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Ryan read over the boring message sent to everyone in the office about something trivial. Apparently, someone forgot to use the correct font for their report and now the higher ups needed to remind everyone that they use 12 font and not 14 because something about taking up space on paper or what not. It was stupid and annoying that Ryan had to force himself to read over the message. Ryan closed the message and quickly looked over his social media for the 10th time in the past 2 minutes, just to past the time.

At the age of 26, he never expected himself to work in a cubical, writing reports for a big company like the one that hired him, but life was funny that way. Deciding to take a quick walk, Ryan headed toward the break room on his floor to grab a cup of water and maybe talk to whoever was at the water cooler. Getting up, Ryan walked the small distance to the water cooler to socialize.

Ryan walked into the room and cursed under his breath, Jimmy was here. Ryan didn't hate Jimmy, he just didn't care for him. Jimmy was the kind of person who always talked about himself and always seemed to try and one up you. You could be talking about the weather and somehow Jimmy would find a way to turn it into a conversation about him. Ryan would rather sit at his cubical completely bored than converse with Jimmy, but Jimmy already spotted him. Ryan couldn't just walk away now...

"Ryan," Jimmy called out.

"Hi Jimmy," Ryan said trying to not strike up a conversation but not seem too rude to him.

Jimmy smiled with a cocky grin and held his cup in his hand. Jimmy started to head over to Ryan who did his best not to look annoyed. "How was your weekend?"

"It was good..." Ryan said grabbing some water from the tank in front of him. Ryan wanted to keep the conversations short and quick. He could already sense that Jimmy was about to tell one of his stories.

"You and Emily go out last night," Jimmy asked.

"Uh, no. We just stayed in watched a movie and stuff," Ryan told him.

Jimmy just nodded as he took a sip of his drink. "Nothing wrong with that," Jimmy said. He continued, "Some of the best nights can be just staying at home. I remember just a few weeks ago, I picked up this one chick and we just spent all day at her place. You should have seen her, she had a nice set on her..."

Ryan did his best not to look annoyed as Jimmy went on about some random person that he felt was 100% made up right now. However, Ryan just stood there silently letting Jimmy drone on about this person until he nearly ran out of water. Ryan was about to tell Jimmy he needed to go when another coworker came in. It was Allison.

"Hi Jimmy," She said cutting Jimmy off from his speech.

"Hey Allison, looking good as always," Jimmy told her with a gleam in his eyes.

Allison laughed, "Would you stop already," Allison smirked at him. "Ryan you got a minute?"

"Sure," Ryan quickly replied. Allison was a life saver.

"Bye Jimmy," Allison waved as she started to walk Ryan out of the room.

"Oh wait a second Allie, Ryan," Jimmy called out to them. "I got something."

Allison paused and turned around to see Jimmy pull a small box out of his pocket.

Immediately Allison's face perked up at the sight of the box. "Nooo, you didn't?" Jimmy grinned and nodded. Allison smiled grew larger and she giggled with excitement. "Oh, just what I needed to perk up my day! You got to let me have one," Allison said quickly heading over toward Jimmy practically dragging Ryan with them. Ryan didn't say anything as they all stood around the small pocket-sized box that Jimmy was holding sealed.

Jimmy started to warn them about the work place policies, "Now, you know you guys can't say anything about-"

Allison just rolled her eyes and blew a raspberry, "No one is going to tell on you Jimmy. Just hurry up," Allison said nearly jumping up and down.

"Alright," Jimmy said as he pulled the top of the box off revealing 4 little shrinkies in the box. Allison let out a squeal at the sight of the 4 barely inch tall people cowering in the box. There were 3 women looking to be about Ryan's age, and one male that barely looked to be 15. All 4 of them were cowering in a single corner trying to stay away from the enormous giants above them. "I got them this morning," Jimmy told them sounding proud of himself.

"Ohhhh," Allison said sounding excited looking over each and every one of the helpless people.

"You can have first pick," Jimmy offered Allison. Allison didn't even hesitate as she pointed at the teen. The kid shook his head as he couldn't believe what was about to happen. Allison smiled as she reached forward with her hand and pinched the tiny body with her fingers and extracted him from the small cluster of women. Allison wasted no time throwing the screaming figure into her mouth and closing her mouth shut. Allison closed her eyes as she swished the small person around in her mouth for a few moments. Slushing the tiny figure from one side of her mouth to the other. She made sure to get him all slippery and gooey. Ryan wasn't sure if Allison was doing it on purpose or subconsciously, but she was letting out soft moans of pleasure as she sucked on the kid, extracting whatever flavor from him. It didn't take more than a few more moments before Allison stopped her tongue movements and...

GULP

"Ahhh," Allison said tracing her hand down her throat with the small budge moving down slowly. "That was great..." Allison told Jimmy. "I definitely needed that. I always work better with a little squirmier in me," Allison laughed patting her stomach.

"Anytime," Jimmy grinned at her, as he picked up a random shrinky and tossed it into his drink not even looking. "Ryan," Jimmy said offering the box for him to grab one as he took a sip of his drink. There was a tiny scream coming from the cup, but Ryan couldn't make out if the shrinky was screaming from being swallowed or just frightened from the enormous mouth at the front of the mug.

"Nah," Ryan declined no. He wasn't feeling in the mood.

"Oh, come on Ryan," Allison pouted.

"What," Ryan asked.

"You know you want one, go ahead," Allison pressured him.

Ryan looked down at the two trembling women who were shaking their heads no. Both were pleading to be left alone. However, Ryan was feeling kind of peckish. Ryan just rolled his eyes as he took one of the women and brought her up to his face. He looked over the terrified shrinky who was trying to beg for him to let her go. Ryan ignored her words as he tossed the small thing in his mouth and chased it down with the last of his water. Ryan gulped the mass down his throat and felt the lump roll down his esophagus and into his gullet where it made a splash with the rest of the water and left-over breakfast that he had earlier. Ryan could already feel the small movements of the shrinky in his stomach.

"You want the last one Allie," Jimmy offered.

Allison really looked like she wanted it as she bit her lip in anticipation, "No, I shouldn't."

"Come on," Jimmy then pushed the box closer. That was all the persuasion that Allison needed. Allison thanked Jimmy and picked up the shrunken women who was now begging for her life. No one in the room other than the tiny person seemed to care. Jimmy watched Allison lift the terrified person above her head and held her there.

"Down you go," Allison spoke to her with a cheery tone that betrayed the situation the small women was in. Ryan waited for Allison to finish her snack so they could get back to whatever she needed to talk to him about. Allison on the other hand didn't seem that impatient as she slowly lowered her hand toward her mouth. Allison made sure to stick her fingers in her mouth and directly deposited the threshing and crying women right in the center of her throat. With the struggling morsel's feet placed inside her esophagus, Allison just needed to swallow to send her down to meet her fate. It only took a fraction of a second and a loud gulping sound and a familiar bulge appeared as a muffled screech traveled down past Allison's collar to vanish from the world. Allison let out a satisfied sound, "Thanks Jimmy."

Jimmy had a grin on his face as he downed the last of his drink and whatever might have been in the cup, "Anytime."

Ryan couldn't help but noticed a small bulge in Jimmy's pants that showed that he was a little more thankful for Allison's company than she was of his.

Before Ryan could respond, Allison was already walking Ryan out of the breakroom. "You know he's got a thing for you," Ryan said to Allison when he was sure they were outside of his hearing.

"What Jimmy? Nooo," She said trying to play it off. "We're just coworkers. Besides, he's not my type."

Ryan just shrugged, "So what did you need?"

"I'm having issues with my computer again and the tech guy said he can't get to it till later and I got some important stuff that needs to get done. Can you work your magic for me," Allison begged giving him the puppy dog face, "Please?"

Ryan laughed and rolled his eyes, "What did you do this time?"

Allison looked hurt, "It wasn't my fault." Allison tried to tell Ryan who looked at her computer. It didn't take too long for Ryan to fix the small technical issue. "Thank you," Allison said giving Ryan a quick hug. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably get someone else to fix it," Ryan retorted.

Allison didn't respond as she brought her hand up to her face to cover her mouth. There was a muffled burp that she emitted that betrayed her feminine looks. Allison just laughed it off, "They really like to struggle in there."

Ryan didn't comment at the mention of the two people stewing away in there until their untimely death. "I should get back to work," Ryan told Allison.

"Ok, I'll see you and Emily at the gym later?"

"Yep, Yoga day," Ryan said as he headed off to his desk. Ryan made his way back to his desk without running into any more people and sat down in his chair. Looking at his computer, Ryan decided to start up the day's work, but found that he didn't have much that needed to be done right now. Bored again, Ryan thought about looking over his phone but a small ticklish sensation on the inside of his stomach distracted him. That was when he remembered the shrunken person being digested.

Ryan couldn't help but think about the society they lived in right now. A world that had normal people and tiny people. These tiny people used to be normal humans, but thanks to a rare disease that suddenly appeared a long time ago, human society was never the same. 1 in 3 people have a chance of contracting the disease known as shrinkism. A baffling and unseen disease that no one knew where or how it came to be or how it spreads or works. Everything about the disease was a mystery. The only thing that everyone knew was that anyone up the age of 21 had a 33% of catching it. As strange as the disease was, it was even more stranger that once you turn 21 there was a 0% chance of catching the shrinking disease. There was no rhyme or reason behind it as you could be born with the disease and never grow an inch, you would just lose your height over the first few years as a baby. You could even be 20 years old and 9 months at 7 feet tall and the next day find out that you have about a week before your barely even an inch tall. There was nothing more frightening to find out that you only had a week before you were nothing more than an incest compared to everyone else around you.

Most of the population felt sorry for the tiny people, but that didn't help pass too many laws for the infected 33% of the population. The government made it illegal to trade or abuse a tiny, but this only seemed to increase the demand for it. Just like any drug that was banned the desire for them usually increased. What made it worse was that it wasn't even a criminal offense for breaking that law, it was more of an infraction with a minor fine that was somewhere around a parking ticket. No one really cared about the shrunken people. In fact, it was more like you weren't really a person once you lost your height.

"Ryan!" A female shouted out his name causing him to jump. Suddenly Tess, a new intern who was barely 22 showed up out of nowhere scaring Ryan out of his thoughts.

"Jesus, Tess... you nearly gave me a heart attack," Ryan laughed off his shock. "What are you doing on this floor?" Ryan asked not sure why the new intern would be up here. Usually it's Tim that covered this floor.

Tess just gave Ryan a sly smile. Ryan felt a little nervous around Tess. She was cute and nice but, something about her just didn't set right with him. "I got promoted."

"You did?"

"Yep," Tess said sounding please. "Didn't you hear?"

Ryan looked confused, "Heard? What?"

Tess leaned in, "It's about Tim... he shrunk!" Tess said sounding supper happy about it.

"What?! Tim? But... he couldn't have he's 22," Ryan said trying to defend the impossible idea.

Tess shook her head, "Nope, he was lying. He faked his information, so everyone would think he was over the age when he was actually..." She couldn't stop from laughing, "HE was 2 weeks away from his 21st! Oh god how hilarious is that," Tess said laughing almost demonically.

Ryan was about to ask why he would fake his age, but then it wasn't uncommon for those under 21 to fake their age to get a job. A lot of companies require the age to be 21 just because they didn't want a worker to shrink and have to find someone to replace them within a few days just because they contracted the disease. In fact, it happened quite often.

Ryan couldn't help but feel sorry for his coworker. He was a nice guy and Ryan hated to hear that Tim was sick. Ryan remember what is was like being under 21.... Always afraid of the day that might come at any second...

"Did you hear me," Tess said almost snickering.

"Sorry, what," Ryan said pulling himself out of his thoughts.

"He's coming in today to pick up his pay check. I wonder how small he's gotten," She snickered again. "Isn't this so great! I get to work up here with you!"

"Uh yeah," Ryan said trying not to sound uncomfortable about it. Tess seemed a little too pleased that a coworker just caught the most fatal disease there was. She just took his job without a care towards her coworker and was even laughing about it.

"Hey, if he's smaller than 12 inches..." Tess leaned closer, "Should we grab him?"

Ryan felt a chill run up his spine at that thought... "Grab Tim?" Was she serious about kidnapping Tim?!

Suddenly Tess laughed and patted Ryan on the shoulder, "I'm joking! Jeez calm down Mr. Serious. You know that's illegal, right," Tess laughed giving him a wink. "I'll talk to you later," Tess said as she headed back to her department.

Ryan shook his head at the crazy woman, she seemed way too delighted about the misfortune of her coworker to not feel nervous around her. However, as Ryan watched Tess leave with a skip in her step, he couldn't help but wonder about his other coworkers. Did they feel the same way? He noticed a few delighted faces as Tess walked by, that told Ryan he wasn't the only one that got the news of Tim. And not a lot of their faces looked upset, more like pleased to hear it happen.

Just then Ryan felt a pathetic and weak wisp of movement in his gut that quickly reminded Ryan what he did. He was no better than anyone else. He had taken his fair share of enjoyment out of shrinkies. That's just how it was. Ryan couldn't judge his coworkers. They all went through what Ryan and everyone else in the world had to go through in their childhood, always afraid of when your time was up. However, the only difference is that they all made it. That was just hard reality for anyone else who hadn't made it, it just wasn't meant to be.

Ryan shrugged these thought off as he had work to complete and quickly went back to his desktop to catch up on the assignment that needed to get done today.

 

 

 

"Em," Ryan called out trying to get his long-time girlfriend's attention. Emily looked around and spotted Ryan and Allison waiting outside the gym doors for her. Ryan waited for Emily to come over and kiss him hello. Once she greeted Ryan, she and Allison quickly went into girl mode as they started to talk about whatever it was they wanted. Ryan didn't mind being in the background as his girlfriend chatted away. He's been with Emily almost 5 years. Ryan thought about proposing to her, but just never found a good time to do it. They both loved each other, but Ryan wasn't sure if he was ready for that next step. It was a big one and he didn't want to jump and find out Emily wasn't ready. That was last thing he wanted to do. So, he was content with just being how they were now. Living together in the same apartment and doing everything together. It wasn't bad.

"So how was your day," Emily asked Ryan finally after a long chat with Allison.

"Meh," Ryan said letting Emily know just how dull it was.

"That bad," Emily asked laughing.

"Not my fault that my job is boring," Ryan told her.

"It's not that boring," Allison interjected.

"Oh really," Ryan asked. He mimicked himself typing on his keyboard, "8 hours. 8 hours of typing, that is my job."

"That does sound bad," Emily said feeling sympathetic toward his plight.

"But it could be worse, I could have your job," Ryan joked.

Emily looked shocked, "Hey!"

Allison agreed, "He's right Em, working as a teacher sounds pretty bad."

"It's not! I get to enjoy helping children learn and grow-"

Ryan started to snore.

"Stop that," Emily said hitting Ryan in the gut making him cut out his obnoxious snoring.

Laughing, Ryan apologized, "Sorry Em."

"Whatever," Emily grumbled.

They all headed toward the gym room that their yoga instructor was in for their typical exercise. They all got their mats and everything they needed for their workout. It was a nice hour long session for everyone as they did stretching and poses that helped their muscles and joints. Once they all finished the session everyone began to pack up and start to leave or talk with one another. Ryan went to the bathroom before they left.

As Ryan headed back to the gym together his things, he noticed a small group of women trying to comfort one of the older women who was somewhere in her 40's weeping hysterically. Ryan looked confused. Why was she crying? What was going on? Heading over to Emily and Allison he figured he ask them instead of the group of women that would surely rip his head off for disrupting them.

"What's going on," Ryan asked as quietly as he could to Emily and Allison.

"It's Wendy," Emily told him. Ryan waited until she explained. Emily was as quite as she could be told him what was going on "This is her last class."

"Why," Ryan asked.

"Her son Bobby, he caught it... he just started shrinking today," Emily told him. Ryan quickly recalled Wendy's youngest son, he wasn't even 7 yet. Now he would have to live the rest of his life as a shrinky. Emily continued, "I'm going to say goodbye and wish her luck. You two can wait for me outside," Emily told Allison and Ryan. Ryan nodded and headed outside. He didn't know Wendy very well and didn't want to offend her with false words of sorrow. It wasn't his place to try and help.

Both Ryan and Allison waited near the doors to the outside for Emily to show up.

"That must suck," Ryan said. "Having a family member contract shrinkism. That would be hard to deal with."

"Do you really think she's going to quit yoga," Allison asked sounding worried.

"I don't know, I mean it's going to be hard to raise a shrinky. I think she might."

"That sucks," Allison said sounding upset. Ryan was about to comfort Allison with how upset she sounded when she continued, "I really wanted to try and taste Bobby," Allison said rubbing her stomach.

Ryan looked at Allison who looked like she was trying to imagine what it would taste like. She couldn't' have been serious right? There was no way she could be thinking of doing something like that to a child. Right?

"He's only 7," Ryan stated trying to get Allison to understand.

"I hear they taste better when they are younger. Have you ever had a shrinky that young? It just makes my mouth water just thinking about it..."

Ryan didn't answer Allison's question. Before Allison could continue or for Ryan to say something, Emily showed up. "Time to go," Ryan said cutting Allison's daydreams short as they all exited the gym.

"Is she leaving?" Allison asked Emily.

"I don't think so. I think I might of talked her out of it," Emily told them.

"Oh, thank goodness," Allison said sounding releveled. Ryan knew that it wasn't relief for Wendy being able to return to the yoga workout, but the possibility for her to get closer to a shrunken Bobby.

 

 

 

"Is everything ok," Emily asked as both she and Ryan were in bed trying to sleep.

"I don't know," Ryan told her. He felt so weird since this morning. Not just from the whole contradicting and conflicting emotions he felt throughout the day, but also weird in his body. Almost as if his body was tingling from something. "How do you feel about the shrinkies?"

"Huh," Emily asked cuddling up against Ryan.

"The shrinkies. What's your thoughts about them?"

Emily let out a soft laugh, "Where is this coming from? Is it because of Wendy?"

"Kind of... so?"

"... I don't know. I mean, it's not like I've thought about it. I mean they're just .... Shrinkies."

"True," Ryan said to her response.

"What's going on," Emily asked now sounding worried.

"Nothing. I just... been a long day. Someone at work turned out to be under 21 and .... Well it was his time."

"Oh..." Emily said sounding disheartened for him. "Are you worried about him?"

Ryan just shrugged, "Not really, I mean he was nice and always told funny jokes and stuff. I just don't know how I feel about him not coming to work anymore. I guess I'm I'll little upset that I won't be able to talk to him about Monday's Super Slamtastic Show, you know the wrestling show."

"Ahhh, you're going to miss him," Emily responded snuggling closer.

"Yeah...." Ryan said pulling Emily closer as he felt sleep baring down on him. "Maybe Tess watches the show..."

 

 

 

Ryan woke up to the sound of his alarm going off. Groggily he hit the alarm to shut it up as he got out of bed and out of Emily's arms. She loved to wrap herself around him, but sometimes it was hard to get out from her grip. As much of a hassle it was to dispatch her from him, Ryan liked how attached she was to him. Yawning Ryan headed to the bathroom to use the restroom and prepare for the day. After using the toilet, Ryan headed to the sink to wash up his face and wake himself up with the water. Looking into the mirror, Ryan told himself just a few more days until Friday, then it was the weekend. Heading away from the washroom, Ryan grabbed some work clothes and headed downstairs to eat and prepare for the day. Once done with his breakfast he went to brush his teeth. Ryan made sure to get his teeth clean and spit out the toothpaste and water. Looing in the mirror he smiled to make sure he got out any residue of food.

"What the..." Ryan said squinting in the mirror. He was looking at himself in the mirror and was wondering if his eyes were betraying him. No, it was impossible. Ryan quickly shook his head and looked again. That's weird...

Ryan decided to make sure he wasn't just hallucinating as he walked over to his closet and went inside where his clothes were at along with a scale. Getting on the scale, he made sure to use it to check his size. As he pulled down the poll to match his height he got off the scale and looked at it with shocked and terrified eyes.

Was he.... Smaller?

Chapter End Notes:

Let me know if there are any mistakes. Also any thoughts on what you might want to happen, still working on tags but I have an idea of where I want the story to go.

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