The kitchen table of the Yeager household looked like a battlefield. Anna and Alison hadn’t bothered to be particularly neat while eating their messy McDonald’s meal, and had used the tablecloth as a napkin, leaving grease smudges all over it. Ketchup splotches were dotted around the area, looking like bloodstains; they might as well have been in their representation of the tribulations of Kevin, Helen, Ashley, and Tony.
Ashley still laid on Alison’s yellow wax paper burger wrapper, her limbs wiggling as she tried to regain some feeling, her skin feeling cold from the constant flashes of adrenaline she had received while Alison had cruelly and wordlessly threatened to end her life in the pits of the warm, smoky-smelling cheeseburger. Her fingers twitched independently of her fried brain’s commands as she mumbled weakly. Covering her entire middle torso was the oily, tan-colored mash of the bite of burger Alison had ripped off, chewed up, and unceremoniously spat right onto her exhausted and immobile cousin’s body. Ashley had been lying here for about fifteen minutes without being disturbed. While this was a welcome change, it was dampened by the fact that Ashley knew at any time Alison might decide she wanted to toy with her little former idol some more and pluck her out of the gunk, ready for some no-doubt incredibly vicious game. The effect was also dampened, ironically, by the drying of the chewed bite around her body in the air of the kitchen, slowly encrusting around her limbs, the rank stench of the chewed burger mixing with the distinctive, muggy scent of Alison’s bacteria-covered back tongue. All Ashley could do was lay still, thank God for each individual second of freedom she had while waiting in stupefied anticipation to be picked up again by her tormentor, and breathe somewhat more heavily against the thick weight of the mushy burger bite laying on top of her like a goopy parasite.
Tony leaned against the inside wall of the cup, the lemonade all but gone, a few stray ice cubes that had partially melted clumped wetly around his shins. He shivered, his teeth chattering, his entire body sticky and sweet smelling from the thorough lemonade bath he had received. His soggy clothes stuck against his body, chilling him further, and all he wanted to do was throw them from his body and leap into a bathtub of hot water, but he knew that was a bit of a longshot. In fact, the more he thought of it, getting out of this unbelievable, dreamlike living hell of an evening without severe bodily injury was a bit of a longshot. Surviving might even have been a longshot. Tony didn’t care to think too hard on this, though, as he continued compulsively rubbing at his ice cold shoulders with his equally icy hands and fingers, desperately trying to regain some warmth. The priority for the moment was preventing frostbite.
Kevin and Helen were nestled snugly into the room temperature heap of ketchup in the french fry carton lid, the dregs of the condiment dragged ruthlessly across each of their bodies and faces where both Anna and Alison had swiped fries along their bodies roughly to get some extra flavor on their potato stick bites, microscopic beads of sweat from the tiny couple mixing in with the salty swallows. Helen was in a particularly bad state from having been raked across Anna’s tongue using the soggy french fry, having gone through a very similar experience as her traumatized daughter in realizing the very real possibility of, sickeningly, being swallowed alive by another human being, her brother’s wife no less. Helen, no matter how hard she tried, couldn’t shake the image of Anna’s gargantuan teeth grinding together along the length of the yellow fry, which only minutes ago had stretched along her entire body. She couldn’t help but imagine herself in that same position: Anna’s powerful, grinding pearly whites scraping the skin off of her as she screamed fruitlessly for mercy, her blood trickling down into the vile woman’s happy throat and esophagus, the bitter taste of her victory. At this thought, Helen began to dry sob again, quivering with fear, the most vivid feeling of all being the disgusting, grimy sensation of having Anna’s tongue, so wide and seemingly endless, sliding along her forearms and hands, the taste buds undulating like bubble-shaped coral on an ocean floor.
Kevin laid just as still, his limbs outstretched as if he had been making snow angels in the ketchup pile. He was in his late forties and while not overweight, he wasn’t quite in the kind of shape he had been in in his college days, and his body was physically unprepared for the strain he had been forced through in the last few hours, combined with the obvious mental pain. Kevin hadn’t really had time to allow his brain to process everything that had happened, but now that he was being given what seemed to be a short lapse in the absolute torture at the hands of his vengeful sister-in-law, he had a moment to himself to try and sort it out, and this process terrified him. Kevin was a logical man. He didn’t believe in magic or witchcraft, and although he was vaguely religious, he believed almost solely in what he could see with his own eyes. On this evening, though, all of his previous beliefs about the nature of the universe had been shattered. He had been simply sipping at the glass of wine with his wife, when the pair of them had experienced a sickly feeling in their guts, their heads spinning wildly, and they both slumped over half on the table, their eyes rolling back into their heads. It only lasted for an instant, though, before they awoke, flat on their stomachs on the table. He and Helen had groggily pulled themselves to their feet, in so much shock at their apparent shrinkage that neither had much of anything to say. They hadn’t been on the table for long when Anna and Alison had entered the house. At this point, Kevin had noted to himself how truly fucked up the situation was in every conceivable way, defying the laws of nature with a sneer. However, he had no idea how much worse it could get. And now, trying to sort this through, Kevin realized he was no closer to discovering for himself the truth of his family’s terrible situation. His mind, he noted, had no more likelihood of deciphering this impossible anomaly of science, than did his physical person have a chance of outmatching the strength of his giant sister-in-law’s little finger. In order to keep his mind from collapsing and his face from, embarrassingly, bursting into forlorn tears, Kevin resorted to keeping whatever microscopic grains of his dignity remained intact and instead focused on the keenest and most familiar emotion: rage. His anger had been re-bottling itself intensely since his last outburst against Anna. He realized how badly it had ended for him, but he couldn’t help it. Kevin was a naturally angry person, and he was beside himself with how thoroughly his sister-in-law and niece had virtually molested his family, forcing them into actual, life-threatening situations. The reality of it was uncanny to him, and worse still, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He clenched his ketchup-caked fists, his knuckles cracking so quietly only Helen could hear them, and he bit his lip bitterly, fantasizing gleefully about all the things he was going to do to the two colossal bitches when he was finally returned to normal size.
Anna and Alison, admiring their handiwork on the table, their family strewn about weary, messy, exhausted, and suitably terrified looking, glanced at one another, and the elder goddess-sized woman nodded toward the door, indicating that they head for the kitchen exit. Mother and daughter, confident that none of their tiny extended family would be able to escape the kitchen table, nor have the necessary energy to do so, stood up without another word after they had eaten their fill at the playful expense of everyone who happened to be sitting in their meals as they ate. Looking over her shoulder nervously, Alison followed her mother into the hallway, leaning against a closet door near the foyer.
“Mom… I… I…”
“I know…” breathed Anna, running her fingers through her hair. She had a feeling that her daughter was experiencing the same sense of lightheaded surrealism at the situation. Both women had just performed unspeakably unique crimes on their family: enough that, once the court got past how truly odd and impossible the set-up was, would send them both into prison. Still, at the same time, Anna found herself feeling confident in their relative safety. As a teen, she remembered considering if she was given the chance to pull off an awful crime against a deserving party, safe from backlash of any kind, would she do it? Now, with a steady but satisfied gulp in her dry throat, she was able to mentally note to herself without hesitation that, yes, she was perfectly willing.
“We just… we just put them in…”
“I know…”
“Jesus, mom. How are we going to end this, I…” gasped Alison, then, realizing how bad her word choice was, revised it. “How are we going to get out of this, I mean.”
“I’m working on it, honey,” said Anna reassuringly, rubbing at her chin, staring off in the distance.
“They’d REALLY throw us in jail now.”
“I know.”
“And… and Ashley…” drawled Alison, her eyes widening. Now that she didn’t have the diminutive brat of a cousin sitting right in front of her, at her disposal for some cruel playtime, she was able to consider her actions a little more carefully. Alison was a peaceful person, and she liked to think she was gentle to all she met. And yet, now that she considered it, she realized that in the course of a night, when presented with the correct opportunity, she was capable of becoming an omnipotent keeper of Ashley’s life, even half-threatening to take it away in gloriously unsettling fashion. “W-What I did to her… I mean… Jesus.”
“Relax, Alison,” whispered Anna, hugging her daughter around the shoulders. “It’s okay. I get it.”
“Mom…” mused Alison disbelievingly, still having difficulty grasping all of it.
“Shhh…” cooed Anna rocking side to side in her embrace with her daughter. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix all of this, all right? I told you I’d make sure you were taken care of. And I will.”
“I love you, mom,” said Alison, hugging her mom back at length, trusting that Anna would indeed keep to her word and sort it out. She had never doubted her mother before, and she realized now that this was no time to start.
“Love you too, honey. Now…” said Anna, looking over her shoulder back toward the kitchen. “I’m getting pretty tired.”
“Are we going to go back to…”
Anna shook her head. “Nope. We’re going to see what it’s like to spend a night in the lap of luxury. You could probably fit into Ashley’s PJs, right?”
Alison nodded. “Yeah, probably, but…”
Anna winked, then spoke again, cutting her off softly. “It’s a sleepover with your cousin. Don’t you think that would be fun?”
Alison, getting her mother’s drift, widened her eyes, surprised at the implication, but at the same time couldn’t help but heartily agree, guilty as she felt to admit it. “Should we just…”
“C’mon,” smiled Anna, taking her daughter around the shoulder and leading her uncertainly back into the kitchen. “Let’s turn in.”
By this time, Kevin and Helen had managed to pull themselves groggily up and out of the ketchup dreg-filled lid, and had rushed over to Ashley’s pathetically gunk-covered form. They were busily scraping away at the repulsively musty, chewy texture of Alison’s mulched burger bite that had fossilized their daughter underneath. By the time the two titanic, feminine captors had returned and were standing triumphantly over their living playthings, most of the chunks were cleared off of Ashley, and Helen was helping her to her feet, both of her parents hugging themselves to her in the hope of keeping her away from Anna and Alison.
Anna didn’t even acknowledge them, instead looking back with a grin to her daughter. “Go ahead, honey,” she said, extending a flattened palm over the table as if offering some prestigious trophy to Alison. “Go play with your cousin.”
“NO!” screamed Kevin, finally speaking up and throwing his arms out, standing in front of the cowering and crying Ashley defensively as Alison’s expectant hand lowered, her fingers curling playfully in anticipation of once again having her cousin clenched between them. Alison stopped for a moment, tilting her head curiously at him. “Take me instead, Alison!” he bellowed. “Leave her! Leave my daughter… p-please?” he gasped, his anger and terror descending into apology as he realized how desperate the situation was. Alison looked to her mother, who shook her head no, then looked back to Kevin and shrugged.
“Excuse me, Uncle Kevin,” smirked Alison, swatting him to the side with her flattened fingers as if he was a plastic action figure. He tumbled to the tabletop, grunting in rage and surprise, leaving the exposed Helen and Ashley, who were gripping each other in terror. “C’mon, little Ashley,” cooed Alison in a low, gentler voice as she tapped her fingertips against her cousin’s shivering back. “It’s time for bed.”
“PLEASE, Alison!” cried Helen as her daughter started sobbing wildly again, somehow sensing the inevitable. “Hasn’t she had ENOUGH? Look at her!” she shouted, not meaning this as insultingly at her daughter as it ended up sounding. “How COULD you? She’s your c-cousin…” she drawled, beginning to weep again, aghast beyond belief at Alison’s perceived heartlessness.
But Alison just shook her head. “Kiss Mommy good night, Ashley,” laughed Alison, speaking in a condescending baby voice to her two-years-older cousin. “I’m about to tuck you in.” With this, Alison tapped Helen hard in the face, pushing her back. With her aunt momentarily distracted and her grip on Ashley loosened, Alison was very easily able to pluck her resisting cousin into her soft, waiting fingers, where she gripped her warmly against her plush palm skin, ignoring her pleading screeches and squirms. “It’s okay, Ashley,” soothed Alison in the continuing baby voice, running a fingertip over her cousin’s filthy, matted hair. “I’ll take GOOD care of you.”
“A-Ashley…” wheezed Helen, falling to her knees and holding her hands out toward her daughter, hoisted high in the air in Alison’s powerful fingers. But all she received as a similar faceful of palm flesh as Anna curled her fingers around her weeping sister-in-law’s quivering body, doing the same thing to Kevin, who didn’t even have time to object as he lifted himself from the blow dealt by his niece. Alison carelessly grabbed the drink cup in her other hand and started for the stairs. With a final smile to her mother, who had just tucked the silver chain into her pocket, she headed upstairs and closed the door to Ashley’s room behind herself.
Anna herself, a sibling-in-law firmly clenched in each hand, headed for the stairs as well, clicking off the lights to the kitchen as she went, leaving the mess of dinner on the table. The lightning had begun to subside mostly, and now it was just pouring sheets of rain clattering like bullets against the windows. She sighed deeply as she began the stairwell ascent, the top of her shirt sticking to her warm skin from the humidity of the non-air conditioned house. Reaching the top landing, she proceeded back toward Kevin and Helen’s room, entering and pushing the door closed behind her with a raised heel, ending any possible chance of either shrunken captive leaving until Anna was good and ready for them to.
Heading back to the bed, Anna held her hands about a foot over the surface and released the bone-breaking grip of her soft fingers on the battered couple. Kevin and Helen fell down to the wide bedspread of their king size mattress, bouncing once before landing wearily on their backs. Helen gripped her tiny hands as much as she could around the blanket, crying again. She could only imagine what was happening to her daughter. She had told her she would help her get out of it, and yet here she was: she had allowed her horrid niece to carry her away to do who-knew what, yet again. She shuddered and teared up further to think of the possibilities. Being on her bed offered her comfort, as this was normally where she did her deepest thinking, but somehow, with the enormous goddess of a sister-in-law stalking around the room, obviously not prepared to let them be yet, the sense of security just wasn’t quite there.
Anna kicked her freshly cleaned flip-flops, courtesy of her sister-in-law’s tongue, off to the side of the room, then headed for the bed. She raised a leg and placed a large bare foot onto the end, grasping the bedspread in her toes and scrunching it, which just for a moment pulled Kevin and Helen closer to her abominable ped before they rose and began backing away toward the pillows at the head of the bed. As they did, Anna extended her smooth bare leg onto the bed, propping her heel up in the air, allowing the complete, wrinkled underside of her foot to be seen by the trembling couple. She wiggled her bulbous toes in the fresh air, arching her wrinkled heel a few times, before slapping it back down silently against the sheet and bending at her knee to pull herself onto the bed. Standing on one foot on the bed, Anna stared playfully down at the pair, holding one foot over them as if threatening to stamp it down onto them and crush them to bloody pulps in between her smooth heel creases, before descending quickly, going into a sitting position. She stretched both legs out, allowing her feet to point toward the ceiling. Helen dove out of the way, landing near one side of the bed, looking over with wide eyes at the canyon below, Anna’s industrial girder-sized pillars of muscle and flesh stretching on endlessly right next to her. Kevin wasn’t quite fast enough, and found himself pancaking uncomfortably against Anna’s soft heel as he dove for cover, which sent him flying a few inches further than he would have gone right on his head, moaning painfully. This left the couple separated on opposite sides of the bed, with Anna’s incredible legs spread comfortably in the median to keep them that way. She ran a hand through her long red curly locks, shook them around a bit for show, then lowered both hands onto the bed, giving herself some better support as she sat upright on the bed, casually flexing her toes near the headboard of the bed.
Anna turned her head side to side, tilting it calmly as she alternated locking eyes with each terrified and frozen doll-person on the bed. Finally, nodding slowly to herself as if she had been trying to come up with an idea, raised an arm and laid her hand, palm up, flat on the bed near to Helen.
“C’mon. In,” she ordered curtly, not even bothering anymore to use feigned care in her voice. Helen took a slow step forward, eyeing the hand anxiously as if considering whether or not to do it. “NOW, Helen,” hissed Anna, wiggling her fingers against the bed. This got Helen moving quickly, and she dashed forward, cautiously stepping into Anna’s palm. This much didn’t matter, though, as Anna quickly closed her fingers around Helen’s body, jolting her roughly as she raised her back to chest level. With her other hand, she slipped her fingers in for the chain she had stowed back in her skirt pocket, drawing it out and cradling it in her other hand. Calmly, she looped the thing around her neck, letting the unclasped ends hang against her chest. She brought Helen closer, bringing her newly cupped palm into contact with her skirt and one of the hooks.
“A-Anna…” gasped Helen. “Please don’t make me go back in…”
“IN?” laughed Anna. “I suppose I ought to take that as a compliment. I did hear that, too, you know. You’ve never been too impressed with my goods?” Anna playfully ran a finger up her left breast, jiggling it slightly. “I mean, I know they’re not quite to the standards of those synthetic C’s you’ve got there…” she accused, prodding a finger into Helen’s chest, which was quickly blocked. “…but if you consider going between my breasts to be going “in” something, then maybe that means you’ve figured out I’m a little better endowed than you thought.”
“Please, Anna, please…” sobbed Helen, falling to her knees for the hundredth time that night, a small part of her continually hoping that a show of absolute, base respect and begging might sway her sister-in-law. “Don’t put me back in there. Don’t put those h-hooks back in my pants… p-please…”
Anna giggled. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, sis.”
Helen sniffled, trying to dry her tears. “R-Really?”
Her hulking tormentor nodded back, smiling. “Nope. Because you’re going to do it this time, and then you’re going to snuggle back between my breasts like the good little plastic whore that you are,” answered Anna sweetly as she stroked Helen’s back with her soft fingertips to help soothe her.