Prologue

"Excuse me, sir?" a voice echoed across an empty lobby. The voice was that of a twenty-four year old woman named Star. Her relatively short dark brown hair was unaffected by her running towards an apartment lobby desk due to it being tied back in the smallest and seemingly tightest ponytail you might ever see. Her thin black and grey argyle scarf, however, seemed as if it were trying to escape the neck of a murderer with its rapid and almost whip-like movements behind her. She was in a hurry.

Arriving at the desk, she stopped and took a single breath as if her running hadn't even happened. She was in pretty good shape, though not horribly skinny. The man at the desk said nothing.

"Um... Hello?" she responded to his silence.

"There is no running in the lobby, miss." The man did not seem to care much for his job.

"There is fucking blood on the wall in my apartment!" She screamed, ignoring completely his comment.

The man sighs. "Did you or a member of your family, husband, wife, child, parent, etcetera, happen to hurt themself as to cause the appearance of the biohazard?" He was quite obviously reciting something from presumably a handbook of some sort.

"My husband and I literally just moved in and there is blood on the wall behind the leather couch." she had responded, quite a bit more calm than a moment before.

"If your apartment has a leather couch and you did not bring it yourself, it was most likely left by the previous owner. It's their problem, not mine." The man then walked back into a room behind the desk, closing the door behind him, done with the conversation.

The woman sighed, turning it into a growl at the end before heading back to her apartment in defeat.

Arriving at her apartment, she opened the door and was surprised to not see her husband. He was usually pretty good at standing in one place. She began towards the wall on which she found the blood.

Standing in front of the wall, her jaw dropped as she stood before what was now glowing blood. She wasn't much of a screamer, and being squeamish was not her style either. She reached forward and touched the glowing blood.

Pulsating. Her bones began to pulsate and warm up rapidly. She tried to scream but only a small squeal escaped as her skin began to tear in a few places. Her hands grabbed at the opposite arms,  trying frantically to cut off the warmth in her bones and muscles. It was like she was trying to put out an invisible fire. She blacked out.

Awakening, she felt no pain, though the world seemed dark. She immediately assumed she had died and began to shake while pushing through the darkness. She located an exit and saw light once more. She looked around at walls, hundreds of feet tall and each too far to run to but for one that she stood close to. She peered downward. She was naked and standing on... She didn't understand what. It was soft and huge and both black and grey in color. She was puzzled but only for a moment as she realized what it was. Her scarf.

"What the hell is going on..." she said to herself as she began to walk away from the pile of her clothing and sneakers. Her next sight was one of more horror than her previous realization.

A body. A man she had once been close to. The man she had loved. Stepped on. Stepped on and staining the carpet without her ever having noticed that it was her sneaker that had made a descent on the tiny man's fragile being. She fell to her knees. She dreaded the dark magic that made this happen. She was an inch tall and she was crying. How pathetic an existence.

Part 1: The Cashier's Tale.

"Let's just buy these ones for now" said the voice, one as sweet as that of a girl a third of her age, of Erus Rare. She handed a man with dirty-blonde hair and a body that measured just barely what would be considered six feet tall a small stack of video games before kissing him on the cheek. His name was Ivan Rogue. He was the shorter five- foot-eight girl's boyfriend. She smiled after and looked into the man's almost grey eyes with her own vibrant green ones.

"Okay but first I have to warn you of something" the man said quietly.

"Wait what happened?" she responded.

He bent down a bit before moving aside her long brownish-black hair and whispering "You're too cute."

She smiled at him again. "You're way better, Ivan!" She responded.

Ivan hugged Erus and they walked together to the checkout.

Arriving at the checkout, the two are greeted by a man who is seemingly in his thirties. The man's long blonde hair is far from well kept inside of the black beanie that encompassed his head. The man wore an apron with a name tag--his name written on it in sharpie. "Ayvery"

"Well hello,... Uh..." Ivan glanced down to the man's name tag before continuing, "Ayvery? That's a pretty cool name."

"Yeah man my dad was mad chill when I was born and just wrote whatever the shit he wanted on the certificate." Ayvery explained whilst scanning and bagging items, "He was probably high at the time... Either way most of my friends call me Ayve though a LOT less over the last ten years..." The smile and happy tones of Ayvery's voice died down as he explained the last part.

"... Are you alright?" Erus looked rather worried as she asked,  "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Nah. I wish!" Ayve answered swiftly, bringing confusion to both halves of the couple customers, "I'd give anything to see my best friend again, even as some ghost. He used to live in that apartment building a few blocks away from here. Dude was supposedly killed by an intruder who stole the body and escaped. His girl left town after and no one has heard from her since... Guess she went crazy or some shit... Anyway, sorry to bother you with my life story. Your total today will be $226.16."

The two paid for the games and left the store, the haunting story they never asked to hear still thrashing in their heads about a murderer abducting a body. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say they were scarred. Especially when they had just moved into that same apartment building.

Part 2: Nothing Of Much Significance

The two returned to their apartment, having only been there once before, and only for a second as it lacked video games. They loved their video games. The two sat down at the wooden table next to the kitchen with their drinks they had picked up on the way home.

"So...” Erus started, lowering her hot chocolate from her lips, “That cashier was a little on the interesting side, huh?”

Ivan nodded and sipped his coffee before responding with, “I just find it odd that he would tell us all of that out of seemingly nowhere... Either way, I don’t think we should read too much into it. The guy didn’t seem to be the smartest. He could’ve made the entire thing up ten minutes before telling us.”

“I guess you’re right.” Erus responded, “We should probably get going on the damage deposit thing though.”

“Isn’t it too late for that since we’re already moved in?”

“No.” Erus once again responded, “I asked that guy at the front desk about it and he told me that so many people break things while moving stuff in, that he would rather we take the pictures and stuff after the fact. Apparently it improves business.”  

“That’s a little weird, but I guess it works.” Ivan commented, still a bit puzzled by the system.

The two took the next few hours moving things around and taking pictures. The flooring in the kitchen was chipped in a few places, but nothing too terrible. They surveyed the walls and found quite a few little holes both around the bedroom and livingroom that were most likely from hanging pictures and such. The off-white carpet in the livingroom was in pretty good shape, except for one spot near the couch, which was much whiter than the rest, most likely scrubbed with bleach to remove a stain. The rooms had very little damage.

“It looks like we have everything!” Erus finally said with a gleeful tone in her voice, “wanna go down to the front desk?”

“Well...” Ivan started, “Everything but behind the furniture.”

The two looked toward the black leather couch in the livingroom. It had come with the apartment, but according to the lady who helped move them in, it was left by a previous owner, and should be considered a bonus to renting out that room. It was a loveseat, obviously used, as the cushions were pressed down and worn quite a bit. It’s leather was almost shiny, given it’s very dark black coloration.

Ivan walked to the far end of the couch and picked the end up with little to no effort. Erus grabbed her end as well, having a very easy time carrying it, both because she was relatively strong, and the couch didn’t weigh too much. The two moved the couch gently away from the wall.

Placing the couch down a few feet away, Ivan needed to take another picture.

There was a small rip in the leather on the back of the couch.

Little scratches here and there on the wall from the couch were all that was left to photograph, nothing of much significance.

Part 3: Her Experiment

Erus had printed each of the pictures for the damage deposit and met with her lover back in the livingroom. The two kissed for a while before Erus spoke.

“I’m going to go bring these to the front desk.” She started, “You can stay here, my cutie.”

Ivan smiled at her and kissed her once more.

Upon Erus leaving, Ivan walked toward the couch, picking up one end of it and dragging it a couple feet before setting it down and going on to the other. He moved that side a couple feet as well, and walked once more to the first side, now facing the wall again.

“It looks like it wore off...”

Ivan jumped as he heard an unfamiliar and unexpected voice from behind. He quickly turned to see a woman with black hair standing only a few feet behind him.

“The rituals effect seems to have worn off,” the woman started, basically ignoring Ivan altogether, “though I can still feel the magic in this room...”

“Who the hell are you?” Ivan almost yelled, “And what are you talking about?”

The woman laughed before looking down at her own stomach. “This guy reminds me a lot of you, my little love.” she said to seemingly no one.

“You’re beginning to scare me!” Ivan said with a voice, shaky and scared, “Who are you even talking to?”

“My boyfriend.” She responded.

Ivan’s face went blank.

“Him and I used to live here.” The woman began, “He had a fetish for giantesses, and I happened to know a ritual that allowed me to shrink him. Now he lives in my belly. Now I know you talked to Ayve, so I’m going to make this short: I never really moved away. I just hid myself and waited for other people to rent out this apartment. My lover’s blood on the wall would shrink anyone who touched it, and I would find most of them and eat them. The feeling of power is irresistible. This all went well, but for the last few years. I stopped watching this apartment and when I got back, the blood was gone. Now you’re here, and full sized. What am I to do?”

Ivan stood frozen through her story, scared, especially after the mention of Ayve. “I-I don’t understand...”

The woman wasted no more time and grabbed Ivan’s arm. Her fingernails cut into his skin, and he fell to the ground from a sudden pain though his entire body. “I knew the magic was still present.” She whispered, “Now let it consume you.”

Ivan hadn’t ever experienced such pain. It felt as if he were on fire. Every layer of his skin began to heat up and seemingly glow as he felt a pulsing pain, similar, but thousands of times more intense, to growing pains, though he knew they were doing the opposite. The pain took over all of his senses and he couldn’t even scream from the agonizing pain as it built up and all at once dispersed as he opened his eyes to find himself no more than an inch tall. As soon as the ability to came back, he screamed, though it was now much quieter, given his size.

The woman picked him up almost immediately and inspected his now puny body. “I’ll never know why I love the power so much, but it feels so--” The woman paused. “The girl you came here with...”

Ivan was standing on the woman’s palm and worked up just enough courage to ask if the woman she had mentions were Erus.

“Hmm...” The woman was seemingly pondering some kind of presumably evil idea. “I think I want to try something. I won’t eat you. Instead, I’m going to leave you on the kitchen counter with no memory of me. I want to see what that girl will do with you. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be returning. I have a feeling she’ll take on my role just fine.” The woman smiled devilishly.

A moment later, the woman was placing Ivan down on the counter. She waved a taunting goodbye and vanished, along with any memory Ivan had of her existence. He was knocked out as his memory faded. Erus would soon return and the experiment would begin.