Reilly slowly opened her eyes. She realized that she was curled up into a ball, pressed against the far side of the small plastic box that served as her prison. Past the wall she was pressed against was another box, inside of which was Edmond, who stared at her with a concerned look on his face.

“Bad dreams again?” he asked. Their voices were always a bit muffled through the walls of the plastic, but they could still hear each other. The ability of being able to talk to a friend was one of the few nice things that Jane had given them, and she likely hadn’t even meant to do it. Edmond sank to the ground, pressing his palm against the plastic wall. Reilly returned the favor, pressing her hand against his. It was the closest they could get to hugging each other. It was a gesture they exchanged frequently. “Wanna talk about it?” he asked.

“Not really,” Reilly said. She just stared into Edmond’s face. She remembered him looking so strong and confident the first time she had seen him in here. Now, he was wasting away. Streaks of grey flecked his brown hair, and he looked tiny, even by their standards. Reilly imagined she had to look just as worn down. Before this whole mess, she had been a tall and leggy brunette, a bombshell that would’ve been swimming in boyfriends if her height hadn’t intimidated most of the potentials. It was never something that bothered her, though. She had time to focus on studying and finding a job first. Or so she had thought.

Somewhere far beyond the reaches of the plastic boxes that served as their cages, Reilly could just make out muffled voices. Jane was talking with someone else.

“Is she making a sale?” she asked Edmond. He nodded.

“I think it’s Annie. Again.” Reilly shook her head.

“This has to be the fourth time this month…”

“She burns through us quickly,” Edmond said, the hatred very noticeable on his voice.

The door to the bedroom suddenly opened, and in walked Annie and Jane. Annie had her pockets in her leather jacket as she walked over to the shelves on the wall where all the plastic boxes were. Although Reilly and Edmond had this top shelf all to themselves, beneath them were dozens more of the less fortunate ones. Annie was grinning as she took out a hand and tapped on the wall of a box somewhere under Reilly.

“You got new ones,” Annie said. Jane just nodded. She walked up beside Annie.

“I got, um…” Her eyes scanned the rows. “There’s, uh, th-this one,” she said, pointing at a box. “He’s, uh…he’s new, I think he said his name’s Ryan…”

“He’s cute,” Annie said, leaning in to get a better look at him. They continued to talk shop. Reilly and Edmond just stared at them, saying nothing. They had learned not to talk when Jane had customers over. Although they were under her protection, talking was the fastest way to draw a giant’s attention, which led to tapping on the walls and teasing, maybe even being held by them if Jane was in a good mood. Reilly and Edmond preferred to be left alone.

As usual, Reilly was struck by the change in Jane’s demeanor. When she was alone, Jane never stuttered or averted her eyes from any of them. Before she started selling them, Reilly always thought that she had been a tough and strong woman, a personality that seemed to clash with Jane’s small and mousy appearance. There was something about being in the company of people her size that changed her.

She was certainly different from Annie. The two were polar opposites. If Jane was the short quiet girl that never drew attention to herself, Annie was the loud and obnoxious one that was constantly getting into trouble. And she was annoying. God. Reilly didn’t know what it was about being in the presence of tiny people that made her speak in such baby-talk tones, but she wished it would stop.

“Ooh, yes you are a cutie! Yes you are!” Annie said, giggling, continuing to tap the wall. Reilly’s heart went out to Ryan, wherever he was beneath her. When they tapped on the walls (another thing that nearly everyone did in their presence), it shook the entire box and usually gave the person inside a bad headache.

“So, um…A-Annie?” Jane asked, her voice soft and timid. Annie seemed to be ignoring her.

“Hey, something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Annie said. “Have you ever, y’know, used one of these? Like, in bed?”

“I—what?” Jane’s face was growing very red.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about trying…just wondering if you tried it out, tell me if it’s worth doing, y’know?”

“I, uh, um…” Jane’s eyes darted toward Edmond’s box. Edmond wrapped his arms tightly around himself, averting her glance. “I wouldn’t know…” Jane said.

 “Huh. Well, I might have to try it out on this lil’ guy!” Annie grabbed hold of Ryan’s box and lifted it up into the air. “I’ll take him.”

“N-now…try and be careful with this one, this is the fourth time you’ve been here in the past month.” Annie rolled her eyes.

“Lighten up, Janey. What do you care what I do with them?” Annie reached into her pocket with her free hand and pulled out a thick wad of cash, which she thrust into Jane’s hands. Annie then looked at Reilly’s and Edmond’s boxes, and smirked. “And how are these two lovebirds doing?” Annie asked.

 “Oh shit,” Reilly muttered. Jane started blushing again.

 “They’re, uh…th-they’re not for sale…”

“I know, Janey, you tell me every time I come over here, I don’t wanna buy them. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna take your precious lil’ pets away from you,” Annie teased, sticking her tongue out at Jane. “And I know that that one’s your golden goose,” she said, pointing at Edmond’s box.

“Wh-what?” Jane asked.

“You don’t know how the machine works, right?”

“N-no, I can…I know how to use it, mostly. It just…it just breaks. After I use it a couple of times. Edmond fixes it.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want the machine to break, would we? Then where would I get all my little people?” Annie smiled, raised her hand and tapped on the side of Reilly’s box.

Ohh yes, there was the headache, how she had missed it so.

“Hey, sexy,” Annie whispered, winking at her. Reilly felt ill.

“Um, do y-you wanna buy someth—someone else?” Jane asked. There was a hint of urgency in her voice. It was very clear she was trying to get Annie to leave.

“Nah,” Annie said. She leaned in and planted a kiss on Reilly’s box, leaving behind a faint lipstick stain. “I gotta get home anyway. Thanks again, Janey, I’ll probably be back next week or so,” she laughed, and left the room, a terrified looking Ryan in hand. Jane shook her head and stared at Reilly and Edmond with what looked like a “what are you gonna do?” expression on her face. She then turned and followed after Annie.

“Ugh,” Reilly said, staring at the lipstick stain. “She’s never even bought a woman here, I know she’s not bisexual or anything. What is her problem?”

“Yeah, really, it just destroys my self-esteem. What does it say about me if a straight woman would rather pick you over me?” Edmond said, a very forced looking smile on his face.

“Don’t worry, Ed, I think you’re a fine specimen of a man,” Reilly said with a very indulging tone in her voice.

“Well, I’ll take what I can get. You’re a good friend, Reilly.”

---

Jane’s soft snoring kept Reilly up that night. She thought she had gotten used to it, but for some reason she was just feeling really restless tonight. Edmond slept soundly next to her, but she kept tossing and turning, and every time she thought she had finally found a comfortable spot and started drifting off to sleep, a sharp snore woke her right back up.

“God, just shut up,” Reilly whispered, pressing her hands over her ears. A part of her supposed that she could probably be thankful. At least this meant she wouldn’t have to endure more bad dreams, memories of her kidnapping, of being fondled and poked and prodded before Jane had warmed up to her and randomly decided that they were best friends. Crazy bitch.

There was a creaking sound. Somewhere out there, in the darkness. Was Jane’s door opening? Reilly got to her feet and walked over to the front of the box, staring.

A shadow moved through the dark. Reilly squinted to see. She could just barely make out the faint outline of a person. A woman. She was stepping softly past Jane’s bed, so as not to wake her. Jane had always been a heavy sleeper, though; something Reilly had planned to take advantage of if she ever tried to escape. The mysterious woman glanced down at Jane’s sleeping form and moved right past her, over to the plastic boxes. Her face was illuminated by the moonlight shining in through the nearby window. Reilly didn’t recognize her.

The woman pulled a camera out of her pocket and turned it on, studying the glowing screen on the back of it. Looking at pictures stored on it. She then started looking at the boxes. She saw Reilly staring back at her, and her lips pursed. She raised a finger to her lips and her eyes narrowed. The message was all too clear. Reilly nodded her head rapidly. The woman then looked at Edmond’s box. She leaned in close, staring at his sleeping form intently, and then looked back at the camera. She looked back and forth several times before she seemed to be satisfied. She reached out and picked up Edmond’s box. Reilly saw him wake up and look around with disconcerted fear just before the box was placed into a satchel that the woman had dangling from her shoulder.

She then turned and left, leaving just as quietly as she had come.

As soon as Reilly heard the front door to the house shut, she immediately started screaming and banging on the wall, trying to wake Jane up. But she just continued to snore, completely oblivious to Reilly’s shouts.

---

When Jane did finally wake up several hours later, Reilly’s throat was sore from all the shouting. She had woken up a few of the other prisoners throughout the night, who had repeatedly told her to shut up, but she had just ignored them. Jane had finally noticed her and listened to what happened, her eyes widening as she noticed that Edmond’s box had vanished.

“Who…who was it?” she asked. “Who took him?”

“I don’t know,” Reilly said. “I didn’t recognize her.”

“Well, what did she look like?”

“Um…blond. Pretty, I guess. Green eyes.” Reilly shrugged. She had always been terrible at descriptions. Jane bit her lip, and was silent for a bit.

“Wait right there,” she said, and ran out of the room. She came back a minute later with a picture, which she pressed against the wall of the box. “Is this her?”

Reilly felt a pang in her gut. She had never seen this picture before. Both Jane and Edmond were in it. He was taller than her. He was grinning like an idiot, with his arm wrapped around a still very timid-looking and apprehensively smiling Jane. And on Edmond’s other side was the blond woman, flashing a no doubt well-practiced winning smile.

“That’s her!” Reilly shouted. “Who is she?”

“Vivian,” Jane whispered. “Oh, no.” She sat on the bed, burying her face in her hands, the picture discarded on her nightstand. She was silent for several minutes. “Vivian worked with us. Me and Edmond, I mean. When Edmond built the machine. She quit before he finished it. She was such a bitch.”

 “So what, did she like him or something? Is that why she took him?”

“Oh, she liked everybody,” Jane said with no end of scorn in her voice. “She flirted with everyone.” She started tugging at her hair. “I need him back…the machine’ll break without him.” She looked truly desperate and lost. Reilly almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

“Wait…” Reilly said. “If you know who she is, shouldn’t you know where she lives, too?” Jane nodded.

“She lives in the city.”

“Then go get him back!”

Jane just looked at Reilly with pleading eyes, and Reilly immediately realized how unlikely that was. Jane rarely left the house anymore. She would only ever leave to ‘collect’ somebody new, and she was always quick about it. She had even stopped collecting people as often. More than once, someone like Annie had been hired to bring someone to her house to be put in the machine. Special delivery.

“I can’t go out there…” Jane said. “I don’t…I, I just can’t, okay?” Reilly sunk to her knees. She was growing frustrated with Jane’s eccentricities. Edmond was her friend, dammit, her only friend, and she didn’t want to lose him because Jane was scared of her own shadow.

“Then get someone to go get her! Call Annie!”

Jane let out a nervous sounding laugh. “I can’t trust her with Edmond!”

“Oh for God’s sake, Jane…” Reilly grumbled.

“Wait,” Jane said. “Wait, wait, wait…” She got to her feet and walked over to Reilly’s box. A hopeful grin was plastered on her face. “What if you went and got him?”

“I—what?” Reilly blinked, confused. “Jane, I…I’m kind of small…”

“I know that, silly! I’ll grow you back! J-just for a bit! I mean, we’re friends, right? And you care about Edmond, I know you do. I grow you back, you go get him, and you bring him back! I can trust you, right?”

Reilly was silent for a while. Amazing. One of Jane’s quirks appeared to be working in her favor. She could use this.

“Yes,” she finally said. “Yes, Jane, you can trust me. Grow me, and I swear to you that I’ll bring him back.” Jane let out a piercing scream of delight.

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you!” Jane lifted Reilly’s box up into the air, plastering the side of it with kisses. She then pulled the lid off the box, and turned it over, sending Reilly rolling head over heels, screaming all the way, toward Jane’s outstretched palm. Jane didn’t even bother to check if she was okay. She was in a hurry. The box was discarded on the bed, and Jane rapidly moved out of the bedroom, Reilly in hand.

The machine was in the small guest bedroom of the house. It was the only thing within it. It looked something like a tanning bed of the future. There was a long thin mattress with a lid that could be pulled down on top of it. All of it was suspended on top of thick metal supports and surrounded by endless amounts of wiring and cables. Jane placed Reilly on the machine, and then kneeled down in front of her so that her face was level with Reilly’s entire body.

“Okay, here we go,” Jane said, clearly ecstatic. “Thank you so much, Reilly, you really are a great friend.” Reilly nodded, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. She was working up the courage to ask something.

“Jane, um…if…if I do this, can you do something for me?”

“Sure, what do you want?” Jane asked, her eyebrows raised.

“If I do this…then I want to stay at my normal size. I don’t want to be shrunken back down. Okay?”

Jane blinked. She looked shocked. “You…you don’t want to stay with me anymore?” Dear God, it almost looked like tears were forming in her eyes. Reilly stammered and spoke quickly.

“No no no, I didn’t say that, Jane! We’re still friends! I’ll still hang around and stuff, I promise, I just…I want to be normal-sized again. Can you do that for me? Please?” Jane stared at her for a very long time before speaking.

“Alright. You’ve got a deal. Fine. I trust you. You do this for me…and you can go.” Reilly breathed a sigh of relief. “But first, some ground rules,” Jane continued. “I’ll grow you back now, obviously, cause it’d be pretty hard for you to do this otherwise.” She smiled. “But I’m giving you 12 hours. You have 12 hours to get to the city, find Vivian and Edmond, and bring them both back here. It should be more than enough time. If 12 hours pass, then you’ll shrink back down. Wherever you are. Once you bring them both back here, I’ll remove the time limit, and you can go live your life. Understood?”

“Understood,” Reilly nodded. A part of her had been planning on just running, so that was out the window. “But wait, why do you want Vivian, too?”

“She’ll just get me back somehow if we let her go. I know it. I know her. You bring her back here, and little miss perfect is gonna get a visit in the machine too. I bet Annie will just love her.” A malicious grin was etched on Jane’s face. It was a look of relish that Reilly hadn’t seen before. It made her nervous.

“Um…okay. Will do.”

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Okay. Lay down.” Jane tapped Reilly’s head with her tree-trunk sized index finger, and then stood up, closing the lid on the machine and entombing Reilly in darkness. Reilly lay down, and a humming noise started reverberating throughout the vast and long chamber of the machine.

Several minutes later, Reilly woke up. The machine knocked its inhabitants out. She remembered Edmond telling her that he had never been able to figure out why. It was something that frustrated him. The lid of the machine opened up, and a significantly less imposing Jane stared down at her, a nervous smile on her face.

“You okay, Reilly?”

Reilly groaned. Her muscles felt sore. She slowly pushed herself off the bed of the machine and stood up, glancing at Jane. Then she did a double-take. Well, that wasn’t right.

Reilly had been 5’11 and a half (the half was very important to her) when she was normal sized. And she knew Jane was only somewhere around 5’4. Why, then, was Jane a head taller than Reilly?

“Jane, I…I was taller than this,” Reilly said.

“I know. I-I, um…” Jane was averting her gaze. There was something about Reilly no longer being shrunken that was clearly bothering her. “I’ll g-grow you back when I remove the limit, too.” Jane handed her a syringe filled with green liquid. “Th-this is what I use to, um…to knock the p-people out. Use it on Vivian.” Jane still wasn’t looking at Reilly as the syringe was taken from her. Jane then stepped back, as if nervous that the syringe was going to be used on her. The thought did flash through Reilly’s mind, but she had no idea how to use the machine. It would be pointless. “You can t-take my car to get to Vivian’s. You do, um…you do remember how to drive, right?”

---

Reilly did indeed remember how to drive (or she quickly remembered, after a minor incident with Jane’s mailbox). The city was about an hour away, and Jane had a GPS in her car that was leading her directly to Vivian’s apartment. Jane had been nice enough to lend Reilly some clothes, though they were very baggy on her. But she didn’t mind. It was just nice to be able to wear clothes again. Being normal sized was so disorienting. She noticed that she kept shaking. She tried to stop herself whenever this happened.

She didn’t know what she was expecting when she got to Vivian’s. Security guards, maybe. Cameras. She gave off the aura of being a very wealthy and powerful person, and when the apartment turned out to be, surprise, a regular apartment, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. It certainly made her job easier, however.

She parked in a nearby parking complex and made her way through the corridors of the building, muttering “23-D” over and over again: Vivian’s apartment number, which Jane had fortunately kept in her address book. When she found it, she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Then, she knocked.

Vivian quickly answered the door. Of course, she was nearly a foot taller than Reilly. Vivian looked down at her, the faintest hint of a sneer on her face.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Jane sent me,” Reilly said. Vivian’s eyes widened. She moved to shut the door, but Reilly quickly pushed her hand against it, forcing her way into the apartment, and she immediately dug the syringe up into Vivian’s neck. The woman immediately passed out as Reilly made her way in, shutting the door behind her. “Edmond?” she called out. “Where are you?”

“I’m here!” Edmond shouted. He was on a nearby table, out of his box. “God, what did you do to her?”

“I just knocked her out. I’m bringing you both back,” Reilly said, excitedly.

“What? Why? Reilly, Vivian’s a good person! I’m building another machine for her! She’s gonna grow us back! Or, well, me back, anyway…” He smiled nervously up at her.

“Wait…why does she want a machine?”

“She’s jealous of Jane…Jane could be making a lot of money with this thing, but come on, you’ve seen her, she’s…antisocial doesn’t describe it. If she were a people person, she could make millions. And Vivian’s a people person.”

Reilly stared, horrified. So that was it. Another machine. More disappearances. More people forced into slavery. Reilly glared down at her small friend.

“How can you want to do this? Don’t you realize that more people are going to share our fate?”

“It doesn’t matter, Reilly! I can’t live like this anymore! I’ll do anything to be normal again!” Edmond shouted up at her. Reilly snatched him up in her fist.

“No. You can’t do this. I won’t let you,” she growled. The two stared at each other, and all of a sudden, it was perfectly obvious what she had to do. She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to do this. But she had to. She had to stop this. She opened her fingers and let him fall all the way to the ground. He screamed the whole way down, and hit the wood floor with a sickening thud. He moaned, clearly in pain and unable to move. He turned to face her.

“Reilly…please…no…” he choked out. Reilly balled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms, forcing herself to hate her best friend. Her only friend.

“I have to do this, Edmond. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I just…as long as you’re alive, this stupid machine’ll keep being built, and more people will end up like us. If I kill you now, even Jane’s machine will break down. It’ll stop. Don’t you understand? It’s for the best.”

“No…Reilly, I…” he coughed. He was obviously in agony. “I won’t do it anymore. I’ll tell Jane no more. I won’t fix it anymore.”

“You’ve said that before, Edmond,” Reilly said. “She always convinces you in the end. I’m sorry. I have to do this.” She raised her foot, keeping her heel pinned on the ground. The sole of her slightly oversized converse sneaker would be extended above him. Her foot blocked him from view entirely. “I’m sorry,” she whispered again, and slowly started bringing her foot down. Somewhere beneath her, she could just barely make out his screams, but she ignored them. She could feel him beneath her shoe. Beating his fists on her sole with all the strength he could muster. It was all for naught. She effortlessly overpowered him. She pressed down, and felt him crunch beneath her. She didn’t want to move, but she couldn’t take it; she fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably, begging Edmond to forgive her, wherever he was now.

---

A few hours later, the lid of the machine opened up, and the shrunken form of Vivian remained inside. She stared up at the enormous forms of Jane and Reilly and immediately started screaming. Jane snatched her up roughly in her fist.

“You shut your mouth, you…you filthy whore!” Jane shouted. “How could you do this? How could you kill Edmond!? You…fucking bitch!” Vivian looked confused, but Jane didn’t seem to notice. Which worked out splendidly for Reilly.

Reilly watched, her face completely devoid of emotion, as Jane poured all of her hatred into her actions. Vivian was thrown to the ground, hard. She bounced off Jane’s bare foot and rolled to the carpet. She was actually still alive, amazingly. She slowly crawled across the floor, making her way over to Reilly’s shoe. She placed a hand on it, looking up at Reilly’s face with pleading eyes. Reilly just gently kicked her back toward Jane, ignoring her plight. She was through with this. She would let Jane have her fun, and then she’d get grown back, she would live her life, and forget about all of this.

Besides, if Vivian had never taken Edmond, none of this would have happened. She could still be in one box, Edmond in the other. They could place their hands on the walls and convey all the emotions they felt for each other through just that. Would it have been worth it, Reilly wondered to herself? Would she have preferred to stay with Edmond if it meant being small forever?

Vivian was wailing and screaming. Her fancy shirt and skirt were ripped and torn. Her high heels were missing. She was looking up at Jane, begging, screaming for her life. Her voice could barely even be heard.

“Shut up!” Jane shouted. She stomped her bare foot down on Vivian’s legs, immediately crushing them. Vivian wasn’t even screaming anymore. The pain had to be unimaginable. Jane bent down and snatched Vivian up in her fist. “I hate you! I fucking…hate you!” She squeezed her fist as tight as she could. Blood trickled from between the cracks in her fingers. Jane just continued squeezing, wailing through her clenched teeth. She then opened her fist and threw whatever was left of Vivian back down to the ground. Reilly didn’t get a good look at it. She didn’t really want to see it. It just looked like a minuscule piece of meat. When it hit the ground, Jane stomped it. Hard. And then again. And again. She stomped the crushed and destroyed remains of Vivian over and over again until whatever was left was completely and utterly obliterated. Jane glared down at her foot, panting. All was silent.

“Are you okay?” Reilly finally asked. Jane looked up at her, surprised, as if she had only just noticed Reilly was there.

“Yeah, I’m…I’m fine,” Jane said, and looked back down at her foot. Her lip quivered. “I just…” Tears started trickling from her eyes. “I didn’t want to lose Edmond…” She buried her face in her hands, sobbing. Reilly rubbed her own arm, feeling very uncomfortable. She then got to her feet and pulled Jane into a tight embrace.

“Shh…it’s okay,” Reilly said. Jane hugged back, crying into Reilly’s hair, pulling her close.

They were like that for a long time.

---

It felt like hours before Jane had finally calmed down. At some point, they had sat on the floor, continuing to hug each other. She was no longer crying. Only sniffling.

“Th-thank you, Reilly,” she coughed out through her tears. Reilly nodded. “Y-you’re a good friend.”

hand pressed against the glass

Reilly sighed. “Jane, I…I’m sorry. I’m sorry this all happened to you, and I hate asking you this so soon, but…can you grow me back now?”

Jane pulled away from her. She just stared, her lip quivering. At first, Reilly was scared she was going to start crying again. And then, out of nowhere, a smile formed on Jane’s lips.

“Yeah. Y-you earned it. I’m sorry I did all this to you, Reilly. Let’s…let’s get you back to the way you were.” Reilly stood up, and helped Jane to her feet. Reilly lay down on the bed of the machine, and Jane smiled down at her. “Thanks, Reilly.”

“No problem,” Reilly asked.

“There should be enough p-power in here for one last use,” Jane said, gesturing to the machine. “Without Edmond, I…” she shrugged.

“It’s okay. You don’t need this machine,” Reilly said. Jane smiled.

“Maybe you’re right.” She closed the lid.

---

Several weeks later, Reilly sat in her plastic prison, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring out at the enlarged world around her.

Jane had lied to her. Of course she had.

There had never even been any time limit. Jane said that she didn’t actually know how to use the machine that well. She only knew the basics.

At least Jane had looked apologetic about it. When Reilly had screamed and shouted at her, Jane just let her do it. She had explained that she couldn’t let Reilly go. Not with Edmond gone. She’d be alone. All alone.

And now the machine was broken. It had been used for the last time.

Alone. All alone.

Her words had flashed through Reilly’s mind over and over the past few weeks.

She wanted to believe she had done the right thing.

By crushing Edmond, she had prevented any more people from being shrunken.

Had she saved him, she might have gone free. But the shrinking of others would have continued.

She tried to tell herself that she might have saved countless lives.

But she was still shrunken. And so were the few unsold people left beneath her.

Reilly stared out at the enormity of Jane’s bedroom, pondering the same question to herself over and over: was it worth it?