It took Lennard quite some discipline to keep looking at his plate while eating, despite his mother's stern warning to his humongous fraternal twin sitting right behind him to quit her badgering. Her ceaseless sniggering behind his back made him feel quite jittery nonetheless. She kept scratching her nails over the table just to irritate him. It was soft enough so that Lennard's Mom would not hear it but loud enough to make him stark raving mad.

It still felt surreal for Lennard to do breakfast like this with his family. The female members of his household sat at their usual spots at the table. Two chairs were empty. Lennard and his Dad sat on the table. It was the only way for Lennard to join this family occasion since he was merely 2 inches tall. He sat there on a tiny stool matching his height, at a tiny table matching his height, eating from a tiny plate while using tiny cutlery matching his tiny hands and mouth.

Looking about, Lennard had to crane his neck deep to look up into the eyes of his youngest sister, Miley. A 12-years-old happy-go-lucky kind of girl, with a thin sparky edge of fire encompassing her personality, sitting on the right side of him. Miley looked like some Greek child-Goddess as her torso loomed over him from his minuscule perspective than the little runt whose hair Lennard used to mess up while holding her in a headlock for fun.

Lennard saw her fumbling her fingers on a fringe of frizzy nutmeg hair while staring absent-mindedly at her bowl of cereal. Lennard felt caught when her twinkling sky-blue eyes shot in Lennard's direction like she was sensing that someone was observing her.

She stuck her tongue out and grinned at him when she noticed him staring up at her. He gave a sheepish grin in return.

"Mom?" Miley said in her most winsome voice.

"Yes, dear," his mother replied, while not looking up from her plate with toast paved with slices of mozzarella and pieces of hard-boiled egg.

"Can I like… you know… skip school today. I'm so anxious to get infected with all those germs whirling about there."

Lennard's Mom chuckled faintly, looking at her youngest daughter with grass-green wearisome eyes and dark circles hanging under them from the fever she was suffering at the moment. "Don't be so ridiculous, sweety."

"I'm not kidding here, Mom! I saw Miss Zaghabi take some painkillers yesterday while rubbing her forehead like she wanted to make it gleam like a polished bowling ball. I bet she has DeFa. And do not get me started on Leila! The girl was snoring like a skunk in hibernation during class!"

"Skunks do not hibernate, you numbnut!" Julie snapped, Lennard's fraternal twin sister, whose voice boomed like a cinema speaker as her torso loomed mountainous high while sitting behind him. "And besides. Mom and I are feverish, so you will most likely be safer at school than staying here."

Lennard always hated it when his sisters quibbled at the table with each other. The raised voices of his giant sisters stung quite painfully on his delicate tiny eardrums. Lennard stopped complaining about it. He had, though, in the past. His mother was pretty shocked when she realized what impact their booming voices had on a shrunken being of two inches tall. She acted firm and consistent in the house when one of Lennard's sisters dared to raise their voices when one of the household's shrunken members was in the vicinity. They got reprimanded by their mother before their youthful voices were able to reach screaming volumes, pitching within the household's walls. Unfortunately, did this not last for long. For it was with regularity that Lennard's Mom was entangled in a heated discussion with one of her daughter's and she lacked the discipline to keep her voice low and started shouting also.

Lennard merely accepted it. His main tactic now was to just curl himself up, with his knees pulled up, and stuffing fingers in his ears until the racket was over.

"Moooom! Julie is swearing again!" Miley whined.

Milena, Lennard's dark-haired older sister, scoffed while shaking her head.

She was a 16-year-old youth whose apparent endeavor seemed to end up first place in the school's slut-competition based on how she dresses.

Lennard's Dad – and especially his forceful voice – proved moderately successful while reining Milena in. But not anymore, not after being shrunk down to a laughable proportion. Now all Lennard's minuscule Dad could do was grit his teeth as he saw his godlike teen daughter sauntering off like he did not exist with a piece of cloth clasped around her hips that was barely able to conceal her butt.

"The hell do you care anyway? You're immune for godsakes!" The raven beauty said with a slight tone of envy in her voice.

"Am not! I've not even been infected!" Miley said.

"That's not what the test result said. Mom made you test like three times after that outbreak in your gymnastic class. They were all positive."

"But I did not have any signs of illness!"

"That's the whole point of being immune!" Julie whipped, swinging her fiery red hair in a dashing manner as she shot a glance at her younger sister. "… doofus," she added after a few seconds.

"Mooooom!" Miley whined.

"Girls!" Lennard's Mom finally decided to mingle in. "Voices! Please! Mind your brother and Dad."

Life had taken a drastic turn in the Cotter household since two of its members had lost a significant portion of their body's size after being infected by detrectantes fatum, colloquially known as the DeFa-04 virus, a few weeks ago. After the pathogenic organism infiltrates a host to infect its cells, the incubation times range from 8 days to 15. During that time, most people get symptoms that vary from feeling feverish to a throbbing headache and, in rare cases, the need to sleep almost constantly during the day. These symptoms stay present for about two weeks before the infected gains his former health back. After that came the most anxious phase. About 82% of the feminine infected suffered from a sudden loss of body size between 18 to 24 days after the appearance of its first symptoms. However, a small portion proved to be either immune to the first symptoms or the shrinking part, or both.

The most striking thing was that nearly all females who showed immunity to the virus were either teenage girls or young women.

The shrinking ussualy happened during the night, whereby an infected suddenly woke up – lying buried and naked beneath her own clothes and blanket – at an alarming height of roughly 2 inches tall. In many cases, it did not end there – at least, for many females shrunk down even further in the upcoming weeks. Not ending before dwindling down to the pathetic size of about 1 millimeter tall.

However, the gentlemen were really snake bitten, for up until now, they ALL fell prey to the shrinking part of the virus after being infected – and with the worst-case scenario as outcome nonetheless in the majority of the cases – leaving them at a wretched size whereby grains of sand appeared almost like boulders to them.

The ramifications on civil society were disastrous, but so was the intimacy of home life for many.

Lennard took a deep sigh as he took a gander at his Dad.

There he saw him, slumped on his knees while nibbling on a crumb of bread like a pitiful rodent his mother had placed for him. The thing was almost bigger than himself. Lennard could only hope that fate would spare him and that he remained 2 inches tall instead of dwindling down to speck level like his Dad.

It was only recently that his Dad called the shots in this household. Every family member looked up at him with great respect and listened when his deep voice started speaking. Lennard could clearly recall his Dad's grinding drill sergeant's voice rattling the walls within the house as he reprimanded Milena for the umpteenth time for her brash behavior.

What an impressive appearance the man was in this household. And look at him now…

Cloaked under the shadow of his mother's hand resting upon the table. Even his mother's pinky was like the size of an oil tanker to his Dad. He bore no rule or whatsoever over nobody. The only ones on whom he could impose his authority were perhaps the barely seeable small life prowling about in the house.

Lennard saw movement in the right corner of his eyes. A tiny spider was crawling towards his Dad. The beast was a big rat compared to Lennard but could devour his Dad with ease.

Lennard leaped up from his chair, ready to make a move. Then he tumbled down on his ass when Miley's tree trunk index-finger emerged out of nowhere from the sky, crashing down on the table, squashing the spider right before it was able to reach Lennard's Dad.

"Gotcha!" Lennard looked up with awe as he saw Greek Goddess Miley rubbing her finger clean on her dress. She lowered her face. Her eyes hovered above the table's edge like two peering moons. "Don't worry, Dad! I'll protect you!" she blew her father a kiss.

"Watch it, Miley! You're scaring him." Julie said as they all watched the microscopic speck – that was their father – moving away from Miley's countenance towards their mother's hand.

Lennard's crumb-sized Dad was hidden from sight when his Mom placed a cupped hand on top of him like a protective dome.

"Oh, by the way, Milena, I saw a letter coming in for you this morning. I left it on the cupboard," Miley said as she continued her breakfast.

"A letter? From whom?" Milena stood up from the table to make her way to the cupboard.

Lennard's Mom cocked an eyebrow as she watched her daughter standing up to grab the envelope.

It was always a spectacle to Lennard when one of his family members stood up, rising to their full height. It made them look even more intimidating to him. He could only imagine how frightful such a spectacle would have to be to his Dad. They both lived in a house of Goddesses now.

The table trembled beneath little Lennard when Milena returned to the table while tearing the envelop open. Lennard could not help but admire the girl's firm thighs soaring above the table like two indestructible pillars beneath a pair of loose-fitting denim shorts.

They looked so powerful to him. Milena had always been quite tall, surpassing most boys in her class. Undoubtedly the result from their father's genes. But now, seeing it from his despicable perspective, these feminine legs, while appearing so soft and smooth, looked like they were able to subjugate whole armies even with their might.

"What is it?" Lennard's mother asked.

A broad smile crept upon Milena's pretty face. "It's from Small Corp. I'm selected to participate in some pilot."

"Pilot? Are you going to fly?" Miley said.

Julie scoffed, shaking her head.

"What does it involve?" Lennard's Mom asked.

"The government is searching for ways to deal with the unending stream of microscopic people joining the society. They want to house them in a more humane way than keeping them stuffed in laboratory-like environments with white walls, white coats, and blindingly fluorescent lights."

"Meaning?" Lennard's Mom said.

Milena's eyes found the letter again. "They are looking for caretakers, Mom." she twinkled. "Every qualified participant of the pilot gains the responsibility for nearly half a million shrunken souls housed in a tailor-made settlement!"

Upon hearing those words, Lennard saw an evocative scene playing in his head of an infinitesimal city inhabited by likewise small people who were compelled to deeply crane their little necks to look up at their new owner smiling down upon them from the skies – a gleeful young brat, who isn't even able to run a household by herself if she was forced to do so.

How can the government act so irresponsible by placing the fate of real-life people in the hands of a 16-year-old girl?

"Okay, so Milena gets to have her own town full of shrinkees while I am forced to attend school? It's not fair!" Miley clenched her fists on the table – which was a frightful sight for little Lennard – while looking at her Mom.

"The letter mentioned qualified participants," Julie said. "It means you have to do something before being able to participate, right?"

Milena nodded. "It says here that I have to undergo a thorough psychological assessment to see if I'm mentally stable enough."

"Haaa!" Julie shouted out, which ignited a withering glare from Milena.

"What, Haaa?! The fuck do you mean with Haaa?!" Milena placed her hands on her hips while looking at her sister.

"It means exactly what you think it means," Julie looked at her older sister with a sardonic grin.

"Okay, stop it, you two!" Lennard's Mom cut her daughters off. She looked at Milena. "Do you really want to go through with all of this, dear? It's a major responsibility to be having next to school."

"To hell with school! I get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come into the possession of a city full of shrunken grown-ups who have to serve my whims, and you want me to pass that up?"

"You still have to pass that test, though," Julie reminded her sister.

Milena gave Julie a wry smile. "Oh, I will. You rest assured of that."

Miley leaped up. "So hey! If Milena gets a microscopic city, it means that Dad can live there too, right?"

Lennard saw his Mom placing her other hand over the hand that was already cupped like a dome over his speck-sized Dad. "Your father isn't going to stay anywhere but with me."

Milena's eyes narrowed to thin slits as she looked at her ginger sister. "Perhaps Julie will feel the need to move into my Queendom as one of my subjects once her body dwindles down to nothingness. I mean, after all, she does feel feverish, don't you, Julie?"

Julie chuckled. "Don't get your hopes up. Trust me, I won't shrink. I find it more likely that you will shrink. You were a total train wreck just two weeks ago."

"Not a chance. Today is the 24th day, so I think I'm pretty safe. But there is something I do wonder, though."

"And what is that?" Julie said, eyeing her big sister with annoyance.

"Will those peas you call boobs also shrink when your body starts to dwindle down? I mean, they are already barely seeable as they are. What will remain of them in the end?"

Julie jumped up from her chair, making the table scrape violently. It made Lennard fall roughly from his tiny chair.

"You take that back right now!" Julie breezed.

"Make me," Milena said, crossing her arms.

"ENOUGH!" Lennard's Mom slammed her fist on the table.

"Dad!" Miley said while looking at her mother's hand.

The eyes of Lennard's Mom stretched wide open as she looked at the table. She gave a sigh of relief. Because right next to her tensed fist, she was able to discern a moving crumb-sized speck. She had nearly crushed her own husband in a flash of anger.

"What's he doing?" Miley frowned. She bent down to get a closer look at her father. She saw him running up to her mother's fist – which loomed over him like multiple nuclear powerplants – and started bowing down.

"He's worshiping her," Milena said as she beamed down upon the minuscule spectacle playing at the table. "Its adoration syndrome. We've learned about it at school. When shrinking down, it becomes harder for the individual concerned to keep seeing normal-sized ones as mere humans. The tinier the person gets, the more difficult it is for him to keep his wits. It pulls him towards a more subordinate pattern of thinking about the giants that loom above him. Until the pull is strong enough that he snaps, and he starts irrevocably perceiving them as Gods. Seems like Mom's outburst made Dad snap."

"Meaning?" Miley asked.

Julie sighed impatiently. "It means that Dad sees Mom as a Goddess now!"

"A Goddess?" Miley peered at her microscopic Dad, still bowing there like crazy before his wife's fist.

"Yup," Milena said. "His whole life revolves around pleasing her now. He will do anything for her."

"I want to be worshiped too!" Miley whined. "Bow before me too, Daddy! Pleeeease!"

"Okay, that's enough, ladies," Lennard's Mom placed her hand over their Dad again. "Miley, be a dear and clear the table. Julie, take your brother with you. He needs to be washed. And Milena, this way, please. I want to have a little chat."

Lenard was cast in shadow as all four Goddesses stood up around him, screeching the chairs. Miley's mansion-sized hand started to snatch away things from the table. Milena rolled her eyes before reluctantly following their mother to the living room, and Julie's mischievous face churned into a playful smile before reaching her hand out towards her brother. Lenard ran off like he always did before being picked up by a sniggering Julie and stuffed in her back pocket.

"Sit, please." Melody, Lennard's mother, motioned her oldest daughter toward a lazy chair in the living room. Milena slumped down on it.

Melody took a seat on the couch just across from her. Before focusing on the chat with her eldest daughter, Melody was compelled to intervene with her other two daughters, who stood bickering in the kitchen.

Finally, Miley continued clearing the table with a sulking face. Julie dashed upstairs with a powerless Lennard clutched within her fist, and Melody could have full attention for her eldest daughter now.

They needed to have this talk. The future of their family depended on it. Especially since there is a good chance that Melody herself will fall prey to the shrinking part of the virus. If both parents would shrink down, the family's authority would automatically be transferred to the oldest family member still in original size – provided that the person concerned was at least 16-years of age.

It would be so much easier for Melody if she would have this conversation with Miley. She was such a cheery, sweet girl and easy to get along with. A stark contrast with the willful personality of Milena. The girl has always been better connected to her husband. At least, before he was shrunk down to the pitiful size of a speck, that is. It gave Melody plenty of moments of respite for not having to deal with her defiant daughter because her husband would do it for her instead. But that was all before this. When everything was all normal still.

Melody cast a slantwise glance at her left shoulder. There he was, Roland, Melody's husband. He looked so incredibly small, like a crumb, so helpless and frail in an enormous and frightful world.

It vexed Melody to see that Roland sat still bowing down to her. She wanted nothing less than to have an equal relationship with her husband – not based upon that of a so-called Goddess and her subject.

Roland was with her, and yet he wasn't. How could one uphold a healthy marriage with a speck-sized person with whom she could not communicate with?

Melody highly dreaded the prospect of shrinking down to nothingness. However, there was one bright side to it, it did allow her to speak to her husband again.

Would he be mad at her? Would he be the same person as before? Would he still worship her like a Goddess if she was only 2 inches tall? Or would he shift his adoration to the new head of the family?

Melody looked askance at her oldest daughter. Milena just sat there, all slumped in a lazy chair, legs crossed while reading a newspaper. The girl was totally unaware of the inquisitive gaze of her mother. She was so young still, more a child than a woman.

Melody saw images in her head of Roland and herself imprisoned in a city full of thousands upon thousands of shrunken souls bowing down to Milena, as they worshipped her teen daughter like a Goddess while thunderous laughter rained down upon them from the skies. At speck-size, there would be nothing left of their parental authority. Milena would be able to do anything she pleases. Would be able even to force them to do anything she pleases.

But not yet….

Melody quickly shook that off-putting thought aside and focused on the present moment. Milena was still her daughter, and she was still her mother. And they would converse with each other the same way a mother does with her teenage daughter as she strived to penetrate that obstinate head of hers.

"How are you, sweety? How are things at school?" Melody asked.

It took a long moment before Milena replied. The girl was all sunken in some headline in the newspaper. Just when Melody was about to say something, Milena shrugged, put the newspaper aside and looked at her mother with a pair of indifferent eyes. "Fine, I guess."

"How are you?" Milena added after a moment of silence.

"I'll manage, dear. Thank you." Melody gave a wry smile and tried to push away her fever. She needed to look strong and convincing right now. There was too much at stake.

"What were you reading?" Melody nodded in the direction of the newspaper lying on the side table.

Milena sighed. "Nothing of interest. Just some stupid story about a street full of shrinkees saved from the clutches of some megalomaniacal woman."

Melody chuckled faintly. "Pretty stupid indeed… Listen, Milena dear, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," Milena said while looking intensely at her mother.

"What are your thoughts about the shrinkees?"

Milena shook her head and chuckled, averting her eyes. "I knew it," she mumbled, barely audible.

Melody furrowed her brows. "Did I say something funny?"

"Don't take me for a fool here, Mom!" Melody was surprised by the fierceness in her daughter's voice. "I know exactly why we are having this conversation."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, you do not think I'm ready."

"Well… are you?"

"Of course I am! If that fool of a Layla can run a household, then so can I."

Melody gave a peal of curt rueful laughter. "Layla, yes, of course…"

Layla was a girl of the same age as Milena and the only member of her household that appeared immune to the virus. After being shrunk down, all nine family members fell under the authority of the 16-year-old youth.

Rumor has it that the girl had a knack for torturing her family, who were now powerless against her wrath.

"Have faith in me, Mom. I can do this. I can take care of you. Of both you and Dad."

"Don't speak like me shrinking is a fact!" Now it was Melody's turn to flash her anger.

"But there's a great chance that you will shrink, Mom. The statistics do not lie. It is more likely that Julie will remain normal than you."

"Go to your room!" Melody aimed her finger at the staircase.

Milena scoffed. "Really, Mom? Just like that?"

"Go, please…" Melody turned her head away as tears welled up in her eyes. As Milena stood up to walk off, Melody thought she could hear her mumbling the words 'Enjoy while you still can, Mom.'

+++

Lennard paced back on forth on the bathtub's edge, unsettled, like a stock-dealer awaiting the day's new values on the share market. Shrouds of steam swirled upwards from the hot bathwater – filling his airways with drifting moisture.

"You're going in, or do I have to flick you again?"

"DON'T! Push me, please!" Lennard rose his tiny hand. He looked nervously at Julie's cinema-screen countenance hovering closely behind him. He felt her hot breath breezing along his partially clad body. "I will make the jump. Just… wait."

Julie sighed and stood up to her full height. She took a gander in the mirror and fiddled some at her bikini top before raising her leg to step in the bathtub.

"Hey! I'm supposed to go first!" Lennard whined while looking up at the breathtaking spectacle of his skyscraper fraternal sister stepping over the bathtub's edge.

"You take ages. I don't have ages."

Julie closed her eyes and moaned with delight as she let her body sink in the steaming hot bathwater. "Aaaaa…. This is… Just…. Heaven…" Her eyes shot open, aimed at her brother. "Come in. The water's fine!"

"Okay, I will." Lennard adjusted his swimming trunks and prepared himself to take a dive. "You will fish me out, right? After I'm all done and clean. I can't get out on my own."

Julie sighed. "Have I ever done not?"

Lennard rubbed his hands. "Okay, here I go. One. Two–"

SPLASH!

Lennard emerged and splashed his hands like a toddler who is unable to swim. "I said I would go, didn't I!"

"Oops." Julie dipped her hand back into the water after she used it to flick her brother in the water from behind.

"Solid! I need something solid!"

Julie tittered with delight while watching her tiny brother swimming about in the bathtub. Her hand emerged from the water and rose like a platform, picking her little brother up on the way. She held her open hand in front of her eyes. "There, that solid enough for you, brother? You know, I'm going to miss this." Julie gave a wry smile. "How on earth are we going to do this when you're crumb-sized?"

"I'm NOT going to shrink any further if that's what you think. And I definitely NOT enjoy this experience like you do."

Julie chuckled, delighted by her tiny brother's cute-looking fierceness.

"And you better worry about your own behavior towards Milena instead of worrying about bonding with me," Lennard said while gesturing to his enormous sister to pour a drop of liquid soap in her hand, so he could wash.

"What about my behavior?" Julie grabbed the bottle of soap and squeezed a tiny dot next to Lennard on her hand.

"You're getting in her hair, Julie. She doesn't like that."

Julie shrugged. "I'm her kid sister. I'm supposed to get in her hair."

"I guess," Lennard rubbed his body into foaming soap. "But it's not wise to do when chances are that you will shrink and she will not."

"I will not shrink!" Julie fumed.

"Yes, of course. That's what I thought, and Dad. And look at us now."

Julie scoffed. "You are both males. I'm a female."

"And still at an increased risk that you will shrink too."

Julie said nothing and leaned her head on the bathtub's edge while keeping her hand steady for Lennard. She kept staring at the ceiling.

"We'll see, Lennard. We'll see…" she pushed the words out in an exhale.

"Julie! Julie!!! Julieeeee!!!" Lennard waved frantically while his colossal-sized sister scurried her way out of the bedroom. She was late for school. The door slammed close. Lennard stood there on the floor, all forlorn, gaping pitiful up at a door so big from his perspective that it looked like it belonged to Zeus himself.

"Damn!" Lennard screamed as he clenched his pea-sized fists with infuriated passion.

Now he would not be able to nibble at the juicy piece of sugar-coated donut Julie left for him for breakfast at the dollhouse that was his home. Neither would he be able to gobble up the ice-cold Coke that was left for him in a tiny plastic disposable measuring cup of 15ml used for coughing sirup. The thing supplied a bucket full of Coke for Lennard to drink – assuming that he could reach it.

Lennard craned his neck as he looked yearningly up at the slanted, pink-colored roof of the dollhouse stationed on Julie's nightstand. There lay his sugar-rich breakfast, out of reach.

He was really looking forward to pigging out on donuts and Coke, plunging down on his plastic bed covered with scouring sponges as a mattress, and wanking his dick to blisters while thinking about his high school crush before taking a long deep nap until Julie would wake him up when she came back home again.

Lennard had told her a thousand times she should fasten a rope for him so he could climb his way independently to the dollhouse. She often told Lennard she would, and an equal number of times, she refrained from doing so – either due to forgetfulness or just because she was lazy to do so.

Now here Lennard was left holding the bag or better said an empty stomach. Vibrations traveled through Lennard's hand resting on his belly when his grumbling tummy craved for food to digest. He looked at the clock hanging twenty stories high on the wall and sighed. It would be nearly 5 hours still before Julie would be home again. He needed something to swallow, and he needed it now.

Lennard dashed off into a jog and made his way towards the hallway. The benefit of being this small was that everything was far away for Lennard. He jogged with great regularity from pillar to post – snatching stuff, running errands for Julie, or he was simply evading gigantic footfalls plummeting down from the sky.

In the short time of being two inches tall, Lennard had developed a pretty impressive condition. He'd also lost a fair share of body fat despite relishing in a calorie-rich diet Julie provided for him. Guess he burned more than he fueled.

Lennard did not know how much he weighed. A regular scale would probably not even detect his pitiful weight. And using something like a kitchen scale seemed nonsensical. The information given by such a device would not be practically applicable to him anyway.

Lennard wormed his way under the door and entered the hallway.

Who would be home still? Lennard pondered as he looked about.

He heard a voice speaking in the distance, but it was too soft to discern from whom it came. He saw movement, a shred of a shadow in the distance. Lennard sauntered deeper into the hallway to allow himself a better point of view.

A boot – the size of a submarine to Lennard – descended from the sky, nearly crushing him out of existence. Lennard fell on his butt.

"Milena? You have a minute for me?"

With great awe, Lennard gaped up at the colossal spectacle that was his mother soaring over him. He was so small, so pitiful, and they were so huge and all-powerful. Seeing his family members from a worm-view perspective really punched in the harsh reality of Lennard's new existence.

Lennard gulped while looking after his monumental mother strutting away from him with clattering boots. Every step made his whole body shake with its vibrations.

"One minute, Mom. I'm in the middle of something here." Milena said.

Little Lennard saw his mother and Milena meeting in the hallway further ahead. Lennard's oldest sister was slightly taller than his mother. A thing that was particularly emphasized when both women stood right across each other at close range.

Lennard shivered when he thought about how he could end up being as tiny as his dad.

As Lennard contemplated this matter while observing his mother and sister, this whole adoration syndrome that Milena was talking about earlier suddenly made more sense now.

The world is already a frightful and dangerous place as it is. Dwindling down to a ridiculous crumb size would make life even more challenging and fearsome. His relatives would look even more intimidating than they already appeared.

Even at his meager size of two inches tall, Lennard found it hard to keep seeing and communicating with his sisters as equals.

He tried, though, but it was tough. He would never say it out loud, not even to himself, but Lennard was incredibly intimidated by his now gigantic family members. They were so much more than him now, in every sense of the term. Especially while conversing with them from up close. It definitely put a person's nerves to the test while speaking with someone whose face was as broad as a cinema screen and whose voice thundered like a Dolby sound system even while talking in a low voice.

The social relations – particularly the power dynamics that manifested during conversations – between him and his sisters changed drastically the day after he shrunk down to his pitiful size. Lennard used to be the blabbermouth of the family. He was now more considerate in choosing his words and made sure not to step on certain toes.

Sure, Lennard was still the joker, but it was with regularity that he swallowed his words out of precaution that it might ignite someone's anger. A thing that he never did while still normal-sized.

He felt like he did not have that freedom of speech anymore. He was just too small, too independent, too powerless to deal with a sibling who was out for revenge after taking a degrading joke from him. He found it better to keep them content, especially when dealing with someone like Milena.

Lennard showed more bravado while conversing with Julie and Miley – who were more forgiving while dealing with his quips – but considerably less than he used to do.

Another change that also occurred while being shrunk was that he started to ask for permission for trivial things, like asking his kid sister Miley if he wasn't a bother to her if he stayed on the table while she was busy doing homework. He also apologized more frequently when he feared he had stepped out of line, like walking in Milena's purview while she was watching a movie on the couch.

He respected his sisters in a way a subordinate respected his superior. He was more inclined to get in his sister's good graces.

It now seemed more logical to Lennard – while observing his monumental mother and sister talking with each other – that this level of respect soared to a higher standard the moment someone dwindled down tinier even.

He realized that he could not blame his dad for his submissive behavior. His mother and sisters must honestly look like Goddesses to him now. They controlled every aspect of his life. Even bratty Miley – who was just a peewee compared to the rest of her class at school – was now a true Goddess to Lennard's dad with forces at her disposal that could create catastrophic disasters on a massive scale for someone so minute as him.

Lennard desperately wished that Milena would shrink down also, just like him. His biggest fear was that he would end up crumb-sized and trapped in a miniature city while forced to worship his disreputable sister like a God as her wrath down rained from the skies upon them all. She would be an all-powerful unstoppable force.

Would Miley be an improvement compared to Milena? Lennard couldn't say. Only time can tell how a frisky girl like Miley would evolve in her behavior when she had thousands upon thousands of shrunken crumbs under her undisputed reign.

He shouldn't forget about Julie, his fraternal twin. True, she is sick, but there is still a possibility that she'll remain at her original size. Still, in some way, Lennard has a gut feeling that the girl will fall prey to the shrinking part. Julie has this belief too. Lennard could see it in her eyes.

In the worst-case scenario – at least, in Lennard's opinion, and he firmly believed that most others of his family thought the same – would they all shrink down to microbes and end up in an equally tiny city while suffering under the cruel reign of Milena and her notorious posse.

His mother was on the move again, and so was Milena.

"Have a nice day, sweety." Lennard's mom waved at her daughter.

Lennard scurried away from his mother's path and saw her colossal figure looming over him before disappearing from sight when she went down the stairs.

Great, mom is gone. And no sign of Miley either. Guess I'm all dependent on Milena for getting my belly filled.

After hearing the front door closing shut when Lennard's mother left the house, he knew it all depended on Milena if his belly was getting filled or not.

He could always choose to travel back to Julie's bedroom to wait for her arrival. But that would only be in a few hours or so. And Lennard was starving right now.

He was, however, hesitant in approaching his older sister. Milena wasn't particularly mean.

It was just that she saw Lennard as a nuisance, as a bother, as someone she rather saw leaving than coming. The worst thing that could happen was that she would act like he did not exist. There was really nothing to lose.

If Lennard's voyage would prove to be fruitless, it would still function as a way to pass the time. Lennard could think of no argument as to why he shouldn't do this, so he simply quenched the lump of hesitation smoldering in his head and headed towards Milena's room.

A bouncing rhythm blasted out of Milena's room when she turned the music on. Lennard drew near Milena's door, which stood ajar. He was about to peek around the corner when a jumbo-sized sneaker tumbled down from the sky, crashing dangerously close to him, nearly tramping him. Another one followed, and another.

"This way! I have to get something!" Miley shouted over her shoulder to her friends.

Blasted, Miley! He thought with frustration. As he sat down on his butt – toppled by the shockwaves – he gaped up while his kid sister dashed through the hallway, underway for her bedroom with two friends in tow.

These girls were so freakin fast for such gigantic beings.

Their sneakers clomped over the laminate floor, leaving bits of muddy sand behind. Every step created an earsplitting bang for poor Lennard, making him fear severe hearing damage when an unhealthy amount of decibel pierced his vulnerable eardrums.

"Ain't your mom home or something?" One of Miley's friends called out.

The girls looked like ragamuffins, wearing garments stained with black smudges and shoes that looked like they plowed through a slushy ditch in some war trench. Perhaps they actually had. It wouldn't surprise Lennard.

Miley and her friends were not exactly girls girls.

They'd like to play rough games in the forest, building huts in trees and jumping ditches and stuff. Lennard rocked his head in disbelief as his eyes took in the mess these rascals left in their wake. A vase fell over when one of Miley's friends collided with a small table standing in de hallway. It fell over, clattering on the floor, sprawling shards everywhere. Miley merely gestured her friend away, saying, 'leave it be.' This was nothing like his kid sister, pondered Lennard.

Mom is not going to like this. Lennard thought.

But Miley's worry about what their Mom thought about her behavior was becoming less and less. She grew bolder by the day. It seemed like Miley was putting the cart before the horse. She appeared so confident that their mother would shrink one of these days that she already acted like she had free reign in the house.

"Would you pipe down there, please!" Milena's voice snapped from her bedroom.

Although Lennard feared the prospect of seeing his mother – the last responsible person in the family – shrinking down, he was also looking forward to the power beef between Milena and Miley that would inevitably follow upon such an event.

Milena was tall and strongly built for a girl and at least four years older, but Miley's fierce temper – as little as she was – could not be neglected. Securing her position of power within the house – after their mother's size had been reduced – would be like traveling a long road with many bumps and gaps for Milena.

Lennard saw movement below him, which was already a rareness in itself, for his world mainly consisted of soaring giants above him since his shrinkage.

"Dad?" Lennard scratched his head. At his feet, Lennard saw a minute figure teeming about, the size of a crumb. He crouched down and recognized his Dad. The once-imposing man looked distressed and seemed to be searching for something as his head spun every which way.

Mom. He's looking for Mom. Lennard thought. He must have fallen off of her.

"Dad! Come here. Let me help you." His Dad flinched and took a few steps backward when Lennard reached his hand out to pick him up.

"Please, Dad. Don't be afr–"

SLAM!

Lennard tumbled backward on his butt when a monumental object crashed down from the sky. He gaped up and saw that it was a knee, the size of an air balloon to him, and it belonged to Harper, one of Miley's friends.

How did she sneak up so silently?

Harper was crouching, her face strained as she was busy tying her shoelaces. She was utterly unaware of Lennard and Lennard's Dad's presence at her feet.

Lennard gulped as he scrutinized her body. He was highly intimidated by her mountainous size. The ginger girl had cute freckles on her cheeks and a black smudge on her forehead. Her long, tousled hair draped along her ears like a falling curtain.

Dad! Lennard realized. He looked around, fearing to see his Dad smushed by Harper's knee. He gave a sigh of relief when he saw that his Dad was still there. And unlike Lennard – whose fear compelled him to keep his distance from Harper – his Dad was approaching the godlike teen girl.

"Oh. My. God," Lennard said when he saw his Dad bowing down to Harper.

His Dad, once a stately figure in the neighborhood, was now worshipping a 12-year-old runt!

Lennard looked up and saw Harper's face churning into a puzzled look.

She spotted me! The girl spotted me!

Lennard's trained but still pitiful legs went for a run. But Harper's humongous hand was too fast. A triumphant chuckle escaped from the girl's lips before Lennard's world sank into total darkness.

Harper stood up to her full height and opened her hand. A two-inch tall Lennard scrambled back to his feet, frightened. He looked up at Harper's cinema-sized countenance looming above him, fearing her intention. He also feared for his Dad, who was most likely still bowing down at Harper's feet – and unknowing to her, worshipping her like a Goddess. One misstep would end his father's life.

"What are you doing?" Miley and her other friend came ambling up to Harper. Lennard's world tumbled back into darkness again when Harper closed her hand into a fist, entrapping Lennard. She shot her hand in a pocket of her dress when Miley approached her. Lennard was dropped amidst a bunch of other shrunken people squirming and groaning in Harper's dark pocket.

"Whatcha got there?" Lennard heard Miley's voice speaking while he was busy meandering his body among a few others with the aim of finding a comfortable position.

"Nothing," Harper said.

"Oh, on the contrary, girl," Milena's voice chimed in. "You have my little brother in there. Can I have him back, please?"

Lennard gave a yelp when two tree trunk fingers grabbed his left ankle to fish him out of Harper's pocket. He landed with a thud on Milena's hand. She gave him a brief glance before turning her attention to Miley and her posse.

"You're going to clean this mess up, I presume?" Milena said as her eyes scanned the mess in the hallway.

Miley made a sound that resembled the mixture of a snort and a chuckle..

"Do I need to tell, Mom?" Milena threatened.

Miley shrugged. "Go ahead. And you might as well tell her about your nightly outing last weekend," she said with an insidious look.

Milena's eyes darkened.

"Have a nice day, Sis!" Miley waved with a cheery smile. "And you too, little brother of mine" The joyous girl blew Lennard a kiss before dashing off – creating even more muddy footmarks with her clattering stomps. Her friends ran after her. It made Lennard think about his Dad again.

Milena sighed as she watched Miley leave before looking at Lennard.

"How did you end up in that girl's clutches anyway?" she asked.

"Dad! Its, Dad!" Lennard stood up and waved frantically as he ran over Milena's hand towards her billboard countenance.

Milena looked puzzled.

"On the floor! Place me on the floor! Quick! And do not move your feet!"

Even though Milena hated to be ordered around, especially by her pipsqueak of a brother, she obliged and crouched down. There was a panicked urgency in Lennard's voice she could not ignore. And besides, he would never be able to run away anyway.

Milena's index finger and thumb grabbed one of Lennard's ankles to hoist him upside down into the air.

"Why always the ankle!" Lennard's arms flailed before he was being plunged onto the floor. He quickly stood up and looked around. When he thought he could not spot his father, he saw a crumb-sized figure ambling up to Milena's soaring boots. Lennard ran up to the figure and recognized it.

"Dad! Everything alright?"

Lennard's Dad did not respond to the question. He only had eye for Milena's imposing figure, who stood up to her full height now, placing her hands on her hips while looking down. And there it was again. Lennard's father sank to his knees and started bowing down and uttering prayers for his teenage daughter.

All that matters to his father now is keeping Goddess Milena pleased, the rebellious brat he so harshly reprimanded on a daily basis just a few weeks ago.

Guess that his faith in Goddess Mom was not cemented yet. Lennard concluded.

He sighed, walked up, and grabbed his unwilling Dad and signaled Milena to pick them up.

"Okay, listen, pipsqueak," Milena addressed her 2-inch-tall brother standing in the palm of her hand. "I'm in the middle of something here, so I don't have time to babysit you."

"Just place us somewhere. I'll be fine," Lennard said, smiling while observing Milena's monumental mug.

Milena gave a curt nod and walked up to a side table stationed in some corner of her room.

"Oof! Not so rough, please!" Lennard rolled painfully on a hard surface when Milena's hand deposited him on the table in a not-so-gentle manner. He quickly checked if his Dad was alright, who was still clutched into his fist. Lennard saw nothing but awe in the eyes of his crumb-sized father. The once imposing man paid only attention to the godlike stature of his teen daughter, who he now saw as his Goddess.

"Don't do anything stupid now, alright?" Milena's booming voice said while scolding down her tiny brother. Lennard tilted his head while looking up at his sister. Out of instinct, he took a few paces backward and covered his ears. Milena saw it but did not apologize for using such a loud voice. It's still a frightening experience to converse with gigantic beings up close, even though Lennard has become accustomed to it. Especially when dealing with someone like Milena.

Lennard's sister was already an intimidating presence when he was still normal-sized. But now, while witnessing her at the size of Godzilla, Lennard constantly felt that he was in mortal danger.

It did not help that they did not have a warm brother-sister relationship.

"You stay right here. I don't want to see you messing my stuff up." Before Lennard could reply, Milena soared sky-high, standing up to her full height and sauntered off.

Lennard looked about and saw a small town of lipstick tubes, bottles of nail polish and brushes of mascara unorganized spread on the surface just ahead to his right.

Lennard sighed. "Well, looks like we're stuck here until Julie picks us up, Dad." He said to his father, clutched in his hand. His Dad looked yearningly at his monumental daughter sitting on her bed, tapping away on her phone at an unbridgeable distance.

"Since we're not allowed to do anything by Queen Milena, I'm going to sit down and look blankly at the clock these upcoming hours. I suggest you do the same." Lennard dropped his hand to allow his father room to move. Then the latter took off.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Lennard stood up and went after his minuscule Dad. He saw him running straight towards Milena, desperate to get close to his Goddess. Lennard saw them approaching the forest of make-up and he cursed loudly to himself. His father was exceptionally fast for such a crumb. It took Lennard some wide paces before he could finally cut off his father and pick him up.

"Goddamnit!" Milena's voice thundered through the room. Lennard sank, taking a submissive posture, when he saw his godlike sister standing up from the bed to approach them.

"Didn't I just tell you to stay on your spot!" Milena spat while looming over her pitiful, tiny brother.

"I-Its Dad. He ran off. He was despairing to go to you," Lennard said while keeping his head bowed, too afraid to look his gigantic sister in the eyes.

"Despairing to go to me? Dad?" Milena sounded puzzled.

"Yes, you're his Goddess now."

"Me? But what about mom?"

Lennard shrugged. "Beats me. He started bowing in front of your boots when you showed up.

When she took in Lennard's words, Milena's comely countenance showed a slight hint of a sly smirk. She sank to her knees and brought her eyes close to the table. "Come here. Place Dad in front of me." Milena commanded. Lennard walked up to his sister's curious eyes soaring above the table. His natural urge was to go away from them. Lennard put his Dad on the floor when he thought he was close enough to Milena's liking. The latter did not waste time and ran up to his daughter's eyes – which were like the size of billboards to him. When he could almost tug the tip of Milena's nose, he sank and started bowing down. Milena watched it all for a moment before exploding in a flare of laughter.

"Like, Oh my God! Dad is actually worshipping me! Can you believe it? His bratty daughter! How delightfully degrading! Lie down. Roll over. Slap your face." Milena laughed even louder when she saw the pitiful crumb that was once her imposing father giving heed to her every command, slapping his cheeks.

"Attack your son!"

Lennard watched, surprised as he saw his pitiful tiny Dad running up to him, enraged, ready to carry out his Goddess's order. Useless punches and kicks landed on Lennard's left sneaker when his crumb-sized Dad attacked it.

"I could get used to this," Milena beamed while rubbing her hands. "You, Lennard! Slap your face!"

Lennard stared back dryly at his megalomaniac sister.

"Crap! I was hoping you would follow my command also." Milena whined.

Lennard chuckled. "Not a chance."

"I could force you; you know." Milena's eyes darkened, soaring her stunning yet intimidating face closer to him.

Lennard gulped and took a few steps backward when Milena placed her fist on the table, right in front of him. It loomed over him like a two floor home. His first instinct was to check if his Dad was still alright. Milena noticed his searching glances.

"He's okay," Milena reassured him. "Looks like our speck-dad is still roaming about to give you a serious whoop ass, just like I ordered him." she chuckled playfully while glancing at a point in front of her fist Lennard could not see. "Stand down, slave! Good boy," Lennard’s crumb-sized Dad stood still, patiently waiting for a new order from his Goddess.

"You're enjoying this," Lennard said.

"Of course, I'm enjoying this! Wouldn't you?" Milena’s eyes lit up with glee.

"I wouldn't misuse my position, that's for sure,"

"You should if you had endured what I have the last few years. Dad made my life a living hell."

Lennard snorted. "He gave you exactly what you deserved." he bounced back, making him surprised by his boldness.

Milena's alluring eyes narrowed in tiny slits. She lowered her head, landing it on her resting fist.

Lennard took another few steps backward. Milena's hot breath washed over him.

His sister smiled. "You're scared of me, aren't you?"

Lennard wrapped his arms over each other in front of his chest in a feeble attempt to appear defiant while looking up at Milena's countenance resting far above him. He would never say it out loud, but his sister had a damned beautiful face – even from up close, especially up close.

Milena's lush waterfall of ebony hair leaned over one side of her head as she tilted it playfully, sprawling its innumerable strands upon the table where it probably concealed his pitiful Dad from sight. A yellowish glow radiating down from a lamp hanging on the ceiling gave Milena's hair a brilliant shimmer. However, the sparkle of disregard in her emerald eyes really electrified Lennard's spine like an overcharged tesla coil. He now knew for sure, she doesn't give a damn about either him or her father.

"You see this?" Milena beamed while showing Lennard the screen of her phone. It showed a form Milena was busy filling out to join the Small Corp pilot program. They were looking for caretakers. "It means that I'll come into the possession of an entire little city filled with subservient grown-ups. I'll be like a God to them! can you believe it?" She laughed delightedly.

"You still have to pass their assessment," Lennard said dryly.

"Oh, I will. Don't you worry. I got it all sorted out. Because you see, Becca’s aunt – whose quite fond of me – has a lofty position in Small Corp. And she'd promised that I'll pass the test, no matter what."

"But what will you do with all these people? Taking care of a half million people is a lot of responsibility, as well as a lot of work. And you're as lazy as teenage girls can be." Lennard said.

"Rest assured there, brother. I won't be the one working. No, I leave that to my slaves."

"Slaves?!" Lennard called out, appaled.

"Of course! These shrunken, pitiful dust mites are nothing but thralls to serve my whims."

"You're insane!"

Milena shrugged. "Perhaps I am. But I'm also the one who will end up in charge. So there is nothing you or anyone else can do about it."

"Don't be so sure about that, sis!"

Lennard leaped up joyfully when he saw Julie standing in Milena's doorway.

Milena scoffed. "Oh, it's just you. Here, someone is waiting eagerly for you."

Julie walked up to Lennard and placed her hand in front of him to allow him to climb aboard. Lennard was about to embark on Julie's hand but changed his mind. He forgot something, or rather, someone.

"Oh no, you don't!" Milena's hand slammed down, blocking Lennard's path to his microscopic Dad.

"He's not yours!" Lennard fumed.

"He is not yours, either. But do not fret. I promise I'll give him back to mom when she gets home. But for now, allow this poor man to worship his Goddess."

Lennard looked up at Julie, hoping for some backup. But his fraternal sister merely shrugged and urged him to step upon her hand – which he did.

"Promise me you won't shrink," Lennard said firmly when Julie sauntered towards her bedroom. "Living beneath Milena's reign is something I'm not looking forward to."

"Me neither, brother. Me neither," Julie said.

"What are you two senseless buffalos gawking each other? Come in. Come in." Harper said as she saw Miley and Gina weren't following her inside her house through the front door.

Miley and Gina looked at each other in uncertainty. "What about your parents? We look like hell." Miley regarded all the black stains dotted all over their clothes from playing in the woods – not to mention the thick caked layers of mud under their shoes.

Harper laughed. "Like, really, Miley? You've just made us turn your home into a pigpen and you worry about mine? How sweet."

"That's different. My mom is–"

"This is my Dad!" Harper dangled a minuscule figure from her fingers in front of Miley's eyes that she just took out of her pocket. "And my mom is very ill and has been lying in bed for three days. We expect her to shrink these upcoming days."

"But you're only 12, are you not?" Miley asked, "Aint there no at least a 16-year-old person in the house to look after you and your kid sister?"

Harper smiled. "And that's where Charlie comes in."

Miley frowned. "Charlie?"

Harper nodded. "My niece from up north. She's 21 years old and the coolest chick ever! You're gonna love her! She stays here for the summer."

Reassured, both Miley and Gina entered Harper's house. Harper said something patronizing to her flailing, shrunken father before stuffing him back in her pocket and following her friends to the living room.

"Sup girls!" A young lady with headphones on called out to them with a friendly smile, a bit louder than necessary. The girl stood at the kitchen counter – singing along with whatever song she was listening to – while preparing something aromatic that made Miley's mouth water.

"Come, pop down. Make yourselves comfy." Harper dropped herself on the couch, removed her shoes, and plunged her dirty feet onto the table.

Besides plunging their feet on the table, Miley and Gina followed Harper's example.

Miley squinted at an object she saw standing on the table, then her eyes lit up when she recognized it. "Oh my god, Harper! You have a tiny city in here?"

"Yup," Harper had a remote in hand and zapped mindlessly through various channels on tv. "Puh! Nothing but crap on this blasted thing!"

"Can I take a look?" Miley asked, already leaning forward eagerly.

Harper gave a nonchalant wave of approval as she switched through hundreds of channels, all displaying nothing but gibberish.

"Nice!" Miley rubbed her hands, eager to see a miniature city for the first time in real life. She slithered off the couch and sank on her haunches, leveling her eyes just above to table so she had a good view of the terrarium containing a city.

It was a total mess on the table, with various used mugs, candy wraps and emptied bags of chips sprawled out everywhere.

A big coke bottle blocked Miley's view, forcing her to shove it to the side. What greeted her was the splendid sight of a reasonably sized, modern-looking city, all boxed in roughly one square foot.

Packed in the middle stood a forest of skyscrapers, each roughly the size of her pinky finger. As Miley's glare moved more outwards, she saw that the buildings became more compact – with warehouses, apartment buildings and office blocks adorning the outer ring of the downtown area. On the outskirts, Miley saw dozens of panels, separated by roads, filled with houses matching the size of peas.

Houses where Miley's Dad could live in right now, she realized – the barely visible speck.

Speaking of specks, when taking even a closer look so that the tip of Miley's nose almost touched the glass – she saw an innumerable amount of dots traveling along the city's roads.

These specks have actual working cars!

Miley recently saw a documentary on television about nano-infrastructure fabrication and development. According to the documentary, a quantum leap was made last year due to the use of some cutting-edge technology – thus, making it possible for all these sophisticated miniature cities to sprout up on such short notice.

"This city yours?" Miley perked up, looking at Harper sitting on the couch, admiring some shrunken people standing upon the palm of her hand.

"Mmm." Harper nodded while roughly pinching one of the 2-inch tall tinies with her index finger, making him groan with pain. She chuckled with delight.

"So, like… what do you do exactly with it anyway? It's not like you can chat with them, can you?" Miley asked.

Harper shrugged while dangling her father in front of her lips, threatening to bite him. "Not much. I rather prefer my tinies to be a bit bigger. It's way more fun if you ask me." Miley saw Harper smiling before closing her hand into a fist – trapping the screeching shrunken people, including her own Dad, in an inescapable prison – before depositing them roughly on the couch right next to her left thigh. "Stay here!" Harper whipped, pointing like a school teacher at the tinies. "You should ask Charlie about it if you're interested in it. She has a Jumbo city."

Miley frowned. "Jumbo city?"

Harper nodded, bending over to grab a bottle of drink standing on the table. The tinies beside her lap remained obedient, just like Harper ordered them. Some of them – one of them her own father – was bowing down, worshipping her.

Harper appeared not even aware of it as she took a long sip of a bottle of Sprite, or she was simply ignoring it. "It's the equivalent of a metropolis holding millions of shrunken people in it," Harper explained while roughly snatching up the tinies to deposit them in her pocket before plunging back on the couch and wolfing down a bag of chips.

"I hear my name?"

Miley jerked up, startled when Harper's niece suddenly stood behind her with her headphone resting around her neck. The beat of a rock song blasted faintly through its small speakers. Miley was initially wary of Charlie's imposing presence. It was her first time seeing a woman with such a stately posture and fairly muscular arms and legs. However, Charlie's gracious smile made her feel at ease.

She was a stunning lady, though, and still looked very feminine despite her athletic build. The woman had a remarkably comely face with fine, perfectly symmetric features and a tightly knotted brunette ponytail.

Harper noticed Miley's discomfort her niece's presence was igniting. "She's a top-rated power lift contestant," Harper said proudly.

"You're looking at the upcoming world champion here, kiddo!" Charlie flexed her impressive bicep with a playful wink.

"That is so cool!" Miley said, looking instantly impressed after hearing these things.

"Anyway," Harper said, apparently bored as she fished one of the tinies from her pocket again to play with. "Miley here wants to know more about your city. Care to explain her a thing or two?"

"Certainly!" Charlie beamed at Miley. "Right this way, kid." She ushered Miley along. Both ladies walked up to the dining table in the back of the living room while Harper indulged in playing cruel games with her shrunken Dad again. On top of it stood a rectangular, glass box containing a microscopic city. Only this one was multiple times vaster than Harper's. It even had a naval base with a vast puddle of water to allow its ships to bob about.

"Miley, behold Charlievile, my personal Queen-dom!" Charlie put her hands on her hips and proudly showed Miley her city. Her muscular bare thighs, exposed beneath a raffled pair of denim shorts, towered over the tiny city, making them loom threatening over millions of freshly shrunken people.

"Wow! Where did you get this?"

"It's a prototype." Charlie placed a hand on the lid of the box. "Let's just say I've got the right connections." She gave a wink.

"Can I?..." Miley said carefully.

"Hey, look all you want, kid!"

Miley parked her butt on a chair and leaned in closer. "Wow! It's so huge! How many people live in there?" She peered through the glass, seeing so much so she did not know where to look.

"Uhm, about 6.2 million, give or take."

"Is that like a colosseum over there?" Miley pointed at the far end of the box near some sloping green hills. She could barely contain her excitement.

"Mmm," Charlie nodded, "Gladiator fights are being held there in my honor. I like my boys to be tough." Harper's niece parked her tight butt on a chair on the other side of the table. Millions of shrunken souls peered fearfully at the sky, where they saw the faces of two immensely huge females observing them from above like omniscient Goddesses.

Miley noticed a clearly visible commotion occurring in the city when Charlie's monumental countenance hovered in front of the glass, whereby millions of dots darted significantly faster than they did a second ago. Like a classroom full of students whipping to their diligent bearing the moment their teacher came barging in.

"What are they building there?" Miley pointed.

"Ah, yes, a statue of yours truly," Charlie smiled at her through the glass.

"On orders of you?"

Charlie chuckled. "No, silly. It's all on their own initiative. They love me, I guess."

Miley snorted. "Sounds much better than what my sister is planning to do."

Charlie frowned. ""And what is it your sister is planning?"

"She's applying at the moment for a city of her own. And from what I heard her talking, she craves to rule over them like some cruel Deity."

Charlie chortled. "Sounds like some girl."

"Tell me about it," Miley replied.

"No, the only thing I do is give them a new purpose in life," Charlie said.

Charlie removed one of her many rings from her finger and opened the lid. She carefully lowered her hand and placed her ring – the size of several city blocks to the tinies – upon some elevated plateau on the city's outskirts. Immediately, from all sides, came dozens of vehicles riding up. Miley watched it all with curiosity. Charlie handed her a magnifying glass for a better view. She saw thousands of specks working fervently to make the ring clean and shiny again.

"They're the best for these kinds of chores, kiddo," Charlie whispered in Miley's ear with a smile before sauntering off towards the kitchen, putting her headphone on.

"That'll be forty-five dollars, please," the cashier said after scanning a woman's product standing in front of Melody in line at the department store checkout.

"Of course," The woman smiled, took out a wrinkled five-pound note from her wallet, and handed it to the cashier. She looked slightly annoyed over her shoulder when her ten-year-old daughter tugged at her dress hem.

"The ribbons too, please, mom." The girl waved with a box in her hand. "Leo says he likes the colors."

Melody's eyes drifted off to the other hand of the girl, dangling next to her body. There, she saw a teeny figure – roughly the size of her son – tightly trapped in a fist. Melody pitied him as she saw him hanging there in a horizontal position, which must have been relatively uncomfortable.

"Not now, Eliza," the woman replied.

"But you promised!" Eliza stomped her foot in a tempered outburst.

"Hey! Do I need to ground you again?" The mother scowled down at her daughter. "Stop this foolishness at once!"

Eliza jutted her arm out, punching her fist – containing the little figure – nearly in her mother's face. "But he wants it too, mom!" Eliza whined.

All Melody could hear were squeaky yells of protest coming from the tiny boy. He clearly did not concur with what his giant sister was telling their mother.

All cranky, the mother conjured a glass jar out of her pocket. "You want to take care of them? Huh? Do you, Eliza? You know what a chore that is?" Her hand – holding the jar – trembled in front of the girl's face.

Eliza shook her head fiercely. "I want to take care of Rob! Not of a bunch of lice people!" The girl's lips twitched with disgust.

"Mark your words, young lady! This is your family!" The mother replied, pointing at the jar containing several dots teeming about.

"Was my family! Now they're just lice-people." The little girl scowled while crossing her arms defiantly.

Melody could not believe her eyes. Here she saw a mother and a daughter discussing their family members as if they were pests. All because fate had chosen them to be shrunken down to the pitiful size they were now.

These specks were too tiny for Melody to discern their movement properly.

She envisaged them shaking with terror and prostrating themselves in front of the immense female visage that was taking up their whole field of vision beyond the glass.

While having this thought, Melody's attention jerked right back to her husband. She'd forgotten all about him. The last time she checked him, he was prostrating to her on her shoulder like she was some divinity.

"Fuck!" Melody said out loud – reaping startled faces from people around – when she could not see his pitiful existence on her shoulder. She frantically searched the rest of her body, groping about her clothing. Perhaps he fell off and was dangling now for dear life on some loose hanging thread.

"You've lost something, miss?" The cashier asked.

"Yes, my husband," she said. Melody dropped everything she held in her arms and rushed off to the parking lot.

She stepped in her car, started the engine, and drove home. The last time she recalled seeing her husband was at home just prior to her conversation with her daughter.

Melody was taken aback as she opened the front door. Her glare stopped at the floor, where they wandered from the hallway of the house to the living area further inside, where she was confronted with a raunchy disarray that was so chaotic it could have rivaled a pigsty. There were muddy footprints everywhere!

There could be only one who could have done this.

"Miley!" Melody screeched as her boots clattered on the tiled floor. "Miley! Come down here, this instance! Miley!" she yelled while peering upwards through the staircase hole. Julie showed up, coming out of her room.

"Where is your sister?" Melody asked.

Julie shrugged. "I haven't seen her since I got back from school."

"Are you alone?"

Julie shook her head. "Milena is in her room."

"Tell her to come down. No, wait, I'll go to her instead." All fired up; Melody stomped up the stairs. Julie quickly stepped to the side upon seeing the fierceness in her mother's eyes.

Someone is going to get a severe dressing-down. Julie thought as her mother scuttled past her. I'm glad it's not me.

"Follow her," The squeaky voice of Julie's shrunken brother standing on her shoulder spoke in her ear.

"While she's like this? Are you crazy?" Julie replied, peeking at her minuscule brother standing on her shoulder.

"Please, I'm yearning to see this," Lennard said. Julie looked reluctant still.

"I will tickle your feet for two straight hours if you do," Lennard added. That convinced Julie.

Melody did not take the trouble of knocking. She simply barged in by slamming the door open. It clanged against Milena's closet.

Milena leaped up from her bed. "What the hell, mom?! Where is the fire?"

"Come here!" Melody screeched, pointing her finger.

"But–"

"Now!" Melody screeched harder, whipping Milena into action. "Did you know about this?" Melody pointed at the messy floor.

Milena had an angry expression on her face. "It was Miley and her companions who caused all the mess - they came blustering in, tracking mud everywhere and turning the house into a complete disaster."

"I know it was Miley! But you saw it all happening, didn't you? What did you do about it?" Melody said, crossing her arms, awaiting an answer.

"What?! Why are you assigning this to me, mom? I just stated that it was Miley who caused this!"

"But you're the oldest in the house. The one who bears the responsibility when I'm not home. You should have stepped in."

"I did step in, mom! I told her to clean it all up."

"And yet, the mess is still here," Melody replied.

"What do you expect me to do, mom? Do you want me to forcibly pull Miley around by her hair and use it as a cleaning tool?"

"I want you to act like a grown-up for once."

Milena snorted. "Like you? With your lack of control over your emotions. You're sniffing through your nose like an amped-up pig over mud."

SMACK!

"That. Was. Epic." Lennard's squeaky voice spoke in Julie's ear after seeing their mother's open hand swinging wide to clatter hard on Milena's cheek. He found the look on the latter's face priceless.

"Where is your father?" Melody looked about on the floor. "I think I've lost him here somewhere."

"He's on my desk worshipping my bra," Milena squeezed through her teeth while rubbing the painful spot on her cheek.

Melody looked at her daughter, startled. "He's worshipping what?"

"My bra, mom! Are you deaf?!" Milena stared daggers.

Melody considered giving her daughter a corrective smack on the other cheek but thought better of it and entered Milena's room. She walked up to her daughter's desk. There, she sank on her haunches and zeroed in on the crumb-sized figure teeming about at Milena's black bra. She caught sight of her husband and was filled with dismay. Her husband was indeed venerating Milena's black bra. Just like she said.

"Have you forced him to do this?" Melody asked as Milena walked up to them, taking a seat on a chair. "Because if you did-"

"Of course not!" Milena snapped sharply. "He's doing this all by himself. Ask Lennard if you're in doubt."

Melody placed a finger on the table, presenting a long nail as a big spoon to her pitiful-sized husband. "Roland, are you coming? It's me,"

Melody noticed her spouse pausing his adoration rites for a bit before resuming them. As gently as possible, Melody moved her finger closer. Her crumb-sized husband stopped. Only this time, he stood up and scurried away from her while at the same time moving closer to his daughter – whose face was looming over the desk also.

Melody eyed Milena and noticed an almost imperceptible smirk forming on her lips.

"I'll take him!" Melody reached out and scooped up her unwilling husband in the nail of her finger.

Milena shrugged. "But I'm still his Goddess." She smiled mischievously at her mother.

"But you won't stay that." Melody rose to her feet and was about to leave Milena's bedroom when a disorienting sensation rushed from her core to her skull, harshly overbearing her with a wave of lightheadedness. She knew what it meant even before it happened. She was going to shrink. Her glare kept plastered at the door as she saw the thing rising higher and higher until it appeared like a monumental door Jack Spriggins must have witnessed when he climbed the beanstalk and stumbled upon a gigantic creature living up in the clouds.

After climbing out of the mountain of her clothes, standing atop on it naked, Melody pivoted carefully and felt her throat tighten as she beheld the tremendous size of Milena, who was gloatingly staring down at her with a gleam of joy in her eyes.

Holding hands, Lennard and his fraternal twin navigated through fire-filled streets strewn with bodies and moaning wounded. He veered left, duking into an alley in an attempt to escape the chaos when, suddenly, a burning corpse fell from the sky, plopping in front of their feet.

Paralyzed with shock, Lennard’s gaze locked at a deceased old man whose eyes were staring directly at him with a lifeless glow, gluing him to the ground. The poor lad's face was nearly completely eaten away by flames, charred beyond recognition. A few tiny fires still flickered in the wind, chipping away the older man's jacket and trousers.

A squeeze in Lennard's hand brought him back to the present moment. He looked at Julie. "Step over him." she prodded.

Just then, a loud honking noise pierced through the air. Lennard looked up to see a large lorry barreling toward them, mowing down people as it came closer, hurling them against walls and dumpsters.

"Now, brother!" Julie said, her voice drenched with more urgency this time. The lorry tumbled its way to them and was barely the length of a tennis court away from them.

Lennard gave a solemn nod, braced himself and stepped over the smoldering corpse – that reeked like fried steak mixed with a coppery tinge and sulfur dioxide from the burned hair – before barging his way through a door, right in time before the lorry was able to ride them over.

A thunderous laughter boomed from overhead, sounding awfully familiar. "Come," Julie tugged her brother up. "We have to go. She will save us."

"I seriously doubt that," Lennard mumbled as he scrambled up to follow his sister.

A deep gasp escaped their mouths, stopping them in their tracks as they entered the open street. A hand of frightfully huge size soared above the city's skyline, hovering over like a mothership.

"Oh, my God!" Julie pointed with a trembling finger. "It's going to attack!"

The hand stretched one of its fingers out and relentlessly plunged down upon a 25-story skyscraper teeming with shrieking people in an alarmed state to get out of the building as quickly as possible. Its weight pulverized story after story, busting windows on the whole line as it crashed to the next floor and so on, until there was nothing left than a pan-caked composition of steel, reinforced concrete, wood, glass and stone, mingled with compressed remains of the organic self-aware creatures that were present in the building on the moment it got attacked.

"I recognize that hand," Julie pointed at the monumental hand retracting back into the sky to find another unsuspecting building to crush. "Look at the pink bracelet clasped around the wrist with the cheap-looking blue plastic ornaments attached."

"Oh my," Lennard brought out. "that's…." Before he was able to finish his sentence, he flinched from a deafening rumble, cracking the streets, as the same finger shot down from the sky to annihilate a warehouse merely two blocks away from them, pitching the pandemonium on the streets to an even higher level. As they watched in terror, the humongous hand ascended back into the sky, apparently searching for another target. As Lennard's eyes followed its movement, it noticed an even vaster object soaring beyond it, filling his entire purview.

Two monumental eyes hovered above them, gazing at them all with sadistic amusement as their city looked like nothing more than a disarrayed anthill to the entity they belonged to.

A young girl of godlike proportions was watching their sorrow with interest. Her features became more apparent the moment she stood up to her full height, showcasing the magnitude of her celestial body as it stretched far above their urban environment.

Lennard gasped as he started to recognize her.

His meager mind could hardly fathom that this girl, whose hands looked big enough to uproot their entire town, was none other than his kid sister, Miley – a twelve-year-old runt who did not look like a runt anymore but like an incomprehensible enormous Goddess.

From the shadows of her curly nutmeg hair peered a pair of bright blue eyes, twinkling with malicious delight as they surveyed the cityscape beneath them, revealing the joy she felt while towering over everything else.

Miley's usual skinny legs looked like pillars of doom, displaying their earth-shattering might as they soared dramatically high before vanishing beneath the black fabric of a dress that danced around her thighs.

A hand was placed on Miley's shoulder, making her head turn around.

Julie gasped in horror. "Oh God, not her! Anyone but her!"

It was Harper, one of Miley's best friends. A comely ginger girl with freckles on her cheeks and a cruel personality, here to join Miley in the domination of the tiny world at their feet.

The two monolithic teens embraced each other before turning their attention to the doomed city at their feet, ready to dole out judgment with their sneakers to anyone who refused to heed their every command. "We did it, Miley. We rule the world now."

With a proud smile, Harper wrapped an arm around Miley's neck and casually placed the sole of her dirty sneaker upon a few city blocks, annihilating them. Miley followed suit and found a target of her own.

Screams of terror rose, and just like everyone else in the wrecked city, Lennard too felt the urge to show submission before the power of these brat Goddesses by bowing down before them, asking them permission to exist. Lennard shivered with fear as his head was planted in the dust to venerate the deities above him. Evil laughter thundered down from the sky as more blocks crumbled under the might of Goddess Miley as she planted a sneaker on top of an industrial district, igniting blinding explosions that torched buildings around them.

A searing pain flared up in Lennard's stomach, feeling like a tree trunk was thrust into his belly. He yelled out a scream of pain and sat up with a gasp, looking into the monumental worried face of Julie hanging above him and her colossal retreating finger that was poking him.

"Everything okay?" Julie said, sitting on her bed while keeping her eyes fixed on her shrunken brother lying on a hammock beside his dollhouse on her nightstand.

Lennard groaned and massaged his stomach. "Can you give me a warning before waking me up next time?" He climbed out of his hammock.

Julie snorted. "I did, but you wouldn't budge."

"Ugh. Hey, listen, do you believe Miley has cruelty in her?" Lennard asked.

His sister raised her eyebrow. "What? Did you dream about her?"

Lennard sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Not only about her, I'm afraid."

"Milena?" Julie asked.

Lennard shook his head. His eyes lit up at the mention of his oldest sister's name. "Mom!"

Julie exhaled heavily and leaned her back against the wall, clenching her knees under her arms. "Still in her grasp, just like Dad, I presume."

"We have to safe them, Julie," Lennard said, looking firmly at his gigantic sister. "Or they might end up in a microscopic city ruled by Queen bitch."

Julie gave a derisive chuckle. "That wench will never pass the test."

"Don't be so sure about that," Lennard replied. "She has her ways. She will get a city."

Julie sighed. "Ugh, you're probably right. My friend's 21-year-old niece's mother is connected to Small Corp, and she told me that the girl owns multiple cities worth a small country. Can you believe that? A whole society of millions compelled to dance to the tunes of a single megalomaniac girl."

+++

"Ugh," little Melody grunted while doing her best to balance the pencil Milena had given her to write down all the important information her daughter needed to carry out her new position as head of the family.

After plowing with the pencil – that was like a tree trunk to her pitiful size – to write down another couple of digits on the paper, Melody gave an exhausted heave and tossed the pencil on the table. "There,"

Milena's gaze darkened as she saw her shrunken mother throwing in the towel. "You're not done yet,"

As she caught her breath while leaning her elbows on her knees, Melody compelled herself to stand up and looked up at her daughter's torso towering over the table.

Can't you write it for me?" she pleaded. "This thing weighs a ton."

But not a single form of compassion could be read in Milena's eyes, only a face that appeared empty of expression.

The brat is punishing me.

Melody glanced at her daughter's cheek. The one she'd landed a hefty smack upon with her hand earlier. The reddish palm print on Milena's cheek was already fading away. It made Melody yearn for the time – barely an hour ago – that she still held sway over her children. Now, they were all towering titans and immeasurably powerful compared to her insect-like existence.

Milena controlled every aspect of Melody's life now, and the girl did not waste any time by showing it.

Here Melody was, dutifully handing over the final straw of her old life by giving Milena all the required information about her financial accounts, credit cards, all necessary passwords and codes, and all the secret locations in the house where she stashed money, her jewelry, and even a firearm.

After this, Milena will hold all strings, and she will no longer be needed. Melody feared for the future under Milena's thumb and how the girl would treat her and her even more pitiful husband. In her head, she was already devising plans to escape in an attempt to find Julie or Miley.

She looked contemptuously at the monumental black bra next to Milena's right arm on the table. She could not see him, but in one of its cups was her crumb-sized husband, imprisoned there by Milena and commanded to worship her.

Milena promised to hand him over to Melody, but only if she would comply by giving her all the information she sought. If not, Milena threatened to keep her shrunken Dad imprisoned in the cup of her bra, where he would worship her until his last breath.

Holding hands, Lennard and his fraternal twin navigated through fire-filled streets strewn with bodies and moaning wounded. He veered left, duking into an alley in an attempt to escape the chaos when, suddenly, a burning corpse fell from the sky, plopping in front of their feet.

Paralyzed with shock, Lennard’s gaze locked at a deceased old man whose eyes were staring directly at him with a lifeless glow, gluing him to the ground. The poor lad's face was nearly completely eaten away by flames, charred beyond recognition. A few tiny fires still flickered in the wind, chipping away the older man's jacket and trousers.

A squeeze in Lennard's hand brought him back to the present moment. He looked at Julie. "Step over him." she prodded.

Just then, a loud honking noise pierced through the air. Lennard looked up to see a large lorry barreling toward them, mowing down people as it came closer, hurling them against walls and dumpsters.

"Now, brother!" Julie said, her voice drenched with more urgency this time. The lorry tumbled its way to them and was barely the length of a tennis court away from them.

Lennard gave a solemn nod, braced himself and stepped over the smoldering corpse – that reeked like fried steak mixed with a coppery tinge and sulfur dioxide from the burned hair – before barging his way through a door, right in time before the lorry was able to ride them over.

A thunderous laughter boomed from overhead, sounding awfully familiar. "Come," Julie tugged her brother up. "We have to go. She will save us."

"I seriously doubt that," Lennard mumbled as he scrambled up to follow his sister.

A deep gasp escaped their mouths, stopping them in their tracks as they entered the open street. A hand of frightfully huge size soared above the city's skyline, hovering over like a mothership.

"Oh, my God!" Julie pointed with a trembling finger. "It's going to attack!"

The hand stretched one of its fingers out and relentlessly plunged down upon a 25-story skyscraper teeming with shrieking people in an alarmed state to get out of the building as quickly as possible. Its weight pulverized story after story, busting windows on the whole line as it crashed to the next floor and so on, until there was nothing left than a pan-caked composition of steel, reinforced concrete, wood, glass and stone, mingled with compressed remains of the organic self-aware creatures that were present in the building on the moment it got attacked.

"I recognize that hand," Julie pointed at the monumental hand retracting back into the sky to find another unsuspecting building to crush. "Look at the pink bracelet clasped around the wrist with the cheap-looking blue plastic ornaments attached."

"Oh my," Lennard brought out. "that's…." Before he was able to finish his sentence, he flinched from a deafening rumble, cracking the streets, as the same finger shot down from the sky to annihilate a warehouse merely two blocks away from them, pitching the pandemonium on the streets to an even higher level. As they watched in terror, the humongous hand ascended back into the sky, apparently searching for another target. As Lennard's eyes followed its movement, it noticed an even vaster object soaring beyond it, filling his entire purview.

Two monumental eyes hovered above them, gazing at them all with sadistic amusement as their city looked like nothing more than a disarrayed anthill to the entity they belonged to.

A young girl of godlike proportions was watching their sorrow with interest. Her features became more apparent the moment she stood up to her full height, showcasing the magnitude of her celestial body as it stretched far above their urban environment.

Lennard gasped as he started to recognize her.

His meager mind could hardly fathom that this girl, whose hands looked big enough to uproot their entire town, was none other than his kid sister, Miley – a twelve-year-old runt who did not look like a runt anymore but like an incomprehensible enormous Goddess.

From the shadows of her curly nutmeg hair peered a pair of bright blue eyes, twinkling with malicious delight as they surveyed the cityscape beneath them, revealing the joy she felt while towering over everything else.

Miley's usual skinny legs looked like pillars of doom, displaying their earth-shattering might as they soared dramatically high before vanishing beneath the black fabric of a dress that danced around her thighs.

A hand was placed on Miley's shoulder, making her head turn around.

Julie gasped in horror. "Oh God, not her! Anyone but her!"

It was Harper, one of Miley's best friends. A comely ginger girl with freckles on her cheeks and a cruel personality, here to join Miley in the domination of the tiny world at their feet.

The two monolithic teens embraced each other before turning their attention to the doomed city at their feet, ready to dole out judgment with their sneakers to anyone who refused to heed their every command. "We did it, Miley. We rule the world now."

With a proud smile, Harper wrapped an arm around Miley's neck and casually placed the sole of her dirty sneaker upon a few city blocks, annihilating them. Miley followed suit and found a target of her own.

Screams of terror rose, and just like everyone else in the wrecked city, Lennard too felt the urge to show submission before the power of these brat Goddesses by bowing down before them, asking them permission to exist. Lennard shivered with fear as his head was planted in the dust to venerate the deities above him. Evil laughter thundered down from the sky as more blocks crumbled under the might of Goddess Miley as she planted a sneaker on top of an industrial district, igniting blinding explosions that torched buildings around them.

A searing pain flared up in Lennard's stomach, feeling like a tree trunk was thrust into his belly. He yelled out a scream of pain and sat up with a gasp, looking into the monumental worried face of Julie hanging above him and her colossal retreating finger that was poking him.

"Everything okay?" Julie said, sitting on her bed while keeping her eyes fixed on her shrunken brother lying on a hammock beside his dollhouse on her nightstand.

Lennard groaned and massaged his stomach. "Can you give me a warning before waking me up next time?" He climbed out of his hammock.

Julie snorted. "I did, but you wouldn't budge."

"Ugh. Hey, listen, do you believe Miley has cruelty in her?" Lennard asked.

His sister raised her eyebrow. "What? Did you dream about her?"

Lennard sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Not only about her, I'm afraid."

"Milena?" Julie asked.

Lennard shook his head. His eyes lit up at the mention of his oldest sister's name. "Mom!"

Julie exhaled heavily and leaned her back against the wall, clenching her knees under her arms. "Still in her grasp, just like Dad, I presume."

"We have to safe them, Julie," Lennard said, looking firmly at his gigantic sister. "Or they might end up in a microscopic city ruled by Queen bitch."

Julie gave a derisive chuckle. "That wench will never pass the test."

"Don't be so sure about that," Lennard replied. "She has her ways. She will get a city."

Julie sighed. "Ugh, you're probably right. My friend's 21-year-old niece's mother is connected to Small Corp, and she told me that the girl owns multiple cities worth a small country. Can you believe that? A whole society of millions compelled to dance to the tunes of a single megalomaniac girl."

+++

"Ugh," little Melody grunted while doing her best to balance the pencil Milena had given her to write down all the important information her daughter needed to carry out her new position as head of the family.

After plowing with the pencil – that was like a tree trunk to her pitiful size – to write down another couple of digits on the paper, Melody gave an exhausted heave and tossed the pencil on the table. "There,"

Milena's gaze darkened as she saw her shrunken mother throwing in the towel. "You're not done yet,"

As she caught her breath while leaning her elbows on her knees, Melody compelled herself to stand up and looked up at her daughter's torso towering over the table.

Can't you write it for me?" she pleaded. "This thing weighs a ton."

But not a single form of compassion could be read in Milena's eyes, only a face that appeared empty of expression.

The brat is punishing me.

Melody glanced at her daughter's cheek. The one she'd landed a hefty smack upon with her hand earlier. The reddish palm print on Milena's cheek was already fading away. It made Melody yearn for the time – barely an hour ago – that she still held sway over her children. Now, they were all towering titans and immeasurably powerful compared to her insect-like existence.

Milena controlled every aspect of Melody's life now, and the girl did not waste any time by showing it.

Here Melody was, dutifully handing over the final straw of her old life by giving Milena all the required information about her financial accounts, credit cards, all necessary passwords and codes, and all the secret locations in the house where she stashed money, her jewelry, and even a firearm.

After this, Milena will hold all strings, and she will no longer be needed. Melody feared for the future under Milena's thumb and how the girl would treat her and her even more pitiful husband. In her head, she was already devising plans to escape in an attempt to find Julie or Miley.

She looked contemptuously at the monumental black bra next to Milena's right arm on the table. She could not see him, but in one of its cups was her crumb-sized husband, imprisoned there by Milena and commanded to worship her.

Milena promised to hand him over to Melody, but only if she would comply by giving her all the information she sought. If not, Milena threatened to keep her shrunken Dad imprisoned in the cup of her bra, where he would worship her until his last breath.