“Best…panty raid…ever,” Friedman said, breathlessly. He looked around the room at his buddies who were passed out on the wooden floor around him and propped himself up on one elbow. The room was mostly dark, although there were some faint rays of light poking through the walls, and he figured it was still night. Good. He wanted to get out of here before the girls found them.

“Hey, Matt. Matt, wake up.”

He shook his buddy, who he only recognized by the massive lump of muscle next to him, and stood up. The old floorboards beneath his feet creaked as he went around the room, waking up Chaz Marcum, Nate Burgeson, Dusty Miller, and Jeremy Michaels. He left the last sleeping body lie as his football pals began to recover from their massive hangover.

“Where the hell are we…?” Dusty asked. He felt a sharp pain on the back of his head but figured that was just from where he had hit the floor when he lost consciousness.

“We must still be in the sorority house,” Friedman said, feeling around for a door handle. “You idiots couldn’t hold your liquor.”

“Hey, you passed out too.”

“Shut up and help me find the door.”

Dusty, Matt, and Chaz each picked a different wall and tried to find the door, but with no luck. Meanwhile, Nate went over to the last sleeping body and began kicking it.

“Why are you sleeping, nerd?” he asked. “You didn’t even have a beer.”

The blonde-haired kid at his feet curled into a fetal position in self-defense and then sat up groggily. He had the face of a twelve year old and a duckbill cap slid over one eye, which he began to adjust as he looked up at Nate.

“You don’t have to call me that,” he mumbled. “I have a name, you know.”

“Yeah, Pipsqueak.”

“It’s Pip. Just…Pip.”

“Whatever. You were just about as useless during the panty raid as you are at football.”

“Panty raid?” Pip jumped to his feet. “Oh, no. Did it already happen? Did we get caught? Are we going to jail!?”

“Somebody keep that kid quiet,” Dusty spat.

Nate put his hand over Pip’s mouth as the others continued to try to find the door, but there was nothing. No door, no windows, no way out.

“Come to think of it…I don’t remember if we went through with the panty raid or not,” Chaz said. “Do you guys remember?”

They stopped searching for a second and thought about it. They remembered getting really wasted at the Halloween party and sneaking over to the sorority house when the sun went down, but the rest was a blur. Had they all passed out before they had gotten their hands on a single pair of panties?

Pip tried to scream something, but Nate’s grasp was too strong, so he just started squirming around while the rest of the guys scratched their heads and tried to remember what the hell had went down.

“…It’s so fuckin’ dark,” Friedman remarked. “Did anyone find a light switch yet?”

Nobody said a word, but his question was soon answered as the roof over their heads began to peel open and light poured into the room. They had to look away for a second, but when their eyes had adjusted to the light, they found themselves staring up at a sky of slick brown hair and two brown eyes the size of the full moon.

Dusty dropped his jaw, Chaz dropped a deuce, and Nate dropped his hand from Pip’s mouth.

“Why does this always happen to me!?” Pip yelled, before breaking down and crying.

Nobody paid him any mind.

“Dude, it’s that chick from the other night!” Matt remarked, shoving Friedman jokingly, because it wasn’t damn obvious who they were all staring up at.

“Tori Butt…?” Friedman whispered. “How did…?”

--------------------

“Oh, my gosh!” Tori gasped, staring down at the tiny scurrying creatures in the jewelry box. Her eyes shot over to Kate and then Batgirl and Zatanna, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing and needed a second opinion. But they were doing the best they could to hold a straight face.

“Do you see the source of your greatest fear?” Kate asked in a deadpan voice. She leaned forward, hand under her chin, and remained fixated on Tori’s eyes.

“There…there are people in here!” Tori cried out. Her voice must have startled the morons below because they all tumbled over. It didn’t help that her hands were shaking and were still on the lid of the box. “Why are there people in this box!?”

“I don’t see any people in there,” Zatanna said. She planted an index finger along the rim of the box and casually tipped it over, causing all of the men to trickle out. She slid the box over to Batgirl. “Do you?”

“Nope. No people.” Batgirl didn’t even look in the box as she swatted it off the table.

Meanwhile, Tori was scooting back in her chair as the seven guys in front of her were trying to get their bearings in this candle-lit basement.

“T-they’re not in the box anymore,” she breathed. “They’re right here! How can you not see them!?”

“Only you can see the manifestation of your greatest fears,” Kate explained. “The form they take differs from person to person, but they cannot hurt you. Perhaps you should describe what you see to us.”

“Okay, well…” Tori combed her hair over her shoulder, trying to stay calm, but she was as panicky as the guys who were screaming to get her attention. “There are a bunch of them…they’re wearing football jerseys…and, oh yeah, they’re ONE FREAKIN’ INCH TALL.”

Batgirl nearly fell over in her chair laughing and Zatanna had to kick her from the across the table.

“Tiny people…” Kate said. “Never heard that one before. You must have some serious problems, girl.”

“How can you not see them!?” Tori asked again, staring from one girl to the other and completely disregarding the men on the table.

“Are they here?” Batgirl asked, hovering a thumb over the men. She pressed it down on the empty space between Friedman and Chaz and began twisting her thumb back and forth slowly. The men screamed like cowards and ran towards Zatanna, who promptly slammed her fist down on the table, blocking their path.

“Or are they here?” Zatanna asked.

The men formed a mob and ran towards Tori, who quickly made a wall around them with her arms to keep Batgirl or Zatanna from trying to crush them again.

“Stop it!” she said. “You’re going to hurt them.”

“They’re not REAL,” Kate reminded her. “Your fears do not comfort you, so why should you comfort them?”

“But why would they look like PEOPLE?” Tori asked. Friedman and the others were too small to recognize by anything more than the numbers on their jerseys.

“Well, you said they are all dressed like football players. If I was a shrink, I’d say that your recent encounter with Friedman and his buddies left you emotionally scarred and afraid of strong, muscular men, which is why you now see them as something insignificant and harmless. Your mind wants you to take control of your fears.”

“But you’re not a shrink, are you, Kate?” Tori asked. There was still exasperation in her voice.

Kate shrugged. “If you can’t confront people when they are the size of insects, how do you expect to confront them at normal size? A Kappa Tau girl isn’t afraid of anything.”

“I can confront them… I just…” Tori looked down at the small group of men she had pinned in between her arms. “Hey, weren’t there seven of you before?”

Friedman and the others looked around. They did a quick head count, but Pip was nowhere to be found.

“I dunno,” Zatanna said. She looked at Batgirl, who was sitting on her hands and trying real hard not to attract attention. Even though she was wearing a mask, it was pretty clear her cheeks were puffed out more than usual.

“Mayfe you shoulf counf afain,” Batgirl answered.

When Zatanna saw what was going on, she angrily snatched one of the guys away from Tori and threw him down on her lap.

Tori didn’t notice, but Jeremy sure did, as he was picked up and tossed through the air so quickly that he almost lost a belly full of beer. He landed on Zatanna’s right thigh as she drew her other leg over top of him and sandwiched him in between, giving him a moment of heavenly bliss before the very life was squeezed out of him.

Satisfied, she stu1ck her tongue out at Batgirl. Batgirl tried to do the same, but Pip was still on her tongue. Instead of jumping off, though, he just remained sitting there, resting his head on his knees and sighing. Before he could finish his sigh, she realized her mistake and quickly slurped him back up and swallowed.

Kate glared at them both, while Friedman, Matt, Nate, Chaz, and Dusty moved closer to Tori and huddled together.

“Dude, why is your girlfriend here?” Matt asked Friedman, pointing at Kate. “We should get her attention! Kate! Hey, Kate!”

Friedman slapped down his arm. “Don’t be stupid, man! She can’t hear us from here. We have to get closer.”

“We’ll need a distraction. You should call an audible.”

“Right.” Friedman looked at Chaz. “Chaz… I’m putting you in the game.”

“W-what? Me?”

“You want to be a starter? Now is your chance. You distract Tori Butt while Matt and I get Kate’s attention.”

“Y-yes, sir!” Chaz said, saluting for some stupid reason. He put on an imaginary football helmet and stepped closer to Tori, causing her to jump back. The gap she made between her fingertips gave Friedman and Matt a chance to slip through.

“Uh… YOU’RE …VERY… PRETTY,” Chaz yelled up at Tori as if she was both deaf and stupid. It turned out he was just too small to make his voice heard because she only tilted her head and gawked at him. She still couldn’t believe how real these ‘fears’ looked. “DO… YOU… WANT… TO… GO… OUT… SOME… TIME?”

“Look at this dumbass,” Nate whispered to Dusty. “He’s going to die and he’s still thinking with his dick.” They laughed like morons because if you couldn’t laugh at Chaz, who could you laugh at?

Tori pushed her chair out from under her, grabbed the edge of the table with her hands, and bent down at the knees until she was eye-level with the shrunken moron.  She found herself looking right at a number ‘6’ jersey that would be too small to even fit a doll and he found himself inches away from a nose the size of a rocket ship.

“You’re so small,” Tori breathed into the table. The wind from her nose blew back Chaz’ greasy black hair. “How could I ever be afraid of you?”

“Me friend…” Chaz said, as if he was speaking to an alien, and he reached his hand up and touched her lips.

When she felt how real his touch was, she screamed and he screamed too as he got a good look inside the great cavern of her mouth. They continued screaming at each other until Chaz slipped and fell from the table. He fell a long way until he hit the floor and tried to make a break for the chair. Instead, Tori looked down and saw him and tried to shuffle her feet backwards, but she lost her balance and plopped down right on top of him. The last thing he saw was the seat of her sweatpants come crashing down on top of him and then his body was flattened, reminiscent of what had happened the last time he had filled in for Friedman for a snap in a football game.

This time, though, he didn’t get to walk away at the end of the play.

“Epic butt fumble!” Dusty said, high-fiving Nate.

That had happened during that play too.

“I think I just sat on one!” Tori said, looking up at Batgirl and Zatanna with horror. They tried to hold back their laughter as Tori peeled her butt off the floor and spun around three or four times to try to find Chaz, but he was busy being the butt-kisser everybody always knew he was.

Friedman and Matt were almost to Kate when she stood up and moved to the other side of the table to join Tori.

“You see?” she said. “You don’t have to be afraid of men anymore. You are a strong, independent girl. You just have to prove it to yourself.”

Tori stopped spinning and chewed on her lower lip.

“I don’t know…” she said.

“We know. We’re your sisters. You are a Kappa Tau girl.”

Batgirl and Zatanna cheered for Tori and Tori smiled, causing Dusty and Nate to frown. They had kinda hoped they wouldn’t be viciously murdered tonight.

Tori looked at the two morons standing near her on the table and picked up Dusty by the back of his jersey. She held him over her nose, right between her eyes, and squinted at him as if she wanted to get a better look.

“You’re not so scary,” she told him.

“Can’t say the same thing about you!” Dusty screamed, but she couldn’t hear him. Even if she could, his screams soon became more and more distant as she released him from her grip and he plummeted to the floor, breaking his right knee for the second time this season upon impact.

“Stupid bitch…” he muttered as he stood up on his one good leg, using the laces of Tori’s white tennis shoes for support. He went to give her the bird, but his finger only pointed up at the bottom of the rubber sole of Tori’s other shoe, as she brought it down on top of him and broke his left leg—and every other bone in his body—before stamping him a couple more times just to be sure.

Friedman and Matt had turned on their heels and arrived on the other side of the table just in time to see Nate wet his pants upon witnessing the scene in front of him.

“These girls are crazy!” Nate cried out.

“Dude, we gotta get out of here,” Matt said, looking at Friedman for another of his brilliant plans.

“I got it!” Friedman said, and he played dead on the table. Matt shrugged and did the same.

Nate could only stare at them in disbelief. “Fuck you, guys! It’s every man for himself!”

Tori turned back to the table and grabbed the one man who was still on his feet. She held him in her fist and began to squeeze.

“You have no power over me!” she told him, and he believed her. The ability of her small fingers to crack through his ribs was more than enough proof for that.

Just when his head was about to pop, she opened her fist and held him out in her open palm as she lowered her other hand and flicked his writhing body into the darkness. She didn’t even bother to look for him as she sat back down and eyed the two remaining men facedown on the table.

“Wake up,” she said, poking the chubbier one on the left.

Matt was able to resist the first or second poke, but the third one tickled and the fourth one just plain hurt. He rolled over, grabbing his butt, and looked at the cheery face of Tori. She waggled her fingers and smiled at him in the friendliest sort of the way, and then brought her hand down and smashed him to a bloody pulp.

Tori peeled her hand away and looked down at her palm. For a moment, her smile seemed to fade. The blood on her skin seemed awfully real. But she didn’t have time to think about it as Batgirl and Zatanna began cheering and holding up her arm as if in celebration. What the heck were they celebrating?

Friedman opened one eye and saw the three girls towering over him. They seemed distracted. Seeing this as his chance to escape—and not caring one lick about what had happened to the rest of his friends—he got up and tried to slip away.

He didn’t get far, though, as Kate quickly scooped him up and hurried up the basement stairs.

Batgirl and Zatanna sat down and began to chat with Tori and she soon forgot all about the last fear on the table, whose jersey number she had recognized. She had wanted to save that fear for the last, but it seemed the potion she had drunk had already worn off, and she was a little disappointed she didn’t get to exact her imaginary revenge on Friedman.

Meanwhile, Kate had slipped past the rest of the sorority girls who were upstairs and entered the kitchen, where a fresh batch of pumpkin pies were lining the stove. She selected one of the ones in the middle—still piping hot from having only recently been removed from the oven—and set it down on the counter as she unwrapped her fingers one at a time to reveal Friedman.

“Hello, Joss,” she said. Her voice was calm and without emotion, as if she was talking to herself and not addressing her now ex-boyfriend. She held him up to her eyes so he could see all the tears that were not there.

“K-Kate, baby…” he whispered. He didn’t realize she couldn’t hear him even if he yelled, but it was okay. She didn’t care what he had to say.

“That was a rotten thing you did to Tori, but I don’t blame you. You’re a rotten person. How many other girls have you slept with since we started dating?”

Friedman didn’t have enough fingers on his hands to show her.

“It doesn’t matter. I knew you were a cheater since before we started dating and I’ve probably slept with twice as many guys since then.” She shrugged and put a fingernail on the pie tin, spinning it around loosely. “I guess we’re just two rotten people living in a rotten world. It’s a shame there aren’t more Toris around, you know. She’s a good girl. Vegetarian, even. But I bet you wouldn’t know what that is.”

“Uh…” Friedman looked just about as stupid as he usually sounded.

“Now look what you have done. You took a sweet innocent girl and made her rotten, just like us.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, baby! Just make me big again and we can figure this out. Ain’t no way I can bang you like this.”

Kate pinched her fingers around Friedman’s head and slowly lowered him into the edge of the pumpkin pie until he was waist-deep and unable to wriggle his way out. Then she grabbed the biggest, sharpest knife she could from the drawer and held it steady over his head. The metal glistened from the kitchen light.

“Tonight, Tori loses that innocence,” Kate told him, as she tilted the knife sideways and cut into the pie with a single horizontal stroke. The knife was behind him, but Friedman felt the crust compress down and then rebound up, like a slow bulging wave, as she lifted the knife and spun it the other way. Down it came again—this time inches away from his face—until she had cut the pie into four equal pieces.

Grabbing the same number of plates from the table, she slipped the pie tin under her arm and carried it back downstairs while Friedman felt the warm goop seeping into his clothes.

“Let us celebrate Tori’s successful initiation into Kappa Tau with a delicious home-cooked meal baked by yours truly,” Kate said, setting the pie in the center of the table and passing out the plates. She grabbed the forks and cooking spatula that were already waiting for her near the pitcher of grape soda and dealt out the pie slices—making sure that Friedman was on the piece she handed to Tori.

As Tori reached for her plate, Kate wrapped her fingers tightly around her hand and leaned closer, her face only a breath away from Friedman’s tiny, squirming body.

“I really hope you like it here with us, Tori,” she said, and her voice was no longer deadpan, but utterly sincere. “You seem like a very sweet girl.”

“…Um, thank you,” Tori said, a little weirded out, but she accepted the pie anyway. She turned the plate around, picked up her fork, and began to dig in, not even seeing the man on the edge of the slice of pie. “Mmm…this is really good, Kate! You’re a fantastic cook.”

“And Kappa Tau girls get all the cooking they want!” Batgirl remarked, shoving her face full of pie. She didn’t even use a fork and Pip didn’t even care as mound after mound of pumpkin pie buried him in a slow grave in her stomach.

As Kate walked back to her seat, she didn't notice Nate desperately failing to outrun her feet. If she felt anything as she stepped on him, she gave no sign. Instead, she sat down and picked at her food, watching Tori the whole time.

“We’ll get you a costume when we’re finished eating,” Zatanna told Tori. “This way, you can come to the Halloween party we’re having upstairs.”

“Halloween party?” Tori asked. “I thought we were going to catch the guys before they can steal any of your panties.”

“I don’t think the boys will be making it this year,” Kate said, and Batgirl laughed so hard that food flew from her mouth.

“But you said it’s tradition…”

“Tradition mean more to girls than it does to guys.” Kate smiled and leaned back in her chair. “Go ahead. Finish your pie.”

Tori looked down at what little of the slice remained. There, in her pie, she spotted the fear—the fear she thought had disappeared. He appeared stuck and looked up at her as if asking for help. With little more than a careless shrug of her shoulders, she picked up her fork, slid the metal prongs into the crust behind him, and picked up the entire slab. Opening wide, she pushed Friedman and the pie into her mouth and slipped out an empty fork.

“Still good?” Kate asked.

“Delicious.”