'Fight
Night' had been far worse than Grant could have possibly imagined.
When he
wasn't bouncing from Sadie's fingers like a yo-yo, the world spinning
and his ears thundering from the roar of the enormous crowd, he could
actually see what was happening.
It
turned out that the entirety of the campus's Greek Life had the same
power to shrink people and the brothers of Alpha Chi Rho forced their
shrunken prisoners to fight to the death in a gladiatorial pit. From
his place dangling at Sadie's hip, he had watched people beat each
other senseless, only stopping when they were pulled apart by massive
hands. Then the makeshift weapons came out, which were used to maim
and kill as if they were made out of steel rather than cheap white
plastic.
By the
end of it, when some guy in a delivery uniform had been declared the
winner, Grant felt like he was going to be sick and couldn't tell if
it was from what he had seen or the way Sadie constantly bounced him
with her enormous fingers.
His
hope that he would merely be stuffed into her pocket and she would go
home was quickly dashed though. The enormous redhead stuck around,
drinking cup after cup of jungle juice while chatting with enormous
frat boys.
At
first Grant greeted being left to dangle at Sadie's hip as a reprieve
but it dawned on him that it was far worse than being toyed with. For
most of his life he had been overlooked by people just like everyone
in that room but now they were all literal giants in comparison to
him. Unless they happened to look right at him, they didn't see him.
He was literally beneath their notice and he became certain that if
he slipped out of his crude leash and fell to the floor, he'd be
crushed beneath one of their enormous feet without a glance.
As the
night wore on, the giant guys started to come on to his redheaded
captor.
They
grinned down at her with drunken horny expressions then flexed their
meaty biceps or offered to let her feel their abs. Grant rolled his
eyes at the first display until he heard Sadie giggle and then
watched her pale dainty fingers squeeze the rock hard muscles that
were presented to her. Sometimes she swooned but mostly the giant
girl cracked a lame joke that made the enormous guys roar with
laughter.
In a
million years, Grant would have never guessed that a tattooed girl
like her would have any interest in guys like them but he was forced
to watch the same scene play out over and over at an impossible size.
And
that's when there was a fifty-fifty chance that whatever behemoth was
currently hitting on her would reach down and pluck him up between
his gargantuan fingers. They all scoffed at the sight of him while
their rough fingerpads ran over his body, which made him squirm and
yelp and only evoked a dismissive chuckle from the enormous men.
Sadie
did nothing to stop them, she simply watched it happen with a
disinterested look.
The
giants talked about how Grant wouldn't last long in 'The Pit', which
sent a jolt of fear running down his spine while his captress simply
shrugged, her voice booming some variation of, “That's not what
he's for.”
Then
he'd be dropped and his body sent swinging wildly through the air
until it collided with Sadie's firm thigh. His terrified screams were
swallowed up by the thunder of the party and he'd go back to being
nothing more than an accessory for the giant girl.
Grant
lost count of how many times he cried by the time Sadie stumbled out
into the cool night air.
The
frat house had been thick with body heat and almost humid thanks to
the collective breath and sweat of the giant people. Outside, Grant
found himself quickly shivering while he swayed with each of Sadie's
slow stumbling steps.
“Wait...”
The word came out in a soft slur, marred by heavy breathing while the
girl steadied herself. She lifted Grant up and his reflexive
twitching was incapable of budging the girl's powerful digits. He was
stuffed deep into her pocket then tucked beneath her thin wallet
before she started moving once again, her hiccups echoing through the
night.
As
uncomfortable as it was being buried beneath her wallet, being at the
bottom of her pocket at least helped to ease the shock of her
powerful strides as she made her way across campus back to Sorority
Row.
She
moved quietly through the enormous house before slowing to a crawl
when she finally returned to her room.
Her
wallet was pulled out first, then Grant was hauled out and the chain
he was attached to was unclipped from her pants. He found himself
rising higher and higher into the sky until he hung before her glazed
over eyes.
A stiff
wind that reeked of cheap vodka and kool-aid left his eyes watering.
“Welcome
to the rest of your life, little dude,” she whispered before
lowering him back down to the floor.
The
unpleasant stench of her breath was replaced with the sour smell of
boot leather and foot sweat as Grant found himself being set down
between her shoes. Her boots had a platform that rose almost as high
as his waist and the stiff black walls of her Docs were covered in
added chains, spikes, and rivets. He watched with wide eyes as she
clipped the chain into the eyelet at the very top of the shoe before
rising back up to her full height.
Grant
hadn't been at her feet since that afternoon and any thought of
escape was suddenly thrown from his mind as his neck craned back and
back to take her in. Her body was so big that it eclipsed her face
from view, making her nothing more than two pillars of plaid and
distant jingling metal.
Then
those plaid pillars crashed down with a faint thump that reverberated
through the floor and a gale-force wind that blew across the world,
tousling his still poofy curls. She fumbled with her shirt's buttons
and let out a thunderous sigh of relief when she removed her bra,
which was slung haphazardly across the back of her desk chair.
With no
further words, the redhead flopped back onto her bed and fell into a
drunken stupor, not even bothering to take her black ankle socks off.
He stared up at her foot for a long minute, struggling to think about
just how much power it held and then he looked at where his chain was
clipped to her boot.
It was
definitely possible for him to climb up and unclip it but the door
was firmly shut and he doubted there was some hidden way out or else
neither of the other two shrunken people he saw earlier would still
be there.
Closing
his eyes, Grant simply let his body go slack on the thin carpet.
Nightmares
woke him up every hour or two.
No
matter how much he wished to forget what he saw that night, Grant was
plagued by the sight of people killing each other all while his now
former classmates cheered above them. Sometimes he would be in the
ring, fighting for his life. In other dreams, he was trapped on the
floor, dodging the gargantuan feet of the crowd while they huddled in
to watch the last fight, the grunts and painful shouts of the
competitors somehow cutting through their thunderous voices. But the
nightmare that finally kept him up was one where he was hanging from
Sadie's belt and one of the enormous giants lifted him up into the
sky. Instead of merely scoffing at him though, they announced that he
was too pathetic for someone like Sadie and she simply shrugged in
response. Grant then plummeted toward the giant's wide open lips, the
darkness of his throat getting bigger and bigger.
He
snapped awake with a terrified shout to find himself still on the
floor, the shadowy form of Sadie's boot towering over him, just like
it had every other time he woke up.
The
difference now was that there was warm morning light coming in
through a small window above his captress's bed. Staring across the
cavernous room, he blinked when he realized that Tiffany's bed was
currently empty and that Cassidy was already sitting up at her desk.
The
enormous blonde was already dressed for the day; tall sky blue socks
dotted with clouds stretched up her meaty calves, denim shorts clung
to her curvy hips, and a pink shirt with the sorority's increasingly
familiar letters was stretched across her chest. At her feet, the
shrunken man that Grant had seen yesterday was frantically running
his tongue along the white toe cap of a pink Converse sneaker.
High
above, Cassidy tied her hair back into a loose ponytail while
clucking her tongue, “You really should have gotten those done
after I got back from dinner last night.”
“I'm
sorry, Miss!” The shrunken man cried out, his voice wavering
through the air.
Her
right foot lifted up and slid into the shoe the shrunken man wasn't
working on. Cassidy settled down into her desk chair and crossed her
legs so that the sneaker's rubber tread dangled over the tiny man. As
her fingers worked to tie the laces above, the little man rubbed
frantically at the rubber on the floor.
“I'd
rather you do better than apologize,” Cassidy boomed with a sigh,
“Do you want Jacob to think that my slave doesn't care how my shoes
look?”
Based
on the way her prisoner stiffened and shook his head, Grant figured
that Jacob was the guy she was currently dating, who was probably
some enormous frat boy like the ones who had manhandled him the night
before.
“No,
miss, not at all,” he cried up between licks.
“Then
you better hope he doesn't notice any scuffs,” Cassidy tutted
before the sneaker suddenly ascended into the heavens. The young man
reached for the shoe desperately, his fingers scratching against the
outsole before he fell limply to the floor. The blonde crossed her
legs the other way, tied the laces tight, and then rose to her feet.
Grant
could feel the faint tremors even from across the room and he
sympathized with the way the tiny man cowered on the floor, certain
that he must have felt like the earth was about to open up and
swallow him.
“I'm
going out tonight, so I'm going to want options when I get home,”
Cassidy added while sliding her laptop and some books into her
backpack. She slung the pack onto her shoulders before tapping the
sneaker the tiny man had been working on against the floor,
“Understood?”
“Yes,
miss!”
“Ok,”
the blonde's face suddenly broke into a smile as she waved down
cutely at the shrunken man, “Byeeeee.”
Her
feet spun about on their heels and then she was out the door.
Grant
watched as his counterpart scurried across the floor without a
moment's hesitation to crawl among the various pieces of footwear
beneath Cassidy's bed. He watched with fascination as the shrunken
man pushed or pulled at different pairs, clearly trying to decide
which ones he thought Cassidy might want to wear before setting to
work cleaning them with his tongue.
Bile
rose in Grant's throat at the sight, his mind unable to stop thinking
about all the grit, dust, and germs that must coat the outside of any
shoe that crossed campus several times a day.
Turning
his head toward the other side of the room, he realized that
Cassidy's shrunken prisoner wasn't the only one already working.
Tiffany's female captive was spit shining a pair of heeled black
booties with a terrifying desperation.
As if
merely noticing her shoes had summoned her, the door was pushed open
and the towering girl strode in. Unlike Cassidy, Tiffany was dressed
like a professional; shiny white blouse, gray pencil skirt, and dark
tights with a faint floral pattern. In the skies overhead, she was
rapidly spooning yogurt between her dark red lips.
She
said nothing as she simply lifted her foot and slid it into the
appropriate shoe. The shrunken girl scrambled about to reach the
small zipper that secured the bootie to the comparatively giant
girl's foot. She then turned around and repeated the process with the
opposite shoe, before immediately running out from between the girl's
feet.
“Find
out from Cassidy's slave if there's a theme to the party Jacob's frat
is throwing tonight,” Tiffany boomed while bending down to drop her
empty yogurt cup onto the floor, “And pick me something appropriate
for it.”
“O-of
course, miss!” The shrunken girl stammered, her eyes locked on the
yogurt cup that had been set down on the floor.
High
above, Tiffany was licking the spoon clean, “You can have the rest
of that.”
“Oh
thank you, miss!” The girl's voice cracked as she rushed toward it
on all fours, “Thank you so much!”
Tiffany
didn't say anything else, she simply grabbed a laptop bag from her
desk and walked out as if she hadn't just been issuing commands to
someone who wasn't even a tenth of her size.
Grant
just sat there, utterly perplexed at the sight of another human being
diving into a cup of yogurt like it was the greatest gift they had
ever received. Yet, as he watched the girl tip it over and crawl
inside to scoop the remnants directly into her mouth, he realized
just how empty his own stomach was.
A
painful rumbling made him clutch his belly and he immediately looked
up at the socked foot that still hung high over his head, dangling
off of the side of the bed as if the giant redhead hadn't moved at
all throughout the night.
His
throat was so dry that when he took a breath to shout at her, he
immediately started to cough. When he finally stopped, Grant simply
slumped back down onto the floor and shook his head at the
realization that he was too weak to do anything beside rest.
Falling
into a tired haze, he wasn't sure if a few minutes passed or if it
took an hour or more before the foot above him suddenly twitched.
Grant stirred at the same time a groggy moan rumbled across the sky,
followed by a muttered curse.
“What
time is it,” Sadie rumbled while the bed creaked beneath her
shifting weight. The foot that had dangled over his head for hours
suddenly plummeted, shaking the world while the redhead rubbed sleep
from her eyes and scanned the room, “Course they're already gone.”
Grant
sat up as the girl rose to her feet and stretched before scratching
her backside and then picking her nose as if there weren't three
people whose eyes were glued to her every move. Flicking whatever had
stuck to her finger down to the floor, the redhead groaned and then
stumbled over her own discarded pants.
“Ugh,
the fuck,” she bent down and tossed them onto her bed before
continuing across the room, not acknowledging Grant or the other two
prisoners in the slightest.
Staring
at his shrunken counterparts, Grant could see the way that they
cowered in her presence as if they weren't sure what was about to
befall them and that made his whole body shift uncomfortably. He had
no idea how long either of them had been imprisoned by the sorority
girls but it had clearly been enough time that both of them did what
they were told as if they'd been doing it their whole lives.
Which
meant that if they were still afraid of Sadie, they probably had good
reason to be.
He sat
there trembling while trying to figure out what the girl was going to
do to him when she got back. Grant couldn't imagine anything worse
than what she'd already done but then he remembered the warning she
had given him and the three strikes she had come up with. Shrinking
smaller, then being imprisoned with her toes, and then being squashed
like a bug.
His
eyes drifted to the top of her boot, where the chain attached to him
was clipped, but he had a feeling that attempted escape might be
worse than a single strike. And so he remained where he was,
struggling to calm his racing heart with one of the grounding
techniques they had talked about during the presentation on anxiety
at orientation last year.
No
amount of counting objects he could see or hear was enough to push
his heart back into his chest by the time Sadie returned with a towel
wrapped around her body and her clothes balled up in her hand.
Again,
she was clearly focused on her own life as she walked across the
room, muttering quietly to herself, “Should have time to grab a
coffee before class, I'll make it a latte so it has like,
calories...”
Grant
blinked at the girl's words, watching as her thumbs flashed across
her phone, clearly tapping in an order.
“I
could add actual food...” A queasy whine echoed from her mostly
flat stomach and she shook her head, “Nope, too much jungle juice
last night for that to work...”
He
watched as she completed the order then dropped her phone onto her
desk before turning her attention to the ugly armoire that was
crammed into the corner. She dressed quickly; pulling dark socks and
panties on before slipping into the same bra she had worn the
previous night. Then came a dark t-shirt with a band Grant didn't
recognize and finally a pair of loose jeans that she cinched tight to
her hips with a grommet belt.
“And
now...” her blue eyes swept over the tiny man to the boots he was
attached to and he watched as her face suddenly twisted with disgust,
“Hey, what the fuck, dude?”
Grant
blinked in confusion while his heart leapt into his throat.
“Why
the fuck are my boots still covered in beer and shit?” Sadie
growled as she picked up the one he wasn't attached to and turned it
over in her hands.
“I-
what?” He looked at the boot, which was marred with splattered
beer, jungle juice, and other mystery fluids before staring back up
at the giant girl, “How was I supposed to-”
The
boot fell from the sky and landed with a quake strong enough to send
him diving for cover.
“Why
do you think I clipped you to them, bro?!” She roared, stamping her
foot to emphasize her point, “You were supposed to clean them while
I slept so I could fucking wear them!”
“I
didn't know!” He shouted, his voice cracking from how raw his
throat was, “I'm sorry, I'll clean them-”
“I
don't have time for you to clean them now,” Sadie threw her hands
up and shook her head, “Un-fucking-believable.”
She
glanced at a space between her bed and the armoire that he couldn't
see and then sighed.
“It's
fine, I have another pair of platforms I can wear with these jeans.”
The
pair she grabbed were much taller though far less adorned than the
ones Grant was attached to, though when he saw the ladder-like laces
rising high into the sky, he swallowed a lump in his throat as he
imagined tying them up. To his surprise, she simply pulled down a
hidden zipper then tugged them on. Zipping them back up and letting
her feet slam against the ground, she glared down at him, “Why are
you still just fucking sitting there? My boots need to be cleaned,
dude.”
“Uh,
I-,” he nodded his head and stumbled toward them before he felt the
air race over his sandpapery tongue. Turning back toward her, he
could see that Sadie was already packing away her things for class.
Grant
didn't want to interrupt her but he didn't know how long she'd be
gone.
“Sa-”
Coughing, the shrunken man remembered that she didn't want him to use
her name and so he shouted up, “Boss! Uh, I need some w-water
and... and something to eat.”
With
her messenger bag slung across her chest, she glared down at him
while sliding two studded bracelets onto her wrists. “You should
have thought of that before you fucked up my outfit for today, little
dude.”
“Wha-bu-”
He struggled to wrap his head around her words before he finally just
shouted, “Please!”
She
took a single step back towards him, sending a powerful gust of
leather scented wind whipping across the world. He couldn't see her
face but he heard her hocking up spit from the back of her throat
before her pursed lips flashed across the sky.
A glob
of frothy saliva flew down like a missile to splatter against the toe
of the boot.
Warm
flecks sprayed across Grant's back, making him gag with disgust.
“There,”
the world was already shaking from her walking toward the door, “Now
get to work.”
The
door slammed shut with a boom that left Grant's ears ringing.
He
looked at the two other shrunken prisoners, both of whom stared back
at him with pity in their eyes. Yet neither of them moved toward him,
instead they simply shook their heads and went back to work.
Grant
stood there for a long moment before he turned toward the boot he was
attached to.
He
could see his own face reflected in the shine of Sadie's spit and he
shut his eyes tight.
“I'll
figure a way out,” he whispered to himself as he got down onto his
knees.
The
spit had already cooled by the time he dragged his tongue across it
and his tastebuds were assaulted by a mixture of mint and jungle
juice. The worst part wasn't the taste or even the knowledge of what
he was doing though, it was the way he began to instinctively suck
away at Sadie's spit, desperate to slake his thirst on anything.