"Annabelle would you like to share something?"

Annabelle flinched at the sudden mention of her name. Up until this point she had managed to keep a low profile by nodding every few minutes and rotating through various contemplative expressions. 

The living room in which they were stuffed into was filled with weepy eyed college students sitting criss-cross in a circle. 

Each weepy eye in the room had turned to her.

"Oh I um..." Annabelle stammered. 

The girl who had put her on the spot blinked, obviously surprised at Annabelle's apparent discomfort. "Oh you were nodding so I thought that you had something to share."

Annabelle glanced at the girl's name tag, "Emily." She definitely was an upperclassman. She didn't have that same anxious energy Freshman, herself included, were cursed with. Annabelle hadn't been paying much attention, but from what she gathered, Emily was the de facto "leader" of this gathering.

Annabelle still felt dozens of eyes on her. She decided it would be better to share rather than admit she hadn't been paying attention and was absentmindedly nodding along.

"Right so I have the Shrinkee gene—"

A sharp cough interrupted her, this time it came from a girl across from Annabelle. Annabelle didn't have to read her name tag to know her name was Leah. She was one of the hosts of this Shrinkee gathering, and she also lived in the house in which the meeting was currently being held.

Annabelle remembered her because she was the intimidating type of pretty. She was tall with striking green eyes and dark hair. Annabelle had made a game out of counting the number of times Leah had been checked out by the other guests. So far she was up to twenty-three. 

"We really prefer to use the term Height Disruption Disorder or HDD," Leah smiled. Her tone was polite, but something about her rattled Annabelle.

"Sorry," Annabelle quickly said. "I don't really talk about this with other people," she laughed somewhat awkwardly. 

"That's okay, that's why we're here," Emily chirped. 

Annabelle continued, "So I have HDD. It runs in my family." Mostly everyone nodded. HDD was a genetic disease. "The disorder never triggered in me—obviously," Annabelle gestured to her normal sized body. A couple of people laughed. "My parents also never shrank—just my sister. Other than that, I've got a pretty normal life."

"Your sister shrank?" A voice inserted. Annabelle found that it came from a pretty heavyset girl with long brown hair. Her name tag read "Molly."

Annabelle swallowed, regret creeping up in her. "Yeah, before the ban on Shrinke—I mean HDD stimulation devices. Someone at school brought one from their uncle's government job and activated it in the classroom...I was sick that day."

"And? Where is she now? Or did she die? How?" Molly blurted. 

The already quiet circle became silent. An Asian girl with black hair and heavy eyeliner slapped Molly's arm. She looked pissed. Molly shrank under her glare.

Emily plastered a smile on her face and moved on to the next person to share. Annabelle halfheartedly listened to the next boy talk about how relived he was when the world government made HDD stimulation devices illegal. 

Annabelle stood up, causing everyone to turn towards her. Annabelle forced a small grin, "Sorry, just going to the bathroom."

She left the circle and walked into the hallway. After accidentally opening up closets and bedrooms, Annabelle finally found the bathroom. 

She closed the door and let out a breath. Her reflection showed her face was almost as red as her hair. She knew she shouldn't have come to this. She usually hated things like these, but yesterday was her eighteenth birthday. It would have been Beth's birthday too. 

Annabelle thought this would help. Instead she was confronted with awkward icebreakers and intrusive questions about her dead twin. 

What was that by the way?

There was something deeply unsettling about that interaction. It wasn't the question itself, but the almost...eagerness of it.

Annabelle shook her head. She considered she may be looking too much into what was just a lapse in judgement from an awkward college student. 

Annabelle stepped out of the bathroom only to collide with someone. 

"Jesus! Sorry," Annabelle said. She really was in top form tonight. She wondered if she should just leave before she accidentally set the house on fire or worse.

"No problem," a familiar voice said. 

Annabelle looked at her accidental victim. It was Harper, an upperclassmen from her STAT class. She rubbed the area on her blonde head where their heads had collided. 

"I just wanted to see if you were okay," Harper smiled.

Annabelle couldn't help but smile back. She had only spoken to Harper a handful of times during class—mostly when Harper had difficulty with the material—but each time Harper had been nothing but super sweet, if not a little air headed. 

In fact it was Harper who had invited her to this Shrinkee group hang after she noticed Annabelle's slight somberness on her birthday. 

"I'm good, thanks," Annabelle said. 

Relief washed over Harper's face. "Oh good, I thought you were, like, going to leave."

Annabelle grimaced a bit, "Actually..."

Harper pouted, "Annabelle! You can't leave yet. Look, I know Molly can be...overenthusiastic, but she means well. Please just stay for the end. We have a surprise."

"We?"

"The hosts of this get together—my housemates and me," Harper clarified. 

Annabelle hesitated, the only other housemate she had known of was Leah. She had assumed that Leah had a distant relative who had HDD, but apparently her entire household had set this up. Annabelle wondered if it was possible if they all had HDD? It's not like a person could tell from physical appearance. 

Nonetheless, Harper gave Annabelle a puppy dog pout. "We're, like, almost finished. If you come back now we'll start the surprise." 

Annabelle sighed. What was the harm in staying for a few more minutes? "All right," she relented. 

Harper squealed and embraced Annabelle in a tight grasp. Annabelle stood awkwardly as Harper's extremely developed bosom pressed against her own chest. Harper placed her hands on Annabelle's shoulders and held her away to get a better look at her.

Tenderly, she brushed a hand against Annabelle's cheek. "This going to be super fun!" She chirped. Annabelle gave a strained smile at the sudden physical affection. She wondered if she could recover from the social backlash if she just left now.

Before she could seriously consider it, Harper grabbed her hand and led her back to the circle. Annabelle retook her spot and turned to Emily who was wrapping up the gathering.

"—and let's just give a hand to our lovely hosts for the evening. They opened their home and provided a great space for us to really open up," Emily said.

Annabelle followed the others and applauded politely.  

Leah smiled at the circle. "Thank you for feeling safe enough to allow us to listen in on your meeting, but before you guys leave we have a parting gift for you."

Annabelle glanced at Harper who returned her look with a wink. 

"Naomi if you don't mind?" Leah said, turning to the alternative-looking girl who had slapped Molly after her remark. Naomi gave a small smile and strutted out the room. Annabelle made a mental note: Molly, Naomi, Harper, and Leah were all housemates—apparently with no affiliation to people with HDD.

Moments later Naomi returned with a cardboard box and placed it in the middle of the circle. The unsettling feeling returned to Annabelle's gut. She suddenly was acutely aware of the housemates' seating choices. They each were evenly spread out in the circle.  

Leah stepped forward into the middle of the circle, while Naomi took her now vacant spot. Her face was unreadable as she opened the box.

"Wait!" Annabelle blurted out. Once again, all eyes turned on her. Though Leah's green orbs seemed to pierce through her. 

Leah stared at her for a moment with the same unreadable expression, until her lips curled into a smile. "Yes?"

Annabelle didn't have one thing to say that wasn't derived from anything but an unfounded rising feeling of dread. "We don't have anything for you," Annabelle uttered unsteadily. "It would be rude to just accept this without giving you anything back."

Blood rushed to Annabelle's cheeks as everyone in the room—save for Leah—looked at her, perplexed. Leah slightly tilted her head and looked somewhat...amused. 

"That's fine. Just having you all here is enough for me," Leah insisted.

"You keep saying that but—"

"Annabelle!" Emily suddenly said sharply. "Let her give us their present."

Annabelle couldn't do anything but back down. Why was she getting so upset for anyway? They had been nothing but kind this entire time.

"All right," Leah giggled. "How about we all count down and I'll turn on the surprise."

The room filled with a chorus of "FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO—

Annabelle inhaled sharply and clenched her fist. Why was she panicking so badly? 

"One," she heard Leah say above the rest. Annabelle's vision turned completely blank. A screeching siren penetrated her brain. She couldn't tell if it was coming from outside her brain or inside. A gradual static sound engulfed her ears and the siren soon died out. The static was so loud, she couldn't tell if she was screaming or not.

As the static became louder, the more balance she lost. She felt as if she were free falling from a cliff. Her vision was still blank, but she began to slowly get her senses back. She was cold—no freezing. The static began to give way and was replaced with another sound—screaming. This time Annabelle was sure it wasn't coming from inside her head. The screaming belonged to multiple people.

Annabelle's vision began to clear. The screaming made it difficult to concentrate. Was she outside? The other HDD students from the meeting were there too. They looked as distressed as Annabelle felt.

Her vision cleared up more. There were buildings. On closer look, the buildings were moving.

Annabelle's blood ran cold. Those weren't buildings. Towering over her and the small crowd of HDD students were the four hosts, now the size of skyscrapers. In front of them and out of the cardboard box was a complex looking machine with buttons that were frantically illuminating. 

A HDD stimulation device. Annabelle was too petrified begin to speculate on how they obtained the extremely illegal device. 

Suddenly with terrifying speed, the tallest skyscraper took a step towards the now shrunken crowd. The simple movement was literally earth shaking for Annabelle and the other HDD students. 

Annabelle sat on the ground, her legs no longer obeying her. She stared at the monstrous feet and followed the mountain higher and higher with her eyes until she craned her neck to see Leah's god like face. 

Annabelle had lost the ability to scream, but this wasn't a trait shared with the others. Her gaze particularly was drawn to a screeching, shrill figure. Although she was a distance away, Annabelle could make out Emily's screaming form.

She was right in front of Leah's giant foot, screaming louder than anyone in the crowd. Before Annabelle knew what was happening, a shadow engulfed the HDD student leader. Faster than Annabelle could comprehend, a giant foot crushed Emily into red paste.

Those close to the foot were splattered with her remains. Annabelle watched with horror as the brightly painted pink toes wiggled with glee.

Once again she observed the giantess' limbs until she reached the face. It was the same giggling face that had just begged her to stay to the end of the party. Harper laughed uproariously at her swift and thoughtless murder. Even with just the sheer volume, the perky blonde's laughter was horrifying, but the pure joy that was sprinkled in her laughter was just incomprehensibly evil to Annabelle. 

Annabelle's focus was ripped from Harper when Leah suddenly bent down in front of the crowd of HDD students.

"Now, Shrinkees," she said, her voice echoing in Annabelle's head, "Let's play some games."