Prelude

 

I could feel his pulse pounding all around me, His hands convulsed in time with it. His arm like fingers securely wrapped around my tiny frame. He broke into a full sprint, my stomach swirling with nausea as he swung me through the air.

Then it came, like a razor wire through the center of your spine, the cackling laugh of a neo-nazi on speed. Zachary Lyndon had come to extract his revenge. No one else could make an expression of joy sound so wicked.

Suddenly my stomach lurched in protest as Mike stopped dead in his tracks. My eyes strained to focus in the dim light but slowly I began to make out our surroundings. The alley was badly lit but I could still make out the chain and razor blade fence that now blocked our escape.

which meant that 

Lights shone down the alley and Mike turned to see the small mob that had cornered us. The lights, shining in our faces reduced the mob to a line of silhouettes. But their was no doubt who they were. We’d been on the run or in hiding from them for the past two years. Lyndon, their ring leader was nothing if not persistent.

One form moved out towards us. With the other torches to his back I could see the gleam of his brass knuckles. While the shadow still obscuring his face. Torch in his left hand, his legs bent at the knees, back hunched over creating a physical manifestation of the insanity rampant in his mind. It was Lyndon.

"Hey Mike. Where'd you take our lovely living dildos?"

Mike stood firm.

"Ahhh come on Mike, Give them up now and we might just decide to let you live.

"We both know that isn't true." I made it a statement, yelling so Lyndon could hear. Let's not mince words, he was going to kill us no matter what. Lyndon tilted his head to one side. "You've been spoiling her Mike. A dildo shouldn't talk to it's master, when I get it back I'll have to break it all over again." That made my blood boil, just who the fuck did that lanky little prick think he was.

I felt Mikes grip began to tighten around me. He loosened it but it got tight only a second later. The growth agent was beginning to kick in. Mike kneeled down and released me from his grasp. The sudden drop left me giddy and I fell to the ground.

"Run Veronica!" Mike whispered. "Quickly through the empty lot. After you've grown you can find the police." Laying on the ground I could feel the footfalls of the oncoming mob like an earthquake.

"Go!" still whispering, an air of fatalism hung in his voice. It was clear he didn’t expect to live past this fight.

I leaped to my feet and ran through the chain link fence into the tall grass of the empty lot. I ran straight ahead. The rough dried grass and thorns nipping at my naked form. Then came the gut pumping nausea. Just like it had when I was shrunk to this accursed size.

Then the unconsciousness began to eat away at the edges of my sight. I fell to the ground vaguely recognizing the surroundings shrinking smaller and smaller around me. The last thing I remember about that night is my lover’s shrill screams and the horrid cracking of sound of braking bone. Mike survived his assault but I would make Lyndon pay for what he did.

 

Chapter 1

I slowly opened my eyes and just lay their staring into the stormy sky. When most people think of the rain, they think of gloom and sadness. It never occurs to people how their rain gives life to the earth. Feeding the plants, witch feed the animals and us.

My head felt groggy. Like some one had wrapped a whet towel around my brain. I stretched up with my hands and chest in a yon. Then let my body flop down to the earth.

But my left hand hit something that was not the soft grass of the empty lot I had grown in. It felt like I had just destroyed a small house of cards. I rolled on to my side to get a better look.

My eyes flew open in shock. Beneath my hand was a small shack that looked like it was made of tin sheets. Coming from inside I heardthe small, shrieking sounds of terrified little people. I lifted my hand off the small shack and sat up. I crossed my legs and sat in front of the little house fore a long time. A million questions running around in my head. How did these people get hear? I didn’t know of any SP (Shrunken People) rings in the aria. The only place I could think of was the safe house Mike and I were staying at. And if they were their why would they wont to escape?

Through all this I could heretheir tiny screams from inside and before I realized what I was doing I had torn off the roof of their house. I looked down on them, a whole family. Mother, father and two small children. I could fit them all into one hand. They looked so small and helpless, huddled together in the corner of the building, the walls threatening to fall down around them. I wanted to pick them up, cradle them against my chest and tell them it would all be ok.

As I moved my hand slowly toward them they flinched. It was abasing. How much that one small movement implied. Like they were trying to push through the wall and away from my hand. It yanked me back into reality, back to a place were people jugged you by their actions because they couldn’t magically sense your non-malicious intent.

For the first time I really saw the expressions on their tiny faces. They were terrified. I had just crushed half their home, pulled off their roof and now my enormous hand was hovering over them. Fuck they had a right to be terrified.

I backed my hand away from them, slowly. And then backed away from the house, just to give the little family sum distance from me. I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it. What was I going to say “Ummm…. Sorry for demolishing your house and scaring the shit out of you”. I remembered that a normal persons voice at the normal volume was like thunder to a tiny persons ear. So I spoke under my breath, trying not to use my voice box at all. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten….”

I was cut off by the sound of a car crash. But it was so close. I looked over to were the sound had come from. A tiny car had crashed into an other little tin house. A little man looked up dumbfounded at me. What the fuck was going on!

I reached over and picked up the wrecked car. The car wasn’t damaged that much but the driver was now screaming. I ignored him and focused on the tiny vehicle in my hand. Had these little people stolen a toy car? I looked down at the model. But is was far to detailed to be a model. It looked like a car she could see from a distance but it was in her hand.

Suddenly the realization of what had happened hit me like an anvil. I looked at the ground and slowly stood. It almost felt like taking off in a helicopter or the inside of a glass elevator. The ground just went straight down and I was suddenly ten storeys up. My tunnel vision opend up and I could see the whole slum. The one Lyndon had chased Mike and me into after his mob ran us off the road.

Oh God, Mike. I’d forgotten all about him. I’ve been out for hours, he could be dead by now. I looked to the ground surrounding my feet. I was standing in the vacant lot were I had passes out. To my back was the house I destroyed witch means that the ally mike had been trapped in was to my left. I looked and their it was.

It had seemed so massive last night. Now I wouldn’t be wide enough to fit my foot in their. I put the car back down beside the road and kneeled over the small ally trying to make out what was down their. Other than the trash their was a puddle of blood but no body. Perhaps he had gotten away. But if he had then where was he. My heart began to pound higher in my throat. Choking at the thought of Lyndon and his men “disposing” of Mike’s body in some ditch somewhere. Or taking him back to their hideout to toucher the whereabouts of the other shrunken people out of him.

I had to find him and I had to do it fast. I had no Idea where Lyndon hideout was. So I decided to try the hospital first, then if he was not their I would try and enlist the help of the police.

I knew if I had to go looking that it would be to late for Mike. If they killed him, their was nothing I could do. If they were trying to interrogate him it would be to late by the time I found him. He wouldn’t give them any information, so they would kill him.

At this height I could easily see the town's hospital in the distance. It was one of the largest buildings in the suburbs. I started off toward it. Being careful of were I stepped.

I stood back up to my full height and surveyed the surrounding area. The whole slum was in a general state of panic. Anyone who wasn’t passed out from drugs or alcohol was on their feet fleeing for their lives. The ground seemed to move with little rivers of people, flowing over and around the wrecked cars and debris that littered the streets. I wanted to tell them not to be frightened, that I didn’t mean to hurt them. But actions speak louder than words. Those who hadn’t seen me destroy that house would have heard the commotion and the rest would have run because when a mob of terrified people are running in your direction it usually means that something extremely bad is on it’s way.

It was probably best that they left any way. Let’s face it, I was a menace. And it would have been a lot harder to navigate these tiny backstreets if they were filled with people.

I looked down for a clear path out of the slum. There wasn’t one. Where there had once been normal roads there were now tiny alleys, formed by decades of city counsel neglect and makeshift huts built haphazardly wherever they would fit. The result was a virtual maze of alleys and side streets barely wide enough to fit the mini-miner (a very small British car) that I had picked up a few minutes ago. The driver had crashed again, and it was now left abandoned halfway inside another shack.

I waited a few more seconds while the edges of the crowd expanded farther away from me. Looking down on the mess of rusted iron and garbage, I knew I wasn’t leaving here without crushing a few more homes.

I lifted my foot and moved it over a hut in my path, making the largest stride I could so as to do the least amount of damage. Hesitantly, I lowered my big toe onto the roof, gave it a gentle nudge and listened. The crude walls wavered under the weight but I heard no screams.

So I put my foot down. The first step was the hardest. Not knowing whether or not there were people still inside. I stood with my feet together while I waited for the mob to get far enough away for me to take another step, then waited again, then another step. If the crowd was frightened before, they were terrified now that it appeared that I was chasing them.

Under my bare feet I could feel the small hovels crumple like they were made of matchsticks and tinfoil. Watching the ground for movement, I could also see the surrounding buildings vibrate with the impact tremors my footfalls were creating. I could only imagine what the little people on the ground were experiencing.

Finally, I let out a breath as I stepped into the clear street and out of the slum. The little throng of destitute people had dissipated into the surrounding neighbourhood and I was now free to make my way to where I was going.

The hospital was an old building full of sick people. I couldn’t just go down there and rip the place apart. I had to find someone to go in there and look for Mike for me. So that meant I had to get back to the safe house.

I started out in the general direction Mike and I had come the night before, moving at a mid-jog so I’d have time to react if some one in my path froze or jumped out in front of me. I kept my eyes on the ground in front of me, only looking up to get my bearings.

From this height I could see the house but I didn’t know the streets. Well I was fucking 70ft tall, so I just stepped over the houses that were in my way, being careful not to do any more damage than I had to. In a few minutes I was standing in front of the safe-house owned by Howard and Rachel Arnweel.

Howard and Rachel had met in much the same way as Mike and me. Mike had a friend who was a member of the shrunken person ring. Having worked with this guy for quite a while one year, he had slowly watched his now ex-friend go from a timid, self-conscious man to a confident and mean spirited bully. Finally, Mike’s friend had decided to let Mike in on what was going on.

He was horrified at what he saw. At the club there was no protection for the little people who were imprisoned there. The only hope they might have was to give themselves to a member who was known to be gentle.

Set up like a miniature town, the members would come in and pretend they were giants. They would stomp around, molesting the men and women who lived there. Not all of them were malicious like Lyndon. Some were gentle, even tender (while they fucking raped you). However they were all very dominant and not many of them treated the little people like anything more than a living dildo.

By the time Mike was introduced to the club I had been there just under a year. In that time I had seen over a hundred people killed. Some for no other reason than the giant had become bored with them. Others killed people regularly just for the fun of it.

Mike, like Rachel, took it upon himself to rescue the people in the town. I remember the first time we met. Though appalled by the rape orgy that assaulted his eyes, he bit his tongue and bided his time. The shrunken town was in chaos that night; some of the members were out for blood. In the frantic panic of those trying to get away from the killers, an enormous hand closed over my tiny frame and lifted me to a giant face. It was Mike, and he took me to a private area where he told me he would help us. Together we plotted our escape. The rest, as they say, is history.

Well now it was my turn to save him, so I had to decide how I was going to do this. Rachel would be scared of me. All little people were frightened by the giants. I decided to knock on the door and then hide out of sight. I would let my voice guide her to me.

When I bent down to gently tap on the tiny door, I noticed it had already been bashed in! Of course, the SPR attack. I slumped down on the front lawn, not certain how to continue.

“Rachel, are you in there?” I said in desperation, staring at the open door hopefully. If she wasn’t there then I didn’t know anyone else in town and I doubted anyone in the hospital would come out and talk to a 70ft monster.

“Hello, Ronny, is that you?” came from the wrecked house. She recognised my voice. Rachel came to the front door, looked about then ventured cautiously outside. She saw my huge crotch sitting on her lawn and her eyes flew wide open. Her little body began to tremble with tension as her gaze tracked its way up to my face. I watched with morbid fascination, like when you’re standing by a roadside during a car crash. You know something terrible is happening but you just can’t look away.

Finally her eyes reached my face. She screamed, a loud shrill cry of panic. She made a break for the house. And I let her go. I made a split second decision against grabbing her. No! I remembered what it was like the first time I met a giant. She’d been very rough with me, carried me around by my hair, and dangled me upside down by one leg. I would’ve been more considerate than that but Rachel still wouldn’t have trusted me if I had just “man handled” her. No, I would persuade her to come to me.

I lay down on the ground so that I could see inside the house. I whispered, trying to not sound intimidating. Kind of like how you’d talk to a small frightened animal, like how Mike had first spoke to me. “Rachel, Rachel it’s me Veronica. Please don’t be frightened. I’m not going to hurt you” Nothing. “Rachel please, we have to find Mike. Is he there?” Still nothing “Rachel I think the SPR’s might have him. Please at least answer me.”

Finally a small form came to the door. “Go away, you…you can’t be Ronny, she was shrunk. You would have had to be normal sized when you took the growth agent to get that huge. Your one of the SPRs” That last thought made her eyes widen again and she took a step back, retreating into the false security of her little home.

I took a deep breath, and released it. I needed to convince her that I was who I said I was and I needed to do it fast.

“Rachel, please ….. Ask me anything.”

Yes, I know, major stereotype but if it works, than it works.

“How do I know you haven’t just been spying on us? So you can get me to trust you and then kidnap us.” Well so much for that. How about some simple logic?

“Rachel, if I wanted to kidnap you I would have done it by now. I could tear down that house of yours and grab you. But I don’t want to do that because….. you’re my friend and I need your help.”

She came a few steps closer, out of the doorway and for the first time I got a good look at her. Rachel was tall, six foot seven, with read hair and jade green eyes. Dark bruises bloomed across her fair skin. Her dress, stained with blood, was torn in several places.

When I was six inches tall she had seemed like a living mountain. I mean she was more than a foot taller than Mike. I don’t know if she noticed but I flinched every time she picked me up. It was incomprehensible how something so huge could be so gentle. But after the initial shock, her hands were always soft and inviting.

She was intelligent, strong, well organised, and above all cautious. Which was what made her such a good safe house guard. And it made me wonder if someone hadn’t betrayed us.

“Did they take Howard?” I asked

“No, we got away, how bad is Mike?”

“I don’t know. But we have to get to him before the SPR does. Assuming they haven’t already.”

I placed my hand, palm up, on the ground, signalling for her to hop on. The now tiny Rachel hesitantly approached my hand. She stopped and looked up at me.

“I’m afraid Ronny.”

“I know. It will pass.” Rachel nodded and stepped into my hand. I closed my fingers over her tiny frame. I held her securely but not too tight and slowly stood up. I hated it when people grabbed me and then moved too fast. Made me giddy. Then finally we set off towards the hospital.

I carried Rachel through the streets securely in my closed fist. She had offered to guide me through, but it was quicker to simply cut across the blocks than to follow the road. Most of the houses were below three storeys and I stepped over them easily.

 

It didn’t seem she felt like talking. She was probably still getting over the shock of my size. Since she wasn’t giving me directions, we walked on in silence.

 

I could feel her little form shifting in my grip, trying to find a comfortable position. She felt so worm and soft there in my hand. I could have killed her just by accident, stepped on her or squeezed too hard, but she had come into my hand willingly. She trusted that I would protect her as she had once done for me. What can I say; it made me feel good inside.

 

I looked down at her little head sticking out of my closed fist. Not being able to move her head she looked straight in front. “Rachel, isn’t that uncomfortable?”

 

“Yes, could you open your hand please?”

 

“I don’t feel good about carrying you in my open hand, might drop you. But I have an idea.” I stopped by the side of the road and slowly opened my hand, turning it slightly so that when I finished she lay on her back looking up at me. “Just move up until your shoulders are out of my grip. You’ll feel much better with your arms free.” She did as I asked and I wrapped my long fingers back around her. Now free of my hand she stretched her arms and neck. “Well, feel better?”

 

She looked up, her head free now.

“Yes, thank you.”

 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have held you in a fist like that. So, where’s Howard?”

 

“He went with Sal back to SPRT HQ.” Salvador Frazio was another “familiar” in SPRT (Shrunken Person Rescue Team) like Mike. What that meant was that Mike and Sal had mounted a rescue of one shrunken town on their own, but were not yet trusted enough to become full members of the team. Which was fine by me. Mike and I had enough problems with Lyndon and his personal mob without having to worry about the global threat the SPR were responsible for.

 

“I came back to get some things. Oh, they’re probably still waiting at the train station. They’ll be worried sick.”

 

“It’s ok Rachel, you can ring them once we get to the hospital.” She nodded and relaxed her body into my hand. Leaning slightly over to one side, she sort of snuggled her little head against my thumb.

 

It was then that I realised that she probably hadn’t been to sleep yet. After Lyndon and his gang had run us off the road, the five of us had split up. That made it less likely that we’d all get captured. It also meant that the ones that got away could regroup and form a rescue attempt. Every one had escaped except Mike.

 

It was only four forty-seven in the morning. A cool breeze flowed around my body with the scent of fresh dew, causing goose-bumps to crawl up my arms and legs. It had been light for about thirty minutes now, but the sun hadn’t yet crept its way over the horizon. And the world was a tranquil wash of soft pastels, like everything was coming back to normal after having all of the colour sucked out of it.

 

I walked along the empty streets. A dog barked, and some early risers looked up, frozen in shock. Of course, the homeless people I had chased out of the slums still scampered about the place as well. I knew I was safe for at least another hour or so, until people started going to work. Then the shit would really hit the fan.

 

The hospital was an 8-story brick building, which would come up to just above my belly button. It had been built in the 1890s, and over the last century, instead of ripping it down and building a new hospital, the government had just built extension upon extension. Why build a whole new hospital if you can just “enhance” the old one? The result was a motley building that, despite the mismatched styles ranging from its Victorian core to the 1980s psychiatric ward, somehow managed to fit well together.

 

The core of the structure was the original Victorian red brick and sandstone. The original wooden front doors had been replaced with modern sliding glass. The large open verandas now had thick wire mesh glass separating the sick and injured from the healthy world. The east wing, which must have been added in the 1920s, had a defiant art deco feel to it. Its harsh angles, the small slits used for windows, and the stark stone finish made it feel cold and uninviting. Sinister even. Then there was the bland prefabricated 80’s style psychiatric ward. Sterile and devoid of any personality, it was a contrast to the rest of the building.

 

I bent down, very slowly, and opened my hand palm up on the ground. Rachel picked herself up and without a word started for the front door. As she approached the door she turned around and took one last look at me. The look on her tiny face said she was still trying to cement the reality of it all in her mind. A smile spread across her face.

 

“You do realize you’re completely naked.”

 

“I know, but there’s not much I can do about that right now is there?”

 

“I’ll ask about something inside” Ok, what did she mean by that? It’s not like they’d have some gigantic tunic out in the back in case a giant showed up on their doorstep.

 

Well, now I was feeling like a fifth wheel. There wasn’t much I could do until Rachel came back outside. Even then, if he was not in the hospital I had no idea where else to go. We could go back to SPRT HQ or I could go to the police. I knew I’d be confronting them sooner or later anyway.

 

I looked through one of the windows in the psych ward. They were reasonably large and I could see into the hall quite clearly. As I was staring into that lifeless sterilized hallway, a nurse came out from a padded room. For a moment she didn’t notice me. Suddenly her eyes flew wide open in terror, showing far too much white. Her body cringed in a scream silenced by the glass and distance between us. She sprinted down the hall, away from the monster.

 

Yep, she’s going to call the cops. I kind of felt sorry for her. She’s probably going to spend the next twenty minutes trying to convince them that she’s not crazy.

 

I stood back up from the small building, stretching my arms out to relieve the tension. I had to figure out a way to prove to the police that I wasn’t a threat, or at least didn’t mean to be. I know from experience that it is very hard for a giant (even a kind one) to appear non-threatening to a shrunken person. These people weren’t shrunk but the same rules applied.

 

They’d be frightened of me. Now, I’d frightened a lot of people this morning, but none of them had heavy duty fire power at their disposal. I’d heard that some SWAT units even had tanks. Dead centre between three major cities, the town was not huge, but held some importance as a major trading hub. More than one would-be-terrorist had come here to cut supply routes or gain access to the big cities by stowing away on a rig. I wasn’t sure what they’d have, but it would be substantial.

 

Ho god, what if they thought I was part of some plot? Paranoia is pretty rampant these days. I took in a deep breath and let it out. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. One of the major things that was so terrifying about giants was there height. Perhaps if I lay down and didn’t tower over them I wouldn’t seem so huge. It seemed like a good idea, but I guess time would tell.

 

The lawn in front of the hospital felt strange under my bare feet. When I put my foot down it gave way, leaving an imprint, but it didn’t spring back up like normal. I slowly lay down on the grass with my arms folded under my head. If I was going to be waiting awhile, then I might as well be comfortable. As I felt the soft earth contour to my body I looked up into the sky, which was only now beginning to get its blue back from the night.

 

“Ronny, Veronica!” I turned my head to look at my little friend. “He’s here.” “He’s here,” I repeated, sitting up abruptly. Suddenly it was like the world had been lifted off of my shoulders. I reached over to pick her up and she move away from me. It seemed all the sudden movement had startled her.

 

“I’m sorry Rachel. How bad is it?”

 

“It’s bad, Ronny. He’s in stable condition now, but they’re not certain if he’ll survive.” Rachel motioned toward the door. Beckoning with her hand for someone to come out. When whoever it was wouldn’t come out, she went back through the small door.

 

When her small form reappeared from the building, she was dragging another person in a white coat, probably one of the doctors who were treating Mike. Rachel was a large woman, tall and muscular, but the other woman was fighting for grim death. Digging her heals in, hitting franticly at Rachel. Desperately trying to escape the woman who was leading her to the monster outside her hospital. Finally I reached around and picked up the smaller woman between my thumb and forefinger.

 

She went ballistic, kicking, screaming and bashing her little fists on my hand. I shifted her to my other hand and tried closed my fingers around her, but she was wiggling so much it was hard to get a grip. I fought the urge to squeeze the fight out of her.

 

It was, after all, a pretty natural reaction she was having. Most people, when first confronted with a giant, do one of three things. They freeze, they run or they do whatever the monster wants. If she continued struggling like this I was liable to drop her. Given that even sitting down I was taller than the building, she would have fallen to her death.

 

Eventually I decided to pin her with my thumb. I slowly opened my hand, turning it up so she’d be on her back, all the while closing my thumb over her tiny midriff. Rachel looked up at me in shock.

“Don’t worry. I wont hurt her” I turned back to the little doctor struggling in my hand and put on my best comforting voice. “Shhh. Please. Don’t be scared, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want you to tell me about my boyfriend’s condition.”

 

She wouldn’t stop struggling. I took in a deep breath and let it out. I looked into those small eyes and waited. Waited for her strength to be exhausted, for her adrenaline to run out, for her to calm down. After a few minutes she finally fell limp in my hand. I slowly lowered her to the ground. As I let go, she doubled over and Rachel caught her fall. The little doctor managed to stand with the support of Rachel. She looked up at me with a mixed expression on her face. No one had gotten hurt, but I could tell she wasn’t quite satisfied with how I’d handled the situation.

“Do you feel better now?”

 

“y..ye…yes.” The Doc had a nice voice. Melodic, like it would be really good for singing. She was really short, less than five foot four I’d say. She had long black hair tied up into a neat ponytail, full lips and deep brown eyes which were still showing too much white.

“What’s your name doctor? And please speak up. I can hardly hear you from down there.”

“Mmm…my name’s Dr Ellen Lisheng”

 

“Well doctor Lisheng, could you please tell me what condition Michael Lake is in?”

Dr Lisheng stared up at me with her big doe eyes. Wiping the tears away, she responded. “Hi…. His two bottom ribs are broken, along with his left arm and leg and a fractured skull. He’s also got heavy bruising but we managed to stop the internal bleeding”

By the tone of her voice I could tell it was even worse than it sounded. My chest suddenly felt like it was being crushed in a vice. How could any one survive that? My throat became tight with the strain, tears began to well in my eyes and then, and then the memories came. The piercing crack of his bones snapping, the dull sound of cold brass ramming soft flesh and Mike’s tortured screams in the darkness. It was too much, I slumped over and the tears began to run down my face.

“Can I see him? Please?”

“I’m sorry ma’am, but there isn’t much more we can do with this kind of injury. We’ve patched him up, but now all we can do is keep him comfortable and hope he pulls through.” The good doctor seemed a lot more sympathetic towards me now. Perhaps it’s that I’m a grieving loved one; something she would have had more experience with than giant she-monsters.

“Please, I need to see him.”

Dr Lisheng seemed adamant about not letting me see Mike. Rachel grabbed her by the arm and pulled the doctor toward her, saying something in anger, but I couldn’t make out what. Finally the small woman agreed to lead me to my boyfriend. She directed me to one of the windows in the 80’s portion of the hospital, which she told me was not a psych ward alone. It was merely better known for that because of some colourful incidents that had gone on there.

 

The window looking into Mike’s room was on the fourth floor and I really had to bend down to see in. Looking through the tinted glass, I could see a figure with its left arm and leg in traction, tubes and wires going from the body to various machines. I couldn’t see his face but I knew it was Mike.

 

Rachel and Dr Lisheng came through the cloth dividers and stood by my little love. Rachel leaned over and opened the window, but it was the doctor who spoke first. “I don’t recommend you talk long. He needs his rest.”

 

I leaned my face close to the glass and tried to speak very softly. “Mike, Mike, it’s me Veronica”

 

“Rrrnnn….Ronny? Is that you? I can’t see. You got a way, sssafely?”

 

“I’m fine Mike. It’s you I’m worried about.”

 

“I’ll…. be ffffine, I just….. need some time to…… heal” A harsh phlegmy gag escaped his throat and he went into a coughing fit. I reached for him and Rachel shook her head and waved her hands in a cross. I froze in mid motion. My head felt heavy; with all this power I now had, I was completely powerless to help the one I loved most. I had only ever known Mike as a Giant. When times got tough he would wrap his big, strong fingers around me, cradle me against his wide chest, and tell me everything was going to be all right. Part of me wanted to reach in and do the same for him. But my rational mind knew that would kill him.

 

I broke down with fresh tears. Then in the distance, coming up fast: Sirens. The cops. Fuck!

 

I took in a deep breath and wiped the tears from my eyes. Behind me, I could hear the police cars screeching to a halt. I leaned into the window and tried to make my voice as low as possible. “Rachel, can you please meet me downstairs?” Rachel agreed and quickly disappeared back through the awful gray-green dividers that hospitals seem to like so much. Dr Lisheng closed the windows and followed closely behind.

 

I kept my eyes focused on the front door. Finally Rachel came out, puffing just a little from her run. “Rachel, I’m going to need you to talk to the cops. To tell them I’m not a monster.” Rachel nodded her head. “May I pick you up?” She hesitated a little then nodded again. I scooped her up into my palm and lifted her to chest height.

 

Turning to face the police, I saw a throng of little forms all lined up behind their cars like soldiers in a trench. At least twenty white cars, most of them smaller than my foot, were evenly spaced along the road leading to the hospital. They had formed a sort of blockade. Flashing red and blue lights danced across my view. It would have been pretty easy if I wanted to get past them, but the show was impressive all the same.

 

“Ronny? This is going to get out into the general public. They’ll probably try and make you talk about SPRT. This could be bad.” I looked down at my little friend in my palm.

“I know Rachel”

 

You might be wondering why the SPRT, if they are the good guys, haven’t already gone to the police or the feds. The answer is simple. Crooked SPR cops, or Dominants as they sometimes call themselves, are the ones who shrank most of the shrunken people.

 

Before my life went all “Twilight Zone” on me, I was a bum. That’s right, I was homeless. The company I worked for was one of the first to go under in the biggest depression my country had seen since the 1930’s. I wasn’t the only one. Unemployment was soaring, jobs were scarce and I was left working shifts at a diner while living out of my car.

 

It was Jason Anderson, one of Lyndon’s flunkies, who had first arrested me on the charge of vagrancy. He’d arrested some of the other locals before. Some of them came back; I was one who found out what happened to those that didn’t.

 

It wasn’t just the underlings, either. Judges, politicians, actors, actresses, businessmen and women -- it seemed it had become in vogue to own your own personal village of little people.

 

It was like the new age slave trade. I remember when I was “borrowed” from the club by one of it’s members. She took me to what they called a meat market. She’d wanted me to pick out a shrunken man as a reward for being good. She, in turn, would get her own reward for donating a SM to the club’s collection.

 

I was tagged with a plastic collar to indicate I was not for sale, and set loose in a huge glass display case filled with shrunken people. I remember walking through that crowd of six-inch people. Those who were recently shrunk glared at me with the fury of a person who was wrongfully imprisoned. You could tell them from the ones who were being resold. Even if their bodies weren’t mangled or scarred, you could see the light had gone from their eyes.

 

So you see, the problem was far more widespread than any normal person would think. Provided by the Mafia, and hidden by the world’s rich. Yes, if I was forced to reveal the whereabouts of SPRT HQ, a lot of little people could be in a lot of big trouble.

 

I crossed my legs on the hill, scanning the row of police. There were a lot of different kinds: Fat, skinny, uniforms, plain-clothes. But they all had the same harsh look on their faces and they all had their weapons trained on the monster. Me. It didn’t look like any of them had weapons that could really hurt me. Pistol, pistol, shotgun, pistol, rifle, bazooka, pistol…Bazooka! I shook my head, closed my eyes in disbelief. No, it was still there when I opened them again.

 

I’d seen film clips of those things being used on tanks. The rocket popped out of the tube, ignited it’s fuel and a second later a tank was turned into scrap metal. Ok, at my size I could probably handle the small arms fire, but I don’t think my flesh could withstand the same amount of damage as twelve-inch-thick steel. Quickly searching the crowd of cops, I found four more two-man bazooka teams. There were two more in the blockade, and two on the rooftops of buildings opposite the Hospital. It looked like they had me covered pretty well.

 

It seemed like we sat there looking at each other for ages. An uncomfortable silence built up until it started to feel like a weight on your shoulders. I guess they really didn’t know what to do with me. Hell, I didn’t know what to do with me.

 

Finally a husky, distorted voice cut through the silence.

 

“This is Sargent Scorder. Put down the hostage and place your hands over you head.” I smiled down at my “hostage,” who in turn looked up at me. I brought her up closer to my mouth and whispered “Try not to make me sound like too much of an ass, ok.” That earned me a little smile.

“Ma’am if you…. eat her, we will be forced to open fire.”

 

The loudspeaker drew my attention to a small, extremely thin man in the centre of the blockade. I couldn’t make out his face from here, but he had black hair, and was dressed in a plain white shirt and black pants, which looked like they were three sizes too big for him. A few other people milled around in his general vicinity. Some had mobile phones, and others were shuffling papers about. Guess they were in charge. It seemed like a reasonable request, so I did as he asked. “I’m just here to check up on my boyfriend, he’s hurt.”

 

I placed Rachel on the ground by my foot, and she immediately raced down toward the man with the loudspeaker. One of the ambulance officers moved up to catch her and cart her off to the van. As she approached, using her momentum, she brought her knee up, connecting solidly with his groin. The poor guy crumpled over like a cheap paper cup as Rachel continued on her mission to try and convince the cops not to blow me away.

 

She reached Sargent Scorder, who was clearly not impressed with what she’d done with one of his men, and started talking to him. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but from the gestures I could tell that the argument was getting pretty heated. I placed my hands over my head and tried not to look menacing. Now it was time for me to play the waiting game some more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d given up my hostage without harming her, I had surrendered and they had me well covered. Normally, this would be the part where the cops would get me down on the ground, cuff me and cart me off. Unfortunately I was 70 feet tall, and to attempt what I just described would seem pretty pathetic even to them. So, for the next half-hour the small Sargent Scorder juggled between talking to Rachel and to whoever was on the other end of his car phone. Finally he picked up the loudspeaker to talk to me again.

 

“Miss, we have arranged for you to go to an abandoned warehouse until we can decide what to do with you. You’ll follow the cars, and go only where we go.”

 

I nodded my head. “Lead the way, I will follow.” Rachel grabbed the microphone from Scorder “I asked at the hospital. They said you could use some of their emergency tents as clothing.”

 

It sounded good to me. With the wind starting to pick up, I was beginning to get a bit chilly. Rachel went into the hospital, and when she returned, about eight orderlies were carrying three large, off-white pieces of canvas.

 

I watched with some amusement as Rachel directed the orderlies to tie the two small tents together into something that was to be a makeshift bra. She made sure they tied each end with three ropes so it could withstand my… Umm, Jiggle. It wasn’t for support though; it was just to cover up. The other tent was bigger, and I wrapped it around my self like a sort of nappy. When the little people were finished with my “top” I slipped it over my head and moved myself into it. It was really strange. These tents were about the size of a small carport, and right now all they had in them were my humongous breasts.

 

It started to give me some perspective of just how big I really was. A car was smaller than my foot, my breasts were the size of carports and my best friend was only a little taller than my middle finger. God, I must have looked like a skyscraper of flesh when I stood!

 

The cop cars lined themselves up, one on either side, leaving a space in the middle of the road for me to walk. Looking about again, I noticed some of the rocket launcher teams were gone -- probably to the site where I was to stay. Very cautious, I was impressed.

 

The police escort seemed to move very slowly from my perspective. I walked between the cars one foot over the other, being careful not to step on any of the little vehicles at my feet. I have to say that I now know why it was expressly forbidden for members of SPRT to enter “the sanctuary”. It was basically a huge (even for normal people) warehouse, which served as a whole shrunken world. We had farms, towns, lakes, mountains, forests, gun turrets, power plants, everything in there. And none of the people who rescued us ever got to see inside. There was an area where the giants and shrunken people were allowed to interact, but most of the communications between SP and GNTs were done over the two-way-radio.

 

As I walked across town people gaped up in awe at me. I had to fight the urge to stop, pick them up and take them with me, be close to them and feel their warm, soft little bodies in my hands. I wanted to talk to them, play with them. I wanted them to be my pets. It was like seeing a little puppy for the first time, not sexual but comforting. It was then that I realized that I had held Rachel every chance I got. She was my friend, and I’d wanted her to be my pet. At least on a subconscious level. I’d have to be careful of that.

 

Finally, we got to an abandoned portion of the industrial district where there were several disused buildings. Four old warehouses, a big concrete slab where a steel plant used to be and an old coal power plant that looked like it hadn’t been in use since the 1940s. From my perspective, the area was about twelve feet square. I examined one of the warehouses. They all looked pretty much the same. It came up to my crotch when I stood, which meant that if I had to take shelter inside, it’d be pretty cramped. Almost like a tin coffin, really. The roof was an orange patchwork of corrugated iron in various states of decay. Some that obviously hadn’t been replaced since its construction were rusted all the way through. I suppose that could be fixed with a canvas.

 

I put my hand on the roof and gave it a good shake. Never mind the leaking, I didn’t want it collapsing on me in a thunderstorm. The building gave a high-pitched squeal and shook violently under my hand. Quickly I put up my hands, but the momentum was too much for it to stand. The steel structure, peppered with rust, undermined by poor construction and decades of decay, gave one last elongated groan as it came crashing down in a pile of twisted metal and dust.

 

The good Sargent wailed over the loudspeaker “What the hell are you doing?”

 

I put up my hands. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t want the damn thing collapsing on me while I was in there.” The little cop held the side of his head as if fighting an oncoming migraine.

 

“All right Miss Etherglaid, we’ve got five RPG’s trained on you and 10 extremely twitchy officers manning them, so next time you feel like demolishing one of the city’s buildings could you at least give us some warning.”

 

Shit, that was the second building I demolished today. Well, at least no one was living in this one. The next building, under closer inspection, had a lot more concrete employed in its construction. This time I just gave it a little nudge with my finger. It didn’t move, so I applied a little more pressure using my palm this time. I could feel the tension in the building begin to increase. Windows cracked. Steel beams moaned in protest as the building began to give. After about thirty seconds I could feel the structure was ready to collapse. Just one more little nudge was all it needed. Slowly I eased back from the building. I could crush it if I wonted to but I’d have to use some strength to do it. It didn’t feel flimsy like the other one had. Looked like this one was going to be where I was sleeping for a while

 

“Ronny, Ronny!” I looked down by my foot where Rachel was standing. I picked her up from the ground, very slowly and deliberately. Didn’t want any of those itchy trigger fingers to go off.

 

“So I guess you’ll be off to… Umm…spurt”

 

“You don’t need to whisper Ronny. They can hear you anyway, and yes I have to report back. See what we can do about your situation.” She looked down, pausing for a moment. “Ronny, if we can’t do something about this….” A smile crept across her face. “I’ll have to teach you how to be a giantess. It’s not that easy, you know. Not to be a gentle one at least.”

 

Sargent Scorder told me I could demolish anything in this area if I wanted or needed to, and that the men with the bazookas would be watching to be sure I didn’t make any moves to escape.

 

Rachel, the only person in the world who trusted me (and wasn’t standing this side of the river Styx), had gone to the shrunken person rescue team. This left me in a drafty, rundown warehouse under the tender care of police chief scarecrow and his merry band of bazooka-wielding sociopaths.

 

Now compound the situation with the growing disturbances going on around the perimeter. Reporters trying to get the story of they’re careers and perverts just trying to get a look at my breasts? But the ones that really frightened me were the religious groups. I couldn’t read what their placards said. Maybe I just didn’t want to.

 

I’d read in books and seen in movies the kind of things that the church and its followers used to get away with. I’d never seen the aftermath of a clan murder, but I do know a little bit about fanaticism. I was only with the “Dominants” for a year, but it was enough to last a lifetime.

 

The sun was going down. Dark clouds were threatening rain, so I crawled into my shelter and tried to sleep. I lay bareback on the concrete floor of the warehouse. It gave a little under my weight, but not much. The place reeked of mould and dust but when the rain came I thanked God, if indeed there was one, that the roof didn’t leak. I rolled onto my side and slowly drifted into an uneasy slumber.

 

The sky was pitch black, but I could see everything in front of me like it was midday. I was in the middle of the street and I was back to normal size. Had everything else been some sort of nightmare brought on by the growth drugs? My over-growth, Mike in intensive care, the cops? Off in the distance I could hear footsteps running towards me. I slowly turned around, my body still stiff and numb from the drugs. And when the world stopped spinning I could see who was piss-bolting toward me. It was Mike!

 

I felt the adrenaline rush over me like a wave and suddenly I felt like I could take on the world. I broke into a sprint. I was sore, naked and the coarse surface of the road bit into my bare feet, but nothing was going to stop me.

 

As I got closer he began waving his arms, shouting. “Veronica, get out of here, RUN!”

As we ran into each other, he grabbed me by the shoulders. His eyes were wide with fear, breath whizzing with exhaustion.

 

Then, like distant, slow rhythmic thunder, a giant’s foot falls. Suddenly a gigantic female foot comes into view from a side street to the left, followed briskly by its twin. Mike and I stood there frozen in the middle of the deserted street.

 

My vision traced up the huge form in front of us. The two huge feet were attached to legs that wobbled from side to side, knees bent inwards, as if the mass above was trying to knock them over. My gaze continued, up its thighs, it’s crotch, but as my eyes came upon what lay above the midriff, I screamed.

 

Halfway up the midriff, the flesh of this creature began to fester and blacken, and where a human torso should have been was instead a horrid mass of writhing tentacles and bone spikes.

 

The main body was a vaguely human torso covered in large thick plates of black shiny bone, which scraped together as they struggled to stay balanced. They made a sound like knuckles cracking only much deeper. Out of it’s chest and left shoulder there was a cluster of three bone spikes. I’d call them tusks, but that would indicate that there was some kind of organization to the thing’s anatomy.

 

There was no head, but at a slight dip where the neck should have been I could see the sides of a huge mouth, drooling saliva and fitted with jagged teeth. Replacing its left arm was a swarm of tentacles covered in black sludge. They wriggled violently up and down, splattering the rancid black goo as they did so. Last, but definitely not least, was its putrid eye. Swollen, surrounded by welts and dripping with puss, it occupied the spot of the right arm.

 

The abomination gave a high-pitched wail and began staggering toward us. Each heavy step shook the ground like an aftershock. Its progress was slow, but I knew it would catch us. We had speed, but it could close the distance in only a few strides. We ran anyway. The little people always run.

 

We ran side by side, the creature’s enormous feet hot on our heels. Mike began to slow his pace. He was exhausted when I first spotted him, and now he was spent. He collapsed in a breathless heap on the road. I stopped and knelt beside him.

“Ronny…….go..”

“I won’t be able to escape Mike.”

“Ronny…you…could hide.”

“Where Mike? In one of these flimsy houses? No. Once a giant focuses their desires on you there’s no escape. You’d need something like an underground bomb shelter to hide from that thing.”

 

Suddenly a huge shadow came over us. Just what the fuck is that thing? It brought its shoulder back as if to throw a punch. Then the tentacles darted out with lightning speed entangling us both. Mike beat at the thing with what little strength he had left, but it was no use. We sailed into the air as it straightened its back. Mike pulled out a knife and began madly slashing at the black tentacles that entangled him, and the beast screeched in fury.

 

All I could do was watch. The vile thing caught his arm with two tentacles and began to twist. Mike’s screams filled the air as his muscles stretched and bulged under the pressure of the monstrous limbs, straining to stay coherent until they could bear it no longer. With an explosion of blood his arm tore open. The flesh hung ragged, beryl clinging to the bone, but the beast didn’t stop there. It continued to twist, the bone cracking like a brittle twig.

 

The vile thing took the rest of Mike’s limbs in much the same way, slowly twisting them off one by one as I watched. Then, as we lay there suspended by the tentacles, Mike’s body nothing but a torso with a head, it began to move us closer to the mouth. Somehow I knew this was coming. It opened its mouth and, along with the putrid smell, out came a dreadfully familiar sound. A cackling laugh, like a razor wire through the centre of your spine. That was Lyndon’s laugh. The monster had Lyndon’s fucking laugh!

 

The slimy tentacles started to become very hot. The slime turned to steam, sticking to my throat and burning my lungs.

 

My eyes flew open and a choked scream escaped my throat, followed by a deep phlegmy cough. The monster had been a dream, but the warehouse was burning down around me. The burning sensation on my stomach was a small piece of tin roof. The place was an orange haze of fire and smoke. Flames licked at the top of the roof, eating away at the supports, threatening to bring the whole thing down.

 

I panicked, franticly hitting at the walls, making the structure bend and sway, trying to get out. But that just made more pieces of hot tin fall to the ground. There it was, another hideous laugh echoed through the burning walls. That fucker had destroyed my life, raped me, nearly killed my lover, and now he was trying to burn me alive!

 

“Lyndon, you worthless dead shit! Haven’t you done enough?”

 

I had gone into the warehouse headfirst, which made it hard to get out since I couldn’t sit up without the roof collapsing. Guess I just didn’t think I’d have to be escaping a fire set by maniac nazis.

 

I began wiggling on my back slowly toward the door. My feet hit the Rolla door and I kicked with all my leverage. Once, twice, pop, the whole front wall collapsed and I was free to make my exit. I inched, or rather metered, my way out of the building, coughing all the way.

 

I managed to get to my feet just in time to see Lyndon and his crew speed off in his van. As I watched him disappear into the distance I saw two police cars had decided to give chase. It improved my respect for the cops that were “protecting” me. I knew that me being here was more for the public’s safety than my own, but someone had just tried to kill me for no good reason, and they were still taking their job seriously. I guess I assumed they’d be happy to see the “monster” burn alive.

 

Unfortunately, a moment later these thoughts of admiration were overwhelmed by the sudden urge to vomit. I ran over to the abandoned power plant, which was missing its roof, and pulled back my hair. I hadn’t eaten today, and since the food from yesterday clearly hadn’t grown with me all that came out was a gurgling cough and a little fluid.

 

I collapsed to the ground in a wheezing heap. The rain helped. I pulled off the burnt top and nappy to lay naked in the rain. The cool water pelted my skin and rushed down my body washing away the tension. Off in the distance I could hear the wail of fire trucks. It was about time. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, the concrete was hard but I was exhausted. I’d deal with the cops tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, I had put my makeshift cloths back on. I felt like crap; my head hurt, I had second-degree burns on my stomach, left shoulder and forehead, witch I couldn’t get tended to because the medics were all too frightened to be close to me. And to top it all off I was sore all over from sleeping on wet concrete.

 

The fire fighters had managed to douse the burning building but by the time I awoke the place I was to sleep in had collapsed into an unrecognisable heap of rock and twisted steel. Sargent Scorder was there on his loudspeaker again and neither of us was in a good mood.

 

“Do you know who attacked you last night?” There wasn’t any accusation in his voice. From his point of view, it could have been just a band of loonies with no connection to me. But they weren’t, they were my arch-nemeses, and I wasn’t sure if I could trust Scorder or his people. I took a deep breath.

“Sargent Scorder, I did know those men.”

“Go, on.”

I related a much-altered version of what had happened between Lyndon, Mike and myself. I think I was giving the poor guy another migraine.

 

“I need a phone.” A pretty tall order at my size. Scorder answered with some amazement in his voice.

“What the hell are you going to do with a phone? Who are you going to call?”

“I can’t tell you, not yet. It’s not something I can disclose without permission. And you’ll need to rig something up so I can hear the person on the other end.”

“I don’t think we can do that, Miss Etherglade.”

“Sargent, am I under arrest? And even if I am, can I please make a call to my friend.” I stared down at the tiny form, seemingly a few feet away, and it seemed to make him nervous. Perhaps it wasn’t a good move considering the five bazookas, which were trained on me.

“Alright Miss Etherglade, I’ll see what I can do.” With that Scorder drove off in his car, leaving me to sit and wait some more. Man this place is boring.

 

An hour later, Scorder came back with a set of amps that was jerry-rigged to a mobile phone. I was to put the amp up to my ear and talk into the handset (Which, by the way, was encased in a large Styrofoam block, so it didn’t look like a grain of sand but rather a tiny chunk of Styrofoam with a piece of sand in it). I told Scorder the number and waited while the uniform placed it in the centre of my quarantine zone.

 

By the time I had picked up the tiny thing Rachel had already answered.

“Rachel it’s me Ronny.”

“Ronny, how…”

“It’s not important Rachel. What’s important is, I want to tell about what has been going on.”

“Ronny, we’ve talked about this. If you tell them about this war, then they’ll want to know where we are. And if they find out, then the crocked officials find out. And then we’re sunk.” That last word had an ominous tone emphasising her point. Did I mention she was cautious?

“Fine. I won’t tell them about that.”

“Do you trust this guy?” Did I trust him? I really didn’t know. He seemed to be doing his job. He’d had the gang that torched the warehouse arrested. He’d cordoned me off instead of just blowing me away. So I suppose the answer was yes, I did, but not totally.

 

You see, what I told you about the cops was not exactly true. They had kidnapped and shrunk me, but they were a minority. Most of the people who disappear into the shrunken world have stories similar to mine. However, most of the cops involved are actually impostors who are hired by people with enough money to have databases hacked, records falsified and are shielded by higher-ups. Like politicians or judges.

 

Most real cops wouldn’t even think about taking a bribe. I was unfortunate enough to have been taken by some who did. Guess it just burned me.

 

“I do Rachel. People need to know and I need to tell them.”

“We don’t even know how far up it goes, or how far spread.”

“From what I understand, it seems all the rich people the world over are in on it.”

“I trust you Veronica. I suppose it would have come out anyway. Have you had to deal with the press yet?”

“Thank God no. The good Sargent has been keeping them at bay.”

We said our goodbyes and Rachel hang up.

 

I put down the tiny device and turned to the line of police at the end of the area. I took a deep breath in through my mouth and slowly let it out through my nose.

 

“Sargent, did you catch those men who tried to cremate me last night?”

“Some. Are you going to tell me how you know them?”

“Did you catch a man named Zachary Lyndon?”

“Yes.”

“That man is a kidnapper, a rapist and a murderer!”

 

Scorder listened while I laid it all down, the rape, the maiming and the slighter. When I was finished the good Sergeant looked just a little bit paler.

 

 

 

“And you expect me to believe that all this has been going on under our noses for years?” It did seem pretty unreal, even to me and I was the one who lived through it.

 

 

 

“But it is real, Sergeant, and I have the scars to prove it.” That stopped his questioning dead in its tracks. Even from this distance I could see his thin frame suddenly become rigid with tension.

 

 

 

Now my scars weren’t like Quasimodo's or anything, but I did have a lot of them. And sitting there, seventy feet tall, dressed in what amounted to a half burnt bikini, they were painfully obvious. Lyndon caused most of them in a single night and it had taken months for me to completely recover.

 

 

 

“I’m afraid I can’t just take your word on that, Miss Etherglade. I need corroboration before I go accusing every politician in the country of molestation. Tell me where this 'Shrunken Person Rescue Team' is so I can see for myself,” Sergeant Scorder said.

 

 

 

“I told you already, I can't do that.” I took in a deep cleansing breath and let it out slowly.

 

 

 

“Sargent, It’s not you we have to worry about. Probably not even your chief but the mayor, the local business men, may by even the DA. We're sure there aren't as many beat cops involved as we originally thought, but you never know.” I wondered if I should tell him there were thugs going around posing as cops. Hmm… maybe later.

 

 

 

“So why tell me anything at all?”

 

 

 

“I haven’t told you anything the Dominants don’t already know. But if you want proof, you can find it at a little house on Lyndhurst hill.” The mansion had been one of the old haunts of a particularly infamous character named Robert Brink a logger baron from the 1930’s. He was in fact known as the guy who had his house build entirely for free during the depression. He’d hire workers on Monday, have them payed Friday afternoon and then fire them Friday morning. Back then every one was so desperate for work no one would listen to the talk of his scheme. And yes this has been going on that long.

 

 

 

“And what will I find there, Miss Etherglade?”

 

 

 

“Blood. They’ve probably cleaned out the whole place but blood doesn’t wash away that easy. And you’d better hurry or you might find it burnt to the ground before you get there.”

 

 

 

The good Sergeant once again held his head, preparing for an incoming headache. He seemed to be having a lot of them lately.

 

 

 

“Oh and Sergeant, can you please get me some food?”

 

 

 

“I’ll see what I can do.” Sergeant Scorder hung up his loud speaker and got back into his car.

 

 

 

The next few weeks were particularly boring compared to my first few days, which really was a nice change of pace. Scorder managed to get me one decent meal a day, which probably cost several grand per serving. A few days after the warehouse burnt down, I was even given a tent to live in.

 

 

 

The tent was even smaller than the warehouse to me and it felt as thin as silk in my hand but it had a floor and was waterproof. There I waited for three weeks, until Sergeant Scorder finally emerged with the denials of just about every one of the higher ups, which was to be expected.

 

 

 

However, he did come back with evidence that corroborated my story. In the basement of the old mansion he’d found the walls and floor covered with patches of blood. It had all been scrubbed clean, but black lights will make plasma residue glow for years after the blood is spilled. Of cource they didn’t know that back in the 30’s. Out of that mess they managed to scrape out a few samples. They were all different blood types and they were all human.

 

 

 

Time went by pretty slowly. Having a whole lot of nothing to do I slept most of the day. Ever since the first morning I came here the newspeople had been hounding the police barrier to interview me. The good Sergeant said I was entitled to talk to the press but advised agents it.

 

 

 

I was worried about Mike. I hadn’t spoken to him or heard from him in such a long time. With little else to occupy it, my mind swam with questions. Had he seen me in chopper fly-bys on the news? When I talked to him at the hospital he couldn’t see, was eh blind? Why hadn’t he tried to contact me? Had there been some complications? Had he died? Or was he avoiding me because I was now a hulking monstrosity?

 

 

 

By the end of the third week of agonising boredom I finally got Scorder to ask if the news reporters were still interested and, much to my surprise, they were. And before he left I asked if he could find out how Mike was.

 

 

 

I half expected him to tell me to go to hell, that he wasn’t a messenger boy for a giant. But he just nodded and started walking toward the barriers. Over the past few weeks he’d been rather understanding. He’d set up a projection TV, gotten me a pile of mattresses that I used as a pillow and other little things to make my life a little easier. It had been a long time since I’d met a reasonable man who wasn’t part of SPRT. Maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right places.

 

 

 

Looking over at the crowd of reporters, I could see they were all pushing frantically at the barrier, all very eager to get the scoop of the year, if not the decade. Finally Sergeant Scorder chose one of them to let through the gate. The little man was dressed in the standard black jacket, long black pants, tie and white shirt popular among members of his profession. He motioned for his camerawoman, a tall delicate thing with short brown hair, wearing a flannelette shirt, blue jeans and a cap.

 

 

 

They jogged over to the line of police cars where Sergeant Scorder handed the reporter his loudspeaker mike.

 

 

 

“Umm… I’d like to do the interview in person.” I said. Scorder took the mike back.

 

 

 

“This is in person,” the reporter seemed to disagree. He and Scorder traded heated words for a few more minutes until Scorder’s voice finally came over the speaker agen.

 

 

 

“All right, Ms. Etherglade, he’s waived his right to a liability suit. He’s coming through.” Poor Scorder, no one seemed to be listening. It would have been safer for him to insist the reporter stay there. Can’t have accidents if you don’t put yourself in hazardous situations.

 

 

 

The reporter wanted to get the “headline” shots, but I wanted some company. It’s like the difference between talking to someone on the phone and having them right there, with you, in the room. I was getting lonely in the absence of human presence. It felt good to have someone to talk to, even if they were there just to fire questions at me.

 

 

 

The little news crew jogged up to me with no doubt or fear that I would hurt them. I kneeled down in front of them as they approached my tent. Slowing to a walk they gaped up in awe at my size, eyes wide, mouths open in silence. It made me smile.

 

 

 

“Hmm… hello. My name is Jonathan Holloway and this is my camerawoman Jena Mcbride.”

 

 

 

“I’m pleased to meet you. May I pick you up?”

 

 

 

“Excuse me?”

 

 

 

“May I hold you in my hand for the interview?” He stopped, shocked by the suggestion. It seemed he was brave enough to get this close, but not to be touched.

 

 

 

“I don’t think that would be a very good idea, Ms. Etherglade.”

 

 

 

“But I can hardly hear you down there. Come on, I promise to be gentle, and I have had practice. I’m sure you’ve seen the footage of me holding Rachel at the hospital.” He thought about that for a second, then finally agreed.

 

 

 

I laid my hand palm up on the ground and asked Holloway to lie down, head toward my thumb. Cocking his head to one side, a slight look of confusion spread over his face, but he did it anyway. When he was laying flat on my palm I asked the camerawoman to do the same.

 

 

 

“Don’t be afraid, I’m going to close my fingers over you. Oh, and hands over your head.” I slowly closed my fists over the two people in my palms. I could see the anxiety growing in their expressions as fingers longer and thicker than their legs closed around them. I could feel their little bodies flinch with the expectation of pain. But there was none. As their subconscious began to realise I wasn’t going to crush them they relaxed in my grip.

 

 

 

Righting them in my fists I slowly raised myself until I was standing. I hated it when giants just get up when they’re holding you. The speed makes you giddy.

 

 

 

Mr Holloway stretched his arm out.

 

 

 

“Now I see why you asked us to put our hands up. Shall we begin, Jen?” Ms Mcbride nodded and positioned the camera on her shoulder.

 

 

 

“Ms. Ether glade, are you ready?”

 

 

 

“Sure.”

 

 

 

Mcbride aimed the camera at the handheld reporter as he spoke.

 

 

 

“Good evening. I’m here at the old Gladstone munitions and steel refinery, which has been home to a most special visitor for the past few weeks. Some of you might remember one morning a few weeks back when a giant woman walked down Main Street. She has recently agreed to an interview and now I am being held in the palm of her hand!” Jan fiddled with the camera lens, then panned up to me.

 

 

 

Ms. Etherlade, I assume you weren't always this large. Tell us, how tall were you before you grew?

 

 

 

I could feel a huge smile growing on my face as I answered. “I was six inches tall.”

 

 

 

“You mean, you felt six inches tall?”

 

 

 

“No, I was six inches tall. The growth agent was made to cure the condition I had. When they administered it they failed to account for my increased metabolism and I grew too much.”

 

 

 

“That’s amazing! Ms. Etherglade, were you born with this condition or did you catch it somehow?" A pause. "Ms Etherglade?”

 

 

 

First there was a wave of cold. My breath quickened, the temperature seemed to plummet, and it became harder and harder to breathe. My chest felt like it had turned to flypaper. As I breathed out my sides seemed to stick together.

 

 

 

The reporter in my hand suddenly looked very frightened. Whether he was frightened of me or what was happening I didn’t know.

 

 

 

“Mm… Ms. Etherglade, are you all right?”

 

 

 

Shaking my head I closed my fist over the little guy and began to lower to my knees. The fight to pull my lungs open was sapping my strength away and I couldn’t stand any more. I opened my palm to the ground and the little journalist made a run for the police blockade.

 

 

 

Then it hit me like jab in the gut. A sharp searing pain deep in my belly like my stomach was being hollowed out with a dull blade. I doubled over, trying to shriek with pain but all that came out was a silky gurgling sound. Grabbing my midriff I could almost feel the flesh just under the skin churning inside me. My head spun with oxygen deprivation, white spots began dance over my vision while it blurred at the edges. I wanted to lapse into unconsciousness, to let the white nothingness engulf me. But the pain and the cold were too intense.

 

 

 

Somewhere in the background I could vaguely hear Scorder yelling over his loudspeaker. The pain deepened as the white blotches closed in on my sight. When the world was completely obscured, all went dark and I was lost to the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All was black. My mind drifted in a sea of blissful nothingness. Then somewhere in the distance, voices. Wordless chattering I couldn’t make out through the blackness and space. As the voices drew nearer a dull, slow pain began to roll into my world. I didn’t want to go back to light, back to the pain. I wanted to stay here where it was safe and warm.

 

 

 

But the voices grew louder and as the black slowly peeled away I began to recognise words amongst the noise.

 

 

 

“Scorder!……Sc..d.r….sh….ean poison..”

 

 

 

My eyes flew open at the recognition of that signal word. Poison! I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. I was tied down with heavy chains. Everyone was screaming, my head felt like it was split in two and I’d pay big money if they’d all just shut up.

 

 

 

“Ms Etherglade pleas stop struggling.” It was Sergeant Scorder.

 

 

 

“What the fuck is going on Scorder? What happened to me? Why am I tied up?”

 

 

 

“You’re tied up because there are very anxious but very dedicated medics tending to you who don’t want to be crushed if you have another segue. Now please try to relax.”

 

 

 

I took a deep breath in through my mouth and let it out my nose. I thought it might hurt to breathe but fortunately it didn’t. I turned my head to look at the little Sergeant that had been looking after me all this time. I was surprised to see him standing right there and for the first time I had a good look at him.

 

 

 

He was a relatively attractive man despite his painfully thin frame. He was practically skin and bones. His black curly hair jutted out to the sides like small furry pyramids. But what really drew your my attention to his face were his eyes, a stunning cobalt blue that seemed to shimmer against the pale white of his skin. Set deep into his skull, it seemed as though they could look straight through you. I bet he used those eyes on people in the interrogation room.

 

 

 

“I’m sorry, what happened?”

 

 

 

Scorder nodded and continued. “Someone poisoned your food with cyanide a week ago. It’s been touch and go since then.” He paused for a moment “You’re lucky you’re not dead.”

 

 

 

“I can’t stay here, Sergeant Scorder.”

 

 

 

“That has become painfully obvious, Ms. Etherglade.” He looked down and breathed a deep sigh.

 

 

 

“I suppose I could turn you in to the military, but I don’t want to do that. They’ve been hounding me about forking you over for a while now. ”

 

 

 

“I suppose they're blurting out some bullshit about national security?”

 

 

 

“You could say that. They have a lot more funding at their disposal then we do. What really gets me is the way they came in, ordering me and my people around and just expecting us to hand you over like they own the joint”

 

 

 

“I’m not going to let the army get their filthy hands on me, Scorder. Do you understand? If they do, they’ll kill me.”

 

 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

 

 

“Haven’t you learned anything yet, Scorder? The Dominants are everywhere. And even if they're not I’m not going to let them turn me in to their latest weapons development program. I’m not even the one who’s done something wrong.”

 

 

 

“I understand, Ms. Etherglade, but I hope you realize if the mayor caves on me I won’t have any choice.”

 

 

 

“I’m not going with the army and I’m not staying here. And you can’t keep me here; I haven’t done anything wrong!”

 

 

 

“I can’t just let you waltz about town, Ms. Etherglade. I can keep you confined just as I can keep someone with a deadly virus confined. You’re a potential public health hazard.” His words were harsh but his tone was sympathetic. I could see his point; without meaning to I had already destroyed probably over a hundred homes (if you could call them that). Not to mention the warehouse I inadvertently demolished. No one had been killed yet, but if you keep tempting fate, eventually you’ll lose.

 

 

 

I took a deep breath in and let it out. If there’s one thing Rachel taught me while Mike and I were staying with her it was that a giantess has to control herself whenever she’s around “little people.” Otherwise accidents happen and people die.

 

 

 

“Scorder, can you please get these chains off? I promes to be good.”

 

 

 

Scorder looked to one of the medics and just shook his head. “When the medics are finished looking you over well undo the chains.”

 

 

 

Well, that was Mr. Cautious for you.

 

 

 

The medics ran a few more tests and took a few more hours to make sure I was ok. Apparently they’d been doing that periodically over the last week. They weren’t quite sure what to do with me. I was far too big for them to use any of their equipment, and the only treatment for cyanide poisoning was a preventative. So their visits were mostly to try and determine why I wasn’t dead. The medic I talked to was a bit insensitive, but at least he was honest.

 

 

 

They finished up and a small group of men came to unchain me. I’m not sure what they expected, but they came in decked out in full SWAT uniform and hightailed it out of my tent as soon as my bonds were loose.

 

What a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day I didn’t wake until noon, but when I did I felt like a million bucks. The soreness was gone and in its place was a new strength. My lungs felt so… open. I don’t know any other way to describe it, but suddenly it felt much easier to breathe.

 

 

 

I took a few deep breaths in, trying to calm myself. I mean, it wasn't like I could do anything with so much energy. After a few minutes of trying to compose myself I finally emerged for yet another blisteringly boring day.

 

 

 

I was shocked at what I found. The police blockade was gone and so were the barriers cordoning off the street. Looking around, I could see the bazooka teams had been replaced by choppers carrying bazooka teams, all fully powered up and ready to take off. I guess Scorder had found a new place to hide me away.

 

 

 

In the middle of the street, where it had been all this time, was a single squad car with two men standing on either side of it. The one on the left, with his trusty loudspeaker, I recognised as Sergeant Scorder. The other man was a bit shorter and built a bit better. He had a steel cane in one arm and a cast on the other. He seemed familiar somehow.

 

 

 

“Mike!” My muscles suddenly felt like steel springs, straining against my will, wanting to propel me toward this tiny fragile creature who somehow managed to hold all my affection. I was suddenly aware of my heart pounding in my chest.

 

 

 

I collapsed to the ground knowing that if I remained standing I wouldn’t be able to help myself. I couldn’t just run up and scoop him into my hand. I might hurt him. So I kneeled there, breathing heavily, my heart jumping up into my throat, hands outstretched, beckoning him to come to me. I didn’t yet trust myself to go to him.

 

 

 

He started hobbling toward me. If I weren’t one of the people involved I would have found it funny. It was pretty obvious he wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him. He was just so goddam slow, it brought a big smile to my face.

 

 

 

He finally reached the space between my knees. We looked at one another for a long moment. In his eyes I could see the tiniest bit of fear. I should have been expecting it but I hadn’t. It forced me back to reality, back to a place I didn’t want to go.

 

 

 

When I was small I was afraid of Mike. I knew he loved me and would never hurt me, but somewhere deep down inside my subconscious was the fear that this gigantic creature would snuff out my life like it was nothing.

 

 

 

In those moments before his huge fingers wrapped around me, my body would tense up, wanting to flee from his power. How could anything so huge and with so much destructive potential be gentle? I had experienced how destructive other hands had could be.

 

 

 

But then his hands would close around me and there would be no pain. They were strong and firm but not harmful. My body would then relax. It happened every time and I would have to come to terms with the fact that if I stayed this way Mike would never fully trust me. And I couldn’t blame him.

 

 

 

“Hi Ronny. ”

 

 

 

“Hey Mike.”

 

 

 

“I guess you turned out ok after all.”

 

 

 

“Will you come into my hand, Mike?”

 

 

 

“Of course, Veronica. Could you… umm… give me a hand?”

 

 

 

I giggled; putting my other hand at his back I lifted him as gently as I could with my thumb and forefinger. I watched as he settled into my palm and when he was ready I slowly stood up to my full hight. Like I said, I hated it when giants just stood up. It makes you giddy.

 

 

 

I began to think of ways he showed me affection when our situation was reversed. As he sat in my palm I moved my thumb over his body and slowly lowered doun until I could just feel his soft midriff under my pad. He felt so soft, so tender and warm there under my thumb and as I slowly traced up to his chest he snuggled his face into my side.

 

 

 

It was so strange. At that moment all there was in my world was my hand and my little lover laying in it. And somehow that slight touch was enough. I slowly brought him up to my lips and tried my best to whisper.

 

 

 

“Mike? May I kiss you?”

 

 

 

“That’s why I’ve got a plastic bag around my cast.”

 

 

 

A smile bloomed on my face as I bit my lip. I guess that was his way of saying I could bathe him in my saliva.

 

 

 

Kissing a giant is always messy for the little one but that didn’t mean it wasn’t affectionate. When Mike played with me in his mouth he would slide his huge tongue over my body, between my long legs, and over my ample (for a six inch woman) breasts. He was always aware of how I was positioned and was careful to avoided straddling my face and pushing me onto his teeth. I’d been sucked on by other giants and giantesses but Mike made me feel like I was much more than just a chew toy.

 

 

 

I brought my face down a little further and took in his familiar scent. It was so strange. Usually when we made love his scent would literally surround me. I brought my lips down and kissed his body, feeling his warm, tender frame under my lips. He spread his legs and I knew why. My tongue darted out and slowly made its way up my palm, between his legs and under his tight, lucious ass. I closed my mouth over his legs and began to gently suckle them. Each new kiss drew him farther into my mouth until finally he disappeared completely out of view.

 

 

 

But I could feel his presence and taste him there under my tongue. I didn’t want to move him around, but I guessed I could feel him up a little. Breathing through my mouth I moved my tongue off of him and he moved back toward my lips. I positioned my tongue to come up between his legs and ever so gently began to massage his crotch with the tip of my tongue.

 

 

 

The feeling was a double-edged sword. There was the power trip. I had him in my mouth and there were so many ways I could snuff his little life. Then there was the warm feeling that came from his trust. I’d felt him flinch when I first picked him up, but when I went to draw him into my mouth there was no screaming, no struggle. He even helped me, made it easier, smoother. I was in complete control and he didn’t seem to mind.

 

 

 

With his tiny hands, he grabbed ether side of my tongue, moving them up and down so I could taste him directly again. I moved my tongue up under his soaked shirt, feeling my way over his washboard abs and up to his solid chest. I couldn’t help myself; a low moan escaped my throat and my hand began to wander down toward my nether regons.

 

 

 

“Ahem! Ms. Etherglade, if you could spit your boyfriend out, we need to leave.”

 

 

 

Oh god. I put my hands up over my face and mentally kicked myself. Scorder had been watching us the whole time. I bent my head down and sucked as I drew him out of my mouth. I rolled the taste of him around in my mouth before finally swallowing. He lay there in my hand for a while, a huge smile on his face. Way to spoil the mood, Scorder.

 

 

 

“Ms. Etherglade, I have some good news and some bad news.”

 

 

 

Sighing, I looked back at the Sergeant. “Give me the good news first, Sargent.”

 

 

 

“The good news is we found a new place for you to stay. It’s interstate but I think you’ll be much more at home there.”

 

 

 

“Where is it?”

 

 

 

“It’s at a farm in Tamoc. Another twenty-seven giant people were found there. I got a call from your friend Ms. Arnweel She’s been arranging the supplies and what not for them all.”

 

 

 

“And what is the bad news?”

 

 

 

He paused for a long while, hanging his head in deep contemplation. I guessed it was really bad.

 

 

 

“Lyndon has escaped.”

 

 

 

“What?” Mike and I said in unison.

 

 

 

“Lyndon was busted out by someone last night. He killed three of my officers. Can we please just get going?”

 

 

 

And with that, Scorder got into his car, the choppers took off and I followed, one foot after the other, behind the car. My escort was a lot smaller this time, but a lot more lethal. After a few minutes of walking I tried to turn my mind to more pleasant thoughts.

 

 

 

“So, did you enjoy our little pash?” I asked Mike

 

 

 

“Well it was… interesting.”

 

 

 

I tried to remember the feeling. “Mmm I enjoyed it too.”

 

 

 

“ Is that what it was like to be…”

 

 

 

“Inside your maw?”

 

 

 

“Yeah.”

 

 

 

“I suppose. I was trying to remember what you did when I was in your position. I wasn’t too rough, was I?”

 

 

 

“No, Veronica, you were just fine.”

 

 

 

I closed my thumb over him and he snuggled up to it like a pillow. It seemed he was taking to being the small one in the relationship much better than I had. But then again, he hadn’t been bashed and molested by any giants yet. I lifted him up to my face.

 

 

 

“You were always gentle with me, Mike. Always.”

Following Scorder’s car through the narrow streets that made up this old town, I slowly made my way out of the city, my chopper-mounted bazooka-wielding entourage in tow.

 

As we passed from the industrial area into the city centre, I noticed that the skyscrapers were sort of arranged into clumps. A lot of the buildings were very old. Redbrick and sandstone, marble plazas and arty fountains dotted the landscape. Most of the smaller buildings didn’t come up much past my shins and seem to carpet the region like dried grass that hadn’t been mowed. And all throughout the city, clusters of skyscrapers seemed to have sprung up here and there; all very tightly packed and competing with one another for height supremacy. It was just then that I noticed that the skyscrapers were all arranged in an oval of sorts like some ancient circle of power where people and animals were sacrificed. It was very surreal.

 

Scorder had wanted Mike to ride in the car with him on our way to where we were going, but Mike and I had decided that I would carry him at least part of the way. As we walked along the road my thoughts once again turned to how our relationship had been when I was small. Now that I thought about it, I had spent a lot of time in his hands. Being six inches tall is kind of like a cross between being under house arrest and being a quadriplegic.

 

While Mike and Rachel were out working or on SPRT business Howard and I spent all of our time in our miniature house. And no, it wasn’t a doll-house. It was built from scratch by my fellow shrunken people with all the proper fixtures and furnishings you would expect in a normal house. It was nice, and there was a lot to keep our minds occupied, but it was still like being caged. Oh, the door wasn’t locked, but there just wasn’t anywhere for us to go. Then the two giants would get home. We would venture out into their living space and we would be completely useless. They would have to carry us about everywhere and do everything for us.

 

But it wouldn’t be the same for Mike. He wasn’t small. I was huge. He could still easily get around in the world while I had to have an escort just to walk down the street. I’m tired of being the freak!

 

I suppose I could have stayed in the shrunken country. It would have been easier. I could have continued in my profession as a teacher and lead a relatively normal life. But I wanted to be with Mike, and giants weren’t allowed in the shrunken country unless there was an attack.

 

As it was, I had still taught through distance education over the Internet. Mike had a computer rigged up so I could use it. As for being in his hands, they were warm, soft and gentle. The freedom I had during those times in the house -- Away from the giants, away from the world. I would disappear into the anonymous ether of the internet and it was enough.

 

Mike suddenly spoke up.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about our time at the safe house.”

“Ye…. Good or bad?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you were small…. Sometimes I got the feeling that you didn’t fully trust me. Like that time I forgot our one year anniversary. I’d expected you to be furious but you just smiled and said it was all right.”

 

I had been keeping my eye on the road while we spoke, but that made me glance his way for a second.

 

“Perhaps I’m just forgiving?”

“Perhaps. But you were pissed at me that night, and you didn’t express it. It kind of made me feel bad that you didn’t feel comfortable sharing your emotions with me.”

“Once bitten twice shy, Mike, and I was bitten far more than just once. I was, every shrunken person is, afraid of the giants on some level. I didn’t think you noticed. And besides, you made it up to me.”

“I guess I didn’t bring it up because I didn’t want to make you feel more uncomfortable. But I did notice. So it wasn’t anything personal , ey?”

“No Mike, and I noticed you flinched too when I first picked you up. As a matter of fact I think you’ve been far too trusting of me. When I first saw you, a little part of me hoped that you would refuse to come to me. You shouldn’t trust a giant you don’t know.”

“What do you mean? We’d known each other for more than a year. We’d slept together.”

 

I shrugged. “Things change in people when they have power over you.”

“Not everyone, apparently. You seem to be the same woman I fell in love with 2 years ago.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next few nights were spent holed up in a string of cheap motels. As I said before, the town of Counterpoint was a travel hub between three major cities, which is a nice way of saying that it’s on the border of three states and out in the middle of nowhere. A chain of gas stations and motels lined the highway with just enough distance between them to force people to stay or fill up. It was pretty efficient really.

 

The whole place was one big flat plain. Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t a desert or anything. But the place was so damn bare, mostly grass meadows and a few tufts of trees here and there. I guess I just expected there to be more mountains and stuff to take up the landscape. Being like a walking lookout tower, I could see for miles around. When we got to one of the motels it was more often than not the only that landmark I could see. It gave you a real feeling of isolation.

 

One of the first things Mike told me was that whenever I wanted, I could hold him. I don’t know why, but having his warm body in my hand made me feel a little better. If we were a normal couple we could hold hands, kiss, or just be close to one another. But I hade to make do with what was about the size of a mouse to me. This situation had its advantages. Mike was so soft and warm. Sometimes I’d cup him in both hands and press him lightly against the centre of my chest. He’d commented that my heart sounded so powerful under my skin.

 

I didn’t dare let him sleep with me though. I might have rolled over in my sleep and crushed him. I’d been having a lot of nightmares lately, different variations of that one with the monster. Sometimes it would catch us and kill us both. Other times we would get away. I didn’t yet trust myself, even if he did.

 

It took about four days for me to walk the distance. Slowly making our way, first east and then west, and on the last day my heart suddenly crashed to the floor as I saw, in the distance, where it was that we had been heading all this time. It was SPRT headquarters.

 

Mike and I spoke in unison.

“Damn it.”

 

 

 

 

SPRT HQ was essentially a huge warehouse made of corrugated steel out in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty drab from the outside, and if you didn’t know what it was you would probably never guess there was a miniature world inside. A few other small brick buildings in a cluster by the main entrance housed the members and counsellors who helped watch over the little people.

 

The place looked a lot different at this height, it was still pretty large. About four times as long as I was tall, the roof came up to my chest. The most obvious change (if there were any others) were the twenty-foot fences behind the main building. Not very tall by our standards, but it was not really there to keep us in. It was meant to keep other homicidal maniacs out. Like the ones that attacked me in Centerpoint. Inside, safely fenced away, were twenty giant people just like me! There were men and women of different ages and races. They must have been test subjects like me.

 

Scorder’s voice came over his trusty loudspeaker. “Ms Etherglade, this is where we have to leave you. This was set up after the discovery of other giant people. I suppose you’re taking you boyfriend in with you?”

 

“How come I didn’t know about it sooner?”

“You were in a coma, remember. We’d discovered some other giants before, but the feds were still deciding what to do with you all.”

 

Mike, as always, rode in the palm of my hand. We looked into each other’s eyes.

“Do you think you’re ready to be around giants you don’t know.”

“They’re on our side, aren’t they?”

“I guess so.”

“Then it should be ok… You’ll protect me if they start anything. Wont you?”

I gently held his tiny frame against my chest. “Of course Mike.”

 

As I passed by the warehouse, I could see the miniature world below through the skylights. I paused for just an instant. I could probably destroy a whole block in one step. My mind suddenly flashed on a dominant crushing a small house full of people. It sent a sharp jolt through my body. I wondered what they’d think if they could see me now.

 

I continued toward the fence, holding Mike very close to me. Though the fence is short enough for me to step over, the gate slowly slid open to let me pass. Inside the makeshift compound there are a number of large tents. Giants and giantesses are milling around doing various things; lying in the sun, playing an oversized game of chess. I noticed some of them were talking with normal sized people. The little people would lie on there stomachs or be held tentatively in their hands. I felt a knot untwist in my stomach. If Mike had been the only little person in the compound I wouldn’t have let him stay. It would have been too dangerous. But if other little people were living here, then maybe Mike and I would be ok too.

 

It took a while before any of the giants noticed we were here. One of the women, who had been holding a little man, called out and waved us to her attention. Sitting cross-legged by one of the tents, she was a tall, spindly girl with dark brown eyes and long flowing black hair, which was tied back into a loose ponytail. Getting up, she padded briskly toward us, her man held lightly one-handed to her chest, while her ponytail swished from side to side. I guess she was the official welcome wagon. She wore something which resembled a sleeveless shirt, except it was laced, not buttoned, and a pair of very short shorts.

 

“Hello, you must be the giantess from Centerpoint. This is Mark. My name’s Eve. What’s yours?” Eve held the little man in her hand out for me to see.

“My name is Veronica, but people call me Ronny. This is my boyfriend, Mike. I see they’ve had some time to make you something that at least resembles normal clothes.”

“Yeah. Mark says they’re really coarse, probably made of convince (?word?), but they feel fine to me. We don’t really get a change though.”

“I think we should show them around, honey.” Mark said from Eve’s hand.

 

Eve led the way while she pointed out various aspects of the camp.

“The tents are divided up into four to five people. All the giants with little partners are in the farthest tent on the right. The others on the right have couples that are both giants. I guess they get the most space, but you don’t really want to interrupt two giants who are making out.

 

The tents on the left are all singles and split up into the different sexes. Only the first tent has men. The others are all women.”

 

“How come there aren’t more giants around? There was an equal amount of test subjects in both sexes weren’t there?” Mike said.

 

“We don’t know yet. Some people just seem to over-grow. Rachel and some of the other scientists are working on it.”

“How many volunteers were there?”

“About 80.” She cocked her head to one side, paused in thought for a second.

“That’s just under half of the women and a fourth of the men. Anyway, there’s a projector for movies and TV over there in the backfield. It’s not much good until the sun goes down, but it’s better than nothing. And last but not least, there’s the general activity area.”

 

I thought to myself: Gee, that’s a nice way of describing “a big patch of grass with nothing in it.” I didn’t say it out loud though. Eve’s exuberance aside, the place felt a lot like a POW camp to me. The helicopters with missiles were replaced with watchtowers armed with the same thing. Five large green canvas tents were erected in a U shape in the centre of the camp, with a large field in the front and rear. Mike and I watched Eve bounce over to one of the tents in the rear of the cluster. How could anyone be so perky? Maybe she was on a high from not being helpless any more, or maybe I’m just jaded.

 

 

 

 

“Well Mike, do you think we should bunk up with the other couples like us?”

“I think it would be interesting to talk to other people who are going through the same things we are. It’s a classic role reversal, really.”

I barely trusted myself with Mike, let alone a room full of giants I didn’t know. Though I felt I had a better chance of protecting him now that I was one of them. I didn’t like it, but the decision had been made. Paranoia can be an effective survival trait, but you can’t let it dictate your every move. It’s just plain old bad for your sanity.

 

I took a deep, cleansing breath in through my mouth and out through my nose. I opened up the flap and stepped inside. All conversation immediately ceased, and all eyes turned to Mike and me. Three other giants sat in a circle around the tent. In the center was a cluster of gas lamps set on some old wooden tables. The lights glowed white, brightening the circle, but they weren’t strong enough to light the whole tent. It left most of the giants’ faces in an eerie shadow.

 

Surrounding the tables were a number of equally crusty looking chairs, a fridge, and a small TV. Three little people lounged in the circle of flesh made by the giants. Mark was sitting by one of the lamps reading a book. A woman was sort of lying in the giant’s lap, snuggling her head up to his thigh. His huge hand came down on top of her and began to gently stroke her small frame. The scene was very familiar. Another giantess seemed to be having a private conversation with a man sitting in her palm. I guess you can pull that off when the person you’re talking to can’t be heard from a foot away (from our perspective, at least). Though the light was dim, I could tell she had a beautiful smile on her face.

 

I sat down in a space between Eve and the giant man.

 

“Hi, Veronica. Everyone, this is Veronica and her boyfriend Mike.” Eve motioned to the group. The others all nodded and said hello in semi-unison.

“This is Stanley and July” That both waved.

“And the two in their own world over there are Maria and Shawn.”

“I’m pleased to meet you.” Maria said.

“Yeah, same here.” Shawn said.

“And, of course, you already met Mark and me.” Evelyn’s voice rang silky sweet in my ears. After only a few minutes of having met her I knew she’d been broken bad. She was all smiles and cheer, but it was like a kind of denial. Like all the bad things that happened could be wished away if she tried hard enough. A big smile was spread across her face but it was stiff and tense, as if it would come apart if she didn’t hold it together. The spark had gone from her eyes, leaving them lost and sad. Why hadn’t I noticed it before? Was it the light, or am I just going crazy?

 

“So Veronica, what took you so long getting here?” It was July.

“Someone tried to kill me. I was in a coma for a while.” The other occupants exchanged shocked looks. I didn’t feel like going into details so I followed up with a question of my own.

“So, how long has this place been set up for?”

“Two, three weeks maybe. The different states were taking care of us until they discovered five in one place. Then someone decided to herd us all in here.” Maria said.

“It almost feels like old times.”

Steven cocked his head to one side.

“Let me see … out in the middle of nowhere, locked up like animals, hot and sweaty. Yeah, that seems about right.” He gave me a tired kind of smile.

 

“I noticed there aren’t any beds for any one.” I said

“Well, we don’t really need beds. The ground here is pretty soft. At least, it is to us anyway.” Steven said.

“And we just sleep on our big, soft lovers” July said. They looked at each other tenderly. July reached up to grab Steven’s thumb. It wrapped around behind her neck and she snuggled up to it like a pillow. He began to ever so gently stroke his fingers up and down her body, the pads only barely touching the woman’s bare skin. July gave a little sigh as she pressed her body closer to the warm mass of flesh that was her boyfriend.

 

“So I take it you were… public property.” It was Maria this time. She said the last as though the words meant more then they implied, and they did. In the shrunken person ring, if you were public property then you were there for anyone to do anything they pleased with you. Being a pet wasn’t necessarily better, depending on whose pet you were.

 

Someone who was public property lived on a day-to-day basis. Some days you’d be “lucky” and get scooped up by a gentle dominant or escape the carnage altogether by hiding somewhere. But when you were taken by someone who was indifferent, and most of them were, the likelihood of your survival would drop exponentially. And if you were caught by a violent one, you were done for.

 

“Yeah, for the most part anyway. I guess the scars give me away.” I said.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. There wasn’t anything you could do about it.”

“True. You were a pet, weren’t you?” Maria nodded. “One night when Lyndon was feeling particularly nasty he decided to play hackey-sack with me. When he was done with that he….” My voice trailed off into a slight sob. I skipped the next part. We all knew what happened after.

“When he was…. Done with me, he left me bleeding in the street. That was the first time that Lyndon tried to kill me. One of the other dominants picked me up and took me back to her house. Her pets bandaged me up and tended to my wounds while she helped me perform physiotherapy.” I took another deep breath and finished my story.

 

“When I asked her why she was helping me, she said, ‘I like broken toys. They appreciate how tender I like to play’. She said that most masters threaten their toys with all sorts of things; death, mutilation, torture. But the only threat she had was that she’d return them to the public domain. She said it kept us very obedient.” I pressed Mike to my chest. He was almost like a living security blanket.

“She was right. I would have done anything if she’d let me stay with her. But Lyndon promised he’d break in four other people who were guaranteed to survive if she would give me over to him. A lot of the people she brought back didn’t make it. So, she handed me over.”

 

I finally realised that I’d been staring at the ground almost the entire time. I looked up and all eyes were on Mike and me. For an elongated moment the room lay dead silent.

 

Eve had begun to cry. She motioned for Mark to come into her hands, and he did so. She slowly raised him up to her chest also.

“I’ve heard part of this story before. Was the name of that dominant Joan Kavery? ”I nodded.

“Eve was one of the ones you were traded for.”

 

My mouth dropped wide open. I wanted to say something but nothing would come out of my mouth except incoherent sound. So I closed it. I gulped, tried to swallow the shock back down inside me. It wasn’t working.

 

So Lyndon was the one who had robbed Eve of her soul. No, robbed was the wrong word. He’d destroyed it, smashed it into itty-bitty pieces and dumped it back into her body.

 

Someday he was going to pay for that. Someday he was going to pay for it all.

 

 

We traded a few more horror stories before we all decided it was time to try and get some sleep.

 

I looked down at Mike in my hands. We still hadn’t slept together since I’d grown. I was scared I’d kill him somehow.

 

“It’s all right you know.” It was Mark. Something must have shown on my face, because he continued.

“You don’t need any special training or anything just to sleep with one another. Now sex, that’s something entirely different.”

 

“You still don’t trust yourself?”

“No.”

“Let it be enough that I do.”

 

I rolled onto my back and stretched out my legs. The ground was soft and conformed to my body. I placed Mike in my cleavage and crossed my arms under the cup of my breasts to hold him in place. I took a deep breath and just lay there for a second or two, getting to know the feel of his warm body between my breasts. I drifted off to sleep, and it was good.

 

My eyes fluttered open in the dim pre-dawn light. I lifted my head to look around; everyone else seemed to be still sleeping. Mike was still wedged safely between my breasts and for a while I just lay there feeling him on my chest. He stirred in my cleavage, pushing at the soft flesh that surrounded him until he came to rest on his side. This was probably how Rachel felt when she woke up in the morning with Howard. It was a strange feeling, like a small beanbag that had been warmed in the microwave: soft, light, and warm. My sensitive skin could feel almost every part of his form. I looked down to see his little head poking out at the base where my two breasts met.

“Veronica?” I looked to my left; it was Eve.

“Yea, what’s up Eve?”

“I was just thinking about my time with Joan. I think I was lucky in some ways. She was very kind to us you know.”

“I suppose…”

“It was much better than living in the public domain.”

“Don’t fool yourself, Eve. She was a malicious bitch who preyed on people that were smaller and weaker than her.”

“She helped us! I would have died if she hadn’t picked me up.”

“And you might not have been pummelled so badly if she hadn’t made a pact with Lyndon!”

“She cared, Veronica.”

I couldn’t believe how much she was in denial. Sometimes Joan would come to a death orgy, where people were allowed to purposefully kill the little ones living in the public area. While other Dominants made a mad grab for as many shrunken people as they could, she would just sit there and wait for us to come to her. People used to push and fight, desperate to get to her because being used by her guaranteed survival. She liked to believe she was some kind of hero, some kind of saviour. But she didn’t even try to stop the killings, or the abuse. She just benefited from it.

“I suppose I used to think that too, before I met Mike. But she didn’t care enough, Eve. Not nearly enough.”

“So how did you meet Mark?”

“He was the head of the team that rescued the village at Cordite Square. Joan was there that night with me and her other pets. I remember it was a long trip back to the headquarters. You wouldn’t think you could really get to know someone after just a few days. But after we got back we spent a lot of time in the open area.”

The open area was a small brick building attached to the main hanger, which held the free shrunken world. Because even the most dedicated SPRT member would be tempted to handle the shrunken people, it was decided pretty early on that no normal sized people were to enter the main hanger. There was something about little people that made you want to pick them up, pet them. Though it was fine with Mike, a stranger would find it pretty distressing.

So the “open area” was built so shrunken people who wanted to could interact with normal sized people. It was basically like a suburb with bars and hotels where shrunken people would stay for short periods of time for various reasons.

Sometimes it would be used for operation meetings. Some of the members were shrunken people also and would help by infiltrating a particular group and scoping out the place. It was sometimes safer because a new face in a crowd of shrunken people would often go unnoticed, whereas new dominants were often treated with suspicion.

It was also the place where most relationships between different sized people were born and where I finally decided to go and live with Mike.

When I first decided to move in with Mike. Even though we could see each other in the open area, we wanted to live together. So we began the long and arduous process of moving. Not only did he have to make his apartment shrunken person proof, but also we each had to undergo some serious mental profiling.

They sat each of us down in different rooms and fired question after question at us for hours on end. I entered the room from a small door in the rear. It was huge from my perspective; the coarse besablock walls were painted a stark white, while the floor was laid with a thick red carpet that came up to my knees. A heavy wooden table in the centre of the room loomed overhead. It took up almost half the room but somehow the place still seemed so empty. Leaning against one of the table legs was a ladder that looked like it was made out of model railroad tracks tied together. A voice came from a PA speaker telling me to climb to the top. And so I did.

The first “interviewer” I had was a shrunken person, like me. I can’t remember everything she asked me but a few things stuck in my head. Like what I would do if a stray animal broke into the house. How I might be forced to climb up and down rickety ladders like the one I came up on all day every day. What would I do if Mike and I got separated somehow?

 

The next character was a normal sized person. He stomped around the room, huffing and puffing, yelling things like, “He won’t be so sweet once he’s got you in his hot little hands.” He told me numerous stories of how some people went away with their lovers and were never seen or heard from again. Sometimes they were accidents, other times the little people were tortured to death by crooked members. He would lean over the table to try and impose his size upon me. He did everything but tell me that Mike was actually a sex-crazed, crack-addicted maniac who would pull me limb from limb at the first chance he got.

Poetics aside, though, this was all to protect me. In the early days of SPRT people of different sizes could fraternise with each other as much as they wanted. A giant might take someone out on a date in the “giant” world and no one would bat an eye. They had laws in place which protected little people, so where was the harm? The answer was simple. It was just too easy for Dominant spies to infiltrate the system and take advantage of the huge cracks. They tried a number of different things before finally concluding that there was no real way to enforce the laws outside of the HQ. They couldn’t stop people from leaving (it’s against the whole "freedom" thing), so now they tried their hardest to convince people not to.

When I signed my name on the papers I effectively became Mike's property, so I was still technically protected by the laws. But away from the HQ the only thing stopping him from hurting me were his feelings and his conscience. A SPRT member would come and visit with me once a week to see if I was OK. Even so, a lot of people don’t report it if they're being abused.

As it turned out, Mike wasn‘t a sociopath. The times we spent together were some of the best times of my life. Of course, that was when we weren’t on the run from Lyndon.

“What are you thinking about?” My concentration was broken by Eve’s voice.

“I was just thinking about the ordeal I had to go through before SPRT would let me go home with Mike.”

A smile quickly grew on her face. “Yea, they don’t like little people leaving the warehouse, do they?”

“No.”

“Today we’ll have to get the tailors in here and get you some proper clothes. Those look like they were uncomfortable when they weren’t tattered and burned.”

We both laid our heads back down to catch some more shut eye before the beginning of the new day.

Later that morning Eve was once again her bubbly self. I was talking to one of the other men when I saw her skip up to Rachel and one of the guards. They tried to keep their balance as the impact tremors from her “little” hops violently shook the ground. She was two steps away by the time they were flat on there asses and I could only picture what it was like to be so close to those huge feet when they hit the ground.

She put her hands on her hips. I couldn’t make out what she said (we usually whisper to little people), but the next thing she did was scoop them both up off the ground. Rachel was fine, it was just something you had to deal with when working so closely with giants, but the soldier freaked. Eve held him with her thumb against her palm, a classic way to lift someone when you were going to let them sit in your open hand. He flailed his arms and legs wildly, beating at her thumb with his fists and screaming so loud I could hear him from the middle of the yard.

Eve was almost in shock. She tried consoling the little guy. “It’s OK, I’m not going to hurt you.” Eve turned her attention to Rachel. “But I would never, Oh…” She snapped back to the little man in her other hand. His struggles were finally getting him somewhere: closer to being killed. Eve didn’t wont to hurt him so she was putting only enough pressure to hold him there. But he was struggling so furiously she was having trouble holding on to him.

“Please stop! I might drop you if you don’t stop.” Her face creased into a frown of distress and concentration, her eyes began to water at the edges. Oh god, she was ready to start crying at any second.

“Ronny, I think someone needs to intervene, before...” Mike had been in my hands all this time, watching the whole fiasco as I had. His voice was suddenly drowned out by sirens.

“Jefferson, can you hold my boyfriend for a moment?” Jefferson and Mike waited by the tent while I slowly approached the great weeping ditz, hands held in the air above my head.

Eve was only about fifteen feet away from my perspective. The sirens silenced the screams but I could tell from looking that they were getting more desperate. The little soldier was terrified his life would come to an end beneath the thumb of a giant woman and Eve was terrified that she would drop him and he would fall to his death.

“Put the humans down!” A harsh and dry voice crackled over the PA.

“Put them down or we will be forced to open fire!”

I finally reached Eve; I extended my hands to her and spoke in a clear and careful voice.

“Eve, give them to me. Slowly.”

Eve, teary eyed, held out the little people in her hands. I took the soldier first. Eve dropped him into my open hand and I immediately closed all my fingers over him, leaving his head poking out of my fist. Rachel moved quickly into my hand, glad to be out of the clutches of Eve the giant wimp.

With both little people securely in my hands I held them out toward the direction of the nearest guard tower and slowly lowered myself down into a crouch. When my hands were close enough to the ground I released Rachel and the soldier. The soldier practically leaped out of my hand and made a run for the fence. The guy had stamina. A group of his friends were waiting by a small hole they had made in the wiar. He was grabbed by his friends and half carried off somewhere while others stood with rocket launchers at the ready. I don’t know what they planned to do with them. I was pretty sure the rockets would hit the fence and explode in their faces if they shot at me.

I put my hands up and asked Eve to do the same. I couldn’t see behind me but Eve was still crying and after a few tense moments the sirens turned off and no one was left lying in a bloody mess.

I stood up and slowly turned, being careful of where I put my feet. I didn’t wont to stand on Rachel. Eve was just standing there, arms limp by her sides, face red with tears. I slapped her in the face; she put her hand up to her cheek and just stared at me dumbfounded.

“Get back to the fucking tent!”

She ran back in the direction of our tent.

“And you people should know better also. If you soldiers are going to come in here then you're going to be handled.”

I bent back down and motioned for Rachel to come into my hand. I wasn’t sure she would after this whole debacle but when I opened my hand she moved onto my palm. I looked to the nearest guard tower.

“First of all, we're not soldiers, we are part of the anti-terrorist Bureau. We appreciate you helping our man but you will not handle any more humans.” There was that term again, "humans." Were they implying that I wasn’t human anymore? I didn’t like that. The same voice that had ordered Eve to “drop the people” came over the PA.

“Who am I talking to?”

“I’m Agent Tubirt; I’m in charge of this camp.”

“Well, Tubirt, if people keep coming in here, then eventually something like this is going to happen again. It’s inevitable, so when you send people in here make sure they can deal with it.” I motioned down at Rachel.

“You do not give me orders, ma’am.”

“And you don’t give me orders either. I’m not one of your officers. Two people nearly died today because of some stupid misunderstanding!”

“That woman could have crushed that man under her thumb! You will refrain from picking up any more of my people.”

“Eve would never have done something like that.” I looked down at Rachel siting cross-legged in my cupped hands. “And nether would I.”

I had had enough of Agent Tubirt. After collecting Mike from Jefferson I headed back to the left for the mixed couples tent.

 

 

Inside the tent Eve was a wreck. Curled up into a fetal position she cradled Mark close to her face, making small whimpering noises every now and again that seemed to send shudders through her whole body. Mark, who was being drenched by a waterfall of tears, held his arms wide in sort of a hug, comforting his enormous girlfriend.

“Ronny.” Mike said from my palm.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to do something?”

“Like what?”

“Like comfort her a little. Make her feel better.”

“She fucked up something chronic today, Mike. She doesn’t deserve to be coddled. And even if she did, why me?”

“Because you started it.”

“Oh, so I saved her ass from being shot and now I have to finish it by telling her it’s all going to be ok. Is that how it is?”

“Something like that, yea. And besides, we can’t have poor Mark drowning in her tears. Come on, she knows what she did was wrong.”

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

“Fine.”

I put Mike down by the tables in the centre of the tent and made my way to where the weeping giantess lay.

“Eve.”

“I’m sorry Veronica, I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble.” She looked up at me, her eyes red with tears.

“Eve, I want you to look at your boyfriend and tell me what you see.”

Eve looked down at the drenched Mark sitting tentatively in her palm. He just smiled up at her.

“I… I don’t understand.”

“When we were small we had to yell and make big gestures so that the giants would notice us. We could afford to be clumsy because we were too small to hurt anything. Well now we are the giants, and not just figuratively. Everything we do is potentially destructive to everyone else.

"Look at your boyfriend. You could crush him under your thumb and he couldn’t do anything about it. Now think about what might have been going through the head of that guy you picked up today.”

“I would never have done anything like that.”

“You keep saying that, Eve, but the fact of the matter is he didn’t know you and he didn’t know what you are like. Something that he knew was powerful and potentially dangerous picked him up and he panicked.”

I stood up to my full hight and looked down at Eve.

“You are an extremely destructive force Eve and if you don’t wont to kill the ones you love then you have to be more careful. They were careful with us when we were weak; they protected us. Now it is time for us to protect them.”