The brisk winter wind nipped at your cheeks as you walked toward the bus stop. This was it. You had been through four years of hell, but finally, you were headed to your last class of the semester. After this, you would be graduating, and you couldn’t be more excited. The next steps of life would be hard, but you knew that anything would be better than having to continue living under your mom’s roof, taking a one-hour bus ride to school four days a week as well as splitting the rest of your limited time taking up shifts at the local pizzeria, bussing tables and getting through the mountains of homework assigned each week. Make it through today, and your time would seem limitless going forward.

Finding a job wouldn’t be too difficult, especially considering you majored in something that had a worldwide shortage. You had majored in education and although you weren’t sure it was something you wanted to do forever, you were sure that it was a stable job that could eventually lead to something that paid better like a professor or administrator down the road. You neared the bus stop and grabbed both sides of your coat, pulling it tighter around your body to protect yourself further against the blistering wind. You sat down on the empty bench waiting for the city bus to arrive, hoping it wouldn’t be delayed due to traffic or anything else, you couldn’t count how many times you were late to school due to the failures of public transportation.

“It’s fucking freezing out here huh?” A familiar voice said from behind you. You turned to see your friend Celeste. She was smiling at you, and you couldn’t help but notice her beautiful green eyes. She was wearing more layers than you but seemed just as cold. Her strawberry blond curls spilled out of her beanie and over her shoulder. Her usual pale cheeks were red, clearly suffering in the cold wind. Despite all of that though, she looked just as pretty as ever. You could see she was wearing tight-fitting yoga pants and thick wool socks that stuck out the top of her Ugg boots. Your eyes slowly drifted down towards her feet, and you found yourself staring, something you had always seemed to do since middle school. You always just pushed it off as a normal fetish for someone to have, but the truth was you were embarrassed by it. One of the things that you liked about Celeste was the size of her feet. She wore size 13 shoes and they easily dwarfed yours in comparison.  She took a seat next to you on the bench and turned to face you. “Are you just gonna stare at me or are you going to say hi or something weirdo?”

Oh shit, I’m doing it again, you thought to yourself. “Sorry, I was lost in thought. Yeah, it's cold out here, but what’s new? At least this is the last day either of us has to sit at this god-forsaken bus stop.”

She nodded and sighed, her breath fogging in front of her face. “So, what are your plans after graduation? I have a job lined up down at our old elementary school, but throughout our entire internship you haven’t once said what grade level or school you would want to teach at. So, what’s your plan?”

You looked down at the sidewalk, pondering the question yourself. “I don’t really know. I guess I’ll figure it out eventually.”

Celeste rolled her eyes, “Leave it to you to procrastinate until the last second. It’s your life I guess, although sometimes I wish I could take control of it, that way you might actually have an idea of what’s next.”

Your cheeks burned with shame. As you tried to come up with a witty response, you saw something move in the corner of your eye. A roach made its way onto the toe of Celeste’s boot and with a swift kick of her leg and a stomp, it was pulverized into nothing but a gooey mess beneath the sole of her shoe. “Damn bugs!” She shouted, “I swear to God, they’re pathetic and good for nothing. This city really needs to be better about keeping the streets clean then we wouldn’t have to worry about insects and vermin!”

Just as she finished her ranting, a large blue bus pulled up at the bus stop; you gathered your belongings and followed Celeste onto the bus. You both sat down in a pair of seats towards the back as soon as the bus began to leave the stop. You stared out the window watching the world zoom past, anxious to get to campus when suddenly your phone began buzzing wildly. Celeste’s phone seemed to do the same. You both took your phones out and watched an emergency broadcast banner slide across the top of the screen that read:

This is an Emergency report from the Center for Disease Control: A new virus has been detected. 1000 reported cases of the virus have been reported in the last 48 hours and we are implementing a state of emergency throughout the United States. All borders, ports, airports, and federal offices will be closed immediately and all people are urged to stay indoors, away from others if possible. We are calling this new virus the RS-23 virus. Short for Rapid Shrinking Virus. We know the following about the virus so far:

-        It only seems to affect males.

-        It has affected males of all ages ranging from just 3 years old all the way to 94.

-        The virus can be spread through skin-to-skin contact or through air-borne pathogens.

-        There is no known cure or treatment as of yet.

-        The symptoms include the following:

o   Rapid shrinking of the body that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 48 hours.

o   Headache

o   Muscle aches

-        Many of the victims are shrinking to a size between six and two inches in height.

-        Two of the victims have become so small they can no longer be seen with the naked eye.

-        150 of the victims have been killed either by the virus or due to accidents related to their size.

Please contact your local officials for any emergency aid needed. Stay indoors and stay safe.  

As you finish reading the message you turn to see your friend Celeste smirking maliciously. “Can you believe this shit? This sounds like something right out of a sci-fi movie. They have to be high if they think people are actually going to believe that. But imagine, stumbling across a tiny, pathetic, bug-sized man. God, men would finally be in their place. I would probably keep them as a little pet to be honest, wouldn’t that be funny?”

You were once again lost in thought, you only caught part of what Celeste was saying. Could this really be true? You wondered. Ever since you could remember you had always been obsessed with the idea of being tiny and at the mercy of some beautiful woman, and you would be lying to yourself if some of those fantasies didn’t revolve around Celeste. You had always been into the thought of being a tiny little slave or a pet, but if those reports were true, maybe that fantasy wasn’t so far-fetched after all.

Suddenly, the bus swerved sharply, throwing you against the wall of the bus. Your head slammed into the window, making your vision blur. “Celeste?” You moaned, dazed. Her seat was empty. “WE’RE GONNA CRASH!” you heard her shriek from the aisle floor. You whirled around and watched wide-eyed as the bus veered wildly toward a ditch. “NO!” You screamed as you dove to protect Celeste. Holding her close, you squeezed your eyes shut. Tires screeched as the bus lurched violently to the right flinging you and Celeste into a row of seats. All you could hear was metal crunching and Celeste sobbing into your chest. When you opened your eyes again, the bus had stopped.

You tried to get up but wobbled and nearly fell into a seat. You realized the bus was tilted, leaning with its front half smoking from the ditch. “Are you ok?” You ask Celeste. Her tear-streaked face was white as a sheet. There was a small cut on her forehead. Her trembling hand was still clutching your arm tightly. “I’m fine,” she said, quickly letting go of your sleeve. Your head throbbed and your back ached where you had hit the seats. Out the window, a large crowd was gathering on the road, most of them had their phones out, recording instead of trying to help.

“Where’s the bus driver?” Celeste wondered, looking toward the front of the bus, “Wasn’t there another guy sitting up front when we got on? Are they…?” She quickly took out her phone and dialed 911. You stumbled up to the front of the bus, leaning against the seats to keep your balance. Every seat was empty. No one else was on the bus. The driver’s seat was nearly crushed from impact. There were clothes lying on the floor, one of them looked like a uniform. Celeste came up behind you, “The police said they already got two other calls reporting the crash. The ambulance should be here soon. Did you find anyone else?” You just pointed to the clothes on the ground. Celeste made a bewildered face.

You suddenly got the feeling of a large bug crawling up your pant leg. “Arrghh!” You yelped as you frantically swatted at your leg. “What?” Celeste squealed, backing away from you before her panic melted into a small smirk. “You’re scared of a bug?” She giggled, “Here I’ll take care of it for you.” She raised her leg into the air, and you watched as the strange-looking bug tried to scurry away. You thought you heard someone screaming as she stomped the ground, “Bye-bye, bug,” Celeste said smugly before her eyes found their way to the smoke billowing out of the hood of the bus.

“We should get off the bus,” she said, looking worried, “The first responders can look for the other two, we’ll be in danger if we stay here.” As she began looking for an exit, you notice a red smear where the weird bug had once been. The doors were pinned against the walls of the ditch, so Celeste led you to the back of the bus and threw open the door to the emergency exit, where on-lookers were waiting with open arms. “Are you ok?” They shouted, “Here take my hand!”

The first responders arrived about 15 minutes later. The paramedics put a neat bandage over Celeste’s cut and made sure you didn’t have a concussion or broken ribs. However, other than the clothes on the ground, no sign of the other passengers were ever found. The police took your statement before allowing you and Celeste to leave. “Let’s go home,” Celeste said, “There’s no exams today. There’s no way I’m going to school after that… Come home with me. I don’t want to be alone right now…” There was no way you could say no to her, you didn’t feel like being alone at the moment either. Celeste called an Uber and as you waited she looked you up and down with a weird expression on her face. “Have you gotten shorter?”