Thomas wiggled hopelessly between his giant sister’s toes. He desperately tried to free himself so he could help the others who were currently suffering the same fate between her toes. The giant teen was still passed out on the couch, snoring loudly, and dangling one foot over the arm of the couch and the other over the edge of the coffee table. And for as humiliating as it was being squeezed between her toes, not a single one of the tinies broke down in tears, instead, they were angry. They cursed Aubreigh every time she sleepily grinded her toes together, smothering them with her soft skin. Her feet were starting to perspire a bit and the air began getting humid and musty, making it a chore to breathe. They envied Ben for having been spared this degradation. 

“Oh my god,” Thomas spatted angrily, “Aubreigh is going to pay for this!”

“Oh really, what are you going to do,” Sofia asked mockingly, “yell at her? She’ll just ignore you.”

“She’s our sister!” Julia said, somewhat defending her giant sibling. “She’ll feel awful once she realizes what she’s done!”

“You sure about that?” Sofia scoffed. “Did you see how quickly she forced us to do this after just half a drink? There is something wrong with Aubreigh. And you know what, I think I’m done being friends with her. This whole week has just been too much. And your mom, Jesus, don’t get me started on your mom, I’ve always hated her! But I really thought Aubreigh was my friend. That was stupid of me. Once we get home, don’t get offended if I don’t come over anymore.”

“Hey guys, look!” Thomas shouted, pointing over to the coffee table.

Nate had managed to free himself from between Aubreigh’s toes and was carefully crawling toward Carmen and Chloe. He grabbed Chloe’s arms and pulled her free from between the gigantic toes that imprisoned her. That released enough tension between the giant teen’s toes that Carmen could easily wedge herself out. The three tinies moved carefully down her foot, one wrong move, or flinch, from the giant teen would send them plummeting to the cold hard floor below, resulting in serious injury or death. So, little by little, they crawled down the angled slope of Aubreigh’s foot, past her ankle, and onto her leg. Once they were safe, Nate helped Chloe and Carmen slide safely off Aubreigh’s leg and onto the familiar surface of the coffee table that Aubreigh’s leg was resting on.

“Nate!” Thomas yelled, “Nate! Over here! Help us get out! We don’t have much time!”

“I’m coming! Just give me a minute!” Nate yelled back, hurriedly looking around.

Nate looked at the only possible path for him to take. It would involve him running down Aubreigh’s thigh then onto her shorts and across her crotch to her other leg. Nate went for it before his nerves could stop him. He traversed down the massive thigh, which was easy enough, it was soft, but also smooth, and didn’t offer too much resistance from his miniscule weight. Climbing over the fabric of her shorts was a little more difficult than he anticipated and slowed him down as he had to navigate over and across the folds and creases of her shorts. Then, at the base of her bare thigh, he was ready to make his way up her leg that was propped on the arm of the couch. He made it up to her knee when he heard the front door opening back up. Mrs. Beaumont was coming back in, he realized. He cursed under his breath and looked around in a panic.

“Wait!” Sofia yelled. “Don’t leave us here! Get us out!”

Nate started running back down Aubreigh’s leg, trying hard not to be seen by the approaching giantess. The idea to jump off the sleeping teen’s leg and into the safety of the couch cushions never crossed his mind. He panicked and nose-dived under the fabric of Aubreigh’s shorts, obscuring him from view. And just in time!

“What are you two doing?” Natalie asked firmly. “Weren’t you supposed to be providing your services as toe separators?”

“Toe separators?” Nate heard a second giantess laughing. “Aubreigh did that? I thought she was against this type of thing. I mean, at least I thought she was…”

“It’s been a weird day, Emily,” Natalie sighed, glaring at the two tiny girls on the coffee table next to her Aubreigh’s leg. “Wait a minute, weren’t there three of you? Where did that little boyfriend of yours go, Chloe?” Natalie asked, 

Peeking out from under Aubreigh’s shorts, Nate’s heart sank as he saw Mrs. Beaumont peering around for him. He also saw the second giantess, Emily presumably. Natalie’s attention was soon divided as she turned her attention to Aubreigh’s other foot. “Well, I see you three are behaving yourselves and doing as you are told,” she said, looking closely at the three tinies still stuck between Aubreigh’s toes. “How about YOU tell me where your little friend went?”

“I’d rather die!” Thomas boldly yelled up to his colossal mom.

“You know, that can be arranged!” Natalie scoffed, absolutely fed up with her son’s antics.

“Wait,” Emily said, smiling calmly, “there is a better way to handle these types of situations, Mrs. Beaumont.” She put her arm on Natalie’s shoulder and smiled sweetly yet confidently. “You just have to use what’s important to them as leverage.” Natalie turned toward Emily inquisitively, wondering what she meant by that. Emily caught on to Natalie’s confusion and paused. “I mean, it’s good that you threaten them with punishments… but you should only do that if you can actually carry out the punishment. It’s much better to use ‘leverage’... like this. Here, hold this tiny and watch.”

The young giantess handed the terrified Mrs. Chen over to Natalie and then turned her attention toward the two tiny girls on the coffee table and smiled the way only a bratty teen girl could. “Um, hi,” she said, waving her hand at them, “I’m Emily, and like, what are your names?”

“Uh, Carmen,” Carmen replied, unsure of what was happening or even if she should respond.

“C-Chloe,” Chloe stuttered, also wondering whether she should have entertained the giantess’s question. Emily’s eyes lit up when Chloe responded.

“And um, like, your boyfriend is the one who is missing, yeah?” Emily asked in a low sultry voice.

“R-right…,” Chloe responded nervously.

The tiny girl had no more than finished answering when she found herself being plucked up by Emily’s colossal fingers, dangling in the air before the giant teen’s smiling face. Emily’s bright eyes beamed with delight as they observed the tiny girl in her grasp. The giant girl smiled, revealing two perfect rows of pearly white teeth the size of boulders. Emily held Chloe mere inches away from her lips as she spoke, not to Chloe, but to the room around her.

“Oh, Nate!” she called in a sing-song voice. “I think you’ve had your fun hiding from us, don’t you think? It’s time to come out now!” she said in a cheerful tone before pouting and changing her voice to one of mock concern. “I have your little girlfriend here, and if you don’t come out, I’m going to eat her as a snack…,” she chuckled softly, giving Natalie a wink so she knew to just relax.

“What?!” the tiny girl screamed, she started wiggling and squirming like she never had before. She started beating her tiny fist on the colossal digits holding her captive. “How dare you!” Chloe yelled. But the stoic expression on Emily’s face convinced her to change her tone. “Please…, no! Please, I’m begging you… please don’t eat me!” Chloe saw that the giantess raised her eyebrows in amusement from her pleas. “Mrs. Beaumont, please help me! I am Aubreigh’s friend! She wouldn’t want this!”

“Don’t look at me,” Natalie disparaged the screaming girl, “I’m not the one that you have to convince.”

Emily kept her eyes on the tiny girl and smiled, “you sure look like you taste good!” Emily started laughing as she opened her mouth wide, revealing a soft, wet, dark cavern. Chloe shrieked in fear, screaming until she was blue in the face. Emily continued to taunt her, “what a pity I don’t see Nate yet. Does he not care if his girlfriend gets eaten?”

Chloe was hyperventilating and trying to see straight. As hard as she cried for help, Mrs. Beaumont did nothing to help. The pearly white teeth of the giant teenager were revealed as she smiled, teeth the size of boulders that could easily crush Chloe into paste. The giantess exhaled a soft giggle that blew her musty breath around the terrified tiny. Emily drew the tiny teen even closer, and Chloe could not look away from the horrid sight before her. Emily’s mouth was wet, dripping with saliva, even her teeth were glistening. It was as if the massive mouth was preparing itself for a tiny morsel of food. 

Nate couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to call out the giantesses’ bluff, but he was way too terrified that he might be wrong. So, he crawled out and began yelling up to the giants.

They heard a voice, a teeny tiny insignificant voice. Emily pulled tiny Chloe away and looked around as her and Natalie tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. Then they saw movement beneath Aubreigh’s shorts as Nate frantically crawled out from under them. Emily’s eyes widened in surprise, but Natalie’s eyes furrowed.

“See?” Emily smiled proudly, setting the petrified Chloe back down on the coffee table, “you’ve just got to use what is important to them as leverage.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to threaten things you can’t deliver on,” Natalie stated.

“Well, they don’t know that,” Emily giggled. “It’s fundamental to creating and instilling obedience in the tiny society.”

“I see,” Natalie nodded in agreement, “even if it is rather crude.”

“Crude?” Emily asked, dismayed.

“Yes,” Natalie nodded, “my dear, it takes nothing to force these little people to obey your every command. A threat here, a threat there, that’s easy to do.”

“Okay, I admit that…,” Emily said, “but it worked, didn’t it?”

“True, but what I want to know,” Natalie paused, “is how do I convince Aubreigh of that?”

“It’s exactly the same thing, use what’s important to her, um, for instance,” Emily looked down at the tinies, “what act of disobedience did these little guys do to warrant punishment between her toes? It seems as if Aubreigh already has a penchant for disciplining her tinies. I’m just trying to understand her thought process a little bit.”

“I don’t know, let’s ask her,” Natalie said, slightly rubbing Aubreigh to rouse her, “besides, it feels weird to be talking about her in front of her while she’s sleeping.” Natalie kept gently rubbing her daughter’s arm until she started to stir. “Aubreigh, wake up, your friend from the pool is here.”

“Huh”, Aubreigh said, opening her eyes which were reddened from the heavy sleep she was in. “Emily? Oh, hey, I’m sorry, I knew you were stopping by. I was just so tired, I was taking a nap.”

“It’s okay,” Emily said. “I really only wanted to drop off this packet that explains our program. I think you’d be a perfect fit for it. I mean, it seems like you are already cool with discipline from the looks of it.” Emily said, motioning toward Aubreigh’s feet.

“Huh?” Aubreigh asked, sitting up, still out of it. She looked down at her feet and to her surprise, she saw her left foot stuffed with tinies between her toes. “What in the world? Ew!” she said, before she started to laugh. “Oh yeah, we needed toe separators, didn’t we…,”

“Well, I think that was a hilarious idea,” Natalie smiled, “and I think it worked, too!”

“Yeah, but it still wasn’t very nice of me,” Aubreigh said, spreading her toes, releasing the twins and Sofia. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“What did they do to deserve that?” Emily asked, genuinely curious.

“Uh,” Aubreigh paused, completely embarrassed, “I don’t remember. I don’t think they did anything. I think I was just trying to help Kelly with my pedicure. But man, I remember that all these guys were just being SO… RUDE…”

“Ah…,” Emily nodded, completely unsure what to make of what was going on.

“Where is Kelly anyways?” Aubreigh asked, looking around.

“She already went home,” Natalie smiled.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Aubreigh said, “I wanted to thank her for her great work.”

“Anyways,” Natalie said, scooping the tiny teens off the floor by Aubreigh’s feet, “I think Emily has some good points about obedience and discipline.” Natalie set her tiny twins and Sofia down on the coffee table next to Carmen, Nate, and a still shell-shocked Chloe. But Ben was still missing from the group, Natalie had stuffed him in her pocket as soon as she came back inside.

“Not just obedience and discipline,” Emily clarified, “it’s also about rehabilitation, but yeah, sometimes it’s just about straight up punishment. For example, Aubreigh, you were disciplining them for being rude, right? Now they will probably never do that again, correct?”

“Yeah, I hope not,” Aubreigh said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

“You’re creating a better society for them, and ultimately, them and giants to peacefully coexist.”

Aubreigh thought for a moment, “yeah, I suppose so.”

“But what about those in our society that commit heinous crimes?” Emily asked, following up.

“You’re talking about murder?” Aubreigh asked.

“Yeah,” Emily reaffirmed, “murder, rape, assault, other horrible things…, what do we do with those people?”

“Prison?” Aubreigh asked.

“Exactly, but wouldn’t you say prison is a little too good for some criminals?” Emily started nodding her head, leading Aubreigh to nod hers as well. A little psychological trick she picked up.

“I guess,” she replied. “What’s your point? What does this have to do with keeping tiny prisoners in your shoes?”

“That’s the prison, Aubreigh,” Emily explained. 

“Yeah, I think I got that part…,” Aubreigh groaned. “But I don’t understand why they don’t just build miniature prisons for tinies. Why do they have to be subjected to such a worse fate than us regular sized people?”

“Those exist too, Aubreigh,” Emily said, before pausing. “You know, I think it would be better if I explained it this way…,” Emily reached down and popped off her shoe. She pulled her socked foot out, revealing a number of tinies who were miserably smashed against the insole from mercilessly being walked on. Emily lifted her shoe to her face and tilted it back and forth, eliciting cries and screams from the little prisoners as they tumbled around.

“You’re wearing prisoners at this very moment?” Natalie asked, utterly fascinated.

“Yes,” Emily said, poking her finger around in her shoe, looking for one tiny in particular. “I’m a level 4 correctional officer, we’re the only ones that get to do this, we’ve been trained specifically for this.”

“But you’re so young!” Natalie said in amazement.

“Ah, here he is,” Emily said, plucking a poor soul out of her shoe before setting it back down and forcefully shoving her foot back inside. “Meet Juan Vasquez,” Emily said as Aubreigh and Natalie both eyed the tiny prisoner between Emily’s fingers. “This man raped his niece and then killed her, claiming that she ran away, thinking he’d get away with it.”

“Oh my god…,” Natalie said, disgusted.

“The fuck?” Aubreigh recoiled in disbelief, gazing angrily at the tiny man.

“No!” the tiny man yelled. “No, that’s not true!” Emily squeezed him tightly, causing him to yelp in pain until all the air had been compressed from his tiny body.

“They all say they’re innocent, just so you know,” Emily smiled, suppressing a laugh.

“The fucking hell is wrong with you?!” Aubreigh sneered at the tiny man. “You’re niece?!”

“Aubreigh,” Emily said, looking at Aubreigh then over to Juan and then back to Aubreigh, “do you think Juan being in my shoe is too severe of a punishment for him?”

“Fuck no!” Aubreigh said. “That’s too lenient as far as I’m concerned.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Emily said. “Why don’t you show him what you think of his disgusting behavior?” Emily said, smiling and setting the tiny frightened man on the ground at Aubreigh’s feet. 

Aubreigh looked down at the tiny man and saw him crying and struggling to breathe because of the overwhelming fear he was feeling. However, when the tiny man looked up at the gigantic teen, all he could see was the look of disgust and anger on her face, showing the extreme hatred she felt for him.

“Please, you have to believe me… it’s a lie...,” he whimpered.

“Shut up!” Aubreigh said, lifting her foot over him.

He shrieked and fell down in fear, knowing full well what was coming, he had been experiencing it for over 6 months under Emily’s feet. The dark imposing shadow of Aubreigh’s foot grew darker and darker until her vast sole came down on him. He didn’t try to resist; he knew from experience that fighting never worked. The weight of Aubreigh’s foot came down on him, suffocating him in her soft skin, which, from his perspective, wasn’t really that soft or forgiving. Her skin was hot and moist, creating an unpleasant smell that was noticeable to tinies.

“Your nails look nice,” Emily chimed in as Aubreigh’s foot smashed down on the tiny man.

“Thanks, I just had them done,” Aubreigh smiled, looking at Emily briefly and then back down to her foot. “Although, I don’t think he cares too much about that. Can you imagine what his niece must have thought? Thinking this piece of garbage was someone she could trust?”

Aubreigh’s anger grew, and she expressed her rage by pressing even harder on the tiny under her foot. “Do you feel powerless, little man?” she asked, surprising Natalie as she looked on, finding it hard to believe this was her daughter. “Do you feel powerless, like your niece felt when you did those disgusting things?” Aubreigh accompanied her words by lifting her foot and smashing it back down on the tiny man.

“Is it okay that I am doing this?” Aubreigh asked. 

Natalie nodded, she was incredibly pleased and did not want Aubreigh to stop, but she looked to Emily because she didn’t want to get her in trouble either.

“Make him suffer,” Emily said, curling her lip dismissively.

Aubreigh took it to heart and began violently twisting her foot back and forth. The tiny man was doing his best to scream and beg for mercy, but he could barely make a sound. He had no breath as the weight of the teenager’s foot crushed the air out of him. The circulation in his body was getting cut off due to the immense pressure of the giant sole weighing down on him, causing him to start blacking out. The more Aubreigh thought about the tiny man, and his niece, her anger and hatred grew to another level. She pressed down on him even harder, this time feeling and hearing a small cracking sound.

“How does that feel?” Aubreigh sneered. “How does it feel to be so powerless and helpless against someone else?” Aubreigh slowly started twisting her foot, creating more faint cracks and pops. “I bet you don’t like it, huh?” Aubreigh cruelly twisted her foot back the other direction. “Well, I bet your niece didn’t like it either!” Aubreigh continued to smash and crush the tiny man’s body under her foot. He heard the giant teen say one last thing to him before he lost consciousness. “This is for your niece…” And with that, Aubreigh applied the full weight of her foot on the tiny man’s body, snapping the rest of his bones and crushing him flat.

“Oh my god!” Natalie said, awestruck by what she just saw.

“I think he deserved it, don’t you?” Emily asked, looking at Natalie and then back to Aubreigh.

Aubreigh was trying to calm down. She was seething with anger and breathing hard. Her heart was racing as it reacted from what she was feeling. She slowly lifted her foot and all three giants saw the gory mess of what was one a living breathing tiny person just a few seconds ago. Aubreigh had a little blood on her foot, but for the most part the mess was on the floor.

“Yeah, I think he deserved it,” Aubreigh said with a chilling smile. “But I thought your governor was against tiny deaths, won’t this get you into trouble?”

“She is against it,” Emily said, “but I can get this taken care of, no problem. But for now, I think it was just really important for you to see that correctional officers aren’t heartless beings. We show great restraint in not harming the vast majority of our inmates. We’re creating a better society, for tinies and for regular people. This man will never hurt anybody again.”

“How will you get this fixed?” Natalie asked, curious what Emily could do to escape accountability.

“My mom is the governor, Governor Christine Fairchild?” Emily said proudly.

“You’re her daughter?” Natalie asked with a bright smile.

“Emily Fairchild, at your service,” Emily laughed. “She’ll wipe is name from the database, it will be like he never existed.”

“Okay, I get it,” Aubreigh said, getting emotional and fighting back tears. She was still calming down from the peak of her rage. Plus, the sickening realization of what she had just done was starting to sink in. She had never killed a tiny before, even by accident, and it was so far against her nature that she couldn’t process it properly. “But why are you trying so hard to convince me of this? Like, do you want me to join this program or something?”

“Well yeah,” Emily nodded her head, “to be honest, the more people I can recruit, the more points I earn with the agency. I hope to be a trainer, that’s my goal once I get my degree from school.”

Seeing that Aubreigh was getting emotional, Natalie leaned forward and started huddling the tiny teens together on the coffee table. “I think it’s time I put you guys away in your tank,” she said, looking around for it.

“It’s upstairs in my room,” Aubreigh sighed.

Natalie only smiled in return as she cupped her palm around the huddled mass of tinies and clenched them within her fist. They were all too mortified from what they had just seen to resist or even say a word of protest. “Hmm, seems like they are extra compliant now,” Natalie giggled playfully.

Aubreigh and Emily also smiled and laughed calmly. “Yeah, they just saw one of their own get smushed,” Emily said with a lighthearted smirk.

“Well, now you see why I discipline your brother and sister the way I do,” Natalie said to Aubreigh, who was still collecting herself.

Aubreigh chuckled in a daze and rolled her eyes, “yeah, I guess.”

“It would be nice if you would help me out, Aubreigh,” Natalie said standing up with a hand full of tinies. “Just think of how obedient and well trained they’d be if both their mom and their sister disciplined them regularly. They’d be able to take on the world… well, the tiny world at least,” Natalie said, laughing at her own joke.

“Yeah,” Aubreigh paused, staring into the distance, “I’ll think about that…,”

***

Natalie opened her hand and slowly tilted it. One by one, the tiny people in her palm fell into the tank. Once they were all out, Natalie pulled her hand back and lowered her face to the glass and looked at them with a wicked smile.

“Well, you guys have certainly had a busy day,” she said, snorting with laughter. “The time you spent at the pool today must have been exhausting, and then, to top it all off you even helped Aubreigh with her first ever pedicure! Well, a pedicure from a bunch of tinies that is…,” Natalie couldn’t help but laugh again. She was feeling victorious.

“Mom!” Thomas yelled, “What is wrong with you? Aubreigh just killed a person!”

Natalie squinted cynically, “Uh no, she killed a tiny, that’s not the same thing at all.”

“How can you say that?” Thomas asked, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing from his mother, but at the same time… it didn’t shock or surprise him.

“Don’t you think he deserved it?” Natalie asked, crossing her arms.

“If it’s true, sure,” Thomas replied. “But what if he was innocent? Wrongly convicted? That happens all the time mom! And even more so with tinies!”

“Well, so what if it wasn’t true…” Natalie shrugged. “He’s a tiny, he won’t be missed.”

“Aubreigh would be mortified if she thought she killed an innocent man!” Thomas replied.

“Well…,” Natalie sighed, “I guess we’ll never know, will we? So I’m going to assume he was guilty.”

“This is complete bullshit! You can’t treat tinies like that! You can’t treat us like this mom!” Thomas started getting angry and flailing his arms. “We are going to talk to Aubreigh and set things straight with her. What, come on, do you think that just because you and that other giant bitch convinced her to kill a man, that she’s going to switch to your ‘side’, your demeted way of thinking, and start belittling tiny people now? Always forcing them to obey you and getting to wear us in your shoes, or whatever the hell it is you have with us working on your feet.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Natalie said coldly, tapping her chin with a finger. Her lips curled into an amused smile. “And you better watch your language, young man. I don’t tolerate that in my family.”

“I’m not scared of you, mom!” Thomas yelled.

“You better stop while you’re ahead, Thomas, or you’re going to end up in my slipper for the rest of the night.”

“Thomas just shut up, man!” Carmen yelled.

“No,” Thomas replied. “I can’t wait a whole week until we get back home to tell my dad. I’m standing up to her now.”

“Dude, you are less than an inch tall comp-” Carmen said before being cut off.

“I’m sorry,” Natalie said, “did I hear that right? Did you say you're going to tell your father?”

“Yes!” Thomas said defiantly.

“And what, exactly, are you going to tell him, little boy?”

“Everything!” Thomas shouted.

Natalie nodded quietly, “I guess you just don’t understand your place in life, do you, Thomas? Carmen here seems to understand that just fine. You should take her advice and ‘shut up’.”

“I do understand my place, mom,” Thomas said. “Why don’t you get it?”

“Thomas,” Natalie shook her head, “I ‘get it’ just fine, you are the one who just doesn’t ‘get it’.” Natalie stood up and leaned over the little people in the tank. “I ALLOW you to live, Thomas. The only reason you and your sister are alive is because you are my children, that’s it. And the reason any of your other little friends are alive is because I humor Aubreigh. Other than that, I have no compunction about a tiny dying.”

“You need a lesson in humility and respect!” Thomas said with anger burning in his heart.

“Are you kidding me, Thomas?” Natalie laughed, rolling her eyes, and putting her hands on her hips. “I think you could do well with a good lesson in humility and respect, so maybe I just need to remind you about a tinies place in this world. All of you here would do well to take note of this...”

Thomas’s heart sank for a moment as he thought his mom was going to reach for him, possibly to place him in her shoe. But instead, she reached under her top and grabbed something from under her bra. She pulled out a tiny man who had looked like he had been beaten up badly.

“Gregg,” Natalie said in a whiny sing-song voice, “I need your help with something before I let you go.”

“Anything! What is it?” the tiny man in her palm said, coughing and wheezing, finally able to breathe.

Natalie opened her mouth and pulled back her cheek with her finger, “I think I have something stuck in my teeth and I can’t get it out! It’s really bothering me!” She frowned with a pouty look on her face.

“Y-you want me to... get it out?” Gregg asked. “Like, you want me to go in your mouth and get it?”

“If you would be so kind,” Natalie smiled sweetly.

Gregg had every reason to doubt her, but her smile reassured him that she was being truthful with him. “Oh-uh-, okay…, sure.”

“Thank you so much, my dear,” Natalie said, lifting her palm up to her waiting mouth.

As Gregg was zoomed toward the giant mouth he watched as the lips curled into a terrifying half smile and opened wide. Level with her gaping maw, the tiny man could see her tongue resting in place amongst her teeth that could easily dispose of him. Strings of saliva connected her top row of teeth to her bottom teeth, glistening in the light.

“I think it’s toward the back on my left side,” she said. But at this proximity, her voice painfully rang in Gregg’s ears. He put his hands over his head recoiled slightly. Natalie didn’t notice. “Come on,” she said, “I haven’t got all day!”

The booming voice still rattled him, but it hurt a lot less when he covered his ears. Regardless, he decided to get this over with as soon as possible. After all, the sooner he got done, the sooner he could go home. He crawled very carefully to the edge of Natalie’s palm and stepped onto her bottom lip. From a normal perspective, her lips were soft, but Gregg’s weight hardly made an indentation on the soft skin. It tickled her softly as he crawled over her lips and past her teeth, falling with a splash onto her wet tongue. She removed her hand and giggled softly. She made eye contact with the tinies in the tank and flashed them a wink. She just stood there with her mouth open, trying not to smile.

“Oh my god,” said Sofia, “is she…?”

“Oh shit...,” said Carmen, “I think so…”

“She’s probably just messing with him like that other giant bitch did to me,” Chloe said, unable to look away.

Inside Natalie’s cavernous mouth, Gregg trudged through pools of saliva on her tongue, which remained remarkably still for him. Seeing her teeth this close was a very humbling experience for him. The horrifying fact that each one of these jagged boulders could crush him to paste or tear him to shreds was not lost on him. He gulped hard and returned his focus to his task at hand, he didn’t want to be in this giantess’s mouth any longer than necessary. He approached her first two molars, each large enough to smash his head with ease, but didn’t see anything there. Granted, there wasn’t a lot of light, but he was sure there was nothing there, so he moved further back to the next set of molars. Each step took him closer toward her throat and caused his courage to melt away.

“Mom, please,” Thomas said, “you’ve made your point. Please don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

“Mom wouldn’t actually kill him, would she?” Julia asked.

Thomas looked at her in disbelief. “Uh, have you not seen what Aubreigh just did, and with her approval no less? Have you not been listening to what she’s been saying?”

“I know, I know!” Julia said, looking at the ground in frustration. “It’s just so hard to believe! It doesn't feel real. Just a few days ago, mom and Aubreigh were helping us with our homework… but now… now they're killing tinies right in front of us!”

“We don’t know that,” Nate said, holding out some hope that he was wrong.

Gregg wiped some of the accumulating spittle out of his eyes so he could see. In between two of Natalie’s largest teeth, Gregg found the offending piece of food stuck between them. He grabbed a hold of what he assumed was some piece of meat from something she had eaten earlier. He pulled hard and worked to wedge it free. Finally, after a few moments of struggling, Gregg pulled out a chunk of half crushed up piece of whatever this was. He landed on his butt, landing next to the piece of food on her tongue. It was surreal because it was huge to him, but it was merely an inconvenience to the giantess.

“Mrs. Beaumont!” Gregg called, crawling to the front of her mouth. “Mrs. Beaumont, I got it out! I’m all finished!”

“Thanks!” Natalie said excitedly. She smiled as she looked at the tinies in the tank. Then, without breaking eye contact, she closed her mouth and swallowed. Gregg and the piece of meat were unceremoniously washed down her throat along with the saliva that had been collecting in her mouth. Needless to say, Gregg easily slid down her esophagus. Once he plopped into the mushy pit of Natalie’s stomach, he flailed and called up to her, hoping she could hear him.

“Mrs. Beaumont! Mrs. Beaumont! You accidentally swallowed me!”

But Natalie didn’t hear a word he said. She smiled and took two steps toward the screaming tinies and put her gigantic face in front of the glass. She opened her mouth and showed them that it was empty. 

“Okay, okay,” Natalie said, putting her hand up, “stop screaming. It’s over now. But I hope you see now; the proper relationship between a tiny and a regular person.” She snickered out loud as she watched them panicking, it was as if she could see the realization sinking in for them. “Now,” she continued, “you’ve witnessed two examples firsthand this evening. But I think I should ask, just to make sure, are there any questions?”

“Mom,” Julia said, shakily, “you and Aubreigh have just killed two tinies tonight, you can’t do that, it’s illegal!”

“That’s not a question, Julia,” Natalie said plainly, dismissing her. “Now, any real questions? I want to make sure we are all on the same page here.”

“W-what are you going to do with us?” Chloe asked, scared for her life.

“Whatever we want, really…” Natalie smiled with a shrug. “But nothing too serious. Maybe just a pedicure there, a manicure there, who knows? Just some busy work to keep you out of my way until we get back home so I can enjoy my vacation with my daughter,” she looked specifically at her twins, “my real daughter.”

That made Thomas angry. “You goddamn bitch!” he yelled, causing Natalie to recoil in amusement. “I’ve got a question,” Thomas smirked condescendingly, “what are you gonna do when we get home and we tell dad? He’s going to be furious! He’ll divorce you and leave you with nothing!”

“Seriously?” Natalie asked with a cocky smile. “Are you really talking to me like that? Still? You are less than an inch tall, twerp.” She leaned in close, raising her eyebrows. “You know, I don’t really have an inclination to squish you just yet, Thomas, but you’re making it more appealing each minute that passes.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “So please, spare me your theatrics. You just look stupid when you do that… not only that, it’s kind of embarrassing to watch.”

“It’s a valid question, though,” Carmen said, speaking up in a rare form of defiance. She was the only one that hadn’t back-talked Natalie on this whole trip.

“I thought we were clear on that,” Natalie said, idly picking her teeth with her fingernails. “Dammit Gregg, you didn’t get everything,” she muttered in annoyance. “Anyways,” she said, “anyone who even THINKS of telling Andrew anything will get squashed, no questions asked, no ‘if’s’, ‘and’s’, or ‘but’s’. And even if someone does tell him, I’ll deny it, he’ll believe me, and THEN the guilty tiny will get what’s coming to them.” Natalie smiled, amusing herself with her own threat.

“You just wait,” Thomas said, still defying his colossal mom.

“Just wait, what?” Natalie said, raising her arms waiting for an explanation. “What does that even mean? You keep saying words Thomas, but they don’t mean anything.” Natalie sighed and leaned in close, her gaze penetrating her tiny son. “You are tiny, I am big. You just need to learn to deal with it.” She rolled her tongue in her mouth and looked to the side as she paused for a moment to think. “Actually, what I really think what you need, is another lesson in my slipper to learn your place, don’t you? After all, if watching your sister crush and kill a tiny, and watching me eat and kill a tiny isn’t enough motivation for you to start minding yourself, I wonder what will. Perhaps we need to go back to the basics?”

She reached in the tank, her massive fingers heading right for her tiny teenage son as he recoiled in fear. “What’s wrong? You mean to tell me that NOW you’re scared? Come on, this won’t kill you, you’ve survived this before. This isn’t nearly as bad as what you witnessed this evening.” She pinched him and brought him to her face. “Not so tough now, are ya pipsqueak?” She watched him struggle for just a moment and looked back in the tank. And idea struck her mind as she remembered what Emily had taught her about using what’s important to them when she threatened Chloe to get Nate out from hiding. Thomas was surprised as he was dizzyingly deposited back into the tank and released by his mom’s fingers. He wondered momentarily if she was just trying to scare him, which made him mad. But then he watched her fingers playfully fanning over the others until she reached down and grabbed Carmen between her thumb and forefinger.

“Mom! Don’t!” he yelled.

Natalie smiled as she observed the tiny girl screaming in her grip. “Ah, so there it is. It must be true then?”

“What?” he yelled.

“You DO have a crush on little Carmen here, don’t you?” Natalie smiled.

“What? I-” 

“Aubreigh told me about it. I think it’s cute. But your sister isn’t so good at keeping secrets. So what I’m going to do is,” Natalie busted up laughing, “what I’m going to do is put HER in my slipper…,” Natalie said with a smile, looking up, playfully imagining everything she was going to do to Carmen.

“NO!” Thomas yelled.

“...walk on her…,” Natalie added.

“PLEASE NO!” Thomas yelled.

“...smash her UNDER my toes…,” she continued.

“MOM! I’M BEGGING YOU!”

“...squish her BETWEEN my toes…,”

“I’m sorry! Okay!” Thomas said in a last-ditch apology. “Punish me if you need to, but please, for the love of god, leave Carmen out of it!”

“Nope, sorry,” Natalie laughed. “I’m going to put her in my slipper for an hour, maybe two, maybe more, who knows, then you can explain yourself to her afterwards on why you’re such a defiant asshole who doesn't listen to his mom. You really should have listened to her earlier when she told you to stop.”

Thomas kept screaming, but Natalie tuned him out and turned her attention to the tiny girl in her fingers. “I’m so sorry I have to do this to you dear; you’ve been so respectful and obedient this whole trip. I almost feel bad, but this is necessary, I’m afraid.” Natalie kicked off her slipper and set the screaming girl on the insole. “Please head toward the toe section if you don’t want to be squished under my heel for the rest of the night,” Natalie said, snickering to herself. Carmen readily complied and ran as fast as she could through the fuzzy insole deeper into the slipper. With a booming thud Natalie’s toes landed on the open back heel, flexing and wiggling. Natalie slid her foot forward, chasing the tiny girl with her toes. Carmen landed just in time before Natalie’s toes landed on her, squishing her body under their weight. Natalie was not kind and did not hold back either just because Carmen was a girl or because she was obedient. She received the full harshness of the punishment that was meant for Thomas. Natalie looked back toward the tank. Getting to see Thomas freaking out and breaking down was worth everything she was doing to Carmen.

“Oh… she feels so good down there!” Natalie sneered.

There was knock at the bedroom door as Aubreigh slowly opened it and walked in.

“Hey, mom,” Aubreigh said, “sorry I took so long, I was just washing my feet before putting my slippers on. You still putting them away?” She saw her mom standing normally. There was no indication that she was harboring any tiny prisoners in her pockets or under her toes.

“Oh, yeah, we were just having a conversation,” Natalie said. Thomas was worn out and his screaming had subsided. And the others were far too mortified to say a word. The time for playing games was over. They would have to tread extremely carefully if they wanted to avoid unnecessary punishments or even death.       

“I bet,” Aubreigh sighed, “it must have been a strange night for them, first with the pedicure, then when I..., uh…,” Aubreigh paused, “...when I did the thing…,”

“Did Emily leave?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah, she had to get going, but I really learned a lot and to be completely honest, she changed my view of the world and of the tinies quite a bit.”

“That’s so exciting,” Natalie said, trying to suppress a smile.

“But I’m not sure exactly about me personally punishing my brother and sister,” Aubreigh paused, “I mean, I don’t care if you do… that, that’s fine, I guess. But I can’t.”

“Sure,” Natalie said, “I get that.” she took a step forward to pat Aubreigh’s shoulder. That singular step caused Carmen’s tiny body to tumble across the top of Natalie’s bare toes until landing in front of her pinky. “How do you feel about disciplining other tinies?” Natalie asked, forming another idea in her head.

“I’m not sure…,” Aubreigh said, “why?”

“Well, there is something I was debating on telling you. But I feel it’s important that you hear it.” Natalie took a step back towards the tank of tinies. When her toes lifted, Carmen found herself rolling under them and getting stuck in the arch of the giant toes as Natalie completed her step. The smell was intense, and Natalie’s feet began to get sweaty in the confines of the slipper.

“What is it?” Aubreigh asked.

“Well, when me and Emily came inside, we found this little pervert, Nate, in your shorts, trying to get himself off, without your consent.”

“What?” Aubreigh asked in disbelief looking at Nate through the glass of the tank.

“Yeah,” Natalie nodded, “you were tipsy, and so decided to take advantage of that.”

“That…,” Aubreigh paused momentarily, trying to process what she just heard, “that doesn’t sound right. Mom, are you sure?”

“Ask Emily if you don’t believe me,” Natalie said, crossing her arms and looking at Aubreigh and then back to Nate, who’s eyes were wide with fear.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, mom,” Aubreigh said, shooting a text to Emily, “it’s just I want to be sure there wasn’t some sort of misunderstanding. I just can’t believe something like that. You have to be mistaken.”

There was ding on Aubreigh’s phone when she received a text back from Emily. Aubreigh opened it and read it. In just a few seconds her face melted from concern to one of annoyance and then lastly, frustration. Natalie said nothing, but instead, smiled reassuringly at Aubreigh.

“You little pervert!” Aubreigh said with a sigh, looking Nate squarely in the eyes. “How could you do that? And with your girlfriend here?”

“Aubreigh, that’s not what happened!’ Nate tried to explain.

“I have two eyewitnesses!” Aubreigh replied.

“Aubreigh, he’s telling the truth!” Chloe added. “He was just-,”

“You don’t need to stick up for him, Chloe,” Aubreigh said, waving her hand dismissively at her. “You know how important consent is to our generation.”

“Even though it’s not as bad as what the perv you squished under your feet did,” Natalie said, rubbing Aubreigh’s arm, “I still feel that he needs some sort of punishment. But I know that you wouldn’t want him to be disciplined because of ‘Tinies Rights’ and all that.”

“No, that’s not true,” Aubreigh said.

“Then, you think he needs to be punished?” Natalie asked.

“Of course!” Aubreigh said, shaking her head at Nate. “I can’t stand the thought of letting a man get off the hook for rape. I mean, even if it didn’t work out with me, who’s to say that he hasn’t tried this before? Or that he won’t try it again someday? Or with someone his own size?”

“Aubreigh, this might be good practice for you to see if you want to go to school for this. From what I understand, there’s a lot more money in this. Unless you want me to take care of him?”

“No,” Aubreigh said, clenching her fists, “I think this is something I should do myself. I think there is something poetic about a victim getting revenge on her abuser.”

“Aubreigh, I didn’t abuse you!” Nate called up. “You’re blowing this way out of proportion!”

“So, I’m the problem?” Aubreigh said, grabbing the tiny man with her fingers. “Are you victim blaming? I should just let you do what ever you want without me knowing?”

“Aubreigh, you are only the victim of your mom! She’s twisting your think-,”

“I can’t listen to you speak badly about my own mother, Nate. If you want our friendship to continue, you’re going to have to let me do this. It’s for your own good. Trust me. I’m going to have to rehabilitate you.”

“Rehab-, how?” Nate asked.

“Well,” Aubreigh said, looking at her mom and then back at the tiny man pinched between her colossal fingers, “my mom and Emily are pretty set on the idea that using their feet is the best form of discipline and punishment. It seems to work, so why fix what isn’t broken?”

“You can’t be serious…,” Nate whimpered.

Aubreigh smiled sadly at the tiny man and set him in her slipper. Nate had never been in Aubreigh’s shoe before, but he had spent last night in Mrs. Beaumont’s shoe with his girlfriend. Aubreigh’s slipper was completely different but eerily similar in so many ways. It was warm and the smell was a lot stronger in the slipper, probably because Aubreigh had just been wearing them. These had obviously been worn by the teenage girl a lot, the fuzzy insole had her foot imprint squashed into it and the heel area was worn completely flat.

“He better move to the toe section so he doesn’t get hurt too badly,” he heard Natalie say to Aubreigh.

“Right,” Aubreigh responded.

Nate felt the cavernous prison shift and tilt. He clamored on to the threads for leverage but couldn’t hold on and found himself tumbling and crashing into the toe section. When he opened his eyes, he saw the teenager’s giant toes approaching the opening and making their way toward him. They came to rest just before him. He thanked his lucky stars that he wasn’t under any of them. But that soon changed when the giant teen lifted her toes and set her foot on it’s heel, letting him slid under them. Nate’s world was flipped upside down as Aubreigh strummed her toes back and forth, feeling his tiny body trapped beneath them.

“It feels so weird, mom,” Aubreigh said. “Like there is a pea or some sort of rock I want to get out.”

“It does feel weird at first,” Natalie agreed. “But once you get your brains to realize it’s not some pebble, but rather, a tiny person, it becomes very fun very quickly.”

“Are you sure?” Aubreigh asked. “And is this okay, like, can I still walk? I don’t want to hurt him too badly.”

“Positive!” Natalie smiled and shook her head. “And you’re totally fine. I think you’ll be surprised how resilient and tough the tinies are. Shrinking must do something to make them a tiny bit stronger.”

“Okay…,” Aubreigh said, shaking her foot to make the tiny prisoner more comfortable for her, “if you say so.”

“Tell, you what,” Natalie said, “why don’t you pour yourself another glass of wine, and pick a movie for us to watch? And we’ll have a girls night, just you and me?”

“Okay, sure, that sounds good,” Aubreigh nodded. She took her first step, being careful not to step too harshly on Nate. When she could feel him wiggling and squirming she knew that he was okay. She took another step, a little more normally this time, and a little more severe for the tiny teen. He was still alive, breathing and wiggling just fine. She took a couple more test steps and soon she was walking normally, as if there wasn’t a tiny constantly getting trampled under her every step. “Are you coming, mom?”

“I’ll be right down,” Natalie smiled as Aubreigh nodded and started making her way downstairs. Natalie took a step toward the tank, her toes squashing their own tiny as she did so. She looked at the remaining frightened tinies. “I’m sure Aubreigh will get used to it in no time,” she said with a wicked smile.

“Oh, by the way, here, I have a couple more to leave with you guys for the moment while I figure out what to do with them. She reached into a pocket, dug out Kelly, and dropped her in the tank. “She’s the one you have to thank for Aubreigh using you guys for her pedicure. I told her I would pay her extra if she could convince Aubreigh to use you guys.” They looked at Kelly in disbelief, but she looked away in embarrassment. She felt so much shame and guilt for her role and now she wasn’t even sure if she was going to make it out alive.

“And this is Kelly’s mom it seems,” Natalie said as she dropped another woman, this one much older into the tank with them. “Apparently, I squashed her sister or something, I don’t really know, I personally don’t remember doing it. But then again, I’ve squashed so many tinies that they all start to blur together after a while.” Kelly was shocked and ran over to her mom to help her up.

“Anyways, I’m sure you guys have lots to talk about,” Natalie chuckled. “But for now, I’m going to go watch a movie, but don’t worry, I’ll be back afterwards and me and Aubreigh will decide what to do with the rest of you.”

And with that, Natalie Beaumont walked out of the room and slammed the door. The next two hours were going to be agonizing as they awaited her return. But one thing was for sure, in the meantime, there were going to be some awkward conversations.