Lisa was the tallest person she knew.

Most people were shorter than her ankle, the second tallest person after her barely reached her knee.

Warm sunlight filtered through the kitchen window, blessing her face as she finished her morning sweeping. She took a sip from a cool glass of water and thought about the day ahead.

She would clean the whole apartment, something she enjoyed and did daily. She had become so good at it that it took very little effort these days, the day to day maintenance could be done in a morning, over half was often done before her Goddess awoke.

It was only the bloodstains that took any real effort.

Lisa adjusted the string belt that cinched her shapeless dress. She was only one of two people that were allowed to regularly wear clothes and she hadn’t seen James in almost six months.

She hated the snivelling little worm, after all he was the reason all of this had happened. A stupid teenager thinking with his cock had doomed thousands. How embarrassing.

The man was pensive and quiet, maintenance of the Sizer taking up much of his time.

He had explained to her how it worked, what he did to take a now defunct piece of kit and turn it into a weapon. He was also quick to show her the thumb print scanner he had built into the handle, a precaution to ensure only the Goddesses could wield its power.

Lisa had cursed herself for not acting sooner. She masked the disappointment on her face but she knew James had registered her intention.

From what she had overheard, sizers had long disappeared from the market; the technology displaying increasingly erratic malfunctions until it became too costly to continue. Their Goddesses likely had one of the last few in existence.

In a rare conversation, James had demonstrated what it had done to him. His living, rubber like body was still completely impervious to all damage. He let her hit him, something she was more than happy to do.

The creature barely made a sound as her fists, larger than his head, pummelled his face and upper body into a mess of flesh and bone. He had survived far worse.

Lisa looked on with awe as his body reformed in seconds, the wounds healing and fading until nothing showed of her assault.

She noted, with curiosity, that despite his years with the Goddesses he had barely aged. He still looked juvenile, an awkward teen. Only his eyes looked old, the blues of his irises dulled by what he had seen and experienced.

Lisa had wanted such protection for herself.

James was wrong. Though it was clear he sought death, an end to all of this, that didn’t change the reality for the rest of them. They were captured, they were shrunk. They were weak and fragile, trapped in the lair of two sadistic monsters.

She didn’t see it as a curse, it was an opportunity. Despite her years of service, her devotion to her Goddess, her life still hung in the balance.

At any moment and for any reason she could find herself back on the floor, just another ant screaming her last as a foot came down upon her. Her life still hung on the whims of the Goddesses.

The Green Setting could change that.

Even now she hid out of sight when she heard Rachel approaching. With nothing other than her work to occupy her over her years of captivity, she could recognise either of the Goddesses without seeing them. Just the sound of Rachel’s keys in the door, her footfall in the hallway, was enough to send Lisa scurrying for safety.

Lisa dared not be present when Rachel surveyed her toys, sneering down at the terrified masses. If the Goddess was bored, horny, drunk or just in a foul mood her attention could easily turn from them and to the little servant that cleaned up after her.

Rachel was against her new size, her wearing of clothes. She had complained loudly about her a hundred times. In the early days she would demand Lisa strip and then would viciously beat her. More than once a sneaker, a boot, a barefoot has risen over the shrunken woman’s head ready to end her life.

It was all to remind her of her place.

Rachel felt that clothes gave Lisa a scrap of humanity that was undeserving. Beth had insisted, demonstrating how at two feet high Lisa could do most of the chores around the house leaving them to just enjoy life.

Rachel had argued that a hundred two inch insects could do the same amount of work given the proper incentive. The toil would see them regularly worked to death and punishments for poor performance would further thin the numbers but they could always find more to replace them.

Beth won out in the end, a rare victory.

Still, Rachel treated Lisa with contempt. Her body was criss-crossed with scars from her earlier, smaller life, those days during which she still have to prove herself. One particularly cruel kick from Rachel, when she stood half the height she was now, had broken her jaw and left her blind in one eye.

Lisa knew that when she heard those footsteps it was better to hide, to leave the room as quickly as she could. Even so, it would only be a matter of time until Rachel got her way. Eventually she would wheedle and persuade Beth to kill her, shrinking her back down and crushing her underfoot.

In the short term she needed the Green Setting, in the long term she needed to escape.

She had tried to ingratiate herself with James, even going so far as to flirt with the strange man when the house was empty. Her damaged eye was the only long term injury she had suffered, her jaw set ok and only a few missing teeth. She was skinnier than she had ever been, that thanks to a life of eating table scraps and missing meals, still she fared a lot better than most.

Disfigurement and starvation was rife throughout the smaller slaves, despite her best effort to feed them and provide fresh water and bedding daily. Overall, Lisa had done fairly well and still retained most of her good looks.

They had no effect on James.

She could tell that in an earlier life the little creep would have been drooling after her however now his mind was utterly devoted to Beth. She couldn’t know what had happened to him in those early years but the result was a man who was so in love he would rather kill himself than displease her.

Secretly, Lisa believed, that even if he could have ended his life he would not. The devotion he had for his Goddess would prevent him from damaging her property.

Despite the hatred she held for him she forced herself to endure his sad, quiet company. He was the only person who could reverse all of this. In time, she could work him just as she had worked Beth.

It was during a time of quiet companionship, Lisa tidying while he tinkered, that he cut through her.

He would not help her, he stated so openly and plainly. He knew she was trying to manipulate him, trying to plan her restoration and escape and would not support her. He knew she desired the use of the Sizer, to return herself to full height or use the Green Setting on herself.

Neither would work.

To grow someone much taller than she currently was, after the Sizer had gone through so much modification, would burn out half of its circuits. She would still be trapped in the apartment and the Goddesses would know she had tried to escape. Her death would be slow and painful, his own torment for colluding with her, equally so.

The Green Setting had been broken ever since it overloaded years earlier. To repair it would require the Goddesses to allow him access over months and cut down their use of the Red Setting drastically, both conditions neither Goddess would agree to.

He didn’t blame her for her probing and feigned friendship. He could understand how desperate she was to escape. He could not help her but he would, for her own good, show her something that would dampen her enthusiasm for having the Green Setting used on her.

It was a frustrating truth that James rarely spoke out against the Goddesses. It was clear his mind had been broken and he felt nothing but love for Beth. Rachel still terrified him to his core, though this was something they all shared.

What he would show her was the closest thing he could manage to a betrayal.

It was early morning, both Goddesses having left for their morning jog.

A slave had been dropped into each shoe, their screams drowned out by taunts and laughter then smothered as merciless feet entered and compressed them. Most would be dead or dying by the time they reached the door, this had long been a daily ritual.

They would be gone and hour, maybe two.

Their new apartment was in the mountains. An incredibly luxurious and spacious affair that had been paid for partially by the commissioned editing work their most loyal slaves completed and mostly by the fortunes they had stolen during home invasions of wealthy neighbourhoods. This gave the Goddesses plenty of opportunity to jog and hike along beautiful trails while keeping them away from prying eyes.

The mornings were the only time their hundreds of captives could breathe, a sliver of respite from their hellish existence.

It was such a morning when James had led Lisa into Rachel’s bedroom, moving carefully so as not to disturb anything.

The inner sanctum was hell come to earth. The expensive curtains were still mostly drawn, the morning light stealing between them only serving to add form to the pools of darkness.

It fell upon a large black picture frame hung upon the wall. Within it, humans had been pinned to a red velvet backing like butterflies on a board. Lisa’s eyes widened at the sight, humans twisted and tortured, their bodies living clay to be manipulated by the iron hard fingers of their sadistic Goddess. Many were pinned to photographs, pictures of themselves in their former lives stolen from social media. Rachel wanted to show how far they had fallen, how she had changed their lives. Almost all were dead though some took final, rasping breaths only audible in the silence of the room.

It was horrifying, a testament to Rachel’s madness.

The scene was juxtaposed by the vast expanse of Rachel’s bed, a luxurious temple laid with silks. Several ornate cages sat around it holding her favourite captives and regular living sex toys. Most were kept drugged or drunk, Rachel often grew bored of screams and weeping.

At this time of the morning those in the cage would still be asleep or not lucid enough to understand the world around them.

The two trespassers crept by them nonetheless. Any of Rachel’s pets would betray them in a heartbeat. They would do anything to gain the favour of their Goddess and earn themselves a brief respite from her cruelty.

Keeping to the far side of the room, passing by a low display table that held rows of immaculate and expensive heels. These were often black leather, spiked with high platforms. They were weapons of destruction, worn by the Goddess as she drank champagne and slaughtered countless innocents in drunken frenzies.

Every inch of the shoes were completely clean, as if new. Lisa knew the methods these had been cleaned by, teams working with wet cloths or hungry mouths to ensure the shoes were returned to a pristine state. Anything less would see the whole team obliterated and replaced.

She shuddered, remembering the days she had spent at such work.

Lisa turned her back to them, following James as he sneaked across the soft, black carpet.

Ahead of her an ornate cabinet, a Korean antique, loomed like a mountain against the far wall. The doors were open and the spaces both inside and on top of it were busy with candles, incense and a collection of curious models.

These models were often metal, crafted by specialists online.

Each was a working replica of a medieval torture device. Made, as far as the manufacturer was concerned, as curiosities for those interested in the history of such devices.

Rachel’s interests, it was all too apparent, were much more practical.

For the most part they were open, their parts on display and scrubbed clean by tiny hands.

A small number were closed or in working position, twisting and tormenting the shrunken humans inside. Blood dripped into a shallow silver bowl, collected for a purpose neither of them could comprehend.

The scene was just another horror they had witnessed in the last few minutes though shocking enough to leave them both standing in silence, refusing to believe what they saw was real.

A thin wail, a groan of pain bled, from the cabinet and sent James and Lisa scuttling away. There was nothing they could have done for them, they shouldn’t have even been in here.

Shutting the sound out, the ran towards a pair of looming wooden doors, Rachel’s closet. It was a walk in and the door was fortunately ajar. They slipped inside, peering through the gloom at her seemingly endless wardrobe of expensive clothing.

Her slaves had tidied the space, working together to push her shoes into their rightful positions. James walked ahead, down the rows of footwear, each of which had been used multiple times to reap human life.

At the far end, in a corner overshadowed by more recent purchases lay an old and long forgotten pair of Ugg boots.

James crouched down before them, looking like a priest before an altar.

He paused, breathing deeply, before lifting the boot closest to him. Lisa helped him and together they wrestled it onto its side.

The sole of the boot was as clean as any other barring a black stain of melted rubber at the heel.

‘What am I looking at here?’

‘Just look.’

A soft, hoarse sucking sound seeped into her ears as she peered through the gloom.

At the centre of the melted mass was a shape, vaguely humanoid. Here a leg, there maybe an arm, all consumed by the molten material.

A shriek escaped her lips as she saw the mangled face peering out of the rubber. It’s one exposed eye darted around the room, looking at everything and nothing at once. Its lips, pulled apart by the solid mass that enveloped it, puckered and flapped sucking in desperate gasps of air.

‘Who, what happened here?’

‘The last person Rachel used the Green Setting on. I’m sorry, I had to show you, please, please don’t pursue this. Please don’t join us in this. If you can die, just die, let them kill you, be free.’

‘We have to help him,’ she knew the statement was pointless even as it left her lips.

James ignored her, already working to put the boot back in position.

‘His name was Danny,’ he said softly, to the room as much to her. His face was grey.

‘You, you are responsible for all of this.’ Lisa trembled as she spoke, tears prickling her eyes for the first time in as long as she could remember, ‘One day, you’ll pay for what you’ve done, you’ll go to hell for this.’

James sighed.

‘I’m already there. Come on, we need to get back to work. If Rachel finds us in here we’ll end up like him or worse. She has gotten more creative over time.’

Lisa wanted to kill him. She was easily twice his size, she wanted to pull his arms and legs off, smash his head, burn him alive, drown him, bury him, freeze him. It wouldn’t have made any difference, it wouldn’t have changed things. She knew there was nothing she could have done.

They didn’t leave together. She darted ahead, her longer gait allowing her to cross the room at a much greater speed.

For a moment she considered shutting the door behind her. Once at the door of the closet, again at the door to Rachel’s room.

She wanted to unleash the fury of the Goddess of Death upon him, watch all that sadistic power pour down upon him.

She knew better.

It would only take a word to expose her own trespass and that would be the end for her.

James would survive no matter what was done to him, she was not so fortunate.

In one aspect she agreed with him, a life of immortal servitude was not something she now considered.

She was vulnerable, she was on borrowed time. She would need to put her plan together, she needed to escape.

It was now or never.