“Oh my god, how did this happen?” 

“I… I don’t know. I was just picking out a soft drink and it just kind of happened, out of nowhere.” 

She starts to kneel down. Seeing him flinch, she slows her movement towards him. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Jess.” He relaxes a little, but even small movements on the part of this petite brunette seem huge and dramatic to him. The whole convenience store, by virtue of its sheer scale, has become a terrifying and alien landscape. The glossy cliff side of the refrigerators stretch impossibly high above him. In the other direction, the undersides of the shelves loom like ominous dusty caverns. 

She raises her eyebrows, gently inviting a response with her patient smile. 

“I’m, um…” He stops. Hearing how tiny his voice sounds, his words catch in his throat. “I’m Mark,” he says, making an effort to project. 

“Nice to meet you, Mark.” She slowly lowers her hand towards him. For a second he has a visceral urge to run away, not wanting her to pick him up. But before he does her hand reaches the floor, palm turned up, inviting. “I’ll take you back behind the counter so you don’t get hurt,” she says. “My shift is over in about half an hour, I can take you to the hospital then.”

“Can’t you take me now?” he says, trying not to sound suspicious. “I’d really feel a lot better if…”

“Sorry but I’m the only one here, so I can’t leave.” The interruption annoys him, but she looks genuinely sympathetic, putting him at ease. “Don’t worry, it’s just half an hour. Then we’ll go straight there.” 

He nods grimly. “Okay.” Tentatively, he climbs into her palm. She stands up slowly, careful to keep her hand level, but even so he loses his footing and falls on his back. “Sorry,” she says, smiling down at him with an apologetic shrug. 

When they reach the register, she lays her hand palm-up on the counter and allows him to climb out. 

“Okay, so I have to run around and get a few things done to close up the store, and then at half-past we can head out. You can just hang out here.” 

He nods, not wanting to speak and expose the smallness of his voice again. 

Satisfied that he’s okay, she grabs a spray bottle and some paper towel from under the counter and walks away. 

For the next while he mostly just sits, leaning against the side of the register, watching the clock on the wall behind the counter. He’s anxious to get to the hospital, nervous that they won’t be able to return his normal size. There are no customers. Jess bustles around the store cleaning and tidying, returning every few minutes to check on him. 

With only a minute or so left before the store closes, the front door swings open. A girl walks in, about the same age as Jess, around nineteen or twenty. She stops just inside and peruses the magazine rack next to the door. She’s tall and blonde, and unmistakeably –intimidatingly- attractive. Watching her flip through celebrity magazines in her miniskirt and skimpy top, chewing gum loudly, he experiences a wave of dislike. Even aside from the fact that she’s inconsiderately entered the store at this inconvenient time, seemingly just to browse, she strikes him as being very aware of her beauty; privileged and used to getting what she wants. A brat. 

When she settles on a magazine and turns toward the counter, his stomach flips. Somehow while he was quietly glowering at her, it didn’t occur to him that she would soon be coming over to the counter. He looks around frantically for a place to hide, having no desire to interact with this humiliatingly beautiful girl in his current state. 

To his horror, he realizes that there’s no way out from in between the two enormous registers; each one takes up the entire counter and in between there’s just clear, open space with nothing to hide behind. The girl is almost at the counter, each step closer making her even more huge and terrifying. 

What is he going to say to her if she notices him? Where the hell is Jess? He’s furious at her for leaving him alone in this situation. 

She's still looking down at her magazine and hasn’t spotted him yet. As she reaches the counter, the hem of her short skirt grazes over its surface. Her impossibly tall figure is like a mountain appearing on the landscape, casting a huge shadow over him. He runs over to one of the registers and presses himself as tightly as possible against the cold metal, hoping that in its shadow he’ll be concealed. 

She puts down the magazine and a cool wave of air washes over him. She looks around for the store clerk, drumming her fingers on the counter and bouncing impatiently on her heels. Given that she was taking her time browsing the magazines, he thinks to himself, she can’t be in a hurry. He reflects bitterly that she must be acting impatient because she’s used to being given what she wants in a timely manner. He knows this impression of her as a spoiled brat could just be in his head, but he's annoyed at her for delaying his departure. And the way she casually flaunts her sexuality scares him, makes her too powerful; her presence makes him feel like some combination of a scared mouse and a humiliated little boy, and feeling this shame and fear at the hands of this young and careless girl makes him angry. 

She leans forward to try and look into the back room. The counter shakes under her weight, only slightly, but to Mark it feels like a small earthquake. He holds his breath as her massive body slinks past him, her exposed midriff close enough that he’s suddenly overwhelmed by her sweet perfume. 

He stifles a cough. Then another. She slides back off the counter onto her feet, and is about to pick up her magazine again when he lets out a cough. Her gaze flicks over to him immediately. 

There’s a terrible moment when he holds his breath, frozen, her just staring at him, expressionless. Slowly, her lips curl into a delighted smile that he doesn’t like at all. “Oh my god!” She giggles, stooping to get a better look at him. 

Right then, Jess emerges from the back room. "Hi," she says. Seeing the girl lowering her head to stare at Mark, she adds "I see you've met my little friend." Mark tries to catch Jess’ eye, to signal for rescue, but she’s busy fiddling with the register. The way this girl is looking at him is unnerving. She’s looking right at him, but not really making eye contact; she looks him up and down with a gleam in her eye, almost a look of hunger. 

“He’s so cute!” she says, not taking her eyes off him. It pisses him off that she’s talking about him and not to him. And condescendingly, at that. “Where did you get him?” 

Mark’s face turns red, anger and humiliation bubbling in his stomach. 

“Uh…” says Jess, probably also thrown off by the weird phrasing of the question. Mark is about to cut in and protest being talked about like he’s a hamster or something, but Jess decides to just answer the question. “He was over by the drinks fridge. It was the weirdest thing, he um…” 

Just then the store’s phone rings in the back room. “Hang on a sec,” she says. Mark strains desperately to make eye contact with Jess as she walks away, but she’s too distracted by the phone and she disappears into the back. To his horror, the girl calls out “Can I hold him?” 

“Oh, uh…” Jess’ distracted voice rings out from the back room. Mark shakes his head furiously but neither of the girls are looking at him. “Um, sure,” she says, then “Hello?” 

Mark’s mouth goes dry as the towering figure of the girl happily turns her gaze back to him. “Come here cutie,” she coos. He scrambles to get away but her hand easily overpowers his struggles, wrapping around his body and gently tightening until he’s immobilized. She lifts him to her face and smiles down at him, slowly licking her lips in a way that makes his stomach turn. “You’re so adorable!” she giggles, and starts petting him with the fingers of her other hand. He’s furious, tries to shout at her, but she’s holding him a little too tight and he can’t get enough air in his lungs to vocalize. “I’m Amy. Do you have a name, little guy?” 

Jess comes back in. “Sorry about that. So is it just the magazine for you then?” 

Without taking her eyes off Mark, Amy says “Can he talk?” 

Mark grits his teeth, enraged. He tries again to shout but all he can manage is a grunt, and neither of them hear it. 

“Uh, yeah,” says Jess, sounding confused.

“He’s a shy little guy, huh?” says Amy. “What’s his name?” 

“Its um, Mark,” says Jess, ringing up the magazine. She’s clearly weirded out by the conversation, but her reaction seems frustratingly mild to Mark, who’s absolutely enraged. He swears to himself that when he gets big again he’ll track Amy down and find a way to humiliate her. 

“Mark?” says Amy. She tilts her head, looking at Jess. “That’s kind of a weird name.” 

“Is it?” says Jess, glancing at Mark. “I think it’s pretty normal.” 

Mark’s stomach sinks as he realizes what Amy means. She thinks Mark is a weird name for a pet. 

“Okay,” says Jess. “So for the magazine, that’ll be…” 

“Wait, so where did you get him?” Amy’s frightening gaze is on Mark again. She’s holding him up close to her face in her left hand, playing with his hair with her right pinky. 

“Well um,” Jess is starting to sound a little unnerved. “He was over by the drinks fridge, I found him like half an hour ago. He has no idea how it happened. After I close the store I’m taking him to the hospital to see if they can figure it out.” 

“Oh, so… right, right.” She lowers him to the counter, allows his feet to touch down but pens him in protectively with her hands. Just behind him her skirt billows gently against his back, as if threatening to engulf him. 

“Look, are you gonna buy the magazine? My shift ended like ten minutes ago, I want to get out of here.” 

“Umm…” Amy mumbles, absent minded, indecisive. Mark glares up at her. “Um, right, yeah,” she says, blinking a few times. “Actually, you know what,” she continues. Her fingers tighten around Mark. The possessiveness of the gesture infuriates him and he struggles against her, punching her hands repeatedly. She doesn’t even notice. 
“Let’s actually forget about the magazine.” 

“Uh…” says Jess. 

“Instead of the magazine…” says Amy, smiling down at Mark. 

No way, he thinks, realizing what she’s about to say. This can’t be happening. 

“How much do you want for him?” 

“What?” says Jess sharply. 

“I want to buy him,” Amy says, gesturing to Mark. “How much do you want?” 

“You can’t buy him,” says Jess, to Mark’s relief. She starts to reach towards Mark but Amy lifts him off the counter and holds him protectively against her breast. Once again her cloying perfume envelopes him. 

“Look, I can pay you, like, a lot. My dad is like, super loaded. Come on,” she smiles down at Mark, who’s glaring up at her. “I really want him, he’s so cute!” 

Mark tries to shout angrily but his face is pressed into Amy’s breast and the sound is lost almost entirely. 

“Even if I believe that, I can’t just sell him to you! He’s a person, it’s wrong!” 

“Okay look, I don’t think you get how much I can actually offer you.”

“It doesn’t matter how much, it’s…” 

“Look, are you at college? Are you working this job to pay for school?” 

“Well, yeah, but…” 

“I’ll pay your tuition. Like, all of it. Seriously.” 

Jess hesitates. Mark’s blood runs cold. How rich is this chick? She can’t really be telling the truth, can she? 

Finally, Jess responds. “Bullshit.” 

Amy smiles mischievously. She reaches into her bra and pulls out her phone. After swiping a few times, she hands it to Jess, who reluctantly accepts it. “That’s my online banking,” says Amy. “Look at the balance.” 

Mark cranes his neck to watch Jess, whose eyes have grown wide. “Holy shit,” she says. He waits for Jess to glance at him, to acknowledge that this is crazy, that she won’t sell him, that he’s safe. But she avoids his gaze. 

“I can literally transfer you that money right now,” says Amy. “You just put in your email address and the amount, and it’s done.” She holds Mark up to her face and smiles at him mischievously, as if they’re in on this together. He feels sick. He can’t believe what’s happening to him. To not only be shrunk, but also have the misfortune of encountering this spoiled, twisted bitch. He stares up in horror at her terrifyingly beautiful face, calmly smiling down at him with all the sickening confidence of a girl who knows she always gets what she wants. Smiling down at her new toy like she owns him already. 

“I… I don’t know…” says Jess. 

Mark finally manages to speak. “Jess! Don’t do this!” he croaks. “Please, you can’t do this! It’s not right, it’s…” 

“Aww, look who found his voice!” Amy giggles. “Are you trying to tell us something sweetie?” 

“What... Fuck you, you heard me fine, I…” 

She giggles again. Her voice is enormous to him, booming over his tiny squeak and easily dominating the sonic space. He tries to continue talking but when she talks over him, his voice is lost completely in hers; he can’t even hear himself over her. 

“Look, you can’t just…!”

“Your little voice is so cute, sweetie!” She giggles. “You’re excited to belong to me, right?” The gleam in her eye indicates that she’s toying with him; she’s well aware of how he actually feels. “You think I’m pretty, don’t you? You want me to buy you.” 

“Fuck you! This is sick! You…” 

“Mm hmm, don’t worry little one, you’ll be all mine soon. Now hush while I pay for you.” 

She lowers him to the counter and pins him down with one hand. She places her index finger over his mouth, silencing him with infuriating ease. 

“You…” Jess mumbles. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?” 

Amy giggles down at Mark. “Of course not, that wouldn’t be any fun. I’m going to keep him forever. He’s going to be my little pet.” 

Mark struggles furiously against Amy’s hand, which has no effect but to make her giggle. She looks up at Jess, eyebrows raised. “So do we have a deal?” 

Mark squirms desperately trying to draw Jess’ gaze, but she won’t look at him. She looks instead at Amy, and gives her a sullen nod. 

“Yay!” She lifts him up off the table and brings him up to her lips, engulfing his entire face in a moist, celebratory kiss. Then she directs her attention to Jess, her hot breath washing over Mark’s face as she explains how to use the banking app. “Yep, then go to transfers. Mm hmm. Okay, then…” 

Mark tries one final, desperate plea to stop Jess from going through with it. “Wait, please! Please, you don’t have to…” Suddenly he’s silenced as Amy casually puts his whole head in her mouth and starts sucking on him like a lollipop. After a few seconds she pulls him out just long enough to smirk down at him, but as soon as he opens his mouth to speak she casually pops him back into her mouth. He can feel her giggling through the wash of spit as her tongue toys with his face and hair. He feels utterly humiliated. 

She pulls him out again, but doesn’t look at him this time. She starts absently drying him off with her top, like a pair of sunglasses. She handles him roughly, not paying attention, saying something to Jess about security questions. 

Then, again without looking down at him, her hand suddenly swoops him down to below her waist, into the shade under her skirt. She brings him face to face with the enormous fleshy cheeks of her ass, separated down the middle by a bright pink thong. Before he can even process where he is, she presses his face roughly into the cool skin of her ass cheek. She starts rubbing his face vigorously into her skin in a jerky up-and-down motion. 

Bewildered and waiting helplessly for her to stop, he wonders why she would be doing this. It must be an effort to humiliate him, he thinks. But why this strange rubbing motion?

Then it dawns on him what she’s doing, and his face burns with anger. She’s not even trying to humiliate him, which is even more humiliating. She’s using him to scratch an itch on her ass, while distracted, without even thinking about it. Already she’s thinking of him as just an object for her to use carelessly, as she pleases. A possession, and not even a valuable one to be respected. 

Eventually, as she brings him back up to her face, he’s ready to scream at her in defiance, but he doesn’t get the chance. Without looking at him, she pops him back into her mouth, sucking on him absentmindedly as though chewing on a pencil. He squirms ferociously in her grip but she doesn’t even seem to notice. 

Finally, she pulls him out and smiles down at him. “Okay sweetie, all done,” she giggles. “You’re officially mine now.” 

“You two won’t get away with this!” he screams, face turning red. “You…” 

She giggles. “Don’t be silly, sweetie. Of course we will.” 

“People will be looking for me!” 

“Mm hmm, maybe. But they won’t be looking for an adorable little toy man like you, sweetie! And they definitely won’t be looking in my panties drawer.” She smiles conspiratorially. 

He gulps, sensing for the first time the ominous sexual dimension of Amy’s motives. 

“Aww, don’t look so scared, sweetie!” she giggles. “You’re so cute. Aren’t you excited? We’re going to have so much fun together!” 

“I don’t want…!” 

“I’m even going to change your name. You know, to like, something… cuter.” She giggles. 

“You can’t just change my name, I…” 

“You’re such a cutie! Of course I can, I own you.” 

“I won’t answer to it!” 

“Yes you will. It would be silly of my teensy little pet to disobey me. I’ll just punish you.” She says this not in a warning tone, but cheerfully, as though she’s looking forward to punishing him. "Besides, once we leave this store I'm the only person you'll ever see again. I'm your whole world now. So whatever I decide your name is, that's your name. Like it or not." She giggles. "You don't get a say in anything anymore, cutie."  

He’s speechless for a moment. Then he realizes he’s wasting his breath trying to plead with Amy. “Jess! Jess, you have to help me! You know this isn’t right!” 

Jess ignores him, which makes Amy giggle. “She’d get in just as much trouble for selling you as I would for buying you, sweetie. She’s going to keep you our little secret. Face it little one, you’re not going anywhere but home with me.” 

“Jess!” he tries again. “Please!” 

Eventually Jess speaks, but addressing Amy. “Can I just ask you something?” 

Amy nods. 

“You could have just taken him, when I was on the phone, or even after that, you could’ve just run off. Why do it like this, making me sell him to you? Why spend all that money?” 

She brings Mark to her face, keeping her smiling eyes locked on him as she responds. "Because I want to own him," she says. A chill runs up his back. "I don't just want him as a captive, I want him to belong to me." She slowly licks her lips. "How does it feel, little one? To know that I paid for you and now you're mine forever? I didn't even have to steal you," she giggles. "It's funny, less than an hour ago I didn't even know you existed. A few minutes ago I just decided, on a whim, that you would be my cute little toy for the rest of your life. So you're mine now, just because I want you. My cute little toy that I bought to amuse myself."  

His jaw hangs open silently, appalled. She giggles and turns to Jess. "Actually, I'll take the magazine too," she says cheerfully. "And some gum. And um..." She leans over the counter to whisper something in Jess' ear. Jess sighs and says "Okay." 

Mark tries to see what's going on but before he knows it, Amy is sucking on him like a lollipop again, as casually as if she's biting her nails. 

A minute later, she pulls Mark's head out of her mouth and says "Can you hang on to this for a sec?" She lets his arms free of her grip and hands him the receipt, which is unwieldy in his hands like a large poster. She smiles down at him, waiting for him to read the receipt. He wipes the spit out of his eyes and reads. The purchased items are listed: 

Magazine

Gum 

Toy

She giggles down at the speechless horror on his face. "Okay thanks, see you," she says cheerfully to Jess. Turning to walk out, she engulfs Mark's face in a wet kiss that lasts a long time. Then with her hot, moist breath she whispers "All mine," before tucking him in deep between her breasts, out of sight, the receipt crumpling in his shaking hands.