Vanessa opened the door to our apartment and practically dragged me after her by the crook of my elbow.  She was giddy, and I stumbled over my feet trying to keep up with her.  For the entire ride over she had been giving me sly looks and giggling, like the only thing keeping her from jumping my bones right then and there was the driver.  After the romantic dinner she had taken me to, I imagined she planned something big for the bedroom too.

A year or so ago, I did not think I would ever be lucky enough to be with a woman like Vanessa.  She was a little taller than me and slim, with straight black hair down to her shoulder blades and eyes the color of coal.  Her face was round down to her pointed chin with a mole just on the outside of her left eye, with another on the opposite side of her plump lips.  A narrow, aquiline nose fit her face perfectly, and her pale skin was an excellent contrast with her other features.  For tonight’s occasion she wore a red dress with a plunging neckline and a slit up to her waist, with a pair of black pumps giving her a boost she did not need.

We stopped in the middle of the living room, and she turned to face me.  Vanessa ran a hand down my spine, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, then gripped the small of my back and held me close.  She ran her other hand through my hair to get me to look up, then rested her arm on my shoulder.  After staring down at me a moment she leaned in and pressed her lips against mine, and I pushed back.  For a while we held each other tight while we made out, enjoying the gentle pressure on each other’s lips.

Our lips parted with a smack, and I tried to gently push Vanessa toward the bedroom.  She stood her ground, however, and the light touch of her fingers on my arm convinced me to stop.  I looked up at her to try and figure out what was going on and was met with an enigmatic smirk. 

“I’ve got one more surprise for you,” she said, her dusky voice soothing my ears.  “You want it, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I want it,” I answered, hoping my voice sounded half as seductive as hers.

“I knew you would,” she replied, and reached two fingers deep into her cleavage.  Vanessa withdrew a slender metal rod about four inches long and dangled it over my head.  “Do you know what this is?”

I carefully considered the object.  It was too short and slender to be a sex toy, and the blinking red dot at the base would be out of place on one.  “Can’t say I do,” I said.  “Why don’t you show me how it works?”

“I think I can give you a demonstration.”  Vanessa flipped it so it rested against her palms, then closed her fingers around it.  She pressed it against my chest, and with a flick of her thumb the red light turned green.  “Things are about to start looking up for you,” she remarked, then squeezed the cylinder.

Electricity discharged into my chest from it, but her firm hand on my back kept me from recoiling.  Vanessa began to grow, and in no time I was down at her waist.  She continued exploding in size, and by the time I reached her knees I realized that, since she had not burst through the ceiling, I was shrinking.  I continued to dwindle, and in a flash I was past her ankles.  When I finally stopped, I was shorter than the toe of her shoe.

I looked up at Vanessa towering over me for an explanation, and she seemed elated.  “Surprise!” she exclaimed.  Her voice was a tremendous rumble to me now, each word like rolling thunder.  “It’s my big birthday gift to you!  Ironic that it’s your big gift, right?”

In a mere moment, my perspective had changed entirely.  The heels that had given Vanessa a moderate boost earlier were now three times my height, and her shoes were several times the size of my car.  Her legs were tremendous columns supporting an enormous structure, with bright red fabric woven tightly around them.  She had one hand on a hip while the other brandished the wand she had used to shrink me, its flashing light dark.  As she looked down at me, Vanessa seemed very satisfied with herself.

“Vanessa,” I began, shouting so she could hear me, “did you just shrink me?”  The ability to make people and things smaller had been announced only a few months before, and I guessed it made sense that they had quickly miniaturized the technology enough to make it hand-held.

“Yeah, obviously!”  Vanessa’s booming voice brimmed with enthusiasm as she spoke.  “I thought that, since you keep calling me one, it’d be fun to show you what it’d be like if I actually were a giantess!”

“I was just kidding around with that, I don’t want to be small!” I protested.  “Is this what you were so excited about?  I thought you wanted to do something fun in bed!”

“Well, I’m not joking,” Vanessa replied, “and you should have been more clear if you were.”  She began tapping her foot, making the floor shake each time her toes landed.  She giggled, and it sounded like thunder rolling from the sky.  “Besides, we can still have fun.  I think you being this size will make it even more of an adventure.”

“Then I guess I’m not as adventurous as you,” I said.  “Could you please just grow me back so we can get back to my birthday?”

“Sorry little guy, can’t do it.”  Vanessa’s tone was far from apologetic.  “These things only go one way.  I don’t think it’ll be any help to you.”   She set it on the table and looked back to me, her eyes glimmering with the eagerness of a predator.

“Then go get one that can grow me back.”

Vanessa sighed.  “Okay, fine.  If you really hate being small, I’ll go get something to make you big again first thing in the morning.”

“I’d really like you to do it now,” I insisted.  “Being this small makes me uncomfortable.”

“Are you sure I can’t change your mind?”  She raised a foot and brought it toward me, and the ground trembled when her heel struck it.  Her foot swung back and forth using the heel as a pivot.  Each time it passed over me it briefly paused and feinted toward me before continuing.  The flat, gray sole of her behemoth shoe coming toward me made me flinch out of fear of getting crushed.  “Who knows, you might end up liking it after a while.”

“If this is your idea of having fun with me, I doubt it.”  Her shoe still loomed overhead, a single lapse in thought from smashing me.  “And could you move your foot?  This feels really unsafe.”

Vanessa pulled her foot away, practically stomping it on the floor.  I staggered from the force of its shockwave, and she groaned.  “Fine, I’ll give the store’s hotline a call and have them run one over.” 

“Why don’t you just head down there real quick?” I asked.

“They’d be closed by the time I got there.  Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave you alone,” she answered sarcastically.  “That wouldn’t be very safe, now would it?”  Vanessa sounded annoyed, as though she were the one who had something forced on her.  In all honesty, if this were her birthday, or she had discussed it with me before, I might be willing to give it a shot.  As it was, though, it was a lot to have thrust on me at once.

Vanessa made her frustration obvious while she went to grab her phone.  When she stepped over me she watched me carefully, and positioned her shoe so it would come down around me.  Her heel landed right in front of me, and I flinched from the loud bang that erupted from it and started stumbling away.  Her toes hit soon after and with much more power, and the resulting tremors made me fall on my back.  Before she stepped away, I got a nice, long look at the temporary black ceiling with a golden 9 painted on it.

The quakes from her feet pounding against the floor got weaker the further away she went, and I was able to stand back up.  Vanessa reached into her purse and grabbed her phone, then started looking up the hotline’s information.  Her long, statuesque body looked majestic going through even the simplest of motions.  I got a kick out of watching her from the floor, but then again, I liked watching her in any context.

The call went through and Vanessa held the phone up to her ear.  “Yes, hello?” she said.  Though she was nice to look at, I could not get used to her voice.  It sounded unnaturally loud and terrifying, more like a primal roar from the simplest of words.  “I’d like to make an order for immediate delivery.  Yes, I’ll hold.”  Irritating easy listening music blared from the phone’s speaker, and she idly shifted her weight from foot to foot while waiting.

After several minutes the music stopped, and Vanessa began again.  “Yes, I’d like to make an order for immediate delivery.  Yes, as soon as possible.  A shrink reversal device.  What do you mean you don’t know?  Well, go look!”  She swung her right leg in a wide ark and crossed it over her left at the ankles, making a loud bang when her toes hit the floor.  “Yes, I’ll hold again,” she said after a sigh, then lowered the microphone from her mouth.  “Fucking incompetents.”

The music resumed playing from her phone, and she began to pace impatiently.  Her heels clicked on the wood, followed by the booms of her toes slamming down with each step.  She seemed more irritated by the hassle they were putting her through than my demands to be returned to my original size, so at least her head was in the right place.  Hopefully, she would feel apologetic for forcing this on me and we could work through it.

Vanessa reached the couch at the far end of the room and turned around.  She started walking back toward me, swinging her feet wide with every stride.  After a few steps the tremors returned, just strong enough to feel but getting stronger as she approached.  I kept a careful watch on her feet in case they got too close.  If I thought I was in danger, I would need to get her attention fast.

The music stopped again, and Vanessa kept pacing while she talked.  “You found one?  Good.  How much?”  Her shoes slapped together, and she exclaimed, “That’s even more than the shrinking one!  You know what?  Fine.”  She started pacing toward me again and was getting close enough now that each step made my insides jiggle.  “You’ve got me over a barrel.  You should have my credit card on file from last week.  Vanessa Hendricks.  You found it?  Good.”  The closer she got, the longer I realized her strides were.  Just two or three more steps and she would be on top of me.

“Vanessa, watch where you’re going!” I shouted up to her.  “I’m right in your path!”  Unfortunately, right when I said it she started telling them our address, completely drowning out my voice.  I figured she did not hear me, and I began running to the side.

“Okay.  All right.  Good.”  Another step, close enough to make my steps unsteady when the force of its impact hit me.  “Yeah.  See you in an hour.  Bye.”  Her heel set down, much too close for comfort, and the tremor knocked me off my feet.  I rolled onto my back and saw the flat gray sole bearing down on me.  It was directly overhead and coming down much too fast for me to get out of the way.  My only chance would be one last, desperate ploy to get her attention.

“Vanessa, stop!” I cried out, but her foot kept descending.  “No!”  It was too late, and I raised my arms as a futile means to protect myself.  Her shoe hit me and my arms immediately shattered, not slowing it in the slightest.  The pain was brief, since every other bone in my body was ground to dust the instant her shoe slapped against me.  I did not even have time to register the agony of my body flattening before I was crushed into an unrecognizable red smear.

Vanessa ended the call, then heard a soft crunch from under her right foot.  Immediately she tossed her phone aside and moved her shoe, revealing a small red splotch about the size of a quarter.  “Oh shit,” she said to herself.  “This isn’t happening.  Come on, move something!” she shouted to the smashed corpse of her boyfriend.  Tears welled in her eyes and she continued, “This isn’t funny!  Come on, tell me I didn’t kill you!  Please!”  The smear did not respond.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pulled off her shoe and checked the sole.  Some of the crushed remains had become stuck to it, and she could not bear to look at it for longer than it took to register what she had seen.  Clutching the high heel tightly to her chest, she ran into the bedroom and jumped on top of the covers.  For the rest of the night she laid there, bawling and cradling it in her arms, hoping it was just a bad dream.  She did not even answer the door when it buzzed repeatedly, too overcome with grief to move.