Ryan looked at his height. No, it wasn't possible, Ryan was over 21. There was no way he lost height. It was impossible for him to catch the shrinking disease if he was older than 21. Then it dawned on him, he was barely missing an inch. About the same amount of height that a pair of shoes would give him. Ryan shook his head at how ridiculous he was acting. Last time he must have had his shoes on, that's why he was shorter. He would have to remember not to wear his shoes when he measured his weight and height next time.

Stepping off the scale, Ryan got the last things he needed before he headed off to work. Ryan was already in his daily routine not letting that little panic attack he had this morning throw him off. He decided to use the bathroom real quick before leaving. Once done with his morning business he stepped out and washed his hands. As he turned around he saw that Emily was just getting up. Sometimes he would be gone before Emily woke up sometimes she would be waking up just as he was leaving, enough time for a kiss goodbye. Deciding on putting everything to rest with his little morning scare, he decided to run it past her.

"Morning," Ryan greeted a still groggy Emily.

She was still kind of sleep walking toward the bathroom as she was really not a morning person before her coffee. Emily greeted Ryan with a low moan, "mmmm." Which was the closes thing to a morning greeting that he was going to get.

"Em, I got a question for you. Does anything look different about me," Ryan asked hoping that she would see anything wrong like maybe his height.

Emily paused as she glanced at Ryan. After a few moments she asked, "Is this suppose to be a test? Like when a girl asks a guy about it, to see if they notice their hair or makeup?"

Ryan laughed. "No seriously."

Emily frowned for a few more moments. She shrugged, "New tie? Did you comb your hair different," She asked.

"Ok, you can stop now," Ryan told her realizing that it was all in fact in his head. If Emily didn't see it, than he knew it was just his paranoia that was getting to him.

"What," Emily asked confused. "You're not seriously, going to hold this against me because I didn't notice anything, right?"

"I'll think about it," Ryan kissed her as he headed off.

Emily called out to Ryan before he left, "You suck."

"Love you too," Ryan laughed

As Ryan headed to work, he couldn't help but think about that quick panic attack he had this morning. Why would he even think that he was shrinking? Then he remembered Tim and then Wendy's kid the other day. That must have sparked some kind of weird delusion or fear for him. Ryan nodded as he thought it over. It made sense. All his life as a child he feared the worse, that he would one day contract Shrinkism. It was pretty much a death sentence for anyone who got it. Something that had him terrified all his life until he was 21. That would definitely leave some kind of lingering fear in him even to this day. It wouldn't be unheard of some kind of psychotic scaring left inside him about possibly losing his height.

Just thinking about it made Ryan recalled some past events that he buried away.

When Ryan was in middle school, he was never the tall kid in class. He was on the rather short side. Due to this, a lot of kids would make fun of him about how he would be the next shrinky of the class or how he was already shrinking in front of everyone. Some of the other meaner students found him a very simple target to pick on and would make his school life not the most pleasant.

One of the worse bullies that Ryan encountered, was around 5th grade. His name was Jack. Ryan wasn't sure what he did to piss him off, but on the first day of school Jack had it out for him. Jack and his cronies, would torment him everyday they could all through 5th grade. It was nonstop bullying whenever Jack had the chance. Some of Jack's favorite insults was calling Ryan little shit, as in what he would be when Jack was through with him after he shrunk.

If it wasn't verbal abuse, it would be physical. Jack wouldn't waste anytime knocking things off Ryan's desk when the teacher wasn't looking, or when passing by just slamming into Ryan knocking him down. As bad as it was, luckily Ryan wasn't the only student focused by the bully in class. Jack or what most of the class would call him behind his back, Jackass, was a bother to everyone. However, no one would stand up to the towering behemoth.

One of the cruelest things that Jack did still haunted Ryan to this day.

Ryan didn't have a lot of friends in school thanks to his size and how much he was picked on. No one wanted to be targeted by Jack more because they hung out with him. However, Peter was an exception. Peter was just a nice kid in general and didn't let Jack's bullying get in the way of their friendship. To Ryan, Peter was the coolest kid in class because he didn't let Jack stop him from hanging out with him during lunch or recess or any other times. So when the horrible news of Peter catching Shrinkism spread through the class, Ryan swore he would cry. It was the most horrible thing he ever heard and over the next few weeks he got to watch his best friend diminish in size everyday until he was hardly noticeable.

Most parents would have pulled their kids out of school the moment they found out they caught the disease, mostly out of safety and concern. Although the school had rules in place to protect shrinkies, not all of them made it through the year. It wasn't rare for students to "go missing" and never be found. Although, teachers would punish any student found messing around with a shrinky, that didn't mean they took extra steps to prevent it. However, Peter's mom wasn't like most parents and she wanted him to finish the year before homeschooling him.

Peter didn't even last a day after he came to class less than a few inches tall. Ryan remembered seeing Peter at the start of the class across the room trying to take notes. When the bell rang for lunch everyone hurried out to go eat at the cafeteria. Ryan was going to take Peter with him, when he found that Peter was missing. Ryan tried to find his friend but couldn't. He was missing.

Ryan went to ask the teacher to tell him he was missing.

"Jack said he would take him to the cafeteria."

Those words sent a wave of panic through Ryan as he hurried to the cafeteria to try and save Peter. Ryan arrived at the cafeteria just in time to watch as Jack held a small object above his head before he dropped it into his mouth. Ryan quickly tried to get a teacher to notice Jack eating Peter, but he was too quick. By the time the teacher in the cafeteria came over Jack had already swallowed Peter.

"Let him go!" Ryan shouted at Jack.

"Let who go," Jack said trying to play the dumb. "I don't know what your talking about."

Ryan pointed to Jack, "You took Peter and just swallowed him."

The teacher had a serious look on his face, "Is this true?"

Again Jack just shrugged, "I don't know what he's talking about."

Ryan then swore he heard a tiny cry from Jack's gut. It was Peter begging for help. "Did you hear him?! He's in his stomach," Ryan shouted to the teacher trying to get his attention to focus on the noise.

The teacher again gave Jack a disapproved look before leaning in. Leaning down the teacher tried to listen to any cries for help from Jack's gut.

Just as soon as the teacher leaned in, Jack opened his mouth and let out an obnoxious burp right in the teacher face causing the whole cafeteria to erupt into laughter. The teacher pulled back disgusted and glared at Jack. He pointed toward the door, "Principals office, NOW!"

Jack just laughed and said, "Fine."

Ryan watched as Jack just headed to the Principals office with his best friend trapped, begging for someone to save him. Peter was never found.

Jack never let Ryan forget about his friend becoming nothing more than a snack for him as he used it as a new way to torment him. It went on and on until it was the last few weeks of school. It wasn't until someone pointed out that Jack looked a little smaller than normal before people started to realize that there was a God after all. It seemed that Jack's reign of terror was over as the class quickly learned that Jack did in fact catch the shrinking disease. Ryan didn't know why Jack showed up to class, maybe he thought he was still top dog of the class, even though he was losing a couple of inches every day. He still tried to bully people but found that when he was smaller than his target, they tended to fight back. Soon even Ryan was larger than Jack and he had no one to pick on. Finally it was the last week of class and Jack was about the same size Peter was when he "disappeared".

Ryan watched as Jack's normal group of bullies came into class. He looked over the 3 kids and realized that Jack wasn't with any of them. The first time in a long time, Ryan felt relief and not dread at the start of class. Ryan watched as Jack's right hand man Will, walked over to take a seat next to Ryan.

Ryan decided to ask Will about Jack, "Where's Jack?"

Will turned toward Ryan, "Oh, Jackass? I'm sure he's around here somewhere." Will than proceeded to sit down.

Just before Will's butt hit the seat, Ryan swore he heard Jack's small voice let out a muffled cry that soon was silenced when Will's rear end touched the seat.

No one knew what happened to Jack, and no one really cared. They were all just glad that Jack was finally gone. Sure Will and the other still bullied some of the students once in a while, but it was never as bad as when Jack did it.

Ryan learned that year that karma could be a bitch sometimes. That was why he never bothered any shrinkies. That was until he turned 21.

Usually someones birthday didn't mean much when any day they could catch Shrinkism. Ryan never enjoyed his birthdays, that was until he was 21. At 21 people would celebrate this joyous moment of reaching the safe year where they couldn't catch Shrinkism. This birthday party was called their relief day for obvious reasons, where everyone who was over 21 would celebrate the newest member to society. The only people who weren't 21 there, were all the shrinkies, who had the unfortunate pleasure of being the parties main entertainment.

During his relief party, Ryan finally decided that since he would be able to live his life out normally, he would find someone and ask them out. There was now no fear of catching Shrinkism and having to either give up on the person or fearing of them turning on him when he became too small. With that weight off his shoulders, Ryan felt like it was time to start living.

Heading back toward the kitchen where his best friends had decided to line up some interesting drinks for everyone, Ryan went to get a little more liquid courage. Ryan passed a lot of his friends that helped through this massive party, all of them partaking in the pleasures of the shrinkies at the party. Some of the things they were doing, Ryan tried out for the first time in his life, and found ho pleasurable shrinkies could be. Ryan did things he never even though were possible to do with shrinkies, and then some.

Ryan tried to steady himself as he found he was feeling pretty buzzed right now.

Ryan was going to grab one more shrunken shot before he tried his luck with some of the pretty girls at the party. Heading over to a table that had a bunch of shot glasses filled with different liquids that held a small shrinky trying to stay afloat in each glass. Ryan went for a shot only to have his hand collide with someone else.

"Oh shit! My bad," Ryan tried to apologize the best he could while not seeming like an asshole to the person.

There was an adorable laugh, as possible the pretties girl Ryan had ever seen just smiled at him. "It's ok. You look like your having fun," She commented.

"Yeah," Ryan chuckled, "Just turned 21. 21!" Ryan shouted which anyone who could hear him cheered for him.

"Oh, so this party is for you?" She asked sounding surprised.

"Yep," Ryan smirked. "What about you?"

"Oh, I just turned 21 a few weeks ago. So how you feeling," She asked as she went to grab a shot for each of them.

"Now I know why it's called, the relief," Ryan told her as he took the shot glass with a tiny person waving their hands to get his attention. As if Ryan didn't know there was someone in his cup.

"Same here," The girl said smiling at Ryan.

"To being 21," Ryan lifted his glass up to the girl for a toast.

"21," She said as they clinked their shot glasses together and downed the drink along with it's special treat. Ryan downed his drink fast and was able to get the pleasure of watching the hot babe in front of him give him a show. When she gulped she used her finger to trace down the trail the gulp was making from her throat to her stomach. Once it hit home, she let out a satisfied sigh as she opened her eyes and smiled again, "I love that feeling."

It took Ryan a few seconds to snap out of his dumbfounded gaze and ask, "Wh-what's your name?"

"Emily."

"I'm Ryan," He introduced himself.

As Ryan headed too his work station at his job, he recalled that wonderful night he met Emily. She blew him away with how funny and greet of a person she was. He made sure to get her number, and in a few days they went on a date. In a couple of weeks Ryan had his first time with Emily in his dorm. They've been together ever since.

Heading to his desk, Ryan sat down and started up his computer. How the years have gone by since that day. 5 years had pass since the first time he met Emily, and since he turned 21.

Ryan let out a sigh as he started to get into work mode. It already started to kill his happy thoughts as he started typing up the sheets left on his desk. As Ryan zipped through his work load, he couldn't help but get distracted as he heard some of his coworkers talking. They were chatting away about Tim not showing up yesterday for his pay check.

Ryan frowned at that comment, why wouldn't Tim grab his last pay check? He worked for it, so why not come in and grab it?

Shaking his head and getting back to his boring job, Ryan blasted through his work load only to find that he was done before lunch.

"Great," Ryan complained realizing he had to find something to do for the next couple of hours. Deciding it was too early to eat, Ryan went on his social media profiles and did a little surfing and posting. Soon that got boring too as he caught up to everything new that had happen since he last checked. Deciding to send a message to Emily, Ryan pulled up his messages. After just sending Emily a couple of messages asking how things were going and stuff, Ryan put his phone away and checked the time. It was barely half past noon. "I guess I could go for some lunch," Ryan told himself finding that there was nothing else to do right now. Getting up from his desk he headed away from his cubical and toward the elevator. Once he reached it he hit the button to head to the ground floor, someone spoke out to get his attention.

"Wait," Allison called out as she rushed toward the elevator. Ryan did as he was asked and hit the hold door button for Allison. "Thanks," She said as she got into the elevator.

"Yep," Ryan responded.

"You going to lunch," Allison asked.

"That's the plan," Ryan told her.

"Same here, want to join me?"

Ryan shrugged, "Sure." He didn't have anywhere in mind he wanted to go.

"Cool," Allison said sounding happy, "I know this place that just opened and was looking for someone to go with."

"Sounds good," Ryan told her. "It's not too far from here?"

"Nope. It's just a few blocks away. You know where Jimmy's burgers used to be?" Ryan nodded. "It's across the street."

Ryan nodded again in confirming how close the place was. "What's it called?"

"Small snacks," Allison told him.

"Small snacks?" Ryan asked reconfirming the name of the establishment. "What do they specialize in?"

"That's a secret," Allison said trying to act cryptic.

Ryan just rolled his eyes at Allison as the elevator doors opened letting them off the ground floor. Ryan let Allison out first before following her out of the building they worked in and headed down toward Small Snacks. As they walked they talked about stupid stuff. Some of it was about work or coworkers and little things like the up coming movie that was coming out next month. Just typical stuff one would talk about. It didn't take too long before Allison arrived at the new spot. Ryan looked at the store and saw the picture of a large mouth opening up with the words Small Snack being expelled from the open mouth as the header for the store.

"Interesting name," Ryan told Allison.

"Oh it gets better," Allison told him sounding extremely excited. She entered through the doors as Ryan followed her to notice that there was a decent line of customers waiting in line. Ryan was surprised at both how many people were here but also how very little there was for such a new place. It was just enough to feel like it was kind of popular, but not enough to make one want to find another place to eat due to the wait. As Ryan waited in line with Allison, he looked over the menu. It wasn't very descriptive at all. It all read as special 1-10 only describing a few things that came with it like a drink a side and some sauces. For example the one that Ryan was going to get was the special number 4 a burger with some fries and a special sauce, but the price for the said burger was extreme.

"20 dollars for a burger? Isn't that a bit much," Ryan asked Allison.

"Trust me," Allison told him. "If you want, I can cover-" Allison offer.

"No, I got it. I just think that it better be worth it, you know what I mean?"

"It will be," Allison promised sounding very suspicious as it seemed that she knew that Ryan would like the average sounding burger.

Ryan decided to trust Allison as they were next up to order. Allison ordered a number 9, which seemed like a plan salad with some toppings for around 25 dollars. Ryan would have flipped out for paying that much for a salad but stayed silent. When it was his turn he ordered his burger. After paying they were ushered to the side so the next person could order. As Ryan waited for his food, he watched as he could see the cooks cooking and prepping the food for them. It didn't look all too fancy and definitely not worth the $20 he just spent. Finally, when the order was done, Ryan grabbed his bag and started to head out.

"Wait," Allison told him.

"Huh? What," Ryan asked.

"We have to eat here," Allison told him.

"What? Really? Why," Ryan asked about the weird remark.

"It's their policy, come on," Allison told him.

Ryan was skeptical but didn't want to cause an issue so he followed Allison to a section to sit. Once they sat down, Ryan went to grab his burger from his bag as Allison opened up her salad.

"Oh I got a big one," Allison said as she looked extremely delighted.

Ryan thought she meant that she got a big salad and didn't think anything of it... until he unwrapped his burger and saw something he wasn't expecting. There were two feet kicking out from under the bun. Ryan was shocked as he saw the wiggling feet trying to escape from underneath the breading of his burger. Ryan was about to say something when he looked up at Allison and her meal. It was about now that he saw that she was licking her lips in anticipation. Ryan looked at her salad and in the bed of leafy greens he saw a rather large shrinky shaking in the middle of the green bedding.

Ryan started to ask, "Is that a-"

Allison only winked at Ryan before she grabbed her salad dressing and drenched her lettuce and shrinky with the creamy sauce. Before Ryan could comment again, Allison stabbed her fork into her salad as she started to enjoy her meal. Ryan was a little hesitant, if he was caught trying to eat/hurt a shrinky in public he could get charged with a fine. Ryan looked around a little and noticed how slightly dim the place was. The lighting was just enough that it wasn't hard to see but would make it a little difficult to clearly see across the room. It was now that Ryan noticed the windows were also tinted making it hard for anyone to see clearly inside.

"Aren't you going to eat," Allison asked through her mouthful of lettuce.

This brought Ryan back to the present and the food in his hand. Ryan didn't respond as he brought up his burger and prepared to chomp into it. He hoped that it tasted better than it looked. Not wasting any more of his lunch time, Ryan started to eat from the opposite side of where he saw the feet sticking out of. Ryan usually saved the best parts of his meals for last. Taking his first bite, he found that there wasn't anything special about his meal that would have made him think it was worth the extra money charged. As Ryan worked his way toward the end he last saw the kicking feet, he looked up to see Allison toying around with her meal. As she munched away on what he could only assume was a mediocre salad, Allison took her fork and started to poke and prod the tiny person on top of her salad. Ryan watched as the little person tried to roll away or stand up, to try and escape the looming utensil that stabbed at him. The small person would occasionally slip due to the dressing that soaked him. Ryan soon realized how pointless it was for the tiny person, as the container holding the shrinky was just big enough to keep him from climbing out.

Allison let out a pleased sound as she gulped down her mouth full of greens before smirking, "Time for a little protein." Allison stabbed her fork down just inches away from the terrified shrinky who let out a miserable cry. Allison didn't even hesitate as she continued to stab near the little shrinky. It wasn't long before Allison had collected a large amount of lettuce before her fork was full. The shrinky looked relieved that monstrous spears were now covered with the harmless leaves, unable to cause any damage to him, for now. Allison pulled the fork away from the tiny person in her salad dish as she ushered it toward her mouth. She quickly put her fork between her teeth as she extracted the utensil removing any source of food that once was on it.

Looking down at his food, Ryan took another bite of his burger, still not finding the main source of the faint squirming he felt coming from the burger. Ryan noticed he still had a bout a third of his meal left. Looking back up he continued to watch as Allison chewed the leafy green in her mouth. Both the shrinky and Ryan were too busy watching Allison to not notice her free hand that wasn't carrying the fork. Ryan only saw the slightest of movements caused by Allison as she was already moving her other hand toward the shrinky from behind. She had a spoon as she approached from behind. The shrinky had no chance as the utensil took out his legs causing him to fall backward into the curved spoon. The shrinky was whisked away from the salad bowl he was in and toward the chewing mouth. Allison operated quickly as she brought the tiny figure toward her mouth. She opened her mouth just wide enough to scoot the spoon with the shrinky on it toward her parted lips. Ryan continued to watch as the spoon was tilted slightly tossing the small person into her awaiting maw. Allison's lips were wide enough for the shrinky to fall in and allow Ryan to see what was awaiting the shrinky. What was once fresh green lettuce was gone. Instead of a bed of leaves, the shrinky was falling into what looked more like a swamp as the mashed up greens were turned more into a paste with it's liquids mixed with whatever saliva that Allison had. The goo filled most of Allison's mouth as the shrinky plopped right into the mess.

It only last for a brief moment but the shrinky was able to look out to Ryan and started to reach out for help. Allison never gave him a chance as she closed her mouth sealing it's fate along with everything else that entered. Allison tossed the shrinky around a little as she prepared to swallow. Allison wasted no time as she gulped down the mouthful of food.

Allison had a look of delight on her face as she enjoyed the feeling of the large amount of food heading down her throat to her stomach. She let out a soft sigh, "Oh yeah. That hit the spo-"

Allison was cut off by the sound of a quick and unexpected burp that escaped her lips.

"Excuse me," Allison laughed trying not to be too embarrassed at the surprise. "The little devil is making a ruckus," Allison laughed as she leaned back with her meal finished. She put her hand on her gut looking quite comfortable.

Ryan wasn't sure how he should react to that, but as he went back to his meal he again saw part of the shrinky under his burger bun trying to hide. This was posing to be a problem for it, as there wasn't much left to hide under. There was barely a fifth of the burger left and just enough for Ryan to toss in his mouth complete. Wanting to finish his meal, Ryan tossed the rest of his meal into his mouth and closed it. He didn't waste anytime starting to chew into his meal. Almost immediately the shrinky must have giving up on the act of hiding in the meal as it dove out of the breading trying to escape it's impending destruction. Ryan kept chewing the burger not really caring about the moving object trying to find an escape. It didn't take too long before everything was turned into a similar mush and piled all together smothering whatever movement the shrinky was doing before hand. Ryan was about to swallow when he heard a muffled cry for mercy.

Ryan didn't pay attention to whatever meaningless plead the shrinky was trying to say as he didn't waste another second swallowing his lunch. The pile of mush that contained the last of his burger and the little shrinky slide down his throat painfully slow. Ryan felt the almost too large of a gulp trying to move down but needed a little assistance. Ryan didn't hesitate to chase it all down with a good couple of gulps of his drink. The cool refreshing drink help shove the rest of the resisting meal down to meet it's fate as food in Ryan's gut.

"You want some of my fries," Ryan asked offering some to Allison.

"Sure," She said as she help Ryan finish off his side dish. Both Allison and Ryan talked about their morning in their different departments as they nibbled on the last few fries. As Ryan told Allison about the mundane work load he had to do, he finished the fries and his drink. As soon as the last gulp of liquid met his stomach it started to churn and rumble as it started to process the meal he just added to his stomach. The faint feeling of something trying to struggle out of his active gut reminded him of the interesting special topping on his burger.

"So, this is an interesting place," Ryan told Allison.

"I know right," Allison replied to Ryan, sounding very pleased with her discovery. "I've enjoyed every meal I've had here." Then Allison put on a pout as she added, "I just wish it wasn't so expensive. I don't know if my wallet can keep up."

Ryan shook his head, "I mean the food was ok, I just don't know about the pricing."

Allison tried to defend the restaurant, "Well, if they ever get finned for selling shrinkys they need to be able to pay it off, right? So I don't see a problem with charging so much for their specials."

Ryan just shrugged, "I guess. You ready to head back? My lunch break is almost over."

Allison nodded as she picked up her salad bowl and headed over to drop of her dishes. As soon as she was done, Ryan decided to stand up and head out. Once Ryan stood up he felt his stomach shift from the movement and the little tickling sensation he had in his stomach quickly vanished from the sudden shift washing it away with the sloshing of it's contents. As Ryan walked back to the office, he couldn't help but wish to feel that struggling sensation return, if not for a little bit longer.

Ryan was busy completing some more work when he heard a small commotion. Curious he leaned back from his computer to look around and see what was going on. There was some rather loud talking from some of his neighboring coworkers.

"I heard hes coming in today." Someone said.

There was a stifled laugh, "No way, really?"

"I heard he's trying to be secretive about it," another person added.

Ryan frowned at the gossip going around. Ryan wasn't sure what everyone was talking about but soon it became very clear when a door opened up. Ryan watched, stunned to see Tim walking in. Ryan was shocked at how small he had become. He looked more like a child now. The clothes he had on made it seem more like a child trying to pretend to play dress up. He must had lost a couple of inches since he put them on today because the clothes looked to be a little loose. Ryan heard a few snickers from his coworkers as they watched Tim walk past a few cubicals heading to the HR office down the hall to collect his pay check for his work. Ryan watched as Tim tried not to act too humiliated at the situation he was in. He hurried as fast as his smaller legs could carry him to the door. Ryan was able to see the child like Tim strain as he tried to open the door. Luckily he was able to open it and walk inside without having to ask for assistance.

Someone laughed which started a chain reaction of laughter and snickering as everyone tried to get back to work after watching such a hilarious ordeal. Ryan was probably the only one in the office not laughing. He truly felt bad for Tim. Sure they weren't friends to be exact, but Ryan wouldn't say they weren't close. Hopefully Tim had someone to look after him or something. Ryan went back to work as he still had plenty to do.

After about 15 minutes or so, Ryan heard the door to the HR office open. Henry, the head of HR, said, "I wish you the best of luck." Ryan could tell it was all mechanical, and truly wasn't meant. Tim didn't say anything as he headed back the way he came to leave the office. As Ryan again felt a little sympathy for Tim, he wanted to at least give him his regards. Just before Ryan thought about getting up, he noticed someone moving past him. Ryan looked to see who it was.

It was Tess, and she seemed to have her sights on something or to be more exact someone. Ryan's eyes followed Tess, as she approached behind Tim who just reached the door.

"Let me help you with that," Tess offered kindly as she opened the door for Tim. Tim didn't response as he walked out the door followed by Tess.

Ryan figured he might as well catch Tim before he leaves the office. Ryan got up out of his chair and started to head after Tim. As Ryan walked toward the door, someone stopped him real quick as they had a question about some formatting that needed to be done. It took only a few minutes but by the time Ryan was done, he figured he might have missed his opportunity to say bye to Tim. Trying to see if maybe he could catch him, Ryan headed out the door and looked to see if by any chance the elevator was acting slow today. Ryan saw that there was no one near the elevator.

"Damn it," Ryan said to himself realizing that he blew it. Sighing, he figured he would go to the bathroom that was off to the side of the elevator before heading back to work. As Ryan headed toward the bathroom he heard someones voice near it.

It belonged to Tess. She was talking to someone. Ryan didn't want to intrude on her conversation and decided to wait till it was done or just quickly try and get pass without interfering with it. However as Ryan got closer to the sound of the conversation he found it sounded very one sided as Tess was the only one talking. Ryan got a little closer before he was about to turn the corner to head toward the bathrooms, he finally was able to make out the conversation. Ryan didn't know who the other person was but as soon as he heard a familiar whimper from the other person, Ryan immediately picked up that it belonged to Tim.

"I mean look at you. You look like a 9 year old," Tess chuckled. "Did your mom have to drive you here? I bet she's waiting for you, her little baby boy to show up. What do you think she would do if you don't show up, huh? Do you think she would look for you, like some lost child? Or do you think she would be relieved to finally get rid of your pathetically tiny body?" Tess laughed, "I bet she already left. What would you do? Would you try to get a ride home from someone else?" Tess laughed again as she continued with her taunting. "Is there anyone here that you could trust to drive you home? Would you try walking home? You never know who might grab you off the streets. I mean if I saw someone already as small as you, I would. Heck it would be like what... 2 days or something before your just the right size..." Tess let out a deep moan. "Oh, just the thought of the things I'd do to you. Do you want to know," Tess asked again. Tess voice grew quieter but Ryan was right at the corner and could hear only a select few words that Tess excitedly whispered to Tim. "... shoved up... and... choking... pressed in... gagging...maybe.... And then... finally-" Tess started to say only to get cut off by Tim letting out a horrible sound. It was like he was trying to cry but unabled. "Oh my god are you crying," Tess asked delighted in his reaction. "As much as I do enjoy this sight, I would save those tears for when you really will need them."

Ryan couldn't take it anymore as he had to do something. "What's going on," Ryan asked as he came around the corner. It wasn't until now that he saw that Tess had body blocked Tim into the corner just outside the bathroom. She practically had him cowering there as she towered over him.

"Oh, hey Ryan," Tess said acting like everything was normal. It was a complete 180 of how she was just acting. "I was just talking to Tim. Just letting him know how much were going to miss him, right," She asked Tim who was visibly shaking. "Oh, he's just a little sad at all the friends he's going miss." Tess must have had her fun because she backed off the smaller person as she started to walk back toward the office. Just before she left Ryan and Tim, she shot Tim a look from behind Ryan's back that he couldn't see but it made Tim give off a quick whimper, "I'll see you soon Tim."

As soon as Tess was gone, Tim nearly collapsed.

"Are you ok, Tim?" Ryan asked as he went over to help him up. He didn't response as he looked quite traumatized. "Come on, let's get you out of here," Ryan offered as he helped Tim up and to the elevator. Ryan hit the button for the ground floor. "Do you have a ride home?" Tim stiffened at the question but didn't response. Ryan quickly remembered what Tess said about trusting anyone. It kind of hurt that Tim thought that he would do something like that to him, but could he blame him? "I didn't mean it like that, I just didn't want you walking around like this."

Tim seemed to calm his nerves as he spoke, "I have a ride."

"That's good." Ryan told him as they continued to descend in the lift. "I'm sorry about Tess... she didn't mean any of that," Ryan said trying to comfort Tim but realized that it wasn't working as Tim didn't respond. "So... I just, um," Ryan stumbled across his words thinking of how to give Tim a good fare well. Finally Ryan decided to ask him the one thing had been bothering him, "Are you going to be ok? I mean, someone is going to look after you, right? You're going to be fine, right?"

Tim finally looked at Ryan just before they reached the lobby, "It was nice knowing you Ryan," Tim told him. The elevator doors opened. Before Tim left he added, "Just be thankful it wasn't you." Before Ryan could comment on that, Tim started to walk out. Ryan watched as Tim headed toward a grown women who seemed very impatient. She had some features that looked similar to Tim, which would lead Ryan to believe that was an older sister or his mother.

"What took you so long," She nearly barked at Tim who didn't say anything. "Is that your paycheck," She asked as she took the check and looked at the amount on it. "Hurry up and get in the car, I have places to go," She said as she walked with Tim out of the lobby. Ryan hit the button to head back to his floor. Just as the door were closing Ryan saw Tim and his family member walking toward a vehicle that Tim had to climb up into the seat due to his lack of height.

Ryan couldn't help but feel bad for Tim and think how horrible it would be to catch Shrinkism.

Ryan hadn't even sat down for longer than a minute before Tess showed up with a smile on her face.

"Oh my god! That was hilarious! Did you see Tim? Oh man... THAT made my day. What about you? Did you think it was funny how he could barely even open the door," Tess asked giggling.

"Uhh, yeah sure. Look, Tess, I got a lot to do. Do you mind?"

Tess quickly paused from her laughter. "Oh yeah, definitely. I'll catch you later?"

"Sounds good," Ryan said trying to not think of what Tess said to Tim before he left.

"Oh by the way," Tess said leaning in a little closer. "Is something different about you?"

Ryan paused at the comment. "Different," Ryan asked suddenly feeling a chill.

"Yeah... are you... smaller," Tess asked with a slightly disturbing tone to her voice.

"Smaller," Ryan repeated. Ryan looked at Tess now feeling a sickening wave roll over him.

Tess looked at Ryan for the longest time before she burst into laughter, "I'm joking! Jeez, you need to relax more. I swear you look like you actually believed me."

Ryan rolled his eyes at the stupid joke that Tess pulled on him as he felt relieved at the sound of the dumb prank. "Hahaha," Ryan feigned before he said, "I should get back to work."

Tess just kept laughing as she walked away. Ryan tried to get back to work, but something tugged at him. Ryan couldn't stop thinking about his morning. Did he really look smaller?

Ryan stood on his scale wondering why he was doing this. It was stupid. There was no way that he shrunk. Tess even said she was joking. Yet as Ryan got ready to measure his height he couldn't help but be worry that there might be a layer of truth behind Tess's words. Ryan started to operate the scale as he started to measure his height. Just when Ryan thought the bar would stop, it moved a little lower from the original mark this morning.

"That can't be right," Ryan said as he saw that it showed he lost just an inch from today's measurements. Just as a feeling of panic hit Ryan he suddenly realized that he forgot that he didn't have his shoes on like he did this morning. Ryan let out an alleviated sigh as he forgot that this morning he had to been wearing his shoes when he measured himself. That was why he was missing that small amount of his height. Chuckling at his silliness he stepped off the scales and was about to leave the bathroom until he heard a squeak come from beneath his feet. Ryan looked down. Ryan's heart stop beating as he looked down at his feet that were still covered by his shoes.

"No..." Ryan barely whispered in a horrible tone at the suddenly realization that he really did contract Shrinkism.