“So, you’re keeping a kid here?” Two women were sitting around alone in a small living room, packed with trashed furniture. One of them, a woman who was about 21, had long, blonde, dirty hair, and stained clothes, that barely did anything to cover her body. The other girl did not fare much better; she had hastily cut short, oily red hair, and her entire face was covered with makeup, which she used to try to look her best. She too was wearing dirty, skimpy clothing, though she was older, at 23.
“Yeah, you won’t believe it. I don’t even fuckin’ know how it happened… I think she’s loaded. Has that rich kid vibe, y’know?” said the redhead, taking a quick puff of her cigarette. “Well, where are you keeping her? I mean, how are you keeping her quiet? A little teenager like that has got to make a lot of fuckin’ noise. And how are you keeping her secure so she don’t run away? And-“ started the blonde girl, before being stopped by the redhead. “It’s not that hard, once you see the condition she’s in. I couldn’t believe it myself, but I found her, sort of… shrunken.” The girl smiled, looking at her company’s disbelief.
“What do you mean, ‘shrunken’?” asked the younger woman. The redhead sighed. “Well, I don’t know what I mean by shrunken, that’s just the thing. See, she said she was doing some sort of school project, and needed to ask me a few questions, so I invited her in. She looked fucking loaded, like she had some serious money on her. So, I was just about to grab the pistol I keep, when suddenly she starts to… I don’t know, start growing smaller, I guess. Might have been because of the flowers I grow over there, near the door.” She pointed to the row of flowers that were growing near the hole in the wall. “She saw them and couldn’t help herself, I guess. She looked only, like, 13, after all.”
The blonde girl didn’t seem convinced. But the girl with red hair continued nonetheless. “She bends down to smell them, and then sneezes… I guess the little bastard was allergic to pollen. Anyway, right before my fuckin’ eyes, she starts shrinking, alright? Like, the kind of shrinking you see in movies. She shrinks out of her clothes, and she’s just standing there, naked, like three inches tall, in a daze, so then I-” The blonde girl interrupted her, laughing. “Yeah, whatever you say. There’s no god damn way that could have happened. If you’re seriously going to keep a straight face saying this bullshit, then I’m out.” She started up and prepared to leave, before she was stopped by four simple words: “I can show you.”
The two women stood in the kitchen, near a closed cupboard. “Alright, promise you don’t freak out, right? This isn’t going to be a trick.” The blonde rolled her eyes, and nodded. “Whatever. Just show what it is already.” The older woman waited for a couple of seconds, and opened the cupboard.
Sitting there in a bottle on the bottom shelf was a young teenager sitting on her knees a jar with her hands behind her back, tied by string; similar string also was being used to tie her legs together. Both of her eyes were swollen to the point where she could barely see, and her face was covered with tears and mucous; though she had long past stopped crying due to sadness. She sat there surrounded by countless flowers and pollen, which no doubt tortured her every moment she was there. Her skin was extremely irritated, with red blotches all over her skin, and her entire face was swollen to the point where she could barely see, hear, or even speak. She was covered in her own vomit, and what looked like dried urine stained the string keeping her two legs together.
“My god, is she even alive? There’s no fucking way this is real…” the blonde woman asked, intrigued. “Of course she is. She’s been like this for a few days though, so she’s pretty upset right now. Not like it matters, when you have her in a damn bottle, though.” The redhead said, reaching for the bottle and giving it a violent shake. The small girl hit the other side of the bottle, and started a coarse, low scream. She struggled to get out of the binds to no avail, and tears started pouring down her face as she looked outside at the two woman. Her face, through the effects of the pollen, was full of nothing but sadness and fear.
“There’s no fucking way all that shit is pollen. You’ve got to have put something else on her to make it that bad.” The blonde said laughing, disbelief still in her voice. “Nope, it’s all natural pollen. I made sure it’s always covering her, and I change the flowers from time to time too. Fuck, I even feed her the stuff! Put it in her water and all that. I have to force feed it to the cunt, though.” The younger woman looked up from her examinations. “I guess she must be really allergic to it, huh. Probably doesn’t help she’s so small. God, this is so fucking sick. Can’t believe this shit is real. I need a cigarette.” She poked the glass, watching the tiny girl suffer, before smiling at an idea. “Say, did you ask her about her family? We might be able to ransom for some pretty good cash.” The girl started moaning, struggling to free herself, before she started sneezing blood painfully. The redhead giggled.
“Of course I did. She won’t give me any specifics, though. Doesn’t want to tell me about her family. She’s too worried about them, I think. Scared I might hurt them.” She sighed and shook her head. “Too bad. I’m going to keep trying, though. Maybe keep her like this for a couple weeks, maybe she’ll speak up.” The young girl, still trapped in the bottle, looked up at the blonde’s curious gigantic face. She tried to make some sort of sign for help. Maybe this woman might be different, she thought. Maybe she might help her get out, help her get anti-allergy medicine, help her get back home… With her swollen lips and mouth, she tried to say help, hoping that the woman would do something… Anything…
Her swollen eyes, full of tears, could barely just make out the lady shrugging, and then darkness overtook the bottle as the cupboard was shut once more.
“You know those flowers? Maybe they were why she shrunk.” said the blonde as she walked over to the flowers the older woman kept, and carefully picked up a flower. “Maybe. I mean, I already took a chance and tried to smell it, but nothing happened.” said the older woman. The blonde woman hesitated for a short while, and then took a deep breath and smelled it, but nothing came of it; she shrugged and casually tossed it onto the table. “Well, whatever it is, sure is fucking strange. What are you going to do if she doesn’t speak up, anyway? Kill her?” the blonde asked as she sat down in a chair, taking in everything that had happened.
“I don’t fuckin’ know. Wouldn’t be too hard, though in all honesty I’d probably just forget to feed her or give her her water.” She smiled, and opened up the cupboard again, staring at the bottle containing the young girl. “Maybe just keep her alive to torture her, y’know?” The woman shook the bottle a little, laughed, and opened the lid. “Do you hear that, girl? If you don’t tell us where your family is, we’re going to keep this shit up until you die!” She grabbed the flower set down by her friend, and started sprinkling the girl with pollen. She sneezed painfully, struggling and squirming to get it all off of her. With every heave, the small girl could feel herself on the brink of fainting, as she cried to herself, trying to scream as hard as she could.
“Hey, want to go for a drink?” said the older woman. “I still have the $30 I got from this bitch. Said her dad gave it to her to buy some shit at the grocery store or something.” She continued to stare at the tortured girl, who was still lying down in a puddle of her own vomit. “Might as well go and try to pawn her clothes as well. They’re probably going to fetch way more than $30. Heh, not like she’s going to need them anymore anyway, now that she’s got a new life here.”
“Hell, why the fuck not?” said the blonde, picking up her purse. “Better than sitting here in your boring ass place.” The redhead smiled and placed the jar back into the cupboard, putting the cap back on. “Now you be good, you little slut. Maybe when I get back we’ll see if you’re ready to talk again. Fuck, maybe even if you do talk, I’ll keep you in there. Maybe one day I’ll forget you’re even there and you can die from neglect. Doesn’t fuckin’ matter to me. Anyway, see you later!” The teenager could do nothing but watch with her sad, swollen eyes as the woman made a kissing face in her direction, and then watch everything descend into utter darkness once more.