I’ll do anything you want!  You can keep me as a pet, a toy, whatever, just please don’t eat me!”  I came to a stop, suspended above her mouth while she looked straight up.

“Anything?” she repeated coyly.

“Yes, anything!” I shouted back, glad that my pleading had changed her mind.

“I want you to be my snack.”  There was a seductive tone in her rumbling voice, but she said it with such finality that I knew arguing further would be a waste.  She lowered me toward her mouth at a painfully slow rate, letting fear build in my gut.  Her lips parted, revealing the dark cavern behind them with her tongue flattened against the bottom.  As she drew me closer toward her lips I broke and began screaming incoherently.  No words or pleading, just panicked blubbering when I passed Li’s lips and entered her mouth.  Gently she set me down on her tongue and closed her lips behind me, followed by a pop when she withdrew her fingers.

A loud, low moan rumbled up from Li’s throat and her tongue twitched around the edges, nipping at me.  It didn’t take long for me to be covered in saliva, the weak acid burning my skin after a few seconds of contact.  Then her tongue shot up, slamming me against her palate hard enough to knock the wind out of me.  She began sliding her tongue back and forth over me, accompanied by saliva sloshing with its movement.  Another long moan resonated in her mouth while she sucked on me, apparently savoring my taste.

Her tongue dropped a bit, and with a single flick of her tongue I went sliding along it.  Desperately I clawed for anything to grab on to and stop my descent, but it was too smooth and slick for me to get a hold.  I landed on a ring of hard muscle, but before I could scramble off it opened beneath me, pulling me in.  Li’s throat muscles forced me down while I ferociously squirmed against them, though my efforts were ultimately futile.  There was no way my puny muscles could keep me from being swallowed, and I resigned myself to my fate.

Li felt the lump move down her throat.  There was nothing quite like swallowing another person, feeling them squirm and struggle on the way down after playing with them in her mouth.  It was such a rare treat that she liked to savor it when she could, and that had been a particularly good morsel; his extra bulk made the feeling just a little stronger.

She looked at the floor and spotted the other tiny person by her toes.  Li had expected him to run away at some point, but he was still staring up at her blankly.  Maybe she wouldn’t have to wait too long for her next snack.  Then again, she always enjoyed the sound of a person crunching under her, too.  Hopefully she would be able to decide before it was time.

With my cup filled, I turned around and was greeted by one of the sharpest chins I had ever seen.  My eyes quickly scaled the creamy, shapely face above until they met a pair of gray eyes looking back down.  Her blond hair spilled over her shoulders in long pigtails, framing her breasts smushed together by the shirt tied tightly around them.  She looked overwhelmingly happy to see me, even though I couldn’t recall seeing her before, and that joy radiated from her round cheeks.  I noticed her fit body was held immaculately straight and rigid so her excellent posture would make her appear taller and more sculpted.  It was a most pleasing effect as I looked her up and down.

“Haven’t seen you around here before,” she said, sliding a finger down my arm.  Her voice was a tad on the husky side and very gentle on my ears.  “That’s unfortunate, since you look… interesting.”  When her hand reached mine she grabbed it, intertwining her long, delicate fingers with mine.  The grip was as warm as her smile, and I found myself forgetting that it was Helen who invited me in the first place.

I took a step toward her so that we were touching and looked up into her eyes.  Ordinarily, the height difference would make me hesitant, but there was something about her that seemed so gentle and inviting.  “Well, I’m here now, aren’t I?” I asked, sliding the hand holding my drink around her bare waist.  “Why don’t we go make up for lost time?”  That was either the most suave or cheesiest thing I had said in years, but she was so disarming I couldn’t help myself.

Her crimson lips spread in a broad, toothy smile.  Suave it was.  “Yeah, I’d like that,” she replied, pulling me along as she started walking back.  We were still holding each other close so we stepped off at the same time, but her legs were so much longer than mine I ended up nearly getting dragged.  “Name’s Olga, by the way.  What’s yours?”  I told her and she smiled again, then said, “Yeah, that fits you.”  Already I had a strong urge to kiss her, but her lips were just a couple inches out of the reach of mine, even standing on my toes.

Olga reached the couch and sat down, dragging me along with her.  For a moment I laid on top of her, looking into her eyes, then she gently pushed me onto the cushion beside her.  While I got situated she slid a long, toned arm over the frame behind me, and leather creaked while she crossed her tremendous legs and leaned toward me.  I flopped over and took a long pull from my drink, feeling the warmth spread inside me to match how warm Olga was.  Her body language said that she was into me, so I leaned into her, snuggling up as I got comfortable.

Sitting down, we were almost eye to eye, while her legs went up several inches from the cushion.  Damn was she leggy.  I drew myself closer to her, raising my lips to hers, but a hand on my chest stopped me.  “We’ll get to that in a bit,” she said, gently pushing me back.  A “later” was much better than the “no” I usually got, sometimes accompanied by laughter.  “Why don’t you drink up and tell me about yourself?”

After a chug that killed about half the drink, I told Olga about where I came from, what I majored in, all the usual small talk stuff.  I expected her to be bored out of her mind while I rambled on, but she paid me rapt attention while I spoke, seldom even blinking her big gray eyes.  She seemed to hang on my every word, even as I rattled off how I felt about the people who sat next to me in class.  There’s no way I was that interesting; she must have simply been a good actress.  When I found myself rambling about something even I found boring I trailed off, and Olga looked disappointed when my mouth finally stopped running.

“See, I knew you were interesting,” Olga exclaimed, squeezing me tighter.  Our lips were mere fractions of an inch from meeting when she clapped a hand down on my shoulder, pushing me down with a wince.  We may have been about the same size while sitting, but she was immensely stronger than me.  It was like she knew exactly where to hold me so that I was just on the cusp of kissing her, keeping herself just out of my reach while she toyed with me.

“I think before we go any further it’s only fair if I tell you the same about myself, right?” she said, holding me in place with a hand on each shoulder.  “My parents moved here from Ukraine, and I grew up in New York.  I’m double-majoring in biology and chemistry, with an intent to apply to med school…”  Her words all blended together while I focused on the movements of her dark red lips.  Sure, she was a fascinating person, and rather smart to boot, but I wasn’t here to get someone’s life story.  I wanted to move along the bases, though, so I made a good effort of acting like I was listening while taking another long drink from my cup.

A loud shout, nearly loud enough to rupture my ear drums, snapped me out of it.  I thought that, perhaps, Olga had caught on that I was only paying her the bare minimum of attention and yelled at the offense, but she was calm as ever.  A tremendous blue light overtook my vision, and for a second the only thing I could see was that unearthly glow.  They must have decided it was time to get the actual party started and busted out a strobe light.

What I saw when the light vanished couldn’t be explained by that, however, nor any sort of mundane light.  In front of me, instead of the gorgeous Olga, was a sky-blue wall, cut diagonally by dark grooves along its entire length.  A dozen or so feet to my right the wall abruptly ended in a tangled mass of frayed white ropes, then after a slight bulge a smooth, cream-colored surface took over.  It looked like the cream section was smushed, but further down doubled in height until it reached its rounded end that protruded over the floor for a surprising distance.

That looked unnervingly like a kneecap if viewed from along someone’s thigh.  In disbelief I snapped my head upward and gasped.  The wall bulged again, partially blocking my view until it returned to the cream surface again, this time bowing inward and away from me.  A banner made out of flannel barely restrained a massive bulge the size of a small building, and just above that a pair of crimson lips pulled tight in a grin.  Olga’s enormous gray eyes stared down at me while her arm was still stretched along the cushion, though now she was simply lounging instead of trying to engage me.

“Olga, you have to help me!” I shouted up at her, hoping she could hear me.  “I know this sounds crazy, but I shrank!  You’ve got to get me out here and somewhere safe!”

A low, terrifying rumble came from above, and after a moment I realized it was just Olga chuckling.  “Of course you did, weren’t you listening?” she replied.  If her chuckle was terrifying her voice was now horrific, loud enough to drown out everything else and with the depth to make my bones rattle.  “I made a compound that would shrink people who consumed it when combined with an external stimulus and put it into the cauldron, then Jackie mixed it all together.  I even told you when it was about to happen!  You really should’ve paid more attention to my words than my lips, but I guess you’re only interested in one thing.”

“Then why didn’t you shrink?” I asked.  The whole situation was so unreal that I got stuck on the least outlandish detail out of all of them.

Olga threw her head back and cackled, making my knees go weak.  “We’re not going to shrink ourselves, are we?” From the way she said it she clearly thought the conclusion was obvious.  “The cauldron was for guests, we have our own liquor around here.”  She paused so I could process her answer, not that it made me feel any better.  The Gammas had lured us to their house so they could shrink us, and for what purpose?  “Now, what do you say we get a little closer?”

Olga’s butt lifted off the seat, making the leather creak to compensate.  I was standing closer to her than I realized, since the ground beneath me raised when her weight was removed from it.  Her colossal ass began sliding toward me and I turned away from it, sprinting for the opposite cushion.   Their purpose had suddenly become very clear.

“What’s the matter?” Olga chided, her derriere drawing closer.  “Don’t want to snuggle up with me anymore?”  Her arm swung down from the back cushion and swiped at me, striking my body with the tip of her middle finger.  The force of it tossed me into the air, and I flew backwards until colliding with the seat of her cut-off shorts.  I fell back onto the sofa, dazed from both impacts and seeing stars.

There was not even time to get back up before Olga set her weight back down on the sofa, pressing me into the leather with her tremendous mass.  At first I thought she had immediately paralyzed me, but the pain of having such a heavy object fall on me quickly disabused me of that notion.  I was simply unable to move while beneath her buttock.  Wiggling more than a finger was out of the question, and even then only due to the small amount of slack given by the behemoth butt cheek on top of me.

In no time, even such a miniscule movement was beyond me.  Olga leaned back, pressing even more of her gigantic body down onto me, though I struggled pointlessly against it.  My lungs were empty and I could not even thrash for air, the pain of my body being squeezed and stretched underneath Olga too much for me to deal with.  Fortunately, in some ways, pain rushed through me, overwhelming my system in short order, following the sickening crack of my pelvis.  An instant later the pain subsided when my body ruptured in its entirety from her pressing down, my insides bursting through my skin and seeping into a small circle that was quickly absorbed by Olga’s shorts.

Olga felt the puny body flatten under her butt, though the very same implement muffled the tiny crunch that accompanied it.  There had only been enough room for her and the first victim on the sofa, so she would have to work a bit to find the other.  In his diminished state, however, he could not have gotten far.  If he had, then Olga would relish the opportunity to hunt a shrink for real.

I let the rest of the guys go ahead of me, and by the time I got mine all but one other guest had been herded off by an unusually aggressive woman.  Trying to act natural, I took a long drink from the cup while surveying the landscape.  Everyone else looked like they were having a good time, laughing and smiling while they talked and did the usual party thing.  Being courteous may have cost me the opportunity of my college life.  For years I’d been hearing about how great these parties are, and now that I’d gotten an invitation, I squandered it.  Typical.

Off to the side I spotted a woman who seemed to be above it all.  Pale and rail-thin, with long black hair and wearing a lab coat as a costume, she took an occasional sip of her drink before resuming looking around the room nervously.  She looked remarkably out of her element, just as I felt, and didn’t seem to fit in with the others.  There were worse ways to spend a few hours than chatting up a fellow wallflower, I figured, and when we ducked out early we might even be ducking out together.

I approached the dark-haired beanpole, arriving right when she was taking another swig of her drink.  She must not have seen me coming in the dim room, since when she lowered the cup and saw me, she just about jumped out of her skin.  After a quick gasp she smiled nervously and looked down at me.  Up close she was taller than I expected – she had about a foot on me – but cuter, too.  We looked at each other in awkward silence for a moment, neither sure which one should start.

“Um, hey, you scared me.  Didn’t see you there,” she finally offered, keeping her nervous smile strong.  Even though the music was low, it was difficult to hear her soft voice, so I took a step closer.  She prickled at me getting closer but stayed in place.  “I’m Lana.  How’s it going?”

I told her my name, then answered, “Not too bad, just not sure what to make of this thing.  It’s really not like any other party I’ve ever been to.”

“Yeah, same here!” Lana replied.  “Not that I really go out to many parties to begin with, and usually when I do it’s just me and a couple friends, and we hang out on the back porch or patio.”  She was more nervous than me, which is quite the accomplishment.  “Normally I’d have found a larger place so I could just hang back and watch people, but Fulda’s always been cool to me, so when she invited me to this I kind of felt obligated to come, you know?”

I took another drink and asked, “You’re not a Gamma then?”

Lana gave a quick chuckle and sipped her drink, then said, “Oh hell no!”  Realizing that might have been too enthusiastic she hurried to add, “I mean, the Gammas are great and I’m friends with a couple of them, but sorority life isn’t for me.  I do, like, one social event a semester, and that’s enough for me.”

“Really?  You look like you’d fit in great with them, though.”

“Why, because I’m tall and statuesque like they are?” Lana laughed, a pleasant sound like the tinkling of wind chimes.  She brushed a strand of hair behind an ear and continued, “It’s just not for me.  When Fulda told me about it I was interested, but then she told me all the stuff I’d have to do to pledge and… yeah, no thanks.  Speaking of fitting in, though, have you noticed something, I don’t know, unusual about the guys here?”

I took a long drink, thinking what she could possibly be referring to.  “Nothing that I’ve noticed, why?”

“Well, it’s just…” Lana fidgeted with her cup while her dark blue eyes glanced around.  “Sorry if this is a sensitive thing for you or something, but you’re all so short!  Like, usually there are a couple shorter dudes, but I’m like a foot taller than all the guys here, it’s… I don’t way to say weird, but unusual at least!”

I took another long drink while I figured out how to respond to that, because she was right, and it was a little strange.  Before I could answer, though, a loud cacophony of three syllables drew our attention, and our heads snapped back to see the pink-haired witch with glowing gold eyes.  Rays of iridescent blue light shot between all the sorority members until it filled the room, becoming so bright I had to turn away and close my eyes.  Just before my eyes shut I saw Lana, or rather Lana’s knees, right in front of me, and they seemed to be getting higher.

When the light faded and I opened my eyes, it was like I had been transported to a different world.  Everything was bigger, even the carpet, which was thick enough for me to sink into.  It took a second for me to realize that Lana was in front of me, but she, too, was much bigger.  Rather, a flat four stories tall was in front of me, and her enormous foot filled it.  I looked up to see her ankle and monolithic, stocking-encased leg, then a long stretched of white lab coat.  Once I finally got past that I saw her face looking back and forth, trying to figure out what happened.  She was looking for me, I hoped, but why would she think to look for me beside her foot?

“Hey, Lana, down here!” I shouted, waving my arms.  “I’m still here, just look at your feet!  I don’t know what happened, but I need your help!”  No response, not even a reaction.  Lana kept sipping her drink and surveying the room, paying no notice to me shrunken beside her.  I must have been to small for her to hear, at least from the floor.  If I wanted to get out of this situation – and out of here with her – I needed to get higher up, or at the very least noticed.

I trudged through the carpet until I stood at the base of her gigantic, black suede flat.  Cautiously I placed my hands against the material, running my hands along it, and found it surprisingly rough at this size.  With a short hop I grabbed onto the side, kicking at the inverse slope below to push myself upward so I could get to a less precarious position.  In a rush I scrambled up the side of her shoe, half-running half-climbing up the slope until I crossed over the rim of her shoe and onto the black nylon floor covering her foot.

Standing on a woman’s foot while gazing up at her gigantic body was a surreal experience I had no intention of repeating.  Lana’s toes twitched, sending waves of movementup the rest of her foot that made me stumble, and I knew I could not remain here for long.  Cautiously I approached her ankle, trying not to draw her wrath before I had her full attention.  My caution cost some time, but when I stood before her ankle and looked up the great tower of her leg I knew it was well spent. 

I grabbed onto the mesh and pulled myself up, pressing myself against the rock-hard cliff face of her shin to support me.  Even though I could not have weighed more than a couple of grams the nylon stretched under my mass, making me dip away from what little progress I made.  Undeterred, I grabbed the next mass of nylon a few millimeters higher and pulled myself up again, the elastic material snapping back against her leg when I let go.  If she couldn’t feel my weight she couldn’t feel that, I told myself, and continued my slow yet steady ascent.

After fifteen minutes and sweating profusely, I was disappointed to find I had only made it halfway up her shin.  This was the most I had exerted myself in years, and I still had another five feet and change to go?  It was absurd how tall she was, especially compared to me now, and I was starting to feel serious doubts about this plan.  Hopefully she would notice me before I got to her waist and save me a lot of trouble, but with how the night was going I had no delusions about anything being easy.

The cliff shifted slightly and I looked up, certain that Lana was coming to carry me the rest of the way up.  She was not even looking at me, however, and kept looking ahead at a lot of nothing.  Her hand swooped in, fingers out, and pressed against her shin above me.  I tried to cry out, but by the time my jaw was moving her fingers were already swooping down, scraping against her leg.  They hit me with an irresistible force, throwing me from my climb, and I landed back on her foot.  Inertia made me bounce several times, and I rolled until I was back at the rim of her shoe near her toes.

Being thrown off her leg was discouraging to say the least, but I was far from defeated.  I got back to my feet and started back toward her ankle, my resolve to at least reach her waist doubled.  Unfortunately, I was unused to walking on a taut stocking surface, and my toes caught in the mesh.  With a cry I stumbled forward, faceplanting on her foot, then rushed to get up so I could resume my quest to get noticed.

The ground wobbled again, and a massive object entered my peripheral vision.  Lana’s other foot raced toward me, and I stood frozen, watching it approach in horror.  There was nothing I could do about it, even bailing off the side was out of question as it was simply too fast and large to evade.  In an instant her heel was poised above me, and I could see the minute specks of dirt and grime in the grooved surface.  It was so enormous that it commanded all of my attention, not that there was much else to look at.

Lana’s heel descended, striking me hard enough to knock me over.  It continued down, pressing against me while she laid her foot on top of the other.  I screamed and tried to fight back, but there was no way I would ever move such a tremendous object, let alone one that was actively working against me.  My body groaned under the pressure, and I cried out in agony as her foot pressed down.  In an instant my body crumpled, flattened into nothing more than a splotch of blood and viscera on Lana’s stocking.

Lana rubbed her heel back and forth, scratching the itch on her foot.  She just realized her stocking was wet too, making it even worse.  As she looked around she took another drink, wondering where all the men had disappeared to.  The one she had been talking to seemed to have potential, but he had apparently ducked out when she wasn’t looking.  Perhaps she would see him around campus later.  For now, she needed to get another drink.

The remaining tiny men looked at the women who had selected them in horror.  Was this why they had been invited to the party?  Did this happen at every one they put on?  None of them could name a single man who had ever been to one, but they had a reputation for being mysterious and wild, almost savage, especially at Halloween.  It never occurred to them before now that those rumors were probably spread by the Gammas themselves, hoping to lure men to parties so they could be destroyed.  Strangely, they seem to have been satisfied with just one, leaving them alone for now.

Though they didn’t know whether the shrinking could be reversed, they had to get away from them and out of this house.  The remaining shrunken men scattered, seeking refuge wherever they could find it.  Even if they were stuck at an inch tall, a life at that size would be better than a grisly death at their hands – or in their mouths.  While they ran the giantesses resumed sipping their drinks and chatting as though six people hadn’t just been murdered.  Hopefully, in the dim light and low din of the party atmosphere, they would be hard to track and even more difficult to find.

Of course, the Gammas knew differently.  They were far from satisfied, and even the puny men running around in their carpet would not be enough to satiate them, but they had to make do with the party favors they had brought.  It was easy enough to track the tiny men with their eyes since they were clumsy and driven entirely by fear, and their attempts to hide were laughable.  The only thing holding them back was their previous arrangement to leave the second of each pair up to a free for all.

Jackie slammed her pestle into the cauldron, making a resonating bong, signaling that it was time for the hunt to start.

Fulda struck first.  The second shrink she pulled away had picked the absolutely bone-headed idea of hiding behind the leg of her chair, thinking it would be the last place she looked.  She reached a hand beneath her chair and easily found him, knocking him over with the tip of her finger.  Her fingers wrapped around the tiny body, enclosing it in a tight fist before yanking him off the floor.  When she opened her fingers again he was cowering in her palm and doing his best to keep from being sick from the vertigo.

She leaned forward, making him scoot away from her gigantic face.  “Got you,” Fulda said triumphantly.  He let out a pathetic yelp and scooted faster, backing into her fingers.  Fulda chuckled, causing him to panic even more, and said, “You’re trapped, little guy.  Nowhere to run.  It’s just me.”  The miniscule man looked left and right, trying to find some sort of escape, which made Fulda even more pleased.

“Bet you wish you could just shrink right out of this situation,” Fulda taunted, leaning closer until the tip of her nose was nearly touching him.  “I can help you with that.”

The little man began to get even smaller, rapidly diminishing in Fulda’s hand.  As he shrank he screamed, unable to believe he could get smaller to begin with.  Fulda listened to his increasingly high wail with relish while he shrank until it was completely inaudible.  Not long after he disappeared from view entirely, too small to even see.  Even so she continued shrinking him, flaunting her power.  If he even existed still he must have been approaching the size of a simple molecule, and her lips alone would be hundreds of miles wide to him.

Eventually, Fulda became bored.  If he hadn’t shrunk out of existence, she would give him a show.  She slapped her hand against her chest, dragging her palm over her cleavage.  Either she had mercilessly obliterated him with the force or wiped him off between her immaculate tits, but either way her hand was no longer sullied by his presence.

Helen was the next to make her move.  The tiny man she had her eye on was having trouble making his way through the carpet, stumbling over every third fiber he tried to hurdle over.  In a single step she closed the tiny gap he had put between them and swung a hand down, plucking him up from the floor.  His little legs kept pumping in the air, trying to get away despite the gigantic fingers pinching him.

She raised him to her face while he was still squirming, taking joy from the tiny, pathetic movements to get out of her grasp.  “You’re a cutie,” Helen proclaimed, terrifying him even more with each syllable.  “I think I’ll take you with me.”  His thrashing intensified, but no matter what he did it was useless.  There was simply no way for someone with such puny strength as him to escape a titaness like Helen.

Her hand carried him down her chest, pressing him against her midriff as he went.  His descent against her smooth, warm belly paradoxically calmed him while building trepidation in his mind.  He had no idea what was going to happen, either in the next few minutes or during his extended stay as Helen’s guest.  His questions were answered when she pulled out the elastic of her waistband, revealing the long, dark tunnel downward along her leg.

Helen let him go, and he slid along the soft skin of her thigh until he careened off her knee.  He fell until he landed against the purple fabric of her pants which guided him the rest of the way down.  His puny body landed on the elastic bands around her ankles, trapping him inside her pants.  For good measure she kicked her leg a couple times, tossing him around like a scrap of paper.

Olga did not have to go far to get her second shrink: for some reason, he thought the area beneath her dangling boot sole would be the prime place to take cover.  She put her hand on the floor and crawled it along the carpet toward him, pinning him beneath her fingertip when he stubbornly refused to move.  Her fingers easily pinched around him and he remained stone-still, thinking the illusion would work while she carried him up.

When she got him up to her face, Olga did not mince words.  She lowered him halfway into her mouth and wrapped her crimson lips around his chest, sucking him down further.  His dangling legs touched her tongue and she closed her jaw, slicing him in half with her incisors.  The pair of tiny legs fell into her mouth while she held his torso above, and she swallowed them as soon as they hit her gullet.

She raised the remains from her mouth, letting the blood from his severed torso spray over her lips like moisturizer.  His screams of agony did not last long until he simply no longer had the energy to keep it up and hung limply between her fingers.  Olga watched the vitality bleed out of his face and felt the final few drops fall onto her bottom lip before dropping him into her maw so his tiny torso could roll along her tongue.

With a single flick of the great pink tentacle Olga tossed him onto her molars, then brought her jaw together again.  What little juice was left inside him was squeezed out and she continued chewing, grinding him into a paste before swallowing.  Her tongue snaked out and wiped the blood from her crimson lips, and she let out a deep, satisfied moan while she savored the taste.

Li’s next target made the most progress, but it was not nearly enough.  She had expected him to seek shelter under the couch to begin with once he started running, and if shrinks were anything they were predictable.  In only two slow, striding steps she had his escape blocked, slamming the toe of her shoe in front of him.  He haplessly ran into it, splaying his limbs against the polished surface while she giggled.

He rebounded off Li’s shoe and started running the other way, trying desperately to get out from between her legs.  She simply took a half-step and cut him off again, then with a light bat from her toe sent him staggering away.  Li laughed when he tumbled backward, falling in between the carpet fibers he’d been trying so hard to avoid.  Sometimes, she thought this was too easy, but of course it was.  They were puny and she was a giantess, how could it be any different?

He looked up the towering legs looming above him, knowing what his fate would be no matter how much he wanted to deny it.  At the very least, his last vision would be pleasant: a pair of fit legs, made even more shapely by the black stockings pulled up them, with some space between the nylon and her skirt.  Without a struggle he closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Li could not have possibly cared less about whatever transcendental nonsense was going through the shrink’s head.  She simply coiled her leg up until her knee touched her chest and brought it down right on him, flattening him instantly.  There was a faint, satisfying crunch just under the sound of her shoe slamming against the ground, which brought a smile to her face.  Briefly she ground her shoe onto him, mashing him into the carpet, before looking to get another.

Jackie had to put down the pestle before she could pursue her secondary target, but it was hardly difficult.  All she had to do was lean over and slide a finger around the base of the cauldron, then flick him out when it ran into him.  She saw his puny form bounce over the carpet, and before he could recover she struck, snatching him in a fist.  He squirmed, but even though Jackie was far from a strong woman she could easily contain this weakling.

She stood and moved her hand over the cauldron before opening her fingers.  “It’s sink or swim tonight, bud,” she said, while he gawped up at her looming over him.  He had no idea what she was getting at, but Jackie was not subtle.  “If you can get back outside this cauldron, I’ll keep you around for a while.  You might even end up being my tiny boyfriend!  But you’ve got to earn it.”  That ought to fill the little twerp with enough false hope to keep him struggling, she told herself.

Her hand turned sideways, spilling the shrink into the brew waiting below.  He fought his way to the surface and shook the alcoholic liquid from his hair before treading water.  In the distance, above the rim of the cauldron, he saw Jackie’s turquoise eyes beckoning him forward, and he started swimming toward them.  It was thicker than water but not excessively so, and he reached the wall before he even got tired.  In only a few minutes he’d be back outside and ready to go with whatever Jackie had planned for him.

Unfortunately, the walls were almost perfectly slick, at least too smooth for someone even his size to find handholds in.  Jackie watched him repeatedly try to scramble up the side, giving him an encouraging word or two every time he fell back into the smoking liquid.  It only took a few minutes for him to give up, too tired to keep trying to escape no matter how much he willed it, and he sank beneath the surface. 

Lana returned to the sitting room with a fresh drink in hand, unsure why the party had suddenly taken such a turn for the weird.  One minute she was talking with a cute guy, as were all the others, and the next they were gone.  All then men were gone, even the ones who were just orbiting hoping to swoop in later.  Had the blue light scared them off so much that they all left?  Admittedly it was weird but didn’t seem like enough to end a whole party.

The other man who had been huddled around her was never more glad to go unnoticed.  His beanstalk of choice had been engaged by someone else before he could, and now that he was the size of an insect he could sneak out without anybody paying attention.  He had no idea what he would do after, but it was better than waiting around here to die.  With resolve he began running toward the front door, hoping he could avoid notice from the other murderers in the house.

Lana came around the corner and he froze.  She began walking toward him to take up her previous spot against the wall so she could watch the others.  He knew that, no matter what he did, he’d have an equal chance of ended up beneath one of her shoes.  So he stood still, watching as she drew ever closer, oblivious to his presence while she sipped on her drink.  The quakes from her steps grew stronger the closer she got, but he remained confident that she would miss him.

Her heel set down not too far from him and the gray sole of her shoe blocked his view of everything else, and he knew he had messed up.  Lana’s foot swung down and the toe of her shoe struck him, knocking him prone.  His last thought was that, if he had taken a few steps back, he could have avoided it, as his body was wracked with pain while he was flattened beneath his foot.  She continued walking, unaware of the light crunch beneath her shoe while she strode forward.

For the rest of the night the Gammas continued chatting, talking about their classes, sports, nerd stuff, and other inane stuff until they became tired.  Lana joined in every now and then, trying to be one of the girls, but didn’t really feel it with them.  When they retired to go to bed she left, and no one mentioned the people she killed to her again.  As far as she knew, she had a fun but slightly awkward night among some girls who were reaching out.