Carmen giggled deeply, one hand reaching out across the table to lightly cover her partner's, a very attractive man by the name of Neil. He had started coming into her tea shop one day, and ever since the two of them had laid eyes on one another they could both feel the very real chemistry between them. He had started coming by almost every day she was working and the two would spend hours talking about everything going on in their lives.

Including, but not limited to, Neil's girlfriend.

He had been fairly up-front about it with Carmen, and while it bothered her to think that another woman had the affections she desired more and more every day, it didn't make her think any less of Neil. After all, she herself was quite a catch; Carmen had trouble blaming anybody for reworking their schedule around her.

“Anyway, the two of them left pretty upset, but I don't really know what else they expected! You don't just fuck around with stuff like that!” Neil said, bringing his story to a close. Carmen shook her head, her long brown hair swaying gently back and forth from the motion.

“Some people,” Carmen agreed. “So... listen...” she began, clearing her throat. Neil could sense where the conversation was going, and he took her still-outstretched hand in his own.

“Carmen... you're fantastic. You really are, you're a wonder given form. But I... I've always tried to keep this professional between us, and I really think it should stay that way. I come into your store, we talk because you're on the clock, and then I leave. I don't think it's right if we see each other outside of that.”

She scoffed. “What, because of her?”

“It just wouldn't be fair.”

“How is it not fair? She doesn't own the trajectory of your life! If you've found a better woman, let her go!”

Neil shook his head, staring absently past her head. “It's more than that. She's a fragile girl, and despite the unique thing you and I have, I do still love her.” The words were hard to say. Neil was concerned this might be his last conversation with Carmen.

“You're not responsible for her emotional well-being if it's coming at the cost of your own, Neil!” Carmen insisted.

“It's not, though. I told you, I love her. I'm still happy with her – I-I'm happy with you, with this... with everything. I'm happy with the way things are going, Carmen.”

She was silent for a moment. “I'm not.” Another beat of silence rang through the otherwise-empty tea shop. Carmen slowly slid her hand from Neil and stirred her drink.

“Maybe it's best if I don't come an-”

“No!” Carmen interrupted, quickly raising her eyes to look into his. Neil saw fear in them. “No, look... you... you like me, right. You'd date me if not for her?”

“Of course.” He said it right away, something that warmed Carmen's heart.

“Well... what about now? What about... what if she was something you didn't have to worry about anymore? Would you date me then?”

“What are you saying?”

“Just – what if she wasn't a problem anymore?” She stared hard into his eyes, and he stared back.

“If she wasn't a problem... and you would be...”

“Right here, in the tea shop. No suspicion. No...” Carmen wasn't sure how forward she wanted to be. She decided to take a chance. “Evidence,” she finished.

He shook his head, running a hand through his hair. “I don't know...”

“Look, don't even worry about it.” Carmen took his hand again, leaning forward over the table. Neil stole a glance at her cleavage despite himself, mostly out of reflex. “Come into the shop tomorrow. I'll make you a drink and you'll feel a lot better about it, okay?”

Neil frowned. “Are you gonna... poison me?”

“W-what? No! God, no!” Carmen was taken aback. Neil smiled.

“Okay, I'll come in, but I'm telling people I'll be here.” He was only half-joking.

“It's not going to be poison! I need to go get some stuff ready. Go home or wherever, I'll see you tomorrow okay? Right when the store opens.”

“Won't you be busy?”

“Neil,” she said flatly. “Do you ever see people coming in here?”

“No... I guess not.”

“It'll be fine. Everything will be great. Be here tomorrow at eleven, okay?” She let out a squeal of excitement. “I'm so excited to show you.”

Neil hadn't forgotten the morbid tone of the conversation only a minute prior, and Carmen's exuberance, contrasted against that, made him uneasy. Still, he had a hard time saying no to her. “I'll be here,” he promised before gathering his things. “Tomorrow.”

“At eleven!”

“At eleven.” He nodded and walked out of the store, the door jingling as it opened and closed. Carmen clasped her hands together in front of her chest, giving a happy sigh. Then she got to work.

Emily awoke in darkness, her head dully ringing in pain. She pressed the heel of her palm against the side of her head, lessening the hurt somewhat. “Ffffuck...?” she wondered aloud to the emptiness. She was laying naked on a curved mesh surface that felt like metal. Slowly Emily crawled to her feet, feeling against the walls. They were sloped up above her, like she was trapped in a giant sphere.

“Hey... hey, help me! Can someone hear me?” she hesitantly called out. “Is someone out there? Please help me! Let me out!” She pounded on the walls of the cage, and for the first time realized how warm she was. Wherever she was being held was almost oppressively hot, and she almost appreciated being naked, were it not for her scary, unknown surroundings.

A second later her cage jerked forward, throwing Emily to her face. She didn't have time to do more than grunt in pain before her world shot up, the force pressing her lightly against the floor. Light streamed into her cell, and a second later a gigantic face filled one side of her view, peering down at her. Emily screamed, pressing her back against the far side of the cage. Now that she could see out, she saw that she was right; it was a spherical prison suspended from a small chain on the top. A seam ran through the middle, Emily assumed that must come apart to allow for moving prisoners in and out.

“Hello, Emily.” The giant woman's voice boomed from above. She swung the small sphere back and forth, further disorienting her tiny captive. “You're gonna die today, you know that?”

“P... please! Whatever you want, I'll do it!” Emily tried to stand, but the constant rocking kept her off her feet. The giantess was trying to keep her scared and disoriented, and it was working.

“Mm-mm. Sorry hon, not how it works. All I need to do is get rid of you, and then I can have Neil all to myself.”

“N-Neil?” How did her boyfriend factor into this? What was he doing consorting with a giant? How was there even a giant to begin with?

“Yep!” Carmen looked at the clock, which had just struck eleven. She slipped the strainer back into her pocket, walking over to unlock the doors. No sooner was she turning around to return to the register than they swung open.

“What did you do?” His voice was stern and low. Carmen felt a chill run down her spine, and suddenly became concerned that she'd made a mistake. There's no going back now, she told herself.

“Lock the door, Neil,” she said without turning around. She walked to the back, aware of his footsteps right behind her. He took her shoulders and spun her around, pressing her against the wall.

“What did you do? She's gone, Carmen. Nobody knows where she is. She just vanished last night.”

“Neil, give me a moment and you'll understand what's happening, okay?” He held her against the wall, searching her face for answers, but finally relented. He shoved away with a sigh, and Carmen let out a quiet breath of her own. “I promise, everything's going to be fine. I'll make us a thing of tea.”

“I don't want tea,” Neil insisted, but Carmen ignored him. She walked behind the counter, pulling the strainer out of her pocket again. She unclasped it, being careful to not let Emily get too close to the sides, and deftly filled it with leaves, gently pressing the tiny woman against the mesh of the sphere. She closed and clasped it, then held it up to her face once more. Watching tiny people never got old to her.

“Look, I've got water already boiling,” she said. She placed the strainer on a tray, setting beside it two cups and a kettle of water, then carried the tray over to the table at which Neil had taken a seat. He didn't even look at it as she placed it in front of him, instead staring her in the eyes.

“I didn't... I didn't mean to ask for it, Carmen,” he said softly. She just smiled and took a seat, casually lifting the strainer in one hand. The ball swung back and forth, but didn't catch his eye. “I... I didn't think you were serious. How could you even do it? How did you make her disappear in one night? Who are you?”

Carmen didn't say a word, instead letting silence settle over the store as the two looked one another in the eyes. A soft noise finally broke the silence, a noise that Carmen was instantly aware of, but took Neil a moment to catch on to. He glanced down at the swaying metal orb. It sounded like it was calling his name...

“Em – Emily?” he said, his eyes opening wide in shock. “What... I don't... I...” Carmen laughed softly to herself. She'd never seen Neil at such a loss for words. Without saying anything, she took the kettle in her other hand, pouring the steaming water into each of their cups. Neil watched as realization began to dawn on him, but strangely he couldn't bring himself to speak out for his girlfriend's sake.

“Neil, please!” The tiny woman pressed herself against the cage, looking out at her gargantuan boyfriend. She didn't understand how this had happened, but she recognized Neil when she saw him. The cruel giantess dangled her prison over his cup, singing her feet from the steam coming up through the cage. Emily danced gingerly, pleading more and more desperately as she was lowered into the boiling water. “Help me! Neil! Neil! It burns Neil please! Please help me! Please help me Neil please! Please! Why won't you help me!?”

Her words soon became shrieks as the water covered her body, then barely-perceptible gurgles when she was fully submerged. Carmen lazily bobbed the strainer in and out of the tea, ostensibly mixing the tea leaves and water together, but she never took her gaze off Neil's face.

The shock of heat pressing against her was the most intense pain she had felt in her entire life. Even her eyes were burning as she struggled, surrounded by hot water, trying to figure out which way was up. The tea leaves stuck against her body and she desperately tried to fling them away, clawing at the wet plants. It was only when rivulets of red flowed past her face did she realize she had been clawing into her skin, the pain of which was masked by the boiling water.

Neil, for his part, bore mute witness to the unfolding scene. As his girlfriend's screams reached his ears he felt as though he should act; he should snatch the strainer from Carmen and save his tiny, helpless girlfriend. But a different realization overcame him, one much darker than he had imagined himself capable of.

He realized he wanted to watch her die.

Her little struggles when she was submerged, her shrieks and gurgles, and her ever-reddening skin – all of it came together into the most erotic display he had ever seen. On top of that, the fact that it was orchestrated and performed by a beautiful woman, a woman whom he had, on guilty nights, fantasized about being with, melted away any remaining concern for Emily's life that he may have had.

Carmen lifted the strainer, shaking it slightly to let the excess moisture fall back into the cup. Emily lay on her front, her flesh red and sizzling, desperately gasping in breath. She wanted to crawl back to her feet, but every part of her hurt, and putting pressure against the mesh only made her nerves scream louder. Neil noticed that the tea leaves were stained red.

“He... elp... m-m-m-me...” she wheezed, and Neil had to clench his fist to keep his composure. For the first time in a minute, he looked into Carmen's eyes.

“Do it,” he said. She raised an eyebrow, her grin stretching a little wider on her face.

“Do what, exactly?”

“Make your tea.”

Carmen bit her lip at these words. To make it more exciting, she had pretended that she was doing all this at his command, that he had ordered her to take a tiny life, and it thrilled her to obey such an order. Now she didn't have to pretend, and best of all he said it perfectly. She wasn't doing anything more than just... making her tea. She glanced down for only a second, just long enough to locate her cup, then moved the tiny woman over it.

“Nnn... nnnnno, p-please... nnnnnnnnooo...” Low moaning came from the strainer. Carmen thought about how this woman had the audacity to beg after she had laid her hands on Carmen's man for so long. She resisted the sneer that pressed against her lips as she released the strainer, dropping the ball into her tea, the chain landing with practiced efficiency off to the side.

Emily immediately took the boiling water into her lungs, as by the time the impulse reached her brain, it was already far too late to scream. Everything about her hurt in such a horrific fashion that she wondered if she was just dreaming. Even as it was happening to her, she couldn't imagine this kind of pain being real. She thrashed against the cage, bubbles flowing freely past her lips as searing water flowed down her throat and into her lungs.

Above the gruesome scene, the two giants watched their tiny prey struggle. The strainer rocked back and forth slightly, only enough to cause minor ripples on the surface of the tea. Carmen looked into Neil's eyes and saw the delighted darkness behind them. “That's a person's life,” she said softly, knowing this would further excite him. “That little rocking back and forth, I mean. That tiny, barely-there movement. It's the entire result of a person dying.”

As the shaking slowed to a still, Neil finally lost control of himself. He swiftly rose to his feet, taking Carmen by the wrist and dragging her out of her chair and leading her to the back room, away from the store windows. He pressed her against the wall again, but this time pushed his body against hers. Carmen accepted gladly, throwing her arms around his neck and embracing him in the most passionate kiss of her life.

Neil broke off the kiss after a full minute, looking at her intently. “Can you do it again?”

“God yes,” she whispered. The two began to strip off one another's clothes, while out in the store a tiny body lay still at the bottom of a cup of tea.