The cashier smiled at him as she handed him his change. She couldn’t have been more than 25-years old and yet he recognized the twinkle in her eye and the blushing of her already rosey cheeks. It didn’t matter if they were 25 or 55…if they looked like they should be living under a bridge or if they looked like a supermodel like the cashier standing before him, the look was always the same. Adam was aware of the effect he had on women, it was an ability he’d had since he was a teenager.
He was 6’4”, muscular, naturally tan, flawless hairline…he really could have kept going but he preferred to at least appear humble. Someone less attractive than he might have been envious of the fact that this young cashier was deliberately trying to touch his palm as she handed over his change, but the feelings of flattery had numbed over the years. Diminishing returns apply to everything. All things trend to 0.
He returned a polite smile and it looked like the cashier was about to say something. Adam left the store, preferring to sustain the silence. He had just purchased a gift for his daughter Jordan from her favorite store and was trying to decide if he would mail it to her or drop it off at the house. On one hand, he wanted to see her face when she opened it, but on the other hand the pain of seeing the house he had once called a home was still very painful.
Adam wasn’t sure how it happened, but walking in deep thought, he somehow accidentally shoulder-checked a poor girl who was walking into the store as he was walking out. The girl truly came out of nowhere. She wore a simple black shirt and capri-jeans. Not only had she practically appeared out of thin air, it looked as if she didn’t even belong here, dressed so minimally in what was one of the coldest winters in the past ten years. She was a small little thing, couldn’t have been taller than 5’3” and she definitely went down, dropping her bag and spilling its contents to the tiled floor.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Adam said, mortified, to the young woman on the floor. She looked even younger than the cashier.
“It's fine, don’t worry about it.” The blonde said, appearing justifiably annoyed as she gathered her things. Nothing appeared to be broken but her items had exploded out as if they were shrapnel from a grenade.
“I was looking the other way and I just didn’t even see you.” Adam said, still embarrassed and in disbelief, looking around embarrassed. He dropped to his knees to help the young woman pick up her trinkets, along with one of her white flip-flops that had soared off her left foot. Her flip-flop looked almost like a toy in Adam’s huge hand.
“Well, at my size, I’m kinda used to that.” she said half-jokingly.
Adam was biting his lip now. Usually it was women who made fools of themselves in front of him, not the other way around, and this girl was barely older than his own daughter! He scooped up the spilled items along with the cute blonde. The mess of items contained hair products, clothing, and…
“Oh, no…” they both said at the same time. Adam was cringing as the girl’s pink, painted fingernails clasped the pieces of red-rust plastic strewn across the cold floor.
“You know what this is?” The blonde asked in a defeated but interested tone. “Or was…I guess?”
Adam nodded his head solemnly. “Listen, I am so sorry.”
“It's a Jawa Sandcrawler. An original from 1978, radio controlled and everything.” she said, trying in vain to push the shards of plastic back together.
He might have been surprised to see such an attractive young girl know so much about Star Wars, but then again he was a very attractive man who had followed Star Wars his entire life. As a child, he was obsessed and age only made the interest stronger. He recognized the Jawa Sandcrawler because he remembered having one as a child. In fact, as he thought about it, it's not like they were made out of glass or anything. They were hard plastic. How the hell did that thing break just from falling on the floor from 3 feet high?
“I know what it is. Listen…you have to let me pay you for that.” Adam said, reaching quickly for his wallet. “Did you get it at the hobby place around the corner from here? Just tell me how much it was.”
“No, don’t worry about it.” The blonde sighed, stuffing the pieces back into her bag.
“No, seriously…you must let me make this right.”
She looked up at him and he immediately noticed her sky blue eyes. They were quite captivating and her makeup accentuated her facial features beautifully.
“No, I’m telling you…seriously…it's okay. It's not like you meant to do it; clearly you like Star Wars as much as I do. Maybe this is a lesson that I need to stop spending all my money on stuff like this.” She hoisted the heavy bag back up on her shoulder. “If I'd passed on memorabilia over the years, I might have been able to afford a ticket to that showing in the city next week. Lord knows I’ve had enough time to save.”
Adam replied, “The rescreening of A New Hope?!”
“Yeah, but the one that Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford and all the others are going to be there for…and it apparently has never-before-seen footage and the actors are doing a big Q&A after and they’re giving away a ton of free stuff too. It's supposed to literally be the biggest Star Wars event in history.”
“Yes! I know all about it!” Adam said excitedly. The 42-year old man sounded like a boy again. “I have two tickets to go next week. Front row!”
“Oh wow, those must have cost you thousands!” The dirty blonde said in disbelief.
“Well, I don't want to say but you’re not too far off! I actually bought them over a year ago back when I first heard they were going to be having it. Although now…”
Now Adam didn’t know who he was going with…or if he was even going to go at all. His ex-wife Evette didn’t quite love Star Wars as much as he did, but she was very accepting of his interests and loved to be a part of them. Adam was incredibly excited to bring Evette with him, but now they were separated…all because of an incredibly stupid mistake. Well, really it was two mistakes if he was being completely fair. And all it would have taken to avoid this whole situation was if he’d have just stopped to think…if he would have just for a moment taken a step back and looked at the situation and used his head. But he didn’t…he had pride too after all…and now she was gone. And now here he was, single again and alone.
“...now…” He continued, clearing his throat, “...well, now due to some recent life changes, I have an extra ticket. Do you…well…want to go?”
The cute blonde’s jaw almost hit the floor and her beautiful blue eyes widened. After a long pause, she said “...Uhhh…are you being serious right now?”
“Well, yeah…I’d like it if the extra ticket could go to another Star Wars fan and who better than someone who bought an original Sandcrawler? Besides, I still feel terrible about that.”
“Well geez…” The blonde said, clearly trying to find the words. Adam had taken back some semblance of control and authority in this conversation. It was a place he most often lived so he was happy to have the control back.
“That’s…that’s really nice of you, mister…but I couldn’t–”
“--no, you absolutely could. And you should!” Adam said emphatically. “You may even be a bigger fan than I am. You need to go to this and I have an extra ticket that isn’t going to get used. This is a win/win for everyone, and it’ll give me a chance to make up for breaking your Sandcrawler.”
The blonde bit her fingernails, looking like she was in deep thought. Adam admired the color of her fingernails; he loved that shade of pink on a woman’s nails. He definitely had already noticed her exposed toes were painted to match the same color. Adam was confident and free to admire; he already knew she was going to say yes.
“Okay, I’ll take you up on your offer.” The short, cute blonde said with a short, cute smile. “But you still owe me a new sandcrawler.”
“Great! That’s fair! Well, we should probably know each other’s names then, right?” Adam asked playfully. He extended a large hand. “I’m Adam.”
The blonde placed her small hand in Adam’s, and his fingers wrapped to easily consume her tiny hand. “I’m Claire. And I gotta say…I’m so glad I ran into you, Adam.”
The day had finally come, and Adam sat in his car parked alongside a rundown apartment in the city. He was dressed up very nicely and with his nice car, he was a bit nervous about sitting there for as long as he was; he didn’t often go into the city, certainly not this part. To his left were 5 to 10 shirtless men on the fenced-in basketball courts, curiously painted a deep, vibrant purple. They looked intimidating, but they were just playing basketball and weren’t paying him any mind.
Finally, he saw a front door open on his right side and out came Claire. She looked absolutely gorgeous. Sure, she looked good in the mall that day, but now she was wearing her shoulder-length hair up and stretched over her thin body was a stunning blue dress. Somewhere above the knee, the dress ended and the dark nylon began, ending finally with some very fashionable high heels.
Girls typically carried a comically small purse to go with fancy evening attire, probably for makeup or maybe even pepper spray. Claire was breaking that cliche, instead opting to carry a duffel bag. Adam recognized that bag anywhere. No doubt about it, that was an overnight bag. Adam hated it about himself, but he could already feel himself ever-so-slightly beginning to lose interest. Something intriguing about Claire was her unpredictability and her confidence, but this was incredibly predictable. He had to give her a break, she was so young. ‘Ugh..’, he thought. ‘Am I a creep?’
“Are you going to unlock the door, you goof?” Claire said with a chuckle through the glass of the passenger side window.
Adam quickly fumbled to unlock the door and Claire took a seat, filling the car with the scent of lavender. The 20-something year old set her overnight bag in the backseat and gently patted Adam on the thigh.
“Thanks for picking me up, and thanks for this.” Claire said with a beautiful, sparkling smile.
“No, thank you. I’ve got someone to go with now; a fellow Star Wars fan at that…this is going to be so much fun.” Adam said.
“Oh, you have no idea.” Claire replied with a giggle.
Adam had somewhat of an idea. He smiled and put the car in gear, leaving the purple basketball courts behind him.
“I can’t believe they let you bring your bag in with you.” Adam said with a grin, looking around at all the intricate decorations and expressed fandom.
“As long as you know how to talk to people, you can do anything you want.” Claire said.
“Why do you need it anyway?” Adam asked.
“Oh, look.” Claire said, ignoring the question. “Isn’t that Rye?”
Adam squinted his eyes to focus in on the woman on the other side of the hall. She was glamorous and she was surrounded by a sizable posse as well as adoring fans. It was Daisy Ridley!
“Oh wow, how cool is that! Wait…did you call her ‘Rye’?” Adam asked with a look of hinted skepticism and mostly amusement. In that moment, three children ran between them, shrieking, “Momma, it's Rey! Hurry, let’s go say hi!”
Claire rolled her eyes, “Rey, Rye…whatever. I didn’t like the new ones anyway.”
It felt strange being here without Evette. They talked about it for so long and now here he was with a completely different girl on his arm…one who had brought an overnight bag on their first…well…date, if you could call it that. God, he felt creepy. People probably thought she was his daughter…or that he was really wealthy.
‘Yeah, let's go with that one.’
“I’m pretty sure the pamphlets said they would be doing this all again after the show.” Claire said, wrapping her soft hands around one of Adam’s large arms and guiding him toward the dark theater. The back of his hand grazed her lower stomach and he groaned in his mind. The soft, silky material of the blue dress was so thin that for that brief moment, he could feel the pantyline way south of her belly button. He’d spent more than a year thinking of little else than Evette and his daughter, and even up to a few moments ago, they were fresh on his mind. Until now.
“Let’s hit them up afterwards…you know everyone else will be trying to go home after the movie and the Q&A anyway so it’ll be less crowded with less lines.”
Adam reluctantly agreed, following the gentle nudging of Claire and they made their way into the theater. The 42-year old set a hand on Claire’s bare back and guided her to their row, which was currently empty. It was the best viewing location in the theater, the center-back. Not a single person was seated behind them yet, and there were only a few people ahead, but it was difficult to tell in the dark. Playing over the speakers was a very soft, classical acoustic guitar playing the Imperial Death March.
Adam had been pretty upset about everything that happened with Evette. So many things could have been avoided, and the events left a hole in his heart that no quantity of women could fill. Right now though, in this moment, as the beautiful blonde to his right smoothed out the back of her blue dress before sitting down on his right side, he felt like things were finally starting to look up.
That was when he felt a sharp bug bite on the right side of his neck. The bite immediately radiated out from the source. It was impossible to put into words, but he could feel it…even see it…brilliant, sparkling flecks of purple and pink amidst an ocean of black washing forcefully and violently into him through that singular point on his neck. It spread out through his veins, invading and permeating into his muscles, into his body fat. If he had a soul, it was sparkling with this cursed, contaminated sensation too.
The corrupting effect spread quickly and before he could even raise his hand to swat the bug away, the purple and pink shards of knee-bending pain had spread to his fingertips, and as far down to his toes. He felt it fill his stomach and his lungs, his cock and in his throat. Adam felt his eardrums flex under the pressure of thickening blood rushing through his temples next to his ears. His vision went black and his lids protectively slammed shut, nearly crushing his corneas from the force of their reflexive clenching. Within a fraction of a second after the bite, he’d felt an immense, unbearable pain and he inhaled, preparing to scream for death…and then he felt a new sensation cresting on a wave behind the pain.
It was a vivid, life-changing pleasure, as if to make amends for the seconds of hell he just experienced. He cried for a lifetime as he felt the equivalent of several dozen orgasms enslaving and ravaging his confused and excited body all at once. And then…everything stopped. All of it. Everything. He lost control of his arms as they shot in toward his body, as did his legs.
His neck shortened and pulled in toward his torso, which itself seemed to be moving away from him…but if everything was moving away from him, what really was ‘him’ at this point? Everything was changing, and changing so, so quickly. His fancy clothing exploded up around him and wrapped his body as if it had come to life, seeking to protectively cocoon him from a world, complete with auditorium seats, high ceilings, and a grinning young blonde on his side that was ever-expanding toward the heavens. What was that in her hand? A syringe?
Everything else that happened next was a blur and he could only experience it in fragments. One minute he was trapped in a confusing labyrinth of cotton that smelled strongly of his deodorant and cologne, the next he was soaring through the air and landed with a hard, sticky thud. It was around this moment, when he saw Claire quickly scooping up his clothing off his seat hundreds of feet above him and stuffing them into the duffel bag by her feet.
She lifted his shoes and stuffed them in next…and now the only thing left that showed his existence was..well…him. As insane of an idea as it was to entertain, at this point anything must be possible. He was shrunken, naked, and cold. He was on the dirty floor of the movie theater, next to Claire’s feet. His instincts told him to get up and run. There was a problem though: he couldn’t. His bare skin was adhered to the sticky, butter-soaked, sugar-saturated, dirt-ridden floor. Adam was completely helpless.
“Fuck…where the fuck is he?” He heard Claire bellow, but in reality it was actually just a harsh whisper.
He thought about staying silent…nothing good could come of this terrifying young girl finding him. It was clear to him now that the venom that entered his neck was from her…she did this to him…on purpose. He thought about just staying quiet and hoping she’d leave without him, but what fate awaited him without her? Was it worth it to try? Luckily, he didn’t have to decide, for her phone’s brilliant white flashlight illuminated the floor and her beautiful blue eyes locked on him.
“Oh my god, are you actually stuck?” Her eyes wrinkled up in a smile and her hand rushed to cover her full, red lips. “Oh, god…I just can’t even.”
He yelped as she removed him roughly from the floor. He felt as if he might have left some skin but she didn’t seem to care. “Oh god, you feel so gross…”
Claire unscrewed her bottle of water and held Adam down between her parted knees with one hand, and started pouring the cold water over his gross, sticky body. His tiny body snaked through her fingers as he choked and sputtered. Finally, the waterboarding stopped, and she continued rubbing him until the sugar, dirt, and popcorn oil was gone.
Next, he felt his body being rubbed into something relatively soft; he deduced it was the shirt tail of his button up. Everything after that was a blur. He saw horizontal, fleshy walls in his peripherals as Claire spread her legs and began moving him between her bare thighs. He broke the plane of the dress hem, and it was much darker, blue above and below him, flesh on either side of him, and white with pink polka dots directly ahead.
They were Claire’s panties, and a huge set of fingers rushed in ahead of him, like a party host trying to prepare the setting before the guests arrived. The fingers pulled the huge section of cotton aside and stuffed him against her swollen, humid crotch and he heard the rustling of cotton at his back, settling back into place and holding him firmly against her soft, plush lips. Before he passed out, he heard her whisper,
“You like pussy so much, huh? Ya ever been hugged by one?”
Adam didn’t know how much time had passed when he came to. The only frame of reference he had was some brief moments of consciousness here and there. There were several moments when he’d woken thinking it was a dream, only to feel the young blonde’s big soft lips wrapped around his body, holding him so, so tight. Once or twice he was jarred awake by huge, invasive fingers. They roughly repositioned him against her. He once even awoke to discovering he’d somehow slid south of her womanhood and into the space between her glutes. He was grateful to be scooped out from there. Now he was in a strange apartment, and staring down at him was none other than the terrifying Claire.
“Oh good, you’re awake just in time. Okay, here goes nothing.”
“Oh god, no…please…what are you doing to me?” Adam said weakly, raising his hands as a semi-opaque cylinder the size of a tree trunk came toward him and aimed at his head. He saw her fingertips squeeze it and a single drop, which was nearly as large as him, landed atop his head and engulfed his naked body. Adam tried taking a step backward out of the pale pink droplet but he slipped on the glass floor beneath him. Much to his horror, he saw his surroundings changing again, they were exploding up around him.
The edges of the glass platform, once only several dozen feet away, were rushing away from him on all sides into mind-boggling infinity. Much to his relief, he wasn’t subject to the unpredictable roller coaster of pain and pleasure the injection had given him, but he knew he was shrinking…and he was shrinking FAST. Ironically enough, it reminded him of Star Wars…when Hans and Chewy would engage the warp speed drive and all the stars would warp and elongate. Everything was warping and elongating as he was zooming into the ground.
“Oh my god, it worked!” The cute blonde was jumping up and down. The sound of her voice and her bare feet slapping the linoleum was enough to bring poor Adam to his knees.
“Oh, Tom…wherever you are right now, thanks! HAHA!” Claire laughed.
“Who the fuck is Tom?” Adam asked, but there was no way the goddess above him could hear a word he was saying. He could hear her though. His world shook with the natural tremors of her grip as he was slid toward a behemoth of metal and plastic. It was a microscope. Was he…that small? She couldn’t even see him with her naked eye? He looked up. Practically so big it filled his peripherals, there was a lens. But then a loud unlatching sound could be heard, and he saw massive pink fingernails on either side of the lens. It twisted and flew away, replaced by a larger, closer lens. A few seconds went by and he heard the blonde sigh. Again, the pink fingernails were back and the sky lens flew away, replaced by the biggest and closest one. The highest zoom.
“Fuck, I can’t believe it, this is awesome! Look at you in there! SOOOO small!” Claire cooed. She roughly removed the slide from the microscope and set it back down on the table.
“Okay, so I’m exhausted from how insanely boring our evening was so I’m actually kinda in a hurry to get to bed. Actually, I think first I’m gonna take this gross pink off my fingers and toes. Pink is a great color but it looks terrible on nails! I’ll never understand how you could be into that.”
‘What the actual fuck? How did she know I liked pink nails? Who the fuck is this?!?’
“But anyway, everything worked perfectly so we’ve got a lot to be proud of…and even more to be excited for!” I’m gonna go ahead and get you all set up and ready for tomorrow, okay?” Claire yawned as she reached out of his view for something. He had so many questions. What the fuck did she want? Why did she do this to him? How long would he stay like this? One of his biggest concerns…how the fuck was he breathing underwater..or whatever the fuck this pale, glowing pink liquid was that surrounded him?
“So, this is probably gonna be the last time I talk directly to you for about a month I think, so I’ll tell you what I apparently forgot to tell Tom, the most important thing for you. It probably feels weird for you to be able to breathe in that stuff…I’m sure you’ve figured out that you can, by the way. Just go with it, okay? And also, not only can you breathe that stuff, but you can eat and drink it too, so it's basically got everything you need. But you’ll only have it until…well…you get to where you’re going next. And then when you’re there, the pink stuff is gonna kinda diffuse and disappear but, at that point, it should be pretty clear what will be sustaining you..I’ll just leave it at that!”
‘She’s not really going to leave me here like this, is she? What the fuck is she talking in riddles for?’
“Claire, please tell me what is going on!”
Claire yawned again. She wasn’t ignoring him…no, you had to be big enough to actually be ignored..it was an active action. What she was doing was a passive action, her natural inclination was to not hear or really even consider microscopic things.
“Okay, hold still.” Claire said as she reached out of Adam’s view. He gasped to see an absolutely enormous cylinder re-enter frame. It was much larger than the eye dropper thing that had shrunk him to the micron scale. The tip of the enormous structure dipped into his liquid and he tried his best to focus up its shaft.
“No…..” Adam said in disbelief and growing terror. It was already halfway full of liquid that matched in color what he was swimming in. “Is that….”
He could feel against his bare skin the pink liquid rushing around him toward the tip of this structure and he instinctively tried to swim away from it. In the end, he was pulled toward the tip just like everything else. He was sucked up and swallowed into the belly of the plastic beast, and he watched Claire place a rubber cube at the end of the stem, just to make sure he couldn’t get out. She set the syringe down and cut the lights, presumably heading off to bed, leaving poor Adam in complete darkness.
~