Chapter 6

Insecta Aeternum

“Why don't you grow anymore?  Is there something, like, wrong with your body?” Sum said, pulling on Minus's arm.  She had him pinned up against a wall and was manhandling his admittedly smaller-than-average frame.

“I- I dunno...” Minus looked to the side, trying to avoid eye contact with the sister that had thoroughly humiliated him at their recent party, “My legs just don't go any farther.”

“I guess you just like being that small, huh?” Sum smirked.

“Ha, no- no way.” Minus stuttered.

“Maybe you'd just be better off as a bug, you know.  Permanently, I mean.” Sum said, shifting closer to her brother, “Well, I can at least make you one for a little while.”

Sum pressed her body up against Minus's, compressing him into the wall, her breasts pushed into his face and her knee squarely placed on his crotch.

“W-wait!” Minus exclaimed.

“Oh?” Sum stepped back, incredulously looking her brother up and down, “Do you have...?”

“It's not...it's not...from...” Minus knew she had felt it.

“I can't believe it.” Sum grabbed Minus's chin with her hand and turned his face to meet hers, “Do you seriously have an erection?”

“I...” Minus trailed off.

“Do you seriously want to be shrunken?” Sum asked.

“No...I mean, um...I...uh...” Minus said, his voice dropping in volume.

“Oh my god!” Sum beamed, “Why didn't you say something sooner?”  

“C'mon Sum, c-cut it out...” Minus mumbled.

“You know, that explains that time at wrestling practice.  You were just excited to get shrunk again, weren't you?” Sum said,  “Waitaminute, hang on, do you actually want to be a bug?  Like, for good?”

“N-no...?” Minus said, intoning something in between a question and an answer.

“Oh my god!  You do!  You totally do!  I can see it on your face!” Sum shouted, “You want to be your sisters' little bug!”

“Just...n-no, I...” Minus said.

“This is too exciting.  I need to go tell Plus!” Sum pushed off of the wall and scampered to the other side of the house.

Minus stood shock-still, eyes focused somewhere far away.  He didn't actually like being shrunken, did he?  The throbbing in his pants seemed to already have its own answer.

*

The door to Minus's room nearly exploded off of its hinges when Plus burst in.  

“You want to do what?!” She shouted, for once breaking her fine tuned composure.

“Uhm...” Minus sighed, barely moving from his curled up position on the floor.

“You actually want to be an insect for the rest of your life?” Plus crossed her arms and glared at her brother.

“I...no...I don't know...” Minus said softly.

“This is unbelievable, even for you.” Plus said, “How can you be so flippant with your own life?”

“Hm...” Minus hummed, considering his sister's phrasing.

“And what about Carrie?  Should we invite her over to stomp you into the ground as well?” Sum barked.

Minus did not answer.

“This pseudo-suicide is just...ugh,” Plus grunted, approaching Minus with deliberate steps, “Why don't I show you what it'll really be like?”

“Wh-what are you doing?” Minus rolled over and saw his sister's looming form suddenly upon him.

“Testing you.” Plus flipped her leg over Minus's body and sat hard, compressing his chest under her rear end.

“Um...should I, like, come back later?” Sum quipped, having appeared in the doorway, “I was just curious if you'd talked to Mom yet.”

“She texted me back earlier,” Plus said, pulling her phone from her pocket and turning her gaze away from the quickly dwindling Minus, “She says we can do whatever we want with him, she doesn't care.”

“Nice!” Sum whooped.

“Even if you do want to follow through with this inanity,” Plus paused to throw a disdainful look at her sister,  “I still don't see how you're going to do it permanently.”

“Eh, I'm sure I'll come up with something.” Sum grinned, “Oh, and by the way, I think you might be done there.”

Plus looked back down to where Minus once was, and who now squirmed helplessly in the shadow of her long skirt.

“Not yet.” Plus said, snatching up her brother and squeezing his toy sized body in her hand, moving him quickly from her palm to the space in between her index finger and thumb.  Minus cringed as the peaks and valleys of his sister's fingerprints spread up and over his diminishing body.

“Wow, that small, huh?  Doing something special with the runt?” Sum asked.

“You could say that.” Plus said, standing and walking towards her room, “Speaking of which, would you like to come on a small hike with me today?”

“Hm, I'd love a little romp in the mud, but I've got some work to do.” Sum said.

“Fair enough.” Plus pulled a pair of hiking boots from her closet and opened her fingers to reveal the insect sized body of her brother, “Now, let's see how serious you are about this, Minus.

With that damning note, Plus pressed her unwilling brother into one of the deep treads on her boot's ridged sole.  Minus, crammed tightly into the dirty crevice, watched helplessly as his sister's monumental fingertip receded, revealing her celestial face beyond the surrounding, rubber peaks.  She peered at his crumpled body briefly, before flipping over her shoe and sending his stomach reeling.  Light bled away from his eyes as the thick carpet came up to meet him, and disappeared completely with the added pressure of his sister's weight.

*

With thunderous clatter, Plus's boot fell to the floor.  Minus, still tightly wedged into the sole, could barely tell where he was or that the hike was even over, aside from the cessation of regular intervals of booming pressure.  His sister's unyielding steps in the damp terrain had driven mud up to and over his tiny frame, burying it in clumps of dirt and dead grass.  With his arms pinned into the confined space, Minus had no way of blocking his face from the rising tide of muck, and was lucky not to have drowned beneath Plus's unforgiving step.

“How was your hike?” Sum asked, turning away from the computer.

“Somewhat relaxing, I suppose.” Plus said, pulling off her other boot and grabbing the one which trapped Minus, “Right now, I'm more interested in seeing the results of this little experiment.  Meet me in the kitchen with a pen, if you could?”

“Sure thing, although I don't totally get what you're talking about, you know?” Sum said, snagging a pen from the desk and following Plus into the kitchen.

“Consider it Minus's way of really proving his intentions to me,” Plus said, holding her boot near the sink with one hand and reaching for Sum's pen with the other, “I sometimes think our brother is spineless enough to go along with anything.”

“Sometimes?  Of course the dork is spineless.  That's why it'll be so fun to turn him into a bug.” Sum grinned, handing over the pen.

With a swift, unstoppable force, the ballpoint tip suddenly intruded into the dark, moist cove Minus sat motionless in, upturning mud and sending him flipping into the cold sink.  He laid still for a moment, then lifted his cramping arms in an attempt to wipe his face.  Before he got the chance, however, Plus's nimble fingers descended upon his form, snatching up his body and quickly tearing off his clothes, before redepositing him in the stainless steel basin.  There, unsullied by the caked mud that surrounded it, stood Minus's fully erect penis.

“Wow.” Plus said incredulously.

“Um, duh, I told you about that.” Sum looked back and forth between her siblings.

“I saw too many confounding variables to totally trust your assessment,” Plus said, “But looking like this, after being crushed into the mud like a worm? I suppose that confirms it.”

“So, you're cool with it then?” Sum asked hopefully.

“I...need to think about it for a while.  Do whatever you want.” Plus shrugged and walked towards the stairs, leaving Minus and Sum alone in the kitchen.

“Well, may as well clean you off.” Sum flipped on the faucet and ran the water over her naked, struggling brother, before patting him off with a napkin, “I'm sure Plus will come around.  I don't know why she's so opposed to it, honestly.”

“Th-thanks...” Minus mumbled, exhausted from the entire ordeal.

“Oh, by the way...” Sum smirked and lifted her hand to her face, so that her lips suddenly filled the entirety of Minus's vision like twin, pink obelisks, “I figured out a way to do it.”

*

“I see.  Yes, I suppose this would work.” Plus said, looking intently at the laptop screen.

“Right?  It's perfect!” Sum smiled, before turning intently towards her sister, “But listen, I know you're, like, not one hundred percent with it yet. I don't want to do this if you're uncomfortable for whatever reason, you know?”

“Oh, Sum...” Plus turned and gave her sister a comforting look, “Thank you, for your concern.  I've been taking time to think about this...”

Minus stared up at his colossal sisters from his position on the tabletop.  It had been several days since his trip underneath Plus's boots, and he had barely seen her since.  Confined mostly to her room, she moved like a phantom on the rare occasions she surfaced, quickly and quietly stalking through the halls before returning to solitude.  Earlier that day however, Sum had coaxed her from her chambers to share her plans, after having shrunk Minus to a more palatable size, of course.

“I think that...I was a bit upset that Minus had been secretly enjoying our punishments.” Plus's finger slid across the table and found Minus's small form.  It poked him, knocking him over, and overtook his legs, trapping them underneath, “But more so, I think I was upset that I hadn't noticed it earlier.”

“Well, I didn't notice either, you know?” Sum said.

“True, but...” Plus pursed her lips and scrunched her finger harder over the minuscule body of her brother, “You're also...so open with your feelings, of the things you like.  I guess I'm a bit jealous sometimes.”

“Really?  Of me?  But you're so-” Sum started.

“Wait, let me finish.” Plus said, “I think I was so blind to it because I was, in some way, afraid to admit that...”

“That...?” Sum coaxed.

“That even though I always hid behind the guise of righteous indignation...I was afraid to admit that I  liked it too.” Plus said, at last.

“Plus!  Of course you like it!  It's fun to torture this little squirt.  That's nothing to be embarrassed about.” Sum said.

“I suppose.” Plus allowed, for a moment, a smile to play across her lips, “I think there's a lot attached to this for me, psychologically speaking.  But, I think I'm willing to work through that.  Sum, if this is what you want, I'm completely behind you.”

Minus stared blankly from beneath Plus's finger, frankly amazed at the sudden, open exchange.  As his sister's digit finally lifted from him, he wondered for a moment why no one was asking him his personal thoughts on the matter.

“Besides,” Plus added, “It's probably for the better, it's not like he can even do something simple, like laundry, correctly.”

“Plus, you're the absolute best!  C'mere!” Sum sang, pushing herself towards Plus, arms open for an embrace.  On the table, Sum's titanic chest suddenly swept over the surface in a shallow arc.  Minus was completely exposed, too beaten by an index finger to protect himself.  His sister's plump breast cleanly flattened him against the hard, lacquered ground.

“Th-thanks...” Plus said, somewhat uncomfortable with Sum's physical affection.

“Now, all we've gotta do is order it and we'll be all set.” Sum said, pulling away from Plus and uncovering Minus, “Oh, looks like someone else got in on that hug.”

“Ugh...” Minus peeled himself from the table and rolled his shoulders.

“Jeez, you're such a perv.  Aren't you even curious how we're going to do it?” Sum smirked.

Minus looked at his enormous sister and shrugged widely.

“Take a look!” Sum spun the laptop around and tilted the screen downward.

Looming over Minus was now the faintly glowing image of a full-body straightjacket.

“The constant pressure something like this provides should keep you shrunken permanently.” Plus said.

“You won't be able to move your arms and legs though, you know?  So you'll have to squirm around like a little worm.  Maybe you should start practicing.” Sum said, placing her index finger flat on the table, next to Minus, and using it to mimic the movements of an inchworm.

“Um...” Minus took a deep breath, not able to move his eyes from the foreboding image above him.

“It seems appropriate, doesn't it?” Plus leered down at Minus while closing the laptop, “Wrapped up like an asylum patient and crawling on your stomach.”

“Sh'yeah.  Wriggling all over the house, avoiding our big feet when we walk around.” Sum said.

“Hiding whenever we use the vacuum and eating whatever crumbs we leave behind.” Plus smirked.

“What if you get squished or sucked up?  Oh man, what if you get stuck to our feet and then get washed down the drain when we shower.  How embarrassing would that be?”  Sum laughed.

“Who knows, maybe you'll end up as a permanent fixture in my boot treads.” Plus said.

“Or swept up and thrown in the garbage.” Sum said.

“Or trapped in the carpet fibers and trampled for years.” Plus said.

“Omigosh, I can't wait, I'm ordering it now.” Sum squealed, grabbing the laptop.

Minus sighed deeply.

*

Minus scraped his tongue against his front teeth, trying to remove the taste of stale dirt.  He had just finished licking clean several pairs of shoes from Plus's closet, but did not know if Sum's collection would be next.  She sat cross-legged in front of the television, tapping away at an NES game, while Plus reclined on the couch, scribbling in a book of cross word puzzles.

“Five letter word for disappointment...” Plus mumbled.

“Um...” Sum mused, “Oh!  Minus!”

“Hm...” Plus chuckled, “Good try, but it ends with an 'N.'”

“Dang, thought I had that one.” Sum said.

Although he knew it was far from normal, Minus noted how comfortable an afternoon like this was, especially in comparison to what would eventually come.  However, before he could find himself too cozy, the sudden, cutting peal of the doorbell broke through the quiet.

“Mail call.”  Sum said, turning off her game and hopping over to the front hall.  She swung open the door and gasped, “It's here!  It's actually here!”

“Hm, faster shipping than I'd expected.  We'll have to give that site a good review.” Plus pulled herself up to a seated position.

“This is so exciting!” Sum dumped the rest of the mail on the floor and tore open the small cardboard box.  She quickly ripped through the internal plastic wrapping and unrolled the precise straightjacket Minus had seen on the laptop screen earlier that month.

“Oh...” Minus shifted uncomfortably.

“What do you say, nerd?  Ready to be a real bug?” Sum grinned, unlacing the sleeves of the jacket.

“Um...” Minus bit his lip.

“This is what you wanted, right?  You can't back out now.” Plus said, sternly.

“I'm...” Minus took a deep breath and felt the precarious future spread out before him.  In another breath, he stood and held out his arms, “I'm ready.”

“Good.” Sum began to tuck Minus's arms into the sleeves of the straightjacket, “Not that it matters, I was going to put you in anyway.”

“Anything you'd like to say before you're too small to hear?” Plus asked.

“Um...” Minus stammered, stepping into the pant legs which Sum was holding open for him.

“How about a 'thank you' for being such great sisters all this time?” Sum smirked, looping the belts around her brother's ankles and thighs.

“Th-thanks, I, uh, guess.” Minus said tentatively.

“And how about an 'I love you' for good measure?” Sum's smile widened as she wrapped the sleeves behind Minus's back and slipped their laces through the appropriate eyelets.

“L-love you guys...” Minus stuttered.

“You'd better.” Plus crossed her arms and smiled, satisfied.

“Welp, ready or not, here we go!” Sum shouted, grabbing the straightjacket's laces and pulling them tight, before quickly knotting and double-knotting them.  Minus felt the sudden pressure over his ribs and legs and couldn't help but fall forward helplessly.  He struggled for a moment in his restraints, unable to coordinate his movements.  The design on the carpet began to stretch and expand away from him as his body became smaller and smaller.  He managed to turn himself over and watched his sisters grow into towering, almost incomprehensible colossi for what might be the very last time.  His size dwindled further and further, the constant pressure of the jacket continuing a process most often carried out by his sisters' bodies.

In a manner of moments, Minus was smaller than ant sized and lost among the carpet fibers.

“Looks like that's it for him.” Sum shrugged, “Honestly, I think I'm going to miss the little runt.”

“Really?” Plus asked.

“Nope!  Let's go get changed, I want to get a burger.” Sum grinned.

“You're incorrigible.” Plus said jokingly.

Down below, Minus listened to the thundering footsteps of his sister's approach and then overtake him.  A rubber sole, no way to know whose, carelessly crashed down on his body, mashing its tiny form deeper into the rug.

“Hm, wonder if he just got stepped on?” Sum's voice disappeared into the distance, along with the rhythmic crashes of the sisters' footfalls.

Minus wriggled himself loose from a bundle of threads and looked up at the distant ceiling, considering the best course of action.  He knew that it was possible his capricious sisters would get bored in his absence and cut him free sometime soon, but there was no way to know for sure exactly what would happen.  For the foreseeable future, he really was nothing but an insect in the house of his cruel siblings.  Minus found this to be both absolutely terrifying and terrifyingly appropriate.

-The End-