Bethany grumbled to herself and glanced at the wall-clock. Noon. The day wasn't even half over but already she felt like she could strangle someone. Why did she have to take care of the store alone anyway? Was everyone else's lunch break really that important? What about her needs?

Even worse, they'd given her a job to complete while they were off enjoying their break. She had to go through the entire store and find any hangers with nothing attached. It was simple, tedious, and mind numbingly dull. For what felt like the thousandth time that day, she thought of simply walking outside and ending her employment.

The soft tingling of a bell knocked Beth out of her angry daydreams, and she turned to face the front door. While part of her was thankful that someone had shown up to take her away from the horrifyingly boring task, she was just as annoyed that it meant she would now have to interact with another stupid customer.

Bethany wasn't exactly what one would call a “People Person.” She frequently argued with customers, got into fights, and was an all around genuinely unpleasant person to be around. Though she only stood a hair over five feet, she had the uncanny ability to destroy a person's sense of self worth, and was more than willing to get into a fight with someone regardless of their age, height, or weight.

Of course, none of her co-workers knew about her escapades. They left her alone so often that Beth had just grown accustomed to having her way with any customers that showed up. The customers were always gone long before any workers returned, and she got to take the credit for “finding” a garment that had been missing a price tag.

The woman entering the store, on the other hand, was tall. Very tall. She held a dress in her hands approached Beth angrily, the ground shaking beneath her huge footsteps.

“Great... a return.” Beth sighed loudly, not caring if the customer had heard.

“You're damn right it's a return!” The tall woman nearly shouted angrily, throwing the clothing on the smaller woman. “I bought this because it looked good in the store, but you and the other whores who run this shop must be using some kind of trick mirror because it looked horrendous once I got home!”

Beth was taken aback slightly. She'd talked to many angry customers in her day, most of which she made angry herself, but this woman's rage was rather extreme. She could feel the hate seething off the much taller woman, tainting the air around the two of them.

“So you're going to take this back, and you're going to give me my money back. Right. Now.”

“I'm terribly sorry Miss...?” Beth asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Tara.” The taller woman said looking as though she was about to strangle Bethany.

“Right. I'm sorry Miss Tara.” Beth continued, rolling her eyes in defiance of the angry woman. “But I can't accept a return just because you can't make a perfectly fine dress look good.” Beth said plainly, sloppily folding the garment and handing it back to Tara.

“That, and you don't have a receipt. So no can do on the return thing.”

Not believing what the shorter woman just said, Tara reached down and picked Bethany up by the collar of her work shirt. The much-smaller woman was easily being held about a foot in the air, and a look of anger was beginning to form on her face as well.

“Now look here...” Tara said, stopping to look for a nametag. “Bethany. This store is called Shirts Shoes and Service. S S and S. Now I expect some proper service, or I'll take my frustrations out in... other ways. Now give me a god damned refund.” Tara finished angrily, her eyes raking over the smaller woman before dropping her to the floor.

With her feet back on solid ground, Beth looked up at the woman who'd just threatened her. Beth may have been a lot of things, but a coward was most certainly not one. Pressing her chest against the stomach of the taller woman, Beth looked up and squinted. She meant business, and she wanted this dumb, tall girl to know that.

“And. What. If. I. Don't?”

Tara's face twisted into a mask of anger as she raised her arm to slap some respect into the mouthy whore.

Before her open palm could make contact though, the little woman charged forward shoulder-first, knocking the two of them to the ground. A fight had begun, and Beth had already stopped caring if she got fired. This woman had pushed her too far, and she wasn't about to let anyone do that, regardless of their height.

The fight lasted only a minute. Having taken Tara by surprise, Beth mounted the taller woman, preparing to give her a taste of her own medicine. Just as her closed fist was going to make contact with the side of Tara's face, the lights in the store went out.

A second later the world was illuminated again and Beth's heart skipped a beat. She was definitely still in the store, but she was looking at it from a much, much lower perspective.

She had shrunk! She couldn't have been more than a foot tall! What had happened? Was Tara responsible? Or was Tara shrunken too? The thought angered her slightly, and she balled her hands back into fists, prepared to use them again even at her tinier size.

“What happened to the customer is always right?” A loud, booming voice resounded from all directions.

Beth fell to her knees, her hands clutching the side of her head. Her brain was trying to tell her what Tara's booming voice meant, but Beth absolutely refused to believe it. She'd gotten into fights with people of all shapes and sizes her entire life, but the difference had never been this pronounced.

A huge, slender hand seemingly came up over the horizon, and flicked the tiny girl roughly. The tiny soared through the air, and Beth instantly realized another problem. She was much, much smaller than she'd previously anticipated. She'd estimated a foot before, but as she flew through the air now she could see that she'd been standing the flat surface of Tara's belly all along. All of these factors were quickly adding up to make her even more scared of what was coming up.

Seconds later Beth hit the ground, very surprised to find the fall didn't hurt her.

The landscape that was Tara's body stood up slowly, and Beth could feel tears welling up in her eyes at the sight. She'd just started a fight with this woman, and had insulted her. She'd planned on teaching her a thing or two physically but now that would be literally impossible Tara towered into the sky, a monolith that sent the entire surrounding area into shadow.

Beth was truly scared. Her entire life she'd prided herself on being unshakable, but this was just too much. The giantess above could end her life, and the lives of a dozen others just like her with only a single step. The shrunken woman had to crane her neck up to see anything past ankle height, and things only got obscured and blurry the further she looked up.

The giantess's feet moved, drawing her attention downward again. Leather sandals that had no heel covered the giantess's feet, and Beth shuddered at the sight. The woman had to have been nearly two feet taller than her at normal size, and she wasn't even wearing heels? She was probably in over her head even before she'd been shrunk!

Wordlessly, one of the feet slipped out from its leather prison, the toes enjoying their freedom by shaking themselves a moment before plopping directly in front of the tiny girl. A slight tremor ran through the ground as she did so, and Beth could feel her will to even stand before the giantess falter. The other shoe followed suit shortly after, and the giantess's feet stared down the tiny, helpless woman.

Beth wasn't going to wait around and see what the giantess had in store, and she finally summoned the strength to turn tail and run. It was a fruitless, pointless exercise, but she had to try something! That, and something told her that simply standing in place would have been a far, far worse choice.

Surprisingly, Beth could see herself making progress. Turning to look behind her, she could see that Tara hadn't taken a single step, and she drew her eyes further up, her heart pounding as she did so.

Tara's face was still angry. The giantess had every advantage in the world now. She could have toyed with the helpless woman, made her into a slave, but those weren't the emotions conveyed on the giantess's face. Pure, unadulterated rage, and Beth could feel the fear well up inside of her again. Was Tara simply waiting for the right moment to strike? Or was this all part of a plan?

A sudden rush of wind brought Beth's eyes back to floor level. One of the giant feet had lifted from the store's floor, and was moving straight for her! Beth tried to pick up the pace, but was quickly finding her stamina running dry. The endless plain of floor stretched in every direction and she could feel her sides burning as her heart pounded in her chest.

The giant foot slowly, inexorably made its way to the tiny girl, and a moistness began to form in Beth's eyes. She didn't want to die under this giantess's big feet. She wanted to escape, or maybe find one of her co-workers to help her.

The ground around her grew darker. The foot was closing in.

Beth's chest was in a great deal of pain as she tried to continue running. The air around her continued to grow hot and more humid. She could feel it. The foot was already that close, and she could sense its omnipotent presence overhead.

A soft, heavy weight pressed into the top of Beth's head, immediately forcing her to the ground. In an instant she broke into tears, not wanting it all to end. She would be a good girl from now on. She would never act up again! Anything!

The weight on her back increased tremendously, and Beth could feel her body compress slightly, before the weight was removed. Before she could even finish breathing a sigh of relief, the weight had returned, forcing all the air out of her lungs, making it impossible to even cry in pain.

This pattern repeated for upwards of a minute until finally, mercifully, Bethany blacked out.

---

“You really shouldn't stay unconscious for that long, you know.”

The words floated in Bethany's head, her barely-aware mind trying to make sense of them. Was she imagining it? Or...

“It's not good for you.”

The tiny woman's body was dangled by her wrists from the spaces between Tara's toes and swayed back and forth in the light breeze that blew by. She groggily opened her eyes, wincing at the blinding light. Her upper body ached, and she couldn't tell where she was anymore. She ran her tongue along the sides of her mouth, wetting it again.

Her world shifted as Tara angled her foot up again to look into her victim's face. “Oh, I see you caught that one.” She smiled, playfully squeezing her toes on their little captive as Bethany rasped out a scream. “Welcome to my house! I thought it would be fair since I took you out of your world that I showed you a little hospitality in my own.”

Bethany's vision was finally starting to clear up, and her eyes opened wide in amazement. She was staring out at the most colorful garden she'd ever seen! Massive flowers of every color dotted the gorgeous landscape that Tara sat comfortably in. Even the grass tips were tinted various shades!

“I thought about killing you in your store, you know.” Tara said, interrupting Bethany's moment of admiration for the garden. “Just ending you right there on the floor and leaving what was left of you to be someone else's problem.”

A deep, intense panic began to run through Bethany's mind again. Despite the distracting beauty of the garden, she was still being held by her wrists in between the giantess's toes! She wasn't quite sure what to expect anymore though. If she wasn't dead, then maybe Tara had changed her mind? Maybe she'd get the chance to get out of this and go home safely after all!

“But just then one of your coworkers came into the store, and you know what she said?” Tara asked, moving her head closer to her minuscule captive. “She told me she'd be more than happy to return the dress. Why, she even suggested a few more that, upon inspection in one of my personal mirrors, happened to suit me quite well! So, I thought I'd take you home, and deal with you here, instead of around your polite co-worker.”

“Please, ma'am, I'm sorry...” Bethany begged, her bottom lip quivering in fear as she shook her head violently. Tears streamed down her face as she squirmed against the powerful grip of the giantess's toes.

“Please, just let me go. I swear I won't tell a soul!” She added, her voice cracking in desperation.

“But you won't tell anyone anyway?” Tara said, feigning confusion. “You're going to die. Don't you get that?”

Bethany was overcome with terror at the giantess's words, and her will broke further as she sobbed, unintelligibly pleading for her life. She tried to apologize, but found it impossible to speak she was so scared.

“No more bravado, then? No more Little Miss Scrapper?” Tara snickered as she flexed her toes, widening them, and watching the tiny woman fall to the ground. The garden's dirt was soft, and cushioned her fall to the point of harmlessness.

“Listen. I'm not a murderer. You'll get a chance to live. All you have to do is agree that your life is meaningless, and that you really should be dead.” Tara said, standing up. Only then did Bethany realize there had never been a chair, and the giantess had been reclining on thin air. “Do you think you can do that for me? Hm? Just tell me that you deserve to die...”

Bethany had never been so scared. She was staring straight up, at an angle usually reserved for skyscrapers, looking into the eyes of a titaness who said she wanted to hear Beth proclaim her life's worthlessness. It was too much. The tiny woman turned and fled, haphazardly pushing aside blades of grass in her attempted escape. Tara's soft laughter echoed from above.

“Do you really think you can elude me?” She wondered aloud. Deciding that she wanted to have some fun at the little woman's expense, Tara lazily walked forward, placing each step beside the running woman and crushing the grass flat beneath her ponderous steps. Bethany saw the feet land beside her and panicked as they so effortlessly crushed the grass she had to fight to move through.

Still, she was convinced it was her swiftness that had kept her alive so far, and she continued to move. Tara's taunting was obviously a ploy to mask her frustration. It had to be.

“I used to play a game with people.” Tara announced suddenly, sweeping her foot to the side and knocking little Bethany to the ground. Pinning the little woman to the dirt with her big toe, she continued. “I used to say, 'Escape detection in my own garden for twenty-four hours and you can go free.” Tara smiled, reliving fond memories.

“Do you know how long the best runner lasted?” She asked lazily. Bethany shook her head while standing, unsure of what the giantess wanted her to do. “Ten minutes. I'd gotten a phone call I had to take.”

After a moment of silence spent staring at each other, Bethany pleaded, “Please, please don't kill me.”

“I told you I wouldn't. Just tell me that you deserve to die. You are, after all, quite small.”

Bethany's mouth had dried up again.

“I... I'm afraid...” She said, her voice a low whisper. Still, the giant woman seemed her hear her just fine.

“Good. That's what I like to hear. Do you understand why this is happening to you?” Tara asked slowly, her eyes lazily scanning the tiny woman beneath her toe. Bethany nodded her head in agreement, wanting desperately to get on the giantess's good side.

“Then tell me why.”

“B-because I wouldn't... I-I wouldn't return your... your... your thing.” Bethany stuttered, racking her mind for what the item had been.

“No, that was just a result of the real reason.” Tara said, sighing in disappointment. “No, this is happening to you because you're a bitch.” She added simply, seeing no reason to lie to the girl, or flower up her response. “And I am in the... unique position to get rid of people I determine to be bitches.”

“I'm so sorry!” Bethany cried again. The soil beneath her was absorbing much of the pressure from Tara's toe, but it was still a terrifying position to be in. “Please, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!”

“Then prove it.” Tara ordered, her lips curling into a smile. “Tell me you realize that due to your life choices, you're worthless. You're meaningless.” Tara licked her lips, her eyes staring holes into the tiny woman's eyes. “You're human garbage.”

There was no way out, no other choices. Gulping hard, Bethany tried to swallow her fear away, but found it didn't help at all.

“I-I am!” She squeaked out, tears wetting her eyes. “I'm human garbage, p-please have mercy on me!”

“Tell me you deserve to die.” Tara said, her teeth showing through her grin now.

“I deserve to die, Tara, please! Please have mercy on me now!” Bethany begged

“And why do you deserve to die, little one?”

“Because I'm a bitch! I'm a horrible, rotten, no-good very bad bitch!” Bethany screamed, beginning to grow angry beneath the fear. Sure, Tara could end her tiny life with a press of the toe, but just how far did the giantess's sadism go? Hadn't Bethany humiliated herself enough?

“That's right. You're no good to anybody anymore.” Tara said, easing the pressure as the shrunken woman crawled out from beneath the foot, gasping. Bethany hadn't realized just how little she'd been able to breathe while pinned. She attempted to hobble away, gasping for air when the big toe slid underneath her, knocking her flat onto her front. Then Tara's toe came down on her arm, pressing it into the ground.

“Now, before I kill you, I think I'd like to play with you a little bit more. Really drive home that message, you know?”

“Kill me? You said you'd let me go!” Bethany begged, trying desperately to free her arm. “This isn't fair!”

“Not fair?” Tara laughed. “I'll tell you what isn't fair: using trick mirrors to sell unsuspecting women hideous dresses!” She pressed down, and Bethany shrieked. She thought her arm might be torn off at the socket. “That's so unfair it's downright criminal.”

“Please!” The tiny woman gasped as the pressure relented. “Please, it's not my call! I swear to god, it wasn't my idea! It was my manager! I can get you her name, her number, h-her address! I know where she lives, please, take her! I'll even help you! I did everything you asked! I just want to live, ma'am, please!”

Tara was silent as Bethany broke down into crying again. She liked to hear her victims go from quiet to screaming, and this would probably be the last chance she got at that. She let Bethany cry herself out, the tiny woman laying face-down in the dirt, one arm being pinned painfully to the spot.

“God, please let me live...” She whimpered tears staining her face.

Just then, her world exploded in pain. Tara rolled her foot forward, keeping pressure on the toe, and Bethany's small body rolled with it. She flipped over, rolling on her neck before crashing violently onto her back. As the foot continued forward, Bethany's position kept her body from going on, rending her arm at the shoulder with a sickening, moist snap.

“There it is...” Tara whispered, admiring the small streak of red that painted the grass. She crushed the arm into the ground, dragging her foot backwards and grinding it into lint. “That's a good girl. You're being a very good girl, you know that?”

Bethany was thrashing as she sobbed hysterically, her mind trying to reconcile the loss of a limb. She wearily got to her feet, not remembering making the decision to do so, or even how it had happened. She started to run, and again Tara's laughter surrounded her, this time with a much more sinister overtone.

“You really are a dumb little thing, you know that?” Tara smiled. “But God if I don't love it when they run.” With her hands on her hips, Tara extended a leg, tapping Bethany lightly with her foot. The tiny girl crumpled to the dirt with a short scream. The blow had mostly just surprised her, but the fall had twisted her ankle, adding more pain the injured woman.

Tara crouched, curiously prodding at the obvious injury with her finger. More screams came from Bethany, and Tara just clucked her tongue, shaking her head in disappointment.

“You're never going to get very far with an injury like that, you know.” She admonished, standing back up to her full height. “But, I'd like to see you try anyway. Go on now, summon that runner's spirit up for me one more time?” Tara asked in a tone that suggested more of an order.

Bethany heard the teasing words, and understood what they meant. She knew her suffering was just feeding into this madwoman's sadism. And the worst part was that she desperately did want to run. She couldn't fight, and she didn't want to just give up and die. She wanted to run, but she couldn't summon it up within herself. So, she lay inn the dirt, broken and defeated. The steady blood loss from clouding her vision.

“Aw, are you spent already?” Tara pouted, mocking the tiny, dying woman. She curled her toes and pushed Bethany's tiny body around, delighting at the limp flopping of her limbs as she was rolled around in the dirt. Every time she landed, the tiny woman tried to curl up in pain, giving off little noises of suffering. The giantess sighed.

“I guess you're done then, aren't you? It's a shame, I really wanted to play a little bit longer. You could have made it over to that fern over there, and then who knows?” She gestured into the distance, towards a fern that slowly shifted through shades of blue.

Then, she laughed. A snide, derisive laugh. A laugh knowing that Bethany couldn't hope to escape her, or stop what she planning to do.

“Well, I mean, of course I know. You would have died. Any route would have ended with you dead.” Tara taunted holding her foot over the tiny woman and tapping the body with her sole. Each blow was soft, but still sent shocks of pain through Bethany's body as she was gently pounded into the dirt.

“Please...” Bethany croaked, holding her remaining arm up as if to hold off the massive foot.

Tara didn't even notice, and tapped again. Bethany's arm drove straight into the soft, pliant flesh of the giantess's foot up the elbow before being splintered lengthwise. It was pulped in less than a second, and the only reason Tara noticed anything was from the renewed, vigorous screaming of her quarry. She knelt down again, almost failing to notice the tiny, pulverized appendage.

“Oh, sweetie. You really shouldn't have tried to resist me.” Her tone was soft and honeyed, but it was only an act. She drew her face closer to Bethany's body, hovering meaningfully above her. A second later, a wad of spit shot from Tara's open mouth, colliding with the tiny woman. The pressure from the expectoration alone sent another shuddering wave of agony through the former sales clerk, her mind nearly numb with pain.

Tara gave the tiny woman a final wave before bringing her foot down on top of her for the final time. She'd already spent far too much time with the bitch, and decided she should end it quickly. It only took a bit of force, but she quickly felt the body squish messily underneath her sole, and smiled. Turning her foot over, Tara admired the look of the splattered woman.

“Unlike the dress, I think you look wonderful on me.” She noted, flexing her foot and smiling at the stain warping and stretching on her sole.