Have you ever woken up so hung over the entire room is shaking? Well that’s what happened to me, only thing is I wasn’t hung over. As a matter of fact I had done any drinking at all last night, I’m under age as far as alcohol anyway.

Let me recap everything that’s happened so far. Hi, my name is Peter Craft. I’m nineteen years old, about five foot and seven inches tall, and I have no idea where I am right now. Here’s what I can remember. My first year of college has just ended as of yesterday so I’m on break for the summer. My parents took my little brother and sister to California for a few weeks to stay with some friends and relatives, I live in Pennsylvania by the way. So with my parents on the other side of the country, myself in between jobs, and a Facebook list of close friends I made the most of that night. Fun fact about my friends, we’re all pretty weird. We’re not the kind of people that go to parties, get drunk, smoke weed, strip dance, and then go upstairs to get laid and then puke. In a way we’re more mature, yet not as mature. We don’t need to drink to feel grown up, and getting laid while you’re drunk just makes the whole experience pointless and regrettable. Instead we get together, turn up the music, break out the snacks, and fire up the Xbox Kinect. It’s not as “grown up” as drinking yourself into a coma because you’re too stupid to know when to stop, but it’s what we do and we love it.

So that’s how the night went, and it was amazing. Soda instead of beer, pizza instead of weed, and no one woke up pregnant and feeling like a slut……..Until we get to the part where I wake up in someone else’s bedroom. I lifted my head off of the hardwood floor and looked around. Even before I saw the room I knew this wasn’t my room, my room is carpeted. This room was baby blue colored walls with posters of bands like Imagine Dragons, Bastille, and Lorde. There was a TV, a computer on top of a work desk, a dresser with a mirror on top, and a book case stacked with things like romance novels, to series such as Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Eragon. All in all it looked like a room that could have belonged to anyone my age, except for the fact that everything was FUCKING HUGE!

I’m not talking huge like, built for someone with a growing mutation and they grew to be seven or eight feet tall. I’m talking huge like Jack and the Beanstalk huge! Once my eyes cleared up I thought I had passed out on the floor of this room. It wasn’t until I stood up that I realized exactly how big everything was compared to me, I was a little more than two inches tall compared to this room. I took note of all of this and my mind immediately concluded that I was dreaming, only this looked nothing like one of my dreams. Usually my dreams are hazy, whenever I can remember them. Also I never feel like myself when I dream, I feel more like I’m watching events happen through someone else’s eyes while they do everything. Instead I was completely in control of myself, and this felt very real. This was not a place I’ve been to before so, if this was a dream, why would I be here?

I noticed a clock on top of a thirty story night table said it was about 1:30pm. It took a minute for that to fully register in my brain, given how it was still trying to convince itself I was dreaming, that’s pretty fast processing. Unfortunately both trains of thought collided and died once the first tremor hit. The ground beneath of me shook so suddenly I was thrown off my feet and landed hard on the wooden floor. The second tremor came as soon as my back hit the ground. After the third one each tremor came right after the other and became one massive earthquake. From where I sat, huddled on the ground in fear, the incredibly large door opened and my friend Emily walked in.

Emily, like me, is nineteen years old with greenish-grey eyes behind a pair of glasses. She has copper red hair that reaches halfway down her back and curls a bit. Today she wore a grey T-Shirt with the Rolling Stones logo on it, blue jeans, and a pair of black high top sneakers. Oh, and she was about 200 feet tall.

Once I saw her, and how gigantic she was, my brain just said ‘Fuck it, you’re on your own’ and shut down. She closed the door behind her, never once noticing me, and walked towards her bed. By the way, did I mention I was right next to her bed? I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. If she didn’t notice me she might kill me. But if she did notice me, what are the chances she would think I’m a bug and kill me? Without even realizing it I had already tried to shout but nothing came out. I was so scared I couldn’t find my voice. All the while her massive feet stomped towards me, the ground shaking with every step. I think it was the fear that this whole scenario was real and I was actually going to die that gave me the strength to cry out. Granted I cried out in pure fear and terror but it took a lot of strength to do that.

My yell seemed to echo a bit and Emily stopped right where she was standing. I don’t know how, but she somehow was able to hear my yell even though I was two and a half inches tall to her. Her feet stopped right in front of me, which was good since the toe of her sneaker came right up to my chest. I’m not really a tall person when I’m normal sized, but Emily is even shorter than I am. The fact that her sneaker toe came up to my chest was just ridiculous.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, half from shock, half from relief.

Suddenly Emily’s head jerked right, then left. “Ok, I swear I heard something that time,” she said to herself.

My heart was beating out of my chest, holy shit she heard me whisper. I’m no physicist but I’m pretty sure she shouldn’t have been able to hear me given our size difference right now. But then a glimmer of hope struck me, she could hear me! Just as I opened my mouth my brain, which had abandoned me, now entertained me with an image of Emily stepping on me like an insect. But if I didn’t get her attention I’ll die anyway, there’s no way I can survive unnoticed in her house for very long. So I swallowed my fear, and my heart which crept its way up into my throat once I started thinking about her killing me, and called out to her.

“Emily! Don’t move a step! Look down at your feet!”

For a brief moment Emily still looked around in confusion. “Peter? Is that you?” Then she looked down and seemed to see me. Needles to say her jaw dropped to the floor. “P-P-Peter!”

I didn’t know what else to do other than just nod. Emily mimicked my nod, the look in her eyes told me she was too shocked to do anything more than copy me. She quickly stepped back from me a bit, but she was still too shocked to consider anything as the steps were heavy and the vibrations threw me around.

“Sorry,” she squeaked.

I looked up at her and smiled weakly. “S’ok,” I assured her.

Emily crouched down to her knees and slowly laid onto her stomach. This still caused tremors but at least I was still standing. At least until her chest dropped down right in front of me, then it became a serious effort not to stagger. Emily has always had a large rack, not that I ever took any notice. But it’s pretty hard to not notice when it’s the size of a movie theater screen. It took all of my will power to only look for a fraction of a second and return to making eye contact, luckily she was still too shocked to notice. Emily laid there just gazing down at me. It got uncomfortable for me fast but I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Hey,” I said at last.

The whole time Emily hadn’t blinked. “A-are you real?” she asked.

I just looked around, not sure how to answer that. “Yeah,” I said with a shrug. “Pretty sure I’m real.”

“Well what the hell happened to you!” she exclaimed.

The sheer pressure of her voice at such a close range made my ears ring and forced me back a few steps. Emily immediately covered her mouth.

“Eep! Sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s ok,” I said after my ears had stopped ringing. “Just talk at a normal volume and I’ll be good.”

“Ok,” she said in a normal tone. “You know it’s weird . . . You’d think at your size you’d be a lot harder to hear. You actually sound like you normally do. No high, squeaky voice or anything like that.”

My mouth quirked up at the corner, before I knew it I was doubled over laughing, barely able to breathe. Emily cocked an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

“You!” I forced the words through all of the laughing. “I’m standing here . . . Two inches tall . . . And that’s all you have to say!” At this point I couldn’t talk any more but, the really weird thing is, it wasn’t all that funny. I guess the entire situation just struck me as so unbelievable this was just me freaking out in a less panicky way. It went on like that for about a minute before I calmed down.

“You done?” Emily asked.

“Yeah.” I said.

“So . . . what happened to you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really know. I literally woke up like this.”

“Two inches tall and in my room?” she asked. I nodded and her eyes widened. “I . . . I . . . Holy shit, I’m speechless. I mean, I’ve read Alice and Wonderland before but . . . I mean . . . You’re two freaking inches tall!”

I stuck my hands in my pocket and grimaced. “Well, thanks for not making me feel like a freak or anything.”

“Oh no!” she said quickly. “No! I uh . . . I didn’t mean anything like that. I was just saying uh . . .”

I held up a hand, forestalling her. “It’s ok. I’m uh . . . I’m just not sure how to handle this. I don’t remember anything happening to me before I fell asleep.”

Emily folded her arms and rested her chin on them. “Well what’s the last thing you can remember?”

I took a moment to ponder that. “I remember everyone leaving my house at, like, 1am. I was tired and just passed out on my couch. When I woke up . . .” I spread my arms and gestured all around me.

“Hmph,” Emily’s head slumped a little inside of her folded arms as she tried to wrap her head around this. “Well shrinking is one thing, but why end up in my room? You’ve never even been in my room before.”

“Yeah and, under the circumstances, it’s not all that great of a tour!” I exclaimed.

“Ok ok, just calm down,” she urged before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. “Look I didn’t make you small and take you home with me. I’m as clueless as you are.”

At least that brought a grin back to my face. “I’m gonna have to remember you said that. It’ll keep your head from getting any bigger.”

That, in turn, brought a smirk to her face. “Don’t make me spit on you.”

My face quickly went from grinning to shock at the notion. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh yeah?” she challenged. Then, she sucked in a quick breath and blew at me. Before I could even react I was hit by the huge gale she exhaled and was nearly taken off my feet by it, and Emily wasn’t even blowing all that hard. If she wanted to she could have definitely knocked me back a good thirty feet, at least to me it would be that far. Luckily she was holding back and I was able to remain standing, my legs spread, one foot in front of the other, and my arms held up in front of my face. It must have only lasted a few seconds and, when the winds finally died down, Emily looked at me and could barely contain her laughter.

“Oh my God, look at you.” She snorted. “Was that little breath too much for you to handle?”

I, on the other hand, was in no laughing mood. What was nothing to her was like a storm to me. That, more than the actual winds, sent shivers through me. “Don’t do that!” I yelled. But Emily kept on smiling.

“Aw, you’re so cute when you’re mad.” She lifted her head off of her arms and held her right hand up, finger pointed at me. “I just want to poke you like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.”

Emily’s finger, which was as thick as a tree trunk, started to slowly creep its way towards me. I took a step back from it, then another. “E-Emily,” I forced the words through the mounting panic I was feeling. “P-please stop. Now.”

But her finger just crept closer, slowly but still faster than I was moving. Looking over my shoulder I contemplated turning around and running at a dead sprint until I was out of her reach. But as soon as I turned back to face her Emily’s finger lurched forward and struck me right in the chest.

Have you ever been hit by a car before? A giant, fleshy car going at fifteen miles per hour. Let me paint you a picture. I flew backwards and landed on my ass, hard. Stars swam in my vision, my back hurt, and my entire chest was throbbing. I just laid there, sprawled on the floor, not bothering to move incase my ribs were broken. From somewhere up above me I could hear Emily’s voice.

“Peter? You ok?” she asked.

The stars began to fade and I took that as my cue to try and sit up. It took some effort on my part but luckily my ribs were ok.  My entire chest on the other hand would be sore for a while. But, for now, I was ok so I forced myself to my feet.

Emily breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank God. How are you feeling?”

Rather than answer her I just walked around in a circle and studied her room once again, heavy thoughts began to hit me. Was this it for me? Was this all I have to look forward to from now on? I have no freaking idea how I came to be here in this situation. Does that mean I’m stuck being two and a half inches tall forever?

As I considered all of this Emily continued to gaze down at me. For the love of God, she gazed down at me! Emily, who stood at a whopping five foot five inches and lying on her stomach, was gazing down at me! She could knock me over with her breath, or swallow me whole without chewing. There were so many ways she could kill me now, and each one ran through my mind.

Now I’ll be honest here, I’ve had a giantess fetish for a long time. I’ve fantasized about giant women looming over me, demanding I worship their feet and me wanting to please them. But those were just fantasies. What I’m experiencing, right now, is reality. I really am two and a half inches tall, I really am standing helpless before a giantess, and there is a really high chance that I will actually die.

All at once all thoughts and fantasies left my brain as a single thought took their place. I am two inches tall, and I am going to die.

“Peter?” Emily asked.

I am two inches tall, and I am going to die.

“Peter?” this time there was worry in her voice, but I barely heard her. “Peter are you ok?”

I am two inches tall, and I am going to die.

By now Emily must have gotten really worried because she leaned in closer to me. “Peter say something. You’re freaking me out.”

Just then the sound of her voice snapped me out of my daze and I looked over at her. A 200 ft tall girl who just knocked me down was now looming closer. That part of my brain that was telling me I was going to die kicked in and I freaked out.

I broke into a dead sprint and ran away from her. I wasn’t sure where I would go, only that I wanted to just run away and hide somewhere. From somewhere behind me I could hear Emily call out. “Peter stop! I’m sorry!”

But I didn’t stop, I was too afraid to stop. All memories of Emily being my friend left my mind. All I could think of was how big she was, how small I was, and how scary the entire world looked to me now. I just wanted to curl up, close my eyes, and just pray that I would wake up from this nightmare. Even my own fantasies abandoned me in the face of cold hard reality, that I could very easily die.

Emily’s right hand came down right in front of me, not trying to crush me, but to stop me. I don’t even remember if I screamed or not. I just ran in the other direction. I ran about twenty feet, my scale, before her second hand came down, blocking my path again.

“Peter!” her voice was nothing but worry. “Please just stop!”

I didn’t hear her or, rather, the words just didn’t register in my brain. Adrenaline was pumping through my system, I had to keep moving. So I bolted for the gap between her hands and was successful in actually making it through. For the briefest moment I believed I could actually make it to her dresser, there is no way she could have reached me from under there. That is until both of her hands landed right in front of me. One right in front of the other so there was no way for me to get around, but I still didn’t stop. I don’t think I could have stopped, even if I wanted to. I wanted to get away so badly I actually ran right into her hands, as if I was actually capable of charging right through them. Lucky for me Emily has soft hands, it felt like hitting a padded wall. Still, the speed I was running at made me recoil pretty hard. Combined with the pain that was still going through my chest from being poked I lost my balance completely. That’s when Emily scooped me up in her gentle hands, her palm was big enough for me to fit comfortably in if she closed her hand, and held me up to her face.

“Peter?” she asked, the concern hadn’t left her voice at all. “A-are you alright?”

I couldn’t help myself. So much had happened so fast I just started to sob right into her palm, and she let me.

I don’t know how long I wept, could have been anywhere from minutes to an hour. The whole time though Emily just held me in silence, which I was grateful for. I guess she really didn’t understand what I was experiencing now, only that it was scary enough to bring me to tears even at the sight of one of my closest friends. So rather than call me a cry baby, like she normally might have if she had seen me crying, she just let me clear it out of my system. Once I felt like I had finished I looked up only to see her watching over me, concern still etched on her face.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

I wiped the remaining moisture from my face and smiled up at her. “Better.”

That, in turn, brought a smile back to her face. “Good.” She let out a deep breath she’d probably been holding for a while. “Tell you what. You don’t tell anyone I almost broke your ribs and I won’t tell anyone you cried. Deal?”

Emily spoke in that lightly sarcastic voice that let me know she was joking. It was her way of trying to lighten the mood and make me feel better. “How about we settle on you not telling anyone about me at all?” I proposed in return before extending my hand to her, pinky finger out. “Pinky swear?”

Emily giggled as she held up the hand that wasn’t holding me and slowly moved her pinky towards me. I couldn’t stop myself from flinching away from her finger at first. “It’s ok,” she assured me. “I promise to be gentle with you from now on.”

I wanted so badly to trust her. Not to say I couldn’t trust Emily, she is one of my closest friends after all. But I was still so scared I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rely on anyone at all. I dismissed that thought entirely, though, as soon as it popped into my head. There is no way I could survive on my own I a world where I’m two and a half inches tall. If I wanted to survive I’d need to rely on friends as much as learn to adapt.  So, with a great amount of effort, I forced myself to stand straight and hold my hand out to Emily. She just smiled down on me again and held her pinky right in front of me. Walking over to her finger, which was as thick as a log to me, we touched pinkies and the deal was sealed.

Emily moved her finger away and I sat back down in her palm, relieved that I had actually pulled it off. I was going to have to work on this whole ‘adapt’ thing.

“So . . .” Emily began. “What do we do now?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I have no idea how I got like this and I have no idea how to get back. For all I know I could be . . .” I was too afraid to even finish what I was about to say, so changed it at the last second. “. . . I could be like this for a little while.”

Emily considered that for a moment. “Well . . . If you’re going to be this small for a while then you’re going to have to stay with me.”

“I guess I have no choice. You know I hate having to burden anyone, especially my friends,” I said. Which was true, I’d seen ‘You, Me, and Dupree’.

But Emily just rolled her eyes. “Please. You’re two and a half inches tall. What kind of a burden could you possibly be?”

I shrugged casually. “Alright then, if you insist.” Then my voice warmed up and became more sincere. “Thank you Emily.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “First things first, we’ve got to find you some place to sleep. Like a shoe box or a d-,”

“If you say doll house I swear I’ll jump right off your hand and end it.”

She smirked. “Fine, I think I’ve got something more suited to your tastes anyway. Just wait here for a bit,” she said as she gently lowered me to the ground.

“Uh, are you sure about this?” I asked nervously.

“Relax,” she said. “My dad’s at work, my mom’s at a friend’s house, and my little brother’s at school till 3pm. We’re home alone.”

Her hands touched down on the ground and I stepped off. Emily straightened up to her full, daunting height. “Aw, you look so cute down there. Just sit tight and try not to run off. I’ll be back in a minute.” Then she turned and stomped out of the room. Well she didn’t really stomp, but the vibrations from her steps were no less jarring. At least this time I was more prepared and didn’t lose my balance. So I just stood there on the hardwood floor and gazed around at the room. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I could feel the ground shaking to signal Emily’s return. She came into the room carrying something big in her hands. I wasn’t sure what is was, only that it was square, grey, and plastic. She kept on walking towards me, the sight of her big shoes coming my way made me recoil.

“Ok!” I called out. “That’s enough! Shoes off!”

Emily stopped where she was and looked down on me. “Excuse me?”

“Your shoes,” I said in a much calmer voice. “Seeing you walk around in sneakers scares the hell out of me. If you weren’t watching where you were going and you stepped on me you’d have no way of feeling if I was under you or not. I’d die and you wouldn’t find out for hours at least.”

She seemed to consider that for a moment before shrugging and kicking off her sneakers. “You might want to stand back a bit. I don’t know if my socks smell sweaty or not.”

“I don’t smell anything,” I lied. Truth be told her socks smelled rather pleasant, at least to me. I’ve had a thing for girl’s feet ever since I was twelve and, so far, I’ve told no one about it. The last thing I wanted was for Emily to know that I thought her feet were pretty. She’d most likely never look at me the same again, I’d be too freakish for her even if I was normal sized. So I just carried on as if they had no scent at all.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, this? This is your new home.” Emily turned the giant, box shaped piece of plastic towards me, opened it up, and my jaw dropped. It was a plastic model of the Bat Cave by Imaginext, the company that makes the toy castle sets for kids.

“Where the hell did you get that from?”

She giggled. “My little brother Sean, only he hasn’t used it in years. What do you think?”

“What do I think!” I exclaimed. “I think you’ve made one of my greatest dreams come true! I get to live in the fucking Bat Cave!”

“Well don’t just stand there,” she said as she lowered the main door. “Take a look inside.”

For those of you who have never played with a model Bat Cave before when you were a kid let me paint you a picture. From the outside it looks like the flat side of a mountain with a giant, gold and black Batman logo right at the top. There is a main door that lowers like a draw bridge so that kids can push out a toy bat-cycle. The cave itself is composed of two levels plus the roof. Upon entering the cave through the main door you start at the ground level. To the far left is a clear plastic jail cell where toy villains may be stored, luckily thought it was empty. Next to the jail cell was a purple elevator that worked on a crank and string. The crank on the other hand was on the roof so it’s not likely I would be using the elevator. On the far right wall was a side door, smaller than the main door yet also drops like a draw bridge. Lucky for me there was also a yellow plastic ladder right by the side door. The ladder leads up to the second floor. At the top of the ladder is a window protected by the same clear plastic used to make the jail cell. Right next to that is a three inch tall door that opens up by shifting a panel on the ground. When it opens up there’s nothing but a straight plummet down to the floor and a hook attached to some string that would allow me to propel down without killing myself. At the very center of the second level is the giant Bat-symbol and a plastic Bat-computer. This area had the most amount of room so it was probably where I’d be sleeping. Over on the far left side of the cave was a gun that could be pulled out of the cave via a moveable platform and launch plastic bat missiles. There was no actual way to reach the roof except climbing the old fashion way, and not much was up there at all except for a good view.

All in all it was the perfect place for me to stay. As soon as the door was lowered I ran inside and began mapping out how I would live. Just as I was taking my tour I stumbled across a plastic, red staff with a question mark at the end. The Riddler’s staff, and it was about as tall as I was. I climbed up to the roof holding it so Emily could see.

“Where’d that come from?” she asked. “I swore I took every toy out.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know but I’m keeping it.” Just for fun I gave the staff a few twirls. I didn’t really take martial arts or anything so I don’t know much about quarter staff fighting. But, since I’ve got a lot more time on my hands, now could be a good time to teach myself. You never know what manner of bugs might find their way into your house. And considering I’m now as small as they are a weapon would help me sleep a hell of a lot better than a teddy bear.

Emily couldn’t help but giggle again as she looked down on me. “I can’t help it. You look so tiny and cute living inside there.”

I spun my new staff one more time before looking up at her. “Tiny? Maybe now I’m the one who’s normal sized and you’re just big. Ever consider that?”

Emily, who was on her knees observing m, straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “So I’m a giant now, huh?”

“Giant-ess technically,” I corrected.

A wide grin slowly spread across her face. “Oh really?” Very slowly Emily stood up to her full height and looked down on me, just like a true giantess. Then she lifted her right foot and let it hover above my new cave for dramatic effect. The sight of her socked foot high over my head filled me with the strangest combination of fear, exhilaration, and what I can only describe as wonderful pants feelings.

“Prepare to be crushed,” she said in a dramatically ominous voice. Her foot descended down and my heart raced. It landed right next to me, shaking the cave so that I had to grab onto a plastic railing to balance. Emily burst into laughter and I sighed. I believed Emily when she said she was going to take care of me, she was one of my closest friends after all. But I should have known she’d never pass up the opportunity to tease me, even a little bit.

“We are going to have so much fun together,” she announced.

Quick show of hands: how many of you have ever been so bored you almost died? As it turns out that’s what it’s like in the Bat Cave. Well not technically the Bat Cave, more like a plastic imitation but you get the point. Anyway it was only the day after I found myself shrunken in my best friend’s room and already I was losing my mind. Yesterday was spent getting me set up inside my new home. A large piece of cloth was folded several times to make a bed in the main “computer room” where I slept. My “bathroom” was a shortened Dixie cup in the room right next to my bedroom. The jail cell was my panic room in the event that anyone aside from Emily comes in. Lucky for me Emily said no one but her ever comes in her room.

So I sat propped against a railing on the roof, my Riddler quarterstaff laid across my lap, staring off at nothing. I’ve been doing this for most of the day. Emily was at work and there was no one else in the house. Not that I could have talked to anyone else considering how I made Emily promise not to tell anyone. Once Emily left to go to her job at Barns & Noble I slept in for as long as I could simply to kill some time. Once it hit 12pm I couldn’t sleep anymore and began nibbling on the granola bar chunk Emily had left me for breakfast and probably lunch. Afterwards I spent a few hours teaching myself how to wield a quarterstaff. It wasn’t exactly complicated but I would clearly have to practice for hours each day if I ever hoped to protect myself from anything bigger than a dust mite. I practiced spinning it from one hand to the other, which I only succeeded in one time out of every twenty tries, and striking properly. After doing that for a few hours I became bored, extremely bored. Which is where I made my first mistake, walking right out the fucking front door.

At the time it seemed like a cool idea. I’d grown up watching Tom and Jerry, which is still one of my favorite shows to this day. In every episode Jerry seems to have so much fun exploring a world bigger than him. Everywhere he goes he’s surrounded by giant wonders that he maneuvers around with skill enough to make it look easy.

Emily’s room was perfect for that.

Now don’t get me wrong, Emily is no slob. But apparently a little clutter doesn’t bother her. On the floor over by her bookcase were a bunch of scattered novels, a stuffed animal or two on the ground, loose change, pencils, clothes, shoes, makeup items, and crumpled up pieces of paper. There wasn’t so much that the room looked completely messy but there were plenty of things on the floor to make it worth exploring. So I hefted my staff, lowered the front door, and began my expedition.

At first I was having a blast getting to see everything. The sheer size of objects that I had always dismissed as mundane blew my mind. The stuffed animals were big enough for me to use as a king sized bed. In fact I almost fell asleep on one of them.

I spent a fair amount of time inside one of her discarded sneakers. The smell from her feet still lingered a bit and filled my head. I know this probably sounds creepy but I loved it. And hey if it does sound creepy then just remember, you’re the one reading this.

Back to my adventures, the book stacks were fun to climb. I had to leave my staff at the bottom but there wasn’t really anything for me to use it on. So I ran up one book that was propped against the stack forming a ramp and climbed the rest of them. Once at the top I realized I could probably reach the second level of the bookcase if I wanted to, but I decided that that adventure would be for another day. So I climbed down till my feet touched the ramp and slid the rest of the way down on my socks.

With an entire room left to explore I was feeling pretty excited, maybe being this small wouldn’t be as bad as I thought . . . that is until I saw an ant.

It was surprisingly small, even for me. It was about the size of a small dog and it moved pretty fast. I flinched a little when I first saw it come towards me. But it stopped as soon as I moved and just stood there staring at me, and I it. It was kind of fascinating, getting such an up close and personal look at something I’ve never really paid much mind to most of my life. Its eyes though were unsettling, pitch black and creepy. It came a few steps closer to me while making weird clicking sounds and I back away again. It seemed that was enough to convince the thing I wasn’t a threat because it turned left and headed into the mass of discarded books. Well I wasn’t about to take that from an ant so, with quarterstaff in hand, I ran after it. All of the books lying on the floor were either opened facing up or down, making them into tunnels. I ran through the literary maze searching for the little bastard when I heard its clicking noises.

I emerged from one of the paperbacked tunnels into a corner of the room where the ant was tangled up by some wires. At first all I did was watch it, not sure if I should help it out or not. On one hand the thing scared me. I don’t know if the ant could identify me as human or not but I sure as hell wasn’t about to take the chance. I had killed hundreds of ants so far in my life and this was the first time I had seen an ant completely capable of killing me. Even as small as they are ants are incredibly strong and their exoskeleton made them tough. All in all this thing was very capable of scaling the walls of my cave and ripping my skin off while I slept with its mandibles.

On the other hand it was pretty damn adorable for being the size of a beagle. Plus it sounded scared to death being caught like that. I suppose if I was to spend my life the size of an ant I might as well make amends for my sins against ant-kind. So, lifting my quarterstaff like a baseball bat, I swung hard and snapped the wires all around the helpless bug. It ran a few steps away from the corner just as soon as the last wire was cut where it stopped and turned to look at me.

“Hmph, is that your idea of a ‘thank you’?” I asked it.

In response the ant began to make more clicking sounds while shaking its front two legs in the air. “Now that’s more like it,” I said. It wasn’t until I turned around that I saw the spider . . . and I very nearly coughed up my own heart.

It was huge. Only coming up to my stomach in height, but it was wide and bigger than any dog I’ve ever seen in person. It stood there on the wall watching me with eight dark, empty, freighting eyes. The ant behind me kept on clicking but I couldn’t hear it, I didn’t dare turn around to look at it. All of my attention was put on the spider just fifteen feet up the wall. I couldn’t move, my legs might as well have been roots for all the good they did me. I couldn’t even swallow, my throat had gone completely dry.

Then it began to descend the wall, slowly, all the while its eyes never seemed to stop looking at me. That was enough to get my mind racing again, and I only needed one thought to figure out what to do. Get the hell out of here you dumbass! And so I took off running. All the while fighting it never even entered my mind. I was a two inch tall poser thinking that a few hours of swinging a stick made me a warrior. What the hell was I thinking?

With all thoughts of self defense out of my head I took to sprinting through the maze of books. Here’s a little back story on me, I’m not a track runner at all. I have, however, been wrestling from seventh to twelfth grade and you’re required to do a lot of cardio in wrestling. Was I going to turn around and fight this beast like an epic Spartan soldier from 300? Fuck no. Was I going to use every ounce of strength I had to keep running and not leave a trail of urine for it to follow? Fuck yes. I kept up my ridiculous pace ducking under some books and hopping over others. Once I finally made it through it became a mad dash straight for the Bat Cave. Last night Emily had the presence of mind to push the play set against the wall so that the entire back of the cave was covered by the wall. I don’t know if you’ve played much with these kinds of play sets but they never have a back to them, it’s completely open so that kids can interact with their toys. But with the Cave pressed against the wall the only way to get in was through the front door.

For one frightening second I looked over my shoulder and was instantly motivated to double my speed. The spider was running right after me using all eight of its legs, and it was moving pretty damn fast! The only reason I was so far ahead of it was because of those cumbersome books it had to climb through. Adrenaline hit my system as soon as I saw how close it was getting, this was my last chance to survive. Using almost everything I had left I sprinted right through the door and barely stopped myself from running right into the wall. Rather I ran into the wall but was somehow able to push off of it. I had done that plenty of times in wrestling practice whenever I had to sprint back and forth between walls, it was a little trick I used to stay slightly ahead of most of the other guys. Anyway I kicked off the wall and landed facing the door which was still opened up like a draw bridge, and the spider was still coming right for me!

I was so scared I almost forgot Emily had tied a string to the top of the door. It took a decent amount of strength to close but the spider provided just the right amount of motivation. The door shut firmly a few moments before the spider came upon it. As I had hoped there was no way for the thing to get through. The unsettling part was it kept gazing at me with those soulless beady eyes. Eventually it seemed to give up and it walked out of sight. At that point I was ready to just collapse and pass out for the rest of the day, it seemed like a pretty good idea to me. Until some familiar clicking noises snapped me out of my daze. In all of the panic I had completely forgotten about the ant I had saved, apparently he had followed me inside and I never even noticed. Granted ants, even giant ones, become hard to notice in the presence of giant spiders. Oddly enough though I was no longer unnerved by it, it seemed harmless compared to the things I just barely escaped from. As a matter of fact it seemed kind of cute considering it was like a little dog. So I knelt down and gave its antenni a gentle pet.

“I guess we showed him,” I said.

But the ant just kept clicking in that same panicky way as when we first saw the spider. Then a thought crept into my head and I sprinted for the ladder. Like I said before, there is no ladder leading from the second level to the roof so I had to kick off a wall and grab for it. With my quarterstaff tucked in the back of my shirt I hauled myself up to the roof and ran for the railing. My stomach dropped about as low as the floor. The freaking spider was climbing up the side of the cave! And it looked pissed! Don’t ask me how I could tell, given how there was no emotion in its eyes, I just could.

Without me even realizing it the ant was right beside me clicking for all it was worth. I wasn’t sure what I should do. I mean, what the hell are you supposed to do with a freaking giant spider climbing up the side of your house to kill you? It’s not something you can Google and expect to find serious results for.

By now the spider was almost at the top and I needed to do something. So naturally I waited until the very last second to do anything, if that doesn’t define my entire four years of high school I don’t know what does. I watched as its front legs gripped the railing, I was so close I could see the jagged spines sticking out that allowed it to grab onto the wall and walk up. The spider hauled itself high enough for its head to be above the railing.

Until I brought my quarterstaff down on its head hard enough that it lost its grip entirely. The spider fell and landed hard against the wooden floor. I could hardly believe that I had actually pulled it off I almost cried out in joy, but then I saw it get up.

It didn’t try its luck climbing back up again, instead it just looked up at me. Two of its smaller front eyes were shut, probably blind from the hit. But as it gazed up at me I lost the urge to cheer. I don’t know how I could tell, it’s not like this was a movie to me anymore, but somehow I could tell that this wouldn’t be the last I would see of this fucker. I just hope next time won’t be very soon. I watched from the top of my cave as the spider walked away. Even after it was out of sight I kept on watching.

“You think he’ll be back?” I asked the ant, who still had not left. The only response I got was a few clicks. “Yeah,” I replied. “I thought so too.”

I turned my head to study the ant one more time, and he in turn studied me.

“Well,” I said after a minute. “If you want to leave you’re free to go.” I gestured to the railing since I knew he couldn’t understand me. But rather than move the ant just kept looking up at me, not even making anymore clicking noises.

“Look it’s not that you’re not cute. I just don’t see this working out at all, me with a pet ant. Besides don’t you have friends somewhere?”

No reaction, it just kept staring. So I actually thought it over. I was going to be small for an undetermined amount of time, a companion my size might be comforting whenever Emily goes to work. Plus he warned me about the spider climbing up the walls, I might need warning like that again.

I shrugged. “Ok then. But if you’re going to stay with me you’re going to need a name just like any other pet.” I considered one for a while. My dad had a dog when he was a kid growing up, now what was his name again . . . . I smiled. “Joseph. How does that sound?” I got a click in response. “Joseph it is.”

And that’s how I ended up sitting on the roof, quarterstaff on my lap and an ant sitting by my side, staring out at the vast room. I felt the vibrations from Emily’s approach the same time as Joseph. He stood up immediately and began to click as she walked in through the door. So I reached over and pet him on the head. “Shhh shhh, it’s ok. Emily’s a friend of mine. She’s not going to hurt you.”

That seemed to calm him down as Emily removed her shoes and walked over to the Bat Cave. I couldn’t help but notice how she didn’t wear socks this time. In fact, try as hard as I could, I couldn’t stop glancing as her giant bare feet padded over to us. She stood over me and raised an eyebrow. “Peter, are you petting an ant?” she asked.

I nodded. “His name’s Joseph.”

“Joseph?”

“Well it was either that or come up with a catchy pun instead. Ant-tony didn’t sound all that catchy to me.”

Emily just nodded. “Makes sense.” And that folks is one of the reasons why she’s my closest friend. Whether I’m shrunken and petting an ant, or arriving to her house dressed as Robin Hood with pizza (it’s a long story) she just goes along with it like it’s nothing out of the ordinary. And her feet were just amazing. Pale and soft looking like silk. I remember how she once told me she disliked her big feet. At least they were big for her, they were a size nine. I told her she was exaggerating and her feet weren’t really that big. But hell if they didn’t look huge now! I began to vision her lifting her foot up again like she did last time, only without the sock on. Looking down at me, small and helpless, she was divine.

“ . . . . .Peter!”

The sound of her voice made me jump as I snapped out of my little fantasy world. “What?”

She quirked an eyebrow as she looked down on me. “You ok Pete? You’re zoning out on me.” As she said that she lifted her toes and gave them a wiggle. Could she have noticed me staring? No, no there was no way. Not when she was so big and I was so far down below her. It was probably just a coincidence. Either way I still had to answer her. “Oh, uh sorry Emily. I’ve just had a rough day here, that’s all.”

Emily sat down next to the Bat Cave with her legs spread out in front of her and crossed. “You want to talk about it?”

So I told her all about what I had done today as I continued to pet Joseph. Occasionally I would cast glances at her crossed feet as she spread her toes and flexed them. When I was done she looked at me in amazement. “And that spider’s still here? In my room!” I nodded.

“Oh my God, I have to kill it!” she sounded almost hysterical. “I hate spiders!”

“Hey hey hey, take it easy.” I said. “I’ve already sent it packing. Most likely it won’t come out for a while now.” Then my tone became more serious. “And besides that spider’s mine. I could tell he wanted a round two and I’m going to deliver.”

“You’re going to fight a fucking spider?” she asked doubtfully.

In response I spun my quarterstaff the way I had practiced all that morning. It wasn’t an actual fighting technique but it was flashy, which was what I was going for. I twirled it in front of me a few times before I slammed one end on the ground. “No, I’m going to kill a fucking spider.”

A wide grin broke out over Emily’s face. “Ok. That was pretty badass.” Before I could stop myself from ruining the moment a grin spread across my face as well.

*****

Emily left to go to dinner and came back with two smuggled pieces of steak in her hand, one for me and one for Joseph. She also brought a Dixie cup of water and we ate while watching TV with her. Somewhere after 2am Emily turned the TV off and we said good night. I climbed down off the roof and walked to my bed. Just as I sat down on my bed of folded cloth I felt something next to me. When my eyes fully adjusted to the dark I saw what it was. Two sets of outfits and a leather bound book with a pen . . . all of which were my size.

For a minute I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and this was the after effect of all of that adrenaline. I grabbed some of the clothes and held them up; they were definitely real, as was the book and pen. The book was blank from what I could tell, nothing written in any of the clean white pages.

I couldn’t wrap my head around this. Where did any of these things come from? How were they my size? I knew this couldn’t have come from Emily. Where would she even get items this small and how could she have snuck it into my room without me noticing?

“Joseph did you see who put these here?” I asked as I turned towards him. But Joseph had gone to sleep already. So I just sat down on my bed, flipped the book open to the first page, and began to write.

Morning time brought no more answers than last night did, only headaches. Emily was the first of us to wake up and so appointed herself as my personal wake up call. My cave was pushed up against the wall and right next to her bed. So all she had to do was lean down from her bed to speak with me. As I was lying on my cloth bed I heard her gentle voice from above.

“Peter,” she said softly. “Peter, time to wake up.”

But after spending most of the night dreaming about everything I had gone through up until now I was in no mood to get up now, regardless of the time. Unfortunately for me Emily was persistent. A loud THUMP resonated from the roof, Emily had struck the rook of my Cave with her hand. I bolted up in my bed looking up at the ceiling.

“Peter! Wake up!” she called down.

Joseph was now panicking and scurrying around, as well as up, the room making clicking noises. But I just grumbled and laid down, trying to bury myself underneath the folded piece of cloth that was my blanket. From outside the tinted Bat Symbol window I could see Emily’s feet touch the ground as she got out of bed. From where I was on the second level of the Bat Cave I was about eye level with her shins. I watched from underneath the blanket as Emily lifted one bare foot and tapped it against the roof of my Cave.

“Fe! Fi! Fo! Fum!” she called down, tapping on the Cave with every word. “Wake the hell up you lazy bum!”

In frustration I sprang out of bed, grabbing whatever object was closest to me, and stuck my head out of the nearest window. “Is it too much to ask for a little sleep!” I shouted. “Don’t make me throw this at you!”

Emily just looked down on me from above with an amused expression on her face. Then her mouth suddenly fell open. “Peter,” she said as she got down on her knees. “Where the hell did you get that from?”

“What the fuck are you- . . .” It wasn’t until then that I realized I was holding the journal from last night. Which means it wasn’t a dream. I spent all of last night writing down everything that’s happened to me since I’ve been shrunk. A glance back at my bed showed the clothes were still there as well. All that was there were a few T-Shirts, jeans, underwear, and socks. As if I didn’t loath doing laundry before, now I have to learn to wash clothes by hand.

“Give me a minute,” I said to Emily. I walked over to my bed and unfolded one of the shirts. It was a white T-shirt with the Beatles logo on the left side that was supposed to represent The White Album. The clothes smelled fresh and felt comfortable when I put them on. Maybe I don’t know where these came from but I could sure as hell still enjoy them. And if I’m going to be small for a while I was going to need clothes anyway. And I was not about to let Emily go clothes shopping for me at Toys R Us.

Just as I was unfolding the other shirts to get a look at them a necklace fell out from one of them. I recognized it, mainly because I was wearing it right before I went to sleep and woke up shrunken. The necklace belonged to my grandmother originally. It was a family heirloom that she brought over from Italy when she immigrated in 1947. From what she’s told me the necklace has always been in our family and is said to date back to ancient Rome. The necklace itself is a gold coin on a metal chain. On the front side of the coin is an animal’s head. But the coin is so old no one has been able to figure out exactly what animal it is. On the other side of the coin is an inscription in Latin, the language of the Romans. Non est spes ejus, et non vult oblivisci. I’ve tried looking up the meaning of it a few times but I’ve yet to find a good translation. Every online translator gave me a different definition for what the inscription means so I gave up.

As I held it thoughts flew through my head. The most prominent one was ‘Could this be what made me shrink’. I stood there considering it until I ultimately decided it wasn’t. If the coin had shrunken me it would have been on me since I’ve arrived. But then that lead to a whole other slew of questions. Where did these things come from? Did whatever shrink me send these clothes? There was definitely something important that I was missing. If I could just put some pieces together maybe I can find a way to make myself normal sized again.

“Peter,” Emily called. “Are you done yet?”

I filed those thoughts away for later, I’d figure it out eventually. “Yeah I’m good,” I answered. Once I was dressed I went over to my two Dixie cups, took my morning piss, and washed my hands in the second one. The journal I left on my bed so that I would have a way of documenting my adventures. After hefting my staff I climbed onto the roof, Joseph proceeded to follow me without any show of effort, the little jerk.

By the time I was done Emily had likewise washed up in the bathroom and gotten dressed. Today she wore a white tank top and blue jeans that were rolled up to her calves. Just like yesterday she remained barefoot, thank you God. Her eyes widened when she walked close enough to get a good look at me. “Where the fuck did you get clothes from! And they’re a perfect fit too!”

I shook my head. “I have no idea actually. I found them last night but I was so tired I didn’t even pay them any mind. When I woke up I thought it was a dream or something.”

Emily knelt down in front of my Cave and held her hand out, palm up. “Mind if I take a closer look?” she asked.

I nodded to her and then looked down at Joseph. “Follow me Joseph. You’re going to be alright, I promise.”

Joseph made a few clicking sounds before reluctantly following me onto Emily’s massive hand. She slowly lifted us up to eye level so she could inspect my new clothes. “I don’t remember you ever owning a shirt like this but it seems like something you’d wear. That’s pretty freaky.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But at least they’re comfortable.”

Emily moved her hand away from her face a little so we could talk without being too close. “And you have no idea where they came from?”

“No idea yet,” I replied.

“And they just appeared out of thin air?”

I nodded.

“That’s . . . that’s scary.”

“You have no idea,” I said dryly.

Emily cast a worried glance at the Bat Cave before looking back at me. “How about we move on to a less creepy subject? I have good news.”

I shrugged. “Ok, what is it?”

“I don’t have work today and nobody else is home today. You know what that means?”

I shook my head.

“We’re going shopping,” she announced.

My eyes widened in fear. I’ve only been small for three days and in that time I have yet to leave this room. Hell, I never thought I’d actually be ready to leave this house. And she’s talking about taking me shopping like it’s no big deal and has already been decided. Judging by the fact that I was standing in her hand it probably was already decided.

But that doesn’t mean I was ready. “Uh . . . . sho-shopping?”

Emily nodded enthusiastically. “You need some furniture for that cave.”

My heart started to pound harder. Great, she’s taking me to Toys R Us. What would happen if a little kid finds me and thinks I’m a toy? That’s when my brain started to show me images of little girls forcing me to play tea party and little boys trying to smash me with action figures. Dick move brain, dick move.

“Don’t get you’re skirt in a twist,” she smirked. “I never said we’d have to leave the house.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make me feel better or worse, so I just looked at her cautiously. “Then where are we going?”

Emily grinned. “Where else?”

*****

Yup, you guessed it, Emily’s basement. Well, actually Emily's crawl space. If you don’t know what a crawl space is think of it as a basement that’s too low to stand up in. The door to the crawl space is about two and a half feet tall, the entire space itself is three feet high so you have to ‘crawl’ on your hands and knees the whole time. That is unless you’re me.

Once Emily opened the door she Joseph and I went in with her proceeding right behind us. I have to admit, the crawl space was a great idea. Plastic containers and cardboard boxes on either side of me formed a hallway to walk down. Once I reached the center of the crawl space the hallway of boxes opened up allowing me a view of the many other things stored inside. This place had everything. Cardboard boxes of books, pictures in frames, old paintings, extra tables and chairs, workout equipment, VHS tapes, records, board games, and toys. A lot of toys.

Seriously there were action figures of all kinds of superheroes, transformers, Lincoln Logs, Legos, pirates, knights, and dolls. It was all so big that it was like Emily had a city in her own house. And I walked into that city, staff in hand and pet ant at my side, like a traveler ready to explore. Emily lumbered behind us on her hands and knees until she reached the center where she sat down. Her one leg was stretched out in front of her while her other leg was bent with her knee to her chest. Once she was seated Emily began to rummage through containers.

“I should still have some old doll house furniture somewhere around here.”

While she spent her time looking for furniture I went on to more important matters, exploration. With the way the containers were stacked it wouldn’t be that hard to climb up them, but I wanted to walk around a bit first. While I was doing just that I came across an old mouse trap that was still set and loaded. The trap was a little bit longer than I was tall but it wasn’t the size that scared me. The metal bar that was still set could slice right into me if I was ever trapped underneath of it. I enjoyed that image of being caught in a mouse trap for a minute until a worse thought hit me: for there to be mouse traps there must be mice.

Not wanting to find out I turned around and began looking through some old toys. These were a bit older than the Bat Cave. There were some original Power Rangers action figures, Hot Wheels cars, and toys from Toy Story the movie. I walked over to an actual size Woody doll with a plastic guitar in one hand. Sure the guitar was plastic and the strings were made of actual string but I’ve been playing guitar since I was ten and I was curious. Of course the strings made barely any sound when I plucked them but that didn’t stop me from trying out a few chords. Joseph made two clicking sounds that could have either been applause or cricket noises.

“Hmph, everybody’s a critique,” I said to myself. So I tossed the guitar aside and went over to another box.

A small container of figures had spilled out on to the floor. There where knights, pirates, vikings, samurai, and soldiers from different war eras. Each one of them where about as tall as I was and weighed about as much as a store mannequin. I folded my arms over my chest.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked as I cast Joseph a side glace. He responded with a few clicks and I nodded. “Then let’s do it.”

So one by one I began to assemble each plastic figure into rows, ten figures wide and ten figures long. It took a little while but Emily was too busy collecting furniture to notice. About halfway through I looked over and saw she had found a bed, a table, a few chairs, and was still searching. A few more minutes later Emily sighed and put down the container she had been looking through.

“Well I found a few things you might enjoy. You want to come over here and try them out?” she asked. When I didn’t respond Emily looked over her shoulder and saw what I had been up to. I stood at the head of a platoon of 100 figures, my staff in hand and Joseph at my side. I faced the figures and put on my best Scottish accent.

"Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"

Then I turned towards Emily and pointed my staff at her. “Attack my countrymen! Attack!”

Of course nothing happened and I ended up just standing there pointing at Emily like an idiot but I’m pretty sure I had earned an Oscar.

Emily on the other hand laughed out loud as she clapped a bit for my performance. “Well done, very nice performance. Now clean that up and help me look for some things for your Cave.”

I smirked at her. “You can clean them up after I finish them off.” Then I turned towards my plastic army and began fighting them. Technically I just knocked them down with my staff but I sparred a bit with them as well. Every one of them was carrying a weapon of their own and I pretended to fight them a bit before knocking them over. It probably looked a lot more stupid to Emily but to me I felt like a warrior. In the end I stood in the middle of a battle field, paint and plastic carnage littered the ground as far as the eye can see.

All of a sudden Emily’s thumb and index finger plucked me from the battle field and placed me on the ground by the bed she found. It was just a typical plastic doll house bed that could fit perfectly into the Bat Cave.

“I know it might not seem comfortable but with enough cushions it’ll work.” she explained.

I looked up at her and nodded my head. “Thank you Emily.”

She smiled down on me. “And I picked up a few things you might like.” She reached a hand behind her and scooped up a few unseen objects. She brought her hand around and dropped them in front of me. Two of them were plastic swords that I could probably mount on the Bat Cave walls for decoration. A plastic Bat-a-rang that must have belonged to the Bat Cave play set originally. There was also a plastic lamp, and I don’t mean a typical living room lamp. This was an old fashion lantern that would hold candles for light.

“I thought I could cut off some wax and a wick from a real candle and you could make one. You remember how right?” she asked.

I nodded. We had once taken a field trip in elementary school to a colonial style house that was now used for historical recreation. They taught us things like writing with a quill pen, making candles, and cooking using old fashion methods. All you have to do is take long wick and clamp it to a rod. Afterwards you have to keep dipping the wick into a vat of melted wax repeatedly. After each dip the wax hardens and you dunk it again until it builds up and becomes thick enough. All I would have to do is replicate that on a smaller scale. I picked up the lamp and eyed it thoughtfully.

“That’s a pretty cool idea but what about fire?” I asked.

“I thought of that,” she replied. “We keep matches around the house in case of power outages. I’ll cut up a few and leave the pack in your Cave. That way if you ever need to see in the dark or scare off bugs you can strike a piece of a match head and light up a candle.” She shrugged. “Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to find you something you can use as a fire pit.”

I walked over to Emily’s right foot, her toes flexing, and hugged her ankle as best as my tiny arms could. “You’re the best Emily.”

She smiled down at me. “Aaaaw, why thank you.” I could feel her toes wiggling behind me as I hugged her.

All of a sudden Joseph began clicking rather quickly as he flailed his front legs in the air. During the spider incident that meant he was warning me of something. I looked around but couldn’t see anything among all of the boxes. So I tried to follow where Joseph was gesturing to until I finally spotted a pair of beady eyes in a shadowy ally between two boxes.

“Peter?” Emily asked. “What’s wrong?” She hadn’t seen it yet.

I held up a hand to forestall her as I slowly walked towards the eyes. The mouse in turn stepped out and into the light. It was small, as mice usually are, it came up to my stomach in height. The overall body shape reminded me of a small bear, a small front with a thick lower body. It’s nose sniffed at the air rapidly. As soon as it stepped out of the shadows I heard Emily gasp. “Oh my God,” she squeaked. “Peter! Get away from it.”

I just held a hand up as I kept walking closer towards it.

“Peter!” she urged. “Get the hell away from that thing! It could bite right through you!” I saw the shadow of her hand move over top of me, probably to pick me up and carry me away from the mouse.

“Emily stop,” I said firmly. “I have to do this.”

“Do what!” she exclaimed, but I noticed her hand stopped moving.

Do what? I actually didn’t know. What I did know was that I could run into this thing while Emily isn’t around one day. And when that day comes I need to know I’ll have some chance at taking care of myself, I can’t always rely on a bigger person. All I wanted to do was just approach the mouse without any show of fear and pet it. If I could show the thing that I was afraid of it and the mouse had no reason to fear me then I’d have one less thing in this house to worry about at night.

It worked for all of about two seconds. I reached my hand out and the mouse pounced at me. By pure survival instinct alone I jumped back and out of its reach. Then, without even thinking about what I was doing or why, I spun 360 degrees to my right and swung my staff as hard as I could across the things face. I felt a solid SMACK as I made contact with it. The mouse squealed out in pain before turning around and running back into the shadows. My first instinct was to run after it right then and there, but I sank to my knees as the shock of the situation wore off. I had just fought a giant mouse . . . and won!

I heard Emily echo my sigh of relief and I turned to look up at her. Her hand rested on her chest as she took in deep breaths. “Don’t . . . ever . . . do that again,” she panted.

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” I said with a smirk. “I’m the one who hit it.”

Her face lightened up as she smiled down on me. “That has got to be the single coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I mean if I were in your shoes I’d never ever leave my room. But you’re fighting spiders and mice!”

I returned her smile. “Thank you.” Coming from Emily that meant a whole lot to me. Joseph scurried over to me and I bent down and pet him. “Now let’s get out of here,” I said. “Before anything else shows up.”

*****

By the end of the day Emily and I had gotten the whole Bat Cave set up with my new furniture. Now I have an actual bed along with a table to eat my meals on. I spent the rest of the day making candles the old fashion way. Now I had about five of them to use in my new plastic lamp. And for the finishing touch Emily gave me her old iPhone 4 to use for entertainment. She placed it in my room in front of the Bat Symbol window, I dubbed it the Bat Computer. Using the YouTube app I was able to find instructional videos made by people who knew how to actually wield a quarter staff. These would definitely help me out in situations like today.

Speaking of which Emily also came up with another great idea. She brought up a kitchen knife and suggested I use it to sharpen the plastic Bat-a-rang she found. It’s still made of plastic but now I’ve got an actual sharp weapon I could use if I ever need a knife. I only sharpened the wings and left the center blunt so I could have a handle to grip it with. If this keeps up I’ll turn into a combination of Batman and Les Stroud from the show Survivor Man.

As the day was ending and Emily and I were getting ready for bed she peaked her eye in through the window.

“Hey Peter?” she asked.

I walked from my new bed over to the window so that I wouldn’t have to speak to her eye. “Yeah?”

“I’m going in to work tomorrow afternoon. You sure you’re going to be alright without me here tomorrow?” she asked. “Would you want to come with me for the day?”

I stared off at the ground a bit as I pondered that. Emily worked at Barns&Noble, a book store. I love reading and it’d be fun as hell to explore but I just shook my head. “One day,” I assured her. “But I don’t think I’m ready to leave the house yet.”

She nodded. “Ok. But just remember you can call me now that you’ve got my old phone, it hasn’t been disconnected so it can still make calls and stuff.”

I gave her a thumbs up. “Thanks Emily. And don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Good night.”

“Good night,” she whispered.

I walked back to me room and sat down on my new bed. The folded cloth made it pretty comfortable and it was big enough to serve as a queen sized bed to me. Just as I sat down I grabbed a piece of match that Emily had cut for me, struck it against the match pack and lit my first candle. I set the candle in the lantern and put it on the floor. Then I took out my journal and proceeded to write down the day’s events as they have just been described now. The only difference was in the last few lines I wrote:

Early this morning I hit my first wall, metaphorically speaking. I was afraid of something like this happening. If it hadn’t been for Emily I don’t know how long it would have taken me to even get out of bed. Other than that it’s been three days without taking them and I’ve held off alright. I just hope I find a way to return to normal size soon before I take a turn for the worst.

Three days have come and gone, allow me to recap what has happened throughout that time. I’ve woken up two inches tall in the room of my best friend Emily. From my perspective Emily appears to stand about 250 ft tall even though she’s really only 5’5ft. After almost getting my ribs broken by Emily accidentally I broke down and cried like a bitch for a little while. The next day I was almost killed by a spider as big as I am and now I have an ant for a pet. The day after that I was almost eaten by a mouse. Have you noticed a pattern yet?

Reality will never live up to fantasy.

This came to me during my fourth day being shrunk, and it came painfully . . . as well as erotically. Here’s how it happened.

While Emily was in the bathroom getting ready for work I was on the roof of the Bat Cave working on a little arts and crafts project. That little incident with the mouse taught me that, although I may not be a martial arts master, I’d need my quarterstaff if I was to protect myself. But carrying it everywhere is a problem without a sheath of some sort to hold it when I need both of my hands for something. So Emily gave me some string (which was like rope to me) and some tape to make one of my own. All I did was coil the rope around until it was about a foot long in my perspective and coiled up tight enough so that it became a tube that I could wrap my fingers completely around. Afterwards I wrapped it in tape and tied another piece of rope to the top and bottom ends. The sheath went over my head and left arm like a sash and the staff would be held by the tube I made out of coiled rope and tape. The rope had to be coiled tightly so that the staff wouldn’t slip out, even though the large question mark hook was too thick to slip through the sheath.

When I tried it out the staff fit nicely in the sheath, now all I had to do was test it. I looked over at Joseph.

“Got any ideas?” I asked as I began to look around the room. He made a few clicking sounds just as my eyes landed on the bed sheet just next to the railing. I grinned at my pet ant. “I like the way you think Joseph.”

Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘Climb up a bed when you’re two inches tall? That’s crazy! A bed is too high blah blah blah. And talking to ants is freaking crazy blah blah blah.’

First of all Joseph keeps me company and I take comfort in our conversations, even though I pretty much imagine everything he says in my head. I know that sounds psychotic but it’s actually saner than you think . . . somehow.

As for the bed issue it’s not as dangerous as you think. In normal human measurements the Bat Cave playset is about one and a half feet tall, or almost half a meter for the smart people that use the metric system. Standing on the roof of the Bat Cave I was at eye level with Emily’s mattress. All I had to do was just climb the sheet to the top of the mattress which was only a height of about 30 ft to me. I’ve climbed ropes that high in school plenty of times before so this actually seemed perfect to test out how well my sheath would hold. The only thing that worried me was that I would have to jump a small gap and grab the sheet.

The gap wasn’t that wide, maybe a yard or two, but I still hesitated.

“You sure I can do this?” I asked Joseph without looking at him. He remained silent.

I sighed. “I know I’m going to have to try eventually but it seems a bit soon for a jump like this.”

Joseph still did nothing.

“Very true,” I nodded. “If you had never taken risks how would you have learned to climb up walls? But that’s the problem Joseph, I’m not an ant.”

In response Joseph made one click.

“Yeah you’re right!” I exclaimed. “I’ve survived a giant spider and a giant mouse. I can handle something as simple as this.” I knelt down to pet his head. “Thanks man, you’re pretty good with words.”

Was that conversation weird? Probably. Did it help me overcome my fears? . . . . Sort of.

I walked over to the other side of the Bat Cave roof and turned to face the bed. I slipped my staff comfortably in the sheath so that it was held snug across my back. Then, after about twenty deep breaths I took off at a sprint and, using the railing for a little extra lift, I launched myself straight at the sheet.

As soon as I felt the sheet I wrapped my hands around it as tightly as I could and I hugged it with all of the strength in my arms. Now is the time for me to point out that I’m not a muscular person. It’s not that I’m not in good shape or anything, after years on the wrestling team I’m in pretty good shape. But like I said, I’m no weight lifter, so when I grabbed those sheets I held on with everything I had . . . and I was too scared to open my eyes for a minute.

Once my mini panic attack was over with I was able to start climbing which was easy compared to the jump. It really was just like climbing up a rope in gym class, in no time I was standing on Emily’s mattress.

I have to say, the view was amazing from up here. For me it must have been about 70 ft to the ground. Down below me I could see Joseph still on the Bat Cave roof, apparently ants don’t jump all that well. I looked around Emily’s room and spotted the remote to her TV lying in the center of her bed. As I approached it I began to wonder if I was strong enough to at least turn the TV on. After a few attempts at pushing down on the thick button the TV turned on and America’s Funniest Home Videos appeared on the screen.

It didn’t take long for Emily to come bolting into the room, wearing nothing but a bathrobe, as she looked all around the room.

“Peter!” she called out. “Are you alright? Where are you?”

I tried to hide a smirk as I wave both my arms in the air. “Over here. On the bed.”

Her eyes took a minute to pinpointed me on her bed, which must not have been that easy considering the extremely colorful floral design of her sheets. But Emily relaxed when she saw me and walked up. She had to lean down a bit since being on the bed put me at crotch level, and I’m too much of a gentleman to speak to her at that level while she wore nothing but a bathrobe. Ahem.

“How’d you get up here?” she asked.

“I just finished making my sheath and wanted to test it out,” I explained. “So I thought the best way to see if it would hold would be to climb something.”

“And so you climbed my bed?”

I shrugged. “It was Joseph’s idea.”

Rather than call me crazy, which I wasn’t, Emily thought it’d be funnier to play along. She turned to Joseph who was still on the Bat Cave roof. “Stop encouraging him like this. He’s going to kill himself because of you.”

From up here I couldn’t hear if Joseph had made any clicking sounds but I stifled a laugh as a possible comeback came to mind. Emily turned to me with one eyebrow raised. “What?”

“Nothing,” I said between snickers.

Emily just sighed as she rolled her eyes to high heaven. “Anyway, how’d you get up here again?”

“I grabbed hold of the sheet and climbed up, just like gym.”

She nodded at that. “Impressive. Well if I leave you alone while I take a shower do you promise not to do anything else that’s stupid?”

I looked at her with a blank expression. “I only promise to try.”

“Hmph, fair enough.” Then she walked back to the bathroom as I went back to enjoying some funny home videos. After a few minutes I heard footsteps coming up the nearby staircase. I assumed this to be one of her parents until, to my horror, they knocked on the door.

I heard a female voice speak through the door. “Emily are you ready yet? We’re going to be late and I don’t feel like having to deal with Greg again.”

I recognized the voice. It was Tara, a friend of mine and Emily who works with her at Barnes & Noble, in the cafe section. They must be carpooling or something for her to be here now. But it was alright, so long as she didn’t come in.

So of course the knob starts to turn.

Lucky for me after everything I’ve been through I’ve learned to assume the worst. Once the knob started turning I dropped onto my stomach and tried to lay as flat against the bed as I could.

Here’s a little information about the human mind, we only see what we expect to see. This is one of the keys to camouflage, if no one is looking for you then chances are they won’t see you while you’re hiding. Tara never expected to see a two inch tall man laying on Emily’s bed so she looked over me completely. It also helped that Emily’s sheet were covered in colorful flower designs. All of the bright colors helped camouflage my clothes.

Tara stood an inch or two taller than Emily, but still shorter than I was before I had shrunk, and a bit skinnier. I’m not saying Emily was cubby, if anything she’s fuller, I believe the word is, than Tara who was simply thin. Tara had hair long like Emily, only her’s was brown and perfectly straight while Emily’s hair was red and slightly curly. Her skin was a bit tanner than Emily’s too, contrasted by her  bright blue eyes. She also wore a pair of plastic frame glasses. Tara was one of the many friends who came to the party I had before I was shrunk. Today she a black top, grey shorts, and sneakers. Even from the doorway Tara could see the room was empty. Naturally I assumed she would just leave and wait downstairs, and naturally I was wrong. Tara walked in to see what was on TV as I mentally cursed myself off.

“Oh! America’s Funniest Home Videos! I love this show,” she exclaimed. Damn you Tara and your great taste in quality television.

For a moment she stepped outside the room and looked down the hallway before walking back in. “Knowing Emily she’s going to be a while. I guess I’ll just sit here and wait.”

Then she walked over to the bed and sat on me . . . . . . there’s no other way for me to put that. She just walked over to the bed and freaking sat on me.

Since I was lying flat on my stomach all I could see was her walk towards me, turn around, and then her butt descended upon my body. I had one chance to look up as it came down on me and all I could think of was Never let it be said Tara doesn’t have a killer ass.

That was it, it could have been my last thought on Earth and I chose to waste it on that dumbass line.

But I realized I wasn’t going to die when I noticed I was at the edge of her butt. Meaning that everything but my head and left arm was trapped underneath of her. Good thing too since, if I was completely under her, even if I wasn’t crushed I would still suffocate to death. At first I thought if I struggled enough I could squeeze my way out of here. All this did was cause Tara to readjust herself on the bed, so now only my face wasn’t covered by her. The rest of my body was trapped tightly underneath the soft weight of Tara’s butt. As I laid there I realized how soft it really was. I wasn’t going anywhere so my mind began to wonder with the idea of being trapped under the butt of a giantess. I began to imagine being inside of Tara’s pants, or even her panties. Just being pressed against her soft skin as she completely dominates me, making me worship her. I imagined the feeling of her cheeks pressing me together from both sides, as punishment for not pleasing her. I knew this was wrong considering I’ve been friends with Tara since 9th grade, but I couldn’t help myself. I was starting to get pretty turned on.

I was able to track how long I was under Tara by the sound of the TV. Every now and then she would shift her body and it felt like I was getting a full body massage, it was a little rough most of the time but then again Tara had no idea I was under her in the first place.

Emily didn’t return until the first episode of AFV had finished and another one was just starting. I couldn’t see her entering but I definitely heard her squeal in surprise when she came in and found Tara sitting on her bed.

“Jesus, calm down,” Tara said. “I just came to pick you up. So are you going to hurry up and get dressed or are you planning on going to work in a bathrobe?”

“ . . . . Tara?” I heard Emily speak slowly. “When you came in here . . . did you notice anything . . . crawling around?”

“What? You mean like a bug?” Tara asked. “No I didn’t see anything like that. I just came in and sat down.”

“Oh my God!” Emily exclaimed.

“What?”

“Get up! Get up now, you’re going to kill him!” Emily screamed.

All at once I felt the weight leave my body as Tara stood up. I let out a gasp of relief while Emily gently scooped me up in her gentle hands. “A-are you ok?” she asked.

I was panting too hard to answer so I just gave her a thumb’s up and smiled. Emily let out a sigh of relief at the sight of that.

“Emily?” Tara called out from behind her. “What the hell’s going on?”

Emily looked down at me and whispered. “Should I tell her?”

I didn’t need long to think about that. The less people I had to hide from meant the less people I had to worry about almost killing me, case in point. But I’d have to be very picky about who I let know about me. I decided it would be best to only let girls I was friends with know about me. I based this decision around a couple of observations.

First off the girls I know are very protective of each other. Meaning if you dump one of them like an asshole instead of breaking up with them gently you are going to have hell to pay for it. They will break out the ice cream and comedy movies until she feels better and then turn their wrath upon whoever dumped her. Being as helpless as I am I would need people like that.

Secondly both my guy friends and my girl friends would tease me at this height, it’s unavoidable. But girls have more restraint ( most of the time) and would be a lot less likely to accidentally kill me than most of the guys I know.

And lastly yes, I’m into giant girls, go ahead and judge me for it. I’ve never been able to understand why I am the way I am but I’ve recently come to terms with it. And if you’re like me and haven’t come to terms with it, you should. You fantasies about giant girls, that does not make you a creep and you shouldn’t have to be ashamed of it. Not when there are rapists and pedofiles in the world. Anyway I don’t know how many girls in the world are aware of what macrophilia is or if they enjoy it or not, so I might never get this chance again. The chance to live out some of my deepest fantasies and hang around with actual giantesses.

To sum up everything I just said: girls will take care of me, they’ll be gentle, you’re not a freak, I’m going to be doing a lot of masturbating while I’m small.

Back to the story, I gave Emily a nod, which she returned. Then she carefully covered my body with her other hand, which wasn’t hard for her considering how she could have easily hidden me in only one hand. I heard her take a deep breath and saw her turn around through the cracks of her fingers.

“Tara,” she said in as serious a voice as I’ve ever heard her use. “I need you to keep this a secret for me. No matter what happens you must not tell anyone about this unless Peter gives his permission. Got it?”

“Are you holding something that belongs to Peter?” she asked.

“Tara focus!” Emily urged. “You have to swear to me never to tell anyone. Anyone! Unless Peter says it’s ok. Swear?”

Tara barely hesitated. I saw her raise her hand through Emily’s fingers. “I swear never to tell anyone this secret unless Peter says it’s ok.” She put her hand down. “Now what is it?”

Emily and I took deep breaths simultaneously before she opened her hands up. I looked up at Tara, as pretty as ever, as the sight of me slowly sank in. It wasn’t as dramatic as you’d think. At first she just looked at me, she probably thought I was a toy or something. But when I stood up her eyes widened tremendously as it began to click in her head. She gasped and put her hand to her mouth while taking a few steps back. I saw her jaw move from behind her hand as she tried to say something.

I just smiled weakly and waved. “It really is me Tara, it’s Peter.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Peter!”

She looked from me to Emily. “He’s . . . And I just . . . But I didn’t know that . . . Oh my God.” she breathed. “Did I really . . . sit on you?”

I heard Emily snicker a bit from above me, for Tara’s sake I chose to ignore it. “Yeah but, as you can see, I’m ok. So don’t worry about it.”

She swallowed a bit nervously. “H-how?” she asked, her voice still shaky from the shock. “How the hell did this happen?”

That’s when Emily stepped in, she gripped Tara’s shoulder firmly and looked at her levelly. “Tara. I know it’s not fair that we don’t tell you right now but you and I have got to go. I’m going to put Peter back in his home now and get dressed, you’re going to wait in the car. And when we get off from work, I promise you, you can come back and Peter and I will tell you everything. Deal?”

Tara looked from Emily to me and back to Emily. “O-ok.”

Once Tara left the room Emily put me down on the roof of the Bat Cave where Joseph scurried right up to me, clicking with joy. I knelt down and pet him. “Don’t worry boy, I’m alright.” I looked over at Emily who was standing there waiting. “Let’s go back inside,” I told him. “Something tells me it wouldn’t be polite to stick around”

Remember what I said about there being an elevator that reaches the roof but I couldn’t use it? Well I can still use the hatch door on the roof to get inside. Joseph and I slipped inside so that Emily could get dressed.

Now I know what you’re thinking but no, I didn’t look at her. Emily is a very beautiful girl with a great body and . . . goddammit but I’m a gentleman! I’ve got morals, and spying on your friend while she’s getting dressed is fucking creepy and  wrong. Even though I’ve tried many times to escape the friend zone, it’s still wrong.

Anyway Emily got dressed, she said she’d be back in a few hours with Tara, and then closed the door to her room behind her. Once she was gone I walked over to The Bat Computer, aka her iPhone, and continued doing some “research”.

A couple of hours later Emily and Tara returned. In that time Tara had calmed down significantly and could actually form complete sentences on her own. When they arrived Emily had the presence of mind to stop Tara at the door.

“Take your shoes off,” she told her.

“Why?” Tara asked.

“Peter thinks he’s more likely to live if we accidentally step on him without shoes on,” Emily explained.

Tara seemed to consider that a moment before kicking off her shoes. “That actually makes sense,” she said. Bless you Emily.

They both padded over to me on socked feet and knelt down to get a better look through the Bat Cave windows. Have you ever been sitting around watching YouTube in your room only to have two pairs of giant eyes look at you through your window? It’s pretty unnerving. I had only been here for four days so I was still getting used to things like this. Needless to say I almost hit the roof when I jumped in surprises. Tara and Emily giggled.

“Aw, he actually looks pretty cute in there,” Tara said. “Wait, is that an ant?”

I looked at Joseph who was sitting next to me on the floor. He made a few clicking sounds at the sight of Emily and Tara and began scurrying around the room.

“Joseph!” I called. “Joseph come here!” Eventually he settled down next to me and I stroked his antena. “That’s a good boy.” Then I looked over at Tara, even though I could only see her eye. “He became my pet after I rescued him from a spider. I named him Joseph.”

Tara drew her head back away from the window so I couldn’t see her anymore, but I could still hear her voice from outside. “Did he say a spider?”

“Yup,” answered Emily’s voice.

“Ew! Did you kill it?”

“Nope. It disappeared before I came home.”

“Oh my God! So it’s still here?” she asked.

“Probably,” I answered. While Tara was reacting to the spider news I had slung my quarterstaff on my back and climbed onto the roof, I’m getting pretty fast at this. “But don’t kill it if you see it. I owe that spider a round two.”

Emily raised and eyebrow as her lips quirked a little in an attempt to hide a smile. “As I recall you told me that you ran across the room from the thing and then hid inside the Bat Cave.”

I hope my face didn’t look as red as it felt. “Ok fine. The spider owes me a round two.”

Tara on the other hand made no attempt to hide the laughter. “This I’ve got to hear about. You have to tell me everything.”

I nodded. “Ok. If you wouldn’t mind giving me a lift to the bed I’ll tell you what I can of what’s happened.”

“Um, ok.” Tara reached a hand towards me but hesitated when she saw me flinch. I couldn’t help it, like I said I’m still not used to some things. “How should I uh . . . I mean . . . How do you like to be picked up?”

“Just bring your palm over in front of the ledge and I’ll step on,” I instructed.

Tara nodded and did as she was told. I stepped onto her palm, which was big enough for me to lay down flat and fit completely in. She smiled as she slowly carried me over to the bed. “You feel so light, it’s adorable.”

“Yeah. He’s kind of like my own little doll,” Emily piped in.

On the surface I smiled at them as I shook my head. What was underneath that smile was an entirely different story.

Tara brought me over to the bed and set her hand down so that I could step off. Once I did they took extra care not to hit or squish me as they climbed onto the bed. The two girls sat cross legged and looked down at me, waiting for my story. I pretended not to notice the smell of their socks, although to me they did have quite a pleasant aroma.

“Before I begin I just want to ask you girls a question first,” I said.

Emily and Tara exchanged glances before nodding.

“What does my voice sound like to you two? Does it sound high pitched and squeaky because I’m small?”

“Actually you sound surprisingly . . . normal,” Tara explained. “I was surprised when you spoke to me and it sounded like you would if you were normal sized. I could probably hear you talking from across the room.”

I gripped my chin between my thumb and forefinger in thought. “Emily said the same thing when she found me. But it doesn’t make any sense. If I’m small how can you hear me so well?”

Emily shrugged. “Maybe we’ll figure it out while you’re going through your story again.”

“Maybe,” I said. So I started from the beginning and told Tara everything that happened as I have described it in my journal. I left out the part about all of my fantasies and fetishes, they really didn’t need to know any of that. I told her of how I had woken up shrunken in Emily’s room, our different reactions to my new height, how she was freaked out and I broke down crying, settling into the Bat Cave, my explorations around the room, befriending Joseph, the spider, the trip to the crawl space, the mouse, and finally I ended by telling her about the clothes and journal that had appeared.

“That’s freaky,” she breathed. “A book and some clothes just appeared out of no where and they’re sized for you?”

I nodded as I subconsciously put a hand to my chest where I could feel my necklace beneath my shirt.

“And you have no idea at all as to what made you small?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’ve gone through everything from aliens to magic, but nothing ever makes any sense.”

So we sat there on the bed and talked over possible explanations and theories until we had completely lost track of time. The most logical explanation we could come up with was that I had something at the party that cause me to shrink. But that still left so many question. What was it that I had? Why was it there? Why didn’t anyone else shrink? and the hardest question to answer: Why did I wake up in Emily’s room?

We couldn’t come up with an answer for any of those questions. Eventually the time flew by and Tara had to go home. But since she and Emily live just a few blocks from each other she assured me that she would visit a lot so long as I was small. After she had left Emily closed the door behind her.

“Finally,” she said with relief. “I’ve been waiting all day to do this.”

She sat back down on her bed and looked over at me. “You may want to back away now,” she warned.

I backed away so that I was standing in the center of her bed as she sat against her pillows and pulled her legs up onto the bed. My heart began to race as I saw her peel her socks off, toss them away, and began rubbing at her feet. “I have been standing for five hours straight,” she explained with a groan. “Damn do I need this.”

I was so torn between what to do at that moment. I didn’t see it ending well in my head but at the same time there was no way I could pass up an opportunity like this! My brain kept telling me to keep my mouth shut and do nothing, but my dick kept saying ‘Do it! Do it! Dot it! Do it!’. I was still mad at my brain for all of those scary images of me dying from things like the spider, the mouse, and kids at Toys R Us. So I decided to side with my dick, hopefully things won’t end up worse because of it.

“You know . . .” I began, trying to sound casual about it. “If you want I could . . . rub them for you . . .”

Emily immediately stopped what she was doing and raised an eyebrow at me. “You? Offering to rub my feet for me?”

I shrugged, it took so much effort to appear casual I almost gave up and ran. But I kept all of the panic inside while remaining calm on the outside. “You’ve done so much for me these past few days. Giving me a place to stay, food and water, and even luxuries like candles and entertainment. It’s the least I could do for you in return.”

A faint smile appeared on her lips as she brushed a few red locks of hair away from her face. “I appreciate the offer Peter but I doubt I’d even be able to feel you.”

Then, very carefully, she moved her right foot so that it was right next to me. Her one foot must have been twice as wide as I was tall, making it about ten feet wide. And from my perspective it looked to be about thirty feet long. Being this close to her foot was a dream come true. Her skin was pale, but not unhealthy looking, and it looked extremely soft. Emily didn’t seem to notice though.

Emily giggled. “Besides, my one foot is three times your size. No offense but I don’t think you could do much.”

In response I just smirked and crossed my arms over my chest. “You’d be surprised, I know a trick or two.”

“Is that so?” she asked in a playful voice. “Alright, I’ll give you a chance. Step back a bit.”

I did and she brought her other foot over. Then Emily shifted herself so that her feet were laying sideways against the bed. “It’ll probably be easier for you if you can reach the whole foot.” Then she settled back against her pillows to relax and gestured with her hand. “Whenever you’re ready.”

I almost couldn’t believe this was actually happening, one of my most thought about fantasies ever! I was actually going to give a beautiful giantess a foot massage! I approached her right foot at the lowest part of the arch, which was about level with my chest. Speaking of which i was so nervous I felt like my heart was about to beat it’s way through my chest. It took whatever will power I had left to remain as calm as I looked. I brushed a hand over the arch of her foot, it did feel soft.

I heard Emily giggle. “Are you going to rub my feet or tickle them?”

“Just looking for a certain spot,” I answered. I placed my hand to mark just where the center of her arch was. Then I jabbed my right elbow into it and began rubbing in a small circle.

“Oh wow! That actually feels pretty good.”

I smiled as I kept rubbing. Remember that ‘research’ I mentioned I was doing before? Well this was it. I was looking up sensitive areas on a woman’s feet, just incase a miracle like this ever happened. The easiest way to get at the sore spots is to go through the arch of the foot. The second most likely sore spot would be right beneath her toes, but I would get in a few minutes. For now I kept pressing my elbow with as much strength as I could put into it, into her arch and rubbing it in a circle. I would have to switch elbows every minute so that one arm didn’t get too tired. Every now and then Emily would let a soft groan escape her lips.

After a few more minutes of doing that I took a few steps back.”Ok, now roll on your stomach so I can try something else.”

Emily didn’t hesitate this time. With one glance to make sure I was clear she turned onto her stomach and I approached her feet again. Laying on her stomach allowed all of the wrinkles in her soles to become visible. I took a minute to admire them before I set about continuing what I had started. Now that she was lying on her stomach the area directly beneath her toes was within easy reach. The ball of her foot came up to my chest, and my mind swam with the image of being pressed into the bed beneath it. That would be a massage to remember!

With a minor amount of effort I shook away the fantasies, I was too busy living one.

The ball of her foot would be tougher but there was still a sensitive spot I could exploit. I stood just at the tip of her big toe. I reached behind my back and drew out my quarterstaff. Then, with as much force as I could put into it, I jabbed the flat end of my staff into the area just above the ball of her foot and just below her big toe. Just as I did with her arch I rubbed the tip of the staff in a circle. I held the bottom part of the staff with my right hand and the opposite end with my left, I used my entire upper body to keep the tip pressed in and moving. Like I said, I’m not big enough to be a weight lifter, but because of wrestling I’m still strong enough to keep this up for a little while.

As soon as the tip of my staff jabbed her foot and began to move Emily groaned again, not sexually, but I could tell she was enjoying this. “Mmmmmm, that feels really good. How do you know how to do this?”

It wasn’t too hard to come up with a plausible explanation that she’d believe. If you keep it close enough to the truth without telling the whole truth it becomes easy to make up a simple story that’s believable at the same time. “I spent some time researching pressure points,” I answered. “Did you know most pressure points in the human body are located in the feet?”

“No but I’ll take your word for it since you’ve clearly done your research.”

“Uh-huh,” I said before I stopped. “I’ll finish up with your right foot and move onto the left in a minute. I didn’t stretch before and if I don’t do it now my muscles will cramp up way before they really should.”

Emily’s shoulders shrugged while she was still laying down. “If it means you can keep doing this longer then go ahead.”

So I took my time to properly stretch my arms and legs. I meant what I said. If I didn’t do this now my muscles would give out at a point where I normally could have kept on going without a problem. Considering I still had to finish up on her right foot and then do everything over again on her left foot this was the right thing to do.

The wrong thing to do happened after just three minutes of stretching. I was leaning my right leg forward to stretch out my thigh when I noticed how close my face was to her big toe. Of course big didn’t begin to describe it. More like huge, massive, or giant. And it was a little more than a foot away from my face. I didn’t even realize I was leaning in closer until suddenly . . . . .

Emily’s head lifted slowly off of her pillow. “Peter?” she asked. “What was that?”

As she spoke I could literally feel the blood leave my face. I was so shocked and horrified by what I had done I couldn’t form words, much less an answer. Emily began to raise up as she supported herself on her elbows while the rest of her body remained lying down.

“Peter?” she spoke slowly. “Did you just kiss my toe?”

My stomach was doing backflips right now. I had hoped against all hope that she’d assume it was just me accidentally brushing against her toe as I stretched. But she’d felt it, holy shit she actually felt me kissing her toe. My jaw moved up and down but words refused to come out, they were all clogging up my brain and keeping me from thinking of an explanation.

Emily pulled her feet away as she sat up, so she could face me directly. The look on her face was one of slight confusion mixed with caution. “Peter,” she still talked in that slow, careful voice. “Do you . . . like my feet?”

Oh my God that was it, it was over me. She must have figured it out, me convincing her to never wear shoes in the room, she must have put two and two together. How could I not have seen this coming! Emily was smart, between asking her to always take her shoes off and the massage, it was all so obvious. What would she think of me now? We’ve been friends since elementary school and I’ve never told her about anything like this between then and now. Hell, I’ve never told anyone for fear of something like this happening. How would she react? Would she be disgusted? Appalled? Revolted? Would she send me to Tara’s just so she wouldn’t have to have me around anymore?

“Peter?”

The sound of her voice snapped me out of my horrified daze. I just looked up at her, my face could have either been bright red or bone white. “Peter,” she said again. “Do you like my feet?”

I began to take a step backwards. Then another. Then another as I tried to stammer out an answer. “ I-i . . . . . I . . . . . . I-I uh . . . .Ah!” I screamed as I tripped while walking backwards and I fell on my back. The softness of the bed did nothing to ease me. This was just the icing on the cake. Not only did I now look like a perverted creep, I also looked like a fucking dumbass.

“Are you alright?” Emily asked. She sounded concerned but I was too busy at the time having a panic attack to notice. I stood up as fast as I could. I couldn’t bring myself to look up at her, instead I kept my eyes planted on the bed.

“I . . . I’m sorry,” I said as quickly as I could.Without another word I turned around and ran for the edge of the bed. With luck I could find a piece of blanket to climb down and then make a sprint for the Bat Cave. Afterwards I’d just hide under my sheets and wait, wait for this nightmare to be over. If there was nothing there for me to climb then . . . .

I never got the chance to finish the thought. Out of no where Emily’s giant hand came and snatched me from the bed. She’s never held me in her fist like this before. She was gentle, as always, but I was afraid none the less. Well shocked would be a better word. I didn’t think she’d have anything to say to me, unless she was going to scold me for being such a creep and making her take her shoes off so I could stare at her feet.

Emily brought her hand right up to her face, yet still low enough that I would have to look up at her. What surprised me more than suddenly grabbing me was the look on her face. Her right eyebrow was raised in a questioning way and there was a faint smile on her lips. A freaking smile?

“And just where do you think you’re going?” she asked. She didn’t sound angry at all. In fact she sounded like she normally would if she was just trying to tease me. But I couldn’t believe that was the case.

“I don’t recall giving you permission to leave,” she continued. “I have two feet here that still need to be massaged. If you want to go to bed then I suggest you hurry up and get to work.”

My jaw dropped lower than the economy. “W-what? Emily? What”

Emily didn’t say a word. She just winked as she set me down at her feet again. Then she flexed her toes a bit. “Well?” she asked. “Hurry up and get back to work.”

I lowered my head to hide a few tears as I wiped them away. Then I looked up and nodded at her, she smiled in return.

I got back to work just as I was doing before, rubbing her feet with my arms, elbows, and staff. I can’t honestly tell you how much time I spent massaging, only that I was still pretty sore when it was all done. Emily took care of placing me back on the Bat Cave roof.

“Good night Peter,” she said as she stood up. “And thanks for the best foot massage I’ve ever gotten.”

“Emily?” I asked.

She arched an eyebrow and I smiled while trying to keep the tears back. “Th-thank you.”

I didn’t have to say what for, she knew. She smiled before leaving to get ready for bed. I climbed inside where I was greeted by a very jittery and excited Joseph. After settling him down I went straight for my journal and began writing. The last few lines went something like this:

 

I can’t tell you what a relief it feels to know that she doesn’t see me as a freak like I assumed she would. I don’t know if she’d feel the same way about my giantess fantasies so I intend to wait a little bit before finding out . . . . But no matter what happens I can never tell her my deepest secret. If she knew I’ve kept something as important as that from her all of these years I don’t know if she’d ever forgive me.

Have you ever been put in a position where you had to choose between two incredibly risky and precarious situations? Naturally you look at the possible outcomes of each scenario and you go with the lesser-of-two-evils. But what’s easy to forget is that the lesser-of-two-evils is still evil.

It was a Sunday morning, only a few days after giving Emily that foot massage. Emily was taking a shower while Joseph and I were hanging out in the Cave washing clothes. She provided a second water cup for me today, this one was for bathing and then laundry. At the end of the day she’d trash it just like she does with my bathroom cup (right after she wraps the latter in a wad of toilet paper). Anyway I was washing what few clothes I had while Joseph kept me company. Emily got out of the shower faster than last time and got dressed rather quickly. I know what you’re thinking and no, I still didn’t look. Get your mind out of the gutter, we’ve known each other since kindergarten.

Either way she did seem eager about something, this is a very bad sign. Whenever Emily appears this excited around me that means it’s time for me to hide under my bed. . . . So that’s what I did. You heard right, I literally put down the clothes I was drying off, climbed the ladder to the second floor, and hid under my bed.

One time when Emily became all excited and eager around me I learned she and her friends had signed themselves up for dance classes . . . . along with me. I can’t dance a step to save my life. I still can’t because of course I ran away as soon as they told me the ‘good’ news. The point is I had barely dodged a bullet there, I was not about to take chances this time.

Of course that’s pretty fucking hard when your house is fourteen inches tall and completely made of plastic.

“Peter.” I could hear Emily calling me from underneath my bed. When I didn’t answer she called again. “Peter.”

I looked over at Joseph who was hiding with me under the plastic bed. He probably didn’t understand why we were there but then again he was an ant, he didn’t care. “You think she’ll give up if I just stay here?” I whispered to him.

Joseph clicked once and I grimaced. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

I could feel the Cave shake as Emily walked over and crouched down to her knees. “Peter.”

I shut my eyes, as if she would somehow go away just because I wasn’t looking.

The Cave began to jolt over and over again, Emily must be poking it while she repeated my name over and over again. “Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter.”

I sighed, crawled out from under the bed, climbed down the ladder, and opened the front door. “Are you done?” I asked in a slightly vexed tone.

“Almost,” she answered. Emily gave the Cave on last good poke that would have sent me staggering if I wasn’t on the bottom floor. “Now I’m done,” she said with a giggle.

“Uh-huh. Hurry up and tell me what’s got you so giddy today so I can go back to hiding.”

Emily sat up on her knees and crossed her arms over her chest as she gazed down at me. “The only thing you’re going to do is get dressed. You’ve been stuck in this house for too long.” A smiled spread across her face, I couldn’t tell if it was just my imagination or her smile was evil.”Tara and I are taking you out to lunch, then a movie.”

I would have laughed if it wasn’t for that maybe-evil smile on her face. Instead I allowed the idea to sink in, but that only brought me close to panic. “I can’t leave the house!” I said quickly. “Do you want people to see me? I’d be on the news in one second, and then in a laboratory in two!”

Emily grew more serious as she shook her head. “No one’s going to see you. I have a purse big enough for you to hang out inside without being claustrophobic or anything. We’ve already reserved a table in the corner of the restaurant so no one’s going to see you. And we’ll be able to see the waitress coming so you can hide before she get’s to the table.” Emily leaned back down so she wasn’t gazing down at me in a sinister way. “We’ll keep you safe, we promise.”

I took a moment to calm down and consider everything she said. The idea of leaving the house and getting some restaurant food sounded great actually. And they seemed to have put a good amount of thought into it . . . “What about food?” I asked at last.

She shrugged. “You can eat a bit of what we order. It’s not like you’re need a lot compared to us.”

“What about the movies?”

“We’ll take you in the same way. Once inside you can just hang out on one of our shoulders. It’s not like anyone’s going to be able to see you.” she answered.

I shifted my feet nervously. “Emily I appreciate what you and Tara are trying to do for me but . . . I just don’t think I’m ready to leave the house yet.”

Emily’s face softened as did her voice. “I can’t understand what you’re going through Pete, but I can understand you’re scared. Do you remember what you told me when I was too scared to speak in front of the class in sixth grade?”

I nodded. “I told you to focus on the wall in the back of the room so you wouldn’t notice everyone watching you.”

She smiled. “That helped get me through it. So now I’m here to help you get through your shrinking problem.”

I tried to return the smile but it faltered. So instead I just looked down at the ground, trying to talk myself into doing this.

“You know,” Emily said in a matter-of-fact voice. “My feet will probably get pretty tired from all of that walking around. They might need a good massage when we get back.”

My head snapped up as I cast a glare at her. “Ok that’s just low, using my fetish against me. You know how I feel about it.”

Emily chuckled. “You like feet, so what? Everybody’s attracted to something. You think no one else has some dark and twisted fantasy that would probably make you cringe a bit?” She laughed. “Besides, I really do appreciate the massages.”

I lightened up a bit as she said that. “Thanks, that . . . that means a lot. Not the massage part. The part about not thinking of me as a freak.”

“Of course you’re a freak Peter,” she smirked. “But I’ve thought you were a freak for years. Your fetish has nothing to do with that.”

I sighed. “You’re not giving me any choice in the matter, are you?”

Her face broke out in that almost-evil grin. “What do you think?”

*****

I got dressed,put away my other clothes, and said goodbye to Joseph. I decided to bring along my knife made from a plastic Bat-a-rang that was sharpened like a real knife. I know I was just going out with friends but I’ve grown too comfortable having weapons to defend myself with. Now I need to have either my knife or quarterstaff with me wherever I go. I slid the knife right between my jeans and belt and stepped onto Emily’s palm. She smiled at me. “You ready?”

I nodded and she proceeded to gently lower me into her purse. Just as she said it was pretty roomy in here, I could actually stand up. Most of the things she carried around were all put into separate pockets so that I had all the more room. The inner material was silk so it was pretty comfortable and helped cussion me despite all of the jostling when she walked. All I had to do was lean against one of the sides, fold my arms behind my head, and enjoy the ride. Before I knew it the movements had stopped and I could hear Tara’s voice.

“So where is he?”

The roof of my silk room opened up letting in a sudden flood of light. I was still trying to blink the spots of color out of my vision when Emily tilted the bag just a little so that Tara could see inside. She smiled wide and giggled at the sight of me.

“Aw you look so adorable in there! Like one of those puppies that can fit inside a purse.”

“Why is it that, everytime I see you, you manage to make me feel less and less manly?” I asked.

Emily smirked. “You’re a man? I just thought you were a new brand of Barbie doll.”

Tara didn’t even try to stop the giggles. “Just think of it as revenge for all of those hugs.”

I gulped down a lump that was forming in my throat. Tara has issues with being touched without her consent, it makes her very uncomfortable. Hugs are the very worst of it though. If you try and poke her or even just put your hand gently on her shoulder the worst she’ll do is take a step away. But if you try to hug her . . . . she screams, and she will fight to break out. She’s not very strong but the screaming is what hurts though. I’ve purposely hugged her before whenever I’ve needed to get back at her for something. God help me, she’s going to put me in a dress before I’m back to normal, I can feel it.

But it’s not like I can just let them know how scared of them I was. When it comes to girls who like to tease you playfully the only way to respond is some witty banter of your own. Nothing hurtful, but definitely something to make them understand you won’t take that lying down.

I cupped my hand behind my ear. “Could you both say that again? I don’t speak giant troll language.”

Emily looked from me to Tara and quirked an eyebrow. “Oh no he didn’t.”

Then she closed the purse, leaving me in darkness once again. Almost instantly the ground shot upwards and knocked me off of my feet. I flew a good few feet into the air and came down on the silk floor. I wasn’t hurt but my cage has well and truly been rattled. The purse opened up once more and Emily grinned down at me.

“How did that feel?” she asked.

I returned her’s with a grin of my own. “I’m just going to assume you did that because you couldn’t think of a decent response.”

Rather than say anything Emily just pulled me out and set me down in one of the change slots of the car. So there I sat, Tara driving on my left and Emily sitting on my right. The expression of being between a rock and a hard place didn’t come close to describing where I was.

“You better watch what you say Pete.” Tara didn’t take her eyes off the road as she addressed me. “You’re not as big as you used to be. We could always just crush you.”

A sudden silence fell over the entire car. I looked from Tara to Emily as wide smiles began to spread over everyone’s face, including mine.

*****

It only took about ten minutes to reach our location. I wasn’t able to see from where I stood and Emily and Tara refused to tell me. Instead Emily gently placed me back inside of her purse. I couldn’t hear anything that was said through the purse but I could at least tell the difference between the voices, however muffled they were. In a few minutes all movement inside the purse stopped but it wasn’t opened for another minute. Once I was taken out and placed on the table I took a good look around. Sure enough we were sitting at a booth in a dimly lit building. Neon lights, pictures, and knick-knacks covered the walls. I recognized this place even though I hadn’t been here in years.

“You brought me to Applebee’s?”

Tara spread her hands. “Surprise!”

“You do like Applebee’s right?” Emily asked.

I nodded. “Thanks for this.”

We hung out and talked in the booth the whole time. Whenever the waitress would come back Tara would give me a warning and I’d dash behind the napkins. The girls ordered the nachos for an appetizer. The plate was big enough to be table height for me if I sat down in front of it. I’d snack on bits of beef, cheese, and chip while the girls ate enough food to feed a town of people my size. And that was only the appetizer, I made sure to make plenty of room for the main courses. Emily ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries while Tara got the 10 oz steak after we both challenged her to do it. Needless to say she failed to finish the whole thing herself. I, on the other hand, received a smaller than bite sized portion from both meals. Never the less they were full sized courses to me and I ate well, using my plastic knife to cut the food. So well I almost didn’t hide in time from the waitress when she stopped by the table. Luckily I had the idea of hiding underneath the rim of the large plate. From her angle I was completely hidden from sight. We all took a huge breath of relief when she left and laughed over the situation. Somewhere along the lines of our conversation I mentioned that I hadn’t been to Applebee’s in years.

“Why’s that?” Emily asked.

I shrugged. “No particular reason, but I can still remember the last time I did come here. It was at the end of one of the best days of my life.”

“Really?” Tara asked. “What happened?”

“It was for a surprise party for Dave Harrison. You remember him right?”

They nodded and I continued. “We were about twelve years old at the time. We all surprised him at his house and spent the day playing all kinds of games, everything from manhunt to his new video games. For dinner time we all went to Applebee’s and then went straight back to his house for more video games until we had to leave.”

“Sounds like my last birthday party,” Emily joked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll never forget that day.” I gazed out across the table as I became lost in thought. But I was brought back to reality as my stomach began to churn. I stood up to try and walk it off but that did no good. Eventually I dropped to my knees, trying hard to hold down the lunch I just ate.

Emily and Tara sat up straighter at the sight of me. “Are you ok?” Tara asked.

It was an effort but luckily my indomitable will power and extreme dislike of vomiting helped me hold everything down. I stood up and turned back to face them.

“I uh- I think I should just go home. I really appreciate you two taking me out and everything but I think I should leave.” I explained.

Emily looked at me strangely, trying to decide if anything was wrong with me. “Ok,” she said slowly. “We’ll just pay and take you back. We’ll all just hang out and watch some Netflix.”

I shook my head. “No that’s alright. Just drop me off at my Cave and you two can go off and do what you want.”

“Well we want to hang out with you,” Tara said softly. “And if you’re not feeling well then it wouldn’t be right to just leave you by yourself.”

I tried shaking my head again but Emily cut in before I could say anything else. “Look there’s nothing you can really do to stop us, even if you were normal sized.” she said firmly. “We were going to go see a movie but if you’re not feeling well then we’ll take you home and watch a movie with you there.”

One look at their faces told me that the decision was made and final. So the bill was paid, I went back into the purse, and taken back to Emily’s house. When we went inside Emily removed me from her purse once more.

“We’re going to go look in my room and see if there’s any good dvd’s you’d want to watch. You want to come?”

I shook my head. “Actually if you could just set me down on the floor I’d like the chance to explore a little bit.”

“Ok then, we’ll be back down in a few minutes.” she assured me. “Don’t wander where we might accidentally step on you when we come back.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said as she gently placed me on the floor. As they thumped up the steps I took my knife out and began to wander around. I was only about a minute into my exploration when I suddenly heard the front door unlock and then open.

The front door unlocked and opened up to reveal . . . . . . Emily’s mom. Dun Dun Duuuuuuuun!

Mrs Wright (did I mention Emily’s last name was Wright yet?) was a pretty woman in her mid forties and stood at a whopping five feet and four inches tall, which was titanic compared to me. Her wavy red hair was passed onto Emily, as was her height and a few facial features. She wore on her a white top with a long black skirt that reach her ankles, and a black pair of flats shoes. She carried two bags of groceries in her arms which seemed to take up most of her attention, so I went unnoticed by her.

Mrs Wright set the two bags on the floor and shut the door behind her. Just she turned back to her grocery bags she stiffened and looked around. What made her do that? I don’t know exactly. I guess it must have been that primordial instinct that still lives on in the recesses of our subconscious. The little piece of our brain that’s there to warn us when we are being watched. Have you ever been in a room by yourself and felt like you’re being watched? Don’t ignore it, our brains were made for survival from a very early age in human history. Before we were building houses we were learning to survive on our own. Modernization may have softened us a bit in comparison to what we once were, but some ancient instincts still remain.

In this case I was watching Mrs Wright to make sure she didn’t see me, and she could feel eyes watching her. As she turned around and scanned the room I realized for the first time that I was standing in the middle of the carpet. Behind me was a coffee table, and to my right was a couch. The coffee table was too high off the ground to offer any protection if she came after me, but all I really needed to do was hide from sight..

Emily’s mom continued to stand there and scan over the room, never once looking down at me. I suppose that made sense, you’d never expect to be watched by a two inch tall man. Never the less I needed to move from out in the open. The coffee table was the best choice so, without taking my eyes off of her, I walked towards it.

Bad idea.

Movement was what drew her attention to me. Once she saw movement Mrs. Wright slowly approached where I was standing until her eyes seemed to lock onto me. I stood there petrified, I had hoped I could hide myself from Emily’s parents. It’s not that they’re bad people, as a matter of fact I’ve known them for so long they’re almost like aunt and uncle to me. But how do you expect them to understand something like this?

It seems I had no choice but to try. Just as she got within two steps of me I saw Mrs. Wrights face light up in shock. Thoughts flew through my head as I tried fast to think up the best possible way to explain everything to her.

“Oh my God,” Mrs. Wright breathed. “I’ve never seen anything that big before.”

I was struck dumbfounded. Mr and Mrs Wright have always been friendly, and funny people to know, but did she just make a joke at my expense? The woman has just discovered me, two inches tall and in her house, and the first thing out of her mouth is an ironic comment? But before I could reply to it a random observation just smacked me upside the head. Mrs Wright wears glasses for things up close, but she wasn’t wearing them now. My pulse went from zero to 600 in a second as her comment made sense. ‘I’ve never seen anything that big before’. Mrs Wright wasn’t making a snide comment about my new height, she thought I was a bug!

My mouth went dry with fear as I saw her foot lift up. I wanted to cry out and tell her not to crush me but my mouth wouldn’t work, not even a squeak escaped my lips. I was just too scared. Without preamble Mrs Wright’s foot slammed towards me, I almost didn’t get out of the way in time.

Remember what I said about survival instincts? Well mine have been on high alert ever since I woke up tiny. And at the forefront of my fears is being stepped on by someone who doesn’t see me. Like I said a while ago, The Bat Cave can get pretty boring, so I did a lot of daydreaming and contemplating. When I started to realize how easy it was for me to die at this size I spent time thinking of ways to survive certain situations. When it came to being stepped on that was the easiest solution, dive roll. After that it was just a matter of practicing how to dive roll fast enough. I came very close to missing the mark.

Mrs Wright’s foot landed on the carpet with enough force to jar me as I rolled away. I came up to my feet shaky, partly because of the tremor and partly because of the carpeting. At my size the carpet became a field of light blue grass just reaching past my ankles. It didn’t restrict my movements but it did make my footing a little unstable. I had no time to worry about that though, as soon as I came to my feet I took of running for the couch.

“Did I get it?” Mrs Wright asked herself. She gasped. “There you are.”

I had no choice but to look over my shoulder and watch as the sole of Mrs Wright’s flat came down towards me. It was a miracle I didn’t trip but I needed to see when her foot was coming so I could dodge. Just as before her shoe descended faster than I would have thought possible for something of her size. But again I was able to roll out of the way. The carpet soaked up most of the sound of her stomping so it was likely Emily and Tara couldn’t hear what was happening. I came up on my feet even more off balance than last time, and Mrs Wright’s foot came down again even faster than last time. Through sheer luck I was able to use my off balance momentum to roll once again.

The couch was only twenty feet away from me at this point, I didn’t even waste time looking back again. I just sprinted for all I was worth and barrel rolled underneath the couch. I didn’t stop rolling once I was under the couch, I kept on rolling until i was sure I was a good distance away from Mrs Wright’s reach. When I finally stopped rolling and my vision stopped spinning I was able to see exactly how lucky I really was. The couch was too low for Mrs Wright to fit anything more than her fingers underneath. This meant I couldn’t move unless I was army crawling, but that was just another advantage. Have you ever lost a bug underneath your couch before? That’s because it’s freaking dark under there. Darkness, plus small, plus low to the ground meant I had all but disappeared from her sight.

I laid there on the ground watching as her eyes scanned and passed right over me.

“Mom!” I heard Emily’s voice call out. “What are you doing!”

Mrs Wright bolted up from looking under the couch. From where I was I couldn’t see any of them but I could hear their voices well.

“Oh,” Mrs Wright breathed with what sounded like relief. “Emily you scared the hell out of me. Oh, and hello Tara.”

“Hi Gina,” Tara replied. Emily had known Tara longer than I had and the two spent a lot of time with each other. Apparently Tara had been over Emily’s house so many times she was on a first name basis with her parents.

“Mom, what were you doing on the floor?” Emily asked again.

“I was just carrying in some groceries when I saw a huge bug on the floor.”

“Did it go under there?” Tara asked this time.

“Yeah,” Mrs Wright answered. “I tried to step on it but it was fast and ran right under the couch.” I heard something that sounded like her shivering. “I do not want something that big running around my house like that. You girls want to give me a hand with this couch?”

I was beginning to put my head down and relax while I listened to the conversation, but when she said that my head shot straight up. There was no way I could crawl out of here and then run for cover fast enough. I considered hanging onto the fabric on the bottom of the couch but there were no wrinkles to grab!

“Uh . . . That’s ok mom, we’ll take care of this one.” Emily said.

“You girls sure?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Tara replied quickly.

“Ok then. I’ll start on dinner.”

I could see Mrs Wright’s flats as they walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. When she was gone I could feel Emily and Tara crouch down.

“Peter,” she whispered. “The coast is clear, you ok?”

I army crawled out from under the couch to their relief and stood up. “I’m cool, just a little shaken up.”

Emily looked around. “I think you’d be safer downstairs with us.”

I nodded and stepped onto her waiting palm. She only needed one hand to completely shelter me as she sneaked me past her mom. Emily’s basement/entertainment room was the central hang out area of her house. Two leather couches faced a 45 inch flat screen TV, which included a Wii and a PS3. Behind the couches and against the wall was a computer and desk. A pool table and a dart board were placed off to the side of the room. All in all it was a pretty fucking sweet place to hang out.

They brought me downstairs, shut the door, took off their sandals, and listened as I explained what happened while they were gone. They listened intently as always.

“So she tried to step on you? What was it like?” Tara asked, eyeing me strangely.

“It was scary as hell!” I exclaimed. “All three times I barely rolled out of the way. What do you think it was like?”

Tara shrugged. “I was just curious. You’ve been through a lot, I just want to know what goes through your head when shit like this happens.”

I thought that over for a bit, it was a pretty good question actually. “Nothing really,” I said after a minute of pondering. “When I was running from the spider or facing down the mouse I was never really thinking. It was all just instinct and reaction.”

Tara nodded. “And what about just now?”

That was actually a very interesting question to answer. While it was happening I felt nothing but fear, kind of like I’m still feeling. I was running for my life and I almost didn’t make it out. But looking back on it, that was one of my fantasies. Being chased by a giantess who wanted to step on me. But does that mean I was turned on while it was happening? Not at all.

“Same thing,” I said. “I was too afraid to think, I just ran.”

Tara nodded. “Then I guess we’ll have to try again.”

Tara lifted her bare foot up and brought it down over me. That was it, there was no warning or anything, she just tried to step on me. If I hadn’t still been feeling the fear of almost being killed from before I wouldn’t have gotten away in time. Just as I did with Emily’s mom I combat rolled out of the way just as her foot came down right where I had been standing.

I looked up at Tara, more shocked than angry. “What the fuck Tara!”

Tara only giggled as she tried again. This time I didn’t roll, I straight up ran for my life. I could hear Tara’s foot land on the carpet directly behind me as I kept bolting, this time for a reclining chair. Emily’s foot blocked my path before I could even get close to it. She hadn’t been trying to step on me though, just turn me away, and it worked. I ran straight to my right, I don’t know where except that I just had to get away. Emily’s other foot landed next to me, almost throwing me off balance completely. As it was I only stumbled a bit and kept on going. The whole time both girls were laughing high above me. I noticed but I couldn’t think about it, I just kept on running. All around me their feet would land and I’d just keep changing directions. But I was getting tired, no matter how good a shape I was in I couldn’t run forever. My only hope was the TV, there was a case that held the blue ray player and a bunch of movie. I could take cover under there.

Just as I was making my last ditch effort to reach it Tara’s foot fell right in front of me. I couldn’t afford to be turned around again, I needed to keep going. I tried to imitate those cops who slide over the car hoods as they dodge gunfire. I tried to apply the same move here and slide over her foot. It almost worked except that, as I slid over top of her foot, Tara arched her foot up and i was thrown completely off balance. I landed on my stomach yet not hard enough that I stopped trying to get away. I tried crawling away and pushing myself to my feet at the same time but I found myself pinned to the ground by Tara’s foot.

I tried struggling for all I was worth but I might as well have been trying to lift a mountain off my back. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Tara!” I gasped. “Emily! What the fuck is going on!”

Tara giggled. “He tickles a little, but it actually feels pretty good.”

From my limited field of vision I could see Emily smirk as she got down on her stomach to take a closer look at me. “How do you feel Pete?” she asked not at all sounding concerned.

“How the fuck do you think I feel! Tara and you are trying to kill me! I fucking trusted you two!”

But Emily kept smiling. “No I mean how do you feel? Being trapped under Tara’s bare foot? Does it feel good?”

“Good!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing . . . until I took a moment to consider everything.

So far Tara had not crushed me, in fact I barely felt any pressure on my body. True I couldn’t move but I wasn’t in any pain or even discomfort. Not to mention the skin of her sole felt very soft to the touch, her skin even smelled like some kind of moisturizing cream. This would have actually been an amazing experience for me, if I wasn’t so confused.

“Emily,” I said in a more calm voice. “What’s going on?”

Emily’s face brightened up and Tara removed her foot from my body. “Don’t run away, ok?” she asked. “We really weren’t trying to hurt you.”

For some reason I decided to hear them out rather than make a bolt for it. I wanted to hear what it was they were thinking and, more importantly, how they knew I would enjoy it.

Emily spoke first. “The day Tara found out about you and we went to work we did a little researching during our break time.”

“Research?” I asked.

Tara nodded. “We were looking up anything we could find about shrunken men. We were trying to figure out what could have made you small. Instead what we found were a bunch of . . . fetish websites.”

My eyes widened immensely at the mention of that but I didn’t trust myself enough to speak. So i kept quiet as Emily continued.

“At first we weren’t sure what to make of any of them but then we uh . . .” she blushed a little. “We started to get really into the idea of it.”

“The idea of what?” I asked.

“The idea of uh . . . you know . . . being giantesses. At first it seemed pretty creepy that there were guys who like this stuff but eventually it looked really cool.”

Tara nodded, she was also blushing a little. “At first we thought it wouldn’t be right to try it out on you. But then a few days ago Emily told me about your thing for girls feet.”

“You told her!” I exclaimed.

But Tara held up her hands and answered me quickly. “I swore to keep it a secret just like I did about telling people about you. Don’t worry though, I don’t think you’re a freak or anything. It was actually a relief to learn about that though, it meant you may be into giantess role playing too.”

I cocked an eyebrow, trying my damned hardest to keep too much emotion from showing on my face. “Giantess role playing?”

“It’s like playing pretend,” Emily answered. “We pretend to be the giantesses and you be the tiny man who has to run from us and worship us.”

“W-Wo-Worship you!” I sputtered.

Emily only smirked at me. “Don’t act like you don’t want to Pete, you’ve already rubbed my feet like three times.”

I crossed my arms and glared at her. “Whether I enjoyed this or not you still had no right to tell her anything about that.”

The smile left Emily’s face as she became more serious, and more sincere. “You’re right Peter, I had no right. But we were trying to do this for you. I figured you must like this stuff by all of the signs you’ve given me but I knew you’d never just come right out and tell me you’ve got a thing for giantesses. We just wanted to give you something you’d enjoy without having to force you to confess to us first. And we honestly enjoy this too now so you don’t have to feel ashamed or like a freak around us. We don’t want you to have to hide anything from us anymore, you’ve been through enough.”

That last remark stung me deep, the rest just left me plain speechless. I’ve spent years holding onto a secret like that because my biggest fear was that no one would ever want anything to do with me. Who would want to socialize with a guy who like giant girls and their feet? I always thought if anyone knew, no matter how long I’ve known them, they’d just be disgusted and avoid me at all cost.

Now here I am, two inches tall and standing before two giant girls, just like I had always dreamed. Ever since I became tiny I’ve realized exactly how wrong delusional my fantasies have been. Being shrunk is not a grand adventure like in Tom and Jerry. It’s a constant struggle for survival, a struggle I’ve almost given up on a few times. But now these two girls stand before me and tell me that they want to help me make my fantasies come true, I can’t believe it.

The tears fell down my face before I could stop them. With a sniff I wiped them from my eyes.

“Are you ok?” came Tara’s voice, full of concern.

My shoulders shook as I chuckled a little. “Yeah, I’m ok. I’ve just been so afraid of how people might react if they ever learned . . . it’s just such a relief to know . . . the fact that you don’t think of me as a freak . . . thank you.”

Emily smiled, and it may have been just my imagination but I could have sworn I saw a tear in one of her eyes. “Then let’s have some fun. You can start by telling us who’s feet are prettier.”

And that’s how the rest of the day went. We played games like tag and hide and seek where I always hid. And role playing games like Jack and the Beanstalk, and a game where they were goddesses and I had to kiss their feet to show my devotion. I ate dinner with them down here while Emily’s parents ate upstairs, and then watched one of the greatest comedy movie ever, Airplane!

I couldn’t have asked for a better day, which must have been why tomorrow seemed so bad.

Yesterday was amazing, except for almost dying, it was simply amazing. I lived out fantasies I had never even dare dream would ever come true. When I went to bed that night I was afraid of waking up only to find it was a dream. But upon waking up I knew in an instant that it was all real. I also knew that I had just hit a mental wall.

Emily had gone to work while I was sleeping and I was so exhausted from all of that running I must have slept right through her whole morning routine. She left me some food and water and then must have left. I don’t know what time it was when I woke up, but I didn’t care. I knew what was going on so I didn’t even try and get out of bed when I woke up, I just laid there and gazed at the wall until I lost myself in thought. I’m not sure how long I did that either, but eventually I had to get up. I went through my morning routine slowly today, Joseph seemed to follow me a lot more than he usually does. I don’t know why he chose now to shadow me but I didn’t care.

I ate as much as I could stomach and then climbed onto the roof. As I gazed out at the room I considered taking a walk but I ultimately decided I was in no condition to leave the Cave. I doubt I’d even be able to notice it if I ran into the spider again, not until it was too late. So I just sat against one of the railings and spent the day looking out at the room and thinking. Remember when I said the Bat Cave became boring after a while? It does, it becomes very boring. I sat there, quarterstaff placed on my lap, as I looked out and thought. Eventually I took to passing the time by measuring things. The bed, the dresser, the mirror, books, bookcases, and anything else. I just tried to guess their actual height and then did my best to convert that to my scale. For example I measured a hardcover book to be about ten inches. I stand at a height of five feet and seven inches when I’m at my normal size, only now I’m two inches tall. So if 5’7 equals about 67 inches then the book must be about 670 inches at my scale. Divide that number by twelve, since there are twelve inches in one foot of distance, and the book measures at a height of 56 feet compared to me.

And that’s how I decided to spend the day, sitting around doing nothing but basic math to figure out how big everything is compared to me. I only ever left to go to the bathroom or to get something to eat or drink. But other than that I stayed sitting where I was, and I always went back. I suppose I must have been seeking the quiet, I desperately needed time to think.When I woke up that morning I had a thought that wouldn’t stop haunting me.

Is this what you’re existence has been reduced to now? You’ve become a toy to two girls who call themselves your friends.

That thought just kept playing over and over in my head, as depressing as it is. I spent all of my time thinking it over. When I couldn’t find an answer for myself I began to play that measuring game I mentioned earlier. When I grew bored of that I went right back to thinking. Is this really my new role in life? Am I just a toy now? Do Emily and Tara still see me as a friend or as a play thing? They seemed to have fun playing the role of the giantesses, but did they really enjoy being giantesses or were they just having fun playing around with my tiny form. I loved it, God help me I really did love it, but should I? Were they playing along with me or just playing with me?

I didn’t feel sad about it, I didn’t really feel anything. I just sat there and thought all day.

I didn’t keep track of time so I was a little surprised when Emily came home right in the middle of my contemplating. She came into the room, kicked her shoes off, and strode towards her bed. “Hey Pete, how was your day today?” she asked as she walked by.

“Fine.” I answered in my normal tone of voice.

Emily walked right by my Cave and plopped down on her bed. “You’ll never guess who I saw today at work.”

“Bill Gates who has just gone bankrupt and came in to rob the store at gunpoint until you talked him out of it. Then he thanked you, gave you the gun, you made the sign of the cross, and now he’s a missionary helping to spread the word of love and forgiveness to his fellow man,” I answered.

My reply was met with a long silence. “ . . . . Um, no.” Emily said in a slow voice. “I ran into Jessica, and she was asking me if I knew where you were.”

“What did you tell her?” I asked, never once looking away from room I had been gazing at all day.

“I told her I haven’t seen you for a little while. She said she had some money to return to you.”

I nodded, mostly to myself. Jess was another good friend of mine. I few months ago she was looking to buy tickets to some dance the school was having. Jess was just a few dollars short and I never go to those kinds of things so I gave her the ten dollars I had in my pocket. Of course I never told her that that ten dollars was my lunch money for two days, but I didn’t really care. I’m actually surprised she remembered.

“I guess the money can wait,” I said. “I can’t spend it or anything while I’m stuck like this.”

There was a pause before Emily spoke again. “Hey, I’ve got some good news for you.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“My parents are going on vacation and their taking my little brother with them. So for an entire week we’ll have the whole house to ourselves.” she explained. “They leave the morning after tomorrow.”

I nodded again despite knowing that she probably couldn’t see me while she was lying down. “Sounds great.”

I wasn’t looking but I could hear Emily’s bed creak as she moved towards my Cave, probably to get a better look at me. “Peter, are you ok?”

I took a deep breath before turning around to look at her. Emily was sitting cross legged on her bed looking down at me in a concerned way. I gave her a reassuring smile. “Yeah I’m fine.”

The concern didn’t leave her face until she swung her legs down. “Do you want to play with my feet?” she asked.

I didn’t even give her feet a glance as I shook my head. “I really want to but I’m still a little sore from yesterday. All of that running and everything. I just need another night’s sleep or something.”

The concern came back to her face but she didn’t push or anything, she just nodded her head.

*****

That’s pretty much how it was for the next two days, even after her family left. I’d spend the majority of my time in my Cave. Occasionally I’d go out for a walk, just to clear my head. But I avoided the bookcase area of the room. The whole time Joseph never once left my side, I wasn’t clear why but I appreciated the company. Believe it or not he was just the kind of company I needed. He didn’t need to be able to talk or anything, I just needed his presence. We’d go out walking, neither of us making a sound, just being with each other.

When her parents left Emily tried to get me to come out and go somewhere, but I wasn’t really in the mood. Eventually she talked me into watching one movie with her, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and then I asked to be taken upstairs as soon as it was over. She complied without a word.

The day after that I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to get out of bed when she forced me.

I was just lying in bed, completely zoned out, when Emily stomped over to my Cave. I mean she literally stomped, the walls shook and everything. I barely paid attention but Joseph went all jittery as usual and began crawling all over the walls in panic. Through the Bat Cave window I could see Emily kneel down and peer in to look at me, all I did was roll over to stare at the wall. Even from in here I could hear her pout. The next thing I know Emily’s fingers are wrapped around my body. Before I can even cry out in surprise I’m pulled out through the only open window on the second floor.

Emily held me in her palm as she brought her hand up to her face. “Ok I don’t know what’s been bothering you the last few days but it ends today.” She brought her hand just above my Cave and slowly tilted it until I slid onto the roof. “Now get dressed.”

I stood up and looked at her very cautiously. “What’s going on?”

Emily broke out into that wide grin of hers that almost made me shiver. “I’ve invited some of the girls over today. We’re all going to have a slumber party.”

Most of the morning was spent in a state of fluxed emotions. At first I went on down to the plastic jail cell and hid in it like a panic room. I spent a lot of time in there just thinking this over, and how bad of an idea it was. But eventually I relaxed enough to look at the situation from a more laidback and personal point of view. I’m always at my best whenever I’m around my friends. Most of the time when I’m feeling bad I always want to avoid people for as long as I can. But sometimes I force myself to go out and have a good time with my friends and it usually ends up making me feel better. With a little luck this may turn out to be one of those times.

So I came out of my plastic panic room and began to get ready for everyone’s arrival. Tara was the first one to show up. We sat around in Emily’s room and talked over who was coming and how it would be best to introduce them to me. All of the people coming would be girls we’re all mutually friends with so I’d be comfortable despite being around so many people. Afterwards we chatted for a bit until everyone started showing up. Emily and Tara left the room so that they could keep the guests occupied until everyone had showed up. Once everyone had arrived Emily and Tara would do their best to explain my situation to them. Naturally none of them would believe a word they say until Emily brings them to her room. Once they see me . . . I actually have no idea what will happen.

I sat there on the roof of the Bat Cave in my usual position, with my back against a railing, my staff on my lap, and Joseph by my side.The whole time I kept trying to imagine exactly what everyone’s reaction would be to seeing me.After a while I thought that the only thing that could make this better would be if I had a harmonica with me. That way when they come in I’d be just sitting here playing some blues music on a harmonica with an ant as an audience. I don’t know why but the simple image of that scene in my head made me break out into laughing fits. Come on, how would you react to a two inch man sitting on a Bat Cave playset while playing the harmonica to an ant? If only I knew how to play the harmonica.

“How do you think they’ll react to me Joseph?”

Joseph looked over at me and clicked once.

“Nah, I don’t think any of them will faint. But that would be funny as hell.”

He did nothing.

I nodded. “Yeah, maybe I’m overplaying their reaction. They might not even freak out for all I know.”

Joseph remained silent.

“But then again I’m one of their friends who has now been reduced to a mere two inches tall. Of course they’re going to freak out in some way.”

He clicked a few times.

“God, I hope they don’t scream. They’d probably knock me off the damned Cave if they all screamed. Even if they didn’t I’d still be deaf as a door.”

He remained silent for a minute and then clicked once.

“You’re right Joseph. I suppose the fact that I’m shrunken is overwhelming enough for them. I shouldn’t try to mess with them like that considering they could overreact and accidentally hurt me.” So I went back to zoning out for a good minute. “Hey Joseph, I don’t suppose you have a harmonica on you?” I asked with a grin.

A good while passed before I heard voices coming outside of the door. Normally I wouldn’t have been able to hear the words exactly, but everyone was speaking loud enough this time.

“Seriously this better not be some goddamned prank,” came one voice.

“I swear to God, if Peter is hiding inside waiting to ambush us or something, I’m going to kick him in the balls.” came another. You can tell I was already brimming with anticipation to see everyone again.

Emily knocked a few times on the door, this was her way of signalling that they were about to come in. The knob turned and the door opened to reveal a group of girls standing in the hallway looking in.

It was no surprise that Melanie was in the front of the group. She stands at an even five feet tall making her the shortest of the group. She has brown, wavy hair that reaches past her shoulders, dark eyes, a round face, and olive skin. Melanie’s personality goes perfectly with her appearance as she is one of the kindest and sweetest individuals I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. And when I say sweet, I’m not talking complete sunshine and bubbles either, that’s just sickening. Melanie’s the kind of girl people just enjoy being around. I’m not even joking, this girl can cheer you up just by being herself. Melanie is about two years younger than Tara, Emily, and I which means she’s about to move onto her senior year at high school. She wore a T-shirt she got on a trip to DisneyWorld and a pair of jean shorts.

Next to her was Nicole, who’s about three inches taller than Melanie. Nicole may not be as outgoing as Melanie but she’s no less kind because of it. She’s generally a shy kind of girl but is an all around blast to be around once she comes out of her shell. Nicole’s in eleventh grade, when I met her I spent a lot of time just talking one on one about stuff. She opened up a lot of shit to me that was bothering her in her life. I wish I could have done more than just talk about it but apparently having me listening was enough for her. Eventually I introduced Nicole to the rest of the girls here and they all seemed to hit it off together. She’s also extremely talented, rocking out on a bass guitar with the best players in high school. Nicole has jet black hair, perfectly straight, that runs right to the center of her back. She’s of paler complexion than Melanie, with grey eyes that lie behind a pair of frame glasses, and a slightly smaller face. She wore a black Rise Against T-shirt, and jeans.

Ashley stood at an even height with Nicole, only Nicole was rail thin and Ashley was husky. I cannot stress to you enough how this did not at all take away from her looks. I’ve known Ashley since we were in eighth grade and, to be perfectly honest, she’s one of the most attractive girls I know. When I say attractive I’m talking about her entire being. Yes she is very pretty, but her physical looks combined with her personality and attitude are what make her one of the best people I know. Ashley is an amazing person to have as a friend, not only is she kind but she’s also tough. It’s very easy to become friends with her, but if you hurt one of her friends she will rip you a new one. Whenever a girl friend of hers gets dumped by some asshole Ashley rushes in with compassion in one eye and vengeance in the other. Then, once she find the guy, she will verbally castrate him in front of any and all of his friends. But she’s also quirky and loves things like anime. She has dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and a great smile. She wore a pink T-shirt with the breast cancer ribbon on it and sweat pants.

Last, but definitely not least, was Jessica. Jess has got to be, without a doubt, one of the strongest willed people I’ve ever met. After her parents divorced Jess’s dad married a pasty white, rich woman because that’s easier than supporting your child on your own. The woman he married isn’t a really terrible person but she doesn’t give two shits about being a mother. So Jess has to get herself through college since her parents refuse to offer any financial support. And don’t even get me started on the drama that goes on between her real mom and dad, they’ve had to go to court quite a few times. But despite she refuses to bitch and cry about it, rather she’s just grateful she was able to get into the college she wanted. Jess stands about as tall as Ashley, with skin the shade of hot chocolate. She wore a green and white plaid shirt with buttons down the front and jean shorts.

As they came in I propped my quarterstaff against my left shoulder and took out my plastic knife, just for a cool first impression. At first all the girls did was just look around the room until they settled on the Bat Cave playset. I saw Jess and Ashley squint to get a better look, where as Melanie and Nicole didn’t need to. It took a moment for their minds to fully comprehend what it was they were seeing. But eventually everyone’s jaw dropped as hands lifted to cover mouths in silent shock. Nicole was the first one to walk over to me, the sounds of her bare feet on the hardwood floor were the only noises in the room. Tara and Emily promised not to tell them about my fetishes but apparently they still told them about my fear of being stepped on. I don’t care how much those girls enjoy teasing me, at the end of the day they’re amazing people.

Nicole slowly walked over until she was right in front of the Bat Cave. She knelt down to get a better look at me, her hand was still over her mouth.

“Peter!” she whispered in a high pitched voice.

I smiled faintly at her though I remained seated. “Hey kid.”

Her eyes widened further than before, I always called her kid because of our age difference. “Oh. My. God. What happened to you!” she exclaimed while still keeping her voice at a whisper.

I chuckled a bit. “As you can see I’m doing very well for myself. I’ve carved out a knife, taught myself to use a quarterstaff, and I live in the Bat Cave.” I shrugged. “Other than that nothing’s changed for me. What about you kid? You seemed to have grown a few inches since I’ve last seen you. How does it feel?”

That made her sputter out a laugh which brought everyone else over.

“What the hell happened to you?” Melanie asked in a soft voice.

“How long have you been like this?” Ashley asked.

“How long have you been living here?” Jess asked.

“Woah Woah Woah!” I exclaimed while waving my hands as I stood up. “One question at a time. I’ll tell you everything from the beginning.”

“Wait.” Nicole said as she raised her hand. “Peter, don’t move.”

I let my hand rest on the hilt of my knife as my other hand tightened its grip on my staff. But other than that I didn’t move an inch. Nicole extended a single finger. “Keep calm,” she warned. “There is an ant right behind you.”

My heart almost stopped. “Nicole wa-!”

Before I could even finish the sentence Nicole jabbed her finger down right behind me. The force of her jab shook the Cave a bit and almost knocked me off my feet. But by now I was used to the ground shaking under me. I used my staff to help stay on my feet.

“I think I got him,” she said.

My heart turned to water as I slowly turned around expecting to see the splattered remains of my pet. I know it’s hard to believe but Joseph has helped me keep sane through all of those days of continuous loneliness. I’ve actually become pretty attached to the little guy. The thought that I had just lost him brought tears to my eyes before I could even turn my head.

“Ugh, how did miss it!” Nicole exclaimed.

As soon as I heard that I realized there was no time for explanation, I just leapt into action. I spun around and dive rolled to where I thought Joseph would be. I was a little off but Joseph closed the rest of the gap himself. I came up on my feet next to him and spun around to face the girls, my staff held out in front of me.

“Nicole stop.” I didn’t really yell but my voice was firm. Then I knelt down to give his antenni a pet. “You ok boy?” I whispered.

Joseph looked up at me with those pitch black eyes and clicked a bunch of times. I smiled. “Don’t mention it buddy.”

Then I stood up and returned my gaze to the girls who now were completely transfixed on me. “Ladies,” I said in a softer voice. “Allow me to introduce my friend Joseph.”

Ashley’s eyebrows shot up as her mouth quirked up at the corners. “Joseph?”

I nodded. “I saved him from a spider about a week ago so I kind of adopted him.”

“You adopted an ant?” Nicole asked.

“You fought a fucking spider!” Melanie exclaimed.

I sighed. This was going to take longer than I thought. “Just relax, I’ll explain everything to you as well as I can.”

“If you’re going to explain everything maybe it would be better if we moved this downstairs,” Emily interjected.

So at my request the entire Bat Cave was brought downstairs and placed on the floor against a wall. All the girls sat on the surrounding couches as I sat on the Cave roof and told them almost everything that’s happened from the beginning. Of course I left out somethings like the fantasizing, sniffing Emily’s shoes while she was gone, the massages, and the games I played with Tara and Emily. Other than that I told them pretty much everything.

What came next was the same as when I told Tara for the first time. They all had millions of questions, many of which I couldn’t answer due to my own lack of knowledge. Next they tried tried to come up with their own explanation as to what happened to me, and each one was more far fetched than the last. It was like that for about two straight hours. If I continued to describe the whole scene in excruciating detail it would probably bore you to death . . .

*****

So anyway, one thing led to another, and that’s how I ended up stripped down to my jeans and standing on a ruler which was balanced over a bowl of ice cream.

If you think that sentence sounded weird just imagine what it must have been like for me. To make a long story short we spent a good two hours simply talking over my predicament until every girl decided to stop talking and break out the snacks and games. Emily had been stocking up on snacks for a little while and made sure to get plenty of ice cream. One of them, I’ll probably never know who, came up with the bright idea of putting a ton of ice cream into one big bowl and having me dive into it. But apparently that was too easy, so instead Ashley got a ruler and decided that I’d have to walk over the ice cream like a tightrope. But wait! There’s more! Apparently that was still too easy. So they stuck a pencil into the center hole of the ruler and told me they’d be spinning the ruler while I was walking.

If you think this sounds pretty fucking ridiculous just imagine what my guy friends would have done to me. I’d probably already be dead by accident.

So yeah, they just set a giant bowl of ice cream on the coffee table, placed me right in front of it, and told me to strip down to my jeans. I was gently placed on the far left side of the ruler as the pencil was inserted by Ashley. Melanie stood at the other end, enjoying the fact that she could finally look down on me. Melanie is really into drama club and was busy putting all of her acting skills to work trying to look imposing.

“Now my slave,” she said in a very overly solemn voice. “You must cross the deadly valley of ice cream without falling in to earn your freedom! If you fall you will freeze to death instantly!”

“Yeah, can we hurry this up?” I asked. “I’m so cold my nipples could cut diamond.”

Melanie tried in vain to stop herself from breaking character and laughing, everyone else didn’t even try to hide the laughter.

“Very well then,” she said, slipping back into character. “Activate!. . . The Tornado! . . .  Of Doom!”

Jess smiled as she slowly twisted the pencil, causing the whole ruler to spin. I almost fell off right there on that first lurch, but I regained my balance by dropping to one knee. The ruler picked up speed but not by very much. I slowly rose back to my feet and took my first few steps, they were the worst. Each time I lifted a leg up my whole body shook from the G-force. I stumbled my way over to the pencil that marked my halfway point and grabbed onto it for all I was worth. With more difficulty than I can put into words I somehow wormed my way around the pencil. Walking became more and more difficult the farther along I went. I wasn’t even sure how I made it to the edge but somehow I did.

The ruler slowed down until it came to a gentle enough stop. It took the same amount of time for my eyes to also come to a gentle stop. When they did I saw every girl around me smiling down, good God it was scary.

But rather than let it show on my face I just crossed my arms. “There I walked the fucking plank. Can I please put my clothes back on now?”

Ashley leaned in closer to me. “Not yet.” Then she blew and I flew right off the ruler.

I must have fallen a good fifteen feet, so I guess it was lucky that the ice cream was soft. I landed face first into a mound of mint chocolate chip . . . . and it was fucking COLD!

Jump in a lake while it’s 10 degrees outside, that’s what I felt like right now. When I hit the ice cream I sank in a little so I was completely immersed in it. When I lifted my face up I couldn’t even scream in shock, all I could do was breathe deep and fast. My vital organs were constricting themselves to trap in heat so that none of them shut down, which made breathing a serious effort. I guess they’re plan was to just let me wallow in the bowl for a minute and laugh but they must have changed their minds as soon as I started gasping for breath. I was plucked from the bowl by Emily after only a few seconds and held up to her face.

“Hold still,” she said.

Before I could tell he that that was all I could do I saw her tongue come right for me. It touched me softly right at my waist and licked up my bare chest and head. What can I say about it? Her breath warmed me up and her soft, pink tongue felt good against my skin. As she drew her tongue back Emily licked her lusious lips.

“Mmmmm, not bad. What do you think girls? Should I eat him?”

Of course I wasn’t surprised when each girl voiced their own thoughts on eating me . . . they were all for it.

I sighed. “It’s times like these I seriously wonder why I’m friends with most of you.”

Emily just rolled her eyes. “Come on, you know we’re only joking.” Then she smile earnestly. “Here, I’ll take you up stairs so you can wash off and then bring you down to change. After that we can find something else to do that won’t put you in mortal danger.”

I smirked. “Good luck with that.”

Emily brought me up to the bathroom where she filled up a Dixie cup with water, very warm but not scalding hot. I took off the jeans but kept my underwear on as I got in. It was a relaxing soak and the warm water really helped take the chill out of my bones. Emily left me the smallest wash cloth she could find to dry off with after I was done. To me it was the size of a large blanket but it was very soft. I called out to Emily, who had been waiting outside, and she carried me back to the basement and into the Bat Cave so I could get dressed.

I heard the music before we even came downstairs. When we reached the bottom of the steps we saw what they were up to. The TV was switched to one of those channels that only play a certain genre of music while everyone else danced and sang along. By the time we arrived everyone was right in the middle of rapping along to Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Nicole, who I had just learned had brought her bass with her, was playing along to it.

“Ooh! I love this song,” Emily exclaimed. “Here Pete, you can let yourself in.”

She carefully deposited me on the roof and then went over to the wall opposite of the large TV where a Yamaha keyboard was set. Emily had only been playing piano a few years, maybe four or five, but this was one of the first songs she learned once she became good enough. Just as the chorus came on she began playing along with Nicole. I watched the scene for a minute, just enjoying the moment for all it was worth. Everyone dancing around and singing along like kids put my mind at ease for the first time in, what felt like, a really long time. Since I got here I’ve moved from one form of danger to the next, and it was really beginning to wear me out. But now, surrounded by friends who care for me, I felt like I could finally take a break from being afraid, and it felt good.

So while everyone was distracted I slipped my barely clothed body inside and got dressed. My style is pretty simple and consistent, a T-shirt with any design I deem cool, jeans, and sneakers. After getting dressed I just leaned against my bed as I listened to the music. I was soon joined by Joseph and I laid my hand on his head for comfort. I never thought I’d grow so attached to the little guy but now he’s as good as any dog in my eyes. When the song ended the girls all laughed and high fived each other for their “performance”.

“Ok, that . . . was pretty awesome.” I heard Melanie say.

“Fuck yeah, girl.” Ashley responded. “Let’s do another one.”

“Ok. What song?” Tara asked.

Then Jess spoke. “How about a Katy Perry song.”

As soon as those words registered on my brain my eyes snapped as wide open as they would go.

“Hell no.” I whispered to myself. I jumped to my feet and rushed over to the nearest window as fast as I could. Then I cleared my throat and spoke in my best “old man” voice as I shook my fist at them..

“You kids and you’re goddamned rap. That’s not music that’s just noise!”

All eyes turned to me as quite a few eyebrows rose.

“Oh really? You think you could do better?” Ashley asked.

I turned back to Joseph to shoot him an exasperated look before returning my attention to them. “You’re damn right I could do better. In fact if I had a guitar with me right now I’d-”

I stopped in mid sentence just because I had to do a double take. Joseph was clicking his head off as he scurried along the side of my bed. It took me a few seconds to get my head together and investigate.

“Pete?” Melanie called out. “Something wrong?”

I looked over my shoulder and called back “Yeah I’m fine. Just give me a second.”

Looking back I saw what had Joseph going back and forth around my bed, a solid black case. The case was nothing special, black leather, rectangular, and big. Where the hell this thing came from I have no fucking idea. There was no noise, no rush of air, no flash or anything. Things like this just appear out of thin-fucking-air and I have yet to see how or why. I was seriously beginning to consider witch craft and aliens as an explanation. I just couldn’t see how any of this was even remotely possible. But enough preamble, I flipped open each of the locks and opened it up.

I don’t think I had ever seen a more beautiful guitar in my life. It was a solid black with white outlines all around the edges. The design was plain but the craftsmanship put into it was what blew me away. One look at the head told me why. In gold painted script was the name Martin. Now I’m not really an expert on guitars themselves, I only play them. But even someone like me knows that Martin is the highest quality manufacturer of acoustic guitars in the world. This instrument was probably worth $1000 at least.

Very slowly and very carefully I removed it from the case and slung the strap over my shoulder. Looking back in the case I found a pocket containing a pick, and a capo. With a pick between my thumb and finger I strummed a single chord, the sound was unbelievable. Each individual note was crystal clear and pitched perfectly. I didn’t care where this thing came from, it just may save my life. As quickly as I could I put the guitar back in the case and flipped the locks back on. Then I rushed over to the window.

“Just give me a minute.” I said to no one in particular before running back to grab the case.

There were no straps for me to sling over my shoulders, only a handle. This made carrying the thing to the roof a difficult problem. I had to prop it against a wall as I climbed up the hatch door, then reach down and haul it up. Naturally everyone was slightly curious.

“What the hell is that and where the hell did it come from?” Emily asked.

I waved her question away. “Get over to the piano and start singing. Everyone else, be quiet until I start.”

“Start singing what?”

I smirked. “You’ll know.”

Opening up the case I withdrew my new instrument, a few of the girls actually gasped.

“Where did you get that from?” Melanie asked.

I held a finger up to my lips to silence her. Taking one last look at the room I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat and started plucking individual notes.

Normally when I’m in my room alone I’m not afraid to sing along with what I’m playing. But in front of other people I chose to spare them of that particular pain. Well, actually I’m ok at singing but when others are around I prefer to leave it up to them. So I plucked out the notes in a familiar pattern for a until Emily recognized it and began singing.

“Sometimes I feel like there’s nobody out there. Sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in, the city of angels. Lonely as I am, together we cry.”

There was a slight pause until I picked back up, only to be joined by Nicole on the bass. And even though there was no keyboard in the song Emily played along anyway. Everyone else just sang along like a choir.

Now I know what you’re thinking right now: ‘Oh my God, this story is such a sell out he even wrote in a musical number straight off the top ten charts. That’s as lame as a Disney movie.’

I bet it probably does sound lame and corny as Frozen, but I guess you had to have been there to understand. For a little more than a week I’ve literally been fighting for my life. Bugs, rodents, and people around every corner just waiting to kill me. But right now none of that mattered. Right now I was surrounded by friends I trust and singing along to the Red Hot Chili Peppers greatest song. The fact that everyone here was doing all of this just to help me get through being shrunken down touched me pretty deep.

When the song had come to a close the girls erupted into laughter and applause, I even took a bow. Melanie cast a grin over at me. “That was very good . . . but how about playing something we can dance to?”

I returned with a grin of my own as I began to strum the opening to Counting Stars by Onerepublic.

*****

Most of the day went by with us jamming out to songs we knew and loved. Some of them were modern, others were more classic rock and I had to teach some of the girls how they went. After that was over we all ordered pizza, where I had bits from everyone else’s. Then we watched some of the best comedy movies ever made, such as Airplane!, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Spaceballs, and The Birdcage.

It was pretty late by the time we were done but none of us were quite ready for bed yet, so instead we just stayed up chatting.

“So in a nutshell, that’s what it’s like living in a plastic Bat Cave with an ant for a pet.” I said.

Melanie nodded. “Let me just say this. I give you serious props for getting through this. I mean, if it was me, I doubt I’d have survived as long as you.”

“I know right,” Jess agreed. “Can you imagine what you’d be doing at two inches tall?”

“Panic?” Ashley interjected.

I shook my head. “That really means a lot to hear you say that, but I can’t take too much of the credit. Emily’s the one who’s probably saved me more times than I have myself.”

Emily shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m not the one who fought back a giant spider or mouse.”

My voice was light but serious at the same time. “Even so you’ve given me a home, a bed, weapons, entertainment, and you’ve taken care of me the whole time I’ve been here. You’ve done more for me than I can ever hope to repay.”

Pretty much every girl there said “Aaaaaaawwwwwww.” It might have been my imagination but I could have sworn I saw Emily blush. “It’s what friends do for each other Pete. You taught us that.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant by that but before I could ask Tara yawned. “I don’t know about any of you but I’m ready to pass out.”

Pretty much everyone else agreed so we all got ready for bed. Rather than be taken back to Emily’s room, Joseph and I slept in the Cave downstairs with everyone else.

*****

I knelt down on one knee, naked, sweaty, and bleeding. I remained there, kneeling in Emily’s palm, too afraid to look up at her. I was struggling to catch my breath as if I had just ran ten miles. I wasn’t sure where the blood was coming from either, maybe my back, but it ran down my arms as well. It felt warm.

“Please . . . ,” I gasped between pants. “Just tell me . . . tell me what you want me to do . . . “

Laughter came from up above me, against my better judgment I looked up. Tara, Jess, Ashley, Melanie, and Nicole all looked down on me from behind Emily. Emily’s mouth turned up in an evil smile. Not that almost-evil smile she uses when she’s joking but trying to frighten you, her eyes contained a cruelty I’d never seen before.

“We want you to go away, forever.” And just like that she dropped me.

The whole time I never even screamed, not even after I woke up. I jolted up in my bed but I never screamed. Instead I just looked around me, at Joseph, at the girls sleeping outside in the living room, and at the journal. Then I wrapped the blanket around me to stave off the shivers and reluctantly went back to sleep.

As I lied down beneath Emily’s giant toes I seriously began to rethink my life.

Allow me to catch you up on what happened that morning. The girls woke me up by shaking my Cave to simulate an earthquake. I wasn’t scared, but I did fall out of bed and they assumed my scream of surprise was one of fear. I guess that’s better than them finding out I fell out of bed . . . not really, no. So, after waking up and having a delicious pancake breakfast, everyone except Tara said their goodbyes to me and left. Tara stuck around because Emily and her were going to work that afternoon. I took this as an opportunity to explore the entire basement with Joseph that day . . . Emily and Tara had other plans.

“No,” I said frankly.

“Yes,” Tara replied.

“Not going to happen.”

Emily sighed. “Look Peter, if you want to figure out exactly what happened to you, then there’s no better place to start than a book store.”

I put on a sarcastic voice. “Great idea Emily. I’ll just walk over to the bookstore, walk right up to one of the computers, search for a book on shrinking people, then check it out and take it back here to read in my cave.” I fixed her a level look.

“We can do that for you. Besides we think it’s time you get out of the house again. It’s almost been a week since the last time you went anywhere.” Tara asserted.

But I shook my head. “I think you two are overreacting. I don’t need to go anywhere, ok?”

Emily stood up and looked down on me from where I stood and the coffee table with her arms crossed. “Is that anyway to speak to two giantesses such as us?”

I looked up at her and held up a hand to her, not really feeling afraid though. “Now Emily listen-”

“I don’t think so,” she said, cutting me off. “I don’t think I like this attitude of yours. In fact . . .” A slow smile began to creep across her face. “ . . . I think you need a time out.”

And that’s how I found myself pinned down against her sandal beneath the toes of her right foot. The good news about this was that, because it was her toes I was under, I didn’t feel any pressure from her foot bearing down on me. The bad news was that I couldn’t wiggle my way out from under them. The good news was that I was lying beneath the toes of a freaking giantess! Her feet smelled like fresh lotion and her skin was as soft as silk. Emily was enjoying this just as much as I was, which made me feel good. She even called down to me during the car ride to the bookstore, she was in the passenger seat of course.

“How’re you doing down there Pete?” she asked.

I looked up at the crack of light coming from between two of her toes. “I’m surviving.” I called back.

It might have sounded a bit muffled but she heard me all the same. “Admit it, you like being there.”

“What’s your point?”

I heard her smirk. “I’m not feeling any kisses on my toes.”

“You’re just lucky I’m not biting any of them,” I replied. But then I propped myself up on my elbows and gave one of her toes a few kisses. In response her toes lifted up a bit and spread wide, she was flexing them. I fell back down on my back as I gazed up at them in wonder. I was struck completely dumbfounded by how amazing a sight it was. Emily’s toes, some of the smallest parts of her body, were as big as boulders to me. And yet all she was doing was stretching her toes out a little, a task so mundane and simple she probably didn’t even notice the meager portion of effort moving her toes required. There was no doubt in my mind that she could crush me right where I laid without any effort. It was a beautiful display of power yet Emily was completely unaware of it. For all of their games I could tell Emily and Tara only did this because they thought it was fun, and they knew I was really into it. They did this for me as much as themselves, not because they enjoyed feeling dominant and making me feel insignificant. It was a strange truth, even as I laid down beneath their feet I could trust these girls with my life.

Emily’s voice carried down from the heavens beyond my vision. “Mmmmmm, that feels really good. Do it again.”

So I smiled and began to kiss her toes again.

*****

Even though I was here for research Emily and Tara still had to work for a few hours. Once they were done we’d spend some time looking through books. Emily insisted I remain under her toes despite my please that I wanted to explore. I guess she enjoyed my kisses more than I thought. So I remained there while Emily worked the register, I didn’t have anyway of telling how much time had passed. Whenever I asked her if I could walk around she would just tilt her foot up so that I slid up against the ball of her foot.

After what I guess to be an hour I had an idea. I waited until Emily said “Hi” indicating she was with a customer. It took a few minutes because it was a slow day today. Once a customer did come up to pay for something I reached over towards the ball of her foot and began to run my fingers over her skin.

I heard her snicker from up above. I increased the speed of my tickling and she went from snickering to laughing. I grinned as I tried to picture the customers face.

“Is there something you find funny?” asked the voice of a man somewhere in his middle years.

Her laughter ceased instantly. “No no! Sorry!”

As she said this Emily lifted her foot a few inches above the ground and then stomped it back down. Because it was such a tight space under her toes I didn’t hit anything too hard, but my bells were quite literally rung.

“Sorry about that,” came Emily’s voice again. “I was just remembering a joke my friend told me and I couldn’t help myself.”

With some effort I shook my head clear, I’d taken worse hits than that in wrestling. Plus I had been through so much in the past two weeks I wasn’t about to let one little tremor stop me. I went straight back to tickling her foot, even faster than before. This time Emily tried to stop herself from laughing, which only made it worse. Seriously, have you ever heard a girl try and hold in her laugh? Not only does the sound manage to leak out, but it doesn’t even sound like laughter anymore. It sounds like the call of some animal we haven’t even discovered yet. Just listening to it made me want to laugh. Somehow Emily managed to check the customer out and he probably left with the strangest look on his face.

“Thank you and have a nice day,” Emily called out to him. Then she turned her attention to me. She lifted her toes up then tilted her foot forward so fast I fell right off of her sandal and onto the linoleum floor. When I looked up I flashed her an innocent smile, she just scowled.

“Fine, you can go take a walk around for a bit. Just be back here by five, that’s when I get off.” she said. “And I swear to God Peter, if you get caught and I have to save your ass I’ll drop you in a mug of water and stick a big ice cube inside.”

The image itself was enough to make me break out in goose bumps, but I refrained from shivering. “I know how to be careful now. I can handle myself without being seen.” I assured her.

She just nodded. “I’m still going to get you back for tickling me.”

Like I said before, it was a slow day at Barnes & Noble so I didn’t have to worry too much about someone seeing me. But that doesn’t mean I completely let my guard down, quite the opposite in fact. I had brought my knife with me since it would have hurt like hell to carry around my staff and lay on it with I was under Emily’s toes. I held the knife in my hands like I was expecting to use it while I walked along side the bookshelf, keeping my shoulder right against the shelf the whole time. Why did I do this you may ask? Well, they say boys never really grow up, they just grow bigger. I’m nineteen years old but still this was like a real life movie for me. I was the shrunken protagonist trying to fend for himself in a gigantic world. Using nothing but stealth and weapons to avoid detection and fend off insects. Even though that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing since day one I never really considered myself a superhero or anything. But now I was walking along slowly like a character from Assassin’s Creed or something.

The good thing about the shelves were that they each struck out about two inches. This meant that I could crawl right underneath and hide there. I actually had to do that a few times in order to hide from people, no one ever saw me though. Once they passed I went right back to exploring. After a while I heard my name being whispered.

“Peter . . . Peter?”

That was Tara’s voice. I looked up at the wall and saw that it was 5:30pm. I’m late for meeting up with her and Emily, oops. I turned towards my left, which was where Tara’s voice had come from.

“Tara,” I called out. “I’m over in the mystery section.”

My voice seemed to echo a bit as I froze at the sound of it. Then, very slowly, I turned around and my heart turned to water. At the other end of the aisle was a man somewhere in his late 20’s. He looked tall, even from my perspective, with short brownish hair and some scruff of beard on his face. He was also standing less than ten regular sized steps from where I was. Instincts told me to run under the shelf again. But the last time I did that Emily’s mom saw me moving and mistook me for a bug. I’d have to move slowly. The thing is, as I was moving away I noticed the guy never even glanced up when I called out to Tara.

According to the girls my voice sounds just like it did when I was normal sized, hell they were even able to hear my guitar clearly. I actually heard my voice echo a bit after I yelled, so why didn’t he look up? You’d think a guy who just heard a noise come out of thin air would be a little curious. He wasn’t even reading anything, he was looking at the covers on the shelves.

Before I could ponder it anymore I felt the vibrations from Tara’s steps signaling her approach. Just as she appeared in the aisle she froze as soon as she noticed the guy there. I waved my arms as I jumped up and down.

“Tara!” I whispered fiercely. “Down here!”

She spotted me and relaxed visibly before looking back to the man.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “I think he’s deaf.”

Tara gave the guy once last glance before bending down, looking at the books as if she was selecting one, and she grasped my delicately in her massive hand. I couldn’t really see anything through her fingers until she let her hand down on top of a table and opened her fingers up. As I stepped out I saw that we were in some corner of the store, Emily sat across from Tara. A small pile of books formed a wall that sheltered me from view. The spines were facing me and I saw they were all about mythology. Greek, Norse, Celtic, along with Chinese, and Native American. Each one was filled with old legends about each mythology.

“Why these books?” I asked.

“Well at first choosing to focus on magic as an explanation was just a guess on our part. But . . . but now I’m certain it was the right guess.” Tara explained.

I looked up at her questioningly. “Why’s that?”

She hesitated for a bit. “Peter, that guy who didn’t hear you yell? I served him coffee in the cafe a half hour ago. He’s not deaf.”

Well after that fucking ominous remark about the guy not being deaf but unable to hear me we dove into the books. We hit nothing but dead ends. The only story that could be found came from legends of the Zulu tribe in Africa. According to legends there was a race of perfectly formed people, about a half inch tall, who would appear to young and pure of heart women. It barely took a second to decided Emily didn’t qualify as pure of heart, she even agreed. Don’t get me wrong, Emily is one of the kindest and most amazing person I know, but you don’t know her like I do. She is way too mischievous to count as pure of heart. So we kept searching until we had exhausted all of the books, nothing else about tiny people ever popped up. We did however find plenty of legends about giantesses. I’ve never really noticed before but giantesses have had a literally huge part of ancient mythology. I guess there have always been weirdos like myself who’ve fantasized about giant women. Come to think about it, that’s probably why movies like Attack of the 50ft Woman exist in the first place.

I’m getting off topic. The point is we found nothing and had to call it quits after about two hours.

“Well that was a complete waste of time,” Emily lamented outside the store.

I looked up at her from where I sat inside of her purse. “Maybe not a complete waste of time.” I spoke up. “Anyone for Fro Yo?”

I had been to the shopping center where Barnes & Noble was plenty of times. All it was was one big parking lot surrounded on all sides by different stores, and one of them was the Frozen Yogurt Factory. If you’ve never been there it’s pretty much one huge bar where you can custom make your own dessert. First you pour the ice cream of your choice, then add on any amount of topping. Did I mention there were a lot of toppings? Because there were A LOT of toppings. After you’re done creating your masterpiece you bring it up to the register where you’re cup is weighted and you’re charged appropriately for it’s weight. Emily constructed her ice cream to be of fruity flavor, including real fruit and candy fruit, whereas Tara went for a chocolate candy theme.

Emily left her bag laying on it’s side so that I could walk in and out whenever I wanted to. I sat at the very edge of the bag, scooping up ice cream off of a spoon with my bare hands and then wiping them on a piece of napkin. About halfway through my ice cream I looked up and nearly panicked.

“Oh shit,” I muttered to myself. Whipping my hands on the napkin I ran deep inside the purse.

Tara lowered her head to peek inside at me. “What are you doing?”

“Shhh! Just close the bag!” I whispered as urgently as I could.

Tara did as I asked. No sooner than the purse was closed that I heard a muffled voice come from outside. “Hey girls. What are the odds of seeing you here?”

“Oh, hi Tim,” Emily said.

Tim Gonzales was Emily’s second cousin and lives somewhere locally. He’s about six feet tall with a little bit of muscle on his bones, but for the most part he’s pretty skinny. He has blond hair he likes to spike in the front, blue eyes, and dark skin he got from his Hispanic father. Even though Tim is Emily’s second cousin I really didn’t want him to see me. Tim doesn’t really like me . . . at all. Tim has a bit of a superiority complex. Because he’s so tall he likes to show off his athletic skills a lot. Beating him at sports is like beating a hipster at video games. It’s not hard to do but they’ll always think you won because of some bullshit excuse they make up.

A few years ago at Emily’s birthday party all of us organized a football game. The rules were standard except there was no tackling allowed. Instead it was two-handed touch football, boys and girls were evenly split into teams. Just as my friend Freddy handed the ball of to me and I started running Tim came up on my right side and decked me to the ground. As I said before Tim is about six feet tall, whereas I stand at five feet seven inches. I landed on my ass pretty hard but I held onto the ball. Of course he helped me up, apologized, and said he was just messing around. I didn’t want to be petty or anything so I decided to brush it off and accept his apology like it was no big deal.

Then he did it a second time. He helped me up, claimed this time it was an accident, and promised to not do it again. But when he tackled me a third time I was ready for it. Just as Tim came up on my right he lowered his head down so that he could hit me with his right shoulder. Remember when I kept mentioning I wrestled for six years? That meant that this was not going to end well for Tim. Just as he came on me I tossed the ball to Freddy and dropped down on my right knee. I grabbed his wrist with my left hand and wrapped my other arm around his right leg. Then, with only a minor amount of strength I flipped him right over me, needless to say he landed on his back pretty fucking hard. But I didn’t stop there. Just as he landed I spun around and got him into a headlock, making sure I wrapped my arms around his right arm as well as his neck. This meant that he was in no danger of being choked out, but with one of his arms trapped he had no hope of escaping on his own.

Now in wrestling a headlock is not a move that is generally encouraged, mostly because there are many different ways of getting out. Tim didn’t wrestle though, so he just tried to break out by brute force alone. Even if he had use of both arms I’m actually much stronger than Tim is so he wasn’t going anywhere unless I said so. Of course everyone crowded around the two of us as Tim flailed his arms and legs uselessly and pretty much everyone was smiling. Did I mention everyone thought Tim was arrogant? Anyway I let him up after about a minute and he pushed me away as soon as I unlocked my arms, as if that push was what won him the fight. After that he stormed off inside and the rest of us kept on playing. What surprised me though was when Emily’s parents pulled me aside and apologized to me for Tim’s behavior. The whole time I was working out an apology to them.

The moral of the story is that Tim’s not a nice guy which is exactly why he can never see me like this.

“What are you two doing here?” I heard him ask.

Tara answered this time. “Just getting some dessert after work.”

“Oh nice,” he said. “I just got back from my little brother’s baseball game.”

“That’s cool,” Emily said. “How was it?”

“He’s doing great out there. In fact the coaches have asked that I teach some of the other kids. You know, help them with catching, throwing, and batting. Stuff like that.”

I rolled my eyes so hard I almost got dizzy.

“I’m sure you’ll do great at teaching,” Tara responded.

“Yeah,” there was a pause before Tim spoke again. “Hey, your friend Peter isn’t here, is he? I’m told you guys usually hang out together.”

This is the part where my heart normally would have been beating its way out of my chest. But by now I had endured so much I was almost starting to get used to it. Besides, I had complete faith in Emily and Tara. I knew they’d protect me.

“Peter?” Emily asked. “Oh yeah, he’s here.”

Ok, faith is gone. Why Emily? Why!

“He had to step out though,” she continued. “He had to run over to CVS and pick something up. He should be back any minute.”

There was another pause before Tim spoke. “Oh, um, too bad. I just stopped in to say hi to you. I really got to get home and start working on my training schedule. Tell him I said hi thought.”

“We will,” Tara called out.

After a few moments the purse opened up again and I saw Tara’s grinning face. “Tim said hi.”

*****

After laughing to ourselves and finishing our ice cream Emily dropped Tara off at her house and then drove us home. She left me on the leather couch in the basement while she went upstairs to change. Emily came down after a few minutes wearing a flannel pair of pajama pants and a white T-shirt. She stopped just as she reached the couch and peered down at me.

“I hope there’s room on that couch for me,” she said.

I grinned as I walked over to the far left cushion and sat down. “I apologize for my fat ass. I hope that’s enough room for you.”

“Oh my, you’re such a gentleman.” she smirked. Emily turned to sit down on the far right cushion. But just as she was about to sit she shifted her body entirely and came down sitting on me. Just as with Tara everything from my chest down was trapped underneath of her butt while my arms, neck, and head remained unharmed. I struggled to claw my way out but it was useless.

“Uh . . . Emily?”

I heard her voice carry down to me quite clearly. “You ok back there?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah I’m alright.”

“Good,” was all she said. I heard the TV turn on.

“Uh . . . Emily?” I asked. “What the fuck?”

I heard her voice carry down to me quite clearly. “Remember when I said I’d get you back for tickling me at work?”

Hmmmm, now that I think about it, how the hell did I not see this coming? “Haha, ok . . . Good one Emily . . . Now if you could just . . . remove yourself from my body . . . I’d very much appreciate that.” I spoke between struggles to break free.

In response to that her butt shifted back and forth a bit. “Oh I’ll get off, when it’s dinner time.”

I perked up. “And when’s dinner?”

“In an hour,” she answered.

I fell back against the leather feeling deflated. An entire hour trapped beneath Emily’s, surprisingly firm, butt. This was going to feel like a long time, I could already tell.

“So?” she asked. “Is there anything on TV you want to watch.”

I groaned.

About two days after going to work with Emily and Tara I found myself in the strangest predicament I’ve ever found myself in.

The day started with Emily getting ready for work. When she asked if I would be tagging along I declined. I didn’t feel like leaving the house that day. So she left and I spent the day hanging around in my Cave, which had been moved back to her room right beside her bed. I killed time by reading over everything I had written in my journal and adding to it. Once I had finished with that I decided to take my guitar out and practice outside. I sat on the draw bridge door, looking out at the room as I played through whatever songs I knew how to play. At some point Joseph even came outside and sat beside me as I played.

Just as I got done playing the unplugged version of Layla when Joseph stood up and began clicking. I didn’t need to ask what that meant, I had already learned weeks ago and I trusted his accuracy. My Bat Cave was right next to the head of Emily’s bed, about halfway down a spider came out from under it. Not just any spider, the spider. I could tell because the thing was fucking huge for a spider. Not to mention it’s pretty hard to forget what a spider looks like when it’s as big as you are and trying to kill you.

I will be very honest with you, I almost pissed myself. Seriously, for all of my talk of training and getting back at the spider it was an entirely different thing to be here looking right at it. I wish I could tell you I faced it down calmly because I’m a badass. The truth is I was too shocked to make any noise and too scared to make any sudden movements. All I could do was set my guitar aside and stand up. After about a minute of just comprehending that the situation was indeed happening right now I remembered that I had my staff slung on my back. Drawing it I pointed inside.

“Joseph, get inside now.” was all I could force out.

I didn’t look to see if he actually understood, I couldn’t look away from the spider. So far he made no move at all, I don’t know why though. Maybe he remembered the sight of my staff and was playing this just as cautiously as I was . . . are bugs supposed to be that smart? Granted I know it’s an arachnid, but is that supposed to make a difference? I shook my head to clear away all of the stray thoughts, I had to think clearly here. This thing was big, it came up to about chest height for me, it was probably strong, it could climb walls, and it was fucking fast. The only thing  I had on my side was a questionably superior mind, two weeks of quarterstaff practice, and an adrenalin rush. Speaking of which, once that adrenalin hit my system my mind started racing. It was then I had an idea. Very slowly I sheathed my quarterstaff and then took off towards the TV at a dead sprint.

The day after going to the bookstore Emily had the idea to test out a science experiment using me. She went down to the crawl space and pulled out every single LEGO piece her little brother owned. She brought the massive bucket of LEGO bricks to her room and set about constructing a maze for me to walk through. I’m not even joking, we actually did this. Hell, the LEGO bricks were small enough that I even helped build the thing. Of course I could only build up to chest height and the maze needed to be way over my head, but I wasn’t useless for once. Emily outlined where the walls would go and I started stacking bricks. It took us a while but we completed one hell of an extensive maze. After that we spent the rest of the day playing different games. Emily timed me to see how fast I could get out on my own. My record was about three minutes, the maze is literally so extensive I could not get out in under three minutes. Then she put a cube of cheddar cheese somewhere in the maze just to see if I could sniff it out, I swear I’m not making this up. And yes I was able to find it somewhere in the far left corner. I even got to race Joseph through. It took me three tries to figure out he was just climbing over the walls and then walking over to the exit when he heard me approaching.

Anyway I ran for the entrance to the maze as fast as my adrenalin fuel legs could carry me. I lucked out by getting there before the spider came on me. He must not have ran after me from the start, or else his eight legs would have allowed him to reach me long before I made it to the maze. But as I got to the entrance I looked behind me and saw the spider wasn’t as far back as I thought. Without wasting another moment I ran straight into the maze trying to get good and lost. After going through a few twists and turns I put my back to the wall as I drew my staff and peered around the corner. Less than ten feet away from me was another passageway where I could hear tap noises coming from. Sure enough I saw the tip of one of the spiders legs slowly come into sight. Without hesitation I ran straight at it and brought my staff down on that leg with all of the strength in my upper body. I heard as well as felt the snap of it’s leg when I hit it. The spider probably hissed in pain but I was freaking out too much to notice. As soon as I hit the leg I took off running down an intersecting hallway. Just as before I hid behind a corner and waited for it to come to me. This time when it came around I saw it’s head first, so when I swung I hit it right in the face. I must have taken out two of three of it’s smaller eyes. Once I hit it I turned right around and ran down the hallway I just came from, going deeper and deeper into the maze. After stopping to catch my breath for a second I listened. I began to feel faith vibrations on the wall my back was up against. When I peered around the nearest corner I saw the spider crawling on the right hand wall, it’s left front leg was the one I took out. Once he saw me that son of a bitch didn’t hesitate to charge, breaking his leg might have hurt him, but taking out his eyes just pissed him off.

So it’s a good thing that when he came at me I took out his other front leg with another swing of my staff. Taking out that leg messed up his grip on the wall enough that he actually fell off and landed on the floor with a THUD. But I didn’t stop to laugh, I ran. I kept on running until I found the exit, and even after that I kept on running until I was out in the middle of Emily’s wide open floor. Only then did I stop and look behind me. The spider was limping it’s way out of the maze and after me, using his other six legs to carry him. All in all we were right back to where we started, only now I had seriously cut down on his speed advantage, as well as blind a few of his eyes.

Just as when this whole brouhaha (it’s a word, Google it) started I was still scared to death. The only reason I stood facing this thing down was that now I had a new kind of confidence going for me. I just sucker punched it three times and got away, and now it was much slower because of that. Plus I kept on thinking about everything else I’ve survived so far, like the mouse, as well as Mrs Wright trying to crush me. If I could avoid her foot falls I could stay ahead of this ugly little bastard. So that’s exactly what I did. As soon as the spider was right on me I dive rolled to the side, came up on my feet and smacked it with my staff. I did that a few times, maybe I was wearing it down, maybe I was pissing it off. After the fourth or fifth time I swung and took out another one of it’s. As the spider hissed out in pain I took the chance to get a little distance between the two of us. When it turned to face me it hissed for all it was worth and charged. It’s charge was a little slowed down though, Using five legs when it’s so used to eight must really be cumbersome to him. This gave me an idea.

I slid my hand down till it was in the center of my staff while my left hand gripped the top. Once the spider closed the distance I slipped the tip of my staff right under him, braced myself, and then hoisted the tip up against his face while at the same time twisting my legs away from it. To the spider that must have felt like an uppercut punch to the jaw because the spider staggered. The freaking spider actually staggered. I didn’t waste time on being surprised though. Having a giant spider right in front of you, even if it is dazed, if fucking terrifying! So I raised my staff up and brought it down over his head with all of the strength I had left in my body.

The nightmare of a bug collapsed in a heap of legs and fangs. I had just knocked a giant fucking spider out cold.

Just as that thought hit me I dropped to my knees in complete and utter exhaustion. All of that running, swinging, rolling, and the adrenalin, it all caught up with me. And it hurt. My lungs were burning with the effort to breath, my legs felt like hot lead, and I could barely raise my arms. After a minute even my knees gave out and I fell on my back. I don’t think I passed out but then again I don’t remember getting up at all. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could have sworn I was floating, but then my body started to shake.

“ . . . . peter . . .”

I heard a voice somewhere off in a far distance. Almost sounded like . . .

“PETER!” Emily screamed.

I bolted up immediately, not quite sure what was going on. “I’m awake! I’m awake!” I shouted. “What time is it!”

Emily placed a hand to her chest. “Jesus Christ, don’t scare me like that.” Walking over she got down on her knees and surveyed the scene. “Oh my God. Is that the spider you told me about?”

I looked up at her confused, until I looked next to me. I must have been even more tired than I thought because it took my brain a full thirty seconds to process that that was indeed a giant spider lying unconscious right next to me.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “That happened.”

“What happened?” she asked. “Did you actually kill it?”

“No,” I said slowly. “I think I just knocked it out.”

“Ew,” she exclaimed. “The things creepy. Give me a minute.” Emily stood up and left the room. She came back a few second later with a tissue and disposed of the fucker once and for all.

Rather than tell her the full story as soon as she came back I told her I needed to wash up first. So I took another Dixie Cup bath and even washed my staff as well. That thing was so disgusting I did not want to have to carry around my staff unless it was washed thoroughly. After everything was cleaned and I paid a quick visit to Joseph to make sure her was alright I told Emily the whole story. We sat on her bed as I told her everything that happened. I would have reenacted it for her but I was way to tired to do any like that again. I’m actually surprised she believed me, I guess I was so tired my exhaustion itself was proof. When I was done Emily shook her head.

“How the hell do you do stuff like this?” she asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Everything,” she exclaimed. “You just faced down a giant spider and you won. I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything like that.”

“Emily,” I smiled as I shook my head. “I didn’t face down a spider I ran for my life. The only reason it didn’t catch me was that it didn’t chase me right away. Once it started the only thing that kept me going was fear. I was so scared I almost shit a brick.” I explained. “And I didn’t fight it either, I sucker punched and crippled it. And then I ran some more. The only time I actually faced it down was after it was half blind, and three of it’s legs were broken.” I shrugged. “Even then it took everything I had just to knock it out.”

With a frown Emily picked my tiny body up with her thumb and finger. She held me up to her face. “Don’t act like you didn’t do something brave Peter. What you did took more guts than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

She brought me right over to her mouth and, with as much care as she possibly could, kissed my entire upper body.

It wasn’t a long or passionate kiss, more like a kiss on the cheek a girl gives a guy for doing something nice and gentlemanlike. Never the less it made my whole body feel warm, just to be pressed up against her soft lips like that. It was like hugging a cloud.

She pulled me away from her lips and eyes me up and down. “Feeling sore?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Here,” she said. “I’ve got the perfect reward for you.”

She bought me over and placed me right in between the big and second toe of her right foot.

She giggled. “You’ve given me a few good foot massages before. Now it’s time that my feet massage you.”

Emily moved her toes back and forth over my body, slowly, and gently. Her toes were so soft they actually felt incredible as they rubbed over my chest and back. There was a little pain but it was that good pain you feel when you know your muscles are getting a nice and thorough massage. I groaned a little with relief.

“How does that feel?” she asked.

“Unbelievable,” I said. “Go a tiny bit harder.”

“Ok.”

It must have taken some serious control on her part not to rub too hard but somehow she did it. The pressure increased just enough that it felt amazing without actually hurting me. I felt my joints crack a bit but that too felt good. As Emily continued to rub I let my head rest against her big toe and I began to kiss it a bit. This produced a few giggles from her.

“I love it when you do that,” she said.

“So do I,” I said.

It went on like that for a little while, I never wanted it to end. At some point I began to think the spider really killed me and I was just experiencing Heaven. But sadly Emily removed me from in between her toes and said it was time to eat something. Even though I was completely starving I still wanted it to continue.

That night I never had any nightmares, I was too worn out to remember any of them. What I do remember is what Emily said before I fell asleep. "Good night my little hero."

I suppose I was asking for too much when I expected to walk away from that experience without any harm. For three days after that one night I was plagued by all sorts of bug related nightmares. Halfway through the second night I stopped sleeping altogether. On the third day I finally told Emily about the nightmares and she came up with an idea that may have been just as scary. Another slumber party.

*****

I sat down gently in Laura’s palm as she looked me over, amazement still blanketed mer face. Laura stood at about five feet and five inches tall making her the tallest person in the house even though she’s still in high school. She had black hair that curled naturally which she kept in a ponytail. Her skin was slightly tan and her eyes were a nice shade of hazel. Laura was nothing short of energetic, always bouncing around with excitement whenever she gets together with friends. About a year ago I found out that Laura played guitar as well. Although she has only been playing for three years she sings a hell of a lot better than I ever could. That certainly made jamming to TV tunes even more fun.

Laura was at the beach with family the last time everyone came over to meet me. This time Emily made sure to invite her as well. As of right now Laura had already reaquainted herself with me and my new height, taken a good hour to completely accept it, and played along with us as we all jammed out again.

“I still can’t believe it,” Laura said as she held me for the first time. “You look exactly the same in every way except . . . you know . . .”

“Except he’s been turned into a Polly Pocket,” Emily finished for her.

I shrugged off the comment. “Except I don’t know what the hell happened to me.”

“Well I think I can handle it now if you told me the whole story,” she said.

Like I said, she needed some time just to wrap her head around what happened to me. So we didn’t want to go right into the story while she was still struggling with the fact that one of her friends has been reduced to a mere two inches. So she set me down on the coffee table and I told her everything that’s happened. This was the first time that I was going to tell everyone else, except Emily, the story of my battle with the spider. I was really looking forward to how they were going to react to that. I was not disappointed when pretty much every girl there cringed as I went into detail about how terrified I was just to be running away from the thing. But I stayed true to the story and didn’t make myself out to be a hero or something, no matter how much I was tempted to. I stuck to the facts as well as I could recall them and I made sure to stress how afraid I was the entire time. By the time I was finished every girl was looking intensely at me.

“That’s got to be the most epic thing I’ve ever heard,” Nicole breathed. “So you lured it into the maze just so you could ambush it?”

I shook my head. “Kind of, ambush is a strong word though. I was trying to weaken it. I pretty much hit and ran until I wore it down enough.”

“And then you faced it one-on-one!” Melanie exclaimed.

“Pretty much,” I said.

“What would you have done if there was another spider?” Ashley asked.

My eyebrows shot up. “What would I have done?”

She nodded. “Yeah. What if, right after you knocked the first one out, another one came out of nowhere?”

“I would have died,” I said simply. “I had no energy left in me at all after that fight. If there aws a second one I would have been dinner.”

Then Jess pointed right at me, she looked scared. “Well there’s your chance!”

Before I could ask her what the hell she was talking about I turned around and saw another spider right behind me! Only this wasn’t just any spider, it was a fucking tarantula! And by God was it huge. What scared me most about the thing though was it’s eyes. They were just like the last spider’s eyes, black and soulless.

“AAAAH!” I screamed as I rolled instinctively to the side. “SOMEONE KILL IT!”

It was then that the spider . . . . did nothing at all. Every girl in the room that had been listening burst out into laughter. The spider was a rubber toy, probably from some knock off Dollar Store. I looked up at Emily, who had been behind me the entire time I was telling my story, she was laughing the hardest. Then I looked at everyone else as they slowly got themselves under control. While they did their best to calm down I just sighed and sat down. To be honest I really had no right to be mad at any of them, it was a pretty harmless joke. So I just sat down and waited for them to finish up laughing.

“You ok Peter?” Melanie asked.

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Sorry about that,” Emily said. “I just couldn’t resist.”

I put on a grin for them. “Hey, if that was the best you got, then you’re seriously losing your touch.”

Nicole sat up and smirked. “Oh really? Is that a challenge?”

“I’d never dream of challenging someone like you kid,” I said as I held up my hands in surrender.

“Well,” Tara said as she stood up. “Challenges aside, I think it’s time for Peter to get a glimpse at some of the things girls do at sleepovers.”

“Naked pillow fights?” I asked hopefully.

The only response I got from that was Ashley kicking the table I stood on, but I managed to stay on my feet.

What Tara was referring to was manicures. Jess and Ashley went and got a pile of old newspapers while Emily went upstairs and brought down her box of polishes. The girls spread the newspapers out all over the floor like one big tarp and began selecting colors. I was placed on the arm of the couch closest to them so that I could still talk. We just chatted about whatever subject we felt like talking about as I watched them take turns painting each other’s nails. They each took great care with their work, slowly going over each nail with as much attention as they possibly could put into the task, while at the same time carrying on a conversation. It was pretty amazing to watch.

“You know what girls?” Emily said at last. “We’ve been excluding Peter from all of the fun.”

My head snapped out of some daydream as soon as I heard those words. “Huh!”

I heard Melanie giggle. “Yeah. I totally think he’d be great at this. It’d be just like painting on a full sized canvas for him.”

I shook my head, this could not be happening. This could not possibly be happening right now. But sure enough Emily held out her palm to me. “Come on Peter. Just be careful, Tara just did these nails and they’re not completely dry yet.”

I didn’t make a move, I had no where to go. If I tried to slide down the arm of the couch there was no guarantee I wouldn’t break my ankle when I landed on the leather cushions.

“Peter,” Emily called out, interrupting my thoughts of escaping. “You ok?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to do this.”

She smiled. “Oh come on, you’ll do great.”

I said nothing again, only just stared at her hand. I knew all too well what was going to happen.

“Please,” she said once more stopping my thoughts. “I’ve done so much for you already. Could you please just do this one small thing for me.”

Small was the key word in that sentence, even if she didn’t realize it. Never the less she was right. This was the least I could do. So I stepped onto her palm and she brought me down onto the tarp of newspapers. The papers were piled on thick enough to the point that my body weight didn’t puncture right through them like I feared. I stepped down next to a bottle of sapphire blue nail polish that was tall as I was. This made me seriously question how I was supposed to accomplish this task.

As if she could hear my thoughts, dear God I hope that wasn’t the case, Emily picked up the bottle and examined it over.

“Hmmm,” she said. “This bottles almost empty so I guess there’s no point in keeping it when it’s done.”

Emily removed the cap and brush from the bottle and, with a visible effort, snapped the brush right off of the cap. She placed said brush on the ground right next to me. I just stood there staring at it with my mouth wide open. That brush was solid plastic and as thick as my arm. The sheer amount of strength required for someone of my size to break that think would be of superhuman levels. And yet she just snapped it right off. Sometimes these girls are so sweet it’s easy to forget how easy it would be for them to . . . . well, to do anything really.

“There you go,” Emily continued as if it was no big deal. “A nice paint brush all for you.”

I picked the brush up. It was shorter than my staff, coming up to about my chest, and not much heavier. Using both hands I had a surprising amount of control over it.

“Ok,” I said at last. “Let’s see your hands.”

“Uh, actually Peter, Tara already did my fingernails.” she explained. “But don’t worry, I have something else you can do. It’ll probably be easier for you anyway.”

She uncrossed her legs and slid her bare feet right in front of me. “What do you think?” she asked as she gave her toes a wiggle. “Think you can handle it?”

Some of the other girls giggled a bit, and I understood. I was their friend, yet here I was, about to paint Emily’s toenails for her. Probably something they never thought they’d ever see me do for any reason at all. Never the less I did what I always do at times like these, I shut up and did what I had to do. I dipped the large brush in the bottle of polish and began working on the big toe of her left foot. The work was slow but I was being careful. If I was going to do this I might as well try and do a decent job of it, I owed it to her. Of course I was perfectly aware of everyone else watching me, I just ignored all of their stares. When I finally finished the first nail I stepped back as Emily lifted her foot up to examine it.

“Huh, that’s actually really nice.” she said in a surprised tone. “Do the others.”

Without a word I went back to work. Then next two toes were easier because of how much smaller they were.When I had finished her third toe Emily lifted her foot again to take another look. “Wow, you’re really good at this.”

“You know what we should do?” Jess asked. “We should have Peter do this for us all the time. Like he’s our little servant and has to pamper us.”

“Yeah! And he could do things like comb our hair and help with our makeup!” Melanie exclaimed, getting really into the idea.

“We could buy him a Barbie salon playset and he’ll have to show up everyday to it like a job,” Ashley interjected.

Laura laughed out loud. “Oh my God, I can picture it.”

Each one of them broke out laughing as they imagined it. The whole time I never said anything, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t hear every word they said. Maybe I had had a rough week. Maybe I was still stressed out from almost being killed by a giant spider. Maybe I was still having nightmares even while I was awake. Maybe I was exhausted from not having slept for two days straight. Maybe I was just being a little pussy who didn’t know how to take a few jokes. Maybe what they said hurt a little.

Hefting the brush like a baseball bat I swung and knocked the bottle of nail polish over, spilling some of it’s contents all over the newspapers. All at once everyone stopped laughing and just looked at me, not saying anything. I looked all around at each face as they gazed back cautiously.

“Stop looking down on me,” I said in a voice that suggested I was fighting some tears. None of them responded. I swung at the bottle again with a growl in an attempt to let off some steam. “Stop looking down on me!” I screamed. “I’m not some insect for you to stare at under a microscope!”

Still no one said a word, they just looked at me with mouths hanging open. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see their stares. Over by the far wall was a shelf, about six and a half feet off of the ground, that hand a few pictures on it. I pointed at it. “Emily,” I whispered. “Put me on the shelf.”

She hesitated before doing anything. “ . . . Peter are yo-”

“Emily,” my voice was pained with the effort of keeping it under control. “Please just put me on the shelf.”

She bit her lip nervously but did as I asked, using one of the couches to help boost herself thigh enough. Once on the shelf I wasn’t being looked down upon, yet I still felt as if I was.

“Peter . . .?” Emily asked slowly. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong,” I repeated. “What’s wrong? WHAT’S WRONG!” I drew my staff from my sheath, swung at one of the smaller picture frames, and was actually able to shift it a little. “What’s wrong!” I screamed. “Is that I’m two inches tall and you’re all sitting here treating it like it’s all one big joke! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! It’s like it didn’t matter that I was right there as you were making these jokes! I just wasn’t significant enough to factor into your consideration!”

A few of their faces turned slightly red as I yelled. Finally Emily spoke up. “Peter, we’re your friends. You know we never mean any of that stuff.”

These girls are your friends and yet you’re yelling at them like an immature jackass. I growled in frustration. “Have some goddamned consideration! Can you even comprehend what it’s like to be this small? I have almost died! Literally died! How many near death experiences have you had in your lifetime Emily? I’ve had seven these past two weeks! Almost eaten by a spider and yet you think it’s funny to sneak a fake one behind me! A fucking ant has been a bigger comfort to me than you have!”

At this point Emily’s face was a deep red. Tears began to roll down her face as she sniffed a few times. You feel better now you dick? You just brought your best friend to tears! I did my best to ignore the thought.

“Ok I’m sorry!” she said through the tears. “I’m sorry I’ve made fun of you about this but I’ve tried my best! I got you a house, I got you furniture, food, water, a bathroom, I’ve taken you on trips outside of the house. I’ve done everything I could think of to help you get through this. So I said some things I shouldn’t have, just cut me some slack!”

When are you ever going to stop being a burden on everybody? These girls could be having the time of their life right now without you. “I’m not trying to be a burden,” I whispered to myself.

“If it wasn’t for me Peter you’d never have lived through the first day!” she screamed.

She never wanted you around. All you do is make things worse. “Shut up,” I said.

“You have no right to tell me to shut up you ungrateful little speck!” Emily continued.

You’re not even worthy of being their toy, you’d only fuck it up. “Shut up!” I screamed as I dropped to my knees.

“If you think you don’t need me,” she said as she wiped tears from her face. “Then you don’t have to stay. Leave.”

Do what she said and leave. Get out of her life, get out of all of their lives, forever! NOW!

“FINE!” I screamed. Without another word I took off at a sprint and launched myself off of the edge of the shelf.

I blacked out almost instantly. I suppose that was my last mercy in this life. I wouldn’t have to be awake when I died.

That was the last thing I can remember. A mental battle with myself, breaking down inside, running right off of the shelf, and finally blacking out. I recall a second or two of free falling but that was it. Everything turned to black . . . . when I opened my eyes everything was white.

Literally, I was standing in the middle of an empty void. Nothing but endless nothingness all around me. I stood up and it felt like I was standing on some kind of floor, but I couldn’t tell. All around me was just whiteness that stretched on forever. When I walked it sounded like I was walking in a big empty room, my footsteps echoed off of walls that I couldn’t even tell were there.

“What is this?” I asked out loud to myself. “Am I dead? Is this purgatory or something?”

I began to walk in any direction, even though I had no sense of direction here. “Hello!” I called out. “God? Someone? Anyone?”

My voice echoed as well but was met with no reply. “An angel or something would be nice!” Still nothing. I growled in frustration as I spun in a complete circle trying desperately to see something, anything at all.

And see something I did.

Just as I completed my spin I was left facing the entrance of the LEGO maze. I couldn’t figure out what was scarier. Facing the maze where I almost died in or the fact that it appeared OUT OF FUCKING NO WHERE! But the freakiness didn’t stop there. As I stepped to the side to get a look at the maze I saw that, from the outside, it was only about as long as a single LEGO brick. It was like looking at an arch standing in the middle of no where. But when I looked through the arch I saw that it went in deep, too deep to be possible. From the outside it was just a single arch, on the inside it was a hallway. It was straight out of the fucking Twilight Zone.

I put my hand to my mouth as I tried to grasp what the hell this was. It was impossible is what it was, it was very very impossible. I didn’t know what to do either. The logically part of my brain would have told me not to go inside the maze of witchcraft. But then again that part of my brain went binge drinking as soon as it saw the goddamned maze appear out of no where, and that it was far deeper than should have been possible. All the same I was hesitant to enter it, I was scared honestly.

CLICK CLICK!

My eyes snapped open wide. That was Joseph.

I gazed straight into the maze. At first there was nothing to see, only bricks that didn’t seem to appear on the outside of the maze. But then at the very end of the hallway Joseph stepped out from around a corner. There was no doubt about it, that was Joseph. Even from a distance I could recognize him.

“Joseph? What the hell are you doing here!” I called out to him.

Joseph just stood there staring at me. CLICK CLICK!

I began to walk towards him but when I got about twenty feet away he took off scurrying around the corner.

“Dammit Joseph come back!” I yelled. I took off after him, but there were two problems wrong with that plan. The first problem was that Joseph is much faster than I am. Considering he’s got six legs compared to my two it only makes sense. The second problem was that this maze was built differently than the one in Emily’s room, and it was bigger. A lot bigger. I was lost from the first turn, all around me were hundreds of different choices of hallways. There was no rhyme or reason to anything I did, I just ran down hallway after hallway without stopping to consider anything. My only sense of direction was the sound of Joseph’s clicking, that was all I followed. Hallway after hallway, corner after corner, I ran through everything without ever hitting a dead end. I don’t know how long I ran for, ten minutes, maybe twenty. Eventually I became so frustrated I stopped.

“Joseph! Where the hell are you!” I screamed.

CLICK CLICK!

Without any indication that he had been there at all, Joseph stepped out from behind a corner not too far from where I stood. He clicked at me a few more times before disappearing around that same corner. I grit my teeth and ran after him again.

When I had rounded that same corner I was standing in outer space.

There is no other way for me to say it. I stepped out from the maze and was staring right at planet Earth.

And by God it was beautiful.

It was like a jewel, perfect in everyway visible. The oceans were bluer than I’ve ever seen, and the continents were just as green. Finally a broken layer of milky white clouds glided just above the surface in a hypnotic pattern. And all around me were trillions of stars among the infinite void of space. I didn’t float like you would normally do in outer space, I just stood on that same invisible floor and took it all in. The Earth, the moon above my head, the stars around me. As I was looking around I noticed that the maze had entirely disappeared. It shouldn’t have surprised me considering that it appeared out of no where is the first place, but I took the time to look around for it in case it might still be somewhere. When I went back to looking at the Earth I saw someone else was gazing at it as well. He was tall, six and a half feet tall if I had to guess. It was hard to get a read on what kind of person he was. His face was hard, with a strong jawline and a few wrinkles. But his eyes were soft and warm as they looked upon the planet. He had a mop of salt and pepper hair that was kind of shaggy even if it wasn’t much longer than his ears. He had a beard of the same color but it was well kept. As for clothes he wore a blue buttoned shirt under a brown jacket he left open, jeans, and boots.

“Enjoying the view?” he asked me in a deep yet soft voice. “I always love this sight so I thought it’d be the best place to speak with you.”

It took me a moment to find my voice and address him. “Uh . . . yeah it’s uh . . .” I sighed. “It’s beautiful.”

He smiled at me as he nodded his head. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

I chuckled a bit. “So uh . . . is this Heaven or something? I mean, I’ve seen Tom and Jerry and they get to Heaven by an escalator, not a maze of LEGOs.”

The man threw back his head and laughed a deep, genuine laugh. “Yes and I believe at the end of that escalator is a train station. So it’s safe to say this isn’t Heaven.”

“Oh . . . So where am I then?” I asked.

“What’s the last thing you can remember?”

I paused for a moment. It wasn’t that I had to remember, it’s just not something I’d ever enjoy remembering. “I remember running off the edge of a giant shelf and then blacking out. That’s all. So does that mean I’m dead? Or dreaming?”

He shook his head. “It’s a little more complicated than that, I’ll explain. Here, take a seat.”

I looked over my shoulder and saw a finely crafted chair of, what looked like redwood, and velvet cushions. By now I actually was used to things appearing out of no where, so I just sat in it. It was pretty comfortable and when I sat down I saw that the man had an identical seat of his own.

“Now there is a lot to go over so I ask that you be patient with me,” he began. I nodded and he continued. “Right now you’re having a sort of lucid dream. What you are right now is the embodiment of your conscious mind. I am unable to actually visit your mind so I brought your mind to me while you were unconscious.”

“What are you?” I asked before thinking.

The man quirked an eyebrow and I averted my eyes. “I’m sorry. Please continue.”

He smiled. “Normally I’m only supposed to observe you but in extreme emergencies I am allowed to interfere. Jumping off of a shelf at your height was a pretty big emergency.” He said with a smirk. “So I brought your mind here that I may explain everything to you. I think you’ve more than earned the right to know the origins of your situation. Are you ready.”

I nodded once.

“Believe it or not this all can be traced back to an ancestor of yours who lived in, what is now, Italy. This ancestor was found in the woods and raise my a powerful sorcerer.”

The word sorcerer caused me to perk up. I opened my mouth but said nothing, waiting for him to give his permission to speak. “So there really is such a thing as magic?” I asked when he nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “Magic has always existed in the world. But the capabilities to wield such forces are rare to find. One must be born with the ability to exert any control over magical energies. Your ancestor was able to survive alone in the woods for years with his brother from the time that they were toddlers. When the sorcerer took them home with him he discovered it was because they had the inborn talent to wield magic. So he taught them all about how to use magic and why to use it. You see magic is a part of nature, it’s a force of life. He taught them never to use it for destruction in any way. And finally, when the boys grew to be men, became heroes. They raised an army of followers and overthrew a tyrant and his army. But one of the brothers contracted a disease neither knew how to heal. He passed from this world and his body was burned and cast into the wind. His brother, without any other purpose in life, used his power to build a city for himself and their followers. He governed over the city until the day of his death bed. For all of it’s power, magic cannot halt death. So, before he passed from this world, he channeled as much magical energy into an object. His will was that the charm would be passed down to each one of his ancestors. Whomever was worthy enough of heart would be granted one wish from the charm.”

I swallowed a lump that was beginning to form in my throat. “What was the charm he used?” I asked.

The man grinned. “I think you’ve already got an idea.”

I reached down into my shirt and withdrew my coin necklace. I’ve been wearing it this whole time, but never once did I suspect it was what caused me to shrink. But then again this was the first time I had any idea magic existed. The coin was the same as it had always been. Gold but gritty and hard to make out. On the one side was a picture of some animal, on the back was an inscription in Latin I couldn’t accurately translate.

“W-what  uh . . . what kind of animal is this? D-do you know?” I asked in a shaky voice.

The man’s face was neutral as he nodded. Maybe he understood the shock I was feeling. “It’s a wolf.”

A wolf. A wolf plus Latin can only mean one thing.

According to legends a great city was built by one of two brothers. The brothers were left alone in the wild when they were born. A tyrant of a king had ordered their deaths because he feared that the two would overthrow him in power, just as the king had overthrown their father. A she wolf found as raised them until they were found again by a shepherd. The shepherd took them home and raised them as his own children. The two brothers grew up and lead an army to overthrow the king who ordered their deaths in the first place. After one of the brothers dies the other one built a city for himself. The brother who died was named Remus, and the one who built the city was named Romulus.

Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome.

“Romulus,” I whispered. “Romulus was real!”

He nodded. “That he was. He and Remus were both powerful sorcerers. That is where your coin get’s it’s power from.”

I had to take a deep breath while I allowed the information to sink in. “This . . .” I chuckled nervously. “This is a lot that you expect me to believe.”

The man smirked. “Believe it or not, either way you’re still two inches tall.”

“Touche.” I replied. I took another deep breath to gather my thoughts. “Has anyone else ever used this coin before?”

He nodded. “It’s very rare but every now and then a few individuals from your ancestral line have been able to use the magic in one way or another. For example Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Aka Scipio Africanus the Roman General who defeated Hannibal. Hannibal himself was the only man to ever defeat the Roman armies every time they fought. Even today the two men are considered two of the greatest military leaders in history.”

I exhaled sharply. “And I’m related to both of these guys?”

He nodded.

“Wow. Ubisoft is going to sue me for Assassin’s Creed rip off.”

He laughed again. “You could sue them. Romulus was born first.”

I laughed with him. “Well all of this is pretty cool to know but how did the coin make me shrink? I never made a wish for that.”

“Maybe not to shrink but you did wish for something,” he explained.

I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That night of the party, after everyone went home, you went onto a giantess fetish website to finish a story you had been reading for a while. Do you remember what you started thinking to yourself after you finished reading?” he asked.

I lowered my head as it all came back to me. “I remember wondering what my friends would think of me if they knew I liked this. It upset me when I started imagining their reactions. I was afraid they’d think I was a freak. I didn’t want them to think that about me.”

He nodded. “Your wish at that time was that you wanted your girl friends to know what kind of person you really are. You were tired of having to keep this secret all to yourself for so many years, never once telling anyone. You wanted to be able to confide within someone close to you without them seeing you as a freak. So the coin shrank you and sent you to Emily’s house where you could live out your ultimate fantasy. Telling your close friends your secret without them believing you’re a freak.”

“So . . . will I ever grow back to normal?” I asked.

The man fixed an intense gaze on me, it made me nervous. “That depends.”

I swallowed another lump in my throat. “Depends on what?”

That gaze of his never wavered once, the weight of it was almost physical. “You’ve kept one secret from them, from everyone. I think at this point they deserve to know.”

I sighed a deep sigh. “I . . . I guess they do.” My head suddenly perked up. “How can I tell them though? I threw myself off of a shelf.”

His face finally lightened up as he chuckled. “Now I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let you die now wouldn’t I?”

I looked at him in confusion. “Your job?”

He nodded. “I was tasked with keeping an eye on you while you were shrunken, to keep you safe.”

“Like a guardian angel?” I asked.

He nodded. “Something like that.”

“Well is there a name I can call you by?”

He grinned. “I’ve actually become quite fond of the name you’ve already given me. Joseph’s a good name.”

My jaw fell to the fucking floor. “W-www-what! You mean to tell me . . . the whole time . . . you! You were my pet ant!”

Joseph laughed harder than he’s laughed before. “I must admit it was a somewhat enjoyable role. Especially when you actually started talking to me. The funny thing is I could understand you the entire time.”

Right now my jaw was going up and down but no sounds were coming out.

He continued laughing. “I’m sorry I didn’t have a harmonica for you that one time when the girls came over. That would have been hilarious to watch though. You sitting on a plastic Bat Cave and playing the harmonica to an ant.” At this point he had to stop talking because he was laughing so hard. After a moment I joined him. Maybe I was laughing because I had finally lost my mind.

Or maybe I just needed a good laugh.

We sat there and laughed for a good two minutes over the image of me playing the harmonica to an ant right before meeting my friends again. When we had finally settled down I wiped a tear from my eye.

“You know,” I said after a while. “You mentioned that I was still alive. What happened?”

He nodded. “Emily grabbed a pillow as soon as she saw you jump. Adrenalin rushes are funny things. I doubt she’s ever moved that fast before.” He said with a wink.

“Wow. You’re good.”

“Thank you. Now,” he said as he stood up. “I believe it’s time to send you back to your body. They must be worried to death over you.”

I sighed as I got up. “I guess I deserve it, having to face all of them after what I just did and explain.” I paused for a second as I remembered my necklace. “Joseph, you said this was a wolf. Well what does the inscription mean?”

He took the coin in his fingers as he read over it. "Non est spes ejus, et non vult oblivisci. No wish is without hope. No dream is ever forgotten.”

When my eyes finally opened my mind was immediately assaulted by light and noise. Compared to the dark atmosphere of outer orbit, the lights of Emily’s basement were blinding. Normally my sight would have cleared up as my eyes slowly adjusted. But as it was, Melanie was sitting right by me when I woke up.

“Oh my God!” she cried out just as I was trying to stand up. “Peter! Everyone! Peter’s awake!”

“AAAAH!” I screamed as her voice hit me like a hammer. It was so overwhelmed that it stumbled off of the cushion-like surface I had been laying on and fell onto a more wooden type of floor.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry Peter,” she said as she covered her mouth with her hand.

I groaned a bit as I tried to pick myself up, my whole body felt sore. Just as I finally forced myself to my feet I saw that I had been resting on a pillow on top of the coffee table. I took an experimental step forward and faltered. “Gah! What the hell happened to me?” I asked aloud.

When I looked back to Melanie I saw that she had been joined by everyone else at the slumber party. Everyone that is except Emily. The girls exchanged looks between themselves.

“Are you ok?” Ashley asked slowly. “How much do you remember?”

“How much do I-” Like a spark everything suddenly flashed right through my head. The fight, breaking down, jumping, and then waking up only to have my mind blown to smithereens by my pet ant. It gave me a headache just thinking about it. When I took a closer look at the girls I saw for the first time how bloodshot their eyes were. They had been crying while I was asleep, or maybe they didn’t think I was simply asleep. I groaned again as I sat down on the table, my back against the pillow and my arms resting on my knees. “I remember too much. Where’s Emily?”

Tara sighed. “We’ve been trying to get her to come out of her room for half an hour. She wouldn’t stop crying.”

Knife, stab, twist. I rubbed at my temples as my headache grew worse. “What the hell have I done?” I muttered.

“You tell us,” Jess said. New tears looked to be on the edge of her vision. “Why the hell would you just . . . just . . .” She sniffed.

I held up a hand to forestall her. “I know I have a lot to apologize for, but not until Emily’s here.”

Jess nodded as she whipped her eyes. Tara stood up. “Ashley and I will get her down.”

It took a good fifteen minutes but eventually we heard the soft thuds of feet coming down the stairs. The sounds continued until you could see the girls standing at the top of the basement staircase. When Emily came down I was a little surprised. Her hair was in a mess and her eyes were puffy and red. As a matter of fact her whole face was flushed red. I’d never seen her a mess like this before. She walked over in complete silence, knelt down in front of the coffee table where I sat, stared at me for a few moments, and then broke down crying.

She didn’t spontaneously burst into tears and wails. They just flowed naturally from her eyes as she sniffled and sobbed. The girls immediately rushed to comfort her and I averted my eyes. I felt like a coward but I couldn’t bare to look at her. I had brought her to a point of sadness and despair I had never seen on someone like her before. It actually hurt me just hearing her cry like that.

She tried to force sentences out in between her gasps. “You just . . . just . . .you . . .YOU DON’T JUST DO THAT!” she finally yelled. “ You don’t just! . . .JUST JUMP LIKE THAT! WHAT THE HELL PETER! YOU DON’T JUST-” she had to stop as the sobs became too much for her. That last part she said in a whisper. “You don’t just do that to yourself.”

I looked up at all of them, and every face was gazing at me, wanting an explanation. I lowered my head as I sighed. Then I took a deep breath and faced them again. They deserved to know.

“I live with depression,” I explained. “And this is actually the fourth time I’ve almost killed myself.”

Just like that, I said it. Something I’ve never fully confessed to anyone before in my life. And they just looked right back at me as it set in. Very slowly hands lifted to cover mouths left hanging open in shock. Not a sound was uttered by anyone. I looked at Nicole, Melanie, and Laura, the youngest girls here. Tears were sliding freely from their eyes like rain. Jess, Ashley and Tara all tried to speak but couldn’t muster any sounds, let alone words. And Emily . . .

Emily just looked numb.

I went on explaining. “When I was twelve I went to that surprise party for Dave Harrison. Tara and Emily should remember, I told them that story already. Well it all started when we were at Applebee’s.” I smiled a little as I remembered the party. “Man, that party was the best I’d ever experienced in my whole childhood. When they brought out Dave’s cake and everyone cheered, man, whether it was their birthday or not everyone was happy.” Then I frowned. “Except me. It wasn’t that I was jealous of Dave, I really wanted to be happy for him. But the whole time I couldn’t make myself feel happy. Instead I remember feeling worse.” I paused for a bit as I recalled what I thought that day. “I remember . . . I remember wondering if there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t feeling jealous for Dave, I wasn’t angry, but I wasn’t happy. I didn’t understand it.”

“A few years later I’d still be experiencing the same sensations. Always feeling sad even when everything in my life was going right. I wasn’t a star on the wrestling team, I was good but not great. But I was friends with everyone on the team, we were like brothers to each other. My grades were a little above average, I’ve performed at open mic night at school a few times. But it would never leave me alone. The fact that I couldn’t say I was happy about anything, and I’d always ask what was wrong with me.”

I took a second to swallow a lump in my throat that had been forming. I needed to go on, I needed to tell the rest. “The first time I tried to kill myself was when I was fifteen. I was walking by myself up one of those mountain trails not to far from where I live. The same trails that cyclists use for exercise. Just as I was heading down to go home I remember stopping at a curve just to get a good look at everything. As I started think about things eventually I came to remember a recent time when my depression really hit me. At that point I felt like I had dealt with it enough. I put one leg over the safety railing, I told myself I was going to go through with this. Just as I swung my left leg over and both of my feet were on the very edge of the cliff I heard people coming. I panicked and hopped back over to the other side just as some bicyclists road by. They waved to me, I waved back, and then I ran home.”

“The second time I was sitting in my room with a bottle of pills in my hand. I don’t remember what they were for, I just pulled them out of my parents medicine cabinet. I kept telling myself I was going to do it. I was going to open up the bottle and swallow every single pill. Then I’d just pass out and dream forever. I spent twenty minutes just sitting there telling myself things like that over and over again. At some point my little brother knocked on my door, I hid the bottle when he came in. He asked if we were still going to play video games after dinner like I said I would before. Even after he left I still debated with myself for a minute or two. But I knew I couldn’t go through with it. So I put the pills back and that was it.”

“The third time was the same scenario, in my room with a different bottle of pills. This was actually last year. This time I didn’t waste twenty minutes talking to myself. I just thought it over for a few before I opened the bottle and put it too my lips. I poured in a few pills but I was too scared, I panicked and spit them all out. After that I just sat on the floor and cried to myself. My dad came up to tell me it was dinner time when he saw me crying and holding the bottle of pills. The next day I went to a psychiatrist who explained to me what depression was. From then on I took antidepressant meds.” I had to stop to take a deep breath. I think tears might have been in my eyes but I wasn’t focused on that. “One of my biggest struggles while being small was learning to get by without them. I made it two weeks. Maybe I could have made it longer but the near death experiences wore me down fast.”

I took another moment to breath. “I’m uh . . . I’m sorry for . . . for everything I uh . . .”

As I struggled to find the right words to express myself I was interrupted by Emily’s sobs. “You . . . . . are so fucking selfish Peter!”

I looked up at her feeling perplexed. She whipped the tears from her eyes as she continued shouting. “Don’t you ever think about others before doing anything? Don’t you think about us? Have you ever thought what we’d do if you suddenly just! . . . Just! . . .” She broke down crying again. “Why would you do that to us! After everything else you’ve done before!”

I looked around at everyone else, hoping they’d explain. Nicole spoke up first, her tears kept coming down. “You’re the reason I was able to overcome shyness and meet these girls. If it wasn’t for you I don’t know if I’d have any friends in high school.”

Melanie fought down sobs of her own. “You’re the one who helped me after I broke up with Kevin and he kept making me feel like shit for weeks because of it.”

“You always listened to me no matter how many times I spoke about the shit I go through with my parents. And you always had something supportive to say.” Jess said.

Ashley looked up at me. “We spent an entire year helping each other get through spanish in eighth grade.”

Laura was whipping her eyes with a tissue while she spoke. “You’re the reason I got involved in that summer music program and overcame my stage fright. You have no idea how confident that has made me in so many other things.”

I heard Tara sniff and I turned to her, a sad smile was on her lips. “You went out of your way to make me laugh on a daily basis. Even on days that were hard on you.”

To say I was overwhelmed was an understatement. Honestly I had never really thought much of any of those things I had done. I figured I was just doing what a decent friend would do. Did my actions really mean that much to these girls? Some of them I have only known for less than a few years. Have I really made an impact in their lives or were they just saying this for my sake? The rational part of my mind told me that that was the case. But as I looked each one of them in the eyes I couldn’t believe any of them were making this up.

This time I felt it when the tears came to me. It felt good.

Then Emily put her hands on the table which brought my attention back to her. Her gaze was so intense I actually felt her eyes piercing right through my small body. Her voice suggested she was going through great pains to hold back the flood of emotions she was feeling. “Don’t you ever even consider doing anything like that again. You hear me? You have no idea what we’d do if anything like that happened to you. We don’t even know what we’d do without you. Ok?” She sobbed once but kept her voice under control. “If you have a problem we’re always here to help you out. But we need you too Pete! We . . . .” She had to stop to take a deep breath. When she spoke her voice was calm and composed. “Just don’t leave us like that. You’re like family to us.”

I lack the words necessary to describe how I felt about that. Remember when I said I tried to break out of the friend zone with Emily? Turns out the friend zone is just bullshit, I learned that a while ago. Relationships can be great things, but I knew I’d mess up. I’m only nineteen, and I was fifteen when I was crushing on her, of course I was going to screw up. But you can’t do that when you’re friends, that’s the unappreciated beauty of it. You have to actually make an effort to screw up being friends with a girl. But if you’re in a relationship everything is taken much more seriously and one wrong move can mean years of bad blood between the two parties. I came to grips with this a few years ago, and now I want nothing more than to just continue being a close friend to every one of the girls here.

What I’m saying is that hearing Emily say that to me was just about the best thing she could have said.

The tears stopped flowing, only to be replaced by a smile. I took in the sight of my friends watching me and I nodded. “It’s a deal.”

So we sat there drying our tears and trying to figure out someway to lighten the mood, even a little. Normally Melanie would have sprung for a hug but at my size there is no doubt in my mind that she would have killed me. She’s a very enthusiastic hugger. Suddenly Nicole perked up. “Would um . . . would you mind playing something for us? I like hearing you play.”

Laura chuckled a little. “I’d help make things less depressing.”

I raised an eyebrow as my lips quirked in a smile. “Play a song after a depressing and heartfelt moment? This isn’t the freaking Magic Kingdom in DisneyWorld. “

“Hey I love those kinds of movies.” Jess protested.

Emily looked at everyone and then shook her head as she gave me a look that said ‘can you believe them?’. But she smiled her usual smartass smile. “I’d actually really like that. Just pick something that isn’t too corny and you’ll be fine.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “I’ll try and pick something appropriate then.”

So Emily placed me on the roof of my Cave. Just as I stepped down I remembered Joseph and what he really was. I ran inside through the roof entrance as fast as I could.

“Joseph?” I called out. “Joseph!”

He didn’t come out. I went through the Cave as quickly as I could but he was no where to be found. I found myself smiling for no apparent reason. Or maybe I was smiling over the fact that my pet ant turned out to be a guardian angel or some being similar to that and has now disappeared. Story of my life, am I right?

Well if he wasn’t here anymore then I probably had no hope of finding him. So I just went back up to my room and carried my guitar out. Emily brought me back to the coffee while everyone else sat around me on the floor. As I took the guitar out and began tuning it I played with some song ideas. Layla? Nah, doesn’t fit the moment. Wonderwall? Nope, too generic. What It’s Like by Everlast? Close but a little too depressing.

Suddenly I had the perfect idea. If you’re a fan of Shinedown then you’ll know what I was going for. They recently covered a very famous song called Simple Man and, in my opinion, it sounded better when they did it. All they had was one acoustic guitar, played by Zack Myers, and the powerful vocals of Brent Smith. Not to mention the song itself, originally written by Lynyrd Skynyrd, is an extremely powerful and moving song. All in all it fit the mood just right.

So I began individually plucking the notes of each chord as I began to sing. Like I said, I don’t have a really special voice, but I’m not that bad.

“Well Mama told me, when I was young. Said sit beside me, my only son. And listen closely, to what I say. And if you do this it’ll help you some sunny day.”

I won’t rewrite every lyric for you. If you want to hear a quality version then look up Shinedown performing the song, I guarantee you’ll like it. The girls themselves sat around and quietly watched me, enjoying the music. The Martin guitar sounded beautiful as ever, each note rang loud and clean. When I had finished tears were still present, but everyone was smiling. They clapped for me and I took a mock of a bow. I love to play music for others but I hate showing off. The only thing I hate more is the fact that I love showing off.

“That was pretty good. But how about something a little more upbeat?” Ashley asked.

I grinned as I launched into the beginning of ‘Ain’t No Easy Way Out’ by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It’s a great song but I don’t recommend watching the music video unless you’re all alone. Just take my word for it, you’ll see what I mean.

After I was done the girls thought it best to go back and finish up with their nails, many of them were only halfway done because of how quickly things happened. I of course insisted on finishing up with Emily’s nail. I have this little quirk where I become too stubborn to stop until I finish a job I started. If you’ve ever wrestled, or done any sport that requires as much dedication, then you know what I’m talking about. As I was just finishing up I heard Jess clear her throat.

“Peter?” she asked.

After one last stroke I put down my brush and raised my head in acknowledgement of her question.

“I’m . . . I’m sorry for what I said about you being our servant and everything. I shouldn’t have joked about that.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too.” Ashley said. “I didn’t realize how mean it would have sounded to you.”

One by one the other girls voiced their apologies to me. Emily even apologised for the giant spider behind my back. When they had fallen quiet I took a deep breath and addressed them all.

“I can’t blame any of you for what’s happened to me. All I know is that I’m in the most serious situation I’ll probably ever be in. And if it wasn’t for you all helping me to get through it I honestly don’t know how long I would have lasted on my own.” I sighed. “What you said did hurt me, it hurt quite a bit. But I can’t blame you for not understanding what it’s like. Maybe . . . maybe one day I will look back and joke about all of this with you. But until then . . . I forgive you.”

I won’t bore you with detail as to what happened after that, you’ve all read enough emotion to last for a while. The jist of it was we laughed, we ate, we watched movies, and we went to bed. For the first time in a while I was all alone in the Bat Cave. I’ll be honest, I really did miss Joseph. Even if he wasn’t really an ant the little bastard and I had been through a lot. It was like I had just lost a close roommate. I found myself staring at my journal for a good while, contemplating what to say. Eventually I just said “Fuck it” and began writing. That night I went to bed with my journal in hand, and my friends all around me.

*****

You know what sucks in the morning? Sunlight.

I will never understand those morning people who find such joy in seeing the sunshine so early in the morning. To me, when it’s seven in the morning, the sun is just another obstacle preventing you from sleeping in. That and those goddamned birds. Chirping their heads off to the point where you just want to take a gun and fire a few rounds into the air, just to scare them off. What the hell do they have to say that is so important everyone else has to wake up and hear it? I was really not in the mood for any of this. My head was throbbing for some reason. Probably from this mattress. I don’t know where Emily found it but it was uncomfortable as hell! The thing was as hard as . . . . as . . . .

The floor.

My eyes snapped open and, sure enough, I was sleeping on the floor. The floor of Emily’s basement. The carpet was matted which didn’t make sleeping on it any easier, no wonder my head hurt. My eyes were still clearing up but I could make out the ceiling stretch up into sky above me. I closed my eyes to rub them clear as I sighed. Who the hell thought it was funny to take me out of my bed and just put me anywhere on the floor? I thought we were all done with jokes and pranks. Who had the nerve?

I kept grumbling to myself as I hauled myself to my feet. It wasn’t easy. I stumbled a little and had to grab part of the couch for balance.

My eyes could not have opened faster at that moment.

A few seconds after grabbing the couch I felt the curve of, what should have been, one of the wooden feet. This piece of the couch was curved, but definitely not wooden. It was leather. I had grabbed the arm of the couch.

With my vision cleared I looked around frantically. The couches, the girls, the tables, the shelves, and my Cave. Finally I took a good look at myself.

I was back to my normal height.

I can’t really describe how I felt at that point, so many emotions flew through me straight to my very core. The first and foremost was happiness over returning to my normal size. Next came regret over having to sacrifice my giantess fantasy come true. And finally came confusion as to how this all happened. Then suddenly a memory flashed through my head.

“Your wish at that time was that you wanted your girl friends to know what kind of person you really are. You were tired of having to keep this secret all to yourself for so many years, never once telling anyone. You wanted to be able to confide within someone close to you without them seeing you as a freak. So the coin shrank you and sent you to Emily’s house where you could live out your ultimate fantasy. Telling your close friends your secret without them believing you’re a freak.”

“So . . . will I ever grow back to normal?”

“That depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“You’ve kept one secret from them, from everyone. I think at this point they deserve to know.”

“I . . . I guess they do.”

That conversation with Joseph, he said I had to tell them. Telling them undid the wish? The wish. What was my wish again? Joseph said my wish was that I didn’t have to keep secrets from my friends anymore. So he said the coin made it so that I could live out my ultimate fantasy. . . . . . And now they know. They know about my history of depression, they know about my attempts at suicide, and Emily and Tara even know about the fetishes I’ve been afraid of my entire life. And they don’t care about any of it.

Despite knowing all of that stuff about me my friends stand by me without seeing me as a freak.

My ultimate fantasy.

I don’t know when I began weeping but the tears came all the same. It felt good, cleansing almost. I stopped as soon as I heard someone stir. Emily blinked the sand out of her eyes as she sat up on the couch. She didn’t notice me right away as she look at everyone else who was still sleeping. When she finally did see me her mouth fell open as her eyes bulged. Not a peep escaped her lips, safe for a gasp. Very slowly she sat up and walked to within five feet of me. Once she got that close she ran straight at me and I caught her in a hug. We just stood there embracing each other in silence.

“Thank you,” I whispered to her. “For everything you’ve done for me. Thank you.”

“It was nothing,” she whispered back. Then she pulled away a bit so she could look at me. “How?”

I smiled as I shook my head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Emily grinned. “Try me.”

I wanted to tell her. Tell her my pet ant/guardian angel brought me back to normal after I completed a task set forth by a magical piece of pocket change. I was so tempted.

All the same I hesitated. “Alright then,” Emily said. Then she stepped back and turned towards everyone who was still asleep. “Hey girls! Wake up! Pete’s back!”

Very slowly each one of them stirred as they woke up and looked around. Like me they had to blink away the film left on your eyes after you sleep for a while. Once they did each one of those eyes popped right out of their heads.

Melanie was the first one to fully comprehend what was happening. “Peter!” she screamed as she ran right for me. Like I said before, Melanie’s an enthusiastic hugger. But she was still only five feet tall so I was able to catch her just as she leapt up to hug me without staggering. She wrapped her arms and legs around me as soon as I caught her. Before I could even say anything everyone else soon took their turn at tackling me until I finally keeled over under their combined weight.

After two weeks of non stopped fear and uncertainty I finally felt safe.

I felt happy.

By God these girls were heavy.

*****

There’s not much to say at this point.

The rest of the day was spent explaining to everyone the story behind my coin. I left out a few minor details, such as the fact that it was my wish that shrunk me down in the first place. What’s the harm in letting them think the coin did it all itself. I definitely told them about Joseph, that was fun trying to explain. When I went back to the Bat Cave I saw that everything had disappeared. My clothes, the journal, the guitar, everything. Since I had no other clothes Emily had to drive me home that day in my pajamas. Thankfully she had the spare key to my house with her. My parents came home at the end of the month thinking I had been home the entire time. After that things soon went back to normal. Not completely normal of course. I still had nightmares as strange dreams about my experiences for a long time afterwards. But the girls told me that any time I needed someone to talk to about that I had only just reach out.

About a month later I was making the bed in my room. As I pulled the sheets off something caught my eye. A leather bound book.

I opened it up and flipped through the pages, sure enough it was my journal. Everything I had ever written was still inside just as I had left it. Moving the sheets aside I sat down on my bed and began reading from page one.