Chapter 3

Billy felt completely trapped in between his stepmother and his boss as both Alexandra and Shanna closed ranks, boxing him in between their larger, taller bodies. Billy felt the back of his head lightly squished by Alexandra’s breasts as she walked forward into him, pinning him down by placing her hands on his shoulders. At the same time, Shanne was taking slow, deliberate steps forward, her heel-augmented 5’11 frame absolutely towering over Billy’s recently-shrunken 4’6. His boss stopped right in front of him, putting her hands on her hips. It was stunning, and slightly nauseating, for Billy to realize that he actually had to look up to see Shanna’s breasts, as he was now eye-level with the top part of her stomach.

“There, I’ve gotcha,” declared Alexandra, her hands tightening down on his shoulders. “Just in case you were planning on running away.”

“Mom I’m not…I’m not running anywhere!” protested Billy, trying to squirm free of his stepmother’s grasp. “I can…have a normal conversation, without you…holding me like this!”

“Well I’m not so sure Billy,” replied Shanna, cocking her head down over her breasts so that she could get a good look at him. “Apparently you’re suffering from this…unknown condition…god knows how it’ll affect your behavior.”

“Oh but don’t try to tell Billy that,” remarked Alexandra, massaging Billy’s shoulders as she spoke over his head in a mocking tone. “He’s a big boy…he’s an adult…who can look after himself. Isn’t that right, Billy? Isn’t that what you were saying yesterday?”

“I can still…look after myself!” countered Billy, feeling ridiculous and juvenile as he struggled to get free. The irony wasn’t lost on him that he was squirming around like a child in order to get free of Alexandra’s grasp and thereby prove that he could have an “adult conversation,” but…well, Billy didn’t really know what was happening in his head in this moment. He just knew that he needed his stepmother to quit holding him down there like he was a little child.

“Well clearly you’ve been doing a fantastic job!” joked Alexandra, shaking her head up at Shanna. “One night at your place, after you insist that everything is fine, and you shrink down half a foot! Yeah, your track record isn’t too impressive so far, Billy.”

“Your mother is right, you know,” said Shanna seriously, pushing her glasses a little further down her nose as she looked at him. “I don’t think you’re treating your…condition…with the gravity it deserves.”

Billy was opening his mouth to retort, but he heard Alexandra suddenly speaking over him, the vibrations of her voice going through her breasts and into his head.

“So why should we even waste our time arguing with him about this?” Alexandra asked Shanna directly. “Let’s hash this out, Shanna, just me and you. What are Billy’s options as far as working from home?”

“Well, thankfully a lot of what he does could be done from home,” mused Shanna, scratching her chin as she turned and walked back around to her desk. “But there is the problem of his desktop still being here in the office. A lot of what Billy works on is on the CPU in his office.”

“Couldn’t we just…somehow move his computer into my house, then?” asked Alexandra, finally releasing Billy’s shoulders as she walked up to Shanna’s desk, leaning down over it as the two of them talked. Billy just stood there, his mouth agape, having to take a few moments to process the absurdity of what was actually happening. Both of them were just…deciding his future for him…while he was standing right there! The disrespect and disregard for his own wishes and desires was positively preposterous and maddening! Billy was so shocked and discombobulated that he wasn’t even able to utter a sound of protest for a few long moments. But when Alexandra had mentioned moving his work computer to her house, he managed to find his voice again.

“I’m not moving my computer to YOUR house, mom!” he declared, unconsciously stamping his foot a little to convey his outrage at the mere idea. Alexandra closed her eyes and sighed as Shanna hung her head loosely in annoyance. Both women turned to look at him, and their twin annoyed glances made him feel smaller and more child-like than he had felt thus far in the situation.

“YOU were SO certain that your condition was nothing to worry about,” replied Alexandra matter-of-factly, not moving from her position as she addressed him firmly. “You were POSITIVE that you weren’t going to have another shrinking spurt. You were MORE than confident about your ability to live on your own in your apartment. You COMPLETELY ignored my advice. And look at you now. Who turned out to be right, Billy?”

“I d-don’t think that —” he began, but Alexandra cut him off, repeating her question more emphatically.

“WHO turned out to be right?”

Billy knew that he had to give ground on this question, or he wasn’t going to get anywhere. He slumped his shrunken shoulders and sighed out his response:

“You were, mom, but —”

“Not buts!” she interrupted, shaking her head. “You’ve already proven yourself to be inadequate to the task of taking care of yourself in your condition, so I’m making the executive decision that you will be living with ME now.”

“Y-you…you c’can’t just —” Billy tried to begin, but Alexandra had already turned back to Shanna, ignoring the rest of what he was going to say.

“So anyway,” she said, rolling her eyes at her stepson’s stammering attempts to argue, “Do you think we could arrange a delivery of Billy’s desktop CPU?”

“There’s not really any precedent for that, at least as far as this company is concerned,” pondered Shanna, who was also ignoring Billy, “But I don’t see why we can’t make it happen. I’ll just let management know what’s going on, and it really shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

“Excellent!” said Alexandra crisply. “Thanks so much for being flexible on all this, Shanna. I know it must have come as a nasty shock that Billy has suddenly become so…compromised. But I really appreciate your willingness to work with me here and do what you and I both think is best for his health, and for the good of the company as a whole.”

“Well I’m just glad that you called in advance,” said Shanna, casting a censorious eye down at Billy. “I’m not a fan of my employees sneaking around, hiding vital medical information about themselves that might interfere with their ability to do their job.”

“B-but I can DO my job the same as I could bef —” stuttered Billy, but Alexandra had already put her big hand in his back, and was marching him out the door.

“Thaaaaank you Shanna,” she trilled over Billy’s objections. “You have my number — call me directly if you need anything. I’ll be checking in with you regularly for updates about his performance.”

“I’ll look forward to talking with you,” answered Shanna, waving goodbye. She didn’t even have any parting words for Billy — at this point, he realized that his stepmother had become the channel through which Shanna would communicate with him. He was flabbergasted how everything could possibly be moving so fast…and in the wrong direction, too! How could they not understand that he was still a perfectly functional and capable employee!? He was a software engineer, not an athlete who depended on his body to perform!

But he may as well have been arguing against the tides, since Alexander was firmly escorting him out of his building. This was NOT the morning he had envisioned when he had gone to sleep the previous night. It all seemed like something out of a bad horror movie…a surreal nightmare that was uncannily realistic enough to be mistaken for actual reality. But there it was: the sunshine on his face, the rising and falling of his chest as he heaved frustrated, struggling breaths, the slightly perfumed smell of his stepmother above him as she manhandled him into her car…this was no dream.

“I’m so embarrassed by that ridiculous show you put on back there!” scolded Alexandra as she started her car. “Shanna and I just want what’s best for you, and that’s how you behave in response!? By throwing a temper tantrum and stamping your feet like a little child!?”

“I w-wasn’t…stamping my feet!” countered Billy, a little uncertainly. He had been so mad that he wasn’t even sure how he had behaved.

“You most certainly were!” responded Alexandra immediately, “And anyway, the real kicker is that you showed absolutely NO respect to your own mother, who, by the way, has already shown that SHE knows what you need.”

“And what is that, mom?” asked Billy sarcastically. He hated that his revert to sarcasm sounded petty and immature, but at this point he didn’t even care. He was so frustrated by his stepmother’s shameless usurping that he didn’t feel like he was capable of anything other than passive-aggressive acerbity.

“Well for starters,” snapped Alexandra, suddenly reaching her arm over and up towards his far side. Billy shrank away from her grasp, not knowing what she was up to, but quickly realized the meaning of her motion. Alexandra had grabbed his seatbelt and pulled it over him, snapping it in place with a smart “click.”

“See, that’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about,” lectured Alexandra, shaking her head as she pulled the car onto the road. “You’re so distracted by your own pride, your own determination to convince everyone that you can take care of yourself, that you forget to do EXACTLY that.”

“I…was gonna put it on,” said Billy, the uncertainty in his voice apparent despite his words.

“Uh-huh, sure you were,” tutted his stepmother, her tongue in her cheek as she proceeded on down the road. “Just like you were going to take such good care of yourself without me and your grandmother to tend to you. How’s that working out for you?”

“I…look, mom,” argued Billy, finally sensing that he was alighting upon an actual argument, “It’s…it’s not a question of me “taking care” of myself, ok? I mean…if I had been staying with you last night, I would’ve shrunk all the same!”

“Are you sure about that?” asked Alexandra immediately. “Do you know that for a fact?”

“Uhh…well, not for a fact,” answered Billy, feeling deflated as Alexandra began poking holes in his argument, “But it’s, uhh…I’m sure it’s true.”

“You’re sure it’s true,” repeated Alexandra, clearly with the intent of exposing the fallacy of his words. She slammed on the brakes, a little dramatically, as the car ground to a halt at a red light.

“Let me tell you something Billy,” Alexandra said firmly, turning in her seat to face him. His stepmother was around 9 inches taller than him now, and even sitting down, he felt her looming over him. “I’m not sure about ANYTHING regarding your condition, do you understand? Anything less than a wholehearted admission of uncertainty here is, frankly, ludicrous. And dangerous. Dr. Bassett doesn’t know what’s going to happen…I don’t know what’s going to happen…and YOU don’t know what’s going to happen. All I can say is that everything points to you getting MUCH smaller VERY soon. And I find it ABSURD to think of you living by yourself, with no one to look after you, when, at any moment, you could suffer another shrink spurt. Imagine what would happen if you were driving, Billy! Or cooking something that was suddenly out of reach!? You’d burn your entire apartment complex down! I know this isn’t easy for you, but honestly, none of this is easy for anybody. It’s time that you swallow your pride and accept that you’re lucky enough to have a family who will take you in.”

“Fine, ok, gosh,” mumbled Billy, folding his arms in irritation as his stepmother bore down on him. He hated to admit it…but she was right about almost everything she was saying. He couldn’t accept that, though. He couldn’t so easily just admit that everything she said was completely valid — he had to somehow find something he could quibble with, if only to remind himself that he was still an adult individual who could be correct about some things.

“But…uh, just so you know,” he said after the light had turned green, “I think that my, uh…my shrinking is probably over. Or, at least…it’s not gonna happen again the same way it did last night.”

“Oh you don’t think so?” asked Alexandra, her eyes on the road, “What on earth could be giving you the confidence to be able to say such a thing?”

“I don’t know,” answered Billy, shrugging his shoulders with his arms still crossed, “I just…it just feels that way to me, is all. And I know my body, mom, ok? I know it better than anyone else.”

Alexandra only responded with a chuckle and a condescending “Ok Billy.” The rest of the car ride passed quickly by in silence. When they got to Alexandra’s home, Billy came out of his pouting reverie to ask what he thought were sensible questions.

“But…mom,” he said, “All my…uh, all my stuff is at my place. Don’t we need to, um…stop by there first?”

“Oh I don’t think you need to worry about any of that,” remarked Alexandra drily as she looked up over Billy’s head. He suddenly became aware of the sound of another car pulling into the driveway, and he turned to look; his insides sank. There was Eleanor’s old car again, pulling into Alexandra’s house…and by the look of it, there were a lot of things packed into her back seat.

“Perfect timing!” Eleanor sang out into the air as she got out of her car. Billy swallowed audibly; his grandmother was wearing a tight black long-sleeve crop-top that looked like it ended about 3 or 4 inches above her belly button. Billy had never been altogether comfortable with his grandmother wearing this kind of revealing clothing, but now that he was 11 inches shorter than her, the overall effect of her skimpy wardrobe choices was that much harder to ignore. She looked intimidating.

“So our little guy took the news ok?” Eleanor asked cheekily, striding straight up to Billy and putting her hands on her hips.

“Oh god no,” laughed Alexandra, shaking her head. “Just like I told you he would be…almost kicking and screaming through the whole thing. But Shanna and I reached an agreement, without Billy’s help, of course.”

“It’s really too bad that your mother is having to deal with this attitude of yours,” said Eleanor down to Billy, shaking her finger at him. “On top of having to deal with a son who has a mysterious disease, and all the worry that causes, she has to deal with him pitching a fit every time she tries to help him!”

“I didn’t pitch a fit,” muttered Billy, not being able to avoid noticing how close his grandmother’s belly button was to his nipples.

“Well all I can say, little squirt, is that you should be thankful that you have such a kind, loving, and caring mother to look after you,” admonished Eleanor, her belly jiggling a little as she continued to shake her finger down at her grandson. “It looks really bad when you take her for granted, you know.”

“That’s exactly what I was saying to him before,” remarked Alexandra. “Maybe since he’s heard it from both of us now, it’ll get through his thick skull.”

“Well the rest of him isn’t looking so thick,” chuckled Eleanor, reaching down and pinching his shoulder in between her fingers. “Golly, Billy, look at that! Your shoulder is tiny! It feels like a kid-sized tennis ball!”

“Would you please quit touching me?” asked Billy as politely as he could. He realized that he was not doing himself any favors pouting around, and so he had decided to try and go the more mature route, standing up for himself firmly, but without any immediately apparent attitude.

“Sure I’ll quit touching you,” mocked Eleanor, running her fingers down his small arms as she pinched them as well, “As soon as you quit behaving like the Incredible Shrinking Man.”

“Ahaha! Oh mom!” laughed Alexandra, clearly finding Eleanor’s remark quite funny as she went around to her mother’s car, opening one of the back doors.

“It’s just…it’s just so craaaazy!” Eleanor was saying, now bending down to feel up Billy’s chest with her much larger hands. “You’ve always been a shrimp, Billy, but this is just getting ridiculous! Did you shrink again!?”

“N-no I didn’t,” he said uncertainly, trying to back away from her touch. But she kept step with him easily, finally backing him into the brick wall of Alexandra’s house. Standing up to her full height, Eleanor once again drew her palm across the top of Billy’s head, delighting in how it didn’t even come up to her shoulders.

“Look at that…Jesus!” she exclaimed. “Haha, I just can’t get enough of that!”

“I know you’re enjoying yourself mom,” called Alexandra from the car, “But could you come help me carry his things? I don’t think Billy’s gonna be much help himself, you know?”

“W-wait a minute,” said Billy, everything suddenly clicking as he recognized some of the t-shirts that Alexandra was holding, “That’s…that’s my stuff!”

“His body may have shrunk, but his brain certainly has not!” announced Eleanor sarcastically, spreading her arms wide (and in the process making her body appear that much huger to Billy). “Duh, that’s your stuff!”

“But…so that means…you broke into my apartment!?” he choked, feeling the anger come flooding back.

“I would hardly call it “breaking in,”” chuckled Eleanor, flashing something bright and metal high above his head, “When I literally used a key to unlock the door.”

“Why do you have a key to my apartment?!” Billy demanded, getting red in the face. He knew that his overt anger was compromising his earlier promise to himself to contain his emotions, to rise above the whole situation, but the sense of violation in this case was too great.

“We both have keys,” said Alexandra matter-of-factly from the car, “I made sure to have them made as soon as you moved in there.”

“But you…you had no right to do that!” cried Billy, clenching his fists down by his side. “That’s just…classic you, mom! Infringing on my privacy for no reas—”

“And that’s classic YOU,” countered Eleanor, putting her hands on her hips and staring down at him over her breasts, “Maligning your mother when she’s just trying to keep you safe. And I’m not even speaking for myself here, Billy…but I don’t need to. I know how much we do for you, and unfortunately, by this point I’ve learned…learned to…um…to…expect nothing more than…”

But here, Eleanor trailed off. The reason why wasn’t a mystery to Billy, but the immediacy of what was happening utterly focused his attention, like a suddenly-hardened icicle piercing through the middle of his heart. He was shrinking again. He knew it because of the telltale sense of cranial compression that rapidly spread to his entire body, merging with the tingling at the base of his neck and the accompanying wave of sudden nausea. But he mainly knew it because Eleanor’s body seemed to be rising up above him, as if it was growing. The slight bulge of her soft white stomach suddenly became that much more prominent in his vision, and as a cold sweat broke out on his forehead, Billy became aware of Eleanor’s belly button slowly creeping up, and up, and up in his line of sight.

“Oh my god!!” Eleanor cried, putting her hand to her open mouth in wonder. “It’s happening again! He’s shrinking! He’s shrinking!! Alexandra!! Come look!! Oh wowwww, look at himmmm!!”

Alexandra had dropped the clothes to the ground and came running, breathlessly arriving next to Eleanor a moment later. In his confused panic, Billy looked up desperately at the two of them — his stepmother’s eyes were wide, and her mouth was slightly open in a clear expression of concern. His grandmother’s eyes were also wide, but unlike Alexandra, Eleanor’s expression was not one of overwhelming concern. Instead, she looked utterly, hungrily fascinated…almost elated…and unquestionably entertained.

A couple seconds later, Billy’s nausea passed, as did the tingling and the overwhelming sensation of compression. It no longer appeared to him that Eleanor or Alexandra were growing; his shrinking spurt had stopped. But to his horror, Billy was now met with the shocking realization that he was staring straight into the middle of his grandmother’s soft, white, exposed stomach. The top of his head barely brushed the underside of her breasts. Since Eleanor was the one standing directly in front of him, Billy found that her body totally filled his field of vision. Swallowing out of the sheer fear of the enormous size difference, Billy hazarded a glance down, and was stunned to find that Eleanor’s belly button was now just below his chin.

“Oh my goodness!” whispered Eleanor in unadulterated awe. “This is incredible! Look at…look at this, Billy!” She drew her hand over the top of his head again, and marveled at how her hand was even with the very bottom of her breasts.

“Can you believe that, little guy!?” she persisted, her eyes wide in fascinated glee, “The top of your head barely even touches the bottom of my breasts now! And holy…hah! Oh my god you’re staring straight into my stomach now! How’s the view down there, shorty?”

As a joke, Eleanor made her belly flesh undulate a little in Billy’s face, teasing him with its rippling, fleshy contours. Billy would have taken a step back in awed fear, but he already had his back against the brick wall.

“How are you feeling, Billy?” asked Alexandra, who had already fetched his tape measure from the car. She too was fascinated by what had just happened, but there was a bit more softness in her approach.

“I’m…I’m fine,” he said shakily.

“Yeah? No lingering pain? No dizziness? Well that’s good,” Alexandra said, extending the tape measure out carefully next to him. Billy had the sudden urge to run away, but he just stood there, accepting the measurement. Not only did he want to know how much he had shrunk, but he also knew that if he took off, Eleanor and Alexandra would easily catch him.

“My god,” whispered Alexandra, showing Eleanor the measurement. Eleanor’s eyes went even wider, and her mouth dropped open in shock as her eyes shifted back to Billy, far down below her.

“Wh-what’s what’s it say?” ventured Billy, feeling his stomach dropping to his feet.

“You aren’t even 4 feet tall anymore, Billy,” declared Eleanor softly, but with a kind of decisive firmness that somehow hit harder. “You’re 3’11. Three foot eleven, Billy.”

Billy stared straight ahead into his grandmother’s stomach, and it seemed to swim before his eyes. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be that small. It was crazy…insane…madness. There was just no way!! The soft flesh of Eleanor’s stomach jiggled in front of him as his vision sharpened again, as her belly button lingered strikingly before him, just under his chin. If he slouched a little, it was even with his mouth…or even his nose.

The sound of his stepmother clearing her throat made his eyes shoot back up. Alexandra had joined Eleanor in putting her hands on her hips.

“So,” Alexandra began, tilting her head to the side, “What was that you were saying before? About being sure you weren’t going to shrink again?”