Finally my legs unfroze, allowing me to take a couple unsteady steps backward. Any way I moved was in vain, of course, since I had nowhere to go behind me and two colossal women in front. The only thing I could do was get out from beneath the toe of Roni’s tremendous shoe.
When my line of sight was clear I wished I had stay put. Past the hundreds of feet of pale flesh towering over me, beyond the athletic gear that had exploded in size with her, I saw her looking directly at me as though she had been expecting me. The scorn in her expression was overwhelming. If Gina had come to treat me like a bug, Roni actually thought of me as one.
“You really shouldn’t leave your toys lying around,” Roni said, the tone of her menacing voice carefully calibrated to mock me. “They might get broken when stepped on. Let me pick this one up for you.” Quickly she leaned over and bent her knees, bringing her all-encompassing gaze close to my level. Out of reflex I turned to run, but the shadow of her hand fell over me immediately. An instant later her fingers swooped in and clamped around me, sealing me into her iron grip. My head swam and stars danced on the edge of my vision during my rapid ascent, the punishing result of her merely standing.
Luckily my time in Roni’s fist was short. Her fingers opened quickly enough I saw their tips had been pressed white against me and I was briefly stuck to one, lifting off her palm when it raised. I lazily arced upward, then crashed down onto the hard surface of her palm and rolled until I was in the middle. A single, pitiful groan escaped my throat before I dared to open my eyes, and as soon as I did the disorientation returned.
Roni’s face loomed over me, larger than the head of any statue or monument I had ever seen. Her pale skin was pulled firm yet flexible over her rounded features, which had worked to soften her gruff demeanor before she was the size of a skyscraper to me. Tiny dimples ran up the tremendous nose in front of me, her pores scattered but none too far from each other. Light practically glistened off her skin, culminating in the gleaming of her light eyes. Pitch black pupils contrasted sharply with them, wobbling slightly while they struggled to stay on me. An occasional stray strand of platinum blond hair fluttered down, only to be blown away by imperceptible air currents.
For a while she simply stayed there, staring at me in the middle of her palm. I remained on my back while I fearfully looked up at her, trying to read anything from her expression. Roni had spent years being inscrutable to me, however, and now was no different. Tension thickened while laid frozen from fear in her hand, me desperate to see her move while she was content to keep me in suspense.
Finally, with a rush of breath from her nostrils, Roni cracked a smile. “You’re just so fucking small,” she boomed, causing my teeth to rattle with the force of her voice. “I always thought it was funny how out of a group of tiny people you still managed to be the tiniest. You know that you’re a joke, right? Everyone thinks you’re pathetic. Every time you made a half-hearted attempt to lead us we would spend hours afterward discussing how much fun we’d have if we ever got you alone.”
In a flash her free hand shot forward and her fingers pinched me around the legs. She lifted me out of her palm and let me dangle upside down in front of her face while she fixed me with an amused look. “Tell me, you self-important insect: for all the time I towered over you in there, did you ever imagine I would literally hold you in the palm of my hand? Outside of your weird little fantasies, of course.” I kept silent, sure that she was getting more than enough satisfaction mocking me like this.
Roni shook her wrist, violently throwing me back and forth and causing my vision to tremble. “Hey shit-for-brains!” she bellowed, her voice alone pushing me back in her grip. “I asked you a fucking question, answer me! For once I know you’re not jerking off to me since I can see your hands.” My eyes must have gone wide, since she continued, “That’s right, you little perv, I know you’ve been angling to fuck me this whole time. I’m not a moron. Now answer the question.”
I was still seeing three of Roni, all waving and swaying back and forth into each other, and could scarcely focus on anything. “I’m sorry, what was the question?” I managed to squeak after a great amount of effort.
Two enormous blue eyes rolled so far back in their sockets Roni looked like she was physically in pain from the effort. “I almost feel bad for you,” she declared. “Not only are you bug-sized, you’re also incredibly stupid.” She released my legs, letting me drop from her hand. Before I plummeted to the floor, however, her other hand was out to catch me, causing me to bounce once off the taut skin. I sank down as she cupped her hand around me. “Maybe this will jog your memory.” Her other hand slid over, covering me like a roof and blocking out any light from reaching me.
Roni’s hands shot upward and I felt myself pressed down further into her skin, then I was launched into her other hand when they suddenly stopped. Before I could fall back from the ceiling she drew them down again, driving me into the roof until halting again and throwing me into the bottom hand. Then she began shaking them side to side along with the vertical motion, bouncing me around in the small chamber she had made until I no longer knew which way was up or down. I wanted to puke from the sharp and frequent changes of direction, but simply had nothing inside me to come up. The motion was so incessant I could not even scream while being tossed around like a die.
Finally the churning ceased and I was allowed to settle back into Roni’s cupped hand. The “ceiling” hand lifted away and light flooded in, overwhelming my dazed eyes. Though everything was wavy and indistinct I could make out the vague shape of Roni’s tremendous face peering down at me helpless in her hand. After a moment her hand came back, fingers primed to pinch around me. I was unable to offer even a modicum of resistance when she forcibly seized me and held me aloft, allowing me to dangle upside down again.
My body swung limply beneath her gigantic fingers while she held me mere inches from her eye. I did my best to get my bearings in the few moments she allowed me, but I was still feeling the intense acceleration inside her hands when she spoke. “I’ll ask you again, and this time I want an answer or it’ll be worse.” Her voice was even more overwhelming this close. “Did you ever imagine me fucking controlling you like this when you were trying to get into my pants?” A beat passed, and she added, “It’s a yes or no question!”
The inside of my head throbbed, and I was not sure which of the three pupils dancing in front of me was the real one. A booming voice made demands of me and seemed insistent, but I had no idea what it had said. I was still struggling to get my bearings and could only offer a quiet, “Uh, what?” in response.
Roni’s features darkened. Whatever answer she wanted, that was not it. “You are so fucking useless!” she roared, making me feel like I was in a wind tunnel. “I’d say you’re as dumb as you are small but that would be an insult to bugs! I don’t know how Gina’s put up with you for so long, I would have smashed you in an hour if it were up to me.” The vice grip on my legs released, and again I fell the short distance into her cupped, waiting hand.
Instead of renewing the torment her palm flattened out, and she gave me a stern glower. “I need a minute to cool down,” she declared while lowering her other hand to rest atop the heel of her palm. Roni’s middle fingers was cocked behind her thumb, dead centered on me. “I’ll let Gina deal with your dumb ass for a while, see if there’s a secret or you really are just a moron. Gina, catch!”
Roni’s finger slipped off her thumb with a crack and raced toward me. The tip of her finger caught me in the gut, knocking the breath out of my lungs and forcing me to conform to the contour of her skin as well as I could. When its forward motion stopped I was flung off due to inertia and went flying away from her hand. As Roni grew more distant I saw the smile return to her face, and her eyes lit up with satisfaction at how expertly she had flicked me.
My back hit a warm, soft surface at intense velocity, fortunately allowing most of the force to be transferred into the backstop. Before I could slide down Gina’s fingers snapped shut like a steel trap, holding me firmly in her fist. I knew it was dark, but my vision was so full of stars that it did not even register. For that matter the normal issues I had with breathing inside her hand were absent too, superseded by the firm blow from Roni’s finger.
Slowly my fleshy prison rotated until it was horizontal, then the fingers trapping me gradually pulled away. My vision was still blurry, but the sight of Gina peering down at me was unmistakable. She seemed to drink in the superiority she held over me, basking in the power she had. Though my head was pounding and my mind scattered, I knew we shared an understanding that I hoped Roni would come to: there was no one in the whole world that she could have so much power over.
Gina placed a tremendous finger beside me, dimpling the skin enough for me to tilt down toward it. “Veronica just doesn’t understand you yet,” she said, her rumbling voice slightly gentler than usual. “Give it time.” She began slowly swirling the finger around me, shifting my body with the indentation as it moved. “I know that you can’t help but imagine yourself tiny compared to every woman you come across, it’s second nature to you now. Why, I bet that before I even let go of Veronica the first day you pictured yourself at her feet, staring up at her in awe like you do now, didn’t you?”
Her finger stopped its movements around me and lifted a little. Gina let it hover over me while she continued, “I want to be mad that you fantasized about her so often.” The finger set down on my chest, making my ribs strain from the weight. “We were supposed to be in a relationship, at least that’s what you told Fulda. I can’t blame you, though. She’s hot! Tall, fit, gorgeous… she’ll fit right into the role of mysterious foreign exchange student in case anyone asks.”
Despite her “understanding” mood Gina let her digit linger atop me. “You want to make out with her right now?”
“The fuck?” Roni interjected.
Gina suppressed an embarrassed giggle. “Oh, don’t worry about it! It’s not like you’ll be sucking face with this little twerp, and he won’t be cheating on me.” She shook her head, brushing me with some loose strands of golden hair. “Imagine, someone this small cheating on the only girl who’ll have him…”
Roni still looked apprehensive about the whole situation, but my attention was quickly drawn away by bigger issues. The tree trunk of a finger pinning me in Gina’s palm rapidly expanded in size to be a redwood, then a towering obelisk as I had never seen before. In seconds I was unable to see up the finger at all, only the detailed whorls of her fingertip which soon were larger than me as well. Each minute contour of the ridges between the depths of her whorls was apparent to me before long.
Gina lifted her finger and I felt the world rushing past me. To my horror I was stuck to her fingertip. Everything whipped around while she rotated her hand, and I felt more than knew that I was facing down. I struggled to keep my mind in place while racing upward, propelled by her hand. Briefly I risked a glance behind me and wished I had resisted: her finger was on a direct course to deliver me to her mouth. Desperately I struggled to free myself from what was holding me to her finger, but I was so miniscule it was like trying to swim in molasses. Inexorably I was drawn upward toward her cavernous maw with no means of resisting.
There was a light squeeze, then a greater force took hold and her finger withdrew. While I tried to get my bearings a deafening smack rang out from behind me, and my head snapped upward. A broad pink embankment encompassed my vision in every direction. Panicking, I looked forward and saw I was roughly on level with Roni’s eyes. The realization sank in: I was stuck to Gina’s lower lip and trapped in whatever product she had spread across them that morning.
Powerlessly I watched her fantastically long arm extend toward Roni, then cup her chin with her fingers. This was a new dimension of terrifying: it was almost as though I were seeing through Gina’s eyes, but I was not able to control anything. Even my own limbs were hopelessly restrained by Gina’s lip product. Even worse, Roni seemed receptive to Gina, gently tilting her head to the side and lowering her eyelids.
I screamed while Gina advanced toward Roni, but I had no illusions that either of them heard me. Gina tentatively pressed her lips against Roni’s, squeezing me between them while the heat shot up several degrees. She pulled back, and Roni’s previously smooth lips now looked like a craggy outcropping from years of neglect. Roni was apparently insatiable however, and pulled Gina in toward her. Their lips came together again, pressing me into the soft flesh of Roni’s lips and squeezing me against Gina’s.
Loud smacks hammered my ears while their lips came together and apart, with my world flickering between darkness and the microscopic contours of Roni’s lips. Sweat poured from my skin in amazing quantities, but never enough to break the bonds with Gina’s lips. Black spots appeared on the edges of my vision, and I realized I hadn’t taken a full breath in several minutes. I began to feel faint while the two titanesses showed no signs of slowing down.
Roni let out a low moan, blasting me with hot air. My head lolled as I no longer had the strength to hold it up, and my bones shook from the power in Roni’s involuntary sound. Their mouths came together once more and I felt my body become light. The pair was still in the height of a passionate embrace when my world went dark, and I slipped from consciousness just when Gina’s tongue slipped into Roni’s mouth.
Crashes and powerful tremors roused me from my unconscious state. Groggily I looked around. Clearly I was in a bedroom, but not Gina’s. The floor was pure hardwood, and a bed with blue covers which hung all the way to the floor loomed in the distance. Opposite the bed was a towering bookcase packed with leather-bound tomes to the point that it was overflowing. Beside the bed there was a lamp on a nightstand, throwing off the only illumination in the room. Apparently I had been out for a while, but I did not feel rested.
Another loud crash followed by a quake, and I forced myself to look toward my feet. A titanic stockinged foot slammed down, generating a powerful gust of wind, but I was still so soaked with sweat that I was stuck to the floor. The other foot cycled forward, its heel setting down in front of me with a deafening explosion and enough force to make my insides quiver. My eyes shot up to see the ball of a foot hanging over me. It began a swift descent, and I welcomed oblivion.
The indomitable foot stopped just before crushing me, close enough that I could feel the worn nylon on the sole. It quickly withdrew, and I found myself looking up a monolithic pair of dark stockings to a black dress and Akane’s horrified face above that. “Oh my!” she exclaimed, clapping a hand to her mouth. “I almost smashed you!” Her voice was muffled, but I still felt the raw power within it. “I’m so sorry!”
The great colossus lowered herself to a knee with a resonating boom and fixed me with a gaze from her dark eyes. “Here, let me get you off the floor,” Akane said while a hand swooped toward me. I was unable to resist, and she easily plucked me up between her fingers. She lifted me to her face slowly enough that I barely felt it, and I could see the regret in her soft features. “I never would have forgiven myself if I had smashed you, little guy. And right before it’s my day to watch you, too!” Ah, that was why she cared.
Gradually she stood, and a grimace twisted her face. “Ew, you’re wet,” she proclaimed when she was fully standing. “I’m not sure what from, but… I’d dry you off, but I really don’t have anything for it so I’ll have to let you air dry.” Akane took a step toward the wall, and through the two protruding mounds of her fingers I saw a pair of stockings hanging from hooks. “I’ll just put you somewhere safe so you don’t wander into danger tonight. I really, really don’t want you to get stepped on, especially by accident.”
I did not believe Akane’s concern, but it hardly mattered. Her hand was already outstretched, pulling back the opening of one of the stockings. Carefully she held me at the top, and when she was satisfied with the placement let me go. I plummeted to the bottom, where I bounced of the heel and rolled down the length of the foot to settle at the reinforced toe. I looked up the enormous dark tube until another horrific crash drew my attention.
Akane slid under the covers, and with a slender arm reached out for the lamp. “Goodnight, little man!” she called out, and with a click the room was plunged into complete darkness. There was loud rustling while she turned over and I hung helplessly in the toe of her stocking, looking into the inky blackness around me. Each time I closed my eyes I the image of Vanessa being flattened under Roni’s shoe overtook my vision, and in the stillness of the night I couldn’t help but hear the light crunch of her body. It was going to be a long night, and an even longer day.