Martin shifted the box of creamy-cakey sweetness in his hands as he stepped across the threshold, closing the door with his hip. A dollop of icing had had fallen on his tie, and he cursed. One more thing to worry about.

The door shut, locked. They were in. Martin’s heartbeat quickened, already feeling the primal rush of wrongdoing. The shoe rack was sectioned neatly into the corner, though mysteriously it was devoid of footwear at all. Martin mentally noted it must be solely for guest-use. He rubbed his black Oxford dress shoes on the welcome mat which read “Merry Christmas” despite it currently being April; recent sets of footsteps seemed to have eschewed this suggestion, tracking light trails of similar footprints further elsewhere into the abode. His friends must’ve gone further inside, Martin thought, and then he took another look around the apartment.

It was a lightly-but-chicly furnished living space. The entryway was tile, leading to the hard wood of the rest of the living room area, softened with a massive Persian rug. The couch was a clean gray-black with a floral-print throw atop it, and it faced a coffee table and an old school CRT television box with a pair of bunny-eared antennae sticking from the top. A flowerpot sat in the corner, its petals and leaves reaching diligently to grab the vestiges of afternoon light that peaked through the ajar window blinds.

Martin took a few steps further in, now noticing the serving hatch that led into the kitchen, equally clean and tidy. In front of this hatch was Courtney, seated at a bar stool with a casual fervor; she turned to Martin and smiled. Martin replied with a nervous smile of his own and said out loud with an uncharacteristically strong voice, “I’m still not completely sold on this idea.”

“What’s not to be sold about?” Courtney replied, weighing a couple of jars of preserves in her hands before putting them down on the counter with a clink. “It’s just a little going away present.”

“Breaking and entering, though? Couldn’t we have just, like, waited for her to come home? Maybe give this to Yu-mi, just, normally?”

This next reply came from elsewhere, muffled. “Her fault for being such a hardass.”

A toilet flushed. Water rushed through pipes. From deeper within, a door opened, and Johnny walked out, wiping his hands on his slacks. “And for stashing her key on top of the door frame. But dude, c’mon. It’s just a harmless little prank to lighten her up a little.”

Hands dried, Johnny plopped onto the couch, reaching for the remote to turn it on. “We find a good hiding place, pop out, say ‘Hey, thanks for being such a cool supervisor’, we eat cake, we leave. What’s so bad about that?”

Martin started to open his mouth, when two feminine voices screeched out from the depths of the hallway, “Guys?!”

Martin, his danger sensors going off like a fire alarm, prepared to charge further into the apartment but remembered he was still carrying the cake. Soon, out of the hallway came two professionally dressed young women with unprofessional but decidedly not mortal expressions. The taller of them, Suzanne, exclaimed, “Have you seen how fluffy Yu-mi’s bed is?”

Martin, Johnny, and Courtney simply stared at the pair.

“It’s like sleeping in a clouuuuud!” The other woman, Tina, breathed out with delight. “I never want to leave! You all must try this before she comes home!” And Tina grabbed Suzanne’s hand, dragging her through the hallway again before Martin could even call to the pair to tell them not to rummage through Yu-mi’s stuff.

Martin sighed.

Courtney clocked her friend’s expression and turned around in the stool to face Martin. “Martin, it’s okay. We can do the surprise on our own. You don’t have to--”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Martin said, finally walking around the counter and entering the kitchen proper, placing the box of cake on top of an empty cutting board. “I’ll stay. It’s just… I don’t know, I feel like… like something awful is going to happen.”

“That’s why Yu-mi loves you so much, dude,” Johnny called over a re-run of All In the Family. “Neither of you know how to chill.”

Martin stood there, evaluating Johnny’s words as a wry smile curled at his lips. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Martin sighed, finally allowing relaxation and joy to enter his heart. He liked Ms. Park. And deep down, a part of him knew that she would continue liking him even if she disliked his involvement in this well-intentioned, probably stupid, but potentially hilarious practical joke. The interns had been planning it ever since they heard that Ms. Park’s ten-year employment anniversary gift from upper management was a $10 Applebee's gift card. Of course, Ms. Park was never one to complain, but for someone so hard-working, diligent, firm, but kindhearted, the interns took this as a perversion of justice. And so, with their own hard-earned dollars, they embarked to the local Walmart with a plan to make things right.

Martin chuckled. Perhaps it was true he worried too much.

Then…

Rerererererereeerererereererereeeererereeeee…

“Hey…” Martin put a hand against his temple. “Are anyone else’s ears ringing?

Courtney, cheek lain in her palm, perked up. Her eyes were twisted in agitation. “Yeah… I think I hear it too…”

As Courtney became aware of this ringing, it grew louder and louder, and more ear-splitting.

“Ach, dammit, what the hell is that?” Johnny shouted. He slammed the TV off. “Is it this?” The television switched to black, yet the screeching remained.

“I don’t have a clue!” Martin yelled. He wanted to get up, but it felt like static electricity was magnetizing him to his seat.

“I… I-I-I can’t move!” Courtney had her hand on the counter, trying to push it away, so she could achieve some semblance of locomotion. But her arms felt more like logs, and she could not hold them against the surface for long before tiring out.

Slam!

Courtney passed out, forehead cracking as she slumped against the counter.

Martin saw this, eyes wide in horror, as the static that had so possessed his ears now went on to conquer his vision, lowering a snowy gray veil over his inner eyelids as he was ripped forcefully from the waking world and into a slumber.

***

There stairwell felt uncharacteristically long and drudgerous as Yu-Mi Park ascended. She was carrying three bags – a briefcase in one hand, and a purse and hefty satchel in the other, each one carrying something critical to her sane functioning in a business environment. She huffed; the day had been uncharacteristically draining to her, and she sought nothing more than the comfort of her apartment unit.

Yu-Mi reached the second floor.

Stopping for a moment, she glanced to the side. Her door was first on the right, closed as always. But instead of turning to it, sticking her key in the door, unlocking, entering… she turned to the adjacent wall. She took a few steps to it, leaning her forehead against the rough painted surface.

Sniffffff…!

The hallway was always empty this time of day; few worked as far from this apartment as Yu-Mi did, so their return times seldom intersected. Still though, there was something oddly cathartic about expressing her herself in a nominally public area. Yu-Mi had made this observation many times in her years living here, and now, as her own emotions threatened to overwhelm her and make her explode… she couldn’t help herself.

Yu-Mi wiped her sleeve across her nose. She was always careful to keep this suit blazer clean and free of blemishes… She’d need to attend to that when she got inside.

Ten years…

Ten years. An entire decade; by all rights, anywhere between a 7th and a 9th of her entire life, a life that she’d already spent 35 years living by the time she got this job. Ten years of barely moving up the corporate ladder, ten years of draining, emotionally-exhausting, mentally-taxing, soul crushing data analysis. Ten years of devoting herself to the company in the hopes… the hopes they would recognize the value she added to the corporation.

Yu-Mi rubbed her eyes, and she reached into the faulds of her blazer to pull out a small plastic rectangle.

At least she wouldn’t have to cook dinner tonight.

Yu-Mi stayed there for a few minutes... but time was ticking. Eventually someone would either come in or come out, and that would open a whole new awkward can of worms, best to be avoided. Yu-Mi planted her key into the slot, twisting it to open the door. She pushed through, closing it behind her, and leaned back against the rough-hewn wood. She sighed. Somehow, even after so many years, she was reluctant to refer to this place as a home.

Yu-Mi locked the door, then reached down, pulling one shoe off and tossing it aside, followed immediately by the stocking. Now confined to the tightness of the apartment unit, the true results of Yu-Mi’s day of work were laid bare. It was hotter than it typically was this time of year, and additionally, her stockings were tight. She hadn’t purchased new shoes in quite a while, and these flats had seen their fair share of use. This meant that as her toes splayed across the Merry Christmas mat, they emanated the scent of a woman at work, a scent that was only truly appreciated by someone already familiar with it, as it was impossible to replicate otherwise. Drips of sweat were still running down her thighs, beneath her black skirt, further coating her in this unique yet alluring odor.

Sniff, sniff. When it hit Yu-Mi, all she could say was: “I could use a shower…”

***

Courtney was the first to come to.

“What… ow…!” The moment she became conscious, she became aware of the lightning bolt of sensation that was still coursing from her head down to all her nerve endings as she tried get her bearings.

“What… what in the hell?” Courtney was on the floor. Or a floor. Of some kind. It was relatively smooth and composed of a mottled pattern of neutral colors.

As Courtney stood up, her gaze went to the horizon, a view that only gave her even more questions. As far as she could see, it was only a collection of blurry, indistinct shapes, fading out into the aether from their distance.

“… oh shit…” Courtney’s heart began to pump. She didn’t know where she was. That was bad. And yet, still… it looked… familiar.

“HEYYYYYYYY!!!”

Courtney heard it. A sound. A sign of familiarity -- Martin. It was coming from just up ahead, just down the way from… wherever she was.

“I’m coming!” she yelled back, at first running to the source, only to realize that her heels were going to be a hinderance on this flat surface. She swore, stopping in her trot to take them off. Grabbing them both, she continued her jog in her stockinged feet until --

“W-WHOA!!” Courtney stumbled, dropping her shoes from sheer fear.

They fell downward, hundreds of feet, off a cliff that she didn’t even know was there.

“H-huh?!” Courtney looked left and then right. The cliff was like no cliff she’d ever seen; it simply continued straight for what felt like miles in either direction. No rocky crags or indentations. As though it had been delicately carved by a master craftsman.

“HEYYYYYY, COURTNEY!!!!”

“MARTIN?!” Courtney yelled back, scanning her surroundings for the source of the sound until:

There.

Across the cliff. Unreachable. There was a golden platform, seemingly suspended on four towering legs. And there, a minute speck in the distance on the platform… was Martin.

“Oh… oh no…” Courtney could not fathom it. It was impossible to understand. It couldn’t be.

But somehow…

Creaaaaaaaaak…

SLAMMM!

“I could use a shower…”

Those simple words were delivered with what felt like uncharacteristic mundanity from the group’s supervisor considering her typical sternness. But Courtney was far more taken aback by the fact that those words had been delivered with the force of that of a God more so than a man, an utterance that shook her to her very bones. It came from a being whose walks dug at something deep in Courtney’s core, and it was coming closer…

Closer.

Closer…

Closer…

Until she finally came into view.

Ms. Park was standing right in front of Courtney, at what was certain to be many thousands of times her own size.

Somehow… Courtney had shrunk. Martin had shrunk. God knows who else had shrunk.

Courtney was not on a nondescript cliff; she was on Ms. Park’s counter. And Martin was nestled smack dab in the middle of the seat of Ms. Park’s bar stool.

Courtney felt the bile rise as she saw Ms. Park awe-inspiring form walk across the floor, each step a thundering quake. Martin too was transfixed, for a moment at least, until he came up with the idea to again scream for help.

“MISS PAAAAAARK!!! HEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!!!”

Courtney saw this, and realized he had the right plan. They had no clue if Ms. Park could even hear the two… but they had to try.

So, Courtney joined in the chorus of Martin, hundreds of feet away, screaming for dear life, hoping that Ms. Park would notice them.

***

“Hmm…”

Yu-Mi noticed the box on the far counter first, next to the fridge. It was an odd sight; how’d it get in here?

Yu-Mi walked toward it, each step on the dusty dry floor saturated with a single print of her saturated stockings. She reached the box, opening it a bit tentatively until the smell of chilled frosted icing wafted into her nose.

“A cake!” she exclaimed, her heart already leaping. Yu-Mi wasn’t known for it, but she loved sweets. And what’s more, this one had a letter attached to the inner underside of the lid.

To Miss Yu-Mi Park.

Our time at Icarus Chemical Solutions was short and had a few ups and downs. But none of us would have become better workers had it not been for your guidance, patience, and support. So as our internships come to a close, we thought to give you this gift, for everything you mean to us.

Signed

Martin, Courtney, Jonathan, Suzanne, Tina

Yu-Mi’s heart could only melt the more she read the letter, any remembrances of the pain of earlier in the day forgotten. She carefully folded it up and put it aside, then grabbed a plate from a nearby cabinet, carving out a piece of the white-blanketed chocolate confection and placing it on the platter. She wanted to eat this now!

Once the cake was plated, she took her newfound evening snack to the bar counter, hopping up on the stool and sighing rapturously as her tired muscles relaxed in its seat, digging her fork into the meal and coating her mouth in its chocolate, licking her lips as she swallowed greedily.

***

Martin watched Yu-Mi walk back, a thundering quake with each step, punctuated by the wet slap-slap-slapping every footfall took. She was getting closer and closer.

Martin’s heart raced. Closeness meant that she’d be able to see them. Renewing his breath, he doubled down and screamed again.

She was getting closer. Even at this size, as Martin stopped to catch his breath, he couldn’t help but admire Yu-Mi’s beauty. It was unbelievable how a creature as big as Martin now comprehended her could move with such grace, especially without a knowing audience to flaunt toward. Her hair, straight jet-black, shoulder-length, silvery midnight, was like a silky curtain guarding the precious pale treasure of her face’s beauty. Her body was slender but toned, fit. Yu-Mi had often confided in the group her use of public transportation when chastising them for being late, as well as her frequent walks and jogs on her days off, which added to this veneer of athleticism. But more than anything, Martin respected Yu-Mi. She had been a brilliant supervisor, a capable data-analyst, a skilled computer technician, and a firm-but-fair mentor to both Martin and the entire group of interns. He genuinely liked her and could only hope she enjoyed his company as well. In any other situation, Martin would consider the opportunity to witness Yu-Mi Park, candid, in this most intimate of spaces, to be a wondrous and cherished memory.

Yu-Mi didn’t hear Martin at all.

It was only as the shadow of Yu-Mi’s shrouded ass fell atop Martin that he realized what was about to happen to him.

He cast a quick glance to Courtney, but realized he lost her location while trying to get Yu-Mi’s attention. Of course he did, she was a speck. They were both specks, practically dust-motes in the presence of this phenomenal creature. It was a miracle the two of them had even found each other in the first place.

And as Martin looked back up at the eclipsed sky, heart pounding with a ferocious fear, a will, a need to get away, he looked across the expansive plain of the seat, searching for an out, for a way to escape this terrifying, inconceivable situation. Even now he didn’t want to believe it. To believe that somehow the two of them shrank, reduced to barely a millimeter in height. And that his boss and mentor was about to snuff him out without even knowing he was ever there.

Martin put his hands up in a futile plea, his screams becoming less screams for attention and more simply fear-addled yelps and screeches as the fabric of Yu-Mi’s dark-colored panties stretched across the back of her buttocks, her rubbery gelatinous orbs jiggling and undulating with their massive, floppy weight until –

CRASHOOOOOOM!!!

It was over in an instant.

In that instant, Martin was bombarded. In the spare moment between being utterly smothered by Yu-Mi’s ass and her weight relaxing into the seat, Martin’s thoughts went into overdrive. His mind went everywhere, if only to prevent his last conscious thought to be pain. He thought of his family, once so sure and confident of Martin’s future business success, unaware that he was about to be reduced to a splatter. He thought of his friends, fearing for them, wondering if this same eldritch fate would befall Johnny, Tina, Suzanne… He thought of Courtney. He hoped, prayed that she would be able to get out of this. To escape, to get Yu-Mi’s attention somehow, as unlikely as that may have been.

The cacophony of horrendous crackles and pops raced through Martins body, compressing from his feet up to his waist, with more to come. Martin squirmed relentlessly, painfully and he took in what breath he could, a foolhardy move as his inflated lungs were mercilessly squeezed, sending out the last oxygen inside the young man up through his mouth in a choked gasp. His heart hadn’t even the time to beat, but his mind still had just enough time to think. To reason. To hope that something would save him. Save everyone. In that split-millisecond as his skin ruptured, his lungs burst, his brain broke… yet he could not stop fighting.

Martin choked on blood as his skull cracked, his mind completely addled and broken in more ways than one. The horror of this predicament was not lost on him, even in his final moments. The heartbreaking, incomprehensible question of what did he do wrong? What did they do to deserve this? Why was he being punished?! How could Yu-Mi so thoughtlessly take the lives of these youths she worked so hard to cultivate?! Why was he --

SPLA-CRACK!

A minuscule spurt of super-sonic blood spritzed from beneath Yu-Mi’s leggings like a grape. The tougher materials, bones, sinews, were ground down into dust only moments later.

Martin’s final delirious shrieks were eaten by the expansive mass of Yu-Mi’s voluptuous derriere, but Courtney could just barely make out the miniscule crunch that curled upward into her ears, sending bile into her mouth.

“M-Martin…?” She knew her voice would be unable to carry what felt like hundreds of feet downwind. In a way, she was counting on it. She feared what Yu-Mi might do to her, unknowingly, a goddess whose whims could determine her life or death in an instant. But still, Courtney had to put her feelings to voice. She tried to ball her hands into fists, but their trembling prevented any cohesion amongst her fingers. That the object of her affection had died, so unceremoniously, suddenly… randomly. What had happened? Why had this occurred? Courtney had no end to the questions she demanded answers for, but currently there was only one other entity in the room she could ask, a creature that loomed up with bounteous, endless girth and size, one that cast an expansive shadow across Courtney’s world.

Yu-Mi was already digging into her cake. Brown frosting speckled the outside of her mouth, quickly lapped up by her probing tongue before being replaced by the leftovers from Yu-Mi’s next forkful. The sweetness was decadent, so much so that Yu-Mi had to moan in delight as she shoved another helping of delicious chocolatey cake into her cheeks. The massive slice was already half-way done; Courtney had to wonder whether she’d been staring so long at the display, transfixed by Yu-Mi’s impossible size, that time seemed to have sped up for her. It didn’t feel real that a cake with so much apparent mass could disappear so utterly and completely.

“Hm…” Yu-Mi scanned the counter, and Courtney froze. She looked up as Yu-Mi looked down, stern, and lifted her hand up above the platform. Five perfect, beautiful, heavenly fingers descended, locking Courtney in place as she could only observe their enigmatic umbra.

Yu-Mi scratched at a piece of crusted pancake batter on the counter, breaking it into dust.

A few centimeters away, Courtney wanted to throw up. For a number of reasons, chief being the speed at which she had darted behind a mason jar filled with peach preserves. By sidling her profile against it, she managed to avoid the attention of Yu-Mi’s gaze. As much as Courtney wanted to get Yu-Mi’s attention, she wanted it to be before she was forced to contend with her fingers, each one the size of a redwood to her, and a proportional thickness exceeding even that.

For now, Courtney could only watch. Watch, and stew in the despair of having lost Martin. But… there was no time for that now. She had to look after herself first.

Yu-Mi finished her cake, scraping the extra icing and crumbs with the side of her fork, forming a thin ridge of flavor on its edge. Yu-Mi licked it up, content. Then, she set her fork down and got up from her stool, back on the floor. She walked into the rear room.

Courtney let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, and she inched out of her hiding place. The fork was no longer a fork to her – it was a colossal, giant, huge bridge of metal, terminating in four equally-spaced, terrifying points. Each one was sharp at normal size, yet Courtney knew if she were to be skewered by one of them… well, she wouldn’t be. She would sooner be crushed beneath their blunt ends. The reality she was only barely larger than a grain of salt was deeply, deeply unsettling to Courtney.

Courtney looked across the endless chasm and into the rectangular portal through which Yu-Mi disappeared. She was like a thunderstorm. Dangerous, yet beautiful, impossible to look away from. Still, not something you wanted to be caught in the middle of. And Courtney thought of the rest of her friends, hoping, praying that they were able to make it out of this okay.