“No, I don’t think that will work, Frank. It’s a bit too… on the nose, don’t you think?” Amelia rubs her forehead in exasperation. Frank was a great business partner, but she wished he would leave the publicity stuff to her. She moves her phone to her other ear just in time to hear “Okay, how about: Amelia’s Minis? Has a nice flow, right?” She sighs loudly. “I’ll think about it.” 

Since she had shrunk last month, she and Frank had been inspired to expand their clothing line to include clothes for tinies. Everyone knew that normies were a better potential market than tinies were, but Amelia hadn’t realized the effect this had on tinies until she became one herself. It was easy enough to get food and shelter since they needed so much less than normies did, but working appliances were almost impossible to come by, electronics were nonexistent save for each tiny’s government-issued cell phone, and the only clothes she could find were itchy doll clothes with huge seams. 

Seeing how rough she and the other tinies had it had awoken a part of her that she had thought died long ago. Bristling at the injustice, she had called Frank to vent. To her pleasant surprise, it had been he who proposed the idea in the first place. It had been tough to convince their investors to support a line that, by all projections, would certainly result in a loss, but a well-timed media storm covering the “shrunken fashionista” had pushed them over the edge. 

Right now, she was on her way to model the first tiny outfit she’d designed: a simple sky blue sundress with a medium skirt and just a hint of cleavage, and white, open-toed sandals. Naturally, since this was the only comfortable outfit she owned, she was wearing it as she walked there. She sees a sign for building number 3207 on the wall of the tunnel. “Hey Frank, what building was the show in again?” She hears a bit of rustling before he speaks: “32… 11. Don’t worry, you’ve got time. I do wish you’d have let me drive you, though.” She scoffs. “I’ve told you, I can take care of…”

Suddenly, a massive hand appears in front of her. She stumbles back and falls on her rear as the fingers close around the space she had just been occupying. She feels her heart racing as the hand moves slightly out of the way and a massive, crystal blue eye peers through the sidewalk entrance at her. “Damn it, I almost had her. She’s a real cutie, too! You guys had better get in position quick, I don’t want to lose this one.” 

The girl’s voice echoes around the tunnel. Amelia hears Frank’s voice coming from the ground behind her; she realizes she dropped her phone. “Amelia, what’s going on? Who is that?” She grabs her phone and says “I don’t know, this normie girl just blocked the tunnel!” 

“Where are you right now?”

She looks back to the sign she just passed. “3207, 5th street. I think I’ll be fine though, she didn’t get me.” But then she sees another hand come through the entrance behind her, about 20 feet away. “She’s not going this way!” the new girl says. Amelia’s heart leaps into her throat. She’s stunned until she hears “Move over, let me see!” from the entrance closer to her. There are some scuffling sounds, and then a darker blue eye appears. “Ooh, it’s that girl from TV! You know, the fashion girl!” 

The first girl says “What the hell are you doing, Jasmine? You’re supposed to be inside!”

“Oh, right. Sorry!” Jasmine giggles and gets up. Amelia hears her walking away. Inside? Wait, of course, she could go into the building! She starts running for the door, hoping she can beat this Jasmine girl. Meanwhile, she yells into her phone, “Frank, there are three of them, they’re trying to trap me!” 

“I’m on my way! Hold on just a second while I call the police.”

She doesn’t respond. She can’t. She’s out of breath from running. She gets to the building entrance, turns the corner, and sees the end of the tunnel clear. Just a bit farther! But just as she’s about to emerge, a sandal-clad foot appears in her way. She doesn’t have time to slow down before she crashes into it. The bubbly voice she recognizes as Jasmine’s is audible through the clamor inside. “Is it alright if I just wait here? My boyfriend is a couple minutes out.” A brief pause, then “Thanks! I really appreciate it!” She wiggles her toes and says, a little quieter, “You’re all ours, little fashion girl!”

Amelia is close to tears, but she tries to calm herself. The girls don’t actually have her, she just can’t leave this tunnel segment. Frank will be here soon to scare them off and bring her to her show. Everything will be fine. Her attention goes back to her phone. “Frank? Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. They’ve blocked all the exits, but unless they plan on starving me out I don’t know what they’ll do next.”

“I’m about 5 minutes out. Hold tight.”

She takes a second to calm herself. Deep breaths. Everything will be okay. After a minute of quiet, Amelia starts to feel pretty confident about the situation. She decides to look down the tunnel again to get another look at the girls so she can be a better witness. She peeks around the corner to see that same crystal blue eye staring at her. “There you are! Did Jazz block your path?” the girl asks with mock sympathy. “You poor thing. I guess that means you’re stuck here with us!”

Amelia bristles at the girl’s condescending tone. “Now listen here young lady! My business partner is on his way, and the police are right behind him. If you don’t let me go before they get here, there’ll be hell to pay!”

“Ooh, you’re feisty! I like that! Sorry hon, but our friend is on her way, too. You’d better hope your friend gets here before her.”

Amelia is about to retort when she hears the girl on the other end of the tunnel speak. “Jazz is right, Melissa, this is that designer who’s making tiny clothes.” Amelia looks over to see a bright green eye and a single lock of red hair cascading into the tunnel. “We could have her make clothes for all of our pets!” Amelia’s blood runs cold. Pets? She responds indignantly “I’m not making anything for you! You can all go to hell!”

Melissa makes a “tsk tsk” sound and says “You might want to adjust that attitude, cutie. I’d hate to have to punish you the same day we found you.”

“You can’t punish me, you…!”

Melissa effortlessly interrupts her. “Hold on, I think Addy is back.” The eye disappears, but the hand remains. “Hey, girl! Ooh, that’s perfect! Can you text Jazz to tell her to get ready?” Amelia considers trying to sneak past the hand. She cautiously takes a few steps closer, but then the hand disappears. She stops in confusion. The redhead speaks up again. “You might want to take a deep breath, girlie.” Amelia barely has time to register the words before she sees a torrent of water rushing in where Melissa’s hand had been. 

Time seems to slow as she feels the first droplets hit her face, and then an instant later the wave crashes into her, knocking her off her feet. She loses all orientation. She slams into something and her body screams in pain. It’s all she can do to keep her death grip on her phone, her only lifeline, as the water carries her helplessly along. 

Eventually, she hits something soft. She feels the massive pressure of the water keeping her pressed against it, then she’s suddenly pulled into the sunlight. As she starts to cough up water, she perceives everything that’s happening as though it’s a million miles away: Frank calling out to her, frantically asking what’s happening, the beaming face of the redhead above her slowly coming into focus, and the distant noise of the city streets. She realizes that she’s being held in the redhead’s hand. 

“Aww, is that your boyfriend?” She feels her phone being pried from her grasp. “What a cutie! Hey there, Frankie, I’m Ivy! Nice photo!” 

“What the hell is going on!? Where’s Amelia?”

She giggles. “You’re never going to see your little girlfriend again. But I wouldn’t mind seeing you! Preferably with less covering you up…” she bites her lip. 

Amelia tries to say something, but all that comes out is another cough. She feels her arm being lifted by another hand, then hears a voice she doesn’t recognize. “You can talk to her boyfriend, but I want to get a good look at her. I haven’t seen her yet!” There’s a sudden jerking movement, and then she finds herself in front of the face of a very attractive brunette. This must be Addy. Soon after, Melissa’s face appears next to her. 

Addy looks her up and down, sizing her up. “Mm, you are pretty cute, but let’s see what the rest of you looks like first.” Amelia feels a finger stroke her leg and slowly push her soaked dress up. She finally gets her voice back. “No, stop…” She kicks her legs, trying to push the finger away, but its insistent invasion of her body continues. To her surprise, Melissa reaches up to pull down Addy’s hand. “Wait, Addison, we don’t want to damage her dress. We’ll get it off of her when we get home.”

The reality of the situation finally registers with her: she’s being kidnapped. She looks between the two faces that loom in front of her and notices that she’s shaking. In a panic, she starts screaming. To her surprise, a pedestrian happens to be close by, and he turns to look at her. “Help please, these girls are…!” Melissa’s finger moves up to cover her face, silencing her. “Shh, pet, no talking without permission.” Addy turns to the passerby. “Don’t worry about her, we’ll take good care of her! Promise!” Amelia’s eyes fill with hope as the man looks at her with sympathy. But then he drops his gaze sheepishly and turns to keep walking. She can feel tears welling up in her eyes as she struggles against the girls’ grips. 

“Aw, was she trying to ask for help?” Jasmine’s face appears in the array in front of her. “No Good Samaritan for you today, I guess!” She leans in very close and whispers “They might be more likely to do something if they knew that there are dozens of tinies hidden all over our bodies right now…” She winks surreptitiously and stretches her shirt tight over her breast, revealing a suspiciously shaped lump underneath. “But no one really cares about just one tiny.”

Amelia sobs silently into the massive finger covering her mouth. By now, tears are streaming down her face. Melissa smiles and begins stroking Amelia’s face with her finger. “Honey, does that scare you? Let me confirm your fears: you’re going to be spending a lot of time very close to us. I’m dying to introduce you to the cute guy living in my panties.” She bites her lip, reaches down, and begins massaging her crotch. “I don’t want your pretty dress to get ruined though, so you’re going in my purse for today.”

Jasmine pouts. “Why can’t she go in my purse?”

“Because you don’t have any self-control. You’d probably rape her before we got home.”

“Hey girls, we have to skedaddle.” Ivy reappears, tiny phone in hand. “Frankie here sounds like he’s getting close.”

Addy giggles. “I knew you were good, but damn, Ivy! And before he even loses his old girlfriend!” 

Ivy smiles. “I’d be super disappointed if he was that easy. But seriously, we have to go.”

Melissa removes her finger from Amelia’s face and unzips her purse. “We’ll see you in a bit, cutie!” Amelia feels herself being lowered into the pink, leather cell beneath her. She starts screaming, calling out to Frank for help. “Ooh, you wanna hear her screams, Frankie?” Ivy giggles and holds Amelia’s phone up to her. Frank sounds desperate, but still in control of himself. “Amelia, can you hear me? It’s going to be okay, I’ll find you, just don’t…” She falls the rest of the way into the purse, banging her knee painfully on a car key. The purse is zipped up. Darkness.