Chapter 12 - Those who’ve come before

Within a few minutes Samantha is conked out.  Robert looks down on her, sitting up in the bed as her arms, hands, and legs slowly disappear into her treasured green dress. Samantha stops dwindling a few moments later, and Robert gently removes the dress from her body.  The tiny girl moans and kicks her right leg ever so slightly, but does not stir.

He stares at her for a long time, soaking in her now half-sized frame, his hand running down the length of her hair.  The sound of crickets are gradually replaced by birds of all sorts, the light of dawn creeping into the makeshift bedroom ever so gradually.  Robert contemplates sleeping, but can not bring himself to lay down and close his eyes.

He rolls the great injustice of their situation around in his mind, over and over again, and has to calm himself down more than once.  He slumps down into the bed, and finally allows sleep to overtake him.

He does not rest for very long.

An echoing slamming sound startles Robert awake, followed by an intensely loud creak.

“Good morniiing...” April’s booming voice assaults Robert’s tiny ears, the hair raising sound being followed by deep, slow, rhythmic rumblings.   

“Mmmmnnghh...” Samantha moans as she begins to stir.

Robert begins to panic, jumping to his feet and running to the window.  He wants to scream when he spots the outside world, and April, striding over it like some colossal mythical creature. Every little detail of reality seems to dwarf Robert’s existence, and when April slowly turns her incomprehensibly large head to look down into the window and lock eyes with him, he finds himself shaking, her mere gaze freezing him on the spot.

“Little Robbie Ladner...” April’s all mighty voice booms down from the heavens as she moves closer, her shadow casting the whole room in near darkness. The roof suddenly peels away, replaced by April’s looming torso, which is wrapped in a pink robe, and her smiling face, her disheveled hair framing it as she grins downward on the room.

“Itty...” April begins as her hand descends into the room, three of her fingers quickly wrapping around Robert and rocketing him into the air, towards her gigantic face.

“Bitty...” She bellows, her lips filling his vision, her voice causing his ears to ring viciously, and her morning breath causing him to gag and writhe within her fingers.

“Robbie Ladner.” The lips move, her hot, pungent breath buffeting Robert in the face, along with fine particles of her warm spittle, which cling to his skin.

“Good morning April!” A small, happy voice sounds from below Robert, causing him to look down.  Samantha is jumping on the bed, her tiny breasts bouncing up and down as she grins, happily.

“Oh my!” The lips move in front of Robert again, and he finds himself being deposited back into the room.  Once April releases him from her massive fingers, he scurries into a corner, whimpering and blubbering like an idiot.

“Samantha, it happened!” April’s booming voice exclaims.

“Yes! Now I can finally go see Seth!” Samantha screams happily, allowing herself to bounce onto her knees.

“I can barely hear you honey...” April’s voice booms.

“Sam...sam...samantha, don’t...don’t.” Robert stammers, causing the tiny girl to look at him.

“Don’t worry Robert, it’s going to be OK!” Samantha exclaims happily, jumping down from the bed and rushing towards him.  She embraces his leg, and tears stream down her small face.

“Awww.” April booming voice coos.  “I have some good news for both of you, I just got off of the phone with Henry, and he says, since Robert is shrinking so quickly, he wants you both down there...This afternoon.”  April informs them.

Samantha gasps.  “Robert! We’re going! this is it!” Samantha cries out, ecstatically, hugging Robert’s leg as hard as she possibly can.

Robert looks up at April’s building sized form in absolute terror.  

“I’ve waited so long for this.” The tiny girl begins to sob.  “So long...so long...” She whispers as her tears start to attach themselves to Robert’s leg.

“We have to get you both cleaned up.” April grins, her hand descending into the room and wrapping around both of them.  Samantha is roughly crushed against Robert, and she cries out, squirming in discomfort.  “April!” She whines, but her voice simply bounces around within the confines of April’s closed fist.  

“No! put us back! Put us down!” Robert screams, his voice cracking.  He does his best to grab Samantha, and pull him into his lap, where she has more room to breathe.  Both of their tiny existences are rocked with each of April’s quickened footfalls, and before they know what is happening, they are both sitting on the ledge of the bathtub, April kneeling over them.  

“Oh...god...no, April...” Samantha stutters, slowly climbing to her feet.  

“Robert..Run!” She screams frantically as April hums happily above them, turning the unimaginably large knobs in her giant hands.  A waterfall immediately shoots forth from the gargantuan faucet, pounding the bottom of the tub and causing a rippling wall of water to cascade far below them.

“Where?!” Robert screams frantically.

“I dunno!! I dunno!!” She cries out hysterically, a near microscopic stream of urine shooting from between her legs as she looks up towards April, who is grinning down on them both, deviously.

“Don’t worry April, Robbie Ladner will- Opps... haha! I guess you’re fucked!” April narrows her eyes sharply as she brings her fingertip to Samantha’s body, gently pushing the tiny girl off of the ledge.  

“No, Aprillllllllllll!” Samantha screams, her voice losing volume as her body tumbles end over end into the water. “Samantha!” Robert screams desperately as the tiny girl sinks to the bottom like a rock, getting dragged downstream by the strong current.  

“Samantha!!!” Robert screams again, readying himself to dive from the ledge, and within a moment he is free falling towards the water, splashing down and sinking to the bottom. He writhes and twists, desperately turning his head this way and that in desperate search for the fallen woman.  He spots her, a great distance away, desperately kicking her legs and rising towards the surface.  Robert does the same, and they both surface around the same time.  

Robert breaks the surface with a gasp, the water quickly rising all around him, choppy waves slamming, and rolling over him as he treads water.  

“Robert!!” Samantha’s tiny voice rises over the racket of the water, faint and far away in Robert’s ears.

“I am a hurricane...” April’s voice booms down from the heavens.

“I am an earthquake, a tornado, a Tsunami.” It continues as April rolls up her huge sleeve, her endlessly long arm dipping into the water. “And I can come ashore, and end your life in a split second!” April laughs feverishly as her arm rolls through the water, kicking up a ten foot wave, which roars down the length of the tub towards Robert.

Robert can hear Samantha shriek before it overtakes him, slamming into him roughly and sending him tumbling backwards beneath the water, kicking and waving his arms around frantically.  Robert is lost and turned around beneath the rising water, unsure of which way to turn as he frantically twists his body around.  His lungs burn as he floats towards the surface, breaking it and gasping as April’s hands loom above him, holding something...

Samantha's tiny, writhing body is clamped between two of her fingertips, lathered in soap, which drips off of her into the tub.

“Shhh, it’s ok Samantha, you know April likes to play... I wanted to see you swim one more time.” April coos as Samantha cries her little eyes out .

“Forgive me?” Her gigantic voice echoes through the bathroom, dripping in sincerity.

“Y..y..y..yes!” Samantha stammers through her tears, coughing and sputtering as Robert does his best not to be overtaken by the huge waves all around him.  April’s free hand turns the huge knobs, killing the flow of water into the tub.  

“Tell you what, since you are such a good little girl, we are going to go to the special place right after you two are washed up.” April smiles.

“Really?!” Samantha stammers, her voice regaining most of its composure, in an instant.

“Yes!” April assures the tiny girl, nuzzling the tip of her gigantic nose into the girl.

Samantha giggles uncontrollably.  

“Oh my god it’s so big now!” She gasps, happily, tears she had cried in terror, still dampening her little face.

Hold your breath!” April warns, teasingly.  The tiny girl sucks in air, and puffs her cheeks out, right before being quickly dipped into the water near Robert, and then set on the ledge.

“Your turn!” April sings as she roughly snatches Robert out of the water, her thumb against his little back, and her index finger smothering his tiny chest.  She rubs a little bit of soap into the fingers of her other hand, and gently coats Robert’s entire body in a thin layer.  Robert hangs there limply, offering no resistance.

“April...Where are you taking us? Really?” Robert asks as a single fingertip rolls across his tiny body.

“You talk too much Robert.” April sighs.

“Robbie!!” Samantha whines, “Just be happy for once, God!” The tiny girl rolls her eyes, laying down on the edge of the tub and sighing contently.

“I just want to know where you are taking us, that is all.” Robert says quiveringly.

“Don’t worry Robbie.” April begins, twisting her head innocently, the intensity in her eyes threatening to set his tiny body ablaze.

“You’re going to meet everyone...Everyone who I’ve ever cared for, and even though you were only with me for a day, I still love you, and I am still going to miss you.” She narrows her eyes, frowning a bit as Samantha hums Fur Elise below.

April sniffles and wipes a lone tear from her cheek.