Chapter 11: Halloween

The six class presidents finally decided on how Halloween would be celebrated. As they sat in the conference room, Alexa took the minutes as usual. Both members of Verso house, Alexa and Umbra, wanted to allow students to bring their shrunken captives to the Halloween dance. All but one member of Recto house were opposed, so they were tied three to three.

Umbra addressed the group. "The faculty has left the decision of allowing shrunken captives at the Halloween dance completely up to us, but our votes are deadlocked. Two years ago, captives were allowed at the Halloween dance, and it was great. I think it's good for captives to socialize with each other. The older captives who have been around longer can teach the new conquests that escape is futile, and they can show the younger captives how to better serve their owners."

"Two years ago," began Sally Taron, one of the Recto house presidents, "a group of captives tried to escape from the Halloween dance. That's why they weren't allowed at the dance last year."

"But they were easily re-captured," Umbra replied. "I don't think it will be a problem this year, because we know in advance how they almost got away two years ago." 

"What about gambling?" Sally asked. "I was here two years ago, and might I remind you that it was Verso house students who were caught gambling with their captives, which is strictly against academy rules!"

"I can make an announcement at the dance," said Umbra. "You need to chill out! You're acting like you're faculty. The good far outweighs the bad, we need captives to socialize with each other at least once or twice a year."

"If we vote to allow captives at the dance," Sally continued, "and things get out of hand again, it would make all of us look bad."

They voted a second time, and since two of the Recto house presidents were in favor, the presidents who wanted captives to be allowed at the party won four to two. When the meeting was adjourned and Alexa uploaded the minutes to the conference room computer, one of the Recto house presidents approached her.

"I just wanted to say, last year at the Halloween dance we couldn't bring captives, and the year before we could. I thought it made the party better when we had captives. There was a special table for them, and everything!"

"What do the captives do?" Alexa asked.

"They just socialize with each other," said the boy. "Two years ago there was some gambling taking place, and some girls won captives from other students during a dice game, and gambling isn't allowed on campus. That's why having captives at the Halloween party was banned a year later."

That afternoon after her last class, Alexa went to the campus store with her credit card to buy a portable container to carry her captive in to the dance. It was metallic, with air holes punched into the top. It was just the right size for an inch tall man to fit inside of. She used her credit card to pay, then took it back to her dorm. It had a chain, so she could wear it like a necklace. The lid screwed on, so escape would be impossible for someone tiny enough to fit inside of the container.

She set the container in a drawer, and took her electronic tablet and went to the library to study and do homework. That coming weekend was the Halloween dance, and she was eagerly anticipating it. When the day of the dance finally arrived, Alexa got dressed in her goddess costume after her last class. She put her captive in the portable container and wore it like a necklace. She went into the Verso common room, and everyone else were in costumes. There were girls dressed as princesses, goddesses, and superheroines; there were some girls dressed as cheerleaders or gothic girls.

When she entered the dance hall, she was astounded by how fantastic everything looked. There were long tables with table cloth and every kind of snack food and beverage imaginable, and a long table set aside for shrunken captives. Verso house was on one side of the dance hall, where the table the captives were on was located. Recto house students mainly stayed on the other side of the dance hall.

Alexa noticed the dramatic difference between the costumes worn by the Verso girls, compared to the Recto girls. The verso girls wore outfits that showed a lot more shoulders, arms and legs, while the Recto house girls were more covered up. The Recto house girls were dressed as judges, business women and traditional scary costumes, such as witches and monsters.

Umbra stood at a podium in the back of the dance hall, and made an announcement. "This is a message to all students, we're allowed to have captives here tonight, so please don't ruin it by gambling with them, which is strictly against school rules. Last year we couldn't have captives at the Halloween dance because of the rowdy behaviour of a few bad apples the year before, please don't ruin it for next year!"

Umbra stepped away from the podium and greeted Alexa.

"I brought my captive, did you bring yours?" Umbra asked.

Alexa took off her portable container and unscrewed the lid, then dumped her tiny captive out onto her palm.

"I forgot how cute he is!" said Umbra. "Put him on this table with the others."

Alexa did as Umbra instructed. There were about two dozen captives on the table.

"Umbra," Alexa asked, "I noticed that most of the Verso girls are dressed in costumes that are more provocative, while the Recto house girls seem to be dressed more conservatively."

"Yes, that's a Verso house tradition," said Umbra. "We don't try to dress like monsters or ghouls, we try to impress the boys!"

Alexa smiled when she heard this. As more students brought captives of their own, the number of captives increased. Carl approached Alexa, dressed as a biker.

"Hi, Alexa," said Carl. ‘Would you like me to get you some fruit punch or lemonade?"

"Sure!" Alexa replied, "Lemonade would be fine." Carl used the ladle to scoop out some lemonade for her. Alexa took the cup and drank from it.

"I brought my captive, do you want to see him?" Alexa asked.

"Sure!" Carl replied. Alexa found her captive and picked him up, then showed him to Carl.

"Did you hear the captives tried to unionize?" Carl asked.

"Are you serious?" Alexa asked.

"I'm just kidding," said Carl with a smile. "I can't believe you fell for that!"

"You're such a practical joker," said Alexa. "I guess that will never get old."

While Alexa and Carl socialized, Alexa's captive Terry got to know some of the other captives. He had already been introduced to Umbra's captive, a man in his 30's. His name was Joe.

"How long have you been Umbra's captive?"

"Since the end of her first year at the academy," said Joe. "I was hitting up girls on social media, and she made friends with me. I agreed to meet her somewhere, and she shrunk me with a neutrino dissimilator."

"Same thing happened to me," said Terry. "I was at a miniature golf course hanging out at the arcade, when this twelve year old girl shrunk me."

"Did you meet her online?" Joe asked.

"Yeah," Terry replied, "I kind of wish I had never heard of the Internet!"

Carl held Alexa's hand. "There's teachers all over this dance hall," said Carl. "There's nowhere in here where we can get some privacy!"

"Why, did you want to kiss me?" Alexa asked.

"Yeah, but not with the Gestapo watching our every move!" Carl replied.

Back on the captive table, Alexa's captive Terry was conspiring with Joe, Umbra's captive. "So, you've been here longer," said Joe, "what are the chances of escape?"

"You might as well forget escape," said Joe. "It's so close to impossible that nobody has ever succeeded."

"Has anyone ever tried?" Terry asked.

"I know of a group that tried two years ago, they were won by a senior girl in a dice game, there were about three of them. They made it to the courtyard during the Halloween dance, but they got rounded up pretty quickly. We all have subcutaneous transponders built into our bodies, they're microscopic, but easy for the normal sized people to track us."

"Is there a bright side to any of this?" Terry asked.

"We might live a lot longer than we normally would've," Joe replied, "these Futurians live basically forever, and since they made us immortal when they shrunk us, we can live a pretty long time, too. The only downside is getting swallowed."

"I already got swallowed by Alexa once," said Terry, "How many times have you been swallowed?"

"Too many times to count," Joe replied.

Alexa listened to her captive talk to Umbra's captive. She smiled as she thought about what Umbra had said at the meeting, that the older and wier captives would teach the younger captives to never try to escape from their owners, and she was right. 

Stratus, her brother and Gamma arrived slightly late. Stratum was dressed as a pirate. He went straight over to the Recto side of the dance hall and started conversation with a cute Recto girl. Stratus was dressed as a harem dancer, and Gamma was dressed as a witch. Stratus looked at the captives and asked Alexa, "Did you bring yours?"

"Yeah," Alexa replied. "He's on the table getting schooled by Umbra's captive. He's learning the three T's: There's no possiblity of escape, there's no hope of escape, and there's no chance of escape."

"Aren't those all the same thing?" Stratus asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Alexa replied. "I was just being goofy."

A group of Verso girls who were a year or two older than Alexa and Stratus approached them, their names were Flux and Ion. They were dressed as superheroines in bright primary colored costumes.

"Which one of you has a captive?" Flux, the oldest girl asked.

"I do," said Alexa.

"I'll bet you a captive that you can't swallow yours faster than I can swallow mine!"

"I'm class president, and we're not allowed to gamble, it's school policy," Alexa replied.

"Are you too scared?" Flux asked as she stroked Alexa's cheek. "Captives are hard to come by, if you win, it'll be worth your while!"

"But if I lose, I'll be very upset," said Alexa. "I'm very close with my captive, and I don't think he would appreciate being owned by someone like you!"

Ion, the other of the two girls, said: "She's too much of a baby, all the first year girls are like that!”

Alexa said, "Where are you a superheroine at, strip club city? Your costume leaves little to the imagination!"

The older girls departed, laughing in their wake.

"Don't let them get to you, Lexie!" said Stratus. "You need to set a good example because you're class president."

"You should keep an eye on them, Lexie!" said Gamma. "If they tried to gamble with you, they'll probably try to gamble with someone else. They could get this whole dance shut down!"

"I'll keep an eye on them," Alexa replied.

"That was a good comeback, by the way," said Stratus.

"Thanks!" said Alexa. "I always wanted to be a lawyer, so I got good at comebacks."

Meanwhile, Alexa's captive, Terry, was still talking to Umbra's captive, Joe. 

"I'm still not sure about all of this," said Terry. "Can you fill me in on what exactly happened to us?"

"We're toys now," Joe replied. "We're alive, and we're flesh and blood, but we're regarded as toys. When your owner is thirty years old, you will still belong to her, and you won't be a day older than you are now."

"What happens when she's eighty?" Terry asked.

"You'll still be the same age, and they stop aging around twenty-five, if I'm not mistaken."

"How do they pass as regular people in the real world if they're immortal?" Terry asked.

"They come over to this reality for a while, then they return to the real world with a different identity. At some point, they won't need to do that, because immortality will be discovered in the real world."

Not too long after Alexa's encounter with the two older girls from Verso house who wanted to gamble with her, they successfully challenged a second year girl to the bet. A crowd gathered around them, and they both tried to swallow their captive at the same time, with a cup of fruit punch to help them swallow their captives faster.

The older girl was faster, and beat the younger girl by three seconds; one of the students had a stopwatch. After they used a neural stimulator to vomit up their captives, the older girl grabbed the captive she won from the younger girl and departed.

Alexa got there just as the girls who had been gambling left, and realized she might be in a position to inform the faculty, but an older Recto class president did it first. The head mistress shut down the dance early because of the gambling, and everyone went back to their dorms.