Abigail swallowed. It was a difficult task, one that took concentration and a steeling of her nerves first, but she'd decided that the last few hours' worth of saliva had gotten to be too much for her. She squinted her eyes and flexed her strained throat muscles, and the small wad of spit in her mouth trickled painfully down her throat. When it was over she breathed a short, quick sigh, not wanting to keep her dry mouth open for any longer than she had to.

So it was for the little girl. She spent most of her time alone in a contemplative madness. Her limbs, partially shattered as they were, had been strapped to long metal rods that acted as splints, completely immobilizing her. She was helpless like this, with her arms and legs bound such that she was a slender toothpick of a woman. Even her head was kept from moving, though she suspected that one was just to delight her tormentor.

Suzy. Or Susan, or Suz, or You-Goddamn-Bitch, it all depended on who you asked. Her multitude of names matched her personalities, switching between them with ease as the moment called for it. She and Abigail had been best friends for a long time, but one day Abigail had been affected by whatever made everyone shrink, and Suzy had been the one to come across her. The normal-sized girl's demeanor had been completely different. Almost as if she didn't realize who it was under her power, she began subjecting the little girl to all manners of torture.

At first, Abigail had thought that their friendship had meant nothing to Suzy, but after spending such a long time as her toy, she realized that wasn't it at all. She was just a social chameleon, and when she saw her friend helpless at her feet, she saw no reason to treat her as anything more than what she had become. A tiny source of amusement.

Footsteps interrupted her train of thought. Heavy, familiar steps coming down an old wooden staircase. She had her back to the stairway, something she suspected Suzy had done intentionally. Now she could only attempt to track her former friend's movement through the room based on sound. Once the footsteps reached the hard stone floor, she was much harder to locate. Suddenly, the piece of wood onto which she was mounted flew into the air, drawing a small gasp from Abigail. She was turned, and the large face of Suzy stared down, her grin stretching from ear to ear.

“How've you been, little Abby?” She asked, stroking the tiny girl's face. “Recovering well?” Abigail remained silent. This wasn't the first time she'd been forced to recover from the brink of death. Suzy was getting remarkably good at keeping her little toys alive. She had a handful of test subjects that she would experiment on before implementing anything on her tiny friend, and it had spared Abigail from quite a few lethal procedures.

“Well, you look like you're about halfway through. Another few weeks and you'll be on your feet again! Isn't that exciting?” Suzy's long brown hair fell past her shoulders and it practically glowed. Abigail's, on the other hand, had fallen out in clumps and was a dirty, disheveled mess. Suzy took the time to make sure Abigail was alive, but she never spent a single bit of effort on her hygiene.

Suzy set the helpless girl down next to a bag she'd brought with her to the basement. From the bag she withdrew a small Tupperware container and a pink plastic spoon. She opened the container, which was filled with a thick brown gruel, and dipped the spoon in.

“Now come on, you know the procedure.” Suzy said, as though talking to an infant. “In goes the spoon!” She held the spoon to Abigail's lips and tilted it. Despite herself, Abigail opened her mouth, drinking the broth as quickly as she could. She hated herself for being weak. A strong woman would refuse the food, or make herself throw up afterwords. A strong woman would let herself die. Abigail was a coward.

“There you go! Good girl!” She got another spoonful and held it to the little woman's mouth, slowly pouring it in. Suzy loved how the loathing countenance Abigail usually wore was replaced by one of shame when she was being fed. She giggled as Abigail finished another spoonful, panting heavily. She ran the tip of the spoon gently along her nude body.

“You're really letting yourself go, aren't you? You're filthy!” She said, smiling. Abigail refused to meet her tormentor's gaze. Suzy pressed the spoon hard against Abigail's flesh and scraped, drawing a scream of pain. She ran it along the length of the tiny body, then inspected the end. A small deposit of dirt had collected on it, and she pressed it against Abigail's lips. “Go ahead, eat it up.” She urged gently. Abigail knew she didn't have a choice. She took it in her mouth and pretended to swallow. The lump of dirt sat unpleasantly on her tongue, filling her mouth with the taste of filth.

“Did that taste good?” She asked. When Suzy didn't get a reply she flicked the smaller girl in the stomach, causing her to cry out and spit up the moist wad of dirt. Both women looked down at it, and Abigail felt her heart start to beat faster.

“P... please...” She whimpered, looking up into Suzy's eyes. Above all else, Suzy hated being lied to.

“I take such good care of you.” Her voice was low and dangerous. “I go out of my way – I take time out of my life to make sure that you survive. Do you know how hard that is for me? Do you know how much you cost me every day?”

“Please, Su-”

“Shut up. You don't speak, you sit there and you listen and you pray that I talk myself out of what I have planned for you. I provide you food, and you spit it on the goddamn ground? Are you an animal?”

“N-no, b-”

Smack! Suzy's fingernail slammed hard into Abigail's face. “You. Don't. Speak. God, you're so bad at following orders.” Abigail was trembling, a motion hindered somewhat by her restraints, yet noticeable nonetheless. Suzy's eyes were narrowed. “How dare you disobey me? Do you want me to cut you off of food for a week? Is that what you're trying to say?”

Abigail wanted to plead for mercy, but she kept her mouth shut, staring hard at the ground as bitter tears rolled from her eyes. It wasn't fair that another human being was allowed to do this to her. It wasn't fair that she was a prisoner in her own body, put in this position due to some freak chance. It just wasn't fair.

“Answer me!” Suzy shrieked, her composure lost. Her eyes were wild and terrifying, and Abigail truly thought she might die in the next few minutes.

“No! No ma'am, please don't stop feeding me! Please! Please, I'm so sorry oh my God please!” Her voice trailed off as she sobbed, her eyes screwed shut. It was the only thing she could do to retreat from the giantess.

“How are you going to show me you're sorry, you ungrateful wretch?”

“P-please...” Abigail said, unsure of what to say. “Please, Suzy...”

“Yes?”

Her eyes scanned what she could see, though her vision was impaired by the tears in her eyes. “Th-the dirt... please let me eat the dirt, Suzy...”

Immediately, her former friend cheered up. “Oh! Well why didn't you just say so?” She pinched the speck of dirt and looked at it on her index finger. “Oh, you know what? You probably just had a hard time getting it down because it was so dry. Let me help you with that.” She gathered some saliva on her tongue and spat on her finger. The dirt still remained on her fingertip, covered in Suzy's spit. She pressed her finger against Abigail's mouth, smiling. “Here you go, doll. Eat up.”

Abigail didn't hesitate. She lapped at the fingertip like a dog, swallowing every drop of Suzy's spit. She didn't have a choice. She was helpless not only to the cruel, twenty-something deity that controlled her life, but also to her own instinct to survive. She would never allow herself to die, not when given a choice.

“That's such a good girl. You're such a good girl, little Abby.” She patted the tiny woman's head with her finger, then wiped the thin veneer of dirt from her hair off on her shirt. “Okay, well I'm off! I'll see you sometime next week!”

“Wait!” Abigail called up as Suzy started gathering her things in the bag. “Next week?”

“Well, yeah! You didn't really seem like you wanted me coming around as often anymore, so I'll leave you alone.”

“No! Please, please! Come back!” Suzy had taken a few steps away, but stopped and turned on her heel, looking down at the tiny woman. “Please don't leave me!”

Suzy made a point of setting each foot down flat as she slowly walked back to Abigail, her footsteps now clearly audible. “Are you begging me to keep coming down here?”

“Yes, please!”

“Are you begging me to humiliate you every single day?”

Abigail's heart sank. “Yes!” Her voice had less conviction in it this time.

“Then say it. Say the words, little Abby.”

“I'm begging you to... to humiliate me every day! Just- just please, Suzy!”

Suzy was silent for a moment, staring down at Abigail. “You remember Vic?” She asked. Vincent was a close friend of hers, one she'd considered asking out shortly before she'd become short. Abigail nodded. “He and I started dating, and guess what we did last Thursday night?”

After a beat, Abigail shook her head. “What?”

“Go on, take a guess. I want to see if you get it.”

Abigail scoured her mind for vestiges of her old life, some clue that would lead her to the answer. She shook her head again. “I don't know, Suzy, what?”

The bigger girl rolled her eyes, sighing and placing her hands on her hips. “I said guess. It can be anything. Just go for it.”

“Y-you two... I don't know. Had sex?” She suspected this tale was meant to hurt her, so she tried to think of what Suzy would think would be difficult to hear. In truth, Abigail couldn't care less about the romantic goings-on of her captor, even if it was with a former friend.

“Well, yes, we did do that. But before then – and I guess a little during – he and I rounded up a few more of you little folk to torment. You know people are calling you 'Jacks' now? I guess it's like Jack and the Beanstalk.” She smiled. “So that makes us the 'fee-fi-fo-fum' giants.”

“That... that sounds fun, Suzy.”

Suzy shook her head. “Oh, no, but that wasn't the whole thing. The fun is who those little folks were. Y'see, it turns out he actually stumbled across your family some two or three months ago when he was looking for you. Oh, and he's just heartbroken that you've disappeared.” She ran her finger along Abigail's face, which had turned ghost white.

“M-my... my family?” She whimpered. Suzy's grin grew wider.

“Oh yes, little mommy and daddy. He says he found them right in the middle of the living room. He was scanning the ground for you so he didn't just, y'know, splat them right there.” She giggled, clapping her hands together for effect. “But while he's still concerned for your well-being, it turns out he didn't give a shit about Mister and Missus Green.”

“You didn't...” Abigail begged, heartbroken. She could only imagine the suffering her friend put her parents through.

“Oh God yes we did. When it was all over your daddy was unrecognizable. He was a mass of gore underneath my foot, with his stupid little wife wrapped around the mess like she was going to put him back together.” She looked up and to the right as she remembered, and she had the air of someone telling a nice story to a room full of people. “Then Vic took her by the ankle and just...” She giggled again. “He just shook her like she was a rag doll. I thought she probably died on the first swing. I thought her neck snapped, but he just kept like...” She demonstrated with her hand, shaking it vigorously back and forth. “So then blood starts flying out of her mouth and he stops because it's getting everywhere, and her little body is just quivering in his grip, and she's crying, and we're laughing, and just...” She wiped a tear from her eye, looking down at Abigail. “Well, you probably had to be there. But yeah, then we fucked, and she died somewhere in that.”

“How... how could you?” She asked, her voice a croak. She had a lump in her throat that made her want to cry, but she couldn't make it happen. “How could you, Suzy?”

“Oh, it was really fuckin' simple. You see, they were just so tiny and weak, and we just did whatever we wanted to with them.” She leaned down low, putting her face in front of Abigail. “All you little things are just so fucking weak.”

“I hate you...” Abigail whimpered. She knew she had no recourse. She knew fighting was pointless. There was nothing she could do. Suzy would get away with this, and she would keep getting away with it, and in the end Abigail would die and Suzy would keep on getting away with that, too.

“Oh, so... do you not want me to come tomorrow?” She relished the hateful look her little toy gave her at that question.

“N-no... please do come.”

“So you do want me to come every day and humiliate you, right? I just want to be super-clear about that.”

“Yes, Suzy.”

The cruel girl sighed, rolling her eyes. “You know I'm going to make you say it. Are you so fuckin' dumb you think you're gonna get it past me?” The two women were silent, and Suzy sighed again. “Say the whole thing out loud back to me.”

“I want you to come and humiliate me every day.” Abigail said in a monotone.

“Even after I killed your parents?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my G- for fuck's sake, say it!” She yelled, exasperated.

“Yes, Suzy, even after you... after you k-” Her voice caught in her throat, and she tried to squirm uncomfortably against her restraints. They held her immobile. “Even after you... killed them.”

“Killed who?”

“My parents! Even after you killed my parents, Suzy, you know what I mean!”

She laughed. “That's true, I do, but goddamn if it isn't fun making you say it.” She looked down at Abigail on the table. “I've really brought you low, haven't I? I mean, you used to be somebody. You had goals and dreams, you had friends, you were... well, kinda successful, anyway. You were doing okay for yourself. But now look at you. Begging for humiliation from me.” She watched the little girl stare up at her, admiring her own power. “Tell me that, too. Tell me I've made you nothing.”

“You've made me nothing, Suzy.”

She shook her head, chuckling. “Just a dumb little parrot. I swear.” She gathered up the bag again. “Okay, I'm leaving for real this time. And I was just kidding about all that before, I'm still leaving you down here for a week.”

“No! Please! I begged for you!” Abigail cried desperately. Suzy just turned the piece of wood away, so her back was to the stairs again.

“I know what you did, you dumb little thing. You do everything I say. And now I'm saying wait a week without food, because I can.”

“Suzy please! I'll starve!” There was a beat of silence, and Abigail wondered if Suzy had already started walking away. “Suzy! Please, wait!”

“I'm right here, idiot. I'm just thinking.” Came the reply. There was another quiet moment before she spoke again. “I'm trying to think, like... maybe I'll come back in a few days if you agree to eat your mom, but... jeez, I don't think I could scrape together enough to make a meal.” She laughed. “And that's not just a turn of phrase there.”

Abigail sat there in silence, praying it wouldn't come to that. Finally, Suzy spoke again. “Nope, can't think of anything. Tell you what, I'll pop my head in through the door up there every once in a while and if I hear you praying to me, I'll come down and give you something. If not, you must just not want it enough. That sounds fair.”

“My voice won't carry that far!”

“Then you'd better scream, little girl.” Suzy said, her voice already further away. A second later Abigail could hear her footsteps ascending the stairs.

“No! Please! This isn't fair, please! Please humiliate me! Please, God, Suzy, don't let me starve down here! Don't let me die! Please!” She shrieked after Suzy, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Without looking back, Suzy swung the basement door closed behind her.