John bounced around in his cage around his sister's neck as she walked into a local restaurant and sat down across from her friend Sarah. 

"Hey girl, how have you been?" Allison asked as she settled in. 

"Hey, I've been amazing. Did you see that new law? It's like, totally legal to make these tiny men our toys." Sarah said laughing as she pulled out a few shrunken men from her cleavage. 

"Yeah, isn't it great? There's definitely a few guys I wish I could get my hands on." Allison said as she started idly fiddling with John's cage, tossing him around. 

"Oh I've been grabbing as many as possible. They're so fragile at this size that I go through them pretty quickly." Sarah said. 

"What do you mean?" Allison asked confused. 

"Well when I put them, you know, down there." Sarah said gesturing under the table with a grin. "I sometimes get carried away. They just squirm so much." 

"Oh my god, you're so bad!" Allison said with fake shock. 

John was terrified by how casual they were being about Sarah killing men. Is this how the world is now?

He looked across the table at the tiny men Sarah had pulled out. She had set them on her empty appetizer plate and was idly poking them as they tried to run away from her, but anytime they got close to the edge, she'd knock them back to the center. 

"Oh did you hear about those tiny little towns they're making for tiny men?" Sarah asked. 

"No, they're making towns for shrunken men? What for?" Allison asked. 

"Well, for the super small ones that are hard to even hold without smashing, they are making places for them to live. Some charity program. You can apply to manage one for tinies that don't have an owner." Sarah explained. "But from what I heard, even your brother is a bit too big." 

Allison held John up to look at as she contemplated his size. "Aww, it would have been so cute to see him running around a little town." 

"Well maybe he'll get it again." Sarah said as she continued to toy with the tiny men. 

"Get what again?" Allison asked. 

"The virus. Didn't you hear about all the other strains? You can get it twice. It's rare, but possible. There have been rumors of other weird side effects, but I dunno if they're true." Sarah said as if it was common knowledge. 

"Oh wow. That would be lucky. Then we'd be able to get you a little town." Allison said with a smile. 

John couldn't believe that she thought it would be lucky if he shrunk again. As if he wasn't small enough. 

The girls continued chatting as they ordered lunch and began to eat. John watched from his cage as Sarah dropped the tiny men on her plate to let them eat. 

They had to dodge her fork as she ate, but they were clearly starving as they stopped trying to run away. 

One of the men was too slow to dodge her fork and got stuck on her food as she brought it to her mouth. 

"Hey! One of them is on your fork! Don't eat it!" John yelled, but the two girls couldn't hear him over their chatter. 

John watched in horror as the man was pushed into Sarah's gaping maw. She clamped down and started chewing. 

"Mmm, this is good" Sarah said as she swallowed the man. 

Everytime John thought things had gotten as bad as they could be, he was proven wrong.