Caitlyn Dennings was out of this world. Not literally, of course, but anyone who had the good fortune to even pass her in the halls of her high school would tell you she could go anywhere in life on looks alone. Back then, she had light brown hair, which she since dyed a tasteful light green in streaks. Her bright blue eyes and wide smile gave her a mischievous air. To her despair and to her liking, her looks had always kept people at bay, no one willing to embarrass themselves by floundering in front of—as she was used to being called—the prettiest girl of all time. The rumor was, when she applied to Harvard, her grades—stellar though they were—contributed less to her acceptance than her athletic build and beautifully clustered freckles, the admissions officer she talked to happened to be very fond of those features.

Success was always a closed case for Caitlyn, so on the night before finals began in her last quarter of freshman year, she decided to check out a local house show. As she danced and drank, three drunk and confident guys saw her from across the room. The three guys, Eric, Jared, and Michael, were tall, athletic; members of the basketball and rowing teams. Eric was looking for some fun, and the music was way too loud for him anyway. He approached her with a belly full of liquid confidence. He had talked to pretty girls before, but she seemed different somehow.

“It's a bit of a dump right now, but we can crash at my place if you don't want to walk all the way across campus to your dorm.” Eric said, the schmaltz in his voice nearly leaving Caitlyn with a layer of grease over her ears.

When she spoke, he didn't remember any of the words she said. All he could recall was the sharp cadence of her voice, like good jazz or scotch. Looking back, he wished he remembered anything she said, anything that might help him out of what would soon be the worst three days of his life.

...

When Eric woke up, he was in an unfamiliar place, and there was a strange scent in the air. Looking around, he could see nothing but tall walls in every direction, stretching as tall as buildings. There was barely enough light to see, but he thought he could make out two other figures in the distance. He made his way over as soon as he could orient himself. When he got to the figures, he was shocked to see Jared and Michael lying on the strange floor, passed out.

“Jared? Michael? Wake up you guys! I think something is seriously wrong. C'mon, get up!”

After some pushing, all three of the boys were standing.

“Where are we?” Michael asked with a quiver in his voice.

“No clue. I just woke up over there a little while ago and I can't make heads or tails of it.” Eric replied.

“It's way too dark to see anything.” Said Jared. “Do you guys remember what happened after the party last night? I remember walking Caitlyn back to Eric's place, and then we were all sitting around drinking beers and then...”

“And then there was some weird light, I think it came from outside.” Michael finished the thought.

“Yeah, you screamed 'UFO!!' We were all pretty out of it.” Eric stated, matter of factly.

“Well, wherever we are, let's find a way out.” Suggested Michael.

As the boys rummaged around, they soon found that there was little in the way of texture on either the walls or the floor. Smooth surfaces for football field lengths in any direction. Just as Eric was about to yell out in frustration, a distant thumping noise sounded off in the distance.

“Shhh, do you guys hear that?” Asked Eric.

“Yeah, what the fuck is that?” Jared and Michael both looked like they could wet themselves, the noise was getting louder and coming seemingly right for them.

In a blinding flash of light, the whole roof of wherever they were was torn off by some force. When their eyes adjusted, the boys looked up and couldn't believe what they saw.

“Caitlyn!?” The trio yelled in unison.

Caitlyn towered over them, a hungry look in her eyes and smiling widely. As soon as they could see their surroundings, they realized they were in what appeared to be a giant shoebox.

“Good morning boys, I hope we all had a good night's sleep?” Caitlyn asked with a smile, not seeming to register anything odd about the new difference in size the group found themselves in. “I would hate for y'all to be too pooped to enjoy the first day of your new job.”

“How the--, what the fuck is going on? What do you mean 'new job'? Where are we? You gotta help us.” Eric pleaded.

“Haha, slow down there boy, I can barely hear you.” Reaching down, Caitlyn picked up the three in one hand and brought them closer to her face. The spell she cast was supposed to get them down to four inches but it looked as though she overshot it, they couldn't have been taller than one. Eric repeated his questions, his heart still beating out of his chest. When Caitlyn responded, her breath flowed over them like a strong ocean-side breeze, carrying fragrances of mint from the gum she was idly chewing.

“Well, as you can see, I kept you in a shoebox for the night. This is my room, it's a small cramped dorm room but at least it's a single, so I don't have a roommate to worry about. I just couldn't have you three running off on me, so I thought the shoebox under my bed would keep you three settled.”

“How did we get so small?” Jared asked, wondering why this wasn't the most immediate thing Caitlyn responded to.

“Well see, that's interesting. I meant to make you guys four inches tall, that's what the book recommends for the first time, lots you can still do at four inches. But I think I used too much pond root or something, you guys look like you're about an inch tall each.” It was incredible to all three of the newly tiny boys how well she could avoid answering a direct question. Eric was still blown away by how beautiful she looked, even when he was terrified of what she might do, standing in her hand like this. As she put her free hand under her chin and grinned, each knuckle looked perfectly round on her slender fingers, they seemed like great agile snakes, ready to constrict.

“You see, I'm learning to be a witch right now! All my classes are so easy, a girl gets bored! And when a girl gets bored, she just has to check out the occult section of the library. The shrinking spell I used was in the beginner section and I still managed to screw it up, ugh. I'd grow you back, but when I just want you at four inches, it's hard to control it that minutely. I might make you guys a few feet tall, or even close to your original size! So I think I'll learn to have fun with you guys like this.” She said, her voice giddy with excitement.

“Why did you shrink us?” Jared asked, hoping to get a reasonable answer out of an increasingly sociopathic sounding girl.

“Well, for fun, really! I could have any guy I wanted on campus, all I'd have to do is look at him and flutter my eyelashes a little.” She demonstrated this and the guys admitted to themselves that this would have worked instantly at normal size, at their reduced size it was only giving them more reason to be scared as she continued: “So this way, I get to have three boys! Something like that is tough to manage at a normal size, even for a girl like me, there's always jealousy and fighting whenever I think I'm interested in someone. So this way, there's no drama. It'll be fun for you three too! Don't think I wasn't thinking about that, you guys are in a position that any guy would die to be in. We are gonna have so. Much. Fun. Eeeee! I can't wait!” She said, bouncing up and down and nearly dropping her captives on the floor.

“So, the job I mentioned. Let's get started shall we?”

The three boys looked at each other and couldn't imagine hearing words any scarier than that. They wondered if everything would be alright, if they'd ever see their families again, just who was this girl they met last night?