She left the motel room. She locked the door behind her. She circled the building. She found a dumpster. She threw open the dumpster’s lid. She climbed inside. She tore into black and transparent bags. She used her phone’s light to see. She found what she wanted, then another, then another, then another, and then another. She exited the dumpster and closed it. She called the front desk. She said, “I’m locked out of my room a-and it’s pitch black, could you come up here to let me in?” She watched the clerk leave the desk. She entered the motel’s laundry room. She took from one of the housekeeping carts a plastic spray bottle. She returned to her room. She locked the door. She went into the bathroom. She lit the candles. She poured the wine. She mixed the minerals. She laid out her findings onto the counter. She put her hands together and chanted. She picked up the first of her findings, and added it to the wine. She waited. She chanted. She picked up the second of her findings, and added it to the wine. She waited. She chanted. She picked up the third of her findings, and added it to the wine. She waited. She chanted. She picked up the fourth of her findings, and added it to the wine. She waited. She chanted. She picked up the fifth of her findings, and added it to the wine. She smiled.

A low rhythm echoed, a vibration that felt distant and muffled but distinct in the bass it drummed. A forest of itching noises, ruffling and scratching, followed the step of every beat like wind blowing through wet knots of grass and weeds. The sound was only getting louder, but not closer or clearer. It was becoming stronger -- a heartbeat, Adrian finally recognized it. What was she listening to? And where was she? Before she could wonder that, she saw something through the haziness and darkness. A thump, a boom, a quake, it shivered all in sync with it. It would inflate, this silhouette of an organ, and then deflate, and a warmth would breathe from it, a humidity that reeked with an indistinguishable foulness. She saw it more clearly, not because light shined the way but because it grew so much bigger, so unmistakable. A heart, giant in size and held afloat by a web of veins or arteries, but tangled in a hide of hairs, hairs that twisted and tied around each other in a never-ending ocean of itself.

When Adrian awoke, her eyes had been wide open. The image in front of her, which happened to be an air conditioner unit opposite of the bedside, had been frozen in its stillness for so long. The window above it shielded against the early morning rays with its curtain, yet somehow she could tell it was foggy. Beyond the slither of light that made it past the veil was an empty darkness, the source of which could almost be blamed by the cold figure hovering nearby. Adrian didn’t flinch when she looked over to see Melanie there, occupying the same space as before on the floor, but she was unnerved by how eerily her eyes lay on her, unmoved the entire time so it seemed. Huge green eyes weighed heavy on her, dark bags hanging from underneath them even thicker than usual.

Something smelled, too. Adrian twisted when her nostrils picked up an offensive odor, but she was able to ignore it. Everything felt alien as she stirred, remembering all that had happened to bring her and Melanie here. Normally, it was hard for her to stay asleep in new places, especially when traveling, but her body had been so exhausted -- it felt exhausted now, even after hours of rest. Even in her dreams did she feel bruised and weak.

“You’re awake,” Melanie chimed. Her voice was surprisingly pleasant, very soft and careful. “Good morning.”

Adrian absorbed the words, but she didn’t acknowledge Melanie. She looked away from her, focusing instead only on the questions she had. “What time is it?”

“Oh, it’s… a little after five a.m.” Melanie smiled as she verified that time from her phone, set aside somewhere beneath the edge of the mattress. “We’ll have to leave soon. It’s good that you’re getting up now, but I wish you could sleep in a little longer. You look precious, t-taking up the whole bed with such a little body…”

Adrian responded with nothing. This commentary had stopped being belittling and had become just a natural occurrence. That said, she agreed with Melanie. Some additional time to keep sleeping would have been wonderful, if only for the pleasure of being absent from the reality she was stuck in. As far as getting well-rested for the day ahead, no amount of sleep would get her pumped. She was as good now as she would have been two or even three hours later.

After sitting up into a lazy slump, Adrian felt too long of a pause. Melanie continued to sit there, observing her, yet not expecting anything to happen. As a result, something felt off; Adrian could feel the heat of a question burning inside her, a temperature that taunted her to already fall prey into Melanie’s games for the day.

Before she spoke, she remembered where their conversation before had ended. Although some of it had become a pre-slumber blur, she distinctly recalled a choice, or rather, the promise of a choice. She would choose, apparently, whatever that meant. Had Melanie herself figured out what that meant? Was she willing to finally explain? Adrian dreaded to know.

“You…” Adrian yawned. “You don’t look like you got much sleep. Did you just sit there? All night?” She couldn’t put it past Melanie, to spend the literal entire night just watching her sleep.

Melanie giggled. “I-I would have liked to,” she said, “but I had a lot of work to do on short notice. Sitting around w-wasn’t going to start making a c-cure for you to become normal.”

Adrian agreed, fighting back another yawn. Melanie was right, a fix for this curse couldn’t be concocted if they both slept--

“A cure?” Adrian lit up. She didn’t even realize until then what Melanie had said. She scoffed, mixed with emotions. “A cure? For the curse?”

“Yes,” Melanie said. She caved into her laughter, “I-I spoiled it! J-Just how I wanted, too! I knew if I mentioned it, y-you wouldn’t even respond right away.”

Adrian jumped to her feet. “You have a fucking cure?! You made one?!”

“A-Ahh, n-not quite,” Melanie chuckled nervously. “Almost. It’s not done yet.”

“There’s a cure, though? There’s one out there?!”

“In the book, i-it says so. Yeah.” Melanie looked up, beyond the bed and over to the bathroom. Her smile persisted, hoisted with pride. “I read into it, after you went to sleep. I think I found a way to grow you back to normal size. I mean, j-just based off what I’ve read…” Her expression was real, almost like a preemptive apology. “Y-You know how weird this all is, obviously… I don’t know if it will actually work--”

“We have to try!” Adrian was shaking, overflowing with energy. “E-Even if you’ve just been looking into it…! O-Oh my god, Melanie, holy shit…D-Do you think it could work?”

Melanie shrugged and laughed. She was overjoyed with how ecstatic Adrian had become, like a switch had been flipped. “I hope it does!” Melanie said. “I really do. This is the choice I wanted you to make, Adrian.”

Adrian was smiling, an honest smile connecting her two cheeks. It felt unreal, so unreal that she worried it couldn’t be true at all. There was the possibility Melanie was just toying with her, but she studied Melanie, she deconstructed her tone of voice. Adrian could tell, she was sure that Melanie was being at least mostly genuine. Yet, she couldn’t shake off that tickle of doubt, what with Melanie’s previous remarks sounding so foreboding the night before.

“... W-What choice?” Adrian asked, still solidly grinning. “To return to normal?”

“S-Sort of,” Melanie chuckled. Her expression was cast into some shade. “Unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated than that.”

Adrian had guessed as much. Her expectations were quick to simmer. “What’s the catch?” she said, no longer so happy. “Just tell me. Just get to the point.”

“Ahh, I wouldn’t call it a catch, personally,” Melanie said. She was hesitant to keep explaining, wanting to maintain that bright vibe Adrian gave off. “Obviously… if you become normal again, you won’t… well… you won’t be tiny anymore.”

“That would be the entire literal point of a cure,” Adrian snickered.

“So… you can do whatever you want after that. That’s the choice-- err, part of it. You have the choice to stay with me, or leave me, or… anything. You can do anything once you’re big again.” A pause helped digest the point Melanie was leading into. “If you wanted to turn me into the police, you can do that. You can explain everything to them, everything you know, about Kim and the others, even Candi a-and… or anything, you can tell them anything, as much or as little as you want.”

“... You wouldn’t stop me?”

“No.” Melanie smiled again, as bitter as it was to be so honest. “This is for the best. I’ll let you decide. No matter what, my life… will help yours ascend. I promise that. Even if it means dividing us apart forever, if that’s what destiny wants, and if it makes you happy, then that’s what I’m willing to do.”

Adrian silently absorbed this update. A cure was possible, and Melanie was diligently looking into it -- willingly losing sleep over it, no less -- all so it could be used to return her back to normal, freedom and all. She felt her heart skip a beat from anticipation; she wanted this, she’s been wanting this so badly, and it was being offered to her just short of being on a silver platter. Again, she thought it too good to be true, but Melanie was not usually like this, not when she wanted to play with her food. Why now, overnight, would Melanie want to make a game out of a cure? And such a one-sided game, too; why would Adrian not choose to become normal, and then bring Melanie to justice?

And there was still more to discover about this supposed choice. Adrian wouldn’t let that slip past her, intentionally or not. “What else?” she demanded to know. “You said there’s another part of this choice…”

“Right… About that…” Melanie grinned and cast a look to the side bashfully. “Unfortunately… w-well, like I said, the cure isn’t made yet. I got far, but it needs… more.”

“Like what? Another day? A week?”

“Not more time. More… Err…” Melanie scratched at her neck. “More victims. I need to shrink more people. Well, if this is a cure you want, I should say we need to shrink more people.”

Adrian’s hope and positivity dropped. All the mass that went into such a satisfying and thrilling mixture of feelings worked against her, crashing into the deepest part of her stomach. “No…” she muttered. “More people… More people will have to shrink…?”

Melanie fidgeted in her seat. She retrieved something from her hoodie’s pocket, wrapped up in a fist. Adrian gasped when she saw it, an image she was all too familiar with yet it struck her like new time and time again. Her tiny arms instinctively reached out for the shrunken person entangled in Melanie’s fist, an older woman with short brown hair tossed into a mess over her distressed expression. She squirmed and kicked with the vitality all the other victims had, struggling so hard against a cruel, unwavering grasp.

“Please!! Please, anyone!!” the woman screamed hysterically. She wanted to kick and punch at the overwhelming hand, but her limbs were strapped to her sides, unable to squirm free. “I don’t want to die!! I’m not ready to die!! Please take me back!! Take me back now!!”

“Holy shit,” Adrian coughed. “Wh-Who the hell is this?! M-Melanie, where did you…?!”

Melanie admired her latest addition. She was tickled, but not quite entertained, by how this woman responded to being shrunk. It was a fun she would be enjoying more if it wasn’t attached directly to a big responsibility. “Her name is Chloe,” Melanie explained. “She was staying at the motel. I caught her outside, real late, trying to get back into her room. She looked like the perfect person to experiment with, especially so suddenly. A cute girl, just wandering around right when I needed one… hehe…”

“Oh, god, please stop her!!” Chloe shouted. Her eyes fell onto Adrian, a person just as tiny as her. She knew not whether that was a good or bad sign, so she only screamed more, the only thing she could do. She believed that someone had to hear her, someone had to notice that she was gone -- but until then, she was ridiculously powerless, a decoration that this giant, creepy girl could pocket at any time, a victim held out on display before a second victim. Tears rolled down her face in a flood, but she garnered no sympathy from either person.

“Why?!” Adrian stammered, needing an explanation. “And how?! Th-The curse, the wine… You spilled it! Y-You used it all on that detective!”

“I made more,” Melanie said. “I had to, if I wanted to make a cure. It’s the only way.

“I brought the ingredients for the curse with me… just in case. It’s good that I did. I read through the book some more, hoping to understand its properties some more. Something could obviously change about the curse and how it can be applied, so I thought the process could be connected with a cure. That’s when I found out what I was really making. It wasn’t just curses I was casting onto people, I was making a potion. All the victims were sacrifices for making a shrinking potion! It needed power… an energy, I guess.

“When five hairs are added to the pool… then the potion is made. If it touches the hair of another person, it will shrink them immediately. No chanting, no need to wait, i-it just happens instantly! That’s what happened to E-Erin, and Candi, and now Chloe. I didn’t just shrink her for to find out if the potion works… I need her, and four others. Five more sacrifices, again, and the potion will become stronger! And it can become mutated, and changed into a cure! It will undo its own magic when applied!”

“A potion…?” Adrian kept up with everything Melanie explained, but it was still so hard to believe. She shivered, troubled and sickened by something emotional growing deep within her like a fungus. “B-But… you spilled the wine,” she said to herself. “You threw it all onto the detective. I saw you do that. So, how did you… w-with Chloe…?”

Melanie grinned. “I had to make another, of course,” she said. “I needed five more sacrifices to make a potion… but I had to hurry. I couldn’t be picky. Luckily, this is a motel! They vacuum and clean rooms that are occupied by all sorts of people, all the time! So I dove into the trash outside, and I found five different hairs to offer.”

Adrian froze in her flinch. Disgusted, on multiple levels. “No,” she mumbled. “That’s...“

“It’s… exactly what you imagine.” Melanie’s smile diminished, disheartened by the weight that she knew would be a burden for Adrian. “At one am, tomorrow morning, five people who stayed at this motel will suddenly shrink, where ever they are, without ever knowing why it happened, who caused it, or even how the motel was related.” As solemn as she tried to be, a giggle still cracked from her lips. “It sucks not being able to see their reactions, but… I can imagine. It must be scary. I wonder where some of those people live…”

“Melanie! They-- Those were strangers! Actual strangers!” Adrian huffed, throwing her arms about in accusation. “H-How could you…?”

“Mm… Would it have been better if I kept them?” Melanie asked this sincerely; she knew well enough how wicked she could get. “Maybe a loved one will find them, or they’ll shrink while driving and die quickly in a car accident. Maybe someone wanted to be tiny their whole life and they’ll thank me as a god. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter… I just needed five hairs, and there were five hairs in the trash.

“On the bright side, it clearly worked!” Melanie held Chloe up higher, despite her begging to be put down, and with her other hand, pointed confidently at her. “While the shrinking effect doesn’t happen for twenty-four hours, it still counts as a sacrifice to the pool. I wanted to test it out, so I poured some into a spray bottle I took from the motel.” She revealed from beneath the bed the very mechanism she described; a simple, household spray bottle, filled almost to the top with a speckled, crimson fluid. “That’s when I saw Chloe park her car outside and go to her room. I sprayed her from behind, she didn’t really understand what happened. Down she went, until she became this thing.”

“You’re sick!! You’re a fucking monster!!” Chloe raged. “I’m so fucking sorry, just let me go home! I have children! I have children, for god’s sake! They need me--”

Tired of her noises, Melanie grunted and forced the woman back into her pocket. “So,” she sighed, “that’s one sacrifice out of five.”

Adrian was silent, eyes following the sight of the writhing woman be sentenced away to a pocket. Melanie could move on without thinking about it, of course, but Adrian’s heart felt for this innocent stranger. There wasn’t even a trap or setup to capture Chloe, unlike almost all the others. It simply happened, by Melanie’s will, much like it had played out with Candi. This evolution in the curse’s application was terrifying, and Adrian could only dream of what possibilities this opened up for Melanie. So few limitations now stood in her way between any victim she wanted.

Yet, this was all for a cure. Adrian couldn’t forget that, how these people -- from here on, anyway -- were being targeted for the sake of reversing this curse. That did little to make the situation less sour, but it was evidence that a ray of hope still existed. Four more victims was all, and then Adrian could grow back to normal, end Melanie’s reign, and fix everything she ruined.

Melanie stood up, making sure not to apply too much weight to the mattress as she rose. Halfway to the peak of her stance, she lowered a hand for Adrian to climb into. “We should get moving,” she urged. “I actually still have class today. It seems so easy to forget, sometimes. H-Hopefully calling for a cab won’t be… t-too stressful…”

Crawling out from underneath the leather sofa was Nicky. She stretched like a cat after having squeezed under the small gap, unashamed of how her naked body reached out in all directions. If there was any benefit to being so tiny, it was that she had little worry for any unwanted attention, a fact she was welcome to embracing as long as she was by herself on this mission. The sheer loneliness, unfortunately, was too much for her to handle much longer.

When night had settled in more deeply, Nicky had only just reached the foot of the sofa. Restless and scared of the dark, she had decided to bunker under the couch until morning. Against her initial expectations, Nicky had managed to get a long, relatively peaceful slumber. She was antsy, kicking and turning throughout her sleep, always a little afraid that Melanie might suddenly peek under the couch and find her. Luckily, she awoke energized and ready, or at least as ready as she could be to begin scaling a cliff-sized couch.

“Maybe… j-just two more minutes,” Nicky anxiously said to herself, gazing up the distance she would soon have to climb. She wanted to kick herself for wasting time and delaying what she had to do, especially after she had slept for longer than she wanted. Yet, she couldn’t deny that her arms felt tired just looking at the couch and thinking of how much work it would all be. It sure as hell beats making it up halfway and then falling, she figured.

Nicky stretched again, this time raising an arm high over her head. When she did, she also glanced up and noticed the coffee table made of a clear glass top. Idly, she wandered over to be more directly under it. She awed at the unique angle she had, for up above her were a series of items she could see from below. A textbook, some beer bottles, and a short stack of plates were mundane, but more interesting things were out on display, like an ashtray, a couple lighters, and a bong. She grinned while thinking back to how she used that very tool, on that very couch, but her amusement faded away quickly. As fun as that high was, it lead directly to how she ended up there, on the floor like an insect.

Directly under the bong, Nicky wondered, If that fell on top of me, would I get crushed? Probably...

Deciding not to waste any more time, Nicky returned to the couch and gripped a wrinkle of material. She huffed and bounced upward, stretching out to grab another wrinkle. She kicked and pushed off the wall, but made little progress. Another bounce, reaching higher and higher -- she kept doing this, groaning after nearly every movement. Her whole body shivered from pain, never having done anything like this before in her life. It was so tiring, and yet when she finally caved and looked down, she realized how low she still was. Despite all her effort, the round edge of the couch cushion always seemed unfairly out of reach.

“Focus…” she whispered to herself. “Get this done…”

She struggled on, continuing to endure, until she finally reached the edge. She scrambled a bit, so relieved at first to reach the end of the climb that she almost slipped and fell back. Her heart jumped, and she rushed to solid ground, rushed to lay down into the middle of the cushion after joyfully tumbling there. She laughed between gasps for air, rolling over on her back and then on her stomach again as she felt her muscles and bones finally relax after being so tense.

“Holy… shit…” Nicky swiped at her brow, uncaring to how her hair had become jumbled and messy from swinging it about during her scaling. “I did it… I made it…! Aw, hell…” She shook her head and closed her eyes. She was far from done, and perhaps not even close.

Nicky jumped back to her feet. Adrenaline shot through her as she felt a call to action, realizing that this all could have been a waste of time. Laying down and celebrating had to wait, at least until she could confirm a vitally important detail. All of this, going as far back as to her escape from Melanie’s desk where the others came together to help her, could all be for nothing if her smartphone wasn’t still there, wedged in the cushions.

She ran, each footstep launched back upwards due to the sofa cushion. She almost tripped when dashing over the space between two seats, but her sprint slowed to a tired break the second she saw it. Up ahead, sprouting from the corner where the armrest met the most leftward seat, was the sleek corner of her familiar device. She was close to weeping, finally able to come back to her beloved phone, a tool that wasn’t just pleasant to have back, but the key to survival-- more than that, freedom, for her and the others.

Nicky squatted in front of the corner of the phone she could see, her smile reflected off the black screen before it morphed into shock. “Battery!” In a hurry, she pushed the phone forward, just enough to search for the notification light. A suspenseful second passed, and then it blinked. She pumped her arms, “Oh fuck yes!” and then reached for the power button that was the size of her hand. The whole screen lit, and Nicky laughed, until she spotted the battery life exactly. A pitiful percentage was left in the phone, forcing Nicky to keep up the speed. At this rate, she feared that this all could come down to a precious few seconds, the difference between calling 9-1-1 to be saved or being discovered by Melanie to be trapped once again.

The phone was difficult to pull loose, Nicky had discovered. The leather material it was sandwiched between maintained a mighty grip, as if the phone were swamped in a mire. Nicky grunted a complaint, then wedged herself into the crevice, using both arms and a leg to pry her phone out. It worked, somewhat, with the phone cropping out at a slight angle, but every inch it was moved, the easier it became to keep moving it. Nicky chuckled as she kept pushing, getting back onto the cushion and using all her strength in one last pull.

Finally, it was done. Nicky’s smartphone had been pulled free, collapsing onto its screen with a muffled thud against the leather. Nicky yelped at the light sound, jitters getting the best of her when she saw it fall. It was proportioned like a large door, twice her height easily and with a width that beat out her wingspan by just a bit. She marveled over it for just a moment, amazed at how such a small piece of tech was now bigger than her.

Using my phone like this is gonna be a pain, she thought. But… I only need to make one call…

Nicky knelt down beside her phone, then flipped it over onto its back. She bit her lip, pressing the power button again. At the bottom of the screen, beneath the keypad to unlock the machine, was the emergency call button, a feature she never expected herself to actually have to use but in that moment, she was especially grateful.

But as she moved to get to the other side of her phone, a shadow fell over Nicky. She flinched, so accustomed to fearing whatever may be hanging overhead now at such a small size. Accompanying the eclipse was the quiet booming of thunder, massive footsteps patrolling around the living room. Nicky gazed up, ashamed of how oblivious she had been to only now notice the titan in front of her. She hadn’t heard Melanie’s roommate in the kitchen, not while she herself was putting all her concentration towards the climb up the couch and the excavation of her phone.

Regardless, the giantess had appeared, unaware of how incredible her size was to Nicky. Dressed in cozy pink sweatpants and a low-cut top, the titanic threat facing Nicky didn’t face her at all. It was Juniper’s flank that Nicky gazed up at, which stretched into the sky like a monument, a red peak of hair concluding the unreal height. All of her movements were boring and reserved, so Juniper had assumed. Waking up and fetching a bowl of cereal was nothing special, evident by how she nonchalantly ate some of her breakfast while there beside the couch. She stood by, chewing her food while admiring the view outside the balcony doors.

Juniper turned. Nicky braced for the movement, watching the giantess twist around until her rear, clad in soft pajama pants, was facing her. Nicky looked perplexed, cowering by her phone. It seemed too unreal, like this giantess was aiming her ass right at her. She even stammered to speak up, but what little voice she produced was stormed out by the slam Juniper’s butt made as all its weight suddenly dropped onto the armrest.

Nicky jumped in fright, her whole body caught in a shiver as she expected the worst. When the butt in front of her lunged, she assumed it was on the hunt for her, to squash her out of existence. She couldn’t breathe even when faced with the truth, that the gigantic ass had halted right in front of her. It hovered overhead, hanging just off the armrest where Juniper sat to enjoy another bite of food. Nicky was so close to it, she could easily step forward, reach up, and massage the broad surface -- a prospect that made her face turn pink.

This is… someone’s ass, Nicky thought. She looked up and down, left and right. It took up her entire vision, like she was standing toe-to-toe with the hull of a navy ship that had washed ashore a beach of leather. At least for now, the two were on neutral terms, but Nicky was uneasy. Melanie had sat on her and the others before, but she never applied all of her weight, at least conscious of how fragile they all were. But her roommate, completely out of the loop, would know no difference. She could sit on her now, without a second thought. The weight of a building all on top of her, uncaring and unflinching.

Just as the tension left Nicky’s body in relief, it all crashed down on her at once. Juniper shifted, allowing herself to slide into the sofa more conventionally. Of course, she thought nothing of it herself, but it was apocalyptic for Nicky. For the tiny survivor, the round pajama-clad wall had suddenly continued its descent without a hint of mercy. It enveloped Nicky, overtaking her entirely. In a flash, Nicky felt herself being pushed, and in that following instant, everything was black, warm, and suffocating. A scream Nicky had begun was deleted between those seconds, lost somewhere under Juniper.

No push could have enough force to get Juniper off of her, no voice could have enough volume to not be muffled into Juniper’s bottom. With no other options, all Nicky could do was panic, and even that was squelched. Juniper twisted in her seat so that her legs no longer hung off the armrest. She remained blissfully ignorant of how her rear-end was grinding a shrunken college student into the cushion, dragging her body with her movement, unaware that she was isolating Nicky right into her crack directly underneath her.

Yet, it was that very misfortune that was keeping Nicky alive. Juniper’s weight was tremendous and would have flattened the woman without any concern or bias, but in the crevice of her ass’s center, there was a bittersweet sanctuary. Though Nicky didn’t comprehend it, she was saved by luck alone, lucky enough to have been sat on so directly that she was hugged between two waves of cheeks. It was still agonizing, with almost no room to maneuver, swallowed in darkness, a thick scent detected in the minuscule breaths she could take -- but she was alive, alive enough to rage fruitlessly.

Again, Nicky looked for options and came empty handed. Shouting would do nothing but waste the valuable oxygen she had in such a suffocating trap. No shove could topple the mountain of a person on her, and attempting to do so would just make the hot environment more sweltering. She groaned in pain, tears that formed under her eyes were immediately soaked into the fabric that was Juniper’s pajamas. Even with all her might, backed with all her fury, Juniper could do little but lift a square-inch of fat off of her, a temporary relief that insulted her efforts by slamming back down on her the moment she let go.

Most insulting of all was how close her phone was, a machine that just as easily was lost under an oblivious stoner-goddess’s rear. Nicky stretched for it, but it was impossible to reach it, or even locate it. Frustrations only grew as she realized she had a better chance of Juniper butt-dialing the police, a chance happening that had better odds than her lifting an ass off of her miserably small frame.

Crunching could be heard, only when Nicky ceased her crying. It horrified her, the sound of breaking and mashing. Was it her legs, or her hips? Was the weight of this giant finally too much? No, Nicky eventually deduced, it was rather the sound of cereal being devoured, spoonful after spoonful, an echo of Juniper’s munching that could be vaguely heard all the way through her body. It painted the image clearly in Nicky’s mind, the exact picture of this young woman doing nothing more than eating cereal and ripping a bong hit, not realizing that she was torturing another human by doing these simple morning activities. More munching, a gulp, a little sigh. More munching, another gulp, more munching.

Nicky wailed, not to be noticed but because she had given in. Melanie was fucking right, she told herself in a maddening tone. After all that… Surviving until now… All of this lead me to becoming an itch under someone’s ass. Nicky closed her eyes, whimpering louder and louder as she grimly tried to accept this fate. Why did I agree to smoke with her? Why did I just come into her apartment without thinking? Why, Nicky…?!

Sounds were heard, distinct from the surreal ambience. Nicky’s eyes lit up -- perhaps an opportunity to escape? She hoped it so, based on nothing more than that one sound. But Juniper didn’t move, other than tilting her head back towards the front door. To Nicky’s dismay and even her horror, she could make out Juniper’s words: “Morning, Melanie. Were you out late or… something?”

Melanie had returned home, far from looking well-rested. Her roommate could tell as much, noticing the bags under her eyes were even heavier, her hair messier, and a faint smell that followed her into the apartment. Oddly, Melanie didn’t act as exhausted as she looked; if anything, she walked more confidently and spirited than usual, crossing behind the sofa to go straight to her bedroom.

“K-Kinda…” Melanie couldn’t leave Juniper without an answer, but she offered not much more than a glance in her direction. “I-I’m kind of… i-in a hurry… I’ve got c-class in a little bit…”

“Oh. Shit.” Juniper spoke with her mouth full, only then swallowing. “I thought you got arrested or something after I came home and you weren’t around.”

Melanie chuckled casually. After such drama unfolded yesterday, she had just about forgotten that Juniper had allowed Candi in -- she almost forgot about Candi ever coming by the apartment. “Yeah… N-No, I wasn’t arrested.”

“What was that about?”

“Uhh… It’s… hard to explain.” Melanie hesitated just outside the hallway to her room. She bit her lip, “I-It’s nothing important, though. Just, cops, you know. Cop things.”

“Aw, yeah,” Juniper nodded, crunching away at cereal. “Fuck the police.”

“F-Fuck the p-police,” Melanie repeated meekly. Considering that to be a normal end to a conversation, Melanie quietly turned into the hallway and went to her room. She was grateful to be pressed on time, for it made her suspicious behaviors less noticeable.

Melanie touched the knob to her room, but stopped when she picked up the scent of something sour and bold. The wine, she soon recognized it, the wine -- or potion -- that she threw over Candi in their scuffle. When she opened the door and looked down, she dreaded the sight of a long, red stain splashed about her carpet. She shook her head and closed the door.

She laughed at that, how she found the waste of wine to be more noteworthy than her collection of shrunken women. Her gait was no longer haggard or frail, but calm and almost elegant, as she strolled closer to her desk. Through the transparent drawers, she could see Kimberly and Scarlet paralyzed where they sat, quivering as Melanie got closer and closer.

“I’m home~” Melanie sang, a craving hand nearing her lips. “Did my loyal little dogs miss me? To you animals, it must have felt like I was gone forever.”

Melanie sat down in her chair, allowing her messenger bag to gently land on the floor next to her. She rolled her seat forward and peered into the cubbies. She enjoyed the way they jumped when her huge eyes scanned them, swallowing their tiny forms into her vision. She smiled, removing the tape that sealed the cubbies so tightly.

The first drawer opened was Scarlet’s. She tumbled when her prison cell was pulled ahead, and getting up felt strictly more difficult. She whined, but not from any pain the fall caused her. Melanie noticed the pitch in her groan, and her smile faded.

“Are you weak, Wormslut?” Melanie asked. “Ah. You both are probably hungry and thirsty, huh.”

Scarlet lifted her head up and nodded. An arm wrapped around her complaining stomach, and she swallowed through a dry throat. Melanie may have been devilishly cruel, but she had always kept her playthings fed and tended to enough that they hadn’t worried much about basic survival. At only three inches tall, resources were plentiful, if they were actually given.

In truth, Melanie hadn’t even thought of this aspect of caring for tinies. The reality made her giggle. “Imagine how Nicky must feel,” she teased under her breath. “At least you two… will get some food and water. Nicky has to eat off the floor. Maybe she’ll find a moldy crumb in the carpet, and she can fight an ant over it.”

Scarlet winced under Nicky’s mention. She closed her eyes and prayed she was out there, somewhere, still alive and fighting. She’s their only chance, it seemed, to possibly escape from this madwoman. She looked through the cubbies over towards Kimberly’s cell, wondering if she thought the same, or if her hopelessness ran that deep.

Melanie, too, turned her attention to Kimberly. She opened the cubby, slightly more kindly than she had Scarlet’s, and loomed over it. “Kim?” she said, looking down at the huddled woman. “You normally eat so little. Did your fat keep you nourished, like a bear?” She giggled and blushed, “Like a little mama bear!”

Kimberly’s reaction to these insults was a weary turn of her head. Whether Melanie was here or not, she didn’t care that much. Dying in isolation, even in a college student’s desk, was only marginally better than being tortured to death like a living stress ball.

“Did you two talk at all?” Melanie pondered. “What have you guys been up to? If I were alone for this long… You both probably jerked off a lot, right?”

Melanie pinched Kimberly and lifted her out of the cabinet. She then grabbed Scarlet in the same way and put the two together in one palm, where they sat on their hands and knees. Some time away from playing wildly with her pets had allowed Melanie the chance to see how obedient they had become. This was especially true when compared to Chloe, who had yet to stop struggling against the overwhelming odds of her belittled circumstance. Kimberly and Scarlet were veterans to the experience, and Melanie had a weird respect for that.

“Ha, that’s right,” Melanie remembered. “I have a new friend for you two.”

Melanie pulled open the collar of her hoodie and shirt, then dug into the clothes. She giggled in stutters, a motion that made the ground uneasy for Scarlet and Kimberly as they anticipated who she was going to unveil. Her laughter was reactionary, feeling the woman she had captured squirm against her boob, graze against her nipple. It was there in the left cup of her bra that she had put Chloe, tightly restricted by a hair-tie that twisted around her several times.

Chloe yelled as she was dragged out of the depths of Melanie’s breast and into the cold air of a bedroom. The light blinded her, and she squirmed in frustration, all the while yelling, “No! No! Let go! Stop, please stop!”

Melanie sighed, purposefully directing her heave of a breath to wash over Chloe. “I wish you all could just… know that I won’t stop. I wish when someone shrunk, they would just understand…”

Chloe never gave in. With all this movement allowed to her, she took the opportunity to fight, to writhe about with all the stamina she had reserved. Swaying from one direction to the next, all in a vain attempt to break loose, all Melanie could do was giggle, while the two onlookers felt pity for their newest addition.

“Again…” Scarlet grumbled. “Another one…”

Kimberly felt her heart tear, a continuation of the long rip that was dividing her in half these past weeks. She didn’t speak, but she knew what she felt. It was like Erin, all over again. A new toy, from seemingly nowhere, a new victim that Melanie had just picked out on a whim without any hesitation, she was sure.

Since neither questioned it, Melanie took it upon herself to elaborate. “I found her at a motel. Her name’s Chloe. Chloe, meet Kim and Wormslut. You can do anything to Wormslut, she’ll probably like it.

“Well, that’s about all I know of her,” Melanie admitted dryly. “Maybe you can talk to her and find out more, if that’s what you two are interested in. To be honest…” She lifted Chloe higher, studying the panicked woman while holding her upside-down. Her expression was discontent. “She’s sort of the uglier ones of you lot. I guess none of you compare to Adrian, though…”

“W-What does that mean?!” Chloe cried out. As best as she could, she turned to try and face the other women, the others that this creep of a human had also apparently attacked, shrunken, and kidnapped. “Help me! For the love of god, d-do something…! W-What’s happening?! Please!”

Scarlet and Kimberly had no response, nor the permission to help her even if they wanted. Melanie dismissed Chloe altogether, lowering her to the messenger bag and casually dropping her into its main pouch. Chloe’s tiny protests accented to a wild scream at the fall, which was muffled into the darkness. Then, Kimberly and Scarlet were brought to the bag’s mouth, where they could see the books and other items Melanie traveled with.

“I have class,” Melanie said, “but I’ve missed you all so much. There’s a lot I want to do… and a lot that needs to be done.” She sneered. “Adrian can you tell you all that. Be safe in there.”

Recklessly, her hand flipped to its side and her two pets were tossed into the bag. Scarlet almost had a handle on a book’s binding to latch onto, but her own weight lost that one chance and she too fell into the bag alongside Kimberly, who landed right on top of Chloe. Melanie enjoyed the glimpse of chaos she would conduct, a tease to herself of what fun she would have once given the freetime.

Her god-like power fantasies would have to wait. Class would soon start, and she saw to it to at least change her clothes after her trash-filled expedition. During this time, Scarlet and Kimberly tried to gather their bearings, a task challenged by the disorienting and visceral screams Chloe continually made despite the soreness in her throat.

“Please! Please, I-I don’t belong here!” Chloe shouted at Kimberly, accidentally kicking her in a stray squirm. “I don’t know her, th-this has to be a mistake! It has to! I-I’m not anyone important!”

Kimberly groaned. “Shut the hell up!” she barked, a demand that Chloe whimpered to oblige. “You think that you don’t belong--? Ugh. Forget it.” She crawled away, distancing herself from Chloe. “None of us want to be here. We’re just stuck like this.”

“Stuck?!” Chloe breathed rapidly, nearing hyperventilating. “No! No, th-that’s-- This is all impossible!”

“Yeah, well, welcome to the club,” Scarlet spat. She stood with her back against the cold cover of a wall-like textbook. “We’re trapped. That bitch picked you out like she did the rest of us, no fuckin’ rhyme or reason. This is just how it is, alright? It’s over.”

“It isn’t.” A strange contradiction -- neither Kimberly nor Chloe had been the one to argue with Scarlet, but instead it was Adrian. She was in the bag as well, tucked into a far corner of the bag with her arms hugging her knees.

“Adrian!” Kimberly announced her name in shock. She tread over to her, marching over Chloe and past Scarlet. She stopped just short of Adrian, arms hesitantly open for an embrace that didn’t happen. “I was so worried about you, Adrian. Oh, my god,” she nearly fell from faintness, “I’m so sorry, Adrian, a-about Erin. I… I can’t believe Melanie. Can’t believe she’d make you, of all of us--”

“Worried for her?” Scarlet scoffed, but she shook her head instead of saying more. She was severely biased against Adrian still, never dropping those worries that Melanie’s favorite would turn on them. That being said, she still felt an ounce of gratefulness, recalling how Adrian sacrificed a dear friend to save her and Kimberly from the horrible fate of being sat on.

Kimberly ignored Scarlet’s attitude with just a scowl, but Adrian said nothing either. She probed for a response, taking note that Adrian was not her usual self. “Wh-What did you mean by that?” she asked. “It isn’t over…?”

Adrian lowered her head. “No… No. This… All of this will end. Soon.” Behind her, Kimberly and Scarlet noticed, was an item they had never seen in Melanie’s possession. A beacon of red fluid, contained in a plastic bottle multiple times their own height, a green nozzle and trigger situated at the top.

Melanie hoisted the bag, unintentionally cutting off the discussion her victims were about to have. In a rush to get to class, she hurriedly grabbed the rest of her things and left her room. When the door clicked close, however, it was like a trigger that activated a squeal from the living room. Melanie nearly chirped a sound herself, hesitantly turning the corner to see what Juniper was doing.

“J-Juniper?” Melanie found her still in the living room, but no longer sitting. She was standing up, bowl in one hand and spoon in the other, looking down at herself. “Y-You okay? I heard a noise…”

“Fuckin’-- Yeah, yeah,” Juniper shook her head, then laughed, “totally. I just… spilled some fucking cereal on me while trying to smoke.”

Melanie grinned, an expression she hid behind her mouth while her amusement was tamed into a genuine concern. “D-Did you… n-need help c-cleaning?”

“Nah, I’ve got it,” Juniper said tersely. “You just get to class, it’s cool.”

Melanie agreed to just that. She noticed a dribble of milk having spilled down Juniper’s shirt and onto her lap, as well as the fog of a bong hit. Needing nothing more and still in a hurry to get to class on time, Melanie continued out the door. Juniper watched her the entire time, unmoving until she heard the front door close. She looked down, stopped -- the door clicked with its lock being applied -- she looked down again, with bated breath. Her eyes were as wide open as her mouth, frozen that way as she knelt down in front of the sofa so quickly that she bumped the coffee table with her hip along the way.

Juniper was slow to say anything, and when she finally spoke, it was a response less suited for the wonder in front of her, the magic of a woman no taller than her forefinger: “What kind of wild shit did that dude deal me?”