I heaved another pile of loosely-folded shirts from my bed into the suitcase, plopping them into the corner with a muffled thud.  It had been a hell of a spring semester, with six courses, a part-time job, and an obnoxious roommate, but now the whole thing was behind me.  In just over twelve hours I would be on a plane flying home, where I could sleep past noon every day and play video games until four in the morning.  Indeed, a nice, long summer to burn off some stress was just what the doctor ordered.

Before I could pick up another hastily gathered bundle of clothes my phone chimed.  “You ready?” someone had typed to my group chat.  Feeling snarky and always welcoming a break, I picked it up and began a reply.

“Ready to pack all my shit and head home?  Yeah I’m ready.”

“No man the party, remember?”  I did not remember agreeing to go to a party, and I sure as hell never planned one.  Luckily he immediately sent an explanation.  “Back in January you said if you survived this semester you’d tear it up on Greek Row.  You’re alive, so you’re going.”

While it was true I said that, it was simply an excuse to get out of going to a birthday party for someone I had never met he wanted to drag me to.  I never expected him to hold me to it.  “What if I don’t?”

“I tell the RA you’re suicidal and we’re worried.”  Shit, he was just enough of a lunatic to actually do it, too.  “I have an in with one of the Gammas and she told me to bring friends.  Your boring ass isn’t going to ruin this for me, be outside in 10.”  I sighed and picked out my most presentable clothes.  The least I could do was look like I had not spent the past four months hiding behind a wall of books.

Thirty minutes later I stood at the end of the street commonly known as Greek Row.  It looked like something out of my nightmares.  Over a thousand people were packed onto the street, and bass hits from half a dozen different songs clashed with each other in an awful cacophony.  In front of each of the houses was a dense crowd of students hollering to be heard over the noise in between long gulps from red cups.  There was not so much a single path down the middle of the street as a constantly shifting gap left by the mass of bodies bumping into each other.

My friend pointed at the third house on the left and grinned.  “There it is, Gamma Tau Sigma,” he declared.  “The best-kept secret and most exclusive party house on campus.  Get ready for the best night of your lives.”  One day I would get him to chill on the exaggerations, but not tonight.  I wanted him to get disappointed on his own.

The three of us formed a tight line and began weaving through the crush of people between us and the house.  Immediately the temperature spiked ten degrees from all the body heat, and the air was rank with the smell of sweat and spilled beer.  Multiple people bumped into me hard enough to knock me over, and I only stayed on my feet because someone else’s back had caught me.  I lost the group a couple times and had to duck under the arms of someone who had no idea I was there or force a path through with my arms, but somehow managed to keep up.  If this was going to be the best night ever, it had a lot of making up to do.

The Gammas’ front lawn was an unexpected oasis of calm in the tumultuous sea.  No kegs were in the front lawn, and there were no speakers beside the door blaring trap music.  A couple partiers stood on the grass, but it looked more like they were taking a breather than anything.  Unlike the other houses we had passed the door was closed, like its owners were going out of their way to be uninviting to the rest of the block party.

“You sure this is the right place?” I asked our leader.  He did not even slow his stride while he approached the door.  Nobody stopped him, and not wanting to be left in the cold I hurried after.  Confidently he opened the door as if he owned the place and walked into the surprisingly quiet house.

Before even getting around the corner he was stopped cold in his tracks.  At first I thought in his eagerness he had ran into a misplaced wall even though its bright white paint stood out in the darkened entryway.  Closer inspection showed, however, that he had stuck his head face-first into the chest of a massive woman.  He bounced off and she crossed her arms over her sizable chest before looking down at him, a lock of platinum blond hair sliding off her broad shoulders.  “Your sponsor?” she demanded sternly.  They must be serious about exclusivity if they hired security.

“Olga,” he replied, his confidence stumbling for the first time that night.  If he had talked this up so much intending to bluff his way through the door I was going to strangle him before going back to finish packing.

The mountain of a woman checked a piece of scratch paper in her left hand, then reached into her shirt and pulled out a pen.  The click resonated in the foyer and she looked us over, then made three tally marks.  Another staccato click and she slipped the pen back into her cleavage before stepping to the side.  “She should be in the kitchen waiting for you,” she said as her white high-top Converse came together.  “Be sure to see her before you get a drink.”  For hired muscle she knew more about what was going on inside than I would expect, but followed the group through the doorway rather than dwell on it.  When I passed the Amazonian guard she winked down at me, throwing another level of doubt on my assumptions.

We walked down a short hallway, the sounds of a party gradually growing more intense.  Luckily the first room on the left was the kitchen, so we did not have to spend much time guessing and could get right to what was supposed to be so great about this place.  As usual I stayed back, not wanting to be in the lead in case everything came crashing down.

There were a couple people in the kitchen grabbing food or something to drink, and a steady bass rhythm bled through the walls strongly enough that each hit was followed by the clinking of glass.  One woman, however, seemed to be waiting for someone.  She stood with her back to the sink, with her long, royal blue denim-clad legs stretched in front so the soles of her brown knee-high riding boots rested on the linoleum.  The sleeves of her thin black shirt were pushed up, and she rested her palms on the white counter behind her.  To my surprise, when she spotted us her gray eyes lit up, and she quickly slid some straw-colored hair behind an ear.

“Aaron, good to see you!” she called out with a melodic voice.  No way my blowhard friend knew her, let alone got her to invite him to a party.  She was miles out of his league.  Mine too, for that matter.  “Figures you’d be fashionably late.  Who’re the two cuties?”  I stood corrected again, on both accounts.

“That’s Blake and this is Connor,” he said gesturing to our silent third and me in turn.  Olga pushed herself off the counter and picked up a trio of red cups from the counter.  Carefully she walked over and offered us the drinks.  We each took one from her hands, and I peered inside before taking a sip.  It looked unusually dark for a party, more like a craft beer than the normal swill.  I gave it a quick taste, and for once my expectations panned out.  One of the benefits of a private party, I guess.

Olga looked at Blake and I as though she had forgotten we were standing two feet away.  “Oh, you two should run along,” she suggested, turning back to Aaron.  She rested a hand on his shoulder and pulled him toward her.  “We’re going to be a… bit.”  We turned around and left, not wanting to watch the two of them suck face.  I couldn’t believe he dragged me out and then ditched me at the first chance, but in his position I probably would have done the same.

With no one to drag us by the noses we walked along the hall toward the music, occasionally taking sips.  The music intensified, and I wondered just how large the rest of the house was.  We had only seen a few people, but it sounded like everything was in full swing.  I glanced back hoping to get a glance of the security guard, but she was nowhere to be seen.  Were we the last to be allowed in?

As we approached the end of the hall a pale, sharp-featured woman with neon pink hair turned the corner, nearly running into us.  She stepped to the side at the last minute but rested a hand on Blake’s chest, stopping us while she looked us over.  We stared up at her while her teal eyes scanned my friend, and I realized this was the second woman well over six feet tall we had seen since coming inside, and Olga could probably pass. 

Suddenly her hand clenched, gripping Blake’s shirt and pulling him into her hot pink dress.  “Hey, I’m Jackie,” she said with an unexpectedly mousy voice, then placed her free hand around his cup, her hand engulfing his.  She lifted the cup to his lips and tilted it up, pouring the beer into his mouth.  Either out of fear or shock he let her, never taking his eyes off her the whole time he was forced to chug.  Before he was done Jackie looked back to me.  “I think he’ll be staying with me tonight, you go on,” she directed.  “I’m sure an adorable little guy like you will have no problem getting picked up.”

I shrugged and walked through the doorway.  Jackie did not seem like the type to argue with, and I doubted Blake wanted me to: unless he had been keeping it quiet, this was the first date-like encounter he’d had in months.  Something about my friends getting peeled off gnawed at me, and it was more than me suddenly being alone.  “Adorable” and “little guy” were not usually words women used for guys they liked, and they had both been rather forceful about it.  Admittedly I had been out of the game a few months, but had things changed so much?

The main room was lit only by a couple lamps standing on furniture which had been pushed to the side to make a dance floor, with the occasional burst from a strobe light making it look like my eyes were skipping frames.  I took a couple steps in and found a wall to lean sideways against, deciding to watch for a bit before jumping in. 

For such a large party the dance floor looked empty, with fewer than twenty heads moving back and forth with the rhythm.  That was when I noticed the easily visible ones were all women, and there was an indistinguishable mass of men around them, all about a head shorter.  On the edge an auburn-haired woman, a head taller even than the rest, gyrated against a partner who barely reached her chest.

It seemed like today was opposite day, but I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  Without my friends it was up to me to make my own fun, I decided, and let loose some of the pent-up frustration that had been building while I was smothered by work.  Grinning, I took a step toward the dance floor.

An enormous hand clapped down on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.  Nervously I turned around and bumped my nose into a sizable rack threatening to burst from the white T-shirt straining against them.  I craned my neck back slowly until I was able to see past the chest to a curtain of platinum hair framing a light face while two baby blue eyes lined by dark rims bored into me.  Looking up at the security guard, my heart skipped a beat, and I wondered how someone so large had managed to sneak up on me.

“Finish your drink and come with me,” she commanded.  Shit, I was getting kicked out.  I was about to protest, then she continued, “You’re my partner for beer pong.”  For a second I stood there dumbfounded, then she placed a hand on the bottom of my cup.  “Drink,” she demanded, and kept her hand on it while I lifted it to my lips.  She kept her fingers in place while I forced it down, tipping it gently to keep it coming.  Finally the drink was gone and she let me pull the cup away.

“My name’s Helen,” she said, placing a hand on my back.  Her fingers stretched between my shoulder blades, and with a light push she guided me toward a table in the corner.  It was more than her power that compelled me forward, I realized: there was also some power of suggestion in her domineering voice.  Not that I wanted to resist; from the shapely legs revealed by her white short shorts to her remarkably pretty face, I would do ghastly things for five minutes alone with her.

“Where’d your friends go?” Helen asked, finally turning her head to look down at me.  She had dropped the overbearing routine and adopted a much more pleasant tone, as well.

“They ditched me along the way,” I replied, looking up to meet her gaze.  The longer I did, the harder I found it to look away.

“Heh, that’ll happen at these things,” she said, showing the first hint of emotion.  “The girls here can be a little aggressive.  It’s lucky I snatched you up when I did, there were a couple other girls eyeing you hungrily when I walked up.”

I doubted it but felt uncomfortable contradicting her.  This party felt like an elaborate prank, but maybe I was just paranoid.  “When we walked in I thought you were hired muscle,” I said, dodging the issue.

“Nope, freelance!” she retorted, raising her other arm and flexing.  Popped out like that, her bicep was about as big around as my calf.  “We like to maintain a certain type of crowd at our parties, so we take turns watching the door until all our guests are in.  You wouldn’t believe how many guys hear about a sorority party and try to slip in.”

“Does that really work?”  Realizing that could easily be taken the wrong way I expounded on it.  “I mean, you play a great bouncer, but there are some big guys out there.”

Helen chuckled.  “Trust me, they’re not that big.  Plus, macho dickheads are the most worried about getting put on their ass by a girl.  Honestly you guys are so tiny I would have let you pass anyway if your friend hadn’t been putting off major vibes.”  There it was again.  I had never once heard a girl speak to her date affectionately by playing up how small he is.

Her massive hand moved from my back and clamped down on my shoulder again.  “We’re here!” she announced, and I as finally able to tear my eyes away from her.  This couldn’t be right though.  The table was at eye level, and our own cups were blocking my vision.  I looked up at her for guidance, and she simply smiled and handed me an orange ball.  Maybe I was going crazy, but I could swear she was even bigger now.

“Uh, Helen?” I began.  “Have you grown?”  Underneath the table I saw two pairs of feminine legs, one shaped by a pair of dark stockings and the other bare, with the hem of a denim skirt just in view standing at the other side.  My team was already at a distinct disadvantage.

“Lot more than you, little guy,” she replied, technically answering my question.  “You here to play or gawk at me?”

I shrugged.  Honestly, I sucked at beer pong, and looking at her sounded a lot more enjoyable.  Still, I did not want her to get too frustrated, and turned back to the ridiculous table.

Without another word she squared up with the table, bumping me to the side with her hips.  Fortunately we won the shootout, since I could not reasonably have gone eye to eye with either of my opponents.  My luck ended there, though.  The first time I got to throw the ball it landed right back on the table, bouncing along the way until it rolled off the edge.  Not even close.  Helen seemed unbothered, though, and picked up my slack.

My next shot fared no better, and Helen could no longer hold back the trash talk.  “Want me to set you on the table next time so you can actually see, little guy?” she asked before making her throw.  On the return we lost one, and she grabbed it before I could even reach up.  “No, wait for one on the back.  I doubt someone your size can even reach the table.”

When it was my turn to drink she admonished me too.  “Make sure you use both hands so you don’t spill any.”  It didn’t stop when we had to drink at the same time, either.  “No, please, finish yours first,” she said.  “I’m worried I might accidentally drink you.” 

I turned to throw some innuendo back Helen’s way, but never managed to form the words.  In the few minutes we had been playing it looked like she had grown over a foot, and was now double my height.  Looking up from her shorts, I was shocked with how much she towered over me now.  “Helen, are you sure you’re not growing?” I asked.

She did not even look down at me, electing instead to continue lining up her shot.  “Yeah dude, haven’t grown an inch since high school,” she answered, letting the ball fly.  I heard it plop into liquid before she continued.  “Why?”

“It’s just that you seem bigger, by a lot.”

She looked down at me and grinned while the other pair got ready.  “No, I’m just this tall.  Remember when you got here and your friend stuck his nose in my crotch, and I almost threw him into a wall for it?”  The longer I thought about it, she was probably right.  I remembered gazing up at her, wondering just how she had gotten so big.

Clearly I was too short for what I had been doing and that was why my shots missed the mark by so much.  I began to use a steeper angle to lob it onto the table, hoping it would drift into something.  Helen chuckled and suggested “Try throwing it like a baseball next time, someone your size can use the extra force.”  I filed that away for next time, she seemed to always have good suggestions.

My turn to drink came around again, and I reached for the cup but found it far beyond my grasp.  I jumped for it but still fell short, my fingers just barely reaching the top of the table.  Helen sighed and grabbed it by the rim, then lowered it to me.  “I’d drop you in it for you to drink but you might drown,” she joked.  Funny, but I knew I wasn’t that short.

I turned to take the cup with both hands and it felt like my brain threw a gear.  Her knees were bent slightly while she offered it to me, readily apparent as they were at eye level.  Shaking, I took it and began sipping away.  “It’s just crazy to me how big you’ve gotten,” I said, trying to broach the issue without being redundant.  “Seems like when we met I was at least up to your waist.”

Helen stifled a laugh and looked down, catching my gaze again.  “I know it seems like we’ve known each other a while, but you really were that small when we met,” she replied.  “Remember when your friend tried to run between my legs and I kneed him in the face?”  While I gazed into her eyes that seemed more and more right.  In fact when she stopped me all she had to do was step in front of me so that I ran into her leg.

The next time I had to throw I looked up at the table like it was an insurmountable throw.  I tried to grip the ball but it kept slipping out of my hands when I applied any pressure.  “Try shooting it like a basketball,” Helen suggested.  “You’re so small it’s the only way to get any power behind it.”  It went farther than I expected, but bounced back from one of our own cups.

While Helen lined up her shot I gazed up at her in awe.  She posed like a Greek goddess and seemed just as powerful.  “Next time you guys mind if I just hold him in a cup and let him drop it?” she asked, then swung her arm forward.  “I’d like him to make at least one.”  Their only response was to sink both balls.  Helen took both cups for herself, explaining, “Sorry, but I’m worried you’d get crushed under one.”

I began to insist that I could still drink when I saw that the tops of her shoes were now taller than me, with the circular All-Star logo right on my level.  Before I could say anything she set down one of the empty cups in front of me and leaned forward so she could see me.  “Say, you’re cute,” Helen said.  Now her voice sounded like someone was pitch shifting it way down, which I knew was not right.  “What do you say after this game I put you in there and take you upstairs so you can live on my nightstand?”

It sounded like a great idea, then every day I could marvel in Helen looming over me.  It simply did not add up though, and I knew how to get her to admit she had just recently grown into a titaness.  “If I’d known all this time I could just in a cup beside you I would have been doing it all along!” I shouted up at her.

“Aw, that’s sweet!” she boomed.  “It’s too bad we didn’t meet until tonight.”  While I tried to think of how to work this back to my advantage she continued, sucking me in with those baby blues.  “I’ll never forget how you guys tried to sneak past me, thinking I wouldn’t notice.  You guys were moving so fast the one in front almost got stepped on.  Imagine, a bunch of tiny guys at a sorority party without guardians.  You wouldn’t last five minutes!” 

Now I remembered the earthquake when she slammed her shoe down in front of us.  I thought she had forgotten about me until she placed a foot on either side and stared down.  Looking up at her looming over me was simultaneously terrifying and exciting like I had never felt before.  I didn’t even run when she leaned over to grab me, and felt amazingly comfortable when her fingers secured me.

The large orange ball rested in front of me.  I grabbed it with both hands and tried to heft it in the air, but my arms could barely get it off the ground.  They gave out almost immediately and I dropped it, letting it roll a few inches away.  “Don’t feel too bad,” Helen’s voice rumbled, “beer pong is a big people game.  It’s brave someone so itty-bitty would even try.”

This has gone too far.  “Helen, I know I’m small, but don’t you think that’s a little much?”  The ground shook from her steps as she moved to stand astride me like when we had first met.  Somehow she seemed even larger now, the shorts atop her towering legs like snowcaps on a mountain.  She placed both hands on her side and looked down, her face seemingly above the clouds.  “And how do you keep getting even bigger?  It’s not fair!”

For the first time that night Helen looked exasperated.  “I keep telling you, I’m not getting bigger, you’re just super tiny!  In fact, you’re so tiny I thought you were a bug earlier.  I was just about to squish you when Olga told me she had invited some bug-sized people to the party.  You guys really should have just gotten her to carry you in.”

How could I have forgotten when I remembered it so clearly now?  The floor rumbled from Helen’s steps, and we froze hoping she would not notice us.  No good.  She kept coming, the pounding of her shoes getting louder and the tremors getting more violent.  Her heel slammed into the ground and her shoe swung down, the rubber diamonds of her Converse descending to crush the life out of me.  In the face of being flattened by a colossal shoe I could only wonder how Aaron even convinced me to leave my matchbox.

“Don’t squash them!” a tremendous voice shouted, just halting the shoe.  The patterned rubber sole loomed over us, threatening to be our doom if Helen so much as twitched.  Once again the floor rumbled in quick double-taps and a pair of enormous brown boots came around the gigantic shoe.  “There’s a tiny guy in my class, like not even an inch tall.  I’ve been playing with him all semester, and he told me he’s got some other bug-sized friends.  I thought we could have some fun with them, so I told him to bring them along.  They should be arriving about now.”

Helen’s shoe withdrew from its menacing position over us, finally allowing me a clear view.  There were in fact three giantesses standing over us; with the commotion another one had walked over, her humongous black flats hidden behind Helen’s white Converse.  The three of them spread apart, each staring down at us.

The whole time I only had eyes for Helen.  Gazing up her exquisite legs that seemed to stretch forever I almost wished I were a bug just so I could climb them.  When they squatted around us my fascination only grew.  She was like a monument chiseled from marble, and I wanted nothing more than to be close to her.  I was relieved when enormous hands snatched up Aaron and Blake, leaving Helen and I alone.

She was careful picking me up, making sure to pinch just hard enough on the back of my shirt to secure me.  The slow ascent while she lifted me was divine, and I drank in every detail from her toned legs to her enormous baby blues.  At last she held me in front of them and smiled, fluttering her eyelashes at me.  “Hey cutie,” she boomed, “got a date for tonight?”

I gaped up at Helen like I had the first time, knowing she was right.  The words were so sure in my head like I had been rehearsing them while she coached me.  “I’m just a bug at your feet,” I said with more confidence than I had ever said anything. 

She laughed, a malevolent roar that threatened to split my ears.  Looking up at her now I suddenly felt afraid.  Helen was absolutely colossal, the very image of power looming over me.  Under her withering gaze I wished I could shrink further just so I could escape her.  Her toes wiggled inside her enormous Converse as they prepared to strike.

“Tell you what, bug,” she boomed.  “I’ve had so much fun shrinking you I want to have even more fun.  Start running, and when I crush you remember to beg.”  With no other option, I did what she said and ran between her towering shoes toward the rest of the room.

Jackie had come out of nowhere and taken me by surprise when she grabbed my shirt.  My eyes widened when she pulled me into her and I looked up pleadingly, worried that she was about to slam me into the wall.  The drink was already flowing through my lips by the time I realized the only danger I was in was that of having too much fun, and spending the rest of the night with her sounded like the first step toward paradise.

I barely even registered Connor leaving, my attention fully absorbed by Jackie and making sure none of my drink spilled.  We held it to my mouth together, her hand guiding mine to keep it securely in place.  As it got lower she raised it for me to the point that it was pressing into the bridge of my nose when the last few drops drained out.  She even kept it there longer than necessary to make sure none of it was wasted.

Finally she pulled it away and let go of my hand.  Without her support my arm hung limply at my side, unsure what I should be doing with it.  She helped me out by releasing her grasp on my shirt and sliding that hand around my back, pressing my body into hers.  I dropped the drained cup and wrapped my arm around her slender waist, reciprocating her grip.  Jackie did not look strong enough to have such ease controlling my body, but simply being a head and change taller than me gave her an absurd amount of leverage, and my willingness to go along certainly helped.

“Well, aren’t you just cute as a bug?” she said, doing her best to sound seductive with her mousy voice.  Though she was not terribly skilled it still worked for me, and I was glad when she continued.  “I could just eat you up right here.”  Jackie’s thin lips spread in a smile while she looked straight down at me, the pupils of her teal eyes ready to engulf me.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” she asked after several seconds.  I shook my head, still overjoyed with the warmth of her embrace.  “That’s fine by me, I’ve got a thing for the small, silent type.  Besides, sometimes I have trouble hearing little guys like you.  Your voices just have so far to travel.”  In my eyes Jackie seemed to get bigger, no doubt a result of her growing prominence in my mind. 

I squeezed her tight and rested my chin on her chest.  Jackie was far from well-endowed, but neither was she flat chested, and there was ample cushion for me to rest against.  Typically, thin girls were not my type, but as I thought about it she had something going on beyond the obvious.  Clearly she was active, and I got a sense that she preferred to cultivate a lithe body rather than raw power.  The longer I thought about it there was simply more to her, and I soon found my nose between her breasts.  To me though, nothing could be more natural.

Jackie finally moved her arm off my back and I subconsciously mirrored her, letting go of her waist and taking a step back.  Almost immediately she went on the attack, placing one of her large, slender hands on my shoulder and giving me a gentle shove.  At the slightest amount of force I was driven back and she followed, keeping the distance between us the same while applying her subtle strength.  When I bumped into the wall she continued forward, trapping me between her body and the wall.

“You’re pretty light on your feet,” Jackie said with a smirk, gently placing a fingertip against my forehead.  She ran it down the center of my face, drawing it along the curve of my nose and tugging on my lips while she continued, “but I guess you’d have to be.  You’re always dodging out from under people’s feet, just avoiding getting stepped on, right?  It must be so hard, being so small no one can really see you.  One wrong step and… squish, with no one the wiser.”  While she spoke it got more difficult to see her face, her modest chest blocking it.

I wanted to say something to her but had no idea how to phrase it without sounding like I was losing my mind.  How do you tell someone that they’ve grown drastically in just a few minutes, apparently without noticing?  She had to know, right?  Her tummy was pressed against my chin, she was not being subtle.

Before I could come up with anything she wrapped a surprisingly large hand around mine, able to fit it, fingers and all, inside her palm.  She stepped back, giving my arm a gentle tug, and I moved with her.  “Let’s go dance,” Jackie said.  It sounded like a command, but her voice had a tinge of honey in it, making any harshness sweet.  Though I had misgivings about dancing with a woman in the process of meteoric growth, once she batted her beautiful teal eyes at me they disappeared. 

She stepped through the doorway, trailing my arm behind her as she went.  I struggled to keep up with her long strides, having to almost jog to keep from getting dragged.  By now her legs were almost as tall as I was, and I wondered just how big she was going to get.  She certainly did not show any signs of slowing down – if anything, she was growing faster.  Her butt shaking back and forth at eye level, straining the bottom of her hot pink dress, took my mind off the thought though.  It might not have been much to look at, but it certainly made this easier to deal with.

I followed her toward a square of furniture that had been arranged to block off the dance floor, taking four steps for each of her one.  As we drew closer the space appeared to be completely dominated by women; not just in number, but in presence.  Every single one of them was around Jackie’s height, with a couple even larger than that.  The shortest easily broke ten feet.

There was a large square of wood paneling for the floor, and while standing on it the party was much quieter than expected.  It was actually quieter here than it had been during the approach, something I figured must be due to the room’s acoustics.  When she had taken a few steps onto the surface Jackie abruptly spun around, jerking on my arm so that I fell into her.  My face landed on her thigh while her grip kept me upright.  When I looked up at my towering dance partner she grinned as though she found the whole thing adorable.

“Before we begin I need to address something,” I called up to her, finally breaking my silence.  This was just too weird to be a quiet observer.

“What’s that?” Jackie replied, but before I could elaborate she kept talking.  “I can barely hear you down there little guy, you’ll have to speak up!”

“Why is everyone here so tall?” I answered, almost yelling. 

After a second to process my words Jackie giggled and brushed back some neon pink hair before saying, “We’re not, silly, you’re just really small!  I figured you’d be used to people towering over you by now!”  Just beside her pair of thick thighs bouncing back and forth caught my attention, her legs long enough that I could see her knees without looking down.  My eyes swiftly ran up the gigantic woman carelessly dancing a few feet from me, and I realized no one could be this tall without people making a big deal of how much she dwarfed them. 

I thought back over the night and realized that Jackie must be right.  Sliding through the crowd and ducking between people’s legs if they would not move.  Using teamwork to open the door.  The woman at the entrance glaring down at us after we ran into her legs.  Olga kneeling down and setting our drinks on the floor.  Everything pointed to me being about two feet tall.

Jackie started slow, just stepping from side to side while I tried to keep one of her knees in front of me.  “I’ll be careful, I know this is really dangerous for you,” she said, adding some steps forward.  With each one she rotated a little to the side, making a semicircle around me before going back.  Each time one of her tree trunk-sized legs shot past me I had to remind myself they were normal, they just looked huge to me.

The more animated dancing caught the attention of the taller woman beside us, who danced the short distance over to Jackie.  They squared up and became more subdued, exaggeratedly shaking their hips and butts while matching each other’s movements to the side.  For the moment it seemed she had forgotten about me, and I was content to let them have a little fun while I bobbed back and forth in the middle.

Looking up at the two women dominating my view, I realized I was helpless to escape.  Never before had I been trapped between two gigantic women while they danced with each other and paid me not one whit of attention.  Seeing how utterly they towered over me made me feel particularly small.  While I watched they seemed to grow even larger, stretching toward the ceiling before my very eyes.  My diminution seemed to invigorate them, causing them to grow even more rapidly until I felt like little more than a bug at their feet.

The newcomer stepped forward, and I jumped out of the way just before an enormous high heeled shoe tore through where I had been standing.  It set down with a crash and the ground shook, staggering me forward.  I stumbled into the shiny black pillar twice my size and pushed myself off.

“Oh, hello there little fella!” a voice above boomed.  I looked up and saw the woman who had nearly stepped on me looking down and suppressing a smile.  “Didn’t see you down there!”  Looking at her made me feel particularly self-conscious.  She was so amazingly tall, and I was… not.  “Better be careful you don’t get squashed!”  Laughter rumbled from her, and she grew to absolutely enormous proportions.  The space beneath her shoe’s sole was more spacious than my dorm room.

“Hey, what’s wrong, tiny partner?” Jackie asked, any hint of her mousy voice now replaced by sheer power.  “You stopped dancing!”

“Everyone else is so gigantic!” I shouted back, hoping she could hear me.  “I feel like I might as well be a bug!”

Jackie giggled, then covered her mouth to recover.  “Well, you are bug-sized!” she replied, stating the obvious.  “Don’t you remember sneaking in through a crack in the window?”  Now that she mentioned it, I did.

We slipped between the metal panels one at a time, using the enormous white panels to cover our entrance.  When we were all inside we crept along the windowsill to the drawstring hanging from the very top of the blinds.  Carefully we wrapped ourselves around the string and slid down it, hopping along the wall as we did so, and dropped off before we hit the plastic grip.  After a second we were ready and scurried forward toward the edge of the counter to begin looking for a way down.

Almost immediately we were spotted, and a colossal woman in all white strode toward us with determination.  We looked for somewhere to hide, but her long legs carried her across the kitchen in only a few steps.  Her enormous body loomed over us, catching our tiny bodies in her gaze.  I stared up at her in awe, unable to move while she regarded us impassively.

Threateningly she raised a hand beside her head and spread her fingers.  Her hand raced down toward us, open palm directly on a collision course.  I froze, not even able to breathe while the hand drew closer.  All I could think was that I should have said something to stop Aaron’s moronic plan to sneak into a sorority party.  Like hell he knew anyone here, the only person who even saw us mistook us for bugs.  Now I was going to get swatted by a gigantic hand when I would have much rather stayed in my cozy shoebox.

The hand slapped onto the counter with a horrific crash, generating an earthquake powerful to knock us on our butts.  The giantess had just missed us in the space between her thumb and forefinger.  She gave us a cruel smirk, then turned her head.  “Hey Olga,” she began, her words overwhelming the ringing in our ears from the crash, “these your bugman buddies?”

A titanic blond I had mistaken for part of the landscape turned and crept toward us.  She leaned in, her face eclipsing the other giantess while she studied us.  Warm breath buffeted us while gigantic gray eyes darted over me and my friends.  Her throat emitted a thoughtful hum.  I already knew she was going to say no and the other titaness would smash us without a thought.

“Oh, hey Aaron!” she finally said, making the teeth rattle in my jaw.  “I almost didn’t recognize you!”  She laughed.  Real funny, the thought of us being flattened.  “And you brought friends!”  Her head retreated, revealing the monolithic woman still staring sternly at us.

Jackie, drawn over by the commotion, looked at us quietly from beside our near-murder’s shoulder.  I felt myself drawn to her, and when I looked into her enormous eyes staring back at me there was an instant connection.  Patiently she waited while Olga and Aaron chatted, biting her lip nervously.

Finally Olga reached onto the counter and plucked Aaron up, leaving me on the counter.  The first woman began raising her hand again, but Jackie placed a hand on her arm.  “Mind if I take one?” she asked, never looking away from me.

“Go ahead,” she answered, stepping to the side. 

Jackie’s hand engulfed me, and I felt the light pinch between her thumb and forefinger over my whole body.  Carefully she plucked me from the counter and lifted me to her face, holding me a few inches from her eye.  This close I was even more struck by her, and only wanted her to pull me away so I could see all of her again.  “I think you should come with me tonight,” she said, turning around.  “You know, for safe keeping.”  As she carried me into the hall she kept me cradled in her hand, occasionally stroking me with a finger.

My mind returned to the present, with me staring up at her slender, towering body.  She looked at me expectantly and I grinned sheepishly.  How could I forget?  “Yeah, of course!” I hollered.

Jackie smiled, but it lacked the warmth I had become accustomed to.  “Good,” she boomed, her voice carrying the same authority it had when she was forcing me to drink.  “Now we can start dancing for real.”  Fear flooded my body while she glared down at me.  How had I gotten myself into this situation?

One of her legs shot forward, the black flat on her foot poised to strike.  It came with insane speed, the smooth sole rapidly growing as it approached.  The ground shook when she set her heel down, and the gray bottom eclipsed everything above me.  I jumped to the side, just barely moving out of the way before the rest of her shoe swung down.

She ground her foot against the floor, and I took the chance to run.  As soon as she realized her mistake she dropped her heel back down and resumed tracking me with her eyes.  A flash of movement, and her other shoe shot forward.  I stopped just short of where it slammed down, grimacing through the tremors emanating from the strike.

I turned away from her in a panic.  No one else seemed to be paying attention to me, or to the psycho trying to squish me.  Desperately I ran forward, looking for somewhere to hide.  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the gigantic high heel and dashed for it.  Wood grain rushing beneath me marked my passage, and soon I was practically beneath the titanic woman.

Not wanting to risk it I leapt, landing on the dance floor and sliding the rest of the way.  I grabbed onto the shoe’s column to stop and dragged myself to my feet.  For now I was safe, and the irony of hiding beneath a shoe to keep from being stepped on was not lost on me.  Just beyond the black pillar however I saw Jackie’s shoes patiently waiting, and I knew I could not stay here for long.

I had never been this close to Olga, and the possibility of it happening had never seemed real to me.  My crush on her had been developing since the start of this semester, but I never once considered it could be mutual.  She and her friends seemed a little stuck up, and I was worried about how much effort it would take to impress them.  Good thing I was wrong.

Olga reached onto the counter and grabbed a cup similar to mine.  She held it in front of her looking down, swirling the liquid inside.  “Let’s make this interesting,” she said coyly.  “If you finish first, I’ll spend the whole night with you.  But if I finish, you spend it with someone else I choose.  Deal?”

I raised my glass and tapped it against hers with a light thud.  “Deal,” I agreed, then immediately brought it to my mouth.  She had still bringing it to her lips when I had already begun chugging, the dark brown liquid pouring straight into my throat.  It was a shame to waste this after my first taste, but it was in service of the greater good.  Tipping my cup further back, I knew that whoever brewed it would understand when I showed them her picture.

The last drops drained into my mouth and I tore the cup away, resisting the impulse to spike it.  I looked up and saw the lump in Olga’s throat still bobbing while she finished her drink.  Several seconds later she was done, but showed it in a less vigorous way than I did.  Maybe she had let me win, but I did not want to question it.  She set the terms, after all, and could play however she wanted.

“I’m actually impressed,” Olga said, wiping away a bit of beer from her lip.  “I didn’t expect a little guy like you to chug so fast, guess there’s more room in that tiny tummy than I thought.”  She yanked me close until we were almost touching and looked straight down into my eyes.  “Not that you had anything to worry about, I wouldn’t trust anyone else here to not smash you.”

I grinned and decided to go for it.  “I thought smashing was why you invited me here,” I replied, sure she would pick up on the innuendo.  In response she smirked and seemed to grow, then I realized she had clapped a hand on my shoulder.  That must be it.

Smiling, Olga pulled my face into her chest.  “You’re a weird one,” she said, cupping my chin with her hand.  “Most of you shorties run screaming when I try to smash them, I didn’t figure you’d be into it.” 

She smashes them?  I wasn’t into being pegged, the idea never appealed to me, but I could fake it until she was about to go.  Then I would turn it around on her.  If I did it just right she would go along with it, I was sure, and both our dreams would come true.

I wrapped an arm around Olga’s waist and locked stares with her gray eyes.  “Well, what’re we waiting for?” I asked.  “Let’s go smash.”  I leaned back, trying to pull her toward the door, but she would not budge.  I tried again with the same result, but she only placed a single finger on my forehead and pushed my head back.

“I don’t think you’re quite ready to smash yet,” she said, leaning down.  “You’re pretty small as it is, but I think you can do better.”  I turned the statement around in my head, but no matter how I looked it made no sense.  How did my height have anything to do with this?

It was then that I noticed Olga’s chest was nearly resting on my head.  While I applauded how forward she was being, this was a little much.  Besides, I was trying to place just when, exactly, she had grown so much.  When we met up before the final she did not tower over me nearly as much.

Before I could say anything I heard footsteps on the linoleum behind me, and I turned my head slightly to get a glimpse.  A pair of legs tall as me walked in, barely covered by a tiny skirt, and headed for the fridge.  I snapped my head around to follow her, and to my surprise she towered over me even more than Olga.  She bent down to reach into the fridge, and fingers grabbed me by the chin, much more forcefully than previously.

Olga pouted.  “I thought you wanted me to smash you, not Mariam,” she said, tilting my chin further back.  “She’s a good girl, but I don’t think you could handle both of us.” 

I smirked.  “Bring her along,” I replied.  “You’ll be surprised by what I can do.”  Amazing.  If I could leverage this into a threesome between longlegs there and Olga I would not even mind them being rough.

The fridge slammed shut and the newcomer strolled over to us.  She sipped from an open bottle of beer and looked down, completely nonplussed to see me below the hem of her skirt.  “Who’s the little fella?” she asked, then took another drink.

“This is Aaron, the guy from my orgo class I told you about the other day.”

“Oh yeah, the one you almost sat on?” Mariam clarified.  I had no recollection of that, but I spent most days tired and distracted.

“Yeah, that one!” Olga enthusiastically confirmed.  “Turns out I should’ve kept going, since this small fry is really enthusiastic about being smashed.  He even said he wants you to smash him too if you want to join me.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t,” Mariam declined.  “There’s barely even enough of him for one of us to crush, and I wouldn’t want to take away your chance.”  She was crushing on me too?  I scarcely believed my luck.  Although she was reluctant, I bet I could talk her into joining us.  From the length of her skirt I could tell she wanted some approval.

Before I could work my magic, however, she was already out the door.  I wanted to watch her leave, but Olga’s tight grip on my jaw kept me from turning my head away from her.  Nervously I smiled.  She had to have noticed I was doing everything in my power to follow Mariam, but she did a great job hiding it. 

Her hand moved away, and I was astonished to find the top of her boots a in my view now.  I opened my mouth to say something, but Olga quickly overruled me.  “Let’s get out of here,” she said, sliding her hands under my arms.  With a slight grunt she picked me up off the ground, then shifted me to the side.  She stuffed me under an arm and secured me with an elbow before walking out into the hallway.

Olga’s hold on me became even stronger while she walked, no doubt energized by her excitement of what was about to happen.  However, instead of taking me up to her room she turned and carried me into the living room.  Most of the furniture had been pushed to set the boundaries of a dance floor, though there was no music and there were, it seemed, only women on it.  A slender, pink-haired woman and an impressively tall redhead had taken it upon themselves to dance with each other, though the music was low.

It took some looking, but Olga finally found a chair which had not been repurposed as a barrier.  She carried me over to it and plopped down, wrapping one of her hands around me as she did so.  Carefully she lowered me into her lap, where she set me on one of her thighs.  I looked up from my denim floor at her, searching for any sort of awareness in her bright gray eyes, but only saw the normal playful light.

“Um, Olga, I don’t know how to say this without sounding crazy,” I began while she poked me in the chest with a finger, “but I think I’m getting smaller.”

She laughed, a terrifying rumble that drowned out everything else.  “You?  Getting smaller?” she repeated, then laughed some more.  “You’re already bug-sized!  If you got any tinier I’d be getting a dust pan for you!”

“But that’s the issue!” I protested.  “I wasn’t this small only a few minutes ago.”

 “Yeah you were,” Olga countered, “you’ve been this puny all semester.  Don’t you remember begging me to pick you up so that no one would step on you?”

I remembered back to the very first day, and she was right.  The ground rumbled incessantly while people streamed in, while I stood at the toe of Olga’s white canvas shoe screaming up at her.  She showed no sign of hearing me, and simply began tapping her other foot in response.  It was almost time to start climbing up her stocking when she finally looked down and noticed me screaming.  Seconds later she had plucked me off the floor and set me on her desk, and I was infatuated with her.  Luckily, the interest was mutual, and this became a regular thing for us.

How I got to the party made a lot more sense now, too.  There was a loud thud on the wall of the shoebox I shared with a couple friends, then the lid was torn away.  Olga stood there, towering over us with a grin before dropping the top of our box on the floor.  She knelt over us and reached a hand in, swiping us up in one go.  My friends screamed, but I was overjoyed.  I had specifically not told them about this so they would be forced to go to the party.  When she dropped us into the jar, though, I did my best to act surprised.

When she walked in the door she was immediately stopped by an even larger blond at the entrance.  “What’s that in the jar?” she asked, leaning over to inspect us.  The glass warped her enormous face, making her baby blue eyes curve around us so it seemed like we had nowhere to escape her.

“Just some tiny guys I picked up for the party,” Olga replied.  Metal screeched while she unscrewed the lid, then the glass floor slanted when she offered her the jar.  We slid until hitting the wall, settling down in the slumped, curved glass, staring up at the two colossal women towering over us.  “Want one?”

The titaness rubbed her chin, thinking it over.  “Hey Jackie, come here!” she shouted.  Her tremendous voice echoed in the confined space until it was overwhelmed when she added, “We’ve got some preshrinks over here!”  Seconds later a pink curtain was added to our distorted surroundings, and a pair of teal eyes stared down at us from beneath a pink waterfall.

Olga held out a cupped hand and upturned the jar over it, spilling us into her waiting palm.  Quickly she spread us out with a finger, dragging me toward her with a fingertip.  “This one’s mine,” she declared, laying the pad of skin atop me.  “Finder’s fee.”

The two giantesses looked my friends over while they laid still from shock.  Delicately the pink-haired one reached in and plucked up Blake with two fingers, giving him a quick tap before walking away.  Connor was left with the blond, who was much rougher taking him out of Olga’s hand.  I thought she had crushed him until I saw her open her fist and give something a solid poke before grinning and returning to her post.

When I came back to the present staring up at Olga looming over me, I knew I must have made some mistake.  She had been so cool to me and my friends, and I had to have been this size for that sort of stuff to happen.  I told her as much and she grinned.

“It’s about time,” she boomed, placing a hand in front of me.  One finger was curled back, dimpling the denim beneath it.  “Now it’s time to find out if you’re serious about wanting to smash.”  Her finger rushed forward, scratching against her jeans as it rushed toward me.  It struck my chest, lifting me off her leg and sent me flying through the air.

I turned head over feet while I sailed across the room, landing hard on the carpet.  My skin ached from carpet burn during my slide but eventually I came to a stop just near the edge of a couch.  Olga stood, taking a moment to tower over me from a distance, and started toward me.  Short of any other options, I ran.

Aaron knew that he could not outrun Olga, but he had to try.  Even getting into cover somewhere would be a stretch; all the furniture was flush with the ground, as though it had been specifically chosen for that reason.  The first of Olga’s tremendous steps hit the ground, her gait covering more ground than Aaron could in ten minutes, and he knew he was sunk.

He turned to begin his escape but found any movement difficult.  The plush carpet fibers almost came up to his waist, and he had to wade through them like a swamp.  Not only that, but he had to deal with the non-stop thuds and shaking from the nearby giantesses dancing slightly off the beat.  Off to the side he spotted the enormous woman with pink hair from his false memory perfectly still, staring down at the floor as if waiting for something. 

His progress through the carpet was abysmal, and with another step Olga was practically upon him.  On the far side of the room he saw another tiny shape crawling its way through the carpet while a titanic blond slowly walked after him.  Two memories of her fought for dominance in his head: she was either the giantess who plucked Connor out of Olga’s hand, or someone whose chest he had bumped into previously.  Either way, he distinctly remembered feeling scorn while she glared down at him, and he did not envy Connor for being in her sights now.

“Hey, Aaron!” he heard, and his head snapped to the side.  Blake came around the couch’s corner, running as quickly as he could move.  The woman in pink moved after him, but before Aaron could shout a warning a brown leather wall descended and blocked his view.  Staring up at one of the creases in the leather he knew this was no accident, and turned to face its owner.

He stared up at Olga, her monolithic leg outstretched so the boot would rest beside him.  After traveling up her towering body his gaze finally met hers, though he felt no joy from it this time.  She, on the other hand, was smiling from ear to ear, apparently overjoyed to have stopped him so easily.  Every instinct told him to beg for his life, but he knew it would be pointless.  Olga’s mind was made up, probably going back to even before she invited him.

“I know you’ve had a crush on me this whole time,” she boomed, the power of her voice drowning out the music.  “Or did you think I didn’t notice you staring at me when you thought I was looking away?”  He felt like a fool.  Could all this have been avoided if he had just talked to her a couple times?  “You’ll be glad to know the feeling’s mutual.”

The toe of Olga’s boot lifted up, then she pivoted it on her heel so it loomed over Aaron.  He looked at the enormous scuffed sole hanging over him and felt nothing but dread.  There was no way he could escape something so huge even if he had only wide open space.  While he shivered in fear Olga brought it down, flattening Aaron with a satisfying crunch.  For good measure she ground her boot back and forth a couple times, smearing him into the carpet, before going back to the kitchen.

Blake darted from beneath the high heel he was hiding under, running along the instep and following the toe’s curve.  He used a hand to swing around the tip, giving himself a little bit of extra momentum for the turn.  When he was past the shoe he paused, finding a sea of enormous shoes of all types in front of him, shifting with the music.  Why did he think this was a good way to go, again?

Between him and the edge of the floor was a veritable obstacle course of shoes all waiting to smash him.  Closest was a pair of loafers the size of a city bus, lifting off the ground a little every couple of beats.  He watched the pattern intently, making sure he understood it before moving.  Any error would mean a swift death, he knew, and he desperately wanted to live another day.

He pushed off the gigantic shoe behind him, propelling himself toward the edge.  His tiny legs carried him as fast as they could, the wood grain below looking like one long streak.  The loafer raised, giving him the cue, and when it started to come back down he hopped.  It crashed back to the floor and the shockwave had dissipated before he landed.

Curiosity got the best of Blake, and while he ran past the tremendous shoe he had to look up at the woman.  A monolithic black sock clung to her calf all the way to her knee, leaving a little skin exposed before the plaid skirt that came halfway down her thighs.  She had a loose, plain white shirt tucked into the skirt, and her head was tilted back.  Above that there was a tiny man squirming in her pinched fingers being dangled over her parted lips.  At least getting smashed would be instant, he thought, instead of the agonizing pain of being swallowed and digested.

Once he was past the loafer, Blake realized he had no idea about any of the other dancers beyond it.  He had to leave it up to chance, he realized, and sprinted forward.  Up next was a black ankle boot with a stiletto heel, its movements much more subdued than his last challenge.  A square shoelace dangled almost to the floor, just within his reach.  If he could hop onto that he might be able to ride it to relative safety.

He drew closer to the gigantic boot and prepared to leap onto it.  Unfortunately, just before he got airborne it pulled away when the shoe rotated, flopping against suede in the distance.  Before he could redirect he had to duck under an identical boot rushing through the air at him, just barely not getting clipped by the toe.  It set down with a crash, then his initial destination rushed away.  Beside him, where the sole of the boot had been, there was a red circle on the floor with the flattened remains of a person in the middle.  Getting crushed would be no picnic either.

His final obstacle was a pair of gigantic gray flats, studded along the toes, splayed in both directions.  He looked up the gargantuan bare legs and thin torso, expecting to find her looking back at him, but was pleased to find that she was only looking at her drink.  She took a sip and he darted between her heels, running into the couch to stop himself against its padding.

There was a slight indent at the couch’s base, and Blake crouched into that while walking along the perimeter of the wooden dance floor.  Jackie’s teal eyes followed his slow advance but she stayed in place, still unable to get her foot over him.  He took his time, savoring how she had to wait while I crept along the edge.  If he was lucky she would give up, but Blake knew that was unlikely.  If she had waited this long, she could wait a little more.

Over the back of the far couch Blake saw a titanic blond slowly walking across the room, intently focused on the ground.  He knew he had seen her before, the woman’s style of dress and sheer size was unforgettable, but could not quite place where.  She was either the woman who had blocked their entrance somewhere before, or the titaness who nearly swatted them in one fell swoop.  Either way she was not someone to be trifled with, and he pitied anyone who had her attention.

Blake turned the corner and saw the dance floor abruptly drop off to very nice carpet.  This is it, he told himself, and hopped off the wooden platform.  On the far side of the couch he saw Aaron run into view, struggling to make his way through the carpet, and much further off across from him he saw Connor running like a madman.  He called out to Aaron, but before he could get anything in response a titanic boot blocked his view.

The ground rumbled behind Blake, but he tried not to pay it any attention.  He was primarily focused on not getting stuck in the carpet fibers that spread in every direction like a field of wheat.  While he watched the boot raised, then came back down on Aaron.  Blake wanted to feel bad for him but simply could not.  After all, he was the whole reason they were here.

Progress was slow, and with another step Jackie was almost on top of Blake.  He soldiered on, hoping that if he ignored her she would go away, but no such luck.  A shadow fell over him and he looked up to see the gray sole rapidly dropping onto him.  It hit, smashing him into the carpet until he burst under the pressure from Jackie’s shoe.  To pay him back for the annoyance, Jackie stomped on his flattened body again and again, turning him into an unrecognizable mush.

Connor weaved through the carpet away from Helen, hoping that he would be able to escape before whatever arbitrary deadline was up.  He heard plastic bang together and Helen let out a whoop.  She thought so little of him that she wanted to finish her game before going after him.

Having to dodge between the carpet roots slowed Connor down significantly, but it was much easier than trying to brute force his way through them.  He told himself that it was just like a cross country ski slalom, down to the shining white ground, and this would all be over when he got to the finish line.  Of course, he had no idea where the finish line was, or if there even was one, but that was immaterial.  The important thing right now was to keep moving.

The room was insanely big, and Connor felt like he was making zero progress through it.  On this end there were not even any landmarks to go by aside from the beer pong table, and he wanted to get as far away from it as possible.  Two more loud plastic crashes, and some overplayed groans of dismay.  “Good game Helen,” one of the giantesses said.  “Too bad your partner was a shrink.”

“Yeah.  Speaking of,” Helen replied, stepping away from the table, “I’m gonna go take care of that.”  Blake hoped he had made more progress than he thought, but figured that it might not matter regardless.  If she did not find him someone else would, and then it would be game over.

In the distance Connor spotted Aaron being pursued by the sorority sister he supposedly had an in with.  Serves him right, he thought.  If it had not been for his unwarranted confidence in scoring none of them would be in this mess.  When she lifted up her boot and smashed Aaron under it, he still felt justified.  He only wished that Aaron had been able to learn a lesson and shut the fuck up for once in his life.

Blake came sprinting around a couch, the woman who essentially kidnapped him in hot pursuit.  He was bogged down in the carpet, and while he had been making quick progress before he was barely moving.  The woman in pink easily caught up with him, and a second later Connor’s friend disappeared under her shoe.  She stomped on his body several more times, turning him into paste while cackling like a madwoman.

A titanic white Converse set down in front of Connor, and before he even finished reading ALL STAR he knew his time was up.  He stopped just before running into it, but knew that its proximity was not a mistake.  Helen’s other shoe swung past and slammed down in the distance.  All that remained was for her to bring one down on him and it would be over.

Helen’s colossal shoes in front of Connor pivoted, with one crashing back to the floor far away.  The one nearest him lifted its sole and dug its heel into the ground, then rotated.  Connor winced when the enormous brown rubber diamonds blocked out his view, expecting it to come down on him, but for now it passed harmlessly.  It swung down beside him, the tremors of its impact knocking him over, then began to drag backward with a horrific scratching.

Connor grabbed onto the toe of Helen’s shoe to help stand again.  When he finally did he looked up her smooth, towering legs, and just managed to see her baby blue eyes peeking over her breasts.  She stared at him in silence while he waited for the killing blow.  “Well?” she boomed impatiently.  I’m waiting.”

Connor was unsure what to do, but Helen was happy to clarify.  “Beg,” she demanded sternly.  “Beg for me to not squish you, bug.”

Looking at Helen loom over him made Connor feel even smaller than he already was, and he felt his willpower withering under her gaze.  It did not take long for it to break and he got down on his knees.  “Please don’t crush me!” he pleaded up, unsure if she could even hear him.  “Please please please!  I didn’t even want to come here today, it was all Aaron’s fault, I don’t want to die, you’ve already won, just please don’t smash me!”

The giantess laughed, a horrific roar that made Connor shake.  “You beg well,” Helen said.  “Most shrinks I get refuse out of some sense of unfounded pride.  You’re different, though.  You’re the size of a bug but you’re spineless, like a worm.”

Deep rumbling from inside Helen’s throat filtered down to Connor while she considered what to do.  “Tell you what, worm,” she boomed.  “I’m not going to squash you – yet.  Instead I’m going to take you upstairs and put you in a cage on my nightstand.  That way every day I can laugh at how puny you are, you miserable little wretch.  Does that sound fun to you?”  Connor gulped.  From the sound of it, he should have just let Helen flatten him.

The titaness bent over and easily spotted Connor leaning on her shoe.  She swung a hand at him, engulfing him in her fingers, then lifted him from the floor.  Carefully she placed her cup beneath her hand and opened her fist, letting the tiny man drop into it.  Him clattering against plastic was like music to her ears, and she brushed her hand on her thigh to get rid of the tiny stream of vomit he left for her.

Helen peered into the cup and saw Connor curled into a ball and whimpering.  “Bad move, worm,” she bellowed.  “Unless that was fear puke you’re starting off with an uphill battle tomorrow.”  She considered dumping him out and smashing him right there, but realized she might feel better in the morning after having a good laugh at him.

Connor looked up from the bottom of the white plastic, feeling pathetic under Helen’s glare.  He still found her incredibly pretty, but knew that she was not just cold: she was a monster.  Even her clemency came out of malice.  Life on her nightstand no longer held the appeal it did when she first proposed it now that he was going to be a prisoner for her cruel mockery.

Helen took one last look at the tiny, man-shaped bug in her cup and chortled.  Walking to the stairs she slapped her Converse as hard as she could against the carpet in case some other shrinks had gotten away.  She would have to congratulate Olga for her concoction, maybe even let her have a turn mocking the worm: he suspected nothing until it was too late.  For now though she had to get him into a cage to keep him from making a run for it.