“So, here’s the game, little bro,” stated Carly simply, hands on her hips, as she glowered down at her tiny naked brother as he stood shakily on the carpet at her feet, looking upward at his owner and hoping against hope that whatever was coming would result in minimal injury.  “You get to run for the door.  If you make it without me catching you, I’ll let you off the hook for now.  You don’t make it, and…” she giggled, covering her mouth and glancing slyly down at Jack as he cowered before her.  “…well, let’s just make that part a surprise, okay?”

                Jack was silent, clutching his sides against the cold.

                “That OKAY WITH YOU?” shouted Carly, leaning over somewhat, smirking as her brother clasped his hands over his tiny ears, already sensitive at his size but hurt even more when she yelled.  Of course, knowing this, Carly made a point of raising her voice above the necessary volume whenever she was alone with her sibling captive, just to pour salt in an already rather large wound.  To make sure the point got across, the gigantic eighteen-year-old lifted her foot just barely off of the ground, her big toe extended against the blue fabric of her sock, and prodded it into Jack’s stomach, easily knocking him over with the force of her powerful digit.  Grunting, Jack pulled himself back to his feet, but went down again as Carly rocked her foot back forward, this time slamming her toe into his face with a little more force that actually flipped Jack a few inches into the air, letting him fall painfully on his back.

                Carly chuckled again.  She doubted she would ever tire of watching her brother tumble over so easily with just a simple touch from one of her comparatively enormous fingertips or toes.  The ease with which she could literally turn his world upside down provided endless entertainment for her.  No matter how poorly the day went, no matter how much her friends talked behind her back, no matter how often she was brushed off or taken advantage of, all of it seemed to come back into moral balance when she was able to just come home, lock the rest of the world out of her bedroom, and reach into her sock drawer and pull out her favorite toy: her older brother.

                So small.  So weak.  So pathetic.  Carly often found herself almost irritated with the very existence of her brother, although she never allowed this annoyance to get the better of her for fear of permanently damaging her little pet.  If anything, this irritation had only grown in the few years that had passed since his mysterious shrinking episode that changed their relationship from that of brother and sister to slave and master.  To Carly, it was like watching an ant scurry rapidly across a sidewalk, bidding desperately for survival.   Often, the girl found herself sneering at the insect’s efforts and swiftly bringing a foot down on top of it, smashing it easily into a droplet of bug paste with her heel, right before it reached its destination.  Something so worthless, it seemed to the teenager, didn’t deserve to even have a fighting chance on the planet.  This was in many ways how she looked upon her brother with his meager stature and accompanying strength now, although she kept herself from crushing him, no matter how much the subconscious desire to do so crept into her thinking.

                “Ready… SET…” breathed Carly, eyes wide, brushing a dirty blonde lock out of her eyes and preparing to force her brother into a “game” of tag that would no-doubt end with him losing and subsequently wedged tightly into her pocket, on top of her tongue, under her sole, or some equally uncomfortable location thereof.  However, as Jack prepared to sprint fruitlessly away from his tower-sized younger sister’s ruthless rampage, the doorbell rang.  Sighing with disappointment, Carly instead leaned over toward the carpet, fingers outstretched and reaching for Jack.

                The tiny teen dashed away as quickly as he could, thinking the game had already begun, but he didn’t stand a chance against Carly’s quick-moving thumb and forefinger, which had looped themselves around his sides and plucked him high into the air before he had a chance to take two panicked breaths. 

                “Guess somebody got lucky… for now,” winked Carly with a grin, depositing her brother back into her sock drawer.  Satisfied, Carly sauntered happily downstairs toward the front door.  Tonight was date night for her parents, which meant Carly had the house all to herself until late.  Normally, she told her parents she was planning on hanging out with friends, although most of the time she instead used these occasions for playtime with her pocket-sized sibling.  Just for safety purposes, having the house all to herself meant Carly was free to do as she liked to her brother as loud, as vigorously, and as long as she wanted.

                Grasping the door handle, Carly swung it open to find her friend Deidre standing there in the smoky twilight of the evening, her head hanging, her legs shifting uncomfortably.  As they met eyes, Deidre’s pupils seemed to flutter uncomfortably, tears welled deeply in them.

                “Dee!  What’s wrong?  Are you okay?” gasped Carly with concern, stepping forward and putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

                “I’m… I’m…” stuttered Deidre, taking a step forward and almost tripping over the Welcome mat.  Carly quickly stooped to help catch her and swung her arm around Deidre’s back to help her stand up, then hobbled her inside.  As they walked, Carly noticed a distinctly indirect swagger in her friend’s steps, and already had a feeling of what was up before they even sat down so Deidre could talk.

                “Carly… I m-m-messed up again,” sobbed Deidre, burying her face in her palms and shaking, even as Carly wrapped an arm around her to comfort her.  “Really bad.  I was at this g-g-guy’s house, and he handed me a cup and just t-told me to s-s-sip it…” she breathed, her words slurring together as she struggled to string coherent thoughts together.  “I c-c-can’t go home right now, I just… can’t, I…”

                “It’s okay, Dee, I get it,” interjected Carly quickly, feeling more and more worried about this.  “You want some coffee and we can talk some more?”  Hanging her head in shame, Deidre sniffled a little and nodded.  Carly patted her friend’s arm and got up, checking the pantry for the coffee beans.

                “Oh, crap, I think we’re out.  My dad usually keeps a spare can in the garage, though.  Just wait a second for me, ‘kay Dee?” asked Carly, heading for the door.  Her friend murmured agreement, staying still.  Nodding, Carly quickly made her way into the garage and began rummaging past old boxes and shelves coated with dust.  She wasn’t entirely sure of where her dad kept the beans, so it was more than five minutes of searching before, with an exasperated sigh, Carly found them stacked under some stale boxes of cereal.  Gripping the new bean can confidently, the girl headed back inside, reading the can for the instructions.  “Sorry, Dee, I found them now… they were…” she began, looking up and finding the kitchen chair empty.  Confused, Carly waited a moment before a sound that shook her to her bones ripped through the halls of the house.

                Deidre screaming at the top of her lungs from upstairs.

                Carly had never barreled up the stairs to the landing this quickly before.  In a matter of seconds, she was dashing toward her open bedroom door, nearly tripping as she did so, and standing in the doorframe to find Deidre, eyes as wide as dinner plates, reaching shakily into the open sock drawer.  Carly remained frozen, too shocked to know exactly what to do at this second as she watched her drunken friend grip her dirty little secret out of the sock drawer and hoist him out, holding him at chest height between her fingers and examining him with terrified fascination.

                “Dee…” croaked Carly, her throat extremely dry.

                “He’s real… oh my God, that can’t be… that can’t be… he’s… he’s…”

                “Dee, please.”

                “He’s a-a-alive…” gasped Deidre, sounding as if she had just stumbled upon the discovery of the century as she prodded uncertainly at Jack’s sides with a thumb as she let him sprawl into her unsteady palm.  “The little man’s alive, Carly,” she drawled.

                “Listen, Dee,” swallowed Carly, finally regaining her bearings and realizing the only way out of the situation at long last.  “I think you’re just not feeling well.  So… whatever you think is going on… why don’t you just put the… little man… back in the drawer and come with me for some coffee?”

                “It’s like a fucking fairy tale, Carly.  A fucking fairy tale,” breathed Deidre, completely ignoring her friend as she calmly wrapped her fingers around Jack’s body, squeezing. Carly heard her brother grunt in pain as the crushing weight of the teenage girl’s soft fingers twisted painfully around his body.  “I’m holding a little p-p-person in my hand… holy… holy shit…”

                “Yeah, yeah, look, Dee, I think you seriously need to take a load off.  You’re pretty far gone right now,” said Carly, moving quickly over to Deidre and putting a hand on her shoulder.  “So why don’t we just put him down and go back downstairs?”

                Deidre turned her head over to Carly, raising an eyebrow despite not being able to maintain consistent eye contact, then frowned.  “But he is real, isn’t he, Carly?  I get drunk, but I don’t get THAT-”

                “I beg to differ, babe,” cut in Carly, reaching forward and wrapping a hand around Deidre’s fingers, relieving some of the pressure they were exerting on Jack, who by now was flushed red and whining quietly in pain.

                “NO!” gasped Deidre, jumping away and almost tripping as she leaned roughly against the wall.  She quickly brought her other hand up, cupping it over Jack’s face so that his entire body was hidden in her fist as she held him closer to her chest.  “You can’t have him!  I found him, he’s mine!”

                “Dee…” breathed Carly desperately.

                “No… wait a second…” whispered Deidre, squinting suspiciously at Carly.  “I didn’t find him first, did I?  He was in your room, but he wasn’t on the floor, he was in your d-d-drawer…”

                “Stop this, Dee, please.”

                “…and the only way he could’ve gotten in there was if you put him in there, isn’t it?”

                “He’s not real, I swear to God, it’s just a…”

                “STOP LYING TO ME!” screamed Dee, her words slurring harder than ever, her arms trembling.  Uncovering her palm from Jack, she peered down at him, blinking a few times as if trying to get him into focus, before her eyes widened.  “Oh my God… no fucking way…”

                “Dee, stop looking, there’s nothing there, put him down.”

                “That’s your brother… your… dead… brother…”

                “No it’s not,” repeated Carly like a broken record, leaning forward and grasping at Deidre’s hands delicately so as not to cause her friend to clam up and accidentally crush Jack between her palms.  “My brother ran away four years ago.”

                “That’s what I t-t-thought…” gasped Deidre, opening her hand again and allowing the weary handheld brother to tumble back into her cupped palm.  “But that’s him.  I know it.  I remember him back when we were in middle school, even… I can see all of him… his face, his arms, his legs, his…” she breathed, cracking a delighted smile, “…his little dick…”

                “Stop that!” spat Carly, becoming angry with her friend, who was beginning to take advantage of her refuge from legal trouble.  “Stop it right now and put him down!”  The feeling was equivalent to having someone rummage through her purse.  The privacy invasion was almost suffocating.

                “You’ve kept him h-hidden here all this time, haven’t you?”

                “I…”

                “HAVEN’T YOU?  Answer me, or I smush him right now!” threatened the drunken friend, her eyelids drooping, her auburn hair hanging messily over her forehead.  Slowly, she brought her thumb down on Jack’s stomach, pinning him handily to her palm and pressing down.  Jack wrapped his arms around her finger, trying to fight her off, but it was to no avail.

                “Yes… now, please… please…” whispered Carly desperately, her voice softening.  “Let him go.”

                “I don’t think so.  I bet you d-don’t want anyone to find out about him.  You’d be… you’d be so beyond fuckin’ screwed, it’s not even funny.  So… we’re gonna set up a deal.”

                “A… deal?” whispered Carly.

                Deidre nodded.  “That’s right.  Because… I kind of want a turn with him.  So, you’re gonna let me borrow your itty bitty brother for a little while, and then you can have him back.”

                “Now, wait just a SECOND, Dee!” growled Carly, growing more and more scared about this whole situation.  She was, of course, horrified to think of the kind of situation she’d be in if her secret were ever revealed to her parents, or anyone else, for that matter, but there was something else.  Something else was welling up inside her chest, still feeling like the hopeless, crushing weight of fear, but it wasn’t quite the same as the thought of inevitable persecution if her friend’s blackmail paid off.

                “That’s right.  And after you have him for a little longer, then I’ll take him back and… get to play with him for a while again.  Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.  Heck, I bet it’ll be nice for him to get away from you for a while.  He probably h-h-hates you!”

                “No…” swallowed Carly, feeling a solitary tear descend her cheek.  She knew what it was now.  The feeling.  It wasn’t the terror of being caught, or even of losing her most valued plaything.

                She was about to lose her loyal slave of a brother.  Her little muse.  Her subject.  The thing she loved perhaps more than anything else.  He was about to be ripped from her hands.  It was almost too much to bear.  Immediately, Carly felt a spark of rage igniting in her mind that quickly spread like wildfire through her body.  Tingling, the girl balled her fingers into fists and cracked her knuckles.

                “And we’re gonna have SO MUCH FUN, AREN’T WE?” giggled Deidre loudly and girlishly, her words stumbling, as she finally released her thumb and lowered a pointer finger down onto Jack’s body, tickling his stomach and watching him squirm.  “God, I can’t even believe Carly’s kept you a freaking SECRET for all this time and didn’t even want to SHARE with her FRIENDS!” she gaped, smiling widely.  “But it doesn’t matter now, because I finally get a little p-piece of you, and…” she grinned, lowering her finger and promptly using it to squeeze Jack’s member, which caused him to cringe painfully.  “…nothing on you is safe from me,” she finished, licking her lips almost hungrily.  “NOTHING.”

                “Fuck you, Dee,” grumbled Carly, who had moved a few steps away while Deidre was preoccupied with her newfound toy.

                “What the hell did you just…” asked Deidre angrily, looking up as Carly smacked her friend hard across the temple with a small marble paperweight from her desk.  Instantly, Deidre flopped to the ground, but as she did Carly grabbed at her friend’s hand, plucking her brother to safety and balling him into a firm but nonlethal embrace with her much more familiar fingers.  Sitting slowly on the bed, Carly groaned, thinking quickly as her unconscious friend murmured on the carpet.

                “I just… gotta take her back downstairs, set her in a chair, tell her she tripped coming inside…” mumbled Carly, nodding to herself.  It would work.  She knew it would.  This happened frequently enough with Deidre that NOT having a mishap while drunk would be almost unusual.  Taking a quick breather, Carly frowned as she opened her hand, looking down at her brother sprawled calmly in her palm.  For an instant, there was a sort of peace between them.  Jack’s expression was blank as he remained sitting easily in his gigantic sister’s hand, awaiting whatever was next.  Carly could hardly believe it.  She had just assaulted one of her best friends, just for Jack who, about ten minutes before, had been a sight of some contempt for her.

                “What the heck is wrong with me?” whispered Carly to no one in particular, frowning to herself before locking eyes with her brother again as she raised him up to face level.  “Why didn’t you hide, little bro?  Huh?”

                “I don’t know, she was… she was too fast, I d-d-didn’t see her…” breathed Jack, stuttering in fear.  “Please d-don’t p-punish me, Carly, please, please, I…”

                “Shut up,” sneered Carly quietly, which caused her brother to be silenced instantly, shaking her head in thought at him.  “You will not BELIEVE how much you’re going to be kissing my foot later to thank me for this.  Understand?  Like, you literally cannot even picture it, I bet.”

                “Okay.”

                “That’s all you have to say?  Just OKAY?”

                Jack swallowed hard, nodding, then spoke again.  “Thank you.”

                “You’re welcome, little bro,” said Carly before accidentally smiling a little down at her sibling, but quickly corrected herself before looking over at Deidre still lying on the ground.  “I guess I better do something about her now.”