~~~

“FUCK YOU!” a woman screamed at the top of her lungs. A moment later, a small squish was drowned out by a loud echoing thump as she drove her shoe into the floor. The sound bounced off the room's metal floor, walls, and ceiling, creating an eerie reverberance that could only exist within the cold confines of pure metal. The woman was not done, however.

“FUCK YOU!” she screamed again, raising her foot and slamming it back down into the floor with equal intensity. A small burst of nondescript red matter shot out from under her shoe, spattering across the floor in a straight line. The woman was beet-red, her neat ponytail coming apart at the seams. Her eyes were practically aflame, radiating a pure and primal rage that was not going to be quelled with only two simple stomps.

“FUCK YOU!”

She stomped again.

“FUCK YOU!”

She stomped again.

“FUCK YOU!”

She stomped again. 

“FUCK YOU!”

She stomped again.

“FUCK YOU!!!”

She jumped up in the air and stomped the floor as hard as she could. The slippery matter under her shoe caused her to slip, however, and she fell to her rear with a yelp. Once the shock wore off, she laid down on her back, holding her head in her hands as she took shaky breaths. A maelstrom of conflicting emotions was shredding her psyche, worsened by the near-overdose of adrenaline that she was feeling. An eerie silence overtook the room while the woman slowly got herself under control. Eventually she spoke, her voice nearly gone.

“He’s never going to hurt anyone ever again,” she whispered, trying to reassure herself. She then repeated the words spoken by a bubbly blonde woman earlier that day.

“We’re giving these bugs exactly what they deserve- a fraction of the pain, suffering, and humiliation that they inflicted on the world. We’re doing the world a favor.”

Rather than calming her, though, these words just caused her greater distress.

“Did I seriously just call a human being a bug?” she said, cringing at the sound of her sadistic words. “I don’t think that lady is a good role model…”

Suddenly, though, a burst of confidence cleared away her doubts.

“No,” she said resolutely, “they’re not humans. They’re convicts, and they made their choices. Choices have consequences. Choices have consequences.”

She repeated this line a few more times inside her head. Another silence blanketed the room as she carved a mantra into the depths of her soul.

“I’m done being a victim,” she whispered. “He’s never going to hurt me ever again. Nobody is.”

At that, she steeled her resolve and raised herself into a sitting position. Thoroughly convinced that she was doing the right thing, she decided to look at the aftermath of her previous activity. She immediately regretted it, though. There, on the floor, was a horrifying red stain. What would have been a simple stain otherwise was made chaotic and violent by her repeated stompings, and the result was a borderline black explosion of nondescript bone, guts, and blood, staining the surrounding floor as if it was a morbid piece of abstract art.

The woman noticed that her shoe was similarly stained, and immediately tore it off her foot and cast it into a corner of the metal room. She then rose to her feet and dashed to an ordinary office chair located at the end of a long metal desk. She desperately tried to clear the disgusting images from her mind, lest she vomit. Her ironclad conviction from moments prior was slightly shaken by the fact that committing to her job would entail seeing that level of gore every day, but she nonetheless decided to proceed onwards. She opened a cabinet below the desk and retrieved a document from inside.

The document was simple- it listed three things, and contained a picture. The picture was irrelevant, as the thing it contained no longer existed, and the three things were as follows:

NAME: Robert Stanton

CRIME: Serial abuser, murder of 3 adult women

METHOD OF EXECUTION: (blank)

With a trembling hand, the woman grabbed a nearby pen, and under “Method of Execution” wrote

“Crushed underfoot”

And then signed her name at the bottom. She let out a long sigh, finally dispelling most of her nerves. An easy task, now that the job was done. She then turned to look at the door of the strange metal room, extremely careful to avert her eyes from a specific spot on the floor. Above the door were two large lights, one red and one green, of which only the red one was lit. Above it was a timer that read “55:12” and continued to count downward.

“Damn, only five minutes?” the woman said to nobody in particular. “I should work at making it last longer. It’s only my first time, though. I’ll have… plenty more opportunities in the future.”

~~~

“Will you keep my secret?” asked Elizabeth. Her eyes were pleading with the one-inch man seated before her, while his eyes were as unreadable as ever. After a small eternity, he finally responded.

“I won’t have to,” he said, calmly and slowly, before nodding his head in the direction of the living room. Elizabeth’s heart dropped, and with a pale face she stood up and turned to face the inevitable. There, standing next to the sofa that she had been supposedly sleeping on, was Allison. She was awake and, judging by her face, had heard the entire conversation. Her face was twisted in an impossible mix of overwhelming fury and devastating sadness, and silent tears were streaming down her cheeks while her lips trembled. It was a look of perfect betrayal, as she realized that the person she trusted more than anything had violated that trust in the greatest of ways. The worst part was, she didn’t even understand why.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened beyond what she thought was possible, and she drew one hand to her mouth in total shock.

“Oh, no…” she whispered, a crushing wave of dread drowning out her other senses. “A-Allie, I-”

Before she could continue, though, Allison ran into the hallway, flying into her bedroom and slamming the door. Elizabeth closed her eyes in resignation, a single tear falling from her eye. The reality of the situation set in, and it made her want to crawl into a hole. After a moment, though, she regained herself and turned back towards Brian. He was looking into the distance, a sad glaze covering his eyes. To Elizabeth’s confusion, though, he looked completely unsurprised. At that, she had a revelation.

“Did you know she was awake, Brian?” she asked quietly, still somewhat in shock. Brian turned his attention towards the gigantic woman he was now alone with, as he recalled a conversation with Allison that had occurred a couple hours prior.

~~~

“Allie, hang back for a second,” Brian said. Allison complied, looking at him questioningly.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“This isn’t going to make any sense, but I need you to do something for me.”

Allison raised an eyebrow.

“Um… okay, what is it?” she replied. Brian furrowed his brow, debating how to word it.

“So… after Elizabeth has been questioning me for a little while, I want you to act bored and ask if you can go watch TV in the living room,” he started. Allison started to question him, but he motioned for her to let him finish.

“Then, I need you to lie down on the couch and eventually pretend to fall asleep. You then need to stay that way until after the questioning is over, at least until Elizabeth notices that you’ve fallen asleep.”

Allison was thoroughly bewildered at this unexpected and confusing string of directions. She was trying to figure out if he was messing with her, but his eyes were dead serious.

“W...Why?” she finally asked, really drawing out the word.

“I told you it wasn’t going to make any sense,” Brian replied. “Look, I need to ask her a question. I need you to hear the answer. I also know that she won’t answer honestly if she thinks you’re listening, so I need her to think you’re sleeping when I ask it. Please do this for me.”

Allison’s confusion only increased, and was now laced with concern.

“W-What’s the questio-”

“Allie,” Brian whispered fervently, “I need you to trust me. Please, promise me you’ll do this.”

Allison could see the strength of his conviction through his eyes, and she decided to trust him as he had trusted her. She got herself under control.

“Right, of course,” she said firmly. “I promise, Brian. I trust you.”

With that, they made their way out towards the dining table.

~~~

“I’d rather not say,” Brian finally replied. Elizabeth let out a sad chuckle.

“You’re pretty sneaky, Brian,” she said softly, sitting back down.

“We have that in common,” he responded, while she laid her head down on the table. She looked completely defeated- a far cry from the warm, inviting demeanor that she usually carried. Brian let out a sigh.

“Well, if you want to take your anger out on me, you should probably get it over with before Allie realizes she left me behind,” he said plainly. Elizabeth raised her head with a sharp glance.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Brian,” she said sternly, offended at the notion. Brian shrugged. Now that Allison was gone, he was at his most robotic.

“I told you, Allie is my only priority. She needs to know all the information if you’re going to work with us, and I’m not going to put myself in the position where I’m keeping things from her as well. The only thing worse than finding out about this would be finding out that I also knew and chose not to tell her,” he explained.

“I suppose you’re right,” Elizabeth replied. “It was unfair of me to put you in that position. I was just being selfish.”

Brian raised an eyebrow.

“It wouldn’t kill you to be a little angry, you know,” he said, surprised by her immediate acceptance.

“I’m angry, just not at you. I’m angry at myself,” she responded. Brian nodded in understanding.

“So, anyway, was it a coincidence? That I was sent to her?” Brian asked. Elizabeth lightly scoffed.

“Yes, it was a coincidence. I think you’ve watched too many movies,” she answered.

“You’ll have to forgive me for believing in conspiracies,” Brian said dryly. 

“That’s fair. In this case, though, it’s not like that. You were sent to her at random, just like every other convict who was ever sent to her. Allie becoming a Chevalier never had anything to do with some overarching plot to take down the SP,” she replied. Brian furrowed his brow.

“It didn’t?” he asked. Elizabeth shook her head.

“Like I said, honey, too many movies. Frankly, you are hundreds of times more valuable in that regard, and Allie became a Chev months before you were ever re-sentenced. There’s no way I could have anticipated this scenario when I had her recommended. I may be capitalizing on the opportunity, as you said, but it wasn’t planned.”

“Huh,” Brian said, leaning back slightly. “Alright, that makes sense. Like I said, forgive me for believing in conspiracies.”

Elizabeth flashed a soft smile.

“I think you’ve earned that belief,” she said.

“Well, then, you can probably guess the next two questions,” he continued. “How and why?”

“Right,” Elizabeth sighed. “Let’s start with the why. As you noticed, she was offered the job shortly after her relationship ended. Has she ever told you the details of what happened between those two events?”

“Only what she told you during your meeting- that she was nearly homeless and in a really bad place mentally,” Brian replied. Elizabeth nodded.

“That’s putting it lightly. Despite what I told her, I’m fully aware of the circumstances surrounding her ex’s arrest, as well as what happened afterwards.”

“You were monitoring her?” Brian asked incredulously.

“I was looking out for her,” Elizabeth corrected with a firm glance. “I knew that her situation wasn’t going to end well, and she was one of my most promising students, as well as a dear friend.”

“Okay, I get that, but why didn’t you just reach out to her, then? If you knew what was going on, then surely you could have just helped her directly!” Brian said, his tone slightly rising.

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, Brian,” she replied. “I did reach out to her. I even visited her in person, once.”

“Then why didn’t-”

“Because she didn’t recognize me,” Elizabeth said firmly. “She was in a dirty house with a bunch of strangers, barely conscious, and she didn’t recognize me. When I tried to help her, she attacked me.”

Brian was stunned into silence.

“You don’t understand, Brian,” she continued, holding back tears. “She was completely self-destructing. She was in so much pain, and had so much anger… anger that she was directing at herself. I needed to do something, or it would have killed her. So… I thought of a way in which she could direct that anger towards something else.”

“Convicts…” Brian muttered. Elizabeth nodded, drawing one hand to her mouth as she struggled not to break down.

“I called in a favor to a person with the right amount of influence. I told him the truth- that I knew somebody who needed help, and recommending them to be a Chevalier was the only help I could think of. I swear to you, that’s all it was.”

Brian looked up at her with cold eyes.

“Every time Allie spends money, she nearly cries due to the fact that she thinks it’s ‘blood money.’ Every time she steps on a bug, she nearly has a panic attack. Every time she so much as looks at metal, she nearly vomits. She genuinely thinks that she’s a terrible person, and I don’t know how to convince her otherwise. She went through six months of hell, Elizabeth. You think that… you think that having a reason makes it okay?!” he exclaimed, finally losing his temper. Elizabeth shook her head tearfully, as if she was a child being scolded by a strict teacher.

“It’s not okay. I willingly subjected someone who might as well be my own daughter to the horror of the Shrink Penalty. I helped perpetuate the system that I hate, and now Allie feels like a murderer… all because of me. But… if nothing else, please believe me, that… I was just trying to k-keep her alive,” she choked out, before completely burying her head in her hands as she began to quietly sob. Brian’s eyes slightly softened, as his mind was being pulled in multiple directions.

At that moment, though, the bedroom door flew open with a crash, and Allison sprinted into the living room. She looked all around with a crazed, worried look in her eyes, before she spotted Brian on the dining room table. Her face softened in relief, before immediately hardening again once she saw that he was close to Elizabeth. She charged at the table, practically teleporting, and frantically scooped Brian up in her hands. He let out a yelp at the unexpected movement, and was quickly entombed in Allison’s hands as she held him close to her chest protectively. She then turned her eyes, fierce and overwhelming as they were, to the silently crying woman at the table.

“Did you touch him?” she asked, her voice quiet but dripping with rage. Elizabeth looked up at her in surprise, not fully comprehending the question.

“What?” she whispered.

“DID YOU TOUCH HIM?!” Allison screamed, causing Elizabeth to flinch.

“N-No, I didn’t!” she hastily replied.

“You need to leave,” Allison hissed. At that, Elizabeth quickly got up, collected her things, and moved to exit the apartment, crying with ever increasing intensity all the while. Soon, she was gone, and Allison and Brian were alone once more.

~

Allison flew into her bedroom, closing the door behind her before finally uncovering the tiny man concealed within her palms. Brian looked thoroughly disoriented and slightly dizzy, a fact that Allison immediately blamed herself for.

“B-Brian, I’m so sorry that I left you behind, I can’t fucking believe that I put you in harm’s way again! I swear, if she had touched you… I can’t fucking BELIEVE that I did it again! I’m so sorry…” she rambled, placing Brian down on a pillow as she began to pace back and forth.

“Allie. Allie. Allie, come on,” Brian repeated, trying to calm her down. Eventually, he had enough.

“ALLISON!” he shouted. Her spiral ramblings finally came to a halt at this unexpected outburst, and she looked at him with a shocked expression. She saw that he was motioning for her to come sit with him on the bed, which she then did.

“Now, Allie, that’s enough of that,” he said softly and reassuringly. “She was never going to hurt me. Like you said, she’s not that kind of person.”

“Well, a-apparently I don’t know what kind of person she is, at all! S-So, I should have known better, and…”

“Shhh…” Brian soothed. “She didn’t touch me. I’m safe, and you’re safe. Everything is okay.”

Allison’s manic energy suddenly transformed into a deep, refined sadness, and she completely deflated. She flopped over on the bed, laying her face right next to Brian’s position on the pillow.

“Everything is not okay, Brian…” she choked out. “She lied to me… she’s the reason I went to that… place… and she lied to me! I don’t understand… I t-trusted her more than my own family…”

“I know…” Brian sighed. He was once again lamenting the limitations of his size, as it was impossible to physically comfort her. He hoped his words would be enough, but he didn’t exactly feel confident in that possibility either.

“I just can’t believe this… it feels like my mind is being torn apart,” Allison continued. “She did all this… as what, a part of some kind of conspiracy? I’m just some pawn she’s using to take down the SP? How could she do that to me?!”

“That’s not why she did it,” Brian muttered. Allison was perplexed.

“What?” she asked softly.

“There’s no conspiracy, it’s not like that. I was sent to you at random, just like everyone else. Those were just my suspicions, but she told me the truth,” he replied. Allison scoffed.

“And you believe her?” she asked incredulously, her voice dripping with bitterness.

Brian nodded.

“At a certain point, it stops making sense for her to keep lying. Think about it this way- one former Chevalier is not going to be able to take down the system. That’s where my value to her lies, and she recommended you months before I was ever re-sentenced. There’s no way she could have seen this coming.”

“You don’t know that,” Allison said, her conspiracy-prone mind going into overdrive. “What if she knew months in advance that they were planning on re-sentencing you? She clearly has influence in the program, so who’s to say this wasn’t a situation that was months in the making?”

Brian softly shook his head.

“Allie, please listen to me. Obviously I believe in the power of a good conspiracy, but I genuinely don’t think she was lying to me on this one. Just like how you knew that I wasn’t lying when we first met. You trust me, right?” he said, trying to calm her down. It worked, and Allison’s breath softened as her heart slowed.

“Yeah…” she whispered. “So, why did she do it, then?”

Brian adopted a troubled expression.

“I think… I think that’s a conversation you need to have with her. It’s not my reason to tell,” he said. Allison shook her head vigorously on the pillow, nearly knocking Brian over.

“No way,” she said firmly, her anger returning. “I don’t want to talk to her ever again.”

“Okay. That’s your choice,” Brian replied gently. “I’ll support you, no matter what.”

Allison’s heart softened at his kind words, and her anger finally dissipated. All the energy in her body evaporated, and she seemingly melted into the bed. Following her lead, Brian laid on his side, and he soon found himself staring into Allison’s beautiful brown eyes. After a few moments of silence, her face darkened in guilt.

“You must think I’m a terrible person,” she whispered. 

“Wait, what?” Brian asked incredulously.

“If she hadn’t done what she did, then you would be dead. I’m getting angry at her for saving your life, and bringing us together. I’m a horrible, selfish person,” she continued, closing her eyes in shame.

Brian sighed deeply.

“Allie, here’s the truth,” he began. “Yes, if she hadn’t recommended you, then I would be dead. We never would have met, and I would have died forgetting what it felt like to be happy.”

Allison nodded, trying not to cry.

“But this is also the truth: a person who you trusted more than anything made a choice behind your back that caused you tremendous mental pain and trauma. She lied about it to your face, and even capitalized on your experience to try and bring down a political system. You were lied to and manipulated by a person you loved, and you’re allowed to be hurt by that. You’re allowed to feel any way you want about that. You’re not horrible, and you’re not selfish. I don’t want to hear you say those things ever again, okay?” he continued. Allison smiled brightly through her tears, and nodded once more.

“I wish you were big again,” she said after a long silence. “That way, I could do everything I want to do to you right now without causing permanent injury.”

Brian softly smiled, before rolling onto his back. He was staring up at the ceiling with a distant look on his face.

“I wish I was big, too.” he said quietly. Allison scooted closer to him, gently pressing him close to her cheek. They both closed their eyes, basking in the comfort that they were providing each other. They stayed like this for a while, before Allison spoke up again.

“Can I kiss you?” she whispered. Brian opened his eyes and tried to look up at her, although all he could see was a field of her skin. If he had been able to see past the bottom of her cheek, though, he would have seen that she was blushing.

“Since when did you start asking?” he replied sarcastically, causing her to giggle. She moved him away from her cheek so she could look at him. Brian saw that her expression was slightly different than anything he had ever seen before. 

Her eyes were half-closed, yet hyperfocused on him. She had the faintest hint of a slightly predatory smile, gently teasing the corners of her lips upwards into a playful curl. Frankly, she looked like a cat who just found a mouse. Brian felt a strange swirling sensation in his stomach, but decided to ignore it.

“You can always kiss me, Allie,” he answered. “You didn’t hear this from me, but giant kisses actually feel really good.”

“I’ll take that into consideration,” she replied in a low, breathy voice, before slowly drawing her lips closer to her tiny boyfriend. Her mind was clouded by a sensation that she had been suppressing for Brian’s sake: desire.

Just a taste… she thought.

Then, using one hand as a counter-balance, she pressed her lips into Brian’s entire body, completely smothering him in her warm, soft, and slightly wet embrace. Now that he was done pretending like he didn’t like it, Brian melted in her gentle grip. It felt like the softest full-body massage of all time, to the extent that the increasing wetness coming from her lips didn’t bother him in the slightest.

Allison moved her lips around, occasionally opening and closing them in order to give several prolonged kisses at once. She let out a few soft hums, creating a vibration that made Brian’s bones rattle. This was their longest kiss ever, by far, and Brian soon began to wonder if it would ever end. His wonderings were interrupted, though, by Allison’s tongue peeking out from between her lips and dabbing his face. It retreated just as quickly as it arrived, and a moment later she finally pulled away with a satisfying smack.

Brian was completely relaxed, albeit more than a little perplexed, and he looked upon his giant girlfriend with questioning eyes. He saw that she was borderline panting, her cheeks redder than he had ever seen them before. Her eyes were similarly intense, which made Brian a little nervous, although he couldn’t understand why. Ignoring this, he tried to speak in his usual tone.

“W-Was the tongue necessary?” he asked, unable to prevent a small stutter. Allison giggled, biting her lip with a shrug. It was a lower, softer giggle than he had ever heard, though, further setting off his alarm bells.

After a moment, Allison darted forward and licked Brian’s entire body, covering him in a thick layer of slime. Brian made a noise of disapproval, causing her to grin even wider.

“The fuck?” he asked, with a nervous laugh. Allison smacked her lips a few times, before letting out a small moan of satisfaction.

“You taste good,” she breathed, before once again scooting closer to Brian. He unconsciously crawled backwards slightly, albeit not to a noticeable extent.

“You look good, too,” she continued, bringing her lips right up to Brian’s body once more.

“You’re so cute…” she whispered. Being so close to her mouth, the words caused Brian’s whole body to vibrate, and his ears slightly rang. Allison puckered her lips once more, but before she could continue he suddenly dove backwards.

“S-Stop!” he cried, backing away as far as he could in the brief amount of time. His instincts were screaming, and an unexplainable wave of panic drowned out his other sense. For the briefest of moments, he forgot where he was and what was going on. It faded as quickly as it formed, however, and he swiftly regained himself. He then looked back up at Allison, and saw that she looked extremely concerned.

“What’s wrong, baby?” she asked softly. Brian put on a disarming smile, although she could tell it was forced.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said quickly. “I just got a little overwhelmed. Everything is so much more intense when you’re small, you know?”

Allison’s face softened.

“Of course, I guess I got a little carried away,” she said with a guilty chuckle. “You’ll have to forgive me for loving you too much.”

Brian smiled.

“Forgiven. Anyway, we should go to bed. It’s super late, and I think we both need some time to process everything that happened today, okay?” he asked. Allison nodded in agreement.

“That’s for damn sure. Let me go tidy things up out there really quick, and then I’ll go to bed. When I come back, do you want to sleep in my hand again?” she asked.

“Actually, I think the carrier is fine for tonight,” Brian hurriedly replied, causing Allison to furrow her brow.

“I-I see. Well, no problem, then,” she said. At that, she gently pinched him between her fingers and placed him in the pet carrier, where he instantly made his way towards the shirt pocket. Allison was concerned by his odd behavior, but attributed it to the stress of the multiple revelations that had occurred that day. She then exited the room, leaving Brian alone as he settled into the shirt pocket.

Despite what he had told Allison, his heart was still racing, and his hands were shaking. He rolled onto his side, trying to hold back tears that had begun to inexplicably form.

What the fuck is happening to me…? he thought, before closing his eyes and taking deep breaths as his body succumbed to pure exhaustion.

By the time Allison came back to say goodnight, she found that he was already asleep. Once again attributing this to Elizabeth’s visit, she settled into her own bed. Her heart instantly grew troubled as well, as all the emotional weight of the evening crashed down on her at once. Still, she calmed herself to the extent that she could sleep, knowing that she and Brian would be able to face the consequences together, just as they always had.

With that, a new day began.