To say Lana was having a bad day would be an understatement.  Granted, Lana hadn’t had much in the way of good days since the Condensing Cataclysm.  Being one of the quarter of the human population that was brought down to a few inches tall by the mysterious event, she was used to people seeing her as an insignificant bug.  But of all the people to commit this sort of sadistic torture, she never imagined Max to even be capable of such a thing.

Max looked beneath him at the desk.  Max had known Lana for decades, and never once had she looked as weak and helpless as she did at that moment.  It pained him to see his friend Lana held in place by the tape, struggling against her bonds.  She always tries to fight her way out of difficult circumstances.  That trait, in fact, was the reason he even had to restrain the rambunctious tiny in the first place.

Only a few hours ago, Lana had gotten into a fight at the bar.  One particularly rowdy patron had gotten handsy with her and caused a stir.  The drunkard, not one to take no for an answer, had taken a swing at the shrunken woman.  In fact, if Max hadn’t been there to snatch her up, she would probably be a smear on the bar’s counter.  

Max did feel bad for Lana.  He understood that she was more than justified in feeling that she still deserved the respect due to any human being, but that simply wasn’t the reality of her situation.  Whether they liked it or not, Lana wasn’t really in a position to push back.  She was a small person in a world too large for her, and it was hardly impossible that she would die if she didn’t wise up.  As little as he wanted to do this, it was for the shrunken woman’s good.

Max grabbed his satchel from beside the desk and removed a pouch from inside.  Peeking inside, he saw thirteen shrunken women scrambling to try to get out and escape.  He felt sorry for this assortment of frightened tinies, shuddering at what he was about to do, but shook away his inhibitions.  After all, everything he was about to enact on them was for Lana’s sake.  These women were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If he didn’t capture them, somebody else would have.

Removing eight of the tinies from the bag, he placed one in the space between each of his toes.  They all started screaming and clawing away at his toes, but they were powerless to escape the grip of his digits.  Lana couldn’t even believe what he was doing.  This couldn’t possibly be real, right?  Max wasn’t a heartless monster.  At any moment, he would release his captives and she would reprimand him for his poor-taste joke.

“La-la, I know you don’t want to be here, but you have to learn your place.  I want you to watch carefully.  You need to learn to be more careful.  I know you don’t think it’s fair that regular people treat tiny people like dirt, but that’s simply how things are.  I taped you up like this for a reason.  See these women trying to fight their way out from between my toes.  This is what happens to little things like you when they try to resist big people’s wishes.”

Lana tried to turn her head, but the tape held it staring up at her friend’s soles.  Even if she could turn away, there was no way to ignore the wailing and clamor of the small strangers as their cries grew loud, then deafening, and finally silent as their bones crunched into pieces and their bodies burst.  The image of blood dripping from Max’s soles was permanently engraved into her mind.

Max looked down at the mess in disgust.  In truth, the gooey guts between his toes was somewhat uncomfortable.  He rarely even harmed bugs, much less former humans, but this was the only way to get Lana to take her situation seriously.  But that didn’t mean he had to deal with the gunk between his toes.  Besides, if he didn’t clean up, he’d get his socks dirty as soon as he tried to put them back on.  So he pulled a few tissues from his tissue box and wiped away any evidence of these poor souls’ existence.  

Lana could do nothing but watch as Max in one simple motion removed the corpses from his feet and crumpled them in his tissue.  She watches him walk over to the trash can and toss the tissue inside.  But the thing that disturbed her the most was the cold, emotionless, indifferent look in his eye as he did the deed.

Indeed, why would Max feel anything for these random women he picked up off the street?  While it was a bit unpleasant having to pop them to get his point across, they were complete strangers to him.  He owed them nothing.  If the choice was between protecting his best friend and helping these fairly insignificant nobodies, the answer was quite clear.

Max turned and saw the fright in Lana’s eyes.  He was thankful to finally see the fear and understanding that Lana had thus far been lacking.  He could still help her help herself after all, it seemed.  He beamed from ear to ear.  He returned to his position above his friend and reached down for her.  She went into a frenzy, trying everything she could to create some slack in her bonds.  Anything would do if she could just escape.  But to her surprise, Max simply patted her on her head.

“It’s okay, La-la.  Just calm down.  It’ll all be over soon.  You just need to trust me.  Shhhhh.  Shhhhh.”

Max hated knowing how much distress Lana was in, but it was necessary if she was going to survive while he wasn’t around.  He tried to calm her down, but the sound of squealing and panic from inside the pouch reminded him that his work was far from over.  It was time to begin the next lesson.

Lana shook and trembled while taped down on the desk.  Max had just crushed eight women to death between his toes.  He attempted to calm her down, but she was beside herself with fear.

Max dumped the remaining five women from his pouch onto the desk alongside Lana.  They all had heard the commotion outside and could only imagine the worst.  Max couldn’t really blame them.  After all, from their perspective, this must really feel like the end for them.  They were all going to be sacrificed to help his friend adjust to the world she found herself in.  He felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for his size and a reaffirmed resolve to save Lana from herself.

“Now you five have a very important task.  See my tiny friend taped to the desk?  I need you to set a good example for her.  So I expect you all to obey everything I tell you.  If you don’t, the consequences will be severe.  Do you understand?”

One of the women panicked and made a dash for the edge of the desk.  She was about to jump when she peered over the edge.  The vertical drop was far more than she could handle.  She hesitated for a single moment, but a moment was all it took.  Max’s hand descended from above like a bolt of lightning and smashed her like a mosquito.  Max looked at her, then wiped his hand on his shirt.  It made his hand feel less icky, but it left a pretty noticeable stain.  He would have to wash that out later.

“That’s what happens to bad examples.  If you value your lives, you’ll be good examples to our friend Lana from now on.  If you understand, kneel.”

Not one of the small survivors remained standing after that display.  Soon not a single person among the four were standing upright, falling on their hands and knees hoping that their ordeal would end.  Max was pretty relieved that they submitted so easily.  It was clear Lana wasn’t taking these deaths well, so the smoother things went from here, the better.  Looking over the remaining four women, he mulled over his decision for who to start the next lesson with.  Looking over the group, he noticed one that was perfect for the demonstration.  

The woman in question had long brown hair, cute dimpled cheeks, and toned abs just like Lana.  Her rear was round and bubbly, and her chest was about medium-ish.  She was even about a centimeter taller than the others, so she would be easy to see.  She was the perfect dummy to demonstrate the next lesson with.

Snatching up the poor soul, Max lifted her between two of his fingers and held her above Lana and the rest of the group.

“I think you’ll be helping me with my demonstration next.  What’s your name?”

“Sh-sheryll!  My name is Sheryll.  Please, don’t hurt me!  I have money!  I can give you whatever you want.  Just please don’t…”

“I’m not going to hurt you.  Well, at least as long as you obey.  Can you do that for me, Sheryll?”

She nodded quickly.  Every eye was on Max and Sheryll, unsure of what Max would do to the poor woman.  They didn’t want to see, but couldn’t turn away.

“Good.  Only a short while ago, my friend La-la got into a bit of a tough situation.  She was accosted by a guy at the bar.  They got into a fight and La-la was almost killed.  He would have squashed her if I hadn’t rescued her.  So now we have to help Lana how to survive these sorts of scrapes.  So Sheryll, I want to touch your body.  Are you going to be a good example and let me, or are you going to be a bad example?”

Sheryll started to cry, but she didn’t really have any other choice.  She was already between his fingers and had nowhere to escape to.  She tensed up.  With no options left, she simply responded, “Do it.”

Delighted how easily he managed to convince her to help, Max pinched the bottom of Sheryll’s shirt and peeled it over her head.  His thumb kneaded at her breasts long enough to get the point across, but short enough, he hoped, to not cause too much discomfort to his new model.  He made sure Lana got a really good look at exactly what was going on.  She needed to know what she was in for.  He figured it would be better for her to be prepared when this eventually happened to her someday.  The terrified woman was whimpering in Max’s grasp, though he couldn’t hear it.

Lana watched in horror as her best friend molested a woman in front of her eyes, and one that looked very similar to herself.  The tape tugged the hair on her head as she tried to rip herself free, but couldn’t move an inch.  Looking into the eyes of her captor’s victim, she saw just how defeated her stare truly was.  It was the look of someone who had given up completely.

Satisfied, Max placed Sheryll on the floor.  “That’s enough now.  Thank you for helping me with my demonstration.  You can go now.”  The worn-out, half-naked woman stared at the man who not but a few seconds ago violated her confused, so Max elaborated.  “Go on.  I’m sure you don’t want to stay around here.  I don’t need you for anything else.  You’ve already been a big help for somebody so small.  Just head down the hall and when you get to the front of the house, use the doggy door to leave.”

Sheryll didn’t need to be told twice.  She bolted away before the giant could change his mind.  Max turned back to the table and readied for the next lesson.  Lana shook as he snatched up another woman to do god knows what to.

This class was far from over.