A bright ray of sunlight shone on Corrine’s long light brown hair as she reached around for her buzzing alarm. As her fingers found her phone, a quick swipe stopped the cheery tones and a light groan escaped from her before she began to get ready for a new day. She didn’t hate school, but it somewhat failed to scratch her intellectual curiosity. She’d gotten a full ride scholarship for one of the best colleges in the nation when she was only 15, and now at age 19 she was preparing to finish her masters degree on its beautiful campus. Not that she needed a full ride, her father would have paid for her to go anywhere, and his influence was more than enough to get through even the toughest admissions process.

Corrine arrived at her first class for the day and already the lions were out. They probably thought they were lions anyway, to Corrine’s eyes they were just another group of decent looking guys without a single brain between them vying for her attention. It had been like this for as long as she could remember, men lining themselves up at her feet because of her looks. She couldn’t entirely blame them though, she often acted ditzy or brought herself down to their level to see the myriad ways they could embarrass themselves. If she ever did get a date, they always lost interest when she inevitably corrected them on some finer point of astrophysics or political economy. A perfect partner for her would worship her mind as well as her body.

As she flirted in the minutes before class began, she couldn’t help but feel she should be able to do something about this. It was unlikely she would ever meet a man as smart as her, but she wished she could at least weed out the guys who were only interested in her body. During the lecture, her mind wandered and a grin spread on her face when she realized what she could do.

When she got home for the night, she began a deep dive into her books on molecular biology and aromachology. Some hours later, she held up a beaker of her finished solution with pride: a perfume with some unique properties which would help her find a man who could actually satisfy her.

As she walked to class the next day, she could already tell her perfume was working. An ordinary person who smelled it would be met with a nice smell and nothing else. Anyone who had lustful thoughts for her and smelled it would be unable to think about anything else but her, the scent would cling to them and transform their minds and eventually their bodies. She sat down in her chemistry class and felt slightly more eyes on her than normal. She looked around for twitching noses and hastily broken eye contact that would give her a clue to who caught her scent. As she scanned, she saw a man sat near the door with dark hair rubbing his nose who seemed like a good candidate. His name was Danny if she remembered right. He was smart and did well on tests, but he didn’t speak up much in class and she couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen him with any friends. Though she was looking for someone a little more social, she had to know if her perfume was working as intended. Danny was the first one out of the room when class ended, his eyes briefly caught Corrine’s as he got out of his seat.

--------

Another day passed, it was now Wednesday and Corrine watched Danny closely during their shared class. Her scent was still with him, either that or he’d gotten sick, but the way he kept looking back at her she had a pretty good feeling it was the former. She purposely walked slowly out of the class when it was over, taking her time to read about events on the bulletin boards and waiting for the common area to clear out as the next class began. It wasn’t long after she sat down to eat her lunch that Danny walked straight into the common area from the hall and sat down next to her.

“Hey, uh, Corrine right? Danny”, he said, extending his hand, “we have that chemistry class together.”

“Yes? What’s up?”, she asked coyly.

“Do I know you from somewhere else?”

“I don’t think so. Maybe I just have one of those faces?”

“Okay,” he began, “this is going to sound weird, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for the last day.”

“You’re right, that is a weird thing to say to someone you don’t know.”

“Sorry, it’s just it’s a little concerning to me. I mean I know who you are, and you always just barely get better test scores than me… I guess I’m asking if you want to get coffee some time?”

She looked almost disappointed. A whole day had passed and this guy still wasn't showing any signs he was hers. A weird way to ask someone out, sure, but what of that could be attributed to her perfume? What made this guy different from the others that the scent had latched on to him?

“Sure, we can go now if you want,” she said, standing up.

“Oh that would be great, let me grab my t--”, an ice cold pulse ran down his spine mid thought. The scent wasn't there anymore. As suddenly as he'd caught it the other day, it was gone from his nose. He felt suddenly weak and dizzy, like a boy coming back to his childhood home and finding things out of place from how he remembered them.

Her hand found his, she looked concerned. “Are you okay? Maybe you should lie down.”

“Corrine, y-you’re growing.”

“Afraid not Danny, it’ll be a real breakthrough when I figure that one out.”

“Then I-I’m…”, he was growing weaker, and could no longer keep his eyes open.

--------

Danny awoke suddenly, wracking his brain for answers to where he was and how he got there. He was in the common room of the chemistry building at his school, but things were bigger. No, he’d shrunk, it was starting to come back to him. Just before he shrunk, he was with her, that girl who’d occupied his thoughts for the last day. Where was she now? He was so lost in thought he didn’t notice the sound of a flushing toilet and running water just before Corrine stepped out of the nearby bathroom.

“Ah, so you’re awake. That’s good, I wasn’t sure how long you’d be out.”

“Corrine you gotta help me, I shrank somehow, my clothes don’t fit, and I think I’m still getting smaller.”

Corrine had a puzzled look on her face. “Duh, I know you shrank. I shrank you. You’re about two feet tall by my estimate and you’re right, you are getting smaller. But it’s so slow I’m surprised you noticed it.”

“What do you mean you did this? People don’t just shrink.”

“No, they don’t. I put a lot of work into this I’ll have you know, it didn’t just happen on its own.”

“Why?”

“Let’s start with some more useful information maybe. You’re kind of a test run anyway so I wanna make sure everything’s working out. Smell the air, what do you smell?”

Danny thought she was crazy, but he didn’t have much of a choice but to do what she said, she might be his only chance of getting his size back. He turned his nose up and began sniffing like a dog, “I don’t smell anything.”

“That’s because this,” Corrine said as she pulled out a bottle of perfume, “is the cause of your current predicament. If everything is working right, there are two reasons you could be shrinking. The first is the smell, if you’re not smelling this perfume, you’ll slowly shrink until you’re about half an inch tall. The second reason is proximity, but since I’m here with you it’s definitely the scent. From now on, if you’re further than about 100 feet from me, you’ll start shrinking until you’re at the same target size.”

Her words had a finality to them that Danny couldn’t help but pick up on. “From now on? Do you mean I’m stuck like this?”

“No, not unless you’re with me all the time and I let you smell this stuff. You’ll get smaller if you don’t.”

Danny recoiled. How could she talk so bluntly about this, had she done this before? If what she was saying was true, he had to get that perfume. If he had a lab, maybe he could figure out what was in the stuff and how to cure himself.

As he was thinking, Corrine spritzed a little of the perfume on herself and walked over to Danny at the table.

“Let’s go back to my place, I’m sure this is still overwhelming for you, but as my test subject I really need to get us someplace a little more private.”

Before Danny could protest, Corrine picked him up with ease, cradling him like one would a toddler. It was late enough that she had no problem avoiding the few people still on campus as she made her way to her home in the woods.

--------

As they walked, Corrine was pleased that things were going according to plan. In her mind, the perfected perfume would only work on someone for up to a week, so she could find the right people and give them a week to prove themselves to her. If they acted creepy, she could easily shrink them by not wearing the perfume, and if they were the one, they could start going out normally after a week. The current perfume didn’t have this limitation, she was too eager to try it out and hadn’t bothered tuning the addiction. Anyone it caught was hers, and she suspected even now there were others out there she hadn’t noticed, shrinking down for her without yet realizing it.

Danny lay cradled in her arms as she walked without acknowledging him. The scent of her perfume was strong on his nose. Would he be smelling this for the rest of his life? She didn’t seem to care about his life very much, and he only imagined it would get worse if he did get as small as half an inch tall. It was hard to imagine a person that small, even at his current size he would be a giant in comparison. He thought about being cradled now, what an odd sight it would be for someone to see them now. By now, Corrine had taken a path into the woods by campus. She must come from money to afford a nice secluded place out here, far away from where he could find help.

Corrine closed the door behind her and set Danny down on the couch. She put some music on but otherwise wasted no time telling Danny what she wanted.

“Come here slave, your little tongue ought to be just enough to get me off. I hope so, for your sake.”

She lay on the carpeted floor, legs wide open and ready. Danny had never been with a woman before, he hoped he could satisfy her well enough to get her to back off. Despite all that happened already, he held on to a hope that she could return him to normal, if he just gave her what she was looking for. He walked up between her legs and licked, nuzzling between her thighs as his body fit completely between them. He felt her hands push and guide him further in, his body too weak to give much resistance. At the climax of the song, Corrine’s legs buckled and threatened to crush Danny between them. With the barest strength he resisted, and slowly her breathing relaxed and she motioned for him to lay down next to her.

She was surprisingly gentle with him, given what she’d done just before. She held him close, like a precious stuffed animal or a favorite pet. They lay there for what seemed like hours, just listening to the radio. Sometimes she would order him to go to the kitchen and bring her drinks, sometimes she would start to hold him tighter and within minutes he was back between her legs, but mostly they just lay together. It was late, and Corrine was ready to move to her bed.

“I know you think I’m cruel, but really you were just unlucky. An unfortunate accident on the path of scientific progress. I’m going to be blunt with you, I don’t know how to return your size to you. Shrinking is trivial, but once the matter is that small it’s hard to imagine how it could be returned. Either way, you’re a part of something much bigger than you now. If I get this stuff perfected, no woman will ever have to suffer a man who’s only concerned with his pleasure. It doesn’t just benefit women though, as a man think of all the women you’ve lusted over, when it had no chance of going anywhere. Imagine, once every woman has access to this, you men won’t have any choice except to be with a woman who’s perfect for you, or in the worst case scenario, you’ll be with a woman as her pet, one she lovingly coddles.”

Danny wondered if her ego could get any larger, but even he had to admit if anyone could make this a reality, it was Corrine. He was vaguely aware of how smart she was for years, always seeing her name come up at the top of advanced classes and eagerly reading her published research results. He always admired her, even if she had no idea who he was until today. Maybe that’s why the perfume chose him, because he only ever had respect for her. He supposed it was too late now for his disrespect to save him, she knew he hated her but she just didn’t care.

Corrine got ready for bed, finally slipping into bed late at night as she held onto Danny like they had been on the floor.

The next morning, Danny woke up in bed alone. Corrine must have left for class already, there was no sign of her anywhere as he looked around the spacious house. Was she really so confident he wouldn’t leave? He quickly came up with a plan and looked around for what he needed. If he could get the perfume, he could spray himself with some and at least slow down the shrinking he was already feeling from Corrine’s absence. If he could get to a lab on campus, or even just run into one of his professors and explain what happened, he could get help. He might even find someone who could reverse engineer the perfume and figure out how to get back to normal. His eyes caught it, her perfume bottle sitting on the tallest shelf in the living room. At the base of the shelf was a note in Corrine’s handwriting.

“You should be a little under 12 inches by the time I get back, but if you can get to this bottle up here you might be able to stay as tall as 18-20 inches before I get home. You’ll still be too big for me either way, my next batch will definitely have to speed up this part. But I know how much you want to hold on to your precious inches, so I left this as a challenge for you ;) By the way, the perfume I was wearing last night will probably wear off around noon. Hope you didn’t sleep in too much.”

He crumpled up the note. She was just too smug about all this, she couldn’t have just not realized he could escape. She wouldn’t just overlook something like that. He looked at the clock, it was already 11:30. If he had any chance of getting that bottle, he needed all his height. He looked around for something he could toss up to knock the bottle over, but came up empty handed. He was able to find a chair in the kitchen, and by dragging it over to the shelf and balancing on top of the back he couldn’t quite come up halfway. It was slow, but he could feel himself getting smaller too. Even if he left now, without the perfume it was unlikely anyone could help him. Who would believe him, or even believe their eyes when they saw him? The clock struck noon without him realizing how long he’d spent thinking about what to do. A minute later, the air cleared up around his nose and he smelled fresh air for the first time that day.

Shit, I gotta move now. Why do I feel so sluggish though…

Without her smell in his nose, he felt himself shrinking faster. If she got back as late as she did yesterday, he thought he’d be lucky to keep 12 inches. He could actually see the walls grow around him if he stared at one spot long enough. He looked back up at the perfume bottle, unimaginably out of reach before, he couldn’t believe how much further it looked from just a slight change in perspective. And then there was the headache, only minutes after her scent left him he felt powerless and disoriented, like the worst withdrawal symptoms hitting him all at once. He suddenly understood why Corrine didn’t appear to make any effort to stop him from leaving. She didn’t need to do anything, he’d barely been awake for an hour without her around and he was waiting for her to return like a dog with separation anxiety.

He sat around and waited for the hours to pass. The bottle continued to taunt him, he wouldn’t even try to leave but if he could just get a sniff and get rid of his headache, it would be enough for him. After hours of waiting around on the couch, he heard the door open.

Corrine walked in, setting her bag on the floor and taking a quick glance at Danny.

“Oh wow, you’re progressing nicely. You must be around 10 inches now.”

“I couldn’t reach your damn perfume, I’m sure that’s all according to your plan right?”

“Oh that? That bottle doesn’t even have the perfume, I brought it with me. That was just some water to give you something to do while I was gone.”

Danny looked disbelieving at her as she pulled out the true bottle. He might’ve had a chance to get out if he hadn’t tried so long to get the fake perfume, he silently beat himself up for not acting sooner.

“Come here,” she said, spraying herself, “I know you’ve been waiting for this. And don’t worry about your size, you’ll be the right size eventually no matter what.”

He kicked himself for needing her, but she was right, he’d sat around waiting to smell her and be with her all day.

“I got you a little surprise today, let’s call it a vision of an alternative life.”

As he sat at her feet breathing in her scent, she reached into her nearby bag and pulled out a smaller box. Holding the box up to his face, she opened it up to reveal three men, each a half inch tall.

“I found these guys on my way to class today, they must have smelled the perfume the first day I wore it. Some guys just can’t keep their thoughts to themselves I guess!”

She picked one of them up between her thumb and pointer finger.

“I need a bunch of test subjects to perfect this stuff, but this is going to be my way of showing you how much you mean to me, you’ve been such a good participant so far and I want you to realize how important your work is to me. This is what I’ll do to guys who don’t provide very much good data for me.”

She wordlessly lifted the man above her mouth and quickly grabbed him with her agile tongue, pulling him into her mouth before swishing him around and swallowing him whole.

“Hmm, interesting taste. I wonder if there’s a difference in taste at different sizes, certainly there’s a difference in texture anyway.”

Danny was shocked beyond words. She just ate a man in front of him and her mind was already trying to figure out how to make him taste better. It was like she had no room in her mind for empathy, filled as it was with scientific knowledge and morbid curiosity. He hadn’t noticed, but now he heard the sound of the two remaining men screaming, about to jump out of the box and take their chances elsewhere.

“Not so fast! Danny, help me out here.”

Just as fast as her tongue had sealed the fate of one man, her bare feet moved to seal the fate of two more. Without a second thought, she carefully stepped on them, making sure to trip them and only break their legs. The two men were caught, an impossible mountain of flesh weighing down on them.

“What do you mean help? What do I do?”

“Danny I want you to pick, because I only need one guy at this size to see what the psychological effects of being half an inch tall are. I’m stepping pretty lightly now, pick whichever one you want and I’ll lean on the other one to get this going.”

“You’re asking me to kill someone… Corrine I can’t.”

“Unless you want me to test your psychology, you’re going to have to. But you’re already kinda broken anyway. Of course, I could always kill both of them and try to find another guy, it might take a couple days though since I don’t know who’s out there.”

Danny’s mind raced. She really didn’t care about who these people were. Because they had just one lustful thought for her while she was wearing her damned perfume, she had decided their fates for them. She was less human and more a goddess of judgement, a particularly uncaring one with impossibly high standards.

“Okay, suit yourself.”

Corrine’s weight shifted to her right foot, popping the man underneath like a grape. Holding up her other foot where the one remaining man was stuck to her foot, she peeled him off and went off to find a jar to keep him in. Danny just lay there, defeated. He blearily saw Corrine in the kitchen, dropping the man carelessly into the jar. Nothing else mattered in his mind now, he had to leave.

Corrine stepped back into the living room and called for Danny. Looking around, he was nowhere to be found. She idly wondered where he’d gone, but returned her attention to the man in the jar for the time being. She was sure he wouldn’t run away, he wouldn’t get out of her proximity as long as he wanted to keep some height, and the scent would leave him by tomorrow and he would have to come back then.

Later that night, Corrine slept peacefully while her latest captive clawed at the side of his jar without much purpose. Danny had hidden under the couch earlier, only daring to come out when he knew the goddess was asleep. He was still around 10 inches tall, but he could just barely squeeze underneath the front door and get outside.

He turned around for one last view of the house and started running. However, he underestimated how cold it would be at his tiny size. It wouldn’t have been a problem to leave during the day, but with the way Corrine was acting he wasn’t sure if he would be safe for another morning. He was able to run for a while, but he felt himself leave Corrine’s proximity as he moved through the grass. He could feel himself shrinking again, his energy draining. As he shrank, he got colder too. Before long, a simple breeze was able to knock him down, he felt a rumbling in his stomach as he realized he hadn’t eaten a good meal since he shrank. Had he eaten anything at all? He honestly couldn’t remember.Eventually, he couldn’t fight the elements anymore and passed out.

The next morning, Corrine went out to tend to her garden. With just a little searching, she found what she was looking for as she spotted Danny’s tiny body, now it’s final half inch size. She carefully placed her big and second toe around his body, letting her body heat and the daylight warm him up. She gently nudged him with her big toe until he slowly opened his eyes and looked up at her. She crouched down and held out her hand for Danny to climb on, which he did without resistance. Holding him up she spoke softly to him,

“I realized something last night, when you guys get this small. Food and sleep are just means to an end, they’re there to recover the body right? Well with a small adjustment to my formula, I can produce those ends in people. Essentially, at your size, my scent is enough to keep you going all on its own. It’s a good thing I realized it in time, that guy in the jar would’ve died if I hadn’t made the adjustment. Come inside with me, I’m just about ready to start testing the final version.”

Danny weakly nodded his head. Already he was getting some of his strength back from being around her, he knew what she said was true. He could never leave, and even if she did find a way to grow him back, she had already made it clear she wanted him at this size. He would be forced to live for his goddess’ whims, unable to take a break even for sleep as her mere presence provided all the energy he would ever need. While she would capture many more test subjects before she got the final version of her perfume ready for mass production, none of them stayed around as long as Danny, who stayed tiny by her side from that day for another 20 years, when she accidentally knocked him over into her salad and ate him without noticing.