“Paul?” Came his mother's massive voice through the door. “It'll be dinnertime in about half an hour. Are you feeling all right? Paul?”

  Paul and Katelyn scooted apart as their eyes were fixed on the massive door. Doris's voice came several more times sounding increasingly concerned each time. Paul didn't know if it would make things better or worse to call out to her, but he knew he was absolutely incapable of doing so.

  Finally, inevitably, the doorknob turned, and Paul's mom walked in. It was the first time Paul had ever laid eyes on a giant, and it was an awe-inspiring yet terrifying moment as this woman who appeared to be well over a hundred feet tall stepped into the room.

  There was a massive intake of air as Doris spotted the scene on the bed. Her eyes went wide as she spotted her son, confirming her worst fears. “Oh, no,” Doris said, sounding absolutely mortified. “Oh god no....”

  She stepped around the bed to get a closer look at her son as he and Katelyn looked up at her. “I can't believe it actually happened...” Doris said as she looked at him. “This is bad...real bad...”

  Her eyes flashed to Katelyn, and a flash of anger appeared across her face. Paul never realized how truly frightening her mother could be until he saw that expression on the giant version of her face, and Katelyn visibly recoiled next to him.

  “What are you doing?” Doris said. She reached forward and snatched Katelyn off the bed as if she was just another discarded object and roughly put her down in her smallhouse without even looking, her eyes flashed back to her son.

  “This is going to mess everything up.” She said, looking down at Paul as if he had done this intentionally.

  “I—I'm sorry...” Paul stammered, but Doris seemed not to care.

  “Shit. What am I going to do with you?” Doris said, more talking to herself than Paul. She stood up back to her full height. Her eyes were shifting, she was clearly thinking fast. As Paul had told Katelyn before; his mother never had a plan for any of her children shrinking. Somehow, she just always thought it would never happen to somebody in their family. They were just too good of people, too high class, whatever kind of thing she thought that would make them immune.

  “We'll just have to get this sorted out.” Doris said. She reached down and picked up her son; and for the first time he found himself being held in the hand of a Big. The power of the fingers around him was unimaginable, and he felt completely helpless. As she carried him down the hallway to her bedroom he had the sinking realization that this helpless feeling would be something he'd have to get used to.

  Doris's bedroom was larger than Paul's and was gigantic to Paul's eyes. Her mother slept here alone ever since Paul's father died almost eleven years ago; Paul and his sisters were generally not allowed in here under normal circumstances, and Paul couldn't remember the last time he had been inside. Paul always wonder whether her mother had a companion locked away here somewhere; owning any tinies would be problematic for Doris politically, but almost everyone owned a companion.

  Doris released her son onto the top of her dresser. “You need some clothes,” Doris said. “I must still have some.” The dresser vibrated under Paul's feet as she opened a drawer, digging around out of his sight range. A minute later she came back up with a complete little outfit for Paul. There was no way to know why those clothes were in there or who used to wear them but Paul wasn't sparing any thought to those questions; he was just relieved to be able to cover up his naked body.

  The clothes fit well enough and at least he had the small dignity as he helplessly stood below his mother's penetrating gaze. She stared at him long and hard, her mind working behind her vast eyes to come to terms with this problem.

  “What a fucking nightmare.” Doris said. She didn't swear much, but Paul knew that when she did somebody had messed up terribly.

  “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...” Paul responded timidly.

  “I know you didn't.” Doris said tersely. “But the fact is you are now a Small. Here, in my house. This is a disaster.” Paul could only imagine his mother was thinking about her social situation and what a massive embarrassment this would be. One might think she would be concerned for the sudden loss of her son's future, but Paul knew reputation was everything to the MP and the humiliation of having a shrinkee son was the overriding factor.

  “Wh-what's going to happen to me?” Paul asked timidly. The world was a blur to him now and he was so overwhelmed he couldn't even imagine his own future.

  “You can't stay here, that's for sure.” Doris said. “That would make things too complicated.”

  “You're getting rid of me?” Paul gasped.

  “I'm not 'getting rid of you', I just need to find you a new home.” Doris said.

  “Hannah!” Paul exclaimed, the answer coming to him in a burst of clarity as bright as day. “Mom, give me to Hannah! I trust her! She'll take good care of me!”

  “Who?” Doris said. “Oh right, your friend from school. What would she need you for? She already has a companion, doesn't she?”

  “What? No! I don't mean like that!” Paul reacted, still shocked to hear himself referenced in those terms.

  “Then how do you mean?” Doris said. “You're a tiny now. Do you think she's going to just take care of you when you're providing her nothing and she already has a professionally trained companion already?”

  “No! She and I, we....” Paul wasn't sure what to say.

  “What, you think she's going to want to marry you like that?” Doris almost laughed. “Forget it, Paul. You're not going to Hannah.”

  Paul felt a weight sink into his heart. His one chance of going into the hands of someone who honestly cared for him was slipping away, and he knew there would be no arguing.

  “Look, I'm going to need to think about this for a little while.” Doris said. She stepped over to her closet and started rooting around for something. Paul was a little shocked to see her pull out a tiny transportation cage from deep in her closet. He didn't know what was more suprising—the fact that she owned one or the fact that he was about to be put into it.

  “The girls are downstairs and the food's going to get cold.” Doris said, placing the cage next to Paul and opening the door. “We'll figure something out over dinner. Come on, get in.”

  Paul wanted to respond, to ask why he didn't get a say in any of this. But his mother was intimidating enough at her normal size; now the size of a small mountain Paul didn't have any energy to argue with her. Dejected, Paul stepped over the lip of the cage as his mother clicked it shut behind him.

  Without saying anything else Doris turned and left her bedroom, shutting the door behind her and leaving Paul alone in his cage. The cage was a little smaller than his bedroom and had places to sit with seat belts for the roughness of transports. He had seen these cages before, even carried them on occasion, but he never thought he'd be in one himself.

  The true helplessness of his situation was starting to set in. As a Big he had control over his destiny; choices had to be made those choices weighed heavily on his mind. But now, not only were there no choices to be made, but he wasn't even allowed to make them. He was a Tiny, and all Tinies were owned. There were no exceptions; he was now property.

  He thought about Hannah—a girl he was willing to spend the rest of his life with. Even if it was as his owner instead of his wife he would still do it without question. No one was kinder than Hannah; he would feel safe in her hands, under her direction, being by her side. Imagining the shock and pain on her face when she saw him small hurt him, but she would accept her new role as his owner.

  But none of that would happen. Hannah didn't know he had shrunk and even if she did there would be no way for her to get him apart from buying him, and Paul doubted his mom would sell him. Even thinking of himself as something to be bought and sold felt surreal and upsetting. The idea of tinies being property was just an unquestioning part of life for Paul before today, but Paul never thought it would be him in that position.

  It felt like hours had passed before he heard the rumbling noises of Big feet on the stairs in the hall. The door opened and Doris re-emerged, walking up to the cage and looking down at Paul between the bars.

  “I'm giving you to Sarah,” Doris announced unceremoniously. “She has the tools to look after you and she's agreed to take you in.”

  The declaration was as final as it was abrupt. His oldest sister was to be his owner, and her other tinies were going to be his cohorts. Doris's reached for the handle at the top of the cage and Paul braced himself as she picked it up, her leg moving swiftly back and forth beyond the bars as she carried him down the hall towards the stairs.

  As he was carried down into the dining room Paul was greeted by the sight of two more giantesses: his sisters. Brie put her hands on her face in an expression that looked disturbingly delighted; Sarah's reaction was more controlled, but Paul could see quite the curious reaction in her eyes.

  “So you're sure you'll be able to take him?” Doris asked her eldest daughter, “You have enough room?”

  “There's plenty of room, it will be fine.” Sarah said. Doris passed the cage to Sarah who raised it up to get a closer look at her shrunken brother. Paul looked up into the face of his new owner as she scrutinized him. Brie pressed her face against the cage from the other side.

  “Can I see him?” Brie asked. She looked almost giddy at the sight of him.

  “Not now, Brie,” Sarah thankfully replied. At least Sarah was giving the situation the seriousness it deserved; Paul didn't think he could handle Brie laughing at him right now.

  “Need anything else?” Doris asked.

  “No, I have everything he needs at my house.” Sarah replied. “I suppose I'll go back and get him settled in, then?”

  “Right,” Doris said. She almost seemed to be rushing Sarah out the door; eager to get this unexpected tiny out of her house. “Dinner tomorrow, then?”

  “Yes, I'll be here.” Sarah said. Paul got one last look at Brie staring at him and his mother pointedly looking away as Sarah opened the door and stepped outside into the cool night air.

  The cage moved up and down in a rhythmic fashion as Sarah walked down the street. All around him were vast, towering houses and trees, all along a street as wide as a river surrounded by a curb like tall walls. It was a huge new world to him; a world he could no longer access on his own terms. Sarah's legs made swishing sounds as she walked, the fast walls of fabric-covered skin moving by hypnotically. Sarah was walking quickly almost as if she didn't anyone to see her leaving her mother's house with a tiny-cage in hand. And this cage was bringing him to his new life with his sister, whom he now had to understand was his owner.