The air
around Kendall was thick with the smell of Abigail's feet.
A cold
front had swept through campus just in time for the giant girl's
calculus final, which meant Kendall had awoken to the sound of the
giantess grumbling as she layered up in her closet. The shrunken girl
had remained trembling in the fetid but warm nest that she had
created out of the blonde's dirty laundry, watching Abigail pull on
first tights then a pair of fleece lined jeans and finally stuffing
her woolen socked feet into her platform Uggs. A t-shirt, a fleece,
and a hoodie were piled onto her chest before she grabbed a long wool
coat from the very back of her closet and wrapped it around her body.
Tugging
a beanie onto her head, the girl's dark green eyes latched onto
Kendall. Her face remained passive but her voice was firm when she
boomed, “Be ready when I get back, peasant.”
The
little girl spent the next few hours trembling, uncertain exactly
what she was supposed to do or prepare for. The moment she heard the
door knob start to turn, Kendall had raced out of the safety of her
makeshift bed and knelt down in the center of the room. She craned
her neck back as Abigail walked in, the small part of her cheeks that
sat exposed between her scarf and beanie a bright red.
Steam
poured out of a mug in her hand while she groaned miserably, the
floor shaking from her footfalls. “Be thankful that you don't have
to go outside today, peasant...”
The
blonde stood at her desk, slowly removing most of the layers that she
had put on that morning and dumping them onto her chair. Despite the
gloves that she had worn, her fingertips were still noticeably red
and the giantess winced when she pressed them against the hot mug.
Her
eyes glanced to the other side of the room, where her roommate's bed
sat empty, “Where's Michelle?”
“I
don't know, y-your Highness,” Kendall's voice quivered, from fear
and the faint chill that hung in the air, “She got dressed in what
looked like ski clothes and...”
“Ugh,
she would,” Abigail boomed as she plucked her laptop off of her
desk and tossed it onto her bed. She settled down on the edge and
then tugged her boots off with a sigh, “Probably having a snowball
fight with some frat boys or something...”
Kendall
watched as the girl peeled the thick wool socks from her feet and
draped them over the mouths of her boots. Abigail's wrinkled soles
were slightly red though she wasn't sure if that was from the cold or
from just walking.
“C'mere,
peasant,” Abigail snapped her fingers, “I'm not doing shit for
the rest of the day but that doesn't mean you aren't.”
The
moment she reached the larger girl's feet, Kendall found herself
being hauled into the sky and dumped onto the girl's bed. The blonde
let out a sigh and swung her feet up, letting them fall flat directly
in front of the shrunken girl and making her whole body sway.
Abigail's legs rose up to where her knees loomed over the bed like a
vast peak, the far slope of which became the resting place of her
giant laptop.
The
world trembled from the girl getting into a more comfortable
position. “Warm up my toes first, then get rid of any lint, then a
nice massage...” The litany of commands was interrupted by a yawn
and then a sip from what Kendall realized was a mug of hot cocoa,
“Then some lotion after that, it's so dry out...”
Her
shoulders slumped down as she finally realized what she was supposed
to be preparing for: a day of pampering the blonde after her calculus
final.
As
humiliating as it was to bend down and start hugging the girl's
already warm toes to banish away whatever minor cold clung to them,
Kendall found that she didn't really mind. It wasn't that she could
no longer feel humiliated by what she was forced to do, it was that
it no longer stung in the same way.
Abigail
didn't even taunt her anymore, she simply made her pronouncements and
that was that.
It was,
Kendall realized with a faint smile, the most 'royal' thing about
her.
She was
like a queen in a fairytale in that way. She announced her intentions
or what her end desire was and it was up to the literal little person
at her feet to figure out how to make it a reality. After all,
Kendall had never warmed up someone's toes before, she simply started
pressing her own minimal body heat against the digit in front of her
until it wiggled. When that happened, she took it as a sign to move
on to the next one and she repeated the process until none of the ten
toes in front of her bore a single blush of the cold outside.
The
little girl wasn't sure how long had passed before the huge feet
shifted, allowing her to massage the soles and then work lotion into
them, but Michelle had yet to return and Abigail seemed to have
fallen asleep.
Staring
down the girl's immense slumbering frame, Kendall found it difficult
to see her for the monster she was. With her chest rising and
falling, eclipsing her peaceful face where a little bit of drool
shined out of her agape mouth, Abigail looked like an exhausted
college kid. The kind of girl whose biggest problem in life was being
on academic probation because of the immense pressure her
overachieving parents put on her.
Then
she stirred and let out a beastly noise that shattered the illusion.
Abigail
coughed as she sat up, the whole world shaking while she reached for
a tissue from the small box that sat on her bedside table. The blonde
hacked something into it and made a miserable sounding noise as she
flopped back down onto her bed, sending another quake through
Kendall's world.
“Peasant,”
Abigail's voice was whiny and scratchy as she shook the whole bed
again with a shudder, “Where's my phone?”
Peering
around the giantess's body, she spied it hidden behind the girl's
still open laptop.
“Behind
your laptop, your Highness!”
“Can
you text, Leslie?” The giantess groaned, “I can't remember how to
do the thing...”
Kendall
had already started walking toward the girl's phone before she
blinked in confusion, realizing that she didn't have a clue what
Abigail wanted her to do, “D-do what, yo-your Highness?”
“Get
rid of a damn cold,” Abigail growled before she let out another
hacking cough, “They taught us right after rush last year...”
The
shrunken girl's body started to shake as she approached the phone,
all of the dark thoughts that had flooded her when she tried to email
Jordan coming right back to the forefront of her mind. She trembled
as she knelt down in front of the locked iPhone.
Abigail
sniffled, “The passcode's my birthday, 4-1-8-0-4.”
Kendall
punched in the number with a hand that was violently shaking, certain
that another round of violent intrusive images was about to paralyze
her in indecision. She couldn't help but wonder why Abigail was
making her do it, if it was some test of the spell or just that she
had forgotten in the haze of waking up congested after an unplanned
nap.
She
brought up the messages app and felt like bile was rising in her
throat.
The
most recent conversation was an unread message from Michelle telling
Abigail to come down to the Delta Psi house for hot toddies.
Kendall's vision wavered slightly and her chest tightened painfully
while she scrolled down to Leslie, whose contact had the Gamma Phi
Beta letters written in an emoji after her name. She tried to take a
deep breath but found it impossible as she braced herself against the
phone and then tapped the still bright screen.
“Tell
her to hurry,” the bed shifted as the giant girl curled up, “I
hate feeling like this...”
Kendall
felt like her skull was vibrating as she tapped out the message on
the digital keyboard. The minute she hit send, the little girl
scrambled away from the phone and didn't stop until she banged into
Abigail's knee, which formed a denim clad wall over her world.
She sat
there, panting for air while the terror oozed out of her body in
thick beads of sweat.
The
world shook from Abigail coughing again, her raspy voice rumbling,
“Did you tell her to hurry?”
The
little girl stammered, “O-of course, y-yo-your Hi-highness...”
despite the fact that she honestly couldn't remember what she had
written.
They
remained like that for several minutes, the world shaking from each
of Abigail's coughs, half of which were followed by the thunderous
noise of her blowing her nose or hacking up phlegm. A knock came at
the door a moment before it opened with a creak but it wasn't
Leslie's bubbly voice that filled the room, instead it was the bored
tones of the giant girl that had tutored Abigail earlier that
semester.
“Can
you really not remember how to cure a cold?” The giant girl asked
as her feet thumped against the floor.
Kendall
stood up and backed away as the girl's shadow fell across her world.
Much like before, she looked as if she had just woken up from a nap,
her dark hair messy and her baggy t-shirt wrinkled. Her dark eyes
looked over the scene, lingering on Kendall for a moment before
drifting back to Abigail's face.
“You're
not Leslie,” the girl moaned between coughs.
“Yeah,
she's busy studying so she told me to come,” Summer chuckled, “So
sorry but I won't be bringing you soup or cocoa with little
marshmallows or whatever...”
“Don't
be mean to me,” Abigail pouted, “I'm sick, Summer.”
“Just
be happy I didn't tell Sadie to come up here,” the girl rolled her
eyes, “Unlike you, she actually remembers the stuff we teach her.”
Abigail
huffed, which turned into another faint cough.
“Ok,
hold on, you big baby...”
Summer
lifted her hand while whispering in an almost musical fashion. She
pressed her thumb against Abigail's forehead then tapped her stomach
with the pointer and middle fingers of her opposite hand, which made
the giant blonde grunt. The air grew pleasantly warm for a moment and
Kendall felt her whole body suddenly relax while Abigail's shuddered
before she let out a faint moan.
When
the blonde spoke, her voice didn't bear a hint of congestion or sore
throat, “Thanks, Summer. Both for doing it and not telling Sadie
to.”
“She
would have done it,” the girl replied with a shrug.
“I
know but she would have been so mean about it.”
“Yeah,
she's a brat like that,” Summer laughed while reaching into the
pocket of her sweatpants, “Also, here put this into your tea or
coffee or whatever today and tomorrow. Same goes for Michelle when
she gets back and give some to your slave too...”
“What
is it?” Abigail lifted a small vial of clear liquid up above her
head, the confusion clear on her face as she peered into it.
“Prophylactic.
Think of it like a flu vaccine, which I hope you also got this year.”
Abigail's
cheeks suddenly turned red.
“Christ
alive,” the girl muttered, “Abigail, magic can do a lot but you
don't have to use it for everything. Especially when you don't
remember how to do most of it.”
“I've
had a hard semester,” Abigail's hand came down and scooped Kendall
up before thrusting her at Summer, “I shrank my first slave and
I've been busy training her.”
The
giantess looked at Kendall then down at Abigail, “Whatever.”
There
was a long pause before the little girl found herself being lowered
down, her feet sinking into her captress's soft stomach. For some
reason, Summer didn't leave, she just stood there staring down at
them before she let out a belabored sigh.
“How'd
your calc final go?”
“Pretty
good, I knew almost everything.”
“Cool...”
Summer took a deep breath, “Alright, then. I'm gonna go...”
“Wait,
I know you're not going to get it for me but is there still hot
cocoa?”
Summer
laughed as she started to walk away but she did nod, “Yeah, there
is...”
Abigail
let out a squeal of delight as she got out of bed and grabbed the mug
from her bedside table. Kendall remained wrapped up in the blonde's
fist as she moved through the house, struggling to process everything
that had just happened while the world blurred by.
She
found herself dropped onto a countertop in the top of the line
kitchen that sat at the back of the first floor of the immense
sorority house. A crockpot rose beside her like a warehouse and she
watched as Abigail ladled steaming hot chocolate into her mug with a
strange grin on her face.
“Grab
some marshmallows, peasant,” the blonde whispered, her hand waving
across the sky toward an immense bag that sat open beside the
crockpot.
It took
Kendall a few seconds to collect herself after the rapid descent but
she slowly walked up to bag and picked up a 'mini' marshmallow. It
looked to be roughly the size of a two pound bag of flour though she
was surprised to discover that it was still shockingly light. Feeling
Abigail's gaze on her back, she slowly grabbed up more until they
were too awkward to carry and then turned back to the giantess behind
her.
She
watched Abigail's fingers come down, uncertain why the blonde thought
her plan would be anything other than a way to make a mess before
realization struck her. Her shriek of 'No!' was only met with
laughter as Abigail pinched her at the waist and ripped her across
the sky.
Steam
tickled her kicking feet as she was literally dunked into the creamy
liquid below, the fingers releasing her before the hot liquid could
touch them. In her panic, Kendall opened her arms and the
marshmallows spilled directly into the mug, floating cheerily across
its surface while she struggled to keep her head above the hot
chocolate. It was hot but thankfully not scalding, much closer to a
hot bath than she had been expecting.
Abigail's
giggle rumbled across her world as the mug was brought up to the
girl's plump lips. Everything pitched forward as the girl took a sip
and the liquid rushed past Kendall, who found herself trying to pull
away even though she was far too big to be swept into the terrifying
maw. She watched the blonde's lips smack against each other, shadows
dancing across her sharp teeth beyond.
“Perfect,”
she boomed while her tongue slithered across her lips, clearing away
a few droplets while leaving them shining.
The
world shook and the hot chocolate splashed around Kendall while the
girl simply walked back through the house, clearly satisfied. She
could only sit there, struggling against the small waves and
sputtering every time she failed to brace for one. When the blonde
returned to her room, she immediately snatched up the potion that
Summer had left behind.
Kendall
stared up as the girl simply unstoppered it and gently tilted the
vial until a single drop fell down into the mug. Abigail then boomed,
“Open wide, peasant.”
Even
though she was a few inches tall and floating in a mug of hot cocoa,
Kendall found it strange to imagine that the liquid that came out of
the vial would actually do anything. Still, she also knew that
Abigail would force feed it to her one way or the other, and so she
opened her mouth as wide as she could.
A glob
of it fell down and smacked into the lower half of her face.
Her
nostrils burned and she struggled to swallow the liquid that had
managed to fill her mouth. The potion was shockingly oily with a
strong minty flavor that left her gasping for air as she splashed
about in Abigail's mug.
The
blonde smiled down at her, a dreamy look on her face as she lifted
the mug up to her lips, “You really were one of my big projects
this semester, peasant.”
Coughing
amidst the melting marshmallows, Kendall reflexively called out,
“Th-thank you, yo-your Highness.”
Abigail
made a low grumbling noise of contentment before lifting the mug to
her lips and taking another sip. “That's what I love to hear from
you. I was so worried those first few days. You weren't the little
math tutor I wanted and then you kept being so problematic.”
Kendall
couldn't help the frown that flashed across her face.
“I
kept trying to hold space for you, you know? I kept telling myself
that you needed time to adjust and all that but I kept thinking, 'She
knows I can crush her, right? Does she get that?' You got it though,
slowly but surely you learned how it all worked. I gave you firm
boundaries and then you started to flourish.”
The
shrunken girl pressed her lips together to keep from letting out the
incredulous noise that threatened to burst out of her throat.
“And
now there's real trust here,” she sighed happily, “I can let you
use my phone and laptop and you've never tried to contact anyone.”
Kendall's
mouth opened but before she could protest that it was the spell that
stopped her, a terrible realization blossomed in her mind. Abigail
wasn't good with magic. That's why she had needed Summer's help to
quickly cure her cold but if that was true then that meant it was
highly unlikely that Abigail had cast spells on her laptop and phone.
All of the intrusive thoughts that had paralyzed her and convinced
her not to get help had been her own.
“I
think that means you have a bright future with me,” Abigail proudly
thundered, “Just think, right now you're my only peasant but one
day, probably after undergrad or maybe after med school depending on
where I end up, I could shrink a few more little serfs and you could
be, like, the head one. What do they call those? Majordomos or
seneschals, something like that...”
Kendall
watched the girl's hand wave dismissively through the sky.
“You'll
be like Bee is for my mom,” the world slanted from another of the
girl's long sips before the mug was once again lowered, leaving her
staring up at the musing girl, “In fact, over winter break I want
you to kind of shadow Bee a bit. Think of it like a little
internship.”
The
shrunken girl couldn't help herself as she said, “O-of course, your
Highness...”
Abigail
continued on, planning out their intertwined lives while sipping her
cocoa, completely unconcerned with the way that Kendall was battered
against the porcelain walls as the liquid dwindled.
All the
little girl could think about though was the fact that she had been
the thing stopping herself. Every time she had thought about escape,
it had been all of her own fears that had kept her in place. She
wondered if she would ever be able to overcome that fear but then she
found herself staring up into the giantess's mouth.
A mouth
that could swallow her, maybe not whole but the girl's sharp teeth
would ensure that that didn't matter. Then there were feet that could
cover her entire body, fingers large enough to wrap around her and
crush her, and the fact that Abigail or more likely someone she knew
had the magical know-how to make her life far worse than she could
possibly imagine.
Kendall
didn't want to know what nightmarish hell Abigail could turn her life
into.
The
life she had lived the past semester was horrible but she was still
alive and while she might never escape, she still could one day. And
in all the days before that one, Kendall would apparently never have
to worry about the common cold ever again.
“Michelle's
still with the Delta Psis but they're all the way on the other side
of campus,” the giantess's words derailed Kendall's train of
thought, “I think I'm going to stay here and see if anyone wants to
play ping pong or foosball or whatever we have down in the
basement...”
Kendall's
prison shook as she was lifted up into the air and then she was
thrown to the floor as it was immediately set back down.
“It
gets cold down there so I'm going to put my boots on first...”
Struggling
back to her feet, Kendall felt the tremors of Abigail's platform Uggs
a moment before her hand appeared above the cup, gripping it before
yanking it into the air.
“Then
some more hot chocolate because I think I deserve a little treat
after the day I've had,” Abigail's palm shifted above and her face
filled the sky, “And you deserve one too for being such a great
little peasant, hm?”
“Thank
you, your Highness,” Kendall called up.
“You're
welcome, peasant,” she giggled while flipping her hair, “I am
nothing if not a magnanimous ruler.”
Abigail's
dark green eyes drifted down but Kendall found that the words of
praise were already rising in her throat, “Of course, your
Highness! You're the greatest!”
Her
plump lips spread into a genuine smile while Kendall felt her stomach
twist in discomfort. In that moment, she decided that if she was
going to be Abigail's servant, then she would do it with the same
fervor she had gone after everything in her life before the blonde
had shrunk her.
It was,
she knew, the best way for her to survive.