"Hey beautiful."  I called out to the young woman as she passed by us.   Joe made kissing motions with his lips at her while Eric stood on the other side of us, doing his best to look cool.   I knew I was kind of being a jerk but it was one of the various means I used to keep my status as the unofficial leader of our little group.  I wasn't as athletic as Eric or the natural goofball that Joe was but I tended to take the lead and they followed.  It was just a natural thing.

As for the woman in question she rolled her eyes at us.  I didn't take offense.  This was a common reaction.  Although I was being honest.  She really was pretty.  She stood about five and a half feet give or take an inch.   Long straight dark black hair cascaded down her shoulders and over the strap of her blue denim purse that was hooked over her right shoulder.  Brown eyes looked upon me with annoyance framed by an olive skinned face.   Her lips turned downwards in a frown revealing carefully applied red lipstick.  If I had to guess her age I'd assume middle twenties unless she told me otherwise.   Her outfit was a simple black tank top and matching short shorts with thin soled sandles with a single strap.  

"Don't you boys have something better to do than harrassing people?"  Her tart tone was a warning.  Not that I'd heed it of course.  Especially not when I heard Joe's snicker from behind me.  Appearances needed to be maintained.  

"Aww.  Come on.  Don't be like that."  I walked up to her and gave her what I considered my most charming smile.  "How about you join us for lunch.   Look at that outfit.  You know you want guys to hit on you.  We're just giving you what you want."  I reached out and put my arm on her shoulder, continuing to smile widely.

"Assholes."   She practically hissed the word as she stepped back from me.  Her hand reached down into her purse and came out holding some strange metalic device.  She pushed something on it and there was a bright blue flash followed by a wave of dizziness.  The ground felt like it was shaking although I assumed that was from whatever she'd just used.  Some sort of taser maybe?  Although shouldn't that have caused pain, not this nausea?  The dizziness got worse and as I fell into unconsciousness I heard her voice, sounding like it was far above me, rumbling like thunder in the sky.  "Fucking pests.  You're no better than flies or ants."  

Some time later I woke up.  My head was pounding.   What had happened?   Focusing was hard at first but my brain cleared up pretty quickly.  That girl.  She'd tasered me or something.  Looking around I saw Eric and Joe, both still unconscious.  Going over to them I shook them both, gently but constantly until muttered grumbles informed me they were alright and waking up.  

Knowing they were safe now, I turned my attention to the world around me.  Which brought up the question of where I was.  I seemed to be in a large circular enclosure with white walls that rose high into the sky above me.  They almost seemed to be made of a porcelain type substance.  Even weirder was looking up into the sky and realizing that some sort of glass dome seemed to cover us.  "Guys?  Do you have any idea about this?"  I turned back to Eric and Joe as I asked this.  I had to admit the whole thing was surreal.  

"No fucking idea.  But it looks like there's a way out over there."  Eric pointed to the other side of the room, where there seemed to be a tube shaped hallway heading into another location.   Not really having any better idea the three of us went through the strange hallway.  Which got even stranger as it seemed like we were walking through a clear tube made out of some sort of plastic.  Looking down under the tube I could see we were crossing over some sort of brown wooden terrain.  I didn't really get the need for the tube.  We could've just walked.  Looking out one way I could see a wall rising in the distance, it seemed to be made of the same wood that was below our tube.  Looking the other way I saw what looked like a large black building that blocked my ability to see beyond it.  Strangely it seemed to have a massive wire or something coming out of it and connecting to something outside our line of sight.  

Reaching the end of the strange tunnel we walked into yet another weird location.  Extending in all directions was a world of sand.  The only thing breaking the monotony of sand were what looked like a massive tree that had fallen over and had long since died based on its lack of leaves.  Trudging through the sand I noticed there seemed to be a large white pool, almost like an oasis adjacent to the fallen tree.  And what a tree it was.  I think it was longer than my house.  The white pool was likewise weird.  It rose slightly out of the sand.  Reaching in I took a small taste and realized it was water.  I could almost see the bottom of the pool and suspected if I climbed in it it' would probably only go up to my waste.  On the other hand  what it lacked in depth it more than made up for in it's diameter.  It was almost a small lake in that way.  

Joe and Eric seemed to be as weirded out by this as I was.  Eric especially seemed to be on the edge of breaking down.  I mean, where were we?  What was this place?  Continuing to lead them I went what seemed to be the edge of the desert, opposite of where we entered from.  It seemed to have a wall made of glass that rose up into a ceiling made of the same material.  Outside the glass I could see a black structure rising high above, thinner but taller than the black building I'd seen from the tunnel.  Like the other building this one also seemed to have some sort of massive electrical cord coming from it, even thicker than the one from the earlier building.  

I started to turn towards one of the directions we hadn't explored yet when suddenly the ground started shaking violently.  Earthquake!  I fell to my knees in the sand and from the grunts near me could tell that the others had failed to keep their balance as well.  The ground jolted sideways sending me rolling again before the movement finally stopped.  Standing up I realized that there were large lines of shade crossing over the desert now.  Plenty of light still leaked through and the shade didn't cover the whole desert.  Looking up I saw...well I don't know how to describe it.  It was a massive object.  A light shade of brown that seemed to be wrapping itself over the strange world my friends and I were in.  Even freakier was the fact it seemed to be alive.  I could see it moving and looking around I realized that there were five of these  strange things, all seeming to press against the glass walls as if they wanted inside.  Despite having never seen anything like it before they seemed strangely familiar.  I looked to figure out where they were coming from and noticed they all seemed to meet in a large fleshy object that was pushing against the side of the enclosure.  

My eyes widened in shock as I finally comprehended what I was looking at.  I was about to warn Eric and Joe when a voice came down upon us.  Like the voice of a god.  Or in this case a goddess.  A bubbly voice.  That pronounced our doom.  "Looks like our lunch date is canceled.  But I figured we should all make the best a bad situation right?  You get what you wanted.  Namely to be around a beautiful woman.  I get some new ants for the farm.  I've been meaning to get some more since the last ones died."  

I looked up as the hand, and yes, that was what I was looking at.  A hand the size of a city block which lifted up off the enclosure revealing an impossibly huge face which was smiling down upon us.  A bright smile revealing perfect white teeth,  each over twice as tall as I was.  Familiar red lips I'd last seen frowning at me.  "Oh, I guess I should introduce myself.  Not that you'll actually get to talk to me of course.  I mean, I couldn't understand you guys even I put you in my ear.  Not that I'd do something as disgusting as put ants my ears.  Still it's polite.  I'm Eileen.  Welcome to your new home."

One thing I learned very quickly is that ant farms are boring.  I mean seriously soul devouring boring.  After introducing herself to us, Eileen quickly proceeded to turn away from us and look at that thin tall object I mentioned earlier.  Which from her focus on it and the sound blaring out of the other building near me I realized that our new home was on her computer desk.  

I did finally get to look out the other side into Eillen's room.  At least part of it.  Across a long brown expanse of her rug I could see another massive object that was almost the length of the room.  If I'd been closer to it I probably wouldn't have been able to recognize the shape woven into it but at this distance I could see the wolves on the blue quilt that covered her bed and not far from that what I assumed was an enclosed TV stand although I couldn't see past it's wooden fortification to see what hid within it.  

Once my exploring was done I was left to just ponder our circumstances.  We were in an ant farm and going around I'd found no cracks or openings we could exploit.  Hell there wasn't even anywhere to hide.  If Eileen wanted to watch us, she could do so at any time without us having any privacy.  Which I guess was the point but it was still pissing me off.  

However bad I was taking it though, Eric was taking it far worse.  Joe and I took turns checking on him, but all he would do is stare in the direction of Eileen, his eyes barely blinking as he watched her every movement.  Which of course increased Joe and my fear because it was obvious he was thinking constantly of what she was going to do.  

The answer for that day eventually came to be not much.  Or anything else really.  Eileen played on her computer until she got tired, went over and turned off her light, and we heard the rustle of clothing as she undressed in the darkness and the loud squeak of springs as she climbed into her bed.  

The next few days became a recurring pattern.  Eileen would get up, leave her room and take a bath or a shower, we weren't fully sure which but she always came back in with her hair soaking wet, sometimes she'd look in our prison in the morning, sometimes she'd ignore us completely.  Even if she did look in it would be brief before she got dressed for the day.  This was probably the most interesting part of our normal day.  She clearly didn't consider our attention important and would get undressed or dressed as if there weren't three guys with literally nothing to do sitting on her desk.  

After this Eileen would leave for the day.  She would then be gone for as little as four hours for as long as sixteen.  Since she never talked to us we never knew what she did on any specific day.  When she returned she generally did one of five things.  Either grab a book and lay on her bed reading it.  Come over to the computer desk and play games or chat with friends.  Go to her bed and turn on the TV confirming my guess about the TV stand.  Pull out her cell phone and chat with some friends.  Or turn on some music.  Her tastes seemed to be an eclectic mix of stuff.  Some pop music, some metal, some rock, a few songs in spanish that I had no idea what they were saying, and the occasional song from a musical.  I remember one evening of her playing the entire soundtrack to Wicked.  We quickly learned to take an interest in her music as it was about the only time that she would do something that would give us any sort of distraction from the omnipresent boredom.  

Most days Eileen would come over to our ant farm at least once and drop some random bit of food in.  The time of day and the nature of the food seemed utterly random.  At least once, on that aforementioned day where she was gone almost sixteen hours she didn't drop anything in at all.  I figured it was leftovers from whatever she'd eaten for the specific day and whenever she dropped something in she'd use that time to pull the old food out.  One day was a chunk of steak.  Another was the remnants of a piece of chocolate cake.  Another was part of a salad leaf.  There really was no rhyme or reason to what food she would give us.  

Joe unintentionally gave us a lesson on our situation one day when he tried to escape.  Specifically after Eileen gave us the bit of salad leaf.  While it was only a bit by her standards, even after eating it it was a giant covering from ours.  Joe deliberately made small holes in it and wrapped his arms through it, clearly hoping that she would take him along with the leaf at the next food switch.  

Honestly it was a pretty dumb idea.  I'm glad he tried it and not me.  The next day Eileen did indeed come bearing our meal for the day, this time a circular piece of banana like you'd drop in your cereal.  After putting it into the formicarium, one of her massive brown orbs fixated on me.  As her right hand reached down into our prison and her fingers wrapped around the piece of greenery, already wilting somewhat in the warmth of our home she raised it into the sky a small grin on her face.   She knew.  Oh shit, she knew exactly where he was!  I watched her look up and couldn't help but keep looking as she raised the leaf above her head.  Her mouth opened wide and I watched as she proceeded to shake the leaf.  A tiny form came falling out and down between those bright red lips.  I watched as her mouth closed and heard a horrified gasp behind me as I saw Eileen walk away from us and over to her bed, pulling out a book to read.

"She ate him.  She fucking ate him!"  Eric's voice cracked as he had a full break down.  I hugged him close and realized my eyes were tearing up too.  I mean, yeah we had been jerks.  But to consume someone?  Over this?  What the actual fuck?!  We just sat there watching as Eileen just casually perused her book, as if it was a completely normal day.   She didn't look over at us even once.  

A few hours later Eileen came over to our home and looked down at Eric and I, smiling brightly.  "I seem to have leftovers.  Here, I'll share them with you."  Eric and I stared in horror at her.  She hadn't left the room since eating Joe.  Was she really going to drop part of him onto us as food?  Was she that depraved?  Her face descended down over us and a monstrous red creature rolled out of her mouth.  The titanic tongue shook a bit and we watched as something fell from it.  

Looking closely we realized it was moving slightly.  Had she really?  My mind didn't work straight as I ran over and saw Joe coughing and sputtering.  Looking up, I saw Eileen smiling brightly down upon us like she hadn't spent the last few hours with Joe trapped in her mouth.  Still considering the alternative I couldn't help but sigh in relief.   As we tried our best to get the saliva off of him, the sound of Eileen moving away followed by the light turning off informed us that tonight's entertainment was over.  The question we now faced was what could we do next?

Our days like this continued.  If it wasn't for the fact that Eileen would change the water out once per week I probably wouldn't have even bothered keeping track of how long we were imprisoned.   Nobody tried something like Joe's escape again.  The utter terror he looked upon her with whenever she gazed specifically at him made it clear that the price wasn't worth it.  Not to mention we had no chance at success.  She was always careful to make sure all three of us were in sight when she took stuff out of the farm.

After about a month there was a change in this pattern.   It was water changing day so we'd all used the chance to wash our clothes and bathe ourselves before Eileen changed it.  At first it was the same as she'd done the previous three times.  Look for all of us.  Reach in.  Pull the water pool out.  Next normally would've been her leaving the room for a few minutes to presumably clean and refill the pool but instead her hand came reaching down once more.  Palm facing up and fingernail resting against the sand right in front of us.

"Get on."  Eileen's voice rumbled down at us.  We all looked up at her in confusion.  Her other hand reached over grasping the side of the farm and I fell to my knees as the ground suddenly lurched beneath my feet.  "Get on."  A simple repeat of the command in the exact same tone of voice.  This time with the sound of something large tapping the glass wall to the side.  Her way of warning us of the consequences of disobediance.  

Not really getting it I ran to the finger and climbed onto the waiting nail.  Joe and Eric were right behind me.  Once all three of us were on it, the finger curled up until we slid down the nail against the flesh behind it.  We found ourselves rising rapidly, the force of the wind holding us down until we started descending once more.  The finger started uncurling and we could see we were being lowered into a tall prison made of glass although one much smaller than where we'd been before.  We went tumbling off the finger nail and onto the floor of the glass as we watched Eileen's hand once more rise up into the sky.  

Looking out the wall I watched as Eileen picked up the formicarium that I'd come to think of as "home" and go trodding out of the room.   Watching her leave I realized she was wearing that same outfit from the day she'd taken us.  I couldn't decide if it was harder to believe it'd already been a month since then or harder to believe that it had only been a month.  

I sat in silence with the others for maybe half an hour or so before the loud creak of the door opening announced Eileen's return.  Except when I turned to look I realized I wasn't looking at Eileen at all.  Standing in the doorway was a pale skinned young woman.  She seemed to be slightly taller than Eileen and more thickly built.  Long straight brown hair went down her back until it went past a plain white tanktop failed to hide a chest that was noticably bigger than Eileens.  Granted when I thought about it Eileen's was on the small side.  This girl's would've been seemed pretty big even if I'd been my normal height.  Blue jeans went down until they reached a pair of simple white tennis shoes.  Her brown eyes looked around Eileen's room before she walked over and crashed down in the computer chair near us.  

I couldn't help but stare up at this titan, which was the first giant we'd seen other than Eileen.  She started doing something on Eileen's computer and I began to suspect she didn't even realize we were here based on how completely she was ignoring us.  Eileen did it out of habit but I couldn't believe someone who'd never seen us once wouldn't look at least out of curiosity.  

The brown haired woman continued to play on the computer for a few minutes until a horrible screeching sound tore through glass room.  I tried to figure out where it was coming from before realizing it was a speaker right beside our glass.  I watched as a massive pale hand reached over us and behind the speaker and tugged at something.  The screeching quickly stopped to my relief.  

The woman clearly wasn't paying attention as she pulled her hand out from behind the speaker.  Her fingers bumped against the side of the prison we were in and my world tilted as I went sliding along the side.  Further back I could see Eric and Joe, who hadn't been sent as far up the wall.  "Oops."  A feminine voice, slightly deeper than Eileen's roared in the distance.  I watched as massive fingers reached down and wrapped themselves around the glass.  It tilted even more as it started rising into the air and I slid further until I found myself falling.  Fortunately it was a relatively short fall and I landed on my stomach on the wooden surface of the computer desk.  I flipped myself over and saw that the woman had turned the glass back upwards and could see Joe and Eric were sliding back down.  Apparently I was the only one who had escaped it.  She set the glass on the side of the table opposite of me before turning her attention back to the computer.

This left me with a decision to make.  For the first time in a month I was free.  But I was still trapped on the desk and Eileen would search for me once she found out.  As I saw it I had three choices.  Stay here and wait for Eileen.  Hopefully she wouldn't get angry and realize my escape was an accident.  Try and get down to the floor somehow.  Attempt to get this other woman's attention.  She was Eileen's friend but clearly didn't know about us so perhaps she would be willing to help.  

I quickly discarded the get to the floor idea.  A sheer wall that from my perspective was miles down and no climbing gear and no training even if I did have the gear?  It would be complete suicide.  This left either Eileen or this other girl.  Which was really no choice at all.  I wanted to be free and a small chance was better than none.  
I started running along the wooden surface towards the screen in the distance and the woman that stood in front of it.  One thing this last month had done was at least in part improve my physical health.  Water was literally the only thing we drank and while the occasional junk food made it in, Eileen tended to leave us a mix of fruits and veggies.  Plus with lack of stuff to do on a day to day basis exercise was about the only real hobby we had anymore.  

I eventually reached the base of the screen and turned and looked up at the woman who was staring at it.  I could see slight movements of her arms and hear the rapid clacking of her fingers against the plastic of the keyboard below as she typed.  Every now and then her right arm would move over to where the mouse and shift it around.  Staring at her I couldn't help but wonder if this idea was a bad one.  But what else could I do?  

I ran forward, close to the edge of the desk where I could look down and actually see her hands as opposed to just hearing them.  Taking a deep breath I started jumping up and down and shouting.  Not that she'd hear my shouts, it just helped me feel better.  Mostly I was hoping she'd eventually notice the movement.   
Nothing happened and I was beginning to think my plan a failure when I suddenly heard a confused sounding "What the hell?"   Her hands were completely still now and looking up I could see a pair of brown orbs staring.   Staring at me.  She'd seen me!  

Her left hand rose up off the keyboard and I had to resist the urge to run as it's thumb and forefinger came to either side of me before closing in around me.  I felt horrible pressure against my body as the squeezed against me and had trouble breathing as I rose into the air.  I quickly found myself staring into a large brown orb.  

"What the hell?"  The woman's voice rumbled the question again as she continued to stare at me.  The pain was horrific and I squirmed against her grip.  I realized she probably didn't even realize the force she was applying which made it even scarier.  She could kill me completely on accident.   There was more movement as she rose out the chair bringing me higher up.  

She started walking towards the doorway, keeping a tight grip on me as if she couldn't take any chances she'd lose me.  I watched her right arm reach out and push the door open before she continued to thump through Eileen's place.  For the first time I realized we were upstairs somewhere as the woman walked down a flight of stairs and through some other rooms before coming into what was clearly a kitchen from the massive black pot I could see with steam flowing out of it.  
More concerning was who was in front of the pot stirring whatever was inside.  Eileen turned to look at the woman holding me.  "You're down sooner than I expected Christine."  Eileen turned back to the pot.  "I'm almost done making lunch.  Just a few more minutes." 

"What are these?!"  The other woman.  Christine I guess I should say asked in a mix of shock and confusion.  She held me up and I found myself staring at the dark brown orb that was one of Eileen's eyes.  

"Oh, I was going to show you them after lunch.  Remember those new pets I mentioned getting about a month ago?  That's why I invited you to visit today.  Guess the surprise is ruined though."  Eileen's voice sounded faintly disappointed.  
"What?  How?"  Christine on the other hand was still clearly shocked.

"Oh, they thought they could have their way with me.  I decided to turn things around a bit."  Eileen giggled.  "I mean if I hadn't shrunk them do you know what they would've done?  It would've been awful.  They're lucky all I did was shrink them."  Was she implying what I thought she was?  That lying bitch!  Yeah, we were jerks but we had no intentions of rape!  

"Wait.  They were going to rape you?"  The pressure on me increased suddenly and I couldn't help but scream.  She was believing Eileen's lies.  And I couldn't do anything about it.  

"Well they can't now.  Put him on the table and we'll talk about it after we eat."  I heard Eileen's voice, sounding faintly amused in the distance.  She probably realized that Christine had bought it.  I suddenly felt myself being released and fell until I landed on a white surface.  Looking around I could see a pattern of white squares surrounded by red. 

I had just a few seconds to realize I was on a table before something came down on top of me forcing me onto the ground.   The pressure slowly increased and I soon felt as if my bones were going to break before it suddenly relented.  Turning around I saw Christine looking down at me, her lips down on an angry frown as her right hand rose up into the sky.  "I should squash you."  I shuddered at the anger in her voice.  She'd really do it.  

A loud thump sounded besides me and I turned to see a massive plate with a veritable wall of large corkscrew shaped objects with a thick red liquid dripping down them.  Christine turned away from me.  "Oh, you made rotini.  Awesome."   Her left arm reached over and I could see it grab something before I watched a massive steel trident come descending down and spearing some of the rotini.  

Christine looked down at me as she ate and I watched as her mouth opened up and massive white teeth tore into the corkscrews mashing them quickly into a mushy paste.  I watched as her throat bulged a bit as she swallowed before she repeated the process.  Staring at me the entire time.  

One thing I realized.  Eileen had neatly created a situation where now I needed her for survival in other ways.  Something told me that if I ever ended up alone with Christine that my life expectancy would drop exponentially.   As I stood there watching Christine enjoy her meal, I couldn't help but wonder what else was in store.