TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK

Charles shifted uncomfortably along the couch. The silence of the room was stifling, broken only by the maddening clicks of the old clock draped along the wall. His eyes darted to it for perhaps the hundredth time. It had already been five minutes. Or rather, it had only been five minutes. Time seemed to have slowed to a standstill. How he wished the silence would be broken.

He wasn’t alone in the room. Far from it. Two others were there with him. One was his wife Emily. His muse, his flame. A youthful redhead with a dainty frame of modest height. The sort of girl who was always more cute than beautiful; although whenever Charles looked at her now he often felt a fear weighing heavily in his chest. Dainty as she was, she was a woman; and in Dianne Trent’s America that was all it took for her to be like a giant to him. Just sitting next to her was terrifying. The cushions of the couch sank under her weight and threatened to send him sliding down at any given moment if he wasn’t careful.

The same could be said of the woman on the exact opposite end of the room. A busty black woman with her hair kept into a tight ponytail as she scribbled something behind a desk. Charles had always heard good things about her, but as always with women the second thoughts nagged at him. Was kind of hard not to when he was the only person in the room who was three inches tall.

It had all begun with that ticket. That damned ticket. He made his appeal in court to an unsympathetic female judge and as a result he got his First Strike for it. Were that all it would’ve been fine, but with his reduced size came a...change in Emily. The woman he loved still was very much the same. However occasionally there was something in her eyes. A look that seemed to almost belittle him. Only coming out whenever he failed to reach up a cabinet or needed help doing something he could once do so easily. Humiliating, yes. But not particularly terrifying.

Then the Second Strike happened.

Failure to do his duties his boss said, but Charles knew better than that. He was one of the few outlying males in the company. A liability in the eyes of his corporate superiors. A Strike was a nice easy way to get to fire him without needing a reason.

With that size reduction came another change in his wife. The redheaded woman was careful around him at first. Yet, with each passing day her actions grew increasingly careless. Massive feet would stomp a touch too close for comfort. She would forget to help him onto the bed. Or would make the occasional odd request. It began to feel less like Charles was married and more like they were roommates. Or that he was a nuisance rather than anything.

Then of course, almost inevitably, came the Third Strike.

Once that happened the changes were too great to simply ignore anymore. Despite her words to the contrary, Emily just didn’t care about him anymore. She made no efforts to hold back anything for his sake. No attempts to make him proper meals or comfort him. Nothing of the sort. Instead, she had chores. Many, many degrading chores. Cleaning shoes. Doing laundry. Massaging her feet. Embarrassing himself to amuse her. Whereas before he felt like a nuisance, now Charles just felt like a slave in his own home. It certainly didn’t help he was legally bound to be at his wife’s side at all times now.

Anytime he dared to stand up for himself all it took was a glare from his wife and a stomp of her foot to have him cowering before her. After which she would always look down at him with a smug smirk before finally getting her way.

It had been weeks since that had begun and Charles just couldn’t take it anymore. Each day felt like he was losing himself and his wife more and more. Something needed to be done. So when he remembered a couples’ counselor and old friend told him about he knew just what to do. It wasn’t easy getting Emily to agree to it, but somehow he did it.

“Alright….Charles…” At long last after ten minutes of silence the woman across the desk looked up at the two. The petite woman and the bug-sized man sharing a couch with her. The counselor’s brow arched ever so slightly. Dr. Linda Donnelly was emblazoned along a piece of wood atop her desk. “Why don’t you tell us why we’re all here today?” Despite her incredible size compared to the man she offered only the friendliest professional smile.

Moment of truth. “Okay Doctor…” Charles gulped and turned towards his wife. The redhead towered overhead and looked down at him expectantly. A gaze that threatened something if he spoke out of turn, but the man knew he had to. “Emily, I love you; but ever since I got my Third Strike it feels like things have changed between us.”

“Kind of happens when my vibrator’s bigger than you.” The redhead flippantly remarked, rolling her eyes.

“Now Emily, let him finish.” Linda calmly chastised.

Charles gave the black woman a grateful smile. “I won’t lie Emily, you scare me a lot these days. Sometimes it feels like you look at me and you don’t see a man anymore. I don’t know what it is you see, but I’m pretty sure I don’t like it.” He stopped the second his wife’s eyes hardened, all his courage leaving him along with his breath.

“Thank you Charles.” Linda nodded and scribbled something along one of her sheets of paper. “Now do you have anything to say about that Emily? What’s your side of the story?”

The redhead looked over to the Doctor. “Well Linda, I still love my husband too.” Certainly news to him. “But...Well, he just hasn’t been the same since he got shrunken.”

Wait what? Charles blinked.

“Yeah, he’s gotten really lazy these days and all he ever does is run away or complain.” Emily went on.

“Now wait just a m-”

“Charles.” Linda’s voice overpowered him immediately.

Emily smirked at her husband. “Thank you.” She shifted in her seat and watched as the subtle movements of the cushion threw the man off balance, giggling once he finally fell over and tumbled towards her. “I mean sure, back when he was big and he had a job I get it. He earns the bread and I take care of the house. Makes sense, but now I make the bread. And what does he do?” She reached down to pick him up and held him near her face. “Nothing.”

The counselor nodded along as Emily spoke. Her calm, collected eyes revealed nothing of her thoughts. She merely took notes. “I see. Is this true Charles?”

“No!” Came the exasperated reply. “I love my wife and I do everything I can to help her!”

The grip around Charles’s body tightened subtly. “Oh? What about last week when I asked for a foot massage?” Emily’s eyes narrowed into thin slits.

“You wanted to wear me in your shoes while you went grocery shopping! And then you did anyway when I said no!”

“I wanted you to help take care of me after I spent all day buying stuff to make for dinner.” A dinner she did not share incidentally.

Meanwhile Linda was just writing away over there. “Calm down you two.” Her voice urged authoritatively, never even looking up. “Now then, based on what I’m hearing it sounds to me Charles like you aren’t quite doing your part around the house anymore. Marriage is a team effort. You need to do your part as well.”

Was this woman for real? His wife had just admitted to wearing him as an insole and it was somehow his fault?! “That’s absurd! Were you even listening to her?!”

“So now I’m absurd?” Emily’s hold on Charles tightened further until there was a faint crack. Then she tossed him carelessly back onto the cushion and leaned back.

Linda looked up at the pair and sighed. “I know this is hard for you to accept Charles. I’m sure to you you really are trying your best. You may even think you’re being marginalized, but you’re not. The fact of the matter is you’re three inches tall now. You can’t just expect to do what you used to do and all will be okay. You’ve got to adapt.”

“Thank you.” Emily said with a big smirk.

Charles, understandably, could not even begin to fathom what he was hearing. Was this some sort of bizarre psychological test? “She. Put. Me. In. Her. Shoe!”

“And did you thank her?” Linda fired back.

“What?”

“Did you. Thank her?”

Charles could only blink incredulously. “Why would I thank her for that?”

“I don’t know, for taking care of you? For not just crushing you like a bug? And believe me, I’ve considered it!” Emily chimed in.

Before things could escalate further Linda raised a hand to gesture them both to be quiet. “We have a pending term for this. It’s called Phantom Size. Basically, when someone loses their size they still think and act as though they still have it. As a grown man taller than you are of course such a thing sounds appalling, but as a three inch man I mean…” She shrugged. “It’s secure, cozy, and gives you a chance to make your wife happy and show gratitude to her for all she does. Did you ever think about it like that Charles?”

“No!” He made no effort to hide the complete disgust of this conversation any longer. She might’ve been a good counselor once, but after those laws she was a hack. “I think we’re done here Linda. Thank you.” Charles fumed. Of course Emily made no effort to help him down, and without her help he was trapped.

“You see what he does?” Emily sighed. “I swear Doc, I don’t know what to do anymore. At this rate I think I really will kill him.” Charles felt a chill at that.

“There’s no need for that.” Linda assured. “I’ve studied how to handle this.” Her eyes flicked back to the livid man atop the couch. “Charles, I would like you to turn towards Emily here and thank her. Okay?”

In response Charles crossed his arms indignantly. He was not playing along with this anymore.

Once that became abundantly clear Linda made a few more notes. “It’s even worse than I feared. Don’t worry Emily, there are treatments for this. With time we can-”

“I want something now.” Never had the woman sounded more certain of anything.

“Well, there are some...extreme measures I suppose…”

None of this sounded good to Charles mind you. Barely a few words into this topic and he spoke to interject, only to be ignored. Then he spoke louder and was ignored again. Then he shouted and Emily promptly shut him up by laying her palm over him, effortlessly pinning him.

“Extreme measures?”

“Yes, well…” Linda gave the redhead a serious look. “There are some behavioral lessons that some people believe work. Basically if he does something good you reward him, and if he does something bad you punish him. Simple, but the tricky part is how you implement that without hurting him.” She paused for a moment. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but there’s a pet store roughly a block from here. You probably passed it on the way, but they recently got special male collars. They’re designed to give a controlled shock if you press a button. It’s extreme but with the way Charles is…”

Emily looked over at her palm and pictured her husband wearing a collar, constantly getting shocked for stepping out of line. It was an image she was very okay with. “Sounds like a good punishment, but what about a reward?”

Linda frowned. “For now I think the priority should be on adjusting his attitude first. From there we can discuss and look into safe rewards for him together. Right now I’d say not to worry about it. Reward him with more tasks or the like. Teach him to enjoy it and see it as a good thing. I’ve heard studies say that frequent exposure to feet, shoes, breasts, anything can be soon tied into a positive thing by the mind. If you use the collar properly you should be able to help Charles understand his new lot in life.”

Emily nodded slowly. “I think I got it.” She smirked and pulled back one of her flats. Without any warning her protesting husband was thrust inside, trapped once the foot reentered. “I’ll give it a try Linda. Thank you.” She stood and nodded her head. “Do you mind if I see you again in a couple weeks?”

“Anytime.” Linda waved her hand dismissively and watched the redhead leave with her husband underfoot. “Now then…” With all that out of the way she scooted her seat back and looked down. There rested her own husband, a paltry three inch tall specimen caught between her legs throughout the day. Even now he licked away at the pleasure center that laid there. As he had for hours. Every day. “You’ve been a very good boy Dear. I think it’s time for a reward.”

Her fingers skillfully reached down and parted her lower lips before the man. “A few hours inside to play all you want.” She grinned as the broken shell of a man looked happily at her, uttering squeaks of gratitude before rushing to meet his lewd prize. Linda simply smirked and released her fingers. Those very same fingers went for a buzzer at her desk.

“Debbie, send in the next couple.”

With that she scooted back into her desk. Time to save another marriage.