Gina tapped her tiny foot on the plastic mat beneath her chair, watching Akane impatiently. She despised her, from the titanic brown loafers that dwarfed her all the way to her top of her long, straight black hair. Making her one of the privileged tinies had been a near-fatal mistake, but over the past few months she began to wish Akane had just smashed her when she had the chance. The life of a shrunken woman did not suit her in the least, and worse, Akane was squandering her opportunity! Across the room was a terrarium full of tiny people, and instead of lording her size over them she was sitting at a desk writing in her journal. Worst of all, every day she grew one of them back, undoing all the hard work Gina and her friends had done, and at this rate the tank would be empty in a month.
Fortunately, Gina had a plan to end this madness and retake her rightful place as a goddess dealing out swift and final justice to these tiny people. For the past three weeks she had been granted an hour of freedom each day to walk around her room. It was far less than she wanted, and Akane was sure to keep a vigilant eye on her while she was out, but more than she had hoped for. All she needed was one minute unattended.
Today was the day Gina would get that. It was more than a feeling brought on by strong desire, but confidence in a plan coming to fruition. As an unjustly shrunken woman, there was little else for her to do except watch, listen, observe, and plot. Every week, on this day and around this time, someone knocked on the door. Maybe they were salespeople, maybe missionaries, but it was all the same to her. Akane was almost sickeningly polite and she would patiently listen to their spiel – provided, of course, the visitors could get over the sight of an eleven-foot Japanese woman filling the doorway in front of them.
Almost on cue, a loud knock came from downstairs. Akane’s seat squealed when she turned it, and Gina ducked under the sole of a loafer drifting toward her. It landed with a thud, generating enough force to send Gina stumbling for balance. When she steadied herself, she looked up the enormous twin black towers of Akane’s sock-covered shins and calves, only to be met by a pair of black eyes gazing back at her.
“Better get you back on the table,” Akane boomed, leaning toward Gina. Her hand was already past her knees and quickly advancing on the tiny woman, fingers primed to pinch her off the ground. As the massive limb drew closer, Gina imagined this was how all of her shrunken victims had seen her. This was so unfair: it should be her inspiring fear like this!
“I still have twenty more minutes!” Gina protested, steadily backing away from Akane. It would not make a big difference, but a few extra inches between them might be what secures her return to power.
“You’ll get them back later, I promise,” Akane said. “For now though, I need you in my hand so I can get you off the floor.” She was simply too nice to be a giantess. If their roles were switched, Gina would have just swiped a hand at her to snatch her off the floor. It might end with Akane smeared across her palm, but every tiny was replaceable.
“Come on, you’ll only be gone a few minutes!” Gina protested, weaving left and right while she backed away. Anything that could delay the inevitable grab was worth trying. “What could I possibly get up to in that time?” She had passed the tips of Akane’s tremendous shoes. Farther than where she wanted to be, but hardly enough to ruin her scheme. Not nearly as bad as getting caught, at least.
Right when Akane was about to lunge the knocking came again, louder and much more urgent, like they were pounding on the door. There was a moment of hesitation while she tried to decide what to do, her hand inching forward and back in indecision. Finally, her arm went slack and she let out a sigh, blowing strands of hair out of her face. “Fine!” she exclaimed, pointing sharply at Gina. “But you better not move a muscle while I’m gone or you’re losing floor privileges.”
Akane stretched back to her monumental height and strode to the door, closing the distance in two steps. Gina watched her leave, envious of the great size that would soon be hers, and waited to hear the first massive footfall on the stairs. At that thud she took off, sprinting toward the folding table beside her closet. When she heard the front door open she was just leaving the broad plastic platform for the carpet’s rough terrain, leaping over clumps of fibers so they wouldn’t slow her down.
She arrived at the table’s base, directly below a heavily modified model house. “Roni!” Gina shouted up, hoping her voice could carry over the distance. “Veronica, you bitch, get to where you can see me! We don’t have a lot of time!” The one uncertainty in her plan was being able to get Roni’s attention. They had been unable to coordinate due to Akane’s oppressive presence, and for all Gina knew she was asleep right now. Roni may have even been driven half-mad from months of isolation or come to hate Gina all over again for her situation.
Muffled voices floated up the stairs. Akane was doing her best to politely excuse herself, but these visitors were persistent. “Roni, come on!” Gina pleaded. “Come to the edge or the window or something! We can be goddesses again and put Akane in her place, but it has to be now!” She was getting nervous. Though she was a trusting fool Akane was not an idiot, and this would be their only chance.
A dot of platinum blond hair appeared in the window above, and Gina almost shouted for joy. Not only had Roni heard her, but they had line of sight, too! She began jumping up and down, waving her arms wildly to make herself visible. “Roni, grow me!” she commanded the woman high above. “Make me huge, bigger than Akane so that I can easily cut her down to size! Once she’s dealt with I’ll make you big too and we can lay down the law here again!”
The two stared at each other over the great distance, with Gina impatiently waiting for the room to get smaller. It wouldn’t take much, and she knew Roni was capable of it: she’d taught her herself, and she had amazing potential. It was a simple quid pro quo, and if Roni could hear her shouting for attention, she could hear the deal. A bolt of doubt hit Gina. What if she could help, but simply wouldn’t? Had Roni developed Stockholm syndrome? Did Akane manage to turn her, and now she was a rat?
A shudder ran through the house when the front door closed, and the first footfall from the stairs echoed off the walls. “Roni, please!” Gina begged, her voice cracking. The possibility of this not working had never occurred to her, but if it didn’t she would be the size of a bug for the rest of her life. “We can be big and free again, but I need your help first!” Another powerful footfall resounded from the stairs. Akane was tall enough to take them four or five at a time if she wanted, and she was in a hurry. Three or four more steps and that would be the end.
“I love watching tinies sweat, even when they’re my best friend,” came a tiny, high-pitched voice from above. Of course, Roni was just fucking with her! Gina wished she could see her shit-eating grin right now, but over this distance they were lucky to spot each other at all. “Hold on a sec queen, I’ll get you where you should be.” Two more tremulous footfalls from the stairs. Roni had a flair for the dramatic, but there was a time for that and a time for action.
The room, so large and cavernous to her, began to constrict around Gina. Everything rapidly became smaller, and in no time at all she was looking right at Roni through the window. It was only a quick flash, however, as Gina continued her explosive growth. Before the next footfall her head banged into the ceiling, and Gina had to crouch to keep from bursting through it. Even in a crouch she grew to fill the room, unable to even look up without putting a dent the shape of her head in the surface above.
Akane’s straight black hair concealed her face as she stooped beneath the doorway to enter the room. She looked so small to Gina now, almost like a child, rather than a behemoth whose very existence threatened her life. The floor creaked beneath Gina’s knees and feet. The room might have been expanded to account for her incredible size, but no one had ever thought to reinforce the floors. Though she would never say she was too tall, Gina had to consider that, perhaps, she had outgrown her room.
When she finally laid eyes on Gina again Akane gasped. A particularly useless reaction, Gina thought while she stood there stunned. Whether it was surprise, shock, or mere indecision, all she could do was look at her with wide eyes. Gina seized the initiative, taking advantage of her new, enormous size, and grabbed one of Akane’s legs. Her hand nearly ran from Akane’s ankle to her knee, and with a single, quick tug she was on her back. Reveling in her newfound power, Gina dragged her former oppressor toward her, keeping her leg elevated so she had no chance to recover.
Ordinarily, Gina would have taunted her prey to drive home her dominance, but she could see from Akane’s face that it was apparent already. She smiled wide, watching the failed giantess shrink in her grasp. Vengeance felt good, even better than the normal joy of tormenting people smaller than her. Vengeance for hours of sanctimonious bullshit while she was held captive, for releasing the worshippers she had fairly acquired through force, for thinking she was better than her, for keeping her prisoner. Watching Akane become physically insignificant filled what was left of Gina’s heart with warmth.
The increasingly smaller woman reached the point where only her shoulders touched the floor, and suddenly Gina stopped shrinking her. Maybe her insufferable lessons about mercy and forgiveness had gotten through her head, or she was simply thankful for not being smashed immediately so she could exact her revenge. Regardless, Akane was small enough for her now. She would no longer pose a threat, and Gina had thoroughly established her control.
Casually Gina tossed her away and smiled at the thud her body made when it hit the floor. She was not sure how big either of them were now, but she would be shocked if Akane even came up to her knees. Though she could not bring herself to fully shrink her, this might end up being even more satisfying. Akane would be her servant until she got bored of her, and when that happened there was no chance that she’d just go free.
“Hi there, Akane,” she boomed. Her voice sounded unusually powerful, even to herself, and she knew she could use it to great effect. “Before you get up, let’s establish some ground rules.” She had missed being in control so much it was like missing an arm, and once she had it back it went right to her head. “First of all, you’re mine now. End of story. If you leave this room for more than five minutes you better have a damn good explanation, and if you walk out the front door at all you’re fucked. Got it?” Akane hurriedly nodded her head, not knowing what Gina would do if she refused. “Second, if I catch you so much as talking to those tinies, let alone growing them back, you’ll rejoin them right after.” That was so clear Gina didn’t even need a response. “Third, and this ties back with the first, but whatever I say is law. I’m a goddess, after all, so if I tell you to do something, you do it, and you ask me if you have even the slightest doubt.” It felt so good to be in charge again.
Akane agreed to her terms, but what choice did she have? If she refused a single one, Gina could bring the fury of an enraged goddess down upon her as a best-case scenario. That much she had expected since Akane was weak and passive to a fault, even when she was enormous. The mere idea of conflict where she’d have to struggle was enough to get her to fall into line, and Gina exploited that perfectly. From now on, the threat of being crushed without a second thought should be enough to keep her in line.
“Hey! What about me?” A tiny voice, barely more than a squeak, reached Gina’s ears, and she turned to the table she had nearly knocked over during her tremendous growth. A small dot of platinum hair still stuck out against the window as Roni practically begged for her attention.
Gina easily punched through the roof of her makeshift house, then probed the floor until she found something warm. Her finger pressed the tiny, warm body against the wall, then her thumb came in to secure it. Roni was unbelievably puny in her grasp, almost negligible, and when she brought her up to her face she was little more than a speck against her skin. Nevertheless, she had promised to help her, and she would never make such a kindred spirit feel inadequate.
“Veronica, you fucking goddess, I’d never forget about you!” Gina proclaimed. Her voice might have hurt the temporarily embarrassed giantess, but she was too excited to care. “Give me a sec and I’ll get you off my fingers and back to towering over the unworthy.” As much as she wanted to take all the power for herself, Gina recognized that she had made a promise to Roni, and she intended to honor it. Besides, being a power-crazed deity was so much more fun when you had a partner in crime.
Gina carefully lowered her hand to the ground, then brushed Roni off with her thumbnail. She kept her eyes on the tiny dot as it bounced over the carpet, concerned that if she looked away she may never find her again. With a grin Gina increased the miniscule woman’s size, gleefully watching her expand from nothing. When she stopped Roni was hunched over as well, struggling to fit inside the room as the floor groaned beneath her weight. Though she was not as enormous as Gina, she was definitely larger than Akane, and that was all that mattered. Hell, they were both over ten feet tall, so if they wanted to blow their cover they could go on record as the tallest humans ever.
For now though, they were both crouched in Gina’s room hoping the floor didn’t give way beneath them. They had attained sizes previously unimaginable for people, and struggled to fit into a world designed for those smaller than them – even though it had already been modified for them before. “Let’s take this outside, shall we?” Gina said, considering their situation. “Once we figure out how to get there.”