Whatever hope that buoyed Derrick’s heart failed as the computer beeped an angry beep. The pharmacy tech, a young man who looked to still be in highschool almost idly clacked away at the keyboard, each series of keystrokes resulting in a similar, unfriendly noise from the computer.

“Could you try it again?” Derrick asked pre-emptively.

Already he could feel the ire of the people behind him building. Derrick pulled his shirt back into place on his shoulder and leaned on the countertop. He ignored the sighs and grumbles from behind him, and the eye-rolling in front of him.

“It looks like your insurance isn’t going to cover this ‘script.” The pharmacy tech said, growing equally bored and irritated with Derrick.

“Alright, look…” Derrick said, pulling his wallet out. “I’ll just pay for it today, how much is it?”

A few more clicks of the computer. A few more sighs. A few more grumbles.

“A thirty day supply, four doses a day, two hundred and fifty dollars per dose…with tax, that’ll be thirty two thousand seven hundred dollars, sir.” The pharmacy tech said.

Derrick felt his legs waver out from underneath him. The world seemed to slough away into a spinning morass, but he managed to keep himself upright on the counter, catching himself with his hands.

“Wait…” The pharmacy tech said.

Derrick perked up, hope welling up inside. Even the thought of a clerical error, a mistake, or anything.

“Do you have a loyalty card?” The pharmacy tech asked. “It’ll be thirty one thousand, sixty five dollars, reflecting your five percent discount.”

Derrick’s head hung down, his cap falling from his head as it did.

“Sir? I’ll need to ask you to step aside so I can assist the other guests.” The pharmacy tech said.

“How about just a single day’s dose?” Derrick asked. “Can you sell me that? My doctor said they can’t get any more free samples for the month and I’m already out.”

Already in the pharmacy tech’s hand, like a magician pulled out of some kind of hidden sleeve, a tri-fold brochure on glossy paper. The tech slid it across the table, a discreet offering.

“You can either appeal the decision with your insurer, which usually takes something like six to twelve months, or…” The pharmacy tech tapped the brochure. “The manufacturer offers assistance programs, you can reach them using this, they usually get back in touch within a few days.”

With one last push of the pamphet toward Derrick, the pharmacy tech made it absolutely clear, if unspoken, that Derrick should take the offering and step aside. With the brochure clenched in hand, and the feeling that his belt needed tightening, Derrick shuffled away from the counter and back out to his car. As he sat down, the heat of the summer being replaced by an oppressive wave of vision-shimmering oppression that was slowly eroded by the steady hum of the car’s air conditioning. Derrick was relieved that his feet still felt at ease on the pedals, that his hands reached the wheel, even though he’d moved the seat up a notch this morning.

The pamphlet in his hands unfolded, from a family enjoying a picnic on the cover, to some models smiling on the interior. Bold font assured him that ‘Help is available’, followed by less reassuring tiny font that spelled out the reality of the situation. Outlined were basic requirements, stipulations, restrictions, and provisios that may prevent someone from being enrolled into what was apparently called ‘OligFam’, the assistance program being offered by OligPharm, the manufacturer of the anti-reduction drug, Amplidine. The drug Derrick needed sooner than later, and could not afford even if he had ten years to work in his current job.

All in all the pamphlet said very little that was concrete. Income limits were mentioned, but not defined. Resource restrictions were noted, but again, no number was printed. Even through all the text setting out vague exceptions and rules, Derrick couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t met one of the exclusionary rules, and he certainly couldn’t decipher if he was eligible otherwise, which seemed to be the designed intent of the pamphlet. Instead, in bold font, larger than any other text in the entire document, a phone number shined through, with the instructions outlined below it to call in to submit an application.

Although his hands were beginning to sweat, Derrick punched in the number and was immediately connected to a robotic voice, thanking him for calling OligFam, the Amplidine assistance program offered by the caring staff at OligPharm. What followed were a series of banal prompts, basic questions, only to become a steady stream of intrusive questions. Derrick hesitated when the mechanically polite voice asked for his home address, but given how short he was on options, he provided it after the second prompt, and when the voice asked for his Social Security Number, he had no reservations left. The phone call ended, seemingly abruptly, as the voice thanked him, assured him that someone would be in touch within forty eight hours, and then bid him goodbye.

Derrick sat back against the seat and clenched his eyes. As moisture ran down his forehead, then down his cheek, he convinced himself that it was all just sweat from the heat. Wiping away the excess, Derrick began the mundane task of driving himself home.

The rest of his evening was unremarkable, save for the repetitious checking of his phone for nonexistent updates from his application. If there was an upside to a congenital shrinking condition, Derrick told himself as he drifted to sleep, it was that his bed was far more spacious than he'd paid for. 

Derrick awoke with start. His doorbell was jarring under the best of circumstances, but being pulled from his dream of calm seas by the buzzing klaxon letting him know someone was at his door made it all the more alarming.

Although the bedsheet didn't impede him, Derrick still fell from his bed with the absence of grace that came from being unfamiliar with the distance from his bed to the floor. After recovering, slightly, realizing he was prone on the hardwood floor of his own bedroom, and recognizing the buzzing-ringing as his doorbell and not some hellish wasp in his dreams, Derrick finally found the wherewithal to call out.

“Coming!” Derrick shouted. “Coming! Just give me a moment!”

Derrick scrambled to his feet and fought to wrap the bedsheet around his waist, tripping once over the sheet, before climbing back to his feet and making his way to the front door. The doorbell continued to sound, his visitor clearly eager to have an audience with the king of his four hundred and eighty one square foot, one-bedroom, one-bath castle.

As he swung the door open, he immediately regretted not taking the time to get dressed. Standing in his doorway was a woman in a grey skirt and blazer. Her red hair surrounded her head like a mane, and her eyes regarded him from behind rimless rectangles with a mixture of disgust and mocking humor.

Behind her another woman stood, an overly large case held by the single handle in both her hands. This woman kept her relatively dull black hair in a bun and fought to keep the case off the ground and her thick black glasses from falling off her face.

"Mr. Scleretti?" The redhead inquired.

For a moment, Derrick was stunned. The woman in front of him had to be nearly six and a half feet tall. He quickly checked to see if she wore heels only to be dismayed to see flats. It was on recognizing her footwear that Derrick also came to his own dread epiphany, that the woman in his doorway was likely no amazonian in business casual, but that his own height had diminished considerably.

"Hello?" The woman said to Derrick's almost blank downward stare. "Are you a… Mr. Derrick Sandoval Scleretti?"

"Uh, yes! Yes, I'm Derrick. How can I help you?" He said, startled back to matching her gaze.

"And did you place a preliminary application with OligPharm, the manufacturer of Amplidine, to join the patient assistance program, OligFam?" She followed up.

“Yes, I placed the call yesterday…” Derrick said, adjusting the sheet so it covered more of him. “When the insurance company wouldn’t pay for my prescription. Who are you?”

At his affirmation of his identity, and the call he’d placed. The redhead’s eyes lit up. She extended a hand down to him the green, almond nails glinting in the light.

“Good morning, my name is Amanda Chamberlain, I’m an application processor and counselor with OligFam.” The woman said, clasping Derrick’s hand and shaking it vigorously.

As she shook his hand, Amanda pushed forward, crowding her way into Derrick’s home with not so much as an invitation. Her relative size to Derrick made the act of simply walking in through the open door an almost entirely uncontested event. Derrick himself was pushed somewhat gently aside as she strode in.

“And with me today is one of OligFam’s medical evaluators, Kirti Narayan-Noles.” Amanda indicated the woman struggling with the case, who was already halfway into Derrick’s home behind her. “We’re here to complete your application for the OligFam program, and see if we can’t get you eligible for assistance with your Amplidine prescription.”

“Come on in…” Derrick said, more to the woman carrying the case, who at least nodded in acknowledgement as she passed him. Derrick couldn’t help but notice that even though she seemed shorter than Amanda, she was still taller than Derrick, significantly.

As Derrick shut the door behind Kirti, he watched as Amanda was taking in her surroundings, while Kirti had already set about with her case on the coffee table. Whereas Amanda seemed to be taking in everything all at once, Kirti was much more focused on squaring her case before pulling a number of devices and supplies from it. She had already taken a seat on the couch as she was setting up.

“Um… what are you doing?” Derrick asked to both of the women now in his home.

“First thing’s first…” Amanda said, without even turning back to Derrick. “You’ve clearly been skipping doses…”

“Can’t skip what you don’t have…” Derrick muttered under his breath.

“So we’ll need to ensure you’re not going to wither away on us.” Amanda said. “Provided you consent to the interview and associated evaluation, Kirti here will be administering a complimentary maintenance dose of Amplidine, and you’ll be provided with seven additional doses to get you through the next couple of days while we process your application.”

“Yes!” Derrick shouted. “Of course!”

“Come over here, please.” Kirti said, snapping a neoprene glove into place as she did.

Now that she was sitting on Derrick’s couch, Derrick at least felt a little more comfortable with Kirti’s height advantage, a feeling of comfort which was almost immediately erased as she stood up when he approached her. The dark skinned woman had enough of a friendly demeanor that Kirti herself wasn't deeply intimidating, but her relative height, and the odd device she held in her right hand did make everything scarier.

"Because we can't wait for the normal pharmacokinetics of the Amplidine pill…" Kirti explained, while guiding Derrick to sit on his own couch. "We'll need to administer this nasal inhaler."

"Okay…" Derrick said, reaching up for what was apparently an inhaler.

"Actually… I'll need to administer it directly. And you're not going to like it." Kirti said.

"What do you mean?" Derrick asked with building trepidation.

"Amplidine's nasal inhalation formulation is deeply unpleasant…" May explained. "but needs to remain in the patient's lungs for approximately ninety seconds to be effective."

"O…okay, I'll j…just hold my breath." Derrick said.

"You won't. I've been told it's like breathing in 'hydrochloric acid on fire'." Kirti said, a tinge of pity flashing across her face. "And each dose of the inhalation formulation is roughly twenty six times the cost of each pill, so we cannot waste it."

"I… okay, so how do I take it?" Derrick asked.

"You're going to breathe out, I'm going to shove this…" Kirti shook the device in her hand. "Up your nose, you're going to breathe in as deeply as you possibly can, and then…"

"And then?" Derrick said, sounding more pathetic than he wanted to.

"I'm going to hold my hand over your mouth and nose for ninety five seconds while the medication sets in." Kirti said.

There were a few moments of silence as Derrick processed what he'd been told. He looked from Kirti to Amanda and back, but found no alternatives, slowly nodded his head in resigned understanding.

The sight of Kirti approaching, looming over him, a device in one glove hand and the other reaching toward him was unnerving, but he managed to remain still. Her left hand reached around and grabbed him by the back of the head.

Since he had begun to shrink, Derrick had done everything in his power to avoid most physical contact with other people. Derrick hadn’t been the tallest person, but having already lost some inches, being reminded of his losses was painful. The medical examiner’s hand, clutching the back of his head with surprising ease only reinforced the apprehension in Derrick. He could feel his heart trying to beat outside of his chest, and his own breathing become shallow and quick.

“Okay, let’s start breathing out, and in together.” Kirti said. “In…”

She drew in a deep breath, even going so far as to mime the action so that Derrick felt prompted to mimic it. Derrick kept drawing breath, until he could draw no more, a bit humiliated that Kirti was still taking her breath.

“And out…” She continued, pursing her lips and pushing her breath out.

Derrick let his breath out similarly, his eyes locked onto Kirti’s.

“Keep going.” Kirti said, the inhaler moving closer to his face. “Good, now hold it. When I push this into your nose, you need to breath in as deeply as you can through the nose.”

Derrick felt as though he might pass out, but without warning, the medical examiner crammed the cone of the device up into Derrick’s nostril, simultaneously pinching the other nostril shut. With everything he had, Derrick sucked his breath in. The torrent of electric fire that rushed into Derrick’s lungs and begun to spread almost instantly as though he had seized a downed power wire.

“Keep going!” Kirti shouted. “All the way in!”

In that moment, if it hadn’t been for Kirti staring him in the eyes, he would’ve done everything in his power to exhale, to let the seeming poison in his chest out. But he maintained. Derrick wanted to scream, and just as he felt he would, the cone popped free of his nostril. Without delay, Kirti’s gloved hand clamped down over his mouth, pinching down on his nose between her thumb and hand. Even if Derrick has been aware of his diminished size, the sudden clarity of an unaffected woman’s hand easily shutting off his air supply only exacerbated the fear and pain welling inside his chest.

“One…” Kirti said.

If the sensation of drawing in the breath was fire, being forced to keep it inside him was like the sun raging inside his chest. He could still hear Kirti talking, counting up, but it didn’t matter. Even a few counts from one, Derrick wanted to let go, and tried to shake off Kirti’s grip. The dark skinned woman’s grip on the back of his head, and over his face, however, was unshakable. Derrick’s vision began to blur with tears.

“Sixteen…” Kirti continued.

By twenty Derrick couldn’t bear it. He reached up and tried to pry Kirti’s hand from his face. Had her hands grown? Were the fingers from her other hand creeping into vision? Still her hand didn’t budge. Darkness began to replace the edges of his sight, and the tears came unrestrained from his eyes. All the while the searing pain in his chest radiated out, burning his throat, his arms, and even as his vision faded, his eyes.

“Sixty seven…” Kirti continued.

Clenching his eyes gave Derrick a brief glimpse back into the world through his tears. He saw Kirti’s unchanging expression still looking into his own eyes. He realized he’d lost his grip on Kirti’s hands, and even his own will to remain upright had been burned out of him. The only stopping him from collapsing to the couch in heap of coughing were Kirti's hands securely latched to his head.

"Eighty five…" Kirti continued.

The darkness crept over the last of Derrick's vision and the fire that had begun in his lungs threatened to consume him entirely.

"Ninety!"

Derrick spewed forth a breath even as Kirti had already moved out of the way. Almost paradoxically, everything felt worse as Derrick coughed and sucked in new, more painful breaths. He felt Kirti’s hand on his shoulder, suddenly aware that he was no longer upright, but collapsed to his couch as he hacked and weezed. Her hand kept him from collapsing even further to the floor. Slowly, painfully, a sense of normalcy returned to Derrick’s respiration, and with it his vision began to return.

“Are you going to be able to wrap this up any time soon?” Amanda asked with more than a little impatience in her voice.

As sure as Derrick was that she was asking her coworker, when his vision cleared enough to see the redhead’s face, she was clearly gazing down at him from where she sat on his coffee table, with her arms and legs crossed, miming her impatience. Her foot bobbed idly in the air as she waited for Derrick to compose himself.

“I, just a moment, let me get a glass of water.” He said.

“Yes, if you must.” Amanda granted, even though Derrick hadn’t asked a question.

Derrick gathered up his sheet, and proceeded into his modest kitchen. He turned on the kitchen tap and then realized to his dismay that he’d have to go back out of the kitchen again to get a chair to stand on to reach the cupboard containing his glasses. Opting for the less humiliating option, Derrick instead began searching through the dirty dishes in his sink and dishwasher, both of which were at a more manageable height. He didn’t even notice the shadow looming over him. The first sign he recognized that he wasn’t alone in his kitchen was the tapping of a foot on the linoleum floor.

“We have a schedule to keep, Mr. Scleretti, what is taking so long?” Amanda said from immediately overhead. The toe of her foot tapped louder and louder.

“I…uh, I can’t reach my glasses.” Derrick said, more intimidated than ashamed.

“Fine, which cupboard?” Amanda asked, albeit with a heavy sigh.

Derrick pointed to the appropriate cabinet behind Amanda and the OligPharm representative immediately turned and procured a glass. Without waiting for Derrick's input, she filled it with water from the tap, and crouched down to set it on the floor, next to where Derrick still knelt next to his dishwasher.

"If you're just about done wasting our time, we'll need to get your application finished." Amanda said. "I'm sure you've got things you want to be doing too."

She didn't wait for Derrick to answer, returning to his living room, and leaving him on his kitchen floor, next to a half filled glass of water, and a still running tap. Derrick drank the water, a little less leisurely than he’d originally planned, but he did take the time to more adequately secure his bedsheet into a makeshift toga. He turned the tap off and left the three quarter empty glass on the counter. Returning to his living room, he found Kirti setting up a small medical panel and Amanda having made herself comfortable reclining on his couch, her feet up and crossed over the arm of the couch with a tablet in hand.

“So what do you need to know?” Derrick asked.

“Sit here.” Kirti ordered. “I’ll run a few basic tests, while Amanda finalizes the application process.”

Derrick sauntered over, where Amanda refused to budge, so instead he sat on his coffee table in front of her and adjacent to Kirti. Kirti began immediately. Derrick was a bit caught off guard when Kirti’s hands produced a nasal probe attached to a small consol, and an ear thermometer. The probe found its way up Derrick’s left nostril with less gentleness than he was accustomed to from medical professionals. The ear thermometer similarly was buried into his ear.

With both a nostril and an ear clogged, Kirti’s gloved hands found their way to Derrick’s neck and his wrist, measuring pulse. It was in this state, his throat in Kirti’s hand, probes and sticks in his orifices, that Amanda began the application interview.

“Finally, now, you’ve already provided us with the basics of what we need.” Amanda outlined. “But the next part is largely a legal process.”

Derrick couldn’t really acknowledge, but Amanda continued anyway.

“So, under the conditions of the OligFam programs, you agree to submit data from financial institutions, social media companies or platforms, and civic entities, referred to as ‘data’ herein, as required or requested by the OligFam program. Do you consent to these data terms?”

“Y…yesh.” Derrick enunciated.

“Good.” Amanda continued. “Additionally, you agree to submit to physiological or mental examinations, measurements, or tests, referred to as ‘tests’ herein, as required or requested by the OligFam program. These tests can include both conventional tests, as well as the collection of samples and tissue. Do you consent to these test terms?”

“Ugl…ugkay.” Derrick managed to work out.

“Finally. You agree to submit your name, likeness or personhood to OligFam program for the purposes of marketing or licensing, relinquishing all hold you had to name, likeness, or personhood for the purposes and ends of the OligFam Program.” Amanda outlined. “Do you agree to these terms?”

“Yes, I do.” Derrick agreed, as Kirti’s hands came off him.

His respite was brief, as Kirti returned with stethoscope, and another instrument that Derrick didn’t recognize.

Dozens and dozens of questions followed from Amanda, each requiring Derrick to waive some kind of autonomy or privacy. As Amanda outlined each section, Kirti accompanied the questions with more all too personal examinations. At the morning ran into the early afternoon, and Derrick’s stomach began to growl, he was even instructed to pause the process to take a single pill of Amplidine, as part of the maintenance routine. Once back the questions, poking, prodding, and groping resumed unabated. After several hours, Amanda finally seemed to be wrapping it up.

“Great, last one. You understand that application or acceptance into any of OligPharm’s OligFam programs is not a guarantee of any payment, service, or reward.” Amanda outlined.

“I… wait, even with all this, even if I get into the program, there’s no guarantee that I’ll get Amplidine out of it?” Derrick protested.

“Stay still.” Kirti said, the stethoscope on his chest pushing him back into a rigid upright posture.

“These are the terms.” Amanda said, turning the tablet toward Derrick. At the bottom of the tablet, following an intense block of text detailing what she’d just been over, a line with a box for a thumbprint after it. “Do you submit to these terms?”

Kirti pulled her hands back, and set about replacing her tools, leaving Derrick to feel unsteady as he considered the tablet screen in front of him. Derrick could still feel his pulse in his neck from Kirti’s timing. He could feel the sweat forming at his brow. He didn’t dare to look up, over the tablet, where Amanda still relaxed on his couch.

Instead he knew what he had to do. He reached out with his right hand and placed his thumb on the rectangle, much larger than the thumbprint he left. As the tablet registered his thumbprint, his name filled into the line next to it automatically. The tablet’s screen darkened, and a simple box appeared over the rest of the contract with two words. Thank you.

“Wonderful!” Amanda said, shooting up from where she sat. “With that we can begin processing your application. Thank you for your time, Mr. Sclerreli.”

She stood up so quickly, Derrick found himself a little dizzy watching her stand up next to him, but he had little time to consider as Kirti caught his attention with the most important thing in Derrick’s life, a prescription bottle.

"This is eighteen total doses of Amplidine." Kirti said, setting the amber plastic on the coffee table next to where Derrick remained sitting. "This is enough for the remainder of today and the next four days."

Derrick picked up the bottle and considered the bright yellow tablets inside. They were identical to the ones his doctor had provided when he'd first been diagnosed a couple of days ago.

"And what am I supposed to do after that?" Derrick asked.

Kirti had already packed up the remainder of her things and had quickly ducked out of Derrick’s house from behind Amanda.

"We'll be in touch before then." Amanda answered from the doorway. "The OligFam program has multiple levels. That can mean discounted or even free Amplidine."

"And if I'm not accepted?" Derrick asked, sinking back into his couch.

“Well, if you don’t get accepted…” Amanda said.

She braced herself against Derrick’s door frame, and reached down awkwardly as she balanced poorly on one leg. With some lacking grace, she peeled her flat off, revealing her stocking clad foot. She stood up, still precariously balancing on a single foot, and glanced at the insole of her flat, shaking the shoe gently before smiling. She turned the shoe to display the insole to Derrick.

There, having tumbled from the toe into the heel of Amanda’s flat, looking more pathetic than Derrick imagined such a mant could, was a tiny, naked woman. Covered in the sweat from Amanda’s foot, a bit of lint and grime, and moving with the sloth of someone who had just been clutched under the nyloned toes of a woman dozens of times her size for at least the hours that she had spent interviewing Derrick. The tiny woman let out a pathetic, mewling attempt at speech, but was far too tiny to be heard.

“If you don’t get accepted, we’ll be back to…check in.” Amanda promised.

She didn’t bother to say goodbye, instead slipping her flat back on, and stepping outside the door and shutting it in one fluid motion. James spent a few moments just soaking in dread at what he’d seen before he desperately reached for his phone to set regular alarms for the four doses of Amplidine he’d need to take per day.

Harsh lighting and spartan design meant there was nothing for Derrick to focus on as he waited in the consultation room. More a year had passed since he’d been diagnosed and begun a four-times daily regimen of Amplidine. The drug itself was provided free of cost to him through OligPharm’s charitable arm, OligFam, but the associated treatments and medical services necessary had bankrupted him.

Not that Derrick had much in the way of assets prior to beginning to shrink, but his house had been mortgaged three times over, his car was gone, and while he’d managed to continue working at the distribution center for a few weeks, an incident involving a falling pallet of pillows had earned him a visit with the company doctor, a tape measure against his back, and a pink slip for his six years of good performance.

Derrick was left with a cramped studio apartment that he’d just barely managed to qualify for through some state-based intervention, an archaic television that worked about a third of the time he wanted it to, a cell phone from the late nineties provided free of charge through a religious organization, and a wardrobe that fit looser and looser every day.

Even now, in the medical gown that had been provided to him by the OligPharm staff, he felt the collar slip over his shoulders and threaten to slide off him if he didn’t pull it back up every few moments. He made a note to ask for the smaller size next time. His feet dangled from the examination table, which would have been the case even prior to his shrinking, but now he had no hope of dismounting the table gracefully or climbing back up to it, should he need to get down.

The clock, one of the only non-medical features of the consultation room ticked loudly enough to remind him that he’d been waiting for over an hour to see Kirti and Amanda, his medical and account agents respectively, and worryingly enough, was rapidly approaching the scheduled time for another dose of Amplidine.

With nothing else to work from, Derrick began to descend the examination table. Thankfully it had steps, made for children no doubt, but usable enough that he could manage to climb down without slipping, falling, or landing awkwardly enough to break anything. Once down he fished through his clothes, sloppily folded on one of the chairs meant for family, for the amber bottle that had cost him so much over the last thirteen months. The bottle itself was nearly empty, only five pills clattered in the plastic. Derrick struggled with the top, but was able to get it pressed, twisted, and opened after a brief, but embarrassing, fight, and flung one of the very large oblong capsules into his mouth, replacing the cap.

It was only then that Derrick realized, to his horror, that he had nothing to aid in the swallowing of the pill. The bottle was tossed back onto his clothing and he immediately began to search for anything that could be used. There was a sink, and even a stack of paper cups to drink from, but Derrick had already learned that normal sized counters were his nemesis. Still, in the panic of the moment, he flailed futilely against the side of the counter, trying to reach the faucet. When that didn’t work, he resorted to what he’d always done, pulled an empty chair next to him closer and climbed on it. It still wasn’t easy, and by the time he’d secured a cup and filled it, he’d already soaked the front of his medical gown. Drinking from the cup just ensured the entirety of the gown had some water in it.

It was then that the door opened and the only two faces he recognized at OligPharm walked in. Amanda Chamberlain, his case counsellor, and Kirti Narayan-Noles, his medical adviser, came through the door. Normally Amanda led the pair, but this time Kirti was ahead of her, although that didn’t stop Amanda from laughing as she saw him standing on the chair, dripping water, with a tiny cup in his hands that, paradoxically, looked normally sized given his stature.

“Mr. Scleretii, get down from there!” Kirti said with urgency and annoyance. “The last thing I need is to have you falling and breaking your head open!”

“Sorry… I just needed to take my Amplidine, and I didn’t have any water.” Derrick said.

His attempt to climb down from the chair was met with immediate and almost catastrophic disaster. His bare foot slipped on the chair’s plastic seat, made slick by the water he’d spilled, and he felt his leg shoot out over the edge of the seat, sending him into an ungraceful tumble. Derrick heard a gasp from both Amanda and Kirti, but as the world around him rolled, he couldn’t focus on anything. For a brief moment he was certain the fall would be his end. A short drop and a quick stop on hard vinyl flooring would be too much for his shrunken stature and his obiturary would read something about a three and half foot fall to the ground.

The impact never came. A blur of white fabric, brown skin, and dark hair caught his vision before he found himself being cradled in the arms of his OligFam medical adviser, who had made an impressive lunge-and-catch as he fell from the chair.

“Nice catch, Kirti!” Amanda said, now recovered from the shock and laughing. “You really don’t want to have to start over do you?”

Kirti’s face, already a potent mix of worry, frustration, and exertion, shot a hateful glance back at Amanda.

“If you’re not going to help with the evaluation, just sit by the door.” Kirti said.

“Fine, fine.” Amanda conceded before doing just that. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“If you need something to drink, Mr. Scleretti, next time either bring it with you, or wait for OligPharm staff to assist you.” Kirti said.

“I… but… Y…you’re right. I’m sorry.” Derrick said, defeated. “I’ll get back up on the table.”

“No.” Kirti said, setting Derrick down on his feet. “We need to confirm some measurements, so just stand there and don’t do anything.”

Derrick obeyed, hanging his head in shame. Kirti returned from a drawer with a chart and tape measure in hand.

“Stand up straight.” She commanded.

The tape measure, a bright white thing unlike the kind used for industrial or construction applications, was almost silent as Kirti ran out its length next to Derrick. More than ever, even when standing next to unaffected people, being subjected to a quantification of his condition made Derrick feel small. It was bad enough that Kirti’s hips were above him, but to see the limited amount of tap needed to measure him made it worse.

“It looks like your current height is around seventy six centimeters, or two feet, six inches.” Kirti noted on the chart.

“What? You can’t be serious!” Derrick whined. “Can you measure it again?”

“It looks like the nurse already checked it twice before at your insistence…” Kirti said dryly. “A fourth time isn’t likely to grow you any inches. But this is good!”

“Good?” Derrick asked. “How is this good?”

“Well, it shows the drug is delaying the final onset of symptomatic reduction.” Kirti noted, not looking up from her notes on the chart. “With a bit more data we may be able to develop this into something genuinely useful.”

“I thought Amplidine was supposed to stop me from shrinking!” Derrick protested. “What’s the point of all this if I’m just going to shrink anyway?”

The two women shared a glance with each other.

“Mr. Scleretti, without treatment you would have already progressed through the normal stages of the disease.” Kirti outlined, a bit of uncharacteristic frustration in her voice. “Had you not been taking the drug, you’d likely already have experienced what patients refer to as ‘the drop’ and been reduced to stable size, likely not more than ten or fifteen centimeters. Um, a few inches at most.”

The dread epiphany, the sudden unvarnished understanding that he might still dwindle to ‘a few inches at most’ hit Derrick hard, enough to buckle his legs from under him, and hang his head where he sat on the floor.

“But I…” He began.

“There has not been a single case of any infected patient reversing or even completely halting the shrinking process.” Kirti said firmly. “We have seen it delayed, and slowed, but never completely abated.”

The medical attache stood from where she worked at the computer in the consultation room and walked over to Derrick. Completely contrary to the rest of her hygienic and very meticulously groomed self-presentation, Derrick was a bit taken aback by the state of her sneakers; ancient things that looked like they had outlived their useful lifespan two or three times over. But he didn’t have long to contemplate her footwear as her hands slid under his arms and lifted him effortlessly up. In one motion, without any struggle on her part, Kirti lifted him from the ground to the chair’s seat where she deposited him.

“You’re going to need to understand that you’re not going back to the way things were, ever..” Kirti said, pulling another chair in front of him, sitting down, and pulling his chin up to face her. “And you’re going to need to come to understand it sooner rather than later.”

“But this can’t be happening to me!” Derrick protested. “I’ve been taking the Amplidine every day!”

Kirti looked over her shoulder at Amanda who’s bored expression didn’t change, save for a raised eyebrow and a shrug.

“You said I wouldn’t shrink anymore!” Derrick whined. “Why am I still shrinking?”

“I didn’t say you wouldn’t shrink more.” Kirti said, a tinge of anger seeping into her voice. “I said ‘Amplidine has been effective in slowing the symptoms of the disease in trials compared to the placebo’. There’s a huge difference.”

“Let me talk to someone else!” Derrick demanded.

“There’s no one else to talk to.” Kirti said, her eyes narrowing behind her thick glasses. “Amanda’s your case counsellor and I’m your medical adviser, we’re the only two in the company who even know what’s going on with you…”

“I don’t care!” Derrick said, moving to dismount the chair.

“Stay seated.” Kirti ordered. “We still have tests to run.”

“No! You can’t keep me here!” Derrick shouted back.

Kirti’s hands shot up and pushed him back into the seat, shocking Derrick and sending his eyes wide open.

“What are you doing?” He practicly screamed.

“I said ‘stay there’.” Kirti reiterated. “I don’t want to have to tell you again.”

“Let me out of here, or I’m calling the cops!” Derrick threatened.

Kirti didn’t move, instead she pulled herself closer, blocking off an easy exit for Derrick from the chair. As she did she reached over to the last of the chair, the one containing Derricks clothes and picked up the cell phone from where it lay on top of the pile. An ancient thing, provided to Derrick free of charge by a religious non-profit, it possessed the ability to text and make calls, and little else. Derrick watched with pained envy as Kirti effortless slipped the back of the phone off, almost incidentally reminding Derrick of how much he struggled to even use the phone at his current size, before popping the battery out of the phone. Derrick could do nothing as she pocketed the battery, and tossed the phone into the garbage can.

“G…give that back!” Derrick cried.

“No.” Kirti said flatly. “I think it’s time you accepted your position in life. And if you’re not able to accept it on you’re own, I’ll have to help you understand it.”

Kirti leaned back in her chair and for a moment Derrick thought he might have a chance to make a break for the door, ignoring the fact that Amanda still sat by the door, watching him and her coworker with a kind of a bored detachment. His dreams of escape were cut off, however, as Kirti swung her legs up, and dropped her ratty sneaker-clad feet, ankles crossed over each other, into Derrick’s lap.

“What are you doing?” Derrick screeched.

Kirti’s sneakers kept him very thoroughly pinned in place. Already the soles and sides of the shoes were rubbing grime off on the gown he wore, but worse still as he fought to dislodge her feet from his lap, his hands and arms were getting dirtier. He couldn’t managed to push the sneakers off him, nor could he wriggle out from under them. The heavily worn soles of the sneakers, their tread almost completely gone, waved slowly in his face as Kirti adjusted herself on the chair across from him.

“I’m doing what we need to do.” Kirti said flatly. “This is for your own good, Mr. Scleretti.”

“How can this be for my own good?” Derrick protested, his hands slipping off the toe of Kirti’s shoe.

“You’re going to continue shrinking, and nothing is going to stop that. At some point, you’re going to find yourself at the mercies of someone much less… “ Kirti looked back over her shoulder to where Amanda was still watching intently. “forgiving than I am, and in that situation, you’ll need to be able to perform for them without hesitation and up to their expectations, if you hope to avoid the worst. Now, less talking, and more untying my shoes.”

“What?” Derrick screeched in disbelief. “I’m not…”

He was cut off as Kirti pressed the toe of her shoe into his face, and against the back of the chair, easily overpowering him and digging what little tread remained on the shoe into his cheek. He screamed under the pressure, but Kirti didn’t relent for several moments, instead letting him feel the difference in their strength in absolute clarity.

“You will.” Kirti said flatly. “Or it will get much, much worse for you. Now hurry up and untie them.”

Kirti didn’t give Derrick the chance to relax, keeping the pressure on him as his hands worked relatively blindly around the sneaker to grab at the shoe’s laces and pull. Fortunately for Derrick, the shoe was in poor enough condition that almost anyway he pulled hard enough on the lace would dissolve the knot, and sure enough he felt the laces come free.

“Good. Now the other.” Kirti instructed.

Derrick fought with the laces of Kirti’s other shoe, but eventually managed to pull it off. With both laces on both shoes hanging limp, Kirti idly moved each shoe to inspect them, still preventing Derrick from moving from underneath her stacked feet.

“Not bad, now I don’t think you’d have the strength to take them off, so just stay there.” Kirti ordered. “If you move, I’m going to let Amanda revoke your eligibility for the program and make sure she’s there when you do finally go through the drop.”

Derrick sat stunned, both at the threat and the sudden change in demeanor from Kirti, but it didn’t stop him from watching as she lifted one foot up off the other, digging the toe of the shoe still in his lap into the heel of the raised up and, with the practiced ease that came from doing it thousands of times before, kicked off the elevated shoe.

Immediately Derrick recoiled in horror and disgust. To his shock, and further dismay, Kirti hadn’t been wearing socks. Exposed to the air, her bare foot showed signs of having been confined in the dilapidated and grimey shoes for far too many hours. Wrinkles formed in her sole and toes from long exposure to the sweat soaked environment, and the stench was nigh unbearable. Only inches from his face, and nearly half as large as his entire body, Kirti’s sole had the kind of offensive smell that normally pushed even the laziest of people into completing a load of laundry and a thorough shower. Instead it seemed Kirti had left the house in a hurry, sockless, and without a care for what might come of her feet in the coming hours.

She flexed her feet, wriggling the toes above Derrick’s face as she sighed in relief. Derrick tried to retreat from the glistening sole in front of him, but the moist flesh was inescapable in the chair. Her toes passed dangerously close to his face as she aired them out, leaving him nowhere to run from their acrid stench.

Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Kirti’s feet shuffled around in his lap. The still sneaker-clad foot swapped places and he found the sweaty, stinking sole nestled firmy in his lap, it’s sweat already soaking into the medical gown. He didn’t have any time to process this indignity before her freed big toe wedged itself behind the heel of the other shoe and kicked it off with even more ease than she had removed the first.

The second sole was much the same as first, that is to say, almost dripping with sweat, wrinkled from the heat and moisture of long hours contained in poorly cared for footwear, and radiating the kind of smell that could stop a person’s breath with a single whiff.

“God, Kirti!” Amanda exclaimed from the door. “What did you do?”

“I don’t get paid to worry about how my feet smell.” Kirti shrugged. “Besides, we have a mant here who’s going to help me clean them up.”

“I’m not a mant!” Derrick screamed, forced to turn his head to avoid contact with Kirti’s idly waving feet. “I’m not a mant!”

“You will be.” Kirti said flatly. “And that’s as good as already being one.”

With that, Derrick’s horror came to full fruition, a slight adjustment of her legs was all it took to bury Derrick’s face, as well as most of his entire body, in between her soles. Kirti spared no part of him, or her soles, as she rubbed her feet over him. The medical gown quickly failed, and with a surprisingly deft display of dexterity from Kirti’s toes, was clenched, ripped away, and discarded, before her feet returned to the task of assaulting him.

“My boyfriend has a pretty strong aversion to feet for some reason…” Kirti said.

“Can’t imagine why!” Amanda chimed in from beside the door, laughing as she did.

“Shut it.” Kirti retorted over her shoulder. “So, anyway, my boyfriend’s really opposed to giving me a decent footrub. Since you’re going to have to get used to this kind of treatment I want you to finally be of some use and massage one foot while licking the other clean.”

“No! I’m not…” Derrick sputtered and gagged as Kirti’s toes found their way into his mouth. The taste was unlike anything Derrick had ever experienced, and only reinforced the agony of being subjected to her feet.

“You will.” Kirti said. “And if you continue to fail to follow my orders, I will make sure that the next few weeks are even worse than this for you.”

Derrick’s vision began to blur with water in his eyes, he lied to himself and told himself that his eyes were watering from the smell of her sweaty feet coating his face, or the taste of her toes in his mouth, but the tears still slid down his face unabated. One set of Kirti’s toes had invaded his mouth and were busying themselves with his tongue and lips, she couldn’t fit all of them in his mouth at once, and so alternated, ensuring he could taste all of them. The other foot had clutched his hair with her surprisingly effective toe-grip, not only soaking his hair through with her sweat, but keeping him in place.

“What’s it going to be, mant?” Kirti asked, pulling her toes from his mouth and holding them in front of his weeping face. “Are you going to accept your place, or am I going to have to invite the lab staff in here to get their relief as well?”

Now openly weeping, Derrick almost felt his tongue move of its own accord. Slowly, his tongue slid from his mouth, even just brushing by his lips he got more of Kirti’s sweat and gagged. Still, her threats weighed more on his mind than the smell and taste, and with his tongue fully hanging out of his mouth, Kirti’s toes pulled him by the hair into her other foot. It some how tasted worse, a combination of the salitiest, most bitter, noxious taste he’d ever sampled, and when combined with the scent that now clung to him and seeped into his very skin, the nightmare was almost enough to knock him out.

“That’s better.” Kirti said, her toes releasing his hair. That foot found its way back into his lap. “And don’t forget the footrub.”

Derrick’s hands found Kirti’s other foot in his lap, despite that fact that he could see nothing through his tears, or through the sole his tongue was attending to. The feeling was everything he’d come to experience from Kirti’s assault on his face, somehow still excessively sweaty, excessively hot, and the kind of damp flesh that only came from a foot freshly freed from a ratty sneaker.

“Well, I suppose it goes without saying that this little experiment’s going to have to be altered.” Amanda said, finally willing to approach as the stench from Kirti’s feet had at least abated, though Amanda still covered her nose with a sleeve.

“No. We can proceed.” Kirti observed. “The subject has been taking the experimental drug without missing any scheduled doses, and the effects are still observable…”

“Experimental?” Derrick said, momentarily forgetting his task. “You mean I’m not taking Amplidine?”

“Quiet!” Kirti ordered, forcing her foot against Derricks face and compressing his entire head between her sole and the back of the chair. “People are talking, mant.”

“But he knows now…” Amanda noted. “Won’t that throw everything off?”

“It’s not ideal…” Kirti conceded. “But like I said, he’s been taking the new drug without fail, and it’s showing promise, even at the reduced dosages we’ve been giving him. Plus, we already own his home, his car, and he’s broke too. We can just move him to one of the observation cells in the basement for the remainder of the experiment’s duration. It’s not like anyone’s going to miss him. And if someone ask’s we’ll say he finally succumbed to the disease and vanished from there. How many mants go missing everyday? No one will ask a second question.”

“Not a bad idea!” Amanda said. “You can still get your data, and I can still make a ‘successful’ OligFam charitable action! Kirti, you’re a genius! A stanky genius, but still…”

“Hey! That’s no way to talk to a genius.” Kirti laughed, kneading Derrick’s head against the chair until his mouth was again working on her sole. “Why don’t you go put in the request for one of the observation cells to be prepped, I’ll spend some time here making sure my feet are a bit more presentable before I have him moved down there…”

“Perfect!” Amanda said before leaning in to where Derrick had resumed licking Kirti’s soles. “And Derrick, I just want you to know, once you reach your final height, I’ll be happy to help you get adjusted to your new size. Be seeing you, Derrick!”

With that Amanda exited the room, leaving Kirti and Derrick alone. Kirti pulled her feet away from Derrick, only to swap their positions and almost immediately press them back into him. His hand soaking with footsweat slipped on his own saliva coating the other foot, but he tried to resume rubbing even as a renewed stench and taste invaded his senses.

“That’s better…” Kirti observed. “Once we’re done here, I’ll show you to your new home in the basement. Until then, I’ve got nowhere to be, so let’s take as much time as we need to really get those feet clean.”

Derrick’s tongue could taste his own tears mixed in with Kirti’s feet as the door to the examination room closed behind Amanda and locked shut automatically.

Of all of the things in the office, Derrick had come to hate the desk more than anything else. A modern thing, composed of aluminum and plastic with a thick, broad, tempered glass work surface, it was where he found himself more often than not as Kirti passed the exceptionally long hours at her tasks. Promotion after promotion had not dulled Kirti’s drive for her work, and she often spent all night and most of the early hours of the morning in her office collating data, running projections on earlier results, and in general advancing the cause of science. Derrick spent those hours on that cold glass surface, shivering from the exposure and bereft of clothing.

Derrick suspected Kirti left him on the glass desktop deliberately, knowing how cold her office got, and how vulnerable he was to the chill at his size. Standing not quite three inches in height, he knew full well that he was dependent on Kirti for everything, food, water, shelter, and of course, any semblance of warmth. It was that latter element of survival that Derrick always lacked while Kirti worked. Most of the time, after a few hours, he found himself huddled over, next to a monitor or the computer tower, desperate for some kind of relief.

It was when Kirti got the inclination, however, that he was allowed to finally warm himself up. Kirti would remove her shoes, and her socks if she’d bothered to wear them, and kick her bare feet up on her desk, and allow Derrick to do his best to lick and massage them. Of course, as small as he was, the effect was minimal, but Derrick at least got some warmth out of being so close to her comparatively massive soles.

Kirti stretched in her chair, her arms, her neck, her back, and Derrick knew what would follow. He rushed from where he rested near the tower to just next to her keyboard in dutiful anticipation. Sure enough, after the snaps and pops of her various joints, there was a brief shuffling of her legs, the squeal of her office chair as she reclined back, and kicked her bare feet up on her desk.

Immediately the familiar, acrid scent hit Derrick like a train. No matter how much progress Kirti had made in her research, she refused to buy new shoes unless absolutely necessary, and still never wore socks, leaving the pair of feet now towering over Derrick just as repulsive as when he’d first been introduced to them in the observation room so long ago.

Unlike that first introduction, however, Derrick did not recoil from Kirti’s stinging scent or the heat radiating from them, instead he charged forward, desperate, if not eager, to fulfill his task. He tried his best to embrace her heel, but knew his arms could never reach around it, still it absorbed some of the impact as he barely slowed.

Without waiting to recover, he began to adorn Kirti’s heel with kisses, as many as he could, as fast as he could, and making sure his whole face buried into her heel with each kiss. He could barely see around the foot, but caught the glow of Kirti’s phone, while the foot above him flexed idly, an arch almost out of reach wrinkling into the ball and of course, massive toes above.

She rarely addressed him directly, and when she was ready for him to switch feet, she showed as much by bowling him over with the foot he worshipped, and pinning him to the desk under it. As she lifted it up, the sound of her or sole briefly sticking to the desk, Derrick found himself scrambling to climb back to his knees in the sweaty outline of her foot on the glass. Her other sole descended, this one positioning itself at an angle to allow his lips to reach her arch, despite his tiny stature. He needed no command to continue kissing, now licking between each one, at Kirti’s sole.

"Great news, Derrick!" Kirti announced. "It looks like the FDA just cleared the experimental drug you took through phase four!"

Derrick didn't respond, he'd learned Kirti didn't want a response, and anything he said would be more dangerous than beneficial. Instead he kept his face pressed into her sole, his tongue licking away at her arch. He barely even slowed as her other sole closed in behind him to sandwich him between her feet.

"In public trials, with sufficient dosage, the drug proved effective at slowing shrinking even better than Amplidine!" Kirti said, reading from the report. "They're going to market it as 'Amplidine XT' and sell it at four times the cost of regular Amplidine! And…"

Derrick had learned not to scream, so when Kirti’s soles pressed together, smothering him between her sweat-drenched, hot flesh, he barely uttered a peep of surprise. There was a cacophony of noise, squishing and squelching as her soles rolled around him, compounded with her thunderous heartbeat, and a delighted, if significantly muffled squeal of delight from Kirti.

“My ad-hoc dosage research resulted in it clearing phase four! I’m getting a promotion and a bonus!” Kirti said, her soles finally releasing Derrick.

Without the pressure of her feet, Derrick peeled ungracefully off of the sole he’d been attending to and fell back down to the cold glass of the desk. He had only a few moments to consider what had happened. It was only when the shadow of her foot fell over him that he scrambled to his knees. He’d learned she didn’t like it when he was unattentive.

“Did you hear that?” Kirti asked, settling her toes onto Derrick and letting him resume his duties. “The research on you got me a promotion!”

Derrick didn’t respond. He’d learned not to. Kirti’s foot pushed down and Derrick’s legs slid out from under him as the sole, many times his size, began to press him into the glass. Although fear flooded into him, he knew better than to fight back, with luck he’d be allowed to crawl out from under her sole in a few moments, or wake up having passed out from lack of air or too much pressure. As the darkness began to seep into the edges of his vision he heard Kirti over the thunder of her pulse.

“I’m going to make sure I keep you close underfoot, my little medical trophy.” Kirti said, as her toes clenched around him and he passed into darkness.