“Once I start shooting, I'm not going to talk. You can address me, but don't ask me any questions. Looking into the camera is fine – it's good, really, but again don't think of it as looking at me, think of it as looking at the audience. Does that make sense?”

Jenni rolled her eyes at her bossy little sister's instructions. “Yes Lauren, that all makes sense.”

“Good. Now put these on.” The young redhead produced a wig and a thin mask from her backpack, handing them to her sister.

“What are these for?” Jenni asked, looking at the wig. It was a mixture of purple and teal. She ran the hair between her fingers and frowned. “It's pretty clearly fake.”

“It's for you, and of course it's fake, it's fucking blue.” Lauren sighed. “People aren't going to be touching it, they're going to be looking at it. Trust me, it'll look fine.” She gestured briefly to the mask in Jenni's other hand. “Don't forget that, too.”

“But why do I need these?”

Lauren looked at her sister with an expression of incredulity. There was a moment of silence between the girls, then Lauren turned and picked up a small metal pot, out from which a few tiny people called for help. “What's in this?” She asked, holding it up to Jenni's face.

The older sister, now clad in her blue wig, rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay, I know what's in there.”

“No, maybe you don't. What are they?”

Jenni sighed, looking off to the side. “They're... y'know, Motes. Shrunken people.”

“That's right, shrunken people.”

“C'mon-”

“No Jenni, this is serious. They're still human beings.” She set the pot down on a small barstool beside the raised plexiglass floor. “For fuck's sake, we're about to film a spree killing. The last thing I'm going to have is for either one of us to go down for this.”

“If this is such a big deal, why is she here?” Lauren followed Jenni's gaze to the couch on the opposite end of the room, on which sat her friend. The young blonde gave a nervous wave.

“She's cool. She's seen this kind of thing before. She's just tagging along because we're going on a double date tonight.”

Jenni's eyebrows raised. “Oh!” She looked between them. “Are... are you two...”

“No!” Lauren's face flushed red and she spoke in an exasperated whisper. “Jesus, Jenni! I have a boyfriend!”

“Okay, okay, I didn't know!” The older sister laughed, putting her hands up. She looked over to the blonde on the couch. “Are you okay there, Kimmy?”

“Oh yeah, just fine!” She responded in a small voice. “Just act like I'm not even here. Fly on the wall, and all that.”

“See? She's fine. Nothing to worry about. Now come on, get your mask on.”

“Fine, fine.” Jenni laid the lace mask over her face. “Is this really gonna help?”

“Yeah, it's more obscuring than it looks.” Lauren said, picking up her camera and checking it to make sure everything was ready. “Okay, looks like everything's good on my end. You ready?”

Jenni raised the pot to study the little things, looking over each one of them, seeing them as people. They were a mixed bunch of varied genders, ethnicities and ages. Some pleaded for mercy to her, others raged and screamed, and still more cowered in the corner. She wondered what it must be like for the little weaklings to be looking up at the girl about to kill them. She smiled softly.

“Jenni?” Lauren called, causing her to look up.

“Y-yes?”

“Are you ready?” She repeated.

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” She almost laughed when she spoke. She hadn't had any reservations about the shoot going in, but now that it was here she was excited. Her body tingled with energy. Lauren sank to her knees off to the side of the see-through table onto which Jenni climbed.

“Great, then here we go. Three... two...” She pointed at her sister.

Jenni was momentarily overwhelmed by the responsibility of being on camera, but she forced herself to not let it freeze her. She looked down into the tub again, giving it a shake with her wrist. The people trapped within collectively screamed, those on their feet tumbling to the ground. She laughed and plucked up a lone man, setting the bin down on the chair at the corner of the table.

“Hey there little guy. Wanna play with me?” She asked rhetorically, dropping him a second later to the hard surface at her feet. He landed on his back, crying out in pain as he stared up at the monstrous young woman towering above him. She lifted her foot up and tapped his chest with the toe of her boot.

The tiny man was terrified. He had heard of people like him being taken by sociopathic giants and dropping off the face of the Earth, but he had never truly considered the implications behind it. Now he was face-to-face with his own demise and the experience couldn't be more terrifying. When her toe lifted off of him he rolled onto his front, scrambled quickly to his feet and started sprinting away as fast as he could.

“Aww, are you scared little guy?” Jenni spoke in a sickly-sweet voice, adding to his fear. “Don't be. It'll all be over soon. Your death is gonna be one of the shortest things you have to endure.” She moved her leg forward and knocked him down onto his front, then placed the sole of her boot at his back to pin him to the table. Lauren moved underneath her sister's foot, capturing the man's last moments in high definition.

“Please! Please! Help me! Don't let her kill me!” He screamed. His voice, tiny though it was, carried to the camera and came through clearly. Lauren's face remained expressionless as she watched him squirm underneath Jenni's boot.

Crack! The heralding of his destruction shuddered softly through the table. His legs were flattened against the glass, and Lauren instinctively made sure to get those in focus. The tiny man let out an impressive scream that made it clear his lungs were still intact, and Jenni lifted her shoe up to inspect the damage.

“Aww, did I get your legs there?” She asked, nudging them with her toe. He shrieked in pain every time she touched them. She hovered her shoe over his right arm and pressed down, smashing it into the transparent surface.

“Please! Please God!” His shrill voice rang out, and Jenni laughed in response.

“You can call me Goddess.” She joked, nudging his body away from his flattened limbs. He weakly clawed with his last limb, trying to drag himself away from the inevitable. “Aww, is somebody not having fun anymore? C'mere, let me see if I can't fix that for you.”

“No...” He rasped, his voice inaudible. “Please, stay away...” Jenni rested her foot on top of him and slowly shifted her weight from one leg to the other. He looked into the face of the girl beneath him, who looked back up through the lens of a camera. She looked young, in her early twenties at most. She wasn't smiling as she watched him die, just stared at him with a professional indifference. Suddenly, his ribs gave way in a series of snaps that led to a final wet crunch. Jenni smeared his body across the plexiglass with a twist of her heel.

Lauren gave a silent thumbs-up signal as Jenni looked down to her for approval. Jenni knew her sister had shot these kinds of videos before, and she'd watched a few prior to coming over to shoot one herself. Still, in the moment she wasn't sure if she was doing what she was expected, but the quiet affirmation from her sister emboldened her. She strutted back over to the stool and plucked another little person out. She was a mousey brunette who stared fearfully up at Jenni.

“Please... please don't hurt me...” She whimpered in the cruel girl's grip.

“Of course I'm gonna hurt you, hon.” Jenni said as she lowered the girl to the ground. “I want to show you what I did to the last guy.”

The little girl could plainly see it from where she was standing. The red viscera was smeared across the glass table, and a woman with a camera was kneeling at the edge of the table, getting both her and the gore in the shot. Suddenly the boot came down again, pinning her to her front. She screamed as Jenni's foot slid her forward, dragging the tiny woman towards the remains of her previous victim. Lauren tightened the focus on the poor girl's face.

“No! No, oh God no! No!” She cried unimaginatively as she saw the bloody remains coming towards her. She tried to splay her limbs to gain some traction against the ground but Jenni casually overpowered her best efforts, and within seconds she was being rubbed through the dead man's blood.

“Does it taste good, little dear?” Jenni giggled, swiping her boot back and forth, delighting in the tormented screams coming from beneath her. She lifted her shoe up. “Okay, that's it, you can run away now.”

The little woman needed no more incentive. The second the words were out of the giantess' lips she started pushing herself onto all fours, trying to get away from the slick blood all around her. A force slammed into her back, knocking her onto her face again, and Jenni's laugh came down once more.

“Aww, too slow. You can't take forever if you're going to run away. Go on, try it again.” With grim determination she did try again, focusing on keeping her balance against the blood. But again, just as she was getting to her knees Jenni shoved her down again with another tap from her foot.

“Goddamnit you giant psycho bitch!” She screamed, rolling onto her back and swinging her limbs up into the air, as if to fight off Jenni's foot. “Leave me alone! Leave me alone right now!” Tears stung the frightened woman's eyes as she fought for her life against Jenni's boot.

“Oh, do you wanna fight? You wanna fight?” She playfully teased the tiny form at her feet, swinging the very edge of the toe of her boot back and forth over the woman, who swung at it with every pass. “Ooh! Good shot!” She taunted. “Okay, my turn to hit back.”

A swift tap was all it took to send shockwaves of pain through the woman's body. She convulsed after the blow, coughing up blood. Jenni settled her boot to the side, watching the tiny woman writhe and moan in pain. “What, was that too much for you? Don't tell me you're tapping out already?”

“Pl... please...” She begged, trying to crawl to her feet again. This time, Jenni decided to let her stand up before she knocked her over. The woman broke down into sobs as her face hit the plexiglass once more. She was terrified out of her mind, and started thrashing on the ground in a panic, somehow thinking this would get her further away from Jenni.

“Aww.” Jenni looked at the camera, giving an expression of mock pity. “Poor thing's so scared.” She walked back to the basin and plucked another small man from the group, dropping him carelessly onto the table in front of the crying woman. There was a moment of silence as the two tiny people looked at each other.

“Squish!” Jenni said, bringing her foot down hard on the shrunken man. His body crumpled uselessly beneath her boot, spurting blood out in several directions. Some of it sprayed across the tiny woman's face, and after she touched her finger to her face to confirm what it was, she screamed out in terror, wildly backpedaling away from the murderous ped.

“See, that wasn't so bad, was it?” Jenni taunted, smirking. “That's what's gonna happen to you now. Are you ready for it?”

“Please let me live! Oh my God, please let me live! I have a family, a-a husband please! Let me go, I'm begging you!”

Jenni watched the tiny, desperate plea until it trailed off into unintelligible sobbing. She regarded it with mild enjoyment, and when it was over she raised her gore-spattered sole over the pathetic human life beneath her. Lauren stayed off to the side for this one, filling the frame with her sister's foot.

“I know you're a little beggar girl, and honestly I do find that incredibly cute. But you have to go crunch now, okay?” The woman shook her head and put her hands up in a feeble attempt to stave off the sole, but Jenni lowered it inexorably towards her prey. Her tiny head was pressed to the side, staring towards the camera. Lauren briefly zoomed in on her face, capturing for the briefest of moments the terror in her eyes, then pulled out to get the whole foot once more.

“Here, I'll give you a countdown so you know it's coming, okay? Five... four...” The tiny woman wailed louder, struggling beneath the oppressive foot. Jenni felt unstoppably powerful in that moment, like she could do anything to anybody and get away with it. She truly felt like a deity. “Three... two...” In the pauses between the numbers she listened to the little shrieks as they rose in pitch, giggling softly to herself. All she could do was scream. She had the power of her voice and that was it, because the power in Jenni's foot was enough to dominate her. It was time to strip the little bitch of everything she had left.

“One.” The wails were as loud and as shrill as they had ever been, and with a satisfying squish Jenni extinguished them against the unyielding clear surface of the plexiglass. Her eyes fluttered in pleasure as she snuffed the woman's life out like the dying flame in a cigarette butt. She ground her sole into the same spot for a few seconds, back and forth, then dragged her foot backwards, leaving a new smear of red against the glass.

“Oh, you little things break so perfectly!” She said in a delighted tone. Bits of viscera were left strewn at Jenni's feet, but she paid them no mind as she plucked another little woman out of the bucket. This one didn't scream or beg, or even resist her fingers as she was held in Jenni's grip.

“Aren't you scared, little girl?” The woman was clearly much older than Jenni, but that hardly seemed to matter when she could crumple her up and throw her away like a piece of paper. The woman in her hand shook her head, staring resolutely up at Jenni.

“I fear no evil, for God watches over me and will deliver me from danger.” The blue-haired vixen barked out a laugh, holding her other hand to her mouth.

“Oh, forgive me, I don't mean to laugh at you. It's just – what, you think you're gonna get spirited away from here?”

“I am a good, honest Christian woman.” The tiny thing responded. “God will have mercy on me, sure as He will damn your soul to the darkest, deepest Hell.”

Lauren had moved closer to pick up the tiny woman's words, and Jenni set her down on the table closer to her sister. The zealot at her feet looked around her, seeing for the first time the carnage in the midst of which she stood. Jenni raised her sole up on her heel, displaying the underside of her boot which was covered in a sticky, lumpy, human mess.

“So, little God-lover,” Jenni rolled her head on her shoulders, producing a series of audible pops. “You really think you've got yourself a shield of faith or whatever?”

Her determination had been undoubtedly shaken, but she knew better than to submit to evil. “I know I do.” She said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Great, then I'll give you a choice. I'll try my best to stomp you until I can't tell you apart from the three other people around you, or you renounce your pathetic God and take me as your only object of love and worship.” She let the ultimatum hang in the air for several moments, enjoying the conflicted look on the tiny woman's face. She decided to goad her to act.

“Should be a no-brainer, right?” Jenni said, sliding her foot menacingly in front of her newest plaything. “If you've got such a good relationship with God – who not only exists but loves you specifically – he'll have no problem protecting you, right? He might even take you to Heaven early!”

“This... this is just proof you're a demon.” She said, taking a few steps back from the intimidating boot. “You're trying to tempt me into renouncing my faith! I won't do it, you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, doll.” Jenni said. She knocked the woman over and settled her sole down on top of her. Part of an arm that had been wedged in her treads was pressed against the woman's face, smearing blood across her. “Let's have some fun with you.”

“Our father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven!” The woman screamed as Jenni applied pressure. Her tiny body started to yield to the overwhelming rubber. Her ribs cracked and snapped inward, halting the pious woman's recitation. She tried to start again, but all that came out was a tortured cry. Why was she being allowed to suffer this way? This was the most agonizing thing she could think of, and the girl pressing her into the plexiglass was enjoying herself as she did it. She tried to stay strong, but the pain was overwhelming.

“I worship you!” She shrieked, trying to make her voice carry up to Jenni's ears. “I worship you! Please, please let me worship you instead!”

The giant girl lifted her foot off the broken mess of a woman. Blood leaked out of her and her movements were slow and labored. She was clearly having trouble breathing. “What was that?” Jenni asked, a look of smug satisfaction on her face.

“I worship you!” She called up again, coughing immediately afterward. She felt thoroughly ashamed, but she didn't have a choice. She wanted to live, even if it meant submitting to her would-be murderess.

“Now say that you renounce God.” Jenni's eyes flicked to the camera for a second, and the woman's did as well. This was being filmed. Even though she knew He was always watching, it somehow seemed worse that her renunciation of faith should be filmed for posterity. The words caught in her throat. She looked pleadingly up at Jenni.

“I... I can't...” She begged. Jenni just shrugged.

“All right. See ya later.” Her sole started to lift, and the desperate woman at her feet suddenly found it within herself to scream.

“Wait!” The massive foot hung threateningly in the air. She stared at it, knowing that some of the blood that covered the sole was hers. “I...”

“You gotta say it, little lady.” Jenni said, wiggling her foot back and forth in anticipation. “Don't have all day now.”

“I renounce God.” She said quietly, hoping it wouldn't be picked up by the camera. It was.

“What was that, honey? Speak up, I can't hear your tiny little voice.”

“I said I renounce God!” Jenni's grin grew across her face and her boot began to descend towards the squirming wretch. “No! No! I said I renounce him! I renounce God!! Please please please spare me!” The shoe stopped when it made contact with her and she moaned in pain again, the heavy weight pressing against her fractured chest.

“Lick my boot to seal the deal.” Directly in front of her face was the gore-smeared rubber of the toe of Jenni's boot. Jenni jabbed it tauntingly at her victim.

“Y... yes, Goddess...” She whimpered and leaned forward, extending her tongue. It made contact with the rubber sole and tasted gritty and metallic and bitter. She slid her tongue across the toe, pulled it back into her mouth, and swallowed what she'd collected. That was it. She had now eaten from another human being. She was Damned, but at least her Goddess would grant her a few extra years on Earth.

“Did she do it?” Jenni asked the camera, not having a good angle from where she was. Lauren gave a quick thumbs-up, keeping the camera still, and Jenni laughed. “Oh, that's so fucked up!” She started to press down again.

“I did it! I licked it!” She shrieked, but Jenni didn't care about her anymore. She slowly applied pressure to the fragile body. “Oh God, I'm sorry! Forgive me! Please, God forgive me for my si-” Her shrieks were cut off as Jenni smashed her into the plexiglass, smearing her into it like all the others. It was an exciting kill, even for Lauren, and she carefully let out a breath through her nose that she had been holding while she watched her sister kill the zealot.

A break in the routine caught Lauren's attention. Her sister was staring at the couch, trying to signal towards it with her eyes. Lauren looked away from the camera to follow Jenni's gaze. Her friend Kimmy wasn't there anymore. For a moment, Lauren was annoyed. So the girl had gotten up to do something else around the house. That didn't warrant a pause long enough that she would probably need to cut. But then she saw movement on the couch.

Movement. Tiny movement, on top of one of the cushions of the couch. A tiny woman jumping up and down and waving her arms. Lauren could even hear the tiny screaming.

“Oh my God.” She said, setting the camera down and moving to the couch. Jenni stepped off the table, flicked on the lights, and went over to her sister' side. Lauren was already holding little Kimmy in one of her hands.

“I'm shrunk!” The little girl wailed from her knees, her face buried in her hands. “Oh no, Lauren, I'm shrunken like the rest of them! What am I going to do?”

“Shh, it's okay. It'll be all right, we'll make sure you're treated all right.” Lauren comforted her friend, running a fingertip along her back. She looked up to Jenni, who was watching the two with a look of concern. Unknown to the little woman in Lauren's hand, the sisters shared a brief, silent conversation.

I don't want her. Lauren mouthed.

Me either! Jenni replied. Lauren shook her head, irritated.

No, do you want to kill her? Her eyes flicked towards the raised table. Jenni looked from it, to Kimmy, and back to Lauren. Her eyes were wide with surprise.

You sure?

I don't want her. Lauren repeated.

Jenni nodded. “Yeah, all right.” She said, breaking the silence. Kimmy looked up from her hands, her face already red and puffy from crying.

“Yeah what?”

“Hey, honey, look,” Lauren said, looking off to the side. “I don't mean to be rude, but neither of us really wants to take you in.” Jenni was already grinning down at the shrunken woman like prey. “So we're just going to uh... gosh, I've never had to say this to one of them I knew.”

“I'm going to squish you against the plexiglass like a bug.” Jenni said matter-of-factly. Kimmy's heart leaped into her throat, and she backed away in Lauren's hand.

“No, you can't! I'm not like them! I'm still a person!”

“They're all still people, Kimmy. But now you're tiny, and you'd just cause hurt and suffering for your family if you stuck around. It's better that you just disappear and they never have to know what happened to you okay?”

“No! No! Lauren, you can't do this!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, pleading for her life, but as far as the sisters were concerned, her fate was already decided. Lauren turned to Jenni.

“Well, we have to cut. Why don't I get the stage cleaned up, and we'll come back with you barefoot and we'll finish off the rest. Sound good?”

“I can do that. Want me to hang on to her while you wipe it down?”

“Sure.” Jenni took Kimmy from her sister's hand, restraining her with her own massive fingers. She grinned, instilling even more fear into the little woman. Lauren moved past her sister, getting out her cleaning supplies and getting to work while Jenni settled in on the couch.

“So, little Kimmy. Tiny, itty-bitty little Kimmy.” She giggled. “What do you think? Is that a good nickname for you?”

“Please don't do this, Jenni. You know me! You know I'm not one of them!”

“One of who, Itty-Bitty Little Kimmy?” She grinned widely as she repeated the name, obviously causing her prey some amount of distress.

“One of... of the other Motes!” Mote, a colloquialism derived from the title of the Infected support group The Motivation. It was typically considered derogatory – as most names for them were.

Jenni laughed, shaking her head. “What, do you think that there's one thing that sets you apart from them? You all used to be people, and now you're... well, I guess you still are people. But you're tiny as fuck. And come on, you're not dumb. Everybody knows that people who try to keep their family members as pets end up killing them.”

It was true. While it had worked in rare cases, in many more people had realized that there was just too big a disparity between the average life of a human and that of a housepet. Most Infected couldn't take being left alone as long as they were and grew to resent their new owners. The owners, on the other hand, felt they were taking more than enough time out of their schedules to accommodate the Infected, and interpreted the resentment as ungratefulness. As such tensions grew, they rarely worked out in a favorable way for the Infected.

Kimmy had heard these stories as much as everybody else, but she refused to believe it was true of her. “Please, you have to give me a chance! We're friends! We went to school together!”

Jenni responded with a snort. “You were a Freshman when I was a Senior, and then I didn't see you for two years until you started hanging out with Lauren. It's not like we have a long history together.”

Kimmy watched Lauren clean the blood from the clear table and felt sick. She knew that it wasn't going to be long until it was her own blood being smeared into the plexiglass. She welled up with tears again, falling to her knees

“Please don't let this happen, Jenni... I... I don't... I don't wanna die!” She broke into uncontrollable sobs, weakly pounding against the giant girl's open palm with her fist.

Jenni ran her finger down the girl's bare back, watching Lauren work. “There, there.” She cooed. “It's going to be okay. Think of it this way: People are going to see your face for years after this. You'll be like a legend! People will probably even pause the second before I kill you, and study your dying expression. Isn't that exciting, to know people will pause the video just to see you?” Her words only furthered Kimmy's terror, and she sobbed unabated into the soft palm beneath her.

“All right, we're good to go.” Lauren announced. She stood up and turned the lights back off. “Just leave your shoes there, and come on up.” Jenni did as she was told, slipping out of her boots and bringing the tiny girl with her as she stepped back onto the table. She set Kimmy down on the edge and the shrunken woman looked up at Lauren, who was kneeling and looking through her camera to make sure everything would look good.

“Please Lauren! Please help me! Don't let your sister kill me, please! I don't want to die, just take me to anybody! Anybody at all who will let me live, for fuck's sake! Please!”

The redhead's mouth pulled to the side as she thought about what her tiny friend had said. Finally she nodded, setting the camera down next to Kimmy. “Hm. You're right, that's gonna be a problem.” Lauren wrapped her left hand around Kimmy's body, her fingers easily restraining the little girl. She gripped the sides of the head with her index finger and thumb, then with the same fingers of her right hand she started prying Kimmy's mouth open using her fingernails. The little woman let out a terrified cry as she realized what was about to happen. She screamed and squirmed as hard as she could, but it was nothing to a girl who was accustomed to handling unruly Motes. 

Always the professional, Lauren didn't waste time with fanfare. She gave a single sharp tug, and out of Kimmy's mouth came her tongue, along with a small shriek of blood. She deposited Kimmy back onto the plexiglass, throwing the tongue away in a nearby bin. The tiny girl sobbed on her knees, blood leaking out of her open mouth. She was going to die a gruesome, painful death and nobody who was around to see it cared at all to make it any more comfortable for her.

“Am I good to kill her?” Jenni asked. Lauren shook her head.

“Nah, one more thing.” She held Kimmy still and started flicking the girl in the face. She broke Kimmy's nose with the first blow, and the subsequent flicks smeared the blood across her face and bruised her otherwise-pale flesh. She screamed a warped, distorted scream.

“There, that's good. Nobody will really recognize her now.” She placed Kimmy down and picked up her camera. “I think that's all we need to do.”

Jenni looked down pitifully at the shrunken girl at her feet. “Aww, Kimmy. I'm so sorry, I guess I was wrong. I mean, people will still pause to see you, but nobody's ever gonna know it's you. Still, there's something there, right?” She smiled and prodded at the crumpled ball of a woman with her big toe. “Don't be such a downer. I'm gonna make you famous.”

“Okay, ready to go. Are you?”

“You know it.”

“Great, then same way. You're on in three... two...” She pointed again.

“Hello little girl!” Jenni called down playfully, nudging Kimmy with her toe. “When did you climb up here?” The shrunken victim got to her hands and knees, looking at the camera that was inches away from her, recording her murder for posterity. She tried to beg the audience for help, but all that came out was a pained moan.

“Ooh, that sounds pretty painful.” Jenni said. “Do you need someone to put you out of your misery?” Kimmy looked up and shook her head. She knew it was stupid, but she felt as though maybe if she demonstrated that she didn't want this, maybe they would stop. Maybe the rest of the victims had all secretly wanted it. There had to be a way she was different from them, right? She wasn't a tiny person! She was a human!

“I can't tell from here, are you nodding your head 'yes'?” The giant woman laughed and stepped down with her toe, bashing the tiny girl against the hard table. “Pathetic little thing. Come on, stand up, show some backbone.”

Indignation filled Kimmy. She had seen what Jenni did to her victims. She knew there was no point to resist. Why would she taunt with such a bullshit statement then? It made her want to resist. She would prove that she was strong, right to the end. She got to her feet, and Jenni smiled down approvingly.

“There you go, little bug. Now you get it. Now take a swing at me. Hit me with all you've got.” She wasn't stupid. She wouldn't play this game. She stood her ground, refusing to move. Jenni sighed. “Come on, I'm giving you a free shot. Hit my toe, I dare you.” The tiny woman shook her head, looking her soon-to-be murderess in the eye.

“Fine. If you aren't willing to fight, I'll just have to beat you up, won't I?” She reached down and curled her toes over Kimmy's head, easily engulfing it in her soft flesh. She lifted her foot up, balancing on the other, and laughed as the tiny woman's legs kicked and thrashed from underneath her foot. “You look so ridiculous right now, do you know that? I wonder how long I can hold you here before you suffocate. What do you think, little girl? Think you're good for two minutes? Maybe even three?”

Kimmy was desperate to escape the massive toes. She knew she was going to die, but every instinct in her body told her to fight, to resist, to do anything to give herself a chance at survival. She squirmed and shook her head from side to side, struggling weakly in Jenni's overpowering grip. Her lungs burned for oxygen and she could feel herself starting to slip away.

As unconsciousness started to overtake her, Jenni released the pressure and her tiny body fell onto the hard plexiglass. A slight pain shot through her body, but she was too focused on gulping down air to concern herself with it. She slowly rose to her feet, her blonde hair already matted with sweat and blood.

“Pwweeee...” She muttered, begging at the feet of this enormous, wicked woman. “Pwee hoon kioo me.” She crawled forward and started kissing the big, bare toe in front of her, trying to do anything to convince the sisters that she should be allowed to live. She noticed movement underneath her, and saw that Lauren was laying on her back beneath the table again, getting a shot from below. She tried not to think of what that meant.

“What're you saying, you gross little thing?” Her words were biting, but her tone was cheerful. Jenni squatted down, keeping the toe being kissed in place. “Do you want me to end your suffering now?” She twitched her toes in eager anticipation, colliding roughly with Kimmy's face. “Are you tired of being a pathetic wretch?”

Bitter tears streaked down the tormented girl's face as she was taunted for something she had no control over. Jenni's cruelty was severe, and her words cut Kimmy to the core. Still, she continued to kiss the toe. Jenni was right. She was pathetic now. She had no chance to fight, and being obstinate would lead to her death just the same. She could only throw herself at Jenni's mercy, and hope that she could be so obedient that her tiny life would finally have some value.

“Quit kissing me with your fucked-up mouth.” Jenni said, her tone changing to one of revulsion. She stood back up to her full height and settled her sole on top of Kimmy, forcing the little girl flat against the glass. From beneath she saw Lauren watching dispassionately. There wasn't a twinge of emotion in her face as she held the camera on the terrified Infected that used to be her friend.

“I hate how presumptuous you little insects are. To think that you're allowed to kiss the foot of a real human... disgusting. Especially one as mutilated as you.” Jenni was getting into her role. She knew, intellectually, that every one of the creatures in the bucket behind her used to be a real human, but somehow it was so much more thrilling to dominate an Infected she'd known before shrinking. It sent electricity through her to talk down to the squirming creature beneath her foot, and she loved the thought of what it must be doing to her.

Beneath Jenni's foot, Kimmy cried out with what little breath she could muster. The situation was absurd; five minutes ago she had been a regular girl watching her friend shoot a fun little video. Now she was an unwilling participant, and nobody seemed to care. It was like she didn't have emotions or feelings or dreams. The bonds of friendship she'd felt with the sisters had completely dissolved, and that hurt almost as much as the slow collapse of her body. She heard the wet crunches against the plexiglass that were synchronized with the racking pains through her body. She tried to keep screaming, but she couldn't draw breath anymore. Her last moments were spent staring off to the side as her head was compressed into the glass beneath the powerful sole, looking at the camera that was looking back at her. She broke apart, spreading thinly against the surface of the table, and Jenni slid her foot back to further destroy the little thing.

“Pathetic.” She said, giving a cursory glance to the camera. She walked back to the pot, peering inside. “Only two more of you little guys left! Who wants to die first?” She stood over them, watching the two yell back and forth. Finally she reached in and plucked one out, bringing him up to eye level.

“Are you ready to die?” She asked. He screamed and pleaded for his life, and Jenni laughed. “Okay, okay, calm down. I'm not going to kill you just yet. Hang on.” She pinched his left leg and gave a sharp pull. The limb agonizingly tore free from his body, and he let out an animal yell, thrashing in her hand. She placed the leg on her tongue and swallowed.

“Hmm. You taste fine. Bland, I guess.” She announced, and gripped his right leg. “Here goes the other one!” She tore and ate it the same way, grinning at his useless screaming. “Hang on, I've got just the thing for this.” She reached in to her pocket and withdrew a lighter. Dangling him by his wrists she held the flame underneath him. The fire licked at his wounds, causing him more pain, and his voice was clearly getting hoarse from screaming so much. Jenni let the flame go out, inspecting her work. Blood still leaked from the gashes, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. She nodded in satisfaction.

“Great work, me!” She exclaimed, and let him drop to the ground below. He hit the table hard, but it didn't compare to the pain still shooting up from where his legs should have been. He screamed and wailed, shouting unintelligibly. Jenni wondered if they were pleas or threats.

“Now, you can wait there to die. I'm gonna kill your friend first, okay?” She smiled and gave a wave, then turned back to the bucket. The last remaining man stood with his back pressed against the metal container, shaking his head.

“No! Please don't kill me! You don't have to do this!” He shouted. Jenni laughed as she picked him up.

“Of course I do. I need to get paid somehow, right?” She smiled. “Don't worry. I've already squished a lot of you little things today, and I can guarantee you it's not that bad.”

“This is wrong! This is fucked up! We're human beings!”

“Oh, sure, for now, but everybody knows that's not the way things are going to be for very much longer. It's just the natural order of things that the strong should dominate the weak, and what better way to dominate you than to declare you not human?” He stared up at her, aghast. “And when that happens...” She shook her head, laughing softly to herself.

“You have to understand that this is wrong! Please, tell me you see that!”

“No. Not even a little bit.” She let him fall to the table, just like all the others. He winced in pain and rose to his feet. Only a few inches away was the disfigured form of the last man, who had slowly begun to drag himself away with his arms. He was having a hard time gaining traction on the plexiglass, and his movement was slow. Jenni noticed him but didn't acknowledge him. She wanted to let him think he could get away.

“Now tell me your name, and what you used to do.” Jenni ordered. Lauren had told her personal information was fine; Foot-Fodder, the company that sent her the Infected, always sent batches of the creatures that were gathered from all over. It didn't matter if anybody recognized him, because there was no way to trace where he went.

“My name is John King. I worked at a call center.” He said.

“King, huh. Not really a fitting name, is it?” Jenni chuckled.

“No ma'am, not anymore.”

“Did you have a family?”

“Yes.”

“Where are they now?”

He was silent for a moment, staring up into the cold eyes of this goddess. “I don't want to talk about them.”

“Oh come on, lighten up. You're among friends.” He remained quiet, folding his arms across his chest. “Fine, think of it as recording your last memoirs. Nobody's ever gonna know who you were after today unless you take the time to tell them right now. You can even look into the camera.” She gestured towards Lauren, who scooted closer to the edge of the table. He looked back at her, and she gave a brief wave of her hand.

He was hesitant, but he knew the score. Jenni was right, nobody would ever know he existed after today unless they watched this video. He turned around, looking into the camera. “Laura, if you're watching this, I j-” He was cut off by Jenni's still-bloody toe kicking him from behind, knocking him onto all fours.

“Hey. What did I say? I said tell me where they are. You can record your stupid little message that they'll probably never hear afterward, okay?”

He swallowed his pride as he rose to his feet. If he wanted to have the least bit of control, he had to play it her way. “When they came for me... the, uh, the men I mean, they tore my house apart. They searched through everything. The three of us were living in the walls of my kitchen, waiting for somebody to come looking for us, but we didn't expect them to be so... so hostile.

“I left them behind. I told them to run, and then I ran out onto the counter to make myself known. They found me and they took me and they asked me where my family was, and I told them to look in every spot except the kitchen walls. I don't know if they ever found them. So Laura, I want you to know I'm not afraid. And Suzy, baby, just know that daddy loves you, okay? Don't watch anymore. Daddy loves you both so much.” There were tears in his eyes and he sank to his knees, defeated.

Jenni pretended to wipe away a tear as Lauren panned the camera to get both of them in view once more. “That was really touching. Say that last part for me one more time?”

He looked up at her, confused. “I... I love you?” Jenni kicked out, knocking him to his front.

“That's the line. Say it again.”

“I love you.” He said as he tried to pick himself up, but her sole came down with a light tap, smashing him against the hard plexiglass. He cried out.

“And again?”

“What are you doing!?” He screamed, wincing as he rose to all fours once more.

“Just showing you that your love is meaningless. You're still gonna squish the same, and turn into a bloody little smear that gets wiped up and thrown away.”

“Th-that may be so...” He said, turning white. “But it won't change my love for my family! There's nothing you can do about that!”

“Oh, I'm sure there isn't. But you know, just because you said not to watch doesn't mean they're not going to. You think your wife would really be able to tear her eyes away?” He thought about it. He pictured his wife watching him be played with by this twenty-something torturess, and ultimately snuffed out beneath her sole.

“Sh-she won't! There's no chance of it!”

“Then there's no chance of them ever seeing your stupid little message. Your family will never know what happened to you, John King.”

Despair hit him like a truck. He definitely couldn't out-fight this woman, but he was having trouble out-arguing her. He looked up at her. “Good! It's better that way! It's better they never know!”

Jenni giggled and pinned him to the table with her toe. “Your daughter will grow up never knowing what happened to her father. How long do you think she'll have nightmares for? Only a few years? Or maybe they'll plague her forever. Maybe – just maybe – she'll go insane. Maybe she'll kill herself, filled with despair from not knowing what happened to her father. Wouldn't that be funny? If little Suzy killed herself?”

“Don't you dare say her name!” He shouted. Jenni pressed harder on his chest, forcing the air from his lungs in a wheeze.

“I'll do whatever I want, because I'm a real person. Unlike you. Unlike Laura. And absolutely unlike weak, terrified little Suzy.”

Beneath Jenni's murderous toe, John wept. He knew it was all true. His daughter had been thrust into a world of despair, from which there seemed to be no saving grace. There were people who claimed to be helping the Infected, but in the three months since they'd shrunk, nothing had happened. There was no hope, no cure, and no protection. Society at large wasn't even sure whether or not to consider them pests instead of animals.

“I'm going to kill you now, little Jonathan King, and I want you to think about how with your last breath goes your last chance of peace of mind. You will never know what happens to Suzy.” She was smiling broadly.

“Fuck you, you self-righteous cunt!” He screamed. “She's alive! I know she is! She lived!”

“You didn't.” Jenni pushed her toe through his chest, and his body caved in around it. His arms wrapped around the sides of the toe as if to lift it off of him, and his mouth hung open, looking like he was trying to get in one last word before he passed. He and Jenni shared a long look while he was still alive, and then his body slowly relaxed. His head tilted back and his eyes stared blankly out, no sign of life behind them.

Jenni smashed him a bit more, crushing his appendages into the table as well, then turned her attention towards the last survivor. He had made it within a few inches of the closest edge of the table, leaving a thin trail of his own blood behind him as he crawled. Jenni smirked and walked towards him slowly, coming down hard on her heel with every step.

“No... no, stay away! Stay away!” He screamed as he looked back, seeing her slow but unstoppable approach. “For God's sake, leave me alone!” He frantically beat his arms against the smooth surface, crying and wailing as he struggled to get away from Jenni. She stopped once she was directly over him, her shadow casting him into darkness.

“Please leave me alone! I don't want to die!”

“You're already dead. Look at you. Where would you go?”

“Please!” He responded, and Jenni sighed.

“You little things are so fuckin' dumb, you know that? Quick – give me any reason to let you live!”

“I don't want to die!” He repeated. Jenni rolled her eyes.

“Not good enough. See ya later, twerp.” She brought her foot up and he let out a long, anguished scream, staring up at the foot above him. A second later it was cut off when Jenni brought her full force down on the tiny man. His body exploded underneath her heel, and a speck of blood splattered against the lens of the camera. Lauren was agitated, but kept filming.

“Oh well, I guess that's all of them.” Jenni said after glancing into the bucket. She looked at the camera and shrugged, a playful smile on her face. She held the pose for a few seconds, then her younger sister nodded.

“Got it. But goddamnit, you got blood on my lens.” Lauren quickly stood up and turned the lights on, inspecting the damage. “At least it's not a lot.” She dug through her pack, retrieving a small black cloth.

Jenni sat down on the chair at the corner of the raised table, setting the bucket down beside her, and stared at the table. She looked at the streaks of blood and the occasional recognizable body part and smiled to herself. “I had fun today, Lauren.” She said. Lauren glanced at the table.

“Yeah, you did well.” She said, turning back to her camera to make sure it was cleaned properly. She looked through it as she spoke. “Good variety, decent dialogue... you would not believe what some of the models come up with sometimes. I know we don't have script writers or anything, but... damn.” She seemed satisfied that the blood wouldn't be a problem, and started packing her gear up. “But yeah. You were great. You want to do this again soon?”

“Oh, definitely.” She grinned.

Lauren smiled back, and affected a playful accent. “Kid, I'm gonna make you a star!”