Finally, after what felt like an eternity of walking Duncan found himself in a place with some potential. At a glance it seemed like a personal study or work room. A shelf stood beside a large wooden desk with a computer atop it, modestly filled with a couple dozen books. Near the desk was a slender black swivel chair and further still another shelf lined the adjacent wall, this one filled with various supplies and miscellaneous items.
Not the fanciest room granted, but it had some potential. Perhaps there was something of worth in one of the drawers or shelves? Maybe even something on top of the desk itself. Duncan wasn’t particularly greedy. Barring jewelry there wasn’t really a lot he could steal while shrunken that’d be worth a lot. One of the shortcomings of being as small as he was.
Regardless, it wasn’t like he’d find anything just thinking about it or whining. The soft-spoken, muscular man began his silent trek deeper inside at a light jog. It was looking like he’d have to do a lot of climbing. Thankfully, he wasn’t especially concerned. Physical ability aside, there were a number of perks to this smaller size that worked in his favor with stuff like this. Through some complicated science, being shrunken down offered up increased durability and enhanced physique. Something about the density of his atoms being condensed or some such. Duncan wasn’t exactly a scientist; the end result was all that was relevant to him.
The first challenge came when he reached the base of the massive desk. A looming, building-sized structure with smooth wooden walls. What little notches he saw were few and far between, making climbing a nigh impossibility. There was the chair he supposed, but it didn’t connect to the desk and he doubted he could even rotate it. What to do. What to do.
Were he a weaker man like Mark or a less motivated one like Adam he might’ve just shrugged and checked another room. Duncan was a tad more stubborn though, and it quickly paid off as he noticed something. There behind the desk were wires. For the computer no doubt. However, the jumbled mess of fibers were just low enough for him to reach and from there he could climb along them all the way up to the computer monitor.
With his rather simple plan settled upon, Duncan set off in a hurry for the back of the desk. As he figured, the wires were an interconnected, tangled mess that were easy for him to make use of. Not unlike a net or rope ladder one might find at a child’s playground. For someone of his particular build it was easy to climb with it. At the rate he was heading he could get to the top and resume his search in no time at all if all went well.
Needless to say not all went well.
What first tipped the man off that something was amiss were the rumbles. It didn’t show to those at normal heights, but at these shrunken sizes almost everything had a way of echoing out across a house. Enough so that even if he was far enough away to not hear anything specific he could still feel the soft vibrations of the walls. That was the first clue when everything rumbled gently. Not even a moment later came the other red flag in the form of a definite voice in the distance.
The owner of the house must’ve come home. Duncan bit his lip as he realized that. Her routine was one he made sure to pay strict attention to. Hence why this was the day they chose to break in. Of course it would also be the one day something would break her schedule. The man mused to himself as to whether or not it was a sick joke or just being plain unlucky.
No matter what though, being stuck where he was wasn’t an option so he had no choice but to resume his climb. In times like this it was important to stay calm. If need be he could wait until she was gone or asleep and get the hell out. To those ends Duncan climbed to the top of the desk and exhaled, listening in as he took in his surroundings.
Unfortunately, the desk was relatively threadbare with only the essentials for a desktop. Anything else appeared to either be in the shelves, cabinets, or just in a drawer. Bad for two reasons. One because it made stealing anything either unnecessarily difficult or a downright impossibility. Two because it very heavily limited the number of places Duncan could feasibly hide. While not ideal, he made for the base of the computer monitor. The central pillar holding it up would be enough to hide someone as small as he was he figured. At least for now.
And it was there that Duncan waited patiently. His tough, masculine exterior seemed calm and composed in spite of the truth of the matter. This was a very grave situation, no doubt about it. Although panicking about it would be pointless and an unecessary risk. All he could do was wait and bide his time. Unless someone got caught there was no way the owner of this house would know any of them existed. That simple fact was his saving grace.
He assured himself as much several times. Not that it made it any easier when the roaring footsteps of the giant drew near. Stay calm. He reminded himself. Sure, the house’s owner was a veritable giant compared to him, but she wasn’t omniscient. She was none the wiser so he had to simply sit back, wait it all out and go from there.
That said, his blood turned to ice the second the footsteps entered the very room he was in. He didn’t need to look to know she was standing there. Everything was painfully audible from the soft breaths she took to the slightest shifts of her feet. Still, Duncan took a moment to peek around the corner. Sure enough, there she was. Perhaps on an instinctual level he was hoping he was mistaken. He was not.
Lygia stood there every bit as charming as ever, only now she was equally horrifying to behold. The lithe woman had her hands on her hips and appeared to be scanning the floors for something. Was she searching for someone? Searching for him? No, that couldn’t have been the case. After a few more moments however, the giant let out an annoyed sigh. “I know you’re in here!”
Immediately Duncan retreated back to his hiding spot. What…How…When….How?! A million questions overran his thoughts as he had to come to the sudden realization that Lygia was very much aware of him. Despite his many questions and concerns they ultimately did nothing to help his current situation. The main question he needed to concern himself with was simple; what now?
“Come on out you guys! I already have your friend there’s no point trying to hide. Just save us all some time and trouble will you?” The woman’s powerful voice reverberated throughout the man’s core, no doubt rumbling the entire house in a similar manner. It was but one of the many countless reminders of the incredible power she possessed compared to him. “I don’t wanna accidentally crush you guys and I’m sure you don’t either.”
So she doesn’t know where we are…Duncan frowned. Not ideal, but it was a point in his favor. For a moment he considered the offer only to quickly shake his head. There were too many unknowns for him to trust this woman. At best he’d go to jail. At worst…Well, he didn’t want to think about it. Hiding was the name of the game still despite the raised stakes. It was just a matter of eluding Lygia. Beyond that….Well…He’d have to play it by ear. For now it was a game of cat and mouse as sadly fitting as that metaphor was.
-------------------
Lygia sighed after a few more seconds of waiting. She wasn’t sure why she even tried. It wasn’t like criminals were just going to give themselves up. Still, it certainly would’ve made everything much easier if they had. There was still the whole coming to terms with shrunken people thing and how rattled that had left her. Now she had two intruders in her home hiding away somewhere and little time to mentally deal with any of it.
Just a glance at her computer room made it clear just how tough it would be finding them. There must’ve been a hundred different hiding spots here alone, all of them easy to overlook. Whether it was one of the many shelves or one of the crevices of her desk or even just behind some simple household items finding these people would be tough.
If I were a thief where would I be…?
She began a slow pace around the room, deliberating on that very question. Just how much had these people studied her house? Simply pondering that alone made it seem like the sanctity of her home had somehow been violated. Like she’d come home to find out it was now infested. Not an unjust comparison she supposed. As baffling as this whole situation was it was hard to feel much sympathy for them too. Really, she was the victim here. Lygia would’ve been lying if she said there wasn’t some small part of her that wanted to punish them herself. Something to ponder once she found them.
Either way, it stood to reason they’d be near her valuables. Or at least, near where valuables would typically be. When Lygia approached the thought like that a lot of smaller places came to mind. Any one of them could have who she was looking for. Without much else to go on she began by checking out the various shelves. Nothing, of course. Next came her desk drawers, which she began to open one by one. Still nothing. No people and nothing missing.
“Damn…” The aged woman let out a weary sigh and fell into her chair. This was very quickly seeming like a pointless endeavor. She had all the strength and speed in the world compared to these people but it didn’t mean a thing when they could hide literally anywhere. Her hand ran through her soft dark locks in frustration. There had to be an easier way to do this. For a moment her eyes fell upon the computer in front of her. What were the odds there was some answer somehow stored away in there?
“As if.” Lygia chuckled.
-------------------
Today was just not Mark’s day.
Admittedly, his life wasn’t exactly great to begin with but today was by far the worst in his life. If it wasn’t be caught unawares and toyed with by Lygia’s bare feet then it was the painful ride he now endured in her pocket with the promise of more trouble to come once all his friends were found.
He was sure Lygia meant no harm when she slid him into her back pocket. There was a definite reasoning in wanting to make sure he couldn’t get away. It wasn’t great for him but at least he could understand it. The thing was, it was a back pocket; and Lygia wasn’t exactly an underdeveloped woman. Point being there wasn’t a lot of room for him to do much of anything in the tight jeans he was trapped in. Quite the contrary, their tight, form-fitting nature assured he was pressed right into the rear of the very woman who now held him.
Granted, it was nothing compared to how embedded he was in Lygia’s mature sole earlier. Really, in another light it might have even been an enjoyable experience to be pinned against the rear end of such a lovely woman. She was certainly pleasantly thick down there and there was enough cloth between her skin and him that it didn’t particularly feel dirty either. Unfortunately, Lygia moved. A lot.
What began as a simple place to hold him became a very different thing once Lygia’s hips began to sway. Her jeans shifted and contorted to accommodate the tensing and subtle extending of her thighs and glutes, leading to the cloth tightening ever so slightly against her; and what was subtle to her was a very big problem for someone an inch-tall. It felt as though the rough denim of the pants was a rope, one that tightened and loosened its hold randomly with every move Lygia made.
One second Mark would be relatively fine, trapped but nothing else. The next everything would constrict until the air was squeezed from his lungs. As if the air wasn’t scare enough already. Compared to being stepped on it wasn’t as bad admittedly, but damn if it wasn’t a close second. The fact it was from a woman’s juicy rear did little to comfort him as it threatened to suffocate with every other step.
Perhaps this was his punishment for stealing that shrinking technology in the first place. For turning to stealing from unsuspecting people for a living. He wasn’t far gone enough not to at least see that on some level maybe he deserved punishment. Being crushed against the taut ass of a beautiful woman wouldn’t have been his first choice but hey, life’s full of surprises.
Were that all he could’ve just took it on the chin. The bad criminal gets some ironic justice and love moves on. Then Lygia sat down and Mark got a sick sense of déjà vu in the worst possible way.
Much like when she’d stepped on him, Lygia’s full body weight bore down into Mark. The plump, squishy surface of her rear folded in to accommodate him. Unlike with her foot though, there was the rough denim of Lygia’s pants in the way. On the one hand it saved him from being ensnared like before. On the other, it made things a lot less pleasant when everything began to press and grind against him.
The full weight of this fully matured and developed woman seemed to focus on him and him alone. Were he an actual bug Mark was certain it’d have crushed him outright. Perhaps that would’ve been better. Especially since the alternative left him there with no choice but to take it. What was he gonna do? Move a woman larger than a building? Fat chance.
Durability didn’t mean a lack of pain as Mark had come to find out the hard way. Rather than being crushed, his body began to cave in on itself, giving into the pressure Lygia was inflicting but never fully flattening. It was a bizarre in-between state of being squished, one from which there was no escape.
“Help…me…”
-------------------
So far so good. Lygia was much too close for comfort, but she still had no idea Duncan was there. Good. Not good was the fact she was sitting at the very desk he was hiding at.
Come on Lady get out of here! Go search another room! The man silently hissed, too afraid to even poke around and look from his spot at the base of the computer monitor. Every so often she’d mutter some word under her breath, but she never actually moved. Even though it was only a few seconds it may as well have been years.
Creaks from the chair she was in caught Duncan’s ear. He tensed, awaiting for the sound of footsteps. Footsteps that would never come. What did come however, was a large, slender hand reaching for the backside of the computer monitor. Not even twenty feet from Duncan.
“Shit!” Came the scream before had time to process or react. Just the simple sight of the woman’s enlarged hand was enough to scare the hell out of him. With its five pillar-like fingers and unearthly appearance at this scale it seemed like some kind of monster at first glance. One dozens of times his size and infinitely stronger. The fact it silently crept to his side would’ve surprised anyone. It was only after that he realized what it was reaching for. Not him, but the button on the back of the monitor. Not anymore. Now it froze in place.
Did she hear me?
Slowly, the hand retreated back and carefully grabbed the edge of the monitor, delicately pulling it towards her and away from Duncan.
She heard me!
Duncan began to run before she had a chance to grab him. At his full sprint he scurried like an ant along the wooden top of the desk, coming well into view of the looming Lygia. Her vibrant eyes narrowed at the sight of him, piercing right through the muscular man as he ran. Her hand released the computer once again, now reaching for Duncan himself. Two massive pads came at him like the pincers of a wild animal. Slowly for Lygia, but dangerously fast for Duncan.
“Sit still!” The giant hissed as her fingers narrowly missed the man and slammed into the desk behind him. He kept running without looking back. All the way towards the wires he’d used to climb in the first place.
The terrain was still on his side at least. There were enough delicate things along the table that Lygia seemed hesitant to just rush him; and as he reached the wires and began to descend the back of the desk there was little space for her to reach down as well. That didn’t stop her from trying though and damn did she try. Not one second after Duncan rounded the edge of the desk did the fingers press into the wall near him, curling to grab him once again.
In his fervor he clambered down recklessly, sliding down the rough surface of the electrical wires and putting more distance between him and that dangerous hand above. How fortunate that that the desk was close enough to the wall she couldn’t just reach down. What little she could reach was cut off by the thick entanglement of wires, further assisting the man in his escape…If it could even be called that.
Beyond his view, beyond the broad wall of the desk that blotted his view of this towering world, he could hear the woman stand once again. Everything shook as she moved quickly. Duncan pictured what he would do in such a situation and as such, looked down. Sure enough, the probing hand of Lygia was now reaching up at him from the floor.
“Come here!” Her angered voice sounding like the wailings of a demon to him, powerful enough to bring a nervous sweat to his brow and chill his body.
The fingers came in faster than before, blindly reaching around through the mess of wires. Duncan tensed, certain this was it as the fingers flicked at the very wire he was using to climb. He doubled down on his grip while the wire shook and swayed, but Lygia still couldn’t quite reach. As slim as her hand was and as long as her feminine fingers could go, the awkward angle just restricted her too much. After a good few attempts Lygia pulled it back and huffed.
There was no way out of this. There just wasn’t. If he climbed down the hand would get him. If he climbed up it would still get him. If Duncan stayed here in the middle it was only a matter of time. Lygia would find a way or move the desk or…something. He didn’t even know what.
Maybe I really should just give up…
Down below he saw movement and instinctively looked. There was her hand again, calmer this time and not reaching for him. What it was reaching for however was enough to make even the tough, muscular man go pale. He was using a wire for his escape act, so it stood to reason that wire had a plug; and Lygia had her fingers around that very plug.
With absolute ease she pulled the massive, monster truck-sized plug out and with it the line Duncan had been holding onto went limp and dangled freely. He could hear the woman stand up once again and it didn’t take long before she was pulling the wire out from the top, Duncan along with it. Resigned to his fate and with no other options, the man sighed and braced himself. With one final tug he was brought out into the open air and before the glaring eyes of the woman.
Lygia wore a prominent frown on her face as she stared at him. Her other hand swooped in and grabbed Duncan by his lower half, silently pulling him from the wire. He offered no resistance. Funnily enough, after spending a good few minutes fleeing from these very fingers like they were monsters it struck him how soft they were. Soft and smooth with the faintest scent of lotion. A bizarre sensation given how easily the digits manhandled him.
“You’re lucky you didn’t fall and get hurt you know.”
Now he did not expect that either. Duncan blinked and looked up at her again. There was still most certainly a terrifying anger to Lygia’s lovely visage, but a hint of concern as well. He could only stare blankly at her for a moment whilst she rolled her eyes and sighed, pulling him towards her back. Beneath him came the surprising view of the woman’s rather sizable, jeans clad rear. Her thumb skillfully pulled the flap of her back pocket open, revealing the dark chasm within. Before he’d had a moment to take it in Duncan was dropped inside, the thumb snapping it shut behind him.
“Two down.”