EVERYONE HAD EXPERIENCED emotional rollercoasters. Happy one second, sad the next, maybe happy again a second later. They came in all forms. Hearing about a death only to find out it wasn’t true, getting a bonus on your paycheck only to realize it was already practically gone, or getting dumped at the altar.
     Kaylee had been through plenty of those emotional waves during her seventeen years of life, but none had compared to what she was experiencing now. Minutes ago, she had faced the possibility of death. Then, with one strong climb and a sprint, she was given new life. But now, as she stood in a white bikini on an impossibly vast hardwood floor next to a dime whose ridge came up to her ankles, she felt a sort of terrible limbo that was far worse than death. There was a finality to death, an extinguishing of a flame. But this was different. This was cruel. She just wished it would end.
     With her stood four other girls, all a little older, from eighteen to twenty-one. She knew them well, bonding through the pledge process, making it all the way to the final test. They treated her okay, even though her braces had been brought up on more than one occasion, and very nearly cost her a spot for being too young. She found it ironic that the sorority would spat over the ethics of disposing of a minor while simultaneously discussing whether it was more pleasurable to chew up or swallow a victim whole in practically the same breath.
     Standing what felt like miles from Kaylee’s little group was a cluster of titanesses so large that describing them would’ve seemed like exaggeration. She had visited the Willis Tower in Chicago with her family the previous summer—her last before going off to college—and she had little doubt that each of the girls were at least twice that massive structure’s height compared to her diminutive form.
     Some of the giant girls looked hungover, some still had dresses on that grazed the floor, but most were just in panties and t-shirts. All were barefoot, each sister’s toenails painted a different color. Their skin was perfectly bronzed, all except two redheads—who were still far from pale. Some were taller than others, some had different hair, some had thicker, athletic builds while others were more traditionally slim, and all were insanely beautiful, even as the morning sunlight peered in through the window, exposing some smeared makeup…it was a walking sorority stereotype.
     At the moment, they were whispering, huddled together as they argued. Kaylee could catch only snippets.
     “Let’s just take her.”
     “But they all made it!”
     “So?”
     “Rules are rules.”
     “We’re in charge.”
     “So what?”
     “Okay, I got the answer.”
     Then they leaned in and spoke even more quietly. Kaylee couldn’t hear anything, and what emenated sounded like the trumpets of distant whales. But she had a bad feeling.
     Finally, the giantesses—all nine—turned their eyes down to the tiny group of girls. A busty, voluptuous redhead had to squint to see them, as she’d lost her glasses the night before. Within seconds, they had made a tight circle around the shrunken group, their shiny, hairless legs forming a thick forest that nearly blocked out all light. Each girl’s big toes were three times as tall as the tallest of Kaylee’s group; it was like looking up at a wall of curving, ridged flesh.
     “Okay, so here’s the deal,” the voice of Spencer boomed above. Spencer was the most athletic of the group. She was thin yet solid, with long, straightened, dirty blond hair, wide eyes and prominent front teeth. Her lipstick was hot pink, which always popped from her tan face. It matched her toenails. She was wearing black yoga pants and a tank top hugging her c-cups, the bottom of her pant legs covering her heels. It had become her trademark and it was rare to see her in a different outfit. “There are nine of us and none of us are graduating this semester, and tradition dictates that we can’t have more than ten members. So you see the problem?”
     Kaylee felt a chill. One of the other tiny girls held her hand to her mouth. She looked like she was going to throw up. Another started sobbing.
     Spencer continued, “So, we’re going to play a little game.” She turned and was handed something. “It’s called Think Fast.”
     In one, quick motion, she turned back, held a large textbook high over the group…then dropped it.
     Kaylee didn’t think fast. She didn’t think at all. She just reacted. Leaping out of the way as soon as the shadow enveloped her. She heard what sounded like a cannon firing and a whoosh of air sent her flying several feet…well to her at least. When she regained her composure and the resounding bam of the book hitting the floor faded from her ears, she sat up, heart racing, and looked to see “Biology Essentials” written in lettering taller than her house. The textbook lay on its side where her group once stood.
     All four were gone.
     Another one of the sisters, a tall senior with long, dark chocolate hair and enormous feet named Ashley, leaned down and picked up the book. Catching a brief glimpse as it was lifted into the air, Kaylee saw the corpses of her four comrades smushed against its underside, barely recognizable as human beings. On the ground were four corresponding little splotches of red, each about a centimeter wide.
     The chocolate-haired girl counted the tiny grease stains on the back of the book and wiped them off with a tissue, then casually crumpled it up and tossed it in a trash bin. Entire, promising young lives with bright futures and proud parents reduced to nothing but little red smears, disposed of no less casually than one tossed away a used tissue.
     “Congratulations!” Spencer looked down at Kaylee, who still sat stunned on the floor. “It looks like we have a winner!”