Once my cup was full, I looked up and saw the woman in the witch costume who had been stirring the cauldron practically standing on top of me. Ordinarily she would be a little too close for comfort, but something about her was disarming. I had not noticed earlier due to the hat, but she had soft, delicate features that were easy to look at and only helped by her crooked smirk. With how inviting she was I didn’t even mind that I only came up to her chin and was looking up at her rather a bit. Olga had invited me, and I was not going to be a rude guest to her friend.
“Now don’t you just look smashing,” she said, rubbing a hand on my shoulder. Her voice was soft and playful, like someone who was used to talking their way through things. Like everything else about her, far from unpleasant. “I can tell you drank your milk, so your bones must be very strong if they’re not that long.” Even though I was dressed as a skeleton it was a weird line, but still endearing coming from her.
“I’m Jackie,” she continued, giving me a gentle tug toward her. “Or, if you prefer, Archmage Jacquelyn of the Tenth Circle.” Her hand slid down to the small of my back, urging me to walk with her as if I needed any more encouragement. A little on the nerdy side, sure, but the pink hair worked for me as much as it did her. She took a drink and I matched her, taking in a little more to show off my prowess.
We stopped next to the stereo hub, or rather, the device broadcasting a Spotify playlist to the speakers. Jackie leaned a shoulder against the wall and crossed one ankle over the other, just touching the toe of her shoe to the carpet. She cocked her head, making her straight hair bounced beneath the hat, and circled a finger along the rim of her cup. “So, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself, little guy?”
It was very unusual for a woman interested in me to make my height such a frequent topic, but she seemed oddly genuine about it. I told her my name and what I majored in, and she had a surprising amount of follow-up questions. “For someone so well-informed about chemistry I’d think you at least have a minor in it, why have I never seen you around the building? Figure I’d remember a pretty face like yours.”
“Oh, stop!” she replied, playfully slapping my arm. She leaned in a bit closer and explained, “I’m actually an English major with a focus on creative writing, I just make Olga think I don’t understand anything and she can’t stop herself from going on a long rant explaining it to me, isn’t that funny?”
“Yeah, I guess it is!” I answered. She was more mischievous than I’d initially taken her for, too. We spent a bit going back and forth, taking drinks while the other spoke. In a surprisingly short amount of time I began to feel an inner warmth and some light-headedness, which did not take long to progress to full-on inebriation. I could scarcely keep up with her, though I did my best to stay in the conversation.
“Excuse me a sec, I’ve got to do a thing,” Jackie said, gently pulling me away from the wall with her fingers. I thought I had fucked up and killed her interest in me, but she hadn’t even made it past when she stopped and turned to face me, though she was looking over my head. She threw her arms wide and her eyes flashed a brilliant gold, then a series of booming, illegible syllables emanated from her mouth, and a blinding blue light filled the room. It was so sudden and aggressive that I had no idea what to do, it was like my brain had briefly short-circuited.
When I could see and hear again, Jackie was nowhere to be seen. I guess I had driven her away. All that was left in front of me was a long, steeply sloped wall capped by a low, rounded black peak. It kind of looked like a shoe, when I thought about it, one of the shoes Jackie had been wearing. Unable to resist I looked up, and beyond the cap an enormous ivory tower rose toward the sky, draped in glistening black fabric. My gaze sped along the great black cliff face, interrupted here and there by the odd patch of brass or rope, until it encountered ivory again. A familiar crooked smirk greeted me, and my eyes were met by a pair of much larger turquoise ones. Either Jackie had found a way to make herself enormous, or I was tiny now. Regardless, our dynamic had just undergone a serious change.
She slowly waved at me, making sure I could follow the arc of fingers several times my size. “Hey down there, little guy,” Jackie boomed. Her voice was no longer soft and gentle. Now it was low, loud, and rumbling, almost unintelligible at first. “Bet you thought the witch get-up was just a costume, right? Wrong, as you can clearly see now.” I wanted to shout something back up at her, but my mind was still reeling from the first sight of her towering over me. My brain was working overtime to figure out what had really happened, but always ended at the conclusion that, somehow, she had shrunk me.
“Sad to say, but your height isn’t coming back,” Jackie elaborated. “You’re going to be like that for the rest of your life, however long that is. But I have a proposal for you, if you’re willing to listen.” What else was I going to do from practically beneath her shoe? “If you can answer three riddles right, I’ll take you on as my familiar, and we’ll get to share a very special bond.”
It sounded good, but there had to be more she wasn’t saying. “What if I get one wrong?” I asked, finally finding my voice.
She took a half-step forward so the sole of her titanic shoe loomed over me, almost touching my head. “Don’t.” I guess that settled it. My thoughts were still scrambled by the sudden change, and I was never particularly good at riddles to begin with. It seemed my life depended on them now, so I had better shape up.
The air rumbled when she cleared her throat, and I braced for the worst. “First one: I’m always eating, but never fill. Some fear me, some crave me, but in the end they all become my friend, though my greatest friend of all is time. What am I?”
This one wasn’t so hard. “Death,” I answered with surprising confidence. Jackie’s sole raised and I braced for impact, but she slightly rotated it on her heel. The shoe came down slowly and laid flat to my left, pressing hard against the carpet. She lifted her heel, grinding her foot back and forth, before setting it back down. When she was done her sole returned to its position leaning over my head where I could see every fine detail of wear and tear in the rubber.
“Your answer satisfies. Second one: I’m always running, but never tire. Though I have a bed and mouth I neither sleep nor eat. Cities and farmers alike adore me, though I bring them destruction. What am I?”
That one was a bit tougher, but hardly unsolvable. My first impulse was that she was talking about herself, but the last bit threw me off. “A river,” I replied tentatively. Again the sole raised, but this time it turned the other way. Jackie slapped it against the ground with a crash that made my teeth chatter and leaned her weight on it, making the floor creak under the pressure. It flipped back up, leaving an imprint in its wake, to return to its spot above me.
“Good enough,” Jackie boomed. “Third one: what can change the nature of a man?”
Shit, I had no idea. There were a lot of things, and the most obvious one had already been an answer. Was she going for something more esoteric and philosophical, or concrete like the last one? Maybe something directly related to what’s going on now? Her foot twitched impatiently, and I knew I had to say something. “Getting shrunk?” I guessed. It could have been literally anything, and that was what I figured she was going for.
Jackie’s foot jerked upward just far enough that I could see her eyes over the toe of her shoe. “Sorry, but no,” she declared, and her sole raced toward me. In an instant it had filled my view again, and there was no time to react before it crashed into me. Her foot bowled me over, pinning me in the soft carpet, while she leaned forward. Gradually the pressure on me increased, making me feel even more constricted, until breathing became impossible. I felt my bones being pushed inward, straining futilely to stay together.
Her weight suddenly surged and the shoe shifted, pressing down harder. Pain flooded through me, accompanied by the sound of all of my bones simultaneously giving way under her. There was no time to even scream before I was squashed entirely, no different than if I were a bug who had snuck into her room, and left nothing more than a small red stain and pool of unidentifiable viscera.
Jackie raised her heel as far as it could go, really letting herself dig press down with her toes. She ground her foot back and forth over her victim, mashing his tiny remains even more. When she was done she lifted her foot again, stomping on the small puddle and grinding her shoe on it. Finally, she was satisfied, and brought her foot back down to rest. With a grin she turned to the one in front of her other shoe, knowing he must be terrified, but that would have to wait until later. For now, though, she felt amazing, and let the tingling sensation from smashing someone suffuse through her body.