Chapter Disclaimer: There is some giant male content in this chapter.




“What was I thinking...” Neil lamented as his companion Grace parked on a side road a couple of blocks away from where a house party was being held. The thought of making a last-minute excuse fluttered in his mind.

With almost telepathic ability Grace shut that idea down. “I know that look, you aren’t getting off the hook this time, besides you’re already here.” 

Neil sometimes wondered why she tried as hard as she did with him, a self-professed introvert he’d be the first to admit socializing was not his strongest suit. It sounded like something out of a sitcom that he ended up friends with someone so outgoing. He vividly recalled the day in English class when the professor grouped up the students to discuss an assigned reading where they first spoke, well she did most of the speaking. A very quiet individual, Neil had little to say beyond the mundane assignment, but Grace had all the loquaciousness to make up for it even if he didn’t have much feedback to offer.

“So, what do you do around campus?” She asked.

Many of guys would’ve found this as a prime opportunity to flirt without having to come up with a contrived reason for interaction. It says a lot that Neil earned a couple of jealous glares from his male classmates for being paired with Grace. She had the sort of girl next door vibe that guys especially loved and people generally gravitated towards her. Translation the type of girl Neil believed he never had a shot with.

“…Uh.”

“Clubs, fraternity, anything?”

There was an answer, he was just trying to brace himself for what was inevitable humiliation when he essentially proved to her that he was a loser. “…Nothing really.”

“You shut in. What’re your digits?” Grace giggled, brushing a lock of her strawberry blonde hair out of her face.

Neil was momentarily silent in confusion. He knew what it meant when someone asks for your digits, her response was so far from expected he took a minute to think if it had any other meanings.

“Your phone number.” She iterated further.

“Right.” Neil watched as she put typed in the numbers into her phone, anxiously waiting for a punchline that mocked him for thinking that she actually wanted his phone number.

“Great, now I’m going to bug you every day and drag you out of your dorm if I have to.” Grace laughed.

Ever the cynic Neil thought she was only being nice and had zero intent to follow through with her words. Thankfully he wasn’t a betting man or he would’ve lost money for believing that. Every English class she found time to talk to him before or after the lecture and tried to pair with him whenever there were group assignments. Finally, always texting him throughout the day, usually at some point trying to invite him out to some sort of function. She probably knew he was lying based on the fact he always had a convenient cold or huge paper write to avoid obliging. When it came to this party she didn’t take no for an answer and expressed that he used up all his get out of jail free cards. 

The sound of Grace tapping on the window from the outside brought him back to the present. “You planning to get out some time today?” Neil exited the car after his prolonged stalling, spotting a couple of other students who he vaguely recognized from a class or two, who he also assumed were attending.

“...Parties aren't really my thing.”

“Relax and go with the flow. Just try to have a good time, if you weren’t here you’d just coup yourself in your dorm all night on the internet.”

She wasn't wrong and he’s come this far already, why turn back now? Following Grace’s lead, Neil entered the house into what he nearly thought was an alternate dimension. The bass of the music that he faintly heard outside was 10x louder inside. Speaking of loud, to say everyone was lively was an understatement. It looked like everyone was just starting to show up, a point Grace made earlier when he asked why they were showing up 45 minutes after things were supposed to start. It sure was noisy, there wasn’t much he could decipher in detail from so many people speaking at once, occasionally different bursts of laughter erupted from certain clique. Jesus Christ, this place was infested with people. So far it looked like there was a good few dozen people though the volume made him mistake it for more. For the time being he tried to follow close to his friend and ask her what to do, but an untimely intervention put a stop to the impending inquiry.

“GRACE, HEY!” An enthusiastic girl greeted loud enough to be heard over everyone else and the music.

“ANN. WHAT’S UP GIRL?” Grace welcomed back and headed over to her friend. Neil had been attempting to follow along even with so many people he didn’t think he’d lose track of her as fast as he did.

He was flabbergasted to say the least, he didn’t expect her to hang by his side the whole time but less than 5 minutes being there she was already off with her own clique. Despite trying so hard to befriend him Neil almost forgot Grace had her own friends. Dare he admit he was even envious of how happy they all looked to see her, he didn’t want to impede her fun by trying to awkwardly insert himself with her friends and practically put her on babysitting duty just because he didn’t know anybody. Making friends never came easily to him and having moved from out of state for college he had to start from scratch, compared to her who has lived in the city most her life it seemed like she knew everyone. One glance he took at her social media one evening was enough to prove that they were cut from different cloths, her page featuring dozens of posts with her in all sorts of activities with groups of people and having a couple hundred followers. Now here he was awkwardly looking around in the middle of the room like an idiot.

Unsure of what to do now Neil didn’t want to hang around out in the and tried to slink his way past everyone. He had to say excuse me almost every other second as he tried to navigate through the room until he made it to the corner far from the thick of things. Sighing, Neil recalled what Grace said about if he wasn’t here he’d just be sitting around in his dorm, which frankly didn't sound bad noq. He’d be on his way back to campus right now if he drove himself here and that was probably the reason Grace insisted on driving now that he thought about it.

“Ugh.” Neil groaned clenching his fist, now he really did feel like a loser hiding away from everyone and trying not to be noticed. He tried to mentally hype himself up to do something…anything so he didn’t feel like a hapless coward. But let’s be real, what did he honestly think would happen if he tried to join the fray besides making an utter dumbass out of himself. A brief survey across the room and as far as he could see, most people were cliqued up having their own conversations, couples were making out, and there was no room for him to try and integrate anywhere.

Neil hung close to the wall and drifted around the periphery, keeping his eye out for any opening where he had a shot at getting involved until a scene in the kitchen caught his attention. He poked his head inside where a bunch of meatheads were pouring beer from four different bottles down one's throat while his peers kept chanting “DRINK, DRINK, DRINK, DRINK.”

It'd be easy to write them off as a bunch of idiots, however they were a bunch of idiots having a good time at least. Neil glanced over to the table and a nearby cooler that stored plenty of alcohol and the idea crossed his mind if that maybe his ticket to enjoying himself more. Memories briefly flashed of the educational videos that were shown during freshman seminar about the dangers of drinking at social gatherings like this, citing events of people who died of alcohol poisoning, drove while intoxicated, and sexual assaults where alcohol played a factor. At 19 years old he couldn’t legally drink; however, he was certain that applied to most people here and that wasn’t stopping them. He never had a sip of alcohol before and besides knowing the dangers of overconsumption he understood that it lowered inhibitions. He didn’t plan on getting drunk, just one bottle wouldn’t hurt. Twisting the cap, Neil took a large swing of the beer before his face scrunched into an ugly grimace. He hacked several times and spat out the remainder he didn’t swallow. He learned a new lesson of alcohol, why it was called an acquired taste by many. The only thing that would’ve made that worse was if someone saw him during that showcase and he scurried from the kitchen before anyone caught sight of him pouring out the rest of the beer and washing down the after taste with water.

“Back to square one...” He said to himself, as he leaned back against wall in his lonely corner again to regroup, but something was off and Neil felt possessed to look over to his side and he flinched when he saw a girl standing a few inches away from him. He wondered why he didn't notice someone so distinct looking right away and took a mental picture of her peculiar appearance. Her attire consisted of a midriff top, draped cardigan, distressed jeans, and high-top converses. Most striking was her jet-black hair that was styled into a side swept mohawk and sported a few blonde streaks and her gray eyes gave her an instant layer of mysteriousness, even in the dim lit house her eyes carried an almost unnatural luminous quality that he doubted could be pulled off by contact lenses. 

“Not a drinker I take it?” She spoke out. Contrary to her appearance, her voice carried an unexpected low softness; yet still had a strange force behind it that enabled him to hear her clearly above all the noise.

“Um, yeah... that didn't happen.”

“What happened to your friend who was with you?” She bluntly asked, casually look away towards the other party participants in the distance.

“She's with her friends.” 

“That's pretty fucked up.” She responded. 

“What?”

“Just up and leaving you hanging by yourself when you don't know anybody here.”

“...How would you know?” Neil questioned, those were more than astute observations.

“I like to come and watch these functions to see if anything interesting happens. Usually boring stuff, a whole lot of drinking, a whole lot of fucking, and a whole lot of bad dancing. You though? Not often I see someone who looks as out of place as you.”

Neil would've loved to counter that statement if it wasn't 100% accurate. “You're a riot.”

“I'm not wrong, am I? You're the shadow in the corner that nobody notices.” She continued, a grin forming on her face as she provided further statements that were right on the dot.

“Done yet?” Neil rolled his eyes.

“Here.” The sharp-tongued girl clasped her hand on top of Neil's, dropping something into his hand.

Looking, he brought up the small cylindrical container up to his eyes. It looked like any other container that prescription pills would be stored inside of save for the fact the container lacked any kind of medical label. 

“W-what is this?”

“Take one.”

No, never. Alcohol was one thing, but drugs? That was another can of worms and a recipe for disaster he was sure of it. “No.”

“Why are you so scared? Everyone else is out there having a good time except you. Everyone is having fun except you. How long are you going to be satisfied being in the background?”

“I don’t need these…” He said. This mysterious girl wasn’t convinced at all as she watched him stare at the bottle still.
“You’re not a shadow in the corner…you’re just small.” The mysterious girl rephrased.

“What?”

“You’re just a small, scared, little boy who’s too afraid to do anything. Afraid the second you try to do anything with other people that you’re going to be stepped all over.”

As strange as the metaphor was it stung nonetheless, his better judgment told him he shouldn't pay her any attention, but with each word the contents in the bottle seemed more appealing. He came out all this way and after an hour here he managed to what? Nearly gag on his first sip of alcohol? Maybe one pill? How much harm could one do?

“Come on little boy, I'll help you.”

Being so focused on the container Neil didn't detect when the mystery girl took a hold of his hand and guided onto the lid of the container. He was practically in a trance, mesmerized while she forced his hand to open the container. 

“Open your mouth.” She instructed. 

Without another thought, he opened his jaw as the girl tilted the container, shaking it until a pill fell into his mouth.

“Swallow.” 

With an audible gulp the pill was down.

“Now was that so hard?” She smiled.

“W-who are you?” He asked in stupor.

The girl not paying him mind anymore walked off to the distance, only offering him a single word as she waltzed away. “Angel.”

“A-Angel, wait.” He went to follow her, after a few steps his whole equilibrium was shifting. Nothing felt correct and his world was going topsy turvy as if something was shaking the whole house. This was infinitely worse than the alcohol he had consumed. Neil clumsily stumbled about as his sense of orientation was lost. Each time he attempted to move, he bumped into another object. The intense vertigo proved too overpowering and the next sensation he felt was his body hitting what he presumed to be the ground.

After several moments Neil managed to crawl his way back to his feet and his senses slowly came around to working in cohesion. However, now that the vertigo had subsided, confusion was produced in its wake as he got his bearings. Right as he tried to become antiquated with his surroundings slight tremors ran through his body and thuds that sounded like seismic activity rung in his ears.

Turning behind all the color nearly drained from his face at the sight of a girl who had her gaze fixated on her phone that walked towards him. In it of itself that wasn't anything alarming, what was alarming was the fact that she was absolutely GIGANTIC. Neil looked up wide-eyed and mouth agape at the skirt clad girl as her sandaled feet plodded closer and the tremors rung louder in his ears. She'd make most of the largest animals on the planet look like stuffed toys! How the hell could anyone be that impossibly big, he wasn’t even as tall as her ankle! For all the questions he had one pivotal warning went off in his brain, that he needed to get the hell out of the way. Acting on instinct he went into a full sprint out of the line of destruction that the massive woman was walking. Despite having a sufficient head start he still barely managed to get out of the way in time before she reached where he was initially standing.

“What the hell?” Neil panted over and over, trying to get himself together on what the fuck that was. He delivered a swift slap to his own face to eliminate the possibility of him dreaming and the sharp pain on his cheek told him that it was indeed real. Though he was far from composed, he was settling down enough to manage some basic rationalizations. Looking out from underneath the table he managed to run underneath the décor all looked the same barring the perspective. Everything he saw was from the ground up, he then looked down to the carpet that visually looked much closer than usual. The dots were connecting and the most alarming piece of evidence from a few moments ago that he was too worked up to think logically about, that seemingly giant woman. Seemingly, because now that he realized she wasn’t truly gigantic, in fact it was the opposite.

“I shrunk... I shrunk… I shrunk…” Neil kept repeating those words to convince himself of the fact it was true. Right as he was starting to calm down his mind was in a frenzy yet again. Shrinking how the fuck was that even possible!? Who the hell just shrinks out of nowhere No one, it’s impossible, impossible, impossib- Neil ceased in an instant at the obvious most integral piece of the puzzle that he was neglecting.

“The pills.” He silently mouthed out. He was somewhat reluctant to blame it on what happened to him, besides who has ever heard of a drug that has a shrinking side-effect!? Be that as it may, it was the only link he could draw with the strangeness that was happening, after all that girl… Angel he thinks her name was; she could’ve given him anything for all he knew. 

“Maybe it’ll wear off.” Neil thought, it was a glimmer of hope that the pill would run its course and his body would return to normal on its own. It sounded reasonable in theory and that was the best-case scenario that presumed he’d return to normal in a convenient amount of time, but what if he didn’t? That’s where things veered off into the worst-case scenario where he was stuck like this indefinitely.

Those were odds Neil didn’t want to try, waiting around would do him no good if he there was a chance he was stuck in this state; he needed help and he needed it urgently. His stumbling with that colossal girl was indication enough that hanging out in the open would get him crushed in no time flat. As ironic as it was, he had no choice, but to hang close to the edges of the wall to avoid people and navigate back into the main room then someway or somehow, he’d find Grace or at the very least someone who could take him to her.

Though considerably safer it wasn't without challenge. He was away from the action for now, the occasional dancer or passerby still drifted a little too close for comfort and Neil had to avoid mega-sized shoes to avoid getting squashed. Conversely, the low lighting combined with his small stature, he’d have to get dangerously close if he wanted to get anyone’s attention; it was truly a lose-lose situation. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, covering ground was excruciating at this size. He had to have been walking for nearly 15 minutes and he was slightly half-way near his destination. Complaining wasn’t going to help, but Neil was still frustrated at the uphill battle he had ahead of him. Before he started to move further a dancing couple caught his attention…well if he could call them both twirling around in each other’s embrace while they screamed dancing. Neil thought he was in the clear, but the couple’s lack of coordination was on full display like an out of control roller coaster and their unbalanced steps led them closer and closer to him. Neil repeatedly had to keep zig-zagging left or right to try and predict where their fall would take them. By the skin of his teeth he managed to dart out the way as they finally crashed onto the carpet. Neil almost wondered if the guy on the bottom was alright considering the female landed on top of him.

“Hahahahahaha.” They laughed erratically, it was disconcerting. Beggars can’t be choosers though, now that they were on the ground it presented a much safer moment to try for their attention. Making his way near their faces Neil began frantically waving his arms at the giant couple.

“Hey, hey, can you guys help me!?”

The female got up to her knees, the male who was lying on his back only turned his head. One look at their faces was all Neil needed to know that they weren’t all there. He had never been around any drunk or high people before, but he didn’t need to look any further to know that they were the walking definition of wasted. 

“…Oh…my…gosh…” She droned on, bringing her face within centimeters of Neil’s body and squinting her eyes to focus her vision at the tiny human in her sight. “You’re so frickin’ itty bitty.”
From this close the stench of alcohol in her breath was overwhelming and quickly triggered his gag reflex, it was a good thing he hadn’t eaten anything. What’s more, at this proximity his nostrils and eyes burnt up from a lingering scent of marijuana that wafted off her body, at normal size it still would’ve been a strong scent, right now it was almost like being in a room full of smoke.

“Maybe he wants to join us…” The guy suggested, Neil did not like where this was going.

“Really now? What’d you say itty dude, you want some BIG fun?” She breathed.

On second thought beggars can be choosers. These two were a liability at best, readying himself Neil prepared to make a break for it. The woman though had enough wits left and the advantage of stature to grab him before he made any distance. Her grip was shoddy, but she still had more than enough strength to restrain him.

“Hey, hey, hey, what's the rush itty dude? You’re just in time.” She snickered, with nothing but superior strength applied on his now frail clothes the blazed-up giantess tore off his wardrobe with her two fingers with same ease as breathing. With her free hand, she took a moment to manipulate who Neil assumed to be her boyfriend’s pants. It took more effort than normal given her status, but she eventually mustered the dexterity to undo his belt and lower the zipper. Already semi-erect, she easily found his penis and fished it out of his boxers into freedom.

“Hehe... looks like you're already in the mood.” She laughed, giving it a quick kiss that caused it to spring into further attention. She steadily fluctuated her hand up and down his cock and turned her attention back to the man in her hand.

“Now... to get you in the mood too.” She smiled, as she draped her tongue out of her mouth.

“Look, please! Listen to me for a moment I need help-” His pleas went unheard right until the last second when the girl dragged her tongue up the length of his body. A repulsed Neil tried to muster some form of struggle to prevent his body from being coated in saliva to no avail.

“Mmmm.” She moaned before dragging her tongue over him again. The first time was quick, this one was much like she was savoring a piece of food. “You taste good.” She said and proceeded to sequentially run her tongue up and down the length his body. She alternated her speeds, but was always mindful to slow down when she was down by his groin, usually lingering there for a couple of seconds before flicking his penis up. Neil could only dangle complacently her grasp, disgusted as his body was lathered up by her moist tongue. Grotesque as her methods were for him, they produced results and he was equally as erect as her partner in no time.

“That’s better.” She said, with a firm grip on her partners dick she held it steady while she placed the unwilling Neil onto the tip.

The man on his back propped his head up. “I'm way bigger than he is.”

They both cackled at this, the slight motions of his body put Neil on shaky legs and he instinctively grabbed around the guy's cock to prevent from falling.

“This'll be easy I can get both you and itty dude.” She boasted, licking her lips.

Right as Neil started to regain his stability he was encompassed by darkness in her pink cavernous mouth. Being licked wasn’t even close to this bad. At least then he wasn’t fearful for his life. He clung onto the man’s engorged penis with all he had as the girls snake-like tongue circled and wiggled all around. Each time her head bobbed up and down and the man’s dick became wetter, it was all the harder for Neil to hang on and he constantly had to reestablish his grip or risk ending up getting sucked completely into her mouth. From within her mouth he could hear the roaring sounds of her slurping as saliva whisked around his body and occasionally the distorted moans coming from her boyfriend. Neil didn’t know how long she was at it, but it felt like eternity to him, by some sort of miracle when she sensed her boyfriend was nearing climax the gigantic woman finally gave a last prolonged suck to his cock before releasing it and by extension Neil from her mouth. At the minute he felt as wasted as they did, in a completely different sense.

“You wore him out already?” The man complained, not wanting to directly admit to liking the sensation of having the small guy on his dick, which in turn made him feel much bigger down there.

“I'm a looot of woman to handle for him. Let’s go finish somewhere else.” She braggadociosly slurred, and led her boyfriend along with his erect penis in her hand. “Cya, itty dude.” She winked down at Neil, and the two stepped over his minuscule body.

Neil looked over as the giant couple walked away and sighed in relief, he was worse for wear, exhausted, experienced the worst threesome of his life, and most importantly no closer to getting help. If there was any consolation, there's not much room for things to get worse after that. He had no time to spare and he pulled himself up to his feet to start walking again and as if punishing him for tempting fate another monkey wrench was thrown into his plans. Another set of rumbling footsteps rung near his vicinity belonging to a young woman, without anything taking up her attention it was sheer bad luck that she happened to catch a glimpse at the peculiar figure out her peripheral vision and turned her attention downward.

“What the-…Oh my god! Everyone come here look!”

Neil tumbled onto his rear, startled by the shout of the young woman who noticed him. Unlike the screw-faced couple that were too trashed to make any sense of a tiny man, she was in clear enough mind to alert everyone as she looked down at him with bemusement. With nowhere close to escape or hide he was stuck in place and in a matter of seconds more people joined the room, all of whom were looking to get a clearer view of the spectacle on the ground and circling around until he was surrounded.

Never the specialist with dealing with people, crowds were nerve-wrecking. But dealing with a whole crowd where everyone towered over him like a wave of monsters was nothing short of hysteria inducing. Neil's head was on a swivel as he saw the various faces of boys and girls chattering to themselves and laughing. Some people even taking out the phones and he was barraged by the flashes of camera, he wouldn’t doubt some were taking full length videos.

“Holy shit.”

“Yo, you are getting pictures of this?”

“Someone partied too hard.” 

Every comment blended together into a mess of gibberish that he couldn’t understand. The talking, the laughter, the staring, it was all too much and trying to process everything that was going on among this pit of monsters around him made him light headed, he needed to escape NOW. Acting on sheer adrenaline Neil ran, to where didn't matter so long as he got away. He looked for the first open path he could find to start running. His motions were reminiscent to when he first took the pill earlier, clumsy. The maddening vertigo returned even worse than before and his run quickly morphed into uncoordinated stumbles. Appearing out of nowhere Neil walked right into a shoe that cut off his path and made him fall onto his rear.

Neil craned his head up the familiar high-top converses and distressed jeans, all the way to the top where her distinguishing mohawk and lambent gray eyes that left no questions to who was in front of him.

“A-Angel!” He squeaked. He nearly lost his voice seeing the same girl who once stood a good 4-5 inches shorter than him not too long ago, now looming massively over him like an all-powerful goddess.

“Hey there little boy, how's it going down there?” She grinned, offering him a mocking wave with her hand. Unlike the rest of the collective noise around him he understood her voice in full clarity.

“The pills! The pills! They shrunk me!” He cried.

“Hmm, did they? You mean you weren’t always this small, little boy?” She teased.

Neil’s senses were betraying him yet again, he understood her voice clearly a second ago. As he heard her response it sounded as if someone put their hands over his ears. His vision was out of focus as well alternated between seeing anywhere from one to three of Angel. There wasn’t any time to dwell on that, she was the only one who may be able to help him. “Please, I need help!” He begged.

“Sure thing.” Angel answered and responded by lifting her shoe. To no surprise Neil looked dumbfounded as the menacing bottom of her shoe hovered over his body and a shadow appeared below him.

“W-what are you doing!?” 

“I'm helping you. There's no way the little boy is going to make it around all these big people like this. Think of it as being euthanized.” Neil could hardly believe how casually she discussed murdering him.

“Don't worry, you won't feel a thing.” She smirked as she lowered her sole. 

His hearing was next to completely gone and he couldn’t interpret her last words beyond garbled sounds. Neil’s vision was leaving him next with the last thing he could see before it became a complete blur was her giant sole descending down on him. “No, no, no!”

“NOOOO!” Neil screamed sitting up from his bed.

“Eek!” Grace jumped from a chair she's been sleeping in and fell onto the floor after that outburst.

Neil immediately looked upwards, his mental processes picked up right where he last remembered before losing consciousness, expecting to be on the ground and waiting for Angel's foot to crush him into the ground.

He frantically looked around his dorm room as last night’s events played on fast forward in his mind. Wait, his dorm room? A wave of relief began to overcome Neil once he realized he was back in familiar territory and to make things better everything appeared to be on proper scale.

“I'm back to normal.” Neil said with a smile and admiring his body like it was the first time he's seen it.

“I'm okay.” Grace groaned, rubbing her bottom. 

“Sorry, I'm just glad to be back to regular size.” Neil explained.

“Um... what?” 

“Y'know.” Neil said assuming she knew what he was referring to. “I'm happy to be 5'8 again instead of 2 inches tall, it was the craziest shit ever!” Once he finished his statement Grace simply stared at him as if he had grown a second head. Sensing her confusion, he elaborated. “I'm being for real here, I somehow shrunk! Everyone and everything looked huge! Didn't you see me?” 

“It was crazy alright...” She began and a light shade of red appearing on her cheeks as she recalled the state she found him in. “And I definitely saw... a lot of you.”

It took Neil a moment to decipher why she was being cryptic in her wording until he reflected more about last night, more specifically how things ended before he passed out. Besides the fact that he was minuscule and nearly crushed, he was also buck-naked courtesy of that shit-faced chick. Looking at his body now he was clothed in a t-shirt and gym shorts. Putting two and two together he figured there was no way he could have done that himself with the shape he was in and the fact that Grace was with him right now only meant one thing.

“Did you... uh bring me home and help dress me?” Neil deduced and joined Grace in sporting a hue of red in his face.

“Yeah I did...anyway.” She didn't want to linger on the topic any longer when he had already figured it out for himself so she hastily moved to the next subject. “What in the world did you end up doing? I'm pretty sure you weren't in sober and clean mind to be sprawled out on the floor thinking you were 2 inches tall.”

Neil rubbed his head now beginning to remember the cause of his troubles. If he could reverse time he'd smack himself for even considering taking her pills. “I met this strange chick named Angel.”

“Who?”

“Angel, she dressed kind've weird, had a mohawk-like hair style, and the oddest gray eyes I've ever seen.” Oddly, he almost thought her eyes were locked in on him while he described her appearance.

“No clue who that is.” Grace responded.

Neil considered Grace to be a social butterfly who seemed familiar with everyone under the sun. While he found some comedic levity at the fact there was finally someone she didn't know of, he was a bit concerned. Angel was not a plain or forgettable looking person, even if she didn't know her by name, he thought she'd at least seen her once during the party. Maybe she was just hanging under the radar the whole time.

“Long story short she had these weird pills. She talked me into taking one and after that it was... I don't even know, it was freaking madness.”

“You were alone for all of an hour and you took pills from someone you never even met?!” Grace exclaimed.

The phrasing of her sentiment struck a chord with Neil. “Yeah well I wouldn't have been alone if I wasn't left high and dry at the party!” He bit his tongue after that reactionary response and regretted it instantly. At the end of the day he was his own person and only had himself to blame for his irresponsibility that night. “I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that, I appreciate you looking after me.”

Grace sighed, truth be told she also felt guilty. “It's okay, it was pretty inconsiderate for me to leave you alone at a party I made you go to.”

With the tension having settled down Neil shifted focus to other matters in his life. “Shit, what time is it?” Neil wondered and stirred about to find his phone. “Dammit, I have to get ready for work.” He lamented, only having a half hour before his closing shift started.

“You don't think you should call out? You were pretty out of it all night?” Grace asked.

“I would if I had any sick time. I'll be fine, it's only a four-hour shift anyway.” Neil explained, trying to alleviate her worries.

“Just let me know when you're back on campus.” Grace smiled before leaving the room.

“Yeah, yeah, thanks Mom.” He quipped.

Not having much time to get ready Neil scrambled to get cleaned up and dressed accordingly before heading out the door. While he was mainly concerned about getting to work on time, as he rode his bike most of his thoughts were consumed over the party. Grace didn't understand what he was talking about when he described that he shrunk after taking the pills. Makes sense, plus shrinking in it of itself sounded like a science fiction anomaly that’d never happen in real life. Shouldn’t that be evidence enough that everything was hallucinogenic? Then why was he unready to believe that? He admittedly did not have any prior drug usage to support his skepticism, but just thinking about every moment he spent scurrying on the ground and the perils of having to avoid being crushed by people who would’ve once been considered normal sized to him were all too much for him to simplify down to being a hallucination. Most importantly he couldn't stop thinking about Angel, something wasn't right about her. From the start she knew he had been left alone and explicitly stated that she had been watching. Then she knew the precise nerves to touch to make him willing to take her pill and at the very end she appeared to know exactly what was going on. He wanted to continue entertaining his suspicions, for now though he had other fish to fry.

Like many young adults Neil hated his job, perhaps it was a rite of passage that you have at least one shitty job. As for him he it was part time job at a department store where you could buy anything from clothes, to electronics, or appliances, that drew in all kinds of clientele. Though he was usually bounced around from section to section, he most often worked returns which gave him the displeasure of having to catch an earful of complaints. The good news was that it was Sunday, a very slow day for the store and the few customers that were around kept to themselves without needing much assistance, that gave him some leeway to dabble on his phone when nobody was looking. A majority of that time he spent on Facebook with one goal in mind, figuring out who Angel was. Only knowing her first name, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy so he took it from the top and browsed result after result to find anyone who fit the bill of her appearance and continuously came out with nothing. Soon he tried specifying the search by the state, still nothing, next was the city and then the university. He probably checked at least 50 pages of Angel’s and still hadn’t uncovered the one he was looking for. Neil stopped for a moment to rub his brows and wondered why he was so hung up on her. It might satiate his curiosity, but beyond that it wasn't like he planned on running into her again and frankly that was for the best.

“I don't care what he says, I want those papers sent to me first thing Monday morning!” Whatever consolation there was to his convenient shift was out the window when he heard the belligerent voice of his favorite customer. 

“Why do the difficult ones show up the most?” He groaned, watching her approach the desk with a shoebox in hand. 

Valerie Southern was a nightmare of a customer, a rich real-estate agent with expensive tastes. He’s seen a couple of her commercials and face on billboards and while she turned on the charm in front of cameras and clients, he’s seen a totally different side to her.

“I don’t care what he wants to do, he can take it or leave it!” She barked over the phone, her boisterous speaking drew a couple of stares from other customers who wondered if she forgot that she was in a public area. Still continuing her conversation, she haphazardly dropped the shoebox onto the counter without addressing Neil at all and expected him to know what to do.

Disregarding her rudeness Neil opened the box to inspect the shoes. “Um, you can’t return this miss.”

“By the way tell him-” She abruptly stopped her last sentence to wonder if she properly understood what she just heard.

“Excuse me?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

It wasn't the first time Neil has seen this, where customers attempt to return shoes that have clearly been worn, at least they had the courtesy to try and clean them before attempting the refund; whereas Valerie didn't even attempt to do that. “These have been worn and-”

“Hush!” She interrupted, holding her hand out to his face. 

“I'll call you back.” She hung up her phone and tossed it into her bag. Next, she removed her sunglasses and stared down at Neil with a piercing glare.

“I’m going to spell this out for you, look at my receipt and tell me how long ago I bought them.” She began.

“Two weeks ago.”

“And how long is merchandise eligible for return?” She quizzed.

“30 days, but with clothe-” Neil tried to explain himself, but could barely get a word out.

“What is the store's motto?” She cut in, raising her voice after Neil tried to reason with her.

“Satisfaction guaranteed or money back guaranteed.”

“And I am not satisfied, so I want my money back! What is the issue?!” She concluded slamming her hand down on the counter and succeeding in getting a flinch out of Neil. 

“I jus-”

“Hush! Where's your supervisor?” Forget being a nightmare of a customer, she was just all around unpleasant. He didn’t have many strong opinions about most people, but he did not like Valerie at all. To make it worse, he found himself intimidated by her. He could tell she loved looking down her nose at people and standing at an impressive 6’0 she was literally capable of doing that to many people, add in the fact she always had a pair of heels on that boosted her height to at least 6’3 combined with her domineering personality and you’ve got yourself a behemoth of a woman that can make almost anyone feel tiny under her scrutiny. 

Neil was fighting a losing battle with the incorrigible woman so he obliged and picked up the store phone and dialed his supervisor’s extension, after a few rings his call was answered.

“Hey, I have a concern about a return. Valerie Souther-” He hardly got into explaining the situation, yet as soon as he uttered that name the phone hung up and less than 10 seconds later his supervisor Michelle was on deck in timely fashion that was typically unseen from her.

“What appears to be the concern Miss Southern?” A winded Michelle cordially asked wiping her wavy brown hair out of her face.

“I was simply trying to return a pair of shoes I was dissatisfied with and your employee denied me that right and started to argue with me!”

Michelle dramatically covered her mouth in shock. “Neil why were you arguing with her?”

To say Neil was speechless was an understatement, forget the pill he took last night, he wanted to know what Valerie was smoking that enabled her to come up with such a warped version of their interaction. “I wasn’t arguing with her, I was trying to explain-”

“Now he's calling me a liar?!” She interrupted again.

“Neil how about you take five. I'm so incredibly sorry about for his behavior, let’s talk about what I can do for you.”

Was he surprised? No. Was he angry? Livid. Typical Michelle, throwing him under the bus without so much as even attempting to let him explain himself. He could’ve been trying to stop Valerie from setting the store on fire and Michelle would still side with her. 

Heading into the bathroom Neil turned on the faucet and splashed water onto his face to cool off. No matter how insufferable they both were, being angry wasn't going to help anything. Pulling down the lever of the paper towel dispenser he tore off a piece and wiped his face dry. “Just keep it together-” Neil said to himself in the mirror and gasped once he noticed the reflection of someone standing behind him. He nearly had a heart attack as he turned around to face the last person he was expecting to see, Angel.

“What’s up little boy?” She smirked, running her hand through her hair.

There she was in the flesh exactly how he remembered and Neil was speechless. What is she, some kind of stalker? This went far outside the realm of coincidence, the odds of her showing up to where he worked, while he was working, and in the bathroom with him!?

“What are you doing here?” 

“Sorry, am I in the wrong bathroom?” Angel wryly commented. Considering how his first encounter with her went, he was not willing to entertain her this time. 

“I don't know what you want, but you need to leave.” Neil firmly stated. 

“You left something at the party.” 

Neil didn’t buy it for a second that she came all this way because he lost something and stayed alert while she fished in her pocket. “Here, these are yours.” 

His blood went cold as she showed him same bottle of pills from last night. His suspicions were being affirmed that she knew more than she let on. Whether real or fake, with knowledge of what happened the first time he took a pill he was determined to stick to his guns.

“Keep it, I don't want them.” 

Angel continued like Neil didn’t say a word, twisted the cap open, and emptied a pill into her hand.

“It must suck having to deal with that snobby bitch and you think you have no choice but to tolerate it, don’t you?” She started to inch forward.

“Stay back.” Neil said inching backwards in response.

“Then your coworker didn't even try to defend you. She’s always like that isn’t she?” She stepped closer. Neil attempted to move back again in response, but his back had already touched the wall.

“Get...back.” He repeated.

“How did it make you feel to be disrespected like that?” She came closer again looking up towards the ceiling while she thought of adjectives. “Demeaned? Demoralized? Humiliated? Hmm… what’s the word I’m looking for.”

“...I won't say it again.”

“Oh, wait I know! “Angel snapped her fingers pretending that the word suddenly came to her. She stopped once she was staring eye to eye to Neil and whispered. “Small?”

“I said get back!” Neil snapped and delivered a harsh shove to Angel. Despite being the same height he was still a guy and the force made her fall face first onto the floor.

He panted and watched Angel lie motionless. He had never been in an altercation before let alone one where he had to use force against a girl. He grew worried after 30 seconds went by without her moving, what if she was unconscious? Maybe that shove was too much, but come on she showed up unannounced, got way too close for comfort, and he warned her several times, he didn't have a choice! Regardless of the circumstances that led up to it he couldn’t just leave her like this and the implications if someone were to see this scene at face value without context would not be in his favor to say the least. Neil walked closer to her frame to inspect. 

“Hey… are you okay?”

Right as reached down to touch her to be sure, Angel sprung back to life and coiled her arms behind his back. If that didn’t catch him off guard enough what she did next completely threw him for a loop as she forced her lips onto his.

Neil tried his hardest to push her off again but she was ready for his resistance and clung to him like glue. While preoccupied with trying to pry Angel off him, he was too late in reacting to the real purpose of her ploy and her tongue invaded his mouth and deposited something deep near the end of his tongue. Despite recognizing what was going on it was too little too late and his body’s natural response took over and swallowed.

“Mmfff!!” He panicked, now writhing trying to get free from Angel’s hold. But the pill was working fast, even faster than before and he could feel the room spinning and rising around him. That sensation only being relative to the reality of his situation which was that he was shrinking again. Though he struggled at the same intensity decreased size came with decreased strength and it became easier by the second for Angel to contain him without exerting herself. Once he was around half her size and it became too inconvenient to continue crouching down so she relented from the kiss and held onto him by the wrists. His efforts to break away have been fruitless, yet Neil persisted trying anyway even if he looked like an increasingly small child trying to escape from his mother.

“Aww, are trying to shoo me away little boy? Angel frowned.

“What the fuck do you want from me!?” A frightened Neil barked.

“Right now, I want you to get out there and deliver some wonderful customer service.” Angel smiled as she pulled Neil forward and paced him towards the door. He tried to hold his ground, but his diminishing size also meant his mass was only a fraction of what it was and thus easy for Angel to overpower.

“N-no! Turn me back to normal please!”

“Don't worry little boy, I'll be back to see you after work.” Almost in a form of payback Angel swung Neil around and pushed him right out of the bathroom door and he staggered back onto the sales floor, his shrinking having finished and again left him at an abysmal two inches of height. Unfortunately, the experience wasn't any easier to take in than last time. Even around the familiar area that he worked it has now transformed into an alien environment.

“Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm.” Neil repeated this mantra to help himself think logically. Grace’s words this morning proved that it was only a hallucination caused by the pills. That’s right, it was the pills having a bizarre effect on his senses. He returned to normal before so it stands to reason that it’ll happen again.

“There you are.” Neil heard from far above him.

"She's not giant, she's not giant, she's not giant." He chanted, well aware Michelle was standing right in front of him. He stared at the ground trying to prepare himself for how massive she was going to appear. Starting from the bottom up he visually scaled up the frame of his mega-sized boss and the confidence in his mantra continued to dwindle the higher he got until it was nonexistent once his astounded eyes reached her irritated ones. Trying to mentally convince himself that his shrinking was fictitious ultimately became hollow when his brain and body reacted to everything like it was reality. 

“You sure made my life difficult back there runt.” She huffed. “Why would you even go and argue with one of the biggest spenders in the store?”

“You didn't even ask for my side of the story!” Neil spoke up, but his words were drowned out by the laughter his response generated from Michelle.
“Hahaha!”

“What's so funny?”

“Your side of the story.” She mocked using air quotes. “Why should I care about your side of the story?” Michelle crouched down. “You're as big as my pinky.” She laughed again tapping the top of his head with her digit a few times in proof of her point.

“Look Neil, I've got a lot on my plate. I'm looking to get a promotion, I'm trying to become a general manager, then head off to corporate headquarters, and I don't need any blemishes on my way to making that happen.” Michelle lectured in a tone reserved usually for children. “Basically, what I'm saying is that I am here.” She hovered her palm over her own head. “And you're waaaay down there.” She chuckled lowering her palm over Neil's head to highlight the difference between their standings both in position within the company and physically, then gently pinched his cheek. “Okie dokie?”

Griping his work shirt between her digits Michelle turned Neil in the opposite direction. “So, here's the situation cub scout. The lovely Valerie Southern is waiting for you and you're going to be a good little employee and offer her the best customer service and I don't care how much you have to kiss her ass to make her satisfied. Now go on.” She ordered and patted Neil on the rear which forced him forward towards his customer.

“I just have to endure.” Neil thought, it was demeaning but better than being under the pills effects at a hectic party. He plodded towards Valerie with each step coming slower than the last. Dare he say that he was afraid of her? Seeing from afar wasn’t horribly bad, but as he got closer the full magnitude of her size became clearer to him, there was no ignoring the obvious truth that she was one imposing woman even when he was at a normal height. Now that she was miles tall compared to him it made her outright fearsome. By the time he reached her she was going at it aggressively texting on her phone. The force of her nails on the touch screen nearly reminded Neil of bullets being fired. Thankfully that kept her distracted as he gawked over her enormous frame. When it came to Michelle he had to crane his neck to its maximum curvature to see her face, as that pertained to the significantly taller Valerie he was barely able to see beyond her chest to her neckline. With her high heeled shoe being the only thing, he could reach, Neil tapped on it a few times to get her attention. “Um, Miss Southern.” 

Instinctively, Valerie took a slight step once she registered the stimuli. It was a small motion, but one that almost made Neil scream when her foot missed his body by the slimmest of margins. Unconcerned about the puny store associate she nearly squashed, Valerie focused on checking her heels to make sure there were no blemishes before staring down at him. Neil shuddered at the utter disdain in her gaze, rather than human she more closely registered him to a discarded wad chewing gum on the ground that she nearly stepped in.

“Oh, it's you. Well it's about time.” Valerie said, placing her hands on her hips in dissatisfaction.

It was a lost cause at this point for him to pretend everything was okay when his legs were shaking like they were sticks trying to support his body weight. Though usually tight lipped Valerie picked up on trembling and a small hint of a smile appeared on her face. “Do I frighten you?”

He couldn't help it, real or fake his body couldn't process anything beyond the fact that Valerie was freaking enormous. He still tried to save face by denying it. “I-I'm fine.”

“Whatever. Anyway, no thanks to you I already decided what shoes I wanted.” She said pointing up at a shelf.

Neil stared up what was essentially hundreds of feet for him and then to Valerie wondering why she was asking him to complete a task that so far beyond his reach when she could easily perform it for herself. Unless he was prepared with mountain climbing gear, there wasn’t any chance of him getting that high.

“What’s the hold up!?” She impatiently barked at his inaction.

“...I can't reach that high.”

Predictably, Valerie rolled her eyes at what she perceived to be a convenient excuse. “You couldn’t do my return, you can’t get my shoes, what can you do!?” She complained before taking matters into her own hands. She stepped over Neil (coincidentally rather than her actively trying to avoid crushing him) and reached up to pull the shoebox down and placed it at ground level.
Valerie sat down on a seat meant for people to try on shoes and began tapping her foot. “Sometime today?” She huffed, hovering one of her feet near his body.

“You've got to be kidding me.” Neil thought to himself. She really wanted him to take her shoes off, would she ask him to wipe her ass if she used the bathroom? He tried to grab onto her shoe, being so small though he quickly learned that it was too wide for him to get a good contact on and his hands ended up slipping off. Looking for an five approach he went to heel of her shoe which ended at narrower point; that allowed him a grip to pull it off so he concentrated his effort there. He grimaced as he tried to muster up as much strength as possible, but the shoe was snugly fitted on Valerie and the weight of the footwear was heavier than the force he could generate. Seeing no progress being made Valerie grew discontent with watching him aimlessly struggle.

“Ugh. Never mind, I'll do it myself!” She spat and Neil quickly became worried as he felt her leg beginning to move.

“N-no wait!” He exclaimed, but Valerie was already lifting the ligament into the air while he desperately held onto the heel of her shoe. She pulled off the apparel and haphazardly tossed it aside along with Neil. Relative to him the fall was only several feet, not enough to injure him, but it scared him nonetheless that the damage could’ve been more severe.

Without regard for the associate she nearly hurt, Valerie tossed aside her remaining shoe and swapped them out for the new pair of stilettos she picked out. “They're beautiful!” She gasped and for the first time all day a full smile spread on her face. She stood up to admirer them while she was wore them.

After dusting himself off Neil looked at the new shoes Valerie was putting him through the wringer for and noticed that they were at least twice as tall than what she wore previously and they skyrocketed her height from 6’0 to a skyscraping 6’6.Taking a few steps back was the only way Neil would be able to see the entirety of the taller than ever Valerie and as he did so he yelped when he backed up enough to see the grin she was giving him. He didn’t bother to ask why she was grinning when he already knew the answer, just watching it grow wider while she stared at him confirmed that she was simply amused. Amused by her own stature and how tiny he looked compared to her.

“Shit... I heard kids were getting smaller these days, but this is ridiculous!” Her voice and laughter boomed and Valerie relished in joy at the powerful effect she was having that forced the Neil to cover his ears.

“Hey little store associate, how would you like it if I offered you a job?”

“Huh?” Neil gingerly uncovered his ears and wondered if he didn’t misunderstand her.

“What do you say, you could be my personal little assistant.” She said stepping forward, making sure to put a stiletto on each side of his body. “You're too small to do any field or administrative work, but I can make some calls and get a tiny desk to put underneath mine. You can work at my feet all day, then all you'd need is some nail polish, a filer, and you can keep me current on my pedicures or give me massages whenever I'd like.” After the last comment she dropped the charade unable to hide her laughter. How foolish of Neil to believe she was being serious for a second, not that he'd ever accept working for her, but it was believable that she'd want a glorified slave waiting on her hand and foot, quite literally.

“You ACTUALLY thought I wanted to hire you? She laughed at his gullibility. Though she was joking, the idea didn't sound all that bad when she thought about it.

“It sounds like you're having a better experience Miss Southern.” Making things from bad to worse, Michelle entered the fray again to survey the situation. 

“These new stilettos are wonderful!” Valerie lit up turning a whole 360 for Michelle to admire.

“Oh! They look fantastic and suit you well!” Michelle praised.

Neil may as well have been invisible as the two titans talked to each other, which was the for the best, so he didn't have to hide the fact he was rolling his eyes at Michelle further inflating the already bloated ego of Valerie. His reprieve didn't last long and her attention lowered to him.

“And I trust Neil was of some help to you?”

Valerie's joy vanished and was replaced with disdain again. “Well, he wasn't COMPLETELY terrible. Though he barely attempted to mingle with me, I'd go as far and say he didn't like me.” 

Following tradition Michelle cut Neil off before he made any rebuttal, took Valerie's words at face value, and leaned down and engulfed Neil into her fist “What did I tell you Neil?” She growled after bringing him to her displeased face. 


“L-Let me go!” He cried and tried to squirm free, his struggles only earned him further reprimand from his giant supervisor.

“Wrong answer.” Michelle shook her head and squeezed harder. “Come on cub scout, use your noodle and try to remember.”

It was only a slight amount of pressure, but enough to make Neil feel as though he had a snake constricting the air right out of his lungs. “To offer...excellent customer service!” He wheezed.

“And?” She squeezed a little tighter.

“Even if... I had to kiss her ass!” He squeaked. He didn't have the breath to quote her verbatim, but his answer was satisfactory enough to make Michelle relent.

“Now then since you went and half fulfilled your task, you're going to receive some real time training.” Michelle stated. “If you don't mind Miss Southern.”

Neil didn't have the foggiest clue what she was getting at and watched as Valerie turned her back to him. Only when she lowered her business slacks and undergarments to reveal her rotund glutes did the meaning become fully clear to him and he was losing it.

“W-what!? No!”

“Sorry cub scout. It's the only way to teach you.” Michelle cackled, obviously not the least bit regretful and tightened her grip on his body so he couldn't turn his head and began to move him closer to one of Valerie's meaty ass cheeks. Neil struggled relentlessly until the very last second where he got a face full of her soft but firm ass cheek. He thought it'd be one and done ordeal, but Michelle had other plans in mind when pulled him away.

Applying a little extra force to her squeeze Michelle commanded him again. “Pucker up.” 

Defeated Neil pursed his lips, resigned to endure his humiliation until it was over. Forward and back, Michelle drove him into the flesh of Valerie's ass. She switched up her force periodically. Occasionally making him perform small pecks on Valerie's cheek in rapid succession and then changed tactics by driving further to force him to give her glutes a deeper kiss. Physically there were worse forms of torture to endure, mentally though it was demeaning, demoralizing, and humiliating. Neil didn't even need to see it to know that there were elated simpers etched onto their condescending faces right now.

Satisfied with her impromptu lesson Michelle brought Neil back to her face. “Now is there something you want to say about Miss Southern's new stilettos?”

“They look nice on you.” It took everything he had left to look her in the eyes and say it.

“Oh! You flatter me.” Valerie beamed as she pulled her undergarments and slacks back up. “I guess I can overlook the return incident. Who knows maybe I'll call you about that job offer.” Valerie mused with a cocky sneer.

At last Michelle finally set Neil on the ground “I'm sorry I had to be so hard on you cub scout, but it was the only way you'll learn.” Michelle grinned patting him on the head. “You did a great job.” She concluded, lightly tugging on his face cheek again.

Neil wasn't even bothered by it now, he just wanted to get out...immediately. “Am I dismissed?”

“Oh right, the store's about to close. Run on home now.” Michelle smirked, patting Neil on the rear again as she did earlier.

After being belittled so much he didn't have another word to say, he glanced up at them one last time and saw their patronizing faces as they snickered at him. Embarrassed further Neil hung his head, he could've sworn they looked even bigger than before. Before they found reason to continue the humiliation Neil scampered off like a scolded child. With his head low he walked as quickly as a 2 inch tall human could out the front automatic doors into the nightly solitude and slumped against a wall. 

Suffering the worst work shift of his life was bad enough, the true problems began now, after all he was still under the pill's effect. How was he even going to get back to campus at his size? As he pondered the ring of a familiar bike bell caught his attention and he looked up and saw why. Because it was his own bike that was by him, and in the bike seat? None other than Angel.

“Hey there little boy, need a lift?” The night was just getting better and better...

Neil acted on his first instinct which was to run back into the store. He’d rather subjugate himself to being humiliated by Valerie and Michelle again than deal with Angel for a third time. His hastiness did not serve him well, expecting the door to open Neil instead ran straight into the glass.

“Ack!” He shrieked in pain, having learned the hard way that the automatic doors were already turned off.

“Wow, I offer you a ride home and you run away from me? Way to hurt a girl’s feelings.” She stepped down from the bike and knelt to Neil's level.

Still rubbing his face Neil did not appreciate her lackadaisical tone. “Save it! What are you doing here!?”

“Didn’t I say I was going to pick you up after work?” Angel huffed at having to repeat herself.

Though Neil remembered that, he interpreted it as sarcasm rather than serious intent, plus if he’s learned anything about Angel so far it’s that she had an ulterior motive that didn’t include simply giving him a lift back home.

“I’m not going.” He crossed his arms.

Angel slapped her forehead with her palm in annoyance, it was like hearing a bratty kid declare they wouldn't clean their room or eat their vegetables. “Are we really doing this?”

“Yes.” Neil adamantly stated. Admittedly, he was aware how silly it looked trying to stand his ground when Angel dwarfed him by an exponential margin.

“Look, I know we got off to a shaky start but am I really the enemy here?”

Neil repressed the urge to snort at the understatement of them getting off to a 'shaky start'. “Let’s see, you forced me to take drugs, stalked me to my job, have my bike, I'd say yes, you are the enemy!”

Angel rolled her eyes. “If it makes you feel any better I'll let you ride in my boobs on the way back to campus.”

“H-huh!?” Neil stammered.

“What? It's hasn't crossed your mind to enjoy the female body in ways no one has before?” Surprisingly Angel asked this as a serious question as if it was something she has given legitimate thought. 

“No!”

“Ugh, you're so difficult.” Angel complained. “Let’s cut to the chase, you're coming with me either willingly or by force.” She explained and held out her palm for him. “If I wasn't here, what would you even do? Loiter around and wait for divine intervention or try your luck fending by yourself until someone squashed you or an animal makes dinner out of you? Is coming with me really that bad? Besides I have something to show you.”

It was that insufferable personality of hers that made it a bitter pill to swallow when she was right. Neil was between a rock and a hard place, she made it clear of her intentions to take him regardless of his stance and even in the unlikely event he managed to get away he couldn’t deny his chances of survival were even worse on his own. Angel was far from ideal company, but she’s had every opportunity to physically harm him so far and hasn’t. Until he returned to normal, he’d have to make the best of a bad situation. Begrudgingly, he stepped onto her palm.

“What are you going to show me?”

“Surprise.” She answered cryptically as ever and placed Neil in the basket at the back of his bike. “I know you were looking forward to it, but I don't think it's safe for you to ride in my tits.”

“I was not looking forward to it!”

Disregarding his defensive response Angel got back on the bike and began pedaling away. Neil watched as the scenery swished by him. He got some relief to see she was going the proper direction of the university and not taking him to the middle of nowhere. After a brief period of riding she reached campus and continued pedaling beyond the dorms. The thought entered his mind to cry out for help, but given it was Sunday night campus was practically a ghost town, the few people he did spot Angel flew by too quickly; it wasn’t like they’d be able to hear him anyway. Once she reached the front of the university library she pressed down on the brakes and kicked down the stand.

“Here we are.” She announced.

“What are we doing here?” He asked.

“Research.” Par for course Angel gave him another vague answer and removed the book bag from her back and fished inside of it.

“And you've stolen my bag too?” Neil added, noticing that the bag uncannily resembled his own. Once she located his school identification card she swiped it in the reader to gain access to the building. After the reader light turned green signaling the door was unlocked she picked up her captive and went inside.

The library was just as bereft of people as outside, the small handful of students who were present had their faces buried into books as they crammed for tests the following the day or into a computer screen rushing to complete papers that were due by midnight. To ensure they’d go uninterrupted, Angel headed to the upstairs lab that was entirely devoid of people and deposited Neil and his belongings on the table near the computer.

Taking a seat, Angel pressed the power button and waited for the desktop to boot up. There was something that interested Neil though, the login screen. In order to use the computer, she'd need a school account and seeing that she used his own ID to access the building was an indicator that she did not have one meaning she was not enrolled here. He was curious to see how she would get around this so he watched intently as Angel's fingers nimbly navigated the keyboard in the username slot.

“n-m-c-i-n-t-y-r-e” He saw her type, wait. “N-McIntyre” His own username? Neil accepted that anyone could’ve inferred that most usernames were generated from the first name initial and the entirety of the last name; but watching as the black dots appeared in the password field wasn’t happenstance. Her keystrokes were deliberate and when she pressed enter he could only stare baffled as she was greeted by the welcome screen and his desktop soon after.

Taking a quick glance at his surprised face, she answered. “Making your password your birthday is pretty freaking obvious y’know.”

Be that as it may, Neil was still perplexed at how she was so confident and getting it right on her first attempt when he also randomly had letters capitalized in it too?

Perhaps she was savvy with computers and was a hacker, he wouldn't put anything past her at this point. While they waited for the desktop to load, Neil was startled by his phone lighting up and vibrating. He was close to disregarding it as one of those phony automated calls, but when he looked over the caller ID belonged to Grace and he remembered that she was probably ensuring he got back to campus safely.

Seeing the opportunity Neil sprung to his phone and with reckless abandon tried to tap on the green symbol to answer the call. Even with his best efforts given his size he couldn’t generate enough force for the touch screen to recognize it. Thinking fast Neil jumped right on the screen to hopefully provide enough weight for the sensor to pick up on but by then Angel turned her focus to the phone.

“Oh, it looks like you have a  call.” She smirked and effortlessly shooed Neil off the phone and took it into her own hand. “Go ahead.” She answered the phone, putting it on speaker before holding out the device in front of him.

He didn’t question why Angel went out her way to do that, but he couldn’t pass up the chance. “Grace help, I'm in the library!” He yelled.

“What? I can't hear you very well.” Grace answered.

Fuck! His voice was too quiet.  “I'm in the library! Hurry!” Despite yelling his loudest the first time, he tried to speak louder nearly causing pain in his vocal chords.

There was another pause for a couple of seconds before Grace responded. “You’re where?” She said, able to pick up on some of the message. 

“The lib-” He tried to answer but Angel turned the phone away from him and towards herself.

“Don't worry Grace, Neil got home just fine. Talk to you later.” Grace responded and abruptly hung up. For good measure she held down the power key to shut the device off.

“Dammit!” Neil swore.

“Well that sucks, you were so close.” Angel snidely commented. 

“Oh piss off! Just tell me what you want from me?!”

“Wow, temper much? I guess hearing from your crush got you all hot and bothered.”

“I don't have a crush on her!”

Angel sucked her teeth after hearing the blatant lie. “Yeah, you sure convinced me.”

“Whatever.” Neil turned his back seeing no reason to have to justify himself to her.

“She’s beautiful isn’t she?” Her tone made her words come out as a declarative statement rather than a question.

“…She is.” Neil didn’t want to answer her, however just visualizing her kind-hearted face gave him a bit of relief in the midst of his frustrating predicament.

“You think she's out of your league.”

That statement made his relief go straight out the window. “...”

“Grace could have any guy she wanted.”

“...Alright you've made your point.” Neil sighed.

“Why does she bother with you, when there’s already guys who would bend over backwards for her?”

“Enough.” 

“There must be an ulterior motive right? She befriended a loser like you and not some popular guy?”

“Alright already, I get it! I admit I used to think that. But it's not like that, we’re friends!” He snapped.

“You think she sees you as a friend?” Angel rhetorically asked. “What if I told you she doesn’t?”

Neil’s apprehension was piqued and he turned and saw Angel had turned the computer monitor towards his direction. A browser was open with a video player loaded and paused on full screen. “Hilarious House Party 2k18.” He read aloud the video title.

“Mhm. You remember what was going on before you passed out at the party?”

“People were taking pictures and videos.” Neil nervously answered and the pit of anxiety in his stomach was growing upon the realization that this was leading into Angel’s reason for bringing him to the library.

“Watch.” She said, clicking on the play button.

Gripping on his pants to alleviate his body shaking Neil looked on as the video began playing. It started off on a curly haired girl who he vaguely recognized fumbling with her phone for a few seconds to get situated on the party.

“Holy shit, just wait until you guys get a load of this.” The recorder said to whoever happened to be viewing the uploaded video. For another couple of seconds the camera jerked up and down as she made her way through people to the front. Once she arrived to the main point of interest, Neil finally had the chance to see with his own two eyes... himself at 2 inches tall.

She zoomed in on his nude form and started to whistle. “Hey small fry, look over here!” She laughed.

In the video Neil was looking all around considering she was not the only one with her phone out recording or taking pictures. If he was on the outside looking in and watched the video his first assumption would've had him believe it was a skit with some high quality effects. With the knowledge he had and this video being right in front of him that wasn't possible, but he still couldn't wrap his head around it. It seemed so surreal to literally watch himself at such a minuscule size cowering on the ground dazed and confused while all the giants swarmed around him. The camera shifted a few times to keep focus on him during the points he attempted to move only to be road blocked by someone’s shoe. 

“What’s going on?” Neil was almost ready to avert his eyes until he heard that voice… Grace’s. The video moved over to his friend who made her way to the forefront.

“Hey Grace, you trying to see the scene?!”  The recorder asked.

“What the...” She said, her tone growing in amusement while she stepped closer to his shrunken frame for a clearer view.

“Oh my god!” Grace said before erupting in laughter. “I'm gone for all of an hour and you shrink because I wasn't there to hold your hand?!” She cackled.

“What the heck, you know this dork Grace?” The camera holder inquired.

“In fairness he's a smaller dork now.” Grace quipped before the camera jerked about again courtesy of both them laughing.

“His life is sad enough, you don't need to record this embarrassment too.” His friend continued laughing and held her hand out in front of the camera and everything went black until the video ended.

Needless to say Neil was speechless, the Grace who was always so nice to him was laughing at him, called him sad, and referred to him as a dork. Hearing it right out of her mouth hit him right in the gut left him unable to formulate a rational judgment. He looked over to Angel who was observing his reaction and resistance welled up in him. He may not know how, but Angel was behind everything, she just had to be.

“I don't know how you're doing it, but this isn't real, the video, the shrinking all of it!”

Angel wasn't amused in the slightest by his denial and groaned. “Chriiiiist, how many times are you going to repeat that? It's not real! It's fake!” She mocked. “Is that what you're going to keep saying to about anything that's beyond your perception?”

“Until you tell me what's going on, maybe I will!” He countered and for his troubles was blindsided by Angel driving her index finger right onto Neil's stomach forcing him on his back. By the skin of his teeth he managed to get his hands up to barely keep her digit at bay. “Get off, it's heavy!”

“Heavy? There's no way I can possibly apply so much force with a mere finger, right?” Angel said, throwing the reasoning Neil had been using up until this point to deny the events that have been happening to him right back in his face. He tried to force her digit up, but Angel pressed down harder easily overwhelming him and resting her digit on his belly. 

“Uh oh, you might be in some trouble.” She pressed down again and immediately most of the air abandoned Neil’s lungs and his back was pressed further onto the hard uncomfortable wooden table.

“S-stop!” He gasped, desperately trying to reclaim the oxygen his body lost.

“Quick! Tell yourself it’s not real, that'll help!” She mocked as she wedged her finger into his midsection further.

“Aa- Aag-...” If he had the wind, a blood chilling scream would've been let loose from his mouth to convey the excruciating pain of his stomach being forced backwards to where it shouldn't be and his ribs bruising. In his current state the most he managed to vocalize was a short and jagged wail until he regurgitated the acid in his stomach.

His already meager strength was fleeting rapidly and against all odds Neil weakly flailed his legs and still tried to push against her lone digit in a moot effort.

“You don’t look well little boy. Do you think something ‘fake’ could cause you this much pain?” She increased her force again and in a subtle sound akin to pencil lead breaking, Neil’s ribs cracked. Waiting a few seconds longer, that felt like eons for the boy at her mercy she lifted her digit having left a visible indent in his midsection with the shape of her finger tip.

Naturally he was trying to draw air in as quickly as he possible, but given the status of his dilapidated ribs and battered stomach, each painful shallow breath caused his body to convulse. 

“What do you have to say little boy?” Aware that he would not be able to articulate much of anything she held her ear near his body to hear his response.

He barely registered her question, being too caught up in the pain that ransacked his spastic body. His stomach was producing some of the most unpleasant rumbling he had ever heard or felt and when his body had another regurgitation response he was left with dry heaves that made his ribs ache in pain until he puked again. This time it wasn't the acid that left the back of his throat burning, but the very liquid that runs through the veins of every living animal, blood. Neil looked beside himself in horror at the sight of the crimson fluid that his body ejected on the table and then to Angel who still awaited his answer.

“It’s..real…” He lifelessly managed to croak out.

Angel in turn smiled deeply at the acknowledgment, lifting her hand over his beaten body and balling it closed. To everyone downstairs it probably sounded like someone dropping a textbook as she slammed her fist on him. “It’s very real.”  She added.

After prodding him several times Grace decided on a less subtle method and shook Neil’s shoulders until he awoke with enough force to fall backwards out of the computer chair and onto the floor. The fact that he was completely unscathed and at regular size hadn't registered in his mind as he scampered backwards against the wall.

“Where is she!?”

“Neil!” Grace followed him to the wall and put her hands back on his shoulders to calm him down.

“Where did she go!?” He continued, his head on a swivel trying to peer past his friend to find where Angel was lurking.

“Neil!”

“Did you see-”

“Dude, get a grip!” With no other options to shut him up, Grace flung her open hand across Neil’s cheek to snap him out of his belligerence. The stinging pain from her slap initially startled him, but succeeded in jolting him into a coherent state. Able to think clearly now, Neil looked down at his chest taking into account that was he was unharmed. The déjà vu was all too real after having thought twice over that he was at death’s door only to wake up like nothing happened.

Neil looked upwards at the nearest window, it was still pitch black outside. “What time is it?”

“3:00 a.m. give or take. Thanks for scaring me half to death by the way. You sounded like someone was trying to kill you over the phone. I tried texting and calling a hundred times before I went to look for you around campus, come to find out you were here doing some last minute homework.”

“I didn’t come here; I was brought here!” He corrected. “Angel showed up at my job and forced her drugs on me again. After I shrunk she brought me here.”

“Angel again?” She inquired.

Though she was trying to mask it, Neil picked up on a heavy underlying tone of skepticism in her voice, she entertained the topic once before and for him to bring it up again he knew he needed to provide some definitive proof this time. “Yes, when you called me! She spoke to you on the phone.”

Grace thought back to the conversation they had. “I remember hearing bits of what you said, but you were talking very quietly.”

“It’s because I was shrunk during that time and then Angel took the phone from me and talked to you for a couple of seconds.”

Grace again tried to recall if she heard anyone else during that phone call, but could neither confirm nor deny it. “The call just cut out after I asked you to repeat where you were. You know the signal on campus sucks sometimes.”

“Grace c’mon, you have to believe me… Hold on, come to the computer.” Though frustrated Neil could understand her hesitance to believe him. If it were someone coming up to him about a psycho chick giving them magic shrinking pills he’d probably write them off as a nutcase. He appreciated Grace hearing him out for this long, but it was evident he needed something concrete to support his claims.

Picking up the fallen chair, Neil sat down and logged back into the locked computer.

“What are we going to look at?”

“A video from the party.” He explained, though the browser was closed he was easily able to locate the page in the search history. It appeared like the page was going to open, however after a couple of seconds the page redirected to a message reading, “Video Removed for Violation of Website Guidelines.”

“Oh come on!” He pleaded with the website, repeatedly clicking on the refresh key hoping by some absurd miracle the video would come up. “Come on, come on, come on!”
“Would you relax!” Grace intervened, rotating the chair so that Neil faced her.

Confused, Neil stared up to his monumental friend.

With a toothy grin etched into her face Grace leaned her billboard sized face closer to the tiny boy who hardly took up a square inch of the chair seat. “What difference does it make? I was there and saw exactly how puny you were.” She illustrated her point bringing together her thumb and index finger close to Neil, leaving just enough space between them to give a rough visual representation of his size. “You were about thaaat big.”

Neil rubbed his eyes. “Huh?”

“I said, it was probably taken down because you were… nude.” Grace reluctantly repeated. “Besides, I was there and like I said you were normal size.”

“R-right.” Neil stuttered.

Grace delivered a stern glare to Neil. Though he was looking at her there was a hazy faraway gaze in his eyes that signaled that he wasn't totally together and it made her wish he heeded her words earlier. “I told you not to go to work today. You barely slept last night and now you’re pulling all-nighters here? You need to get some rest.”

“…That’s true.” For the sake of avoiding an argument Neil agreed, but he refused to believe the gravity of what was going on was caused by mere sleep deprivation; granted exhaustion wasn't helping his mental capacities. Now that his heart rate settled down from his initial panic the adrenaline dump made fatigue hit him at full force. Just trying to keeping himself upright in the chair was an arduous task that required him to keep his active attention on staying balanced unless he wanted to collapse.

Neil looked up again, unable to move a muscle while Grace’s monumental hand clenched him into her fist. “Time to go to bed dork.” Without a care in the world she let her hands sway at her sides while she casually strolled letting her friend in her clutches reap all the disorientation of her arms winging back and forth.

After Grace stopped at the door steps of his dorm building Neil managed to get his wits about him enough to notice her holding his hand, assuming she was probably doing so the whole way.
“... You didn't have to do all this... I could've managed.” Shyly Neil freed his hand.

“Yeah, you would've managed to fall face-first into the ground.” She rephrased. “Neil promise me you'll let this Angel thing go and get some rest.”

“I promise.” He nodded in agreement and turned to face the now 50-foot-tall door obstructing his path. It would've been an impossible obstacle for him to get through, thank heavens Grace was nearby to turn the handle and open it for him.

“Good, because if you don't I'm going to squash your little ass.” She said stomping her sneaker only centimeters away from his body for a not so subtle indication for him to go inside and to keep his word.

“Goodnight Neil.” Grace waved at him, wearing a supportive yet concerned smile on her face.

“Y-yeah, goodnight.”

“Left foot, right foot.” He kept repeating to himself, his coordination at the moment was on par with an infant learning to stand on their own for the first time and he came very close to falling on the ground. Through sheer willpower and using the wall for support did he finally manage to reach his room. Never in his life has his bed looked so inviting, without giving it a thought he let his body collapse onto the mattress.

His body felt heavy and weary enough to where he thought he'd instantly fall into a deep slumber, but instead he hovered in a strange purgatory between conscious and unconsciousness. Whenever he came close to crossing the line into a complete sleep, he found himself dreaming hazily of himself being flat on his back looking up to a gigantic and unrecognizable blurry form. Neil could only discern the bare minimum of their shape to decipher that it was at the very least a giant human standing above him. Paying close attention again he managed to pick up on the motions that the giant was making with their mouth, but his ears didn't register any sounds being made nor his eyes the exact formations being made. It was a slow process as his vision focused and he was able to process more details about the giant. Based on the curvature of their body and length of hair, it was safe to say it was a woman. Her lips moved again and he could roughly hear a low murmuring distortion of what her actual voice probably sounded like. “teɪk ay pɪl”

Being concerned with trying to read her lips he didn’t notice when she lifted her hand, there was a small object in it, that she tilted back and forth. Each time the contents inside the object rattled, the picture came into further focus. Gasping in a paralyzed shock once his sight was clear, he finally comprehended the sight of Angel tilting her pill container over his body. “Take one.” She smiled and turned the bottle over completely and boulder sized pill plummeted downward.

Neil scrambled off his mattress in a cold sweat. “Angel!” He screamed, waiting for what he thought was the inevitable moment where she was going to appear again to mess with him. He surveyed his room, trying to spot something out of the ordinary; although messy, nothing struck him as unusual. He thought his bizarre dream only lasted for a couple of minutes, staring at the clock though it was already 11:30 a.m. and he needed to get ready for his English exam.

Neil had a hard time looking at himself in the mirror and seeing his glassy and droopy eyed reflection staring back at him. “Fuck…maybe Grace is right.” He thought to himself. The amount of paranoia he’s experienced the past two days was already taking its toll and worrying about Angel looming at every corner would only stress him out further. Putting his best foot forward, Neil steeled his resolve to make this a regular day as he showered and dressed himself. Putting his bag over his shoulder, he turned off the lamp on his desk in preparation to leave and stopped right in his tracks.

Drawn to it like metal to a magnet, Neil stared mesmerized by the pill container on his desk… Was that always there? He wasn’t paying enough attention beforehand to notice. Now that he thought about it, he never accepted them back when Angel tried to give it to him at work. Did she at some point plant them in his roo- “No, no, no…” At this point he thought better of trying to theorize how the pills arrived where they did.

“Not this time.” Neil said, taking the bottle into his hand he walked over to his trashcan and pressed down on the bottom lever that opened the lid. He held the bottle over the can to drop the container inside. He simply had to let his grip go loose for the container to fall inside. Just let his hand go limp and they’ll be gone… All he had to do was let go… 
For what was the longest few minutes of his life Neil simply stared at the black trash bag while his hand hovered in the air. What was wrong with him… “Just throw them away!” He yelled out loud to himself. His nerves were crawling all over his skin and the intense paranoia seemed to have physically manifested with claws that were closing in on his neck from behind. She was watching him... she must be... she was lurking waiting to show up and cause havoc again. Not this time... 

Deciding against it, Neil tossed the bottle in his pocket and began making his way towards class. Despite it being a beautiful sunny day with a gentle breeze accompanying the air and the students outside enjoying the delightful weather, everything around him were background props and noises. The only thing he was focused on was the container in his pocket and the only noise he heard was the subtle rattle of each individual pill as he moved.

When he arrived to class, most of the students were already getting their materials ready and doing some last minute studying. One of the students who weren’t that caught Neil’s attention was off to the window, holding her phone up trying to angle her camera to ensure she’d get the best selfie. It wasn’t her behavior alone though that kept his attention, but now seeing her curly brown hair and amber eyes in a fully lit classroom his brain made the connection he didn’t realize at the dark party that she was the one who recorded and uploaded the video last night!
Hazel was a classmate who many of her critics would refer to as being fame hungry and unlike the rest of the people majoring in the department who aspired to be journalists, videographers, etc. Hazel made no qualms about hiding her desires to be famous on Instagram, or Insta-Famous in her own words. She wasn’t exactly the type of person who Neil would go out of his way to acquaint himself with, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she still had the recorded video on her phone that contained definitive proof of the bizarre turns of events occurring in his life.

“Hey… Hazel.”

The curvaceous woman flinched, having been startled out of her posturing and looked away from her phone, irritated that her near perfect selfie was ruined. “What the F? Can’t a bitch take a selfie without being crept up on?”

“Er, sorry. It’s just-” While he began to attempt explaining himself, Hazel squinted her eyes having a similar epiphany of trying to work out where she’s seen Neil. Her face brightened up once she drew the connection.

“Oh! If it isn’t the star himself. You got me a whole lot of new Hazelnuts on my Instagram y’know.”

“…Hazelnuts?”

“My followers, get with it! I just wish Instagram didn’t delete f’n the video. I should rant about that on Twitter, maybe I can get it trending.” She mused and started to tap away on her phone, trying to brainstorm of a catchy hashtag.

“Never mind all that, I need to talk to you about the video.” 

“What about it?”

“I need to check something…” It was easier to tell Grace who he knew and trusted with all the details about what he experienced that night. Hazel however was an uncertain wild card, so he wanted to keep his explanation to a minimum.

Sucking her teeth Hazel believed she had it figured out. “As if, I show you the video and you’re going to what? Conveniently try to delete it from my phone? Not gonna happen.” She denied.

Clenching his fist, Neil began losing his patience. “Hazel come on, this is serious!”

“Look, unless you're going to give me an encore performance of the party, I got nothing to say to you, buh-bye now.” Hazel said resuming business on her phone, not even acknowledging Neil as she waved him off.

“Alright students take a seat, it’s time for the exam…” Said the monotone voice of Professor Brooks. Her half opened eyelids screamed of total disinterest and she rummaged her hand through her messy raven colored hair appearing to still be waking up. Given the bags in her eyes and the slight stumble in her step Neil wondered if she was fresh off a hangover from a night of drinking. Once she was fired from her columnist position of a political news site after some controversial tweets she made a few years ago surfaced, the 29-year-old found herself black-balled and as Neil has heard her say while passing her office ‘lowered to teaching a low rung English course to a bunch of millennial brats.’ With her untimely arrival Neil had no choice but to take a seat and wait as Ms. Brooks apathetically began passing around her stack of tests around the class. 

“Phones off during the test, eyes on your own paper, there will be two parts of the exam. The first part will consist of fill in the blank, reading, grammar comprehension, and multiple choice sections. The second part will be an active listening portion. You have 30 minutes to complete part one.” Ms. Brook’s explained, struggling to keep even herself interested as she explained the instructions.

Neil scrambled through his bag until he found a pencil, for now he decided that he'll have to make do and perform his best on the exam and maybe he can try to convince Hazel again to show him the video. Once the paper arrived face down, he flipped it over to begin.

Part 1, Section 1: Grammar Comprehension. Read the following statements below and circle yes or no if the word 'effect' or 'affect' was used correctly.
Scott went to the local pharmacy to pick up some prescription pills. The disclaimer tag stated the pills could induce side effects such as headaches, vomiting, shrinking, nausea, and light headedness.

“…” Apprehensively Neil look at the question once more to determine if he read the statement correctly.

Scott reached into his pocket for mysterious pills given to him by a stranger. The disclaimer tag stated the pills could induce side effects such as, vomiting, shrinking- Stopping again, Neil rubbed his eyes at the eerie similarity that the sentence reflected in reality. There was no possible way, it had to be his mind playing tricks with him, he didn’t even take a pill this time. “Just focus Neil… focus.” He told himself and prepared to read the question one last time.

Neil reached into his pocket to take a pill that caused a side effect of shr-

Ceasing at once, he refused to read the rest of the statement. “…Maybe I should work on another section first.” He decided once he got his mind on straight after completing a different portion of the test he'll come back to the beginning.

Section II Multiple Choice, Choose the Pill. 

Beads of sweat formed on Neil's skin as he skimmed through the wording of the rest of the exam, pill this, pill that, pills, pills, pills, pills. Breathing heavily it became near impossible for him to focus in this state and the only thought that plagued his mind were the pills in his pocket. Without the chattering of the students or the professor lecturing, the only audible in the room was the second hand of the clock, something that everyone associated with a tick-tock sound. Neil? Only heard the clacking of a pill against the surface of the container. Ringing in his ears… louder…louder…and LOUDER. 

Without thinking Neil raised his hand in a panic. “Ms. Brooks!”

Her eyes opening to full width briefly as he disturbed her from her mid-exam nap Ms Brook's looked his way.

“May I get some water please?” Neil barely managed to ask that question coherently considering his mouth was forming words at a mile per minute, thankfully Ms. Brooks managed to comprehend the question.

“Make it quick.” She responded, rolling her eyes before nodding off again.

Without further ado Neil left the classroom and headed right for the water fountain a couple of feet away. He didn't know how they got back to him, but now that they were in his possession he resolved himself to do what he should've from the start. With labored breaths he retrieved the pill container from his pocket and unscrewed the cap. 

“Good riddance, I hope I never see you again.” He spat, the only thing he regretted was not doing it sooner as he tilted his hand to rid himself of he pills once and for all. Before he could achieve the complete angle needed to make them fall out he saw a hand grab onto his wrist and the next thing he knew his head was pushed against the wall.

“Ooof!” He yelped at the ringing pain in his skull.

“I wouldn’t recommend that.” Said his displeased assailant.

“A-Angel!” He shouted, despite not being able to see or face her at the moment, her voice had a permanent residence in his mind that he could distinguish after thinking about everything she's said and did to him more times than he would like to admit.

“Get off!” Neil barked and tried to writhe free from her grasp to which Angel didn’t budge or appear to be straining herself at all in maintaining her tight hold on his wrist and head. By no means did he consider himself an especially strong individual, but it had to have been physically impossible for someone of Angel’s height and build to be so disproportionately strong compared to him. 

“Are you going to throw them away?” She asked increasing the strength of her grip, sending a shooting pain throughout Neil’s arm that made him drop the container to the ground.

“N-no, I won’t!” He squealed under the impending threat of his wrist being broken. 

“Good boy.” Angel’s tone softened and let him go free.

“What do you want no-” Neil turned around to face her and the words he was going to speak left his brain to give way for total silence as he stared up at Angel... all 7 feet of her.

“Something the matter little boy?” She patronized, giving him a knowing smirk as if there was an inside joke that he wasn't privy to.

Neil took a brief reference of his surroundings to ensure everything was on proper scale and concluded that he definitely had not shrunk again, meaning there was no way Angel should be so much taller than him. They were the same height when he was regular sized, yet now his eyes were level with her chest?! 

“Go ahead, I'll wait.” Angel laughed and leaving Neil even more confused.

“W-wha?” He stammered still unable to form a competent sentence.

“Oh come on, you know what I mean. I'm waiting for your usual 'Oh my god! Why are you so big Angel, this can't be real, my mind is playing tricks on me!' routine.” She mimicked with an exaggerated hand motions and mocking his voice.

Even though he knew the question was playing right into her hand he asked anyway. “But... how are you so big... we were the same height.”He weakly asked, fearing for the response she'd provide in wake of this disturbing development.

Humoring him, Angel tapped a finger on her chin as if she were musing for an answer. “Hmm, really? I'm pretty sure that isn't right.” She giggled cupping the top of his head in her hand and jostling his skull around for a few seconds. “Why would we be the same height, you're the scared little boy after all, it's only logical that I'm bigger than you.” Leaning over she picked up the container of pills that he dropped. 

Neil didn't have it in him to argue anymore, the only thing he wanted was an explanation and at this point had to accept Angel was the only one who could provide it. “Angel please... just tell me what you want. Is it just to screw with me? Do you want something from me? Money? What-”

Putting her palm over Neil’s mouth, Angel put a silence to his pleading. “Just take one, it's going to be over soon.”

Groaning in protest, Neil shook his head over and over. At this point he was willing to do anything to get an answer from her, but not that. Nothing good has occurred from those pills and he doubted that would change now.

“Come on little boy, there's only two left.” She explained, holding the container closer to his face for him to see. “Take one now, then the other later, and you won't have to worry anymore. I'll explain everything.” 

Though he was still unconvinced by her words, he was rather baffled. He could've sworn there was at least a half dozen pills left in the container. Yet as she held the container in front of him, there were only two like she said. Unfortunately they were looking all the more tempting as she dangled them in front of him like a carrot on a stick.

“You know you want one.” She continued waving them back and forth, Neil's eyes responded in kind. “You can't focus on anything else, it's been keeping you up at night, it's been haunting your dreams. Admit it Neil, it's all you can think about.” She leaned closer to his ear and whispered. “I'm all you can think about.” 

His body shaking Neil caved and reached forward for the pill bottle and Angel swiftly responded and held it far above his head. “Not so fast.”

“Give me one! Please, give me one!” He panted jumping up several times to try and retrieve it.

“Tell me you want it.” Angel instructed.

“I want it! I want it!” A depraved Neil pleaded still holding up his arms and jumping trying to grab them from 7 foot amazon... well he thought she was 7 feet tall. Maybe he misjudged her height.

“Tell me you need it.” Angel instructed again.

Willing to do anything to get one he obliged a gain “I need it! Please, I need it!” Again Neil jumped up to try for the container, and oddly it seemed that they were rising further out of his proximity and into the air. When he stopped his springing the blood drained right from his face as he visually scaled up Angel's body again with his sights level with her navel.

Without a word he made eye contact with Angel who was staring down at him in total seriousness. “Tell me you're small.” She instructed.

There was a noticeable delay in his willingness to respond to that question, but every second he waited the sound of her question echoed throughout his mind, combining with the all too familiar sound of the pills rattling. He needed one... he needed one now! “I'm small-” 

It happened in a flash, a flash so fast that he could not fully process it. However in the span of what had to have been millisecond from when he complied there was no mistaken that he probably saw Angel shoot up about another three feet in height and as quickly as he blinked she was gone. He barely even recalled swallowing the pill, but he must have. The insatiable craving that was tearing his psyche apart by the seams had finally dissipated... at the cost of being shrunken again at 3 inches tall. Neil wanted nothing more than to fall to his knees and lament how weak he was at such a pivotal time, however he had bigger problems. Angel was not in front of him anymore... instead now he stood in the enormous shadow of Ms. Brook's and knew his troubles were only beginning as she knelt down to grab him.

“There you are you brat.”

Third Pill Part 2 : The Long Haul 

“What have you been doing out here this whole time? Trying to cheat I bet.” A displeased, Ms. Brooks assumed while impatiently tapping her foot as she waited for a response.

“I wasn’t cheating…” It was far too tempting for Neil to try and explain, but seeing how well that’s worked for him before he refrained from doing so. Besides, the story was so outlandish it would do more to confirm her suspicions than refute them.

“Whatever, get back to class, the next part of the exam is about to start.” She ordered and turned to walk away.

“Ms. Brooks wait!” Neil exclaimed trying to ensure his professor heard his voice before she was too far away. He heard an audible sucking of her teeth when she stopped to look down at him again.

“…What?” She spat, drumming her nails against the wall.

Neil had every reason to suspect his request wasn’t going to go over well, but it couldn’t be helped. The time it’d take him to get back to the classroom would extend well beyond the allotted test time. Being that she was the only person around right now to help him options were limited. “Can you… carry me back to class?” 

The drumming of nails came to immediate halt and she stepped closer to Neil. “And why exactly do I have to carry you back to class!?” She bellowed, placing both hands on her hips and stared down at the nuisance of a student. While he knew she could be quite… volatile, Neil didn’t expect such a hostile reaction to what he thought was a reasonable ask given his stature. Beads of sweat formed on his skin as he stood in the midst of her shadow. She’s lost her cool a few times during the classroom before, but that was aimed at the class in general. Having her focused ire on him while in such a diminutive state left Neil feeling like he was treading too close to an active volcano that was due to blow.

“Sorry… it’d take me a long time to get to class by myself.” Though he was already minuscule in her presence, the rage emanating from his colossal professor had subconsciously rendered him feeling tinier under her scrutiny and speaking in an even softer tone in a passive attempt to appease her.

“Tch, do I look like your Mom brat!?- Y’know what, c’mere.” Though she was obviously irritated still, Neil somehow managed to avoid stepping onto a landmine and delay the impending eruption.

Grunting, Ms. Brooks stooped down and picked up her shrunken student by the collar of his shirt between her digits and began moving without further thought, leaving her hands utterly relaxed which left Neil dangling nearby her waist. Every inch of the way introduced a new wave of fear as he was haphazardly swung back and forth akin to pendulum with each of the massive strides of the professor. In such a lax grip each step taken left him with an impending sense of doom that he’d slip through her fingers out of her sheer carelessness. It was risky, daring even; but the risk of plummeting to grave injury or his death far outweighed the inevitable chewing out he was about to receive from his next request.

“Um… Ms. Brooks can you carry me, a little safer?” As soon as he uttered the question during mid-swing of her arm, he felt his entire body jerk upward and found himself staring at his irate teacher who could probably turn Medusa to stone if she were to make eye contact.

He honestly expected to receive a verbal lashing, but instead she simply closed her fist around the majority of his body leaving him exposed from only the chin up having went from one end of the extreme to the other, with his professor now being more likely to crush his body in her bare hands if she applied a smidge more force than to drop him. Aside from being able to turn his head, the rest of his body was immobile.

“Better?” She growled. Neil shook his head in agreement, he didn’t dare try fate for a third time in asking her to be gentler and opted to remain silent as his professor resumed walking, returning her hands near her sides to hang free only now letting her runty student reside in her fist.

Stopping at the door she raised her student to her face once more. “I wish the rest of them were like you.” In the closest thing to a smile she managed all day a crooked grin emerged on her face. “Quiet…obedient…” Stopping mid-sentence the moody professor took a couple of seconds to admire the fact she had one of her students… or rather brats, completely subdued in her fist and helpless to do anything about it. “And small.” With a quick snort, she entertained the thought of actually enjoying her job in an imagined scenario where all her student brats were puny pests.

“Then I’d talk down to you all in more ways than one.” The grin further etched onto her face as she fantasized of the classroom layout; herself full-sized in the center surrounded by her miniaturized brats. They’d start off at half their normal height and then she’d watch them dwindle as she really cuts them down to size with each belittling word she spoke until they looked like little dolls to her.

“When I get bored of that I’ll make sure to ask several post lecture questions to make sure you all were paying attention.” Snickering, she visualized picking out students to answer incredibly difficult questions and with each incorrect answer she’d say “Wrong!” and the entire class would continue to shrink further until they were all at her feet looking up at her larger than life body as if she was a Goddess to them. “Oh, and if any of them were to get lippy like you did earlier…” Her lips curved into a full-on smirk as she got to the best part of her fantasy where one of the little shits would get bold and complain. With such a massive size advantage in her favor she was at no shortage of options of how to handle it. Perhaps crushing the runt mid-sentence underneath her shoe like the insignificant bug they are? Maybe toying with them a bit before doing so would be more entertaining. In that case she’d just slowly hover her shoe above their body and watch them run for just long enough to give them some false hope that they could actually escape before she introduced them to the bottom of her sole.

The prospect of simply discarding them in her drawer for hours on end was amusing too. It wouldn’t give her the immediate satisfaction as watching them run for their life, but it would be more than worth it when she occasionally opened the drawer and heard the desperation in their pathetic voice begging for her to let them out.

Though it sounded cliché and lifted straight out of a monster movie script, she was curious about giving them a one-way express ticket to her stomach. Though she doubted that brats would taste any good, it sent tingles of power down her spine to fantasize of a student struggling inside of her. They’d scream, beg, and cry until the very end and the last thing they’d ever see was the inside of her mouth. The rest from there was easy, she could passively layback and take nap in her chair as her body went about its natural metabolic process. Sure her little morsel would struggle tooth and nail, and to that she’d simply smile and rub her belly in an almost soothing manner as to subtly tell them to give up and accept their demise. Then in tandem she’d slowly drift off into her catnap as her morsel, worn out from struggling and her own stomach acid would cease resistance and succumb to digestion. The amusing irony dawned upon her that after she woke up, they’d be little shits for real. Truly she could go as far as her imagination would allow.

Neil nervously swallowed, never wanting to know what was going through her mind right now and remained complacent as Ms. Brooks opened the door. 

“Alright students it’s time for the second part of the exam!” She announced upon entry. “I want you all to write the following sentence.” Beginning her statement, she reverted back to her flimsy grasp of Neil’s shirt collar as she held him up for the class to see. “Compared to Professor Brooks Neil is _______. I want you all to fill in the blank with at least 15 adjectives. Try to flex your brains, I do not want to see any remedial answers like, ‘Compared to Professor Brooks Neil is small, or tiny, or little’.” She warned, purposelessly dangling her student mid-air as she listed off the examples she did not want to see and completely aware that it was scaring the wits out of him. “You have 20 minutes, starting now!” Huffing in relief that she had the students out of her hair for almost a half hour, Ms. Brooks dismissively dropped Neil onto her desk and sat down in her chair to catch a quick nap and hopefully sleep off the remainder of her hangover. Of course the student she neglected had something to say about that.

“Uh, what about my exam?” He asked.

Arching her eyebrow upwards Ms. Brooks responded. “What about your exam?” 

“I still need to finish it!” He explained what he thought was an obvious fact. Perhaps he missed the joke but whatever he said must’ve been funny, evidenced by his professor’s snickering.

“Right and how exactly are you going to finish the exam?” She questioned. Seeing that he was still confused, she pointed towards a stray writing utensil on the desk with a cocky grin. “Go on, lift that pen.”

An apprehensive Neil stepped towards the pen, justifiably afraid that he was about to prove his professor’s point as he sized up the pen. It was about as thick as his torso and about an inch and a half taller than he was, which relatively speaking was a lot. Upon visual analysis alone, he could discern that it was far too thick for him to pick up with just his hands. Squatting into a pose that bodybuilders would assume before performing a dead lift, Neil lifted up the pen as high as he could before attempting to wrap his arms around it. Though it took a large effort on his part he eventually got it up over his shoulder. Stabilizing it was another matter, despite managing to lift the pen he was severely off the center of mass and it left him stumbling backwards into a total fall on his back. Losing his grip, the pen rolled out of his grasp and off the edge of the desk to the floor.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. How unfortunate.” Ms. Brooks mocked with a smug snort. “I think it’s safe to say you’re not going to be able to finish your test. I’ll just write down a reminder to give you a 0.”

“What!? That’s not fair, you can’t do that!” Neil argued.

“Oh, can’t I? And what are YOU going to do about it!?” Ms. Brooks fired back, leaning forward and placing her forearms onto the desk, practically issuing a direct challenge for him to make a further fuss about it so she could really lay into him. Instantly Neil bit his tongue realizing he was about to jump into a battle where victory was impossible. Sitting back in her chair Ms. Brooks gritted her teeth. “Tch, that’s what I thought runt. You better think of something because at the end of this 20 minutes I have an F with your name on it.” She reiterated and turned her chair around to shut her eyes for a few moments.

It was more than obvious to Neil that he wasn’t going to be able to complete the exam and as disheartening as that was, he had no time to sulk, he needed to think of a plan. That plan consisted of one major goal, getting back to Grace. Whether the case maybe if the events going on are real or fake, she was the only person he could rely on now. Trying to explain to anyone else has been either useless or resulted in disaster. Despite being skeptical, she has been the only one to at least hear him out and at all costs he had to get back to the most dependable person he knew. What came after that was beyond the scope of his plan but somehow, he’ll make her believe him about Angel and then they’d put an end to this once and for all.

After the twenty minutes passed the phone in Ms. Brook’s pocket vibrated signaling the testing period was over and she stirred around in her chair until she rotated it towards the front. “Alright everyone, pencils down; bring your tests up front as you leave!” She announced and then looked down to Neil who as expected wasn’t able to do anything. “Well, well, what a surprise. Looks like you’re getting that F after all.” 

Ignoring her barb, Neil responded. “Can you at least get someone to take me out of class so I’ll be out of your way?” He was sure to word it in a way that’d the bring attention to him being out of her sight rather than it seeming like he was asking her directly to do something for him.

“Whatever.” Ms. Brooks grunted and looked up towards the last student to hand in their test. “Hazel, take this brat off to wherever he needs to go.” She said with a shooing motion of her hand before turning her chair back around to finish napping before her next class.

“Oooh, it’s you!” She said with enthusiasm, recognizing the familiar face that was sitting at the desk. “No problem Ms. Brooks!” The eager notoriety seeking student obliged.

Biting on his lip Neil wanted to curse his misfortune that it had to be Hazel of all people, but he was determined not to get discouraged. “Hazel please, you don’t have to show me the video or anything! I just need you to take me to Grace please, PLEASE!” 

The entire time he begged, Hazel was more focused on retrieving her phone from her pocket and toggling with its settings. She didn’t completely disregard his words however, seeing how he wanted a favor from her, this was an opportunity to get something in exchange. “So, you want to see Grace huh? Then I'm going to have you to do something for me.”

Neil stood in a stupor afraid to know what she was going to ask of him and watched as the biggest of smiles appeared on Hazel’s face as she held the phone in front of her.
“Alright, here we go in 3… 2… 1…” She counted down and pressed the record button.

“Hey there Hazelnuts it's ya’girl here in class about to do her good deed of the day for… my tiny friend!” Hazel paused halfway into her opening upon the realization that she didn’t know Neil’s name and had to think fast for a substitute. 

Tapping her phone screen twice the camera perspective swapped to recording Neil who stood mouth agape beginning to realize what was happening. “As you can see he’s reeeeaaaally teeny, say hello to the viewers!”

“You’re making a video at a time like this!?" Neil berated.

“Ugh, for the love of God!” The camera shook as Hazel grimaced in anger and paused the recording. Seeing her hand come down at the desk was more than enough warning for Neil to know he needed to run. The trapped student arced and zig-zagged as much as possible during his purposeless avoidance of Hazel’s hand. Given that he was on a desk there were no suitable places to hide nor a way for him to safely descend to the ground, all he was managing was to make her efforts to grab him a minor annoyance.

As anticipated Neil eventually wound up near the edge of the desk between what would be an open fall to the hard ground and Hazel’s oncoming hand. Resigned, he had no choice but to let the zealous student grab him.

“Got’cha twerp.” She huffed. “Now listen up, I’m going to resume the video and you’re going to do everything I say on my cue or else instead of Grace you may find yourself in a garbage can or in the toilet, got it?” 

It was a convincing argument and now that he was in her clutch’s noncompliance would practically be suicide. Neil agreed with a nod. 

Hazel set Neil back down on the desk and got back into her position. “Starting again in 3…2…1.” She tapped the record button. “As you can see, he’s reeeeaaaally teeny, say hello to the viewers.” Offering up the bare minimum, Neil gave a straight-faced wave. Though she would’ve liked for him to ham it up more for the camera she was able to play off his minimal reaction.
“As you can see my poor tiny friend is feeling a bit down; he has to get back to his friend all by himself.” Hazel then switched the camera perspective back to herself. “But that’s why ya’girl is going to give her tiny friend a BIG helping hand.” Again, she switched the camera to Neil as she lowered her open hand down, gesturing for him to step on. “All aboard!” 

Repressing the urge to roll his eyes Neil stepped onto her palm. Given he was about to get a lift straight to Grace he should have little to complain about, but having to play along to Hazel’s video as she acted like he was some helpless creature while not inaccurate still stung.

At the very least the fame hungry girl was earning way more brownie points than Ms. Brooks, the former doing him the courtesy of waiting while he found his balance before gingerly raising her hand to her shoulder and waited for him to step off.

“Better grab onto my hair little buddy because it may get bumpy!”

Obliging Neil grabbed onto a few strands of her loose hair using them to help maintain his footing. He didn’t feel comfortable hanging too far out on her shoulder and had to shimmy over closer towards her neck to give himself an added bit of security of something to lean against; much to Hazel’s delight believing it made her look much more inviting and friendlier on video.
“Aw, my little friend feels safer hanging closer to me, don’t you?” She plastered her biggest smile while she rubbed her finger against his back. Again, Neil had to hide his irritation in wake of her patronization and careless caressing which came close to making him lose his balance.

With everything set she held the camera overhead. “Alright, our passenger is set and here we go!” She cheerfully announced.

The first couple of yards she traveled were the most difficult for Neil as he got used to the ascents and descents of her footsteps. The fact Hazel kept a consistent pace however allowed Neil to adapt and maintain his posture without much trouble, though he was suspected that was not out of courtesy to him but so the video wouldn’t be so jerky. The only spotty moments of caution came when she traversed the more congested hallways where some students came dangerously close to bumping into her. Nonetheless for now, he had a reprieve while Hazel let her personality and charisma take the forefront as she padded out the time they were walking by giving her followers updates about what was going on in her life and video ideas she had in the future, including trying to feature her 'little buddy' in more videos.

“We’re almost there everybody, you guys could only imagine how hard it’d be for my tiny friend if he had to do this by himself.” Hazel tilted the camera so it faced the ground showcasing her own footfalls as well as those of the other students walking by the periphery. “He’d be all the way down there at my feet! I probably wouldn’t see him down there while I walked and once I get too close all I'd hear is CRUNCH!” Hazel tilted the phone back to her face where she bore the shocked expression she’d wear if said incident were to happen. “We definitely don’t want that do we little guy?” She rhetorically asked before stopping at the doors to the gymnasium.

“Here we are everyone, this is where we drop our little buddy off!” Hazel said holding her palm for Neil to stand on again.

A red flag entered Neil’s mind as he stepped back onto Hazel’s hand. Grace did not have physical education this semester and he remembered her telling him that she needed her friends to forcibly drag her to the gym before, so this would be one of the last places he'd expect to find her, what was Hazel up to?

“Before we go let’s give my favorite little guy a goodbye kiss!” Hazel announced and Neil visibly cringed knowing what was about to come. Though still bearing her excessively sweet smile, her eyes communicated the simple message of ‘If you know what’s good for you, you’re going to stand there and accept it.’. If it wouldn’t come at the cost of his life, he would gladly tell Hazel to fuck off, but his pride wasn’t worth his wellbeing and given the last couple of days he’s had he could compartmentalize that this was not the worst form of humiliation he’s had to endure. 

Standing docile, Neil waited as Hazel pursed her lips into an obnoxious duck face and pressed them square on his face. “Mwah.” She dramatically emphasized before pulling away with a smirk seeing how her act left Neil flushed in the face was perfect footage for the video.

“Whoops, looks like I embarrassed my little buddy everybody. Maybe I should kiss him again to make him feel better?” She winked at the camera. “Don’t forget to like the video and follow me on Instagram. Bye Hazelnuts!” Hazel dropped the smile in an instant once she pressed the stop button, taking mental notes of the areas she’d likely have to edit. “Hold your pose.” She instructed to Neil as she held out her phone again, summoning her smile one last time for a quick selfie. "There." She said, lowering her device and started typing away.

Now that she wasn’t recording, Neil was free to run his hand down his face and groan at the sight of her uploading the photo to Instagram. If that wasn’t bad enough, his stomach churned as he saw her input the photo description and hashtags. 

My favorite little Hazelnut in the palm of my hand. #GiantWoman, #GiantMe, #LittleMe, #Hazelnuts.

Once the photo posted, the gym doors opened to several students flooding out looking to head to their next class. Hazel keeping on the lookout until she spotted the distinguishable curly ginger haired student she was looking for. “Wait up, hey Ann!” Hazel tailed her down before she walked too far.

“Ann?!” A perplexed Neil repeated. He knew her as one of Grace’s friends, he recalled seeing her in several photos on her Facebook and Instagram account and more importantly as the person she went to hang out with at the party. Why Hazel brought him to her though was making him uneasy.

Turning around the ginger girl greeted the fellow student. “Oh, what’s up Hazel?” Looking down she took notice of Neil and offered him a shifty smile. “Hello there Neil.” 

“Nothing much, he just wants to see Grace REALLY badly.” Hazel emphasized and both girls chuckled between themselves leaving Neil feeling even more out of the loop than usual.

“Is that so? Hand him here.” Ann laughed and extended her arm out.

Sick of being talked about like an afterthought in this Neil spoke up. “What the heck is so funny, what’s up with you two!?”

“Mouthy little aren’t ya?” Ann quipped as she opened her purse and plucked Neil into her hand.

“Hold up! Stop, what’re you doing!?”

“Exactly what you want. Hang tight, we’re about to go see Grace.” She smirked as she dropped the small boy in and closed her bag.

Neil stumbled about reacquainting with his senses little by little. The room was dim but his surroundings were familiar. The atmosphere was accompanied by music and distant chatter in the ambience.

“Hello, hey! Are you listening, yoo-hoo!”

“A-Ann?” Neil’s vision came to full focus and he recognized the girl in front of him, that wasn’t all he realized. His surroundings and Ann were at a normal scale relative to himself; he was regular size! That discovery should merit relief if it weren’t for his following epiphany, this location. He was back at the party.

So many questions. Was he warped back here, was he ever gone, was everything to this point fake- No. Nothing good ever came of him dismissing the validity of events. Whatever the answer Neil refused to leave anything to chance.

“Come on she’s right here, follow me.” Ann instructed and led the way. “Hey Grace, this guy wants to talk to you!”

Regardless of his inner turmoil, the long-awaited sight of Grace standing with serene presence stole his breath. Her blonde hair, welcoming face, everything. It was really her, the one person who he’s counted on through his ordeal. Neil rehearsed his plea dozens of times, but now face to face with her he couldn’t remember a word of it No matter, leaving was still the top priority at all costs.

“Grace I’ve been trying so hard to find you. I don’t know what’s going on and I promise I’ll explain everything, but we need to go right now.”

Neil anticipated her skepticism again however her response was beyond all expectations.

“Uh, do I know you?”

She was pulling his leg she had to be. Neil waited for the punchline where she’d say “Just kidding!” but her befuddled gaze remained. This couldn’t be, he refused to accept it.

“Of course, we’re friends!”

“Friends!?” Her face soured at the notion.

“Yes! We have English class together, we partnered together, you gave me your number, and you invited me to the party!” It was an accurate description of events as far as he was concerned however Ann and Grace looked at each other and laughed.

“What the hell? You don’t even know this guy!?” Ann cackled. “This whole time he wouldn’t shut up about ‘I gotta find Grace, I gotta find Grace!’”

“I-it’s not like that!”

“Excuse me!?” Grace scoffed.

“Is this another guy you’re leading on?” Ann inquired.

“I don’t know, maybe I got him to write a paper for me in English class?” Grace theorized inciting a residual wave of giggles between the two of them.

“Grace come on just listen to me we have to go NOW!” Neil snapped.

“Yeah, go off with some stranger at a party I bet you’d like that wouldn’t you?” Grace marched forward with an aggression foreign to Neil.

“Uh oh, you should’ve walked away when you had the chance.” Ann said.

“I don’t know who you are but you’re the one who needs to get out! Better yet, why don’t you consider this, why would I EVER want to be friends with someone like you? You’re a LOSER.”

Neil stood stupefied, unable to connect the dots that what he heard was coming from the girl he thought he knew. Each word lacerated his psyche forming a new wound for the next insult to cut deeper. Why did this hurt so much? Because her words were true or perhaps because they were coming from Grace, someone he considered his… friend.

“DO YOU EVEN HAVE ANY FRIENDS?” Grace further demeaned.

“Don’t say that he probably thought you were his friend.” Ann patronized.

“Pfft, he wishes!” Grace spat. “I hang around cool people, popular people, people with futures, people who do things, people who are interesting, people who are talented, people who are part of something, and you? You’re a NOBODY.”

The acidic wave of vitriol further burnt into Neil’s diminished mind and her last attack was the worst. He always knew he was a nobody especially when compared to Grace. Anyone with a modicum of social intelligence could see that but hearing it from her struck his very essence and reverberated throughout his spirit. His thoughts slowed to a crawl and occurred in further intervals. His body was sluggish as if he was submerged in quicksand. Something was wrong, he was staring eye to eye with Grace and she was sprouting upwards.

“Jesus Christ, Grace where did that come from?” Ann cackled.

“He had it coming, I mean look at him-” Grace looked away for an instant to face Ann, however upon looking back the difference was evident. “Holy shit look at him! He’s getting smaller!”

No, no, no, no, no. Why was this happening? Better yet, how is this happening when he hasn’t taken a pill? It was the only strand of consistent logic left, now what was there? Reaching Grace was his only plan of action and she doesn’t even know who he is. Now that he was shrinking it was guaranteed nothing good would come of him staying at the party, he had to escape.

Neil turned opposite from Grace towards the wall then looked at the neighboring walls until he scanned all sides of the room wondering one thing. Where’s the door?

Cold sweat trickled down his neck as he turned back to the women; their insidious grins sent chills down his spine.

“What’s the matter Neil, why are you in such a hurry to leave?” Ann asked and began sauntering behind him.

“Why are you trying to run away Neil?” Grace asked remaining in front of him separated by a few feet of distance.

Neil was paralyzed, lulled into frozen terror by the enchanting rhythm of their words. With all his strength he only managed small fidgets of his lips and inaudible murmurs.

“Are you scared Neil?” Ann said from behind and closed in on his blind spot.

“Why are you scared? Aren’t we friends?” Grace added.

Neil looked up to maintain eye contact with Grace having shrunk to collarbone level. She gestured a finger towards him and curled it to herself.

“Come here.”

Neil was neither able or willing to comply but Ann took initiative by under-hooking his arms. At his smaller size she simply plowed forward to force him ahead. Being propped against her body was the only thing keeping him from collapsing underneath his wobbling legs.

“N-no.” He squeaked out sinking deeper into the pits of dread.

“Shh.” Grace hushed waiting until Ann closed all space between Neil and herself. Ann tilted his head up.

“Neil was it? I think it’s starting to come back to me. That’s right we had English class together. You were always so happy to see me.”

Neil thought back to those classes making sure he was early enough to catch Grace’s attention when she walked by.

“Grace, Grace!” He cried out, standing on top of his desk waving his hands to ensure he was seen.

“Oh, hey there little guy.” Grace stopped to acknowledge the 3-inch squirt she nearly passed to wink and wave at him.

Ecstatic Neil jumped to hug one of her digits.

“Hehe, easy there little boy.” Grace giggled.

Now at Grace’s navel Ann hoisted Neil up by the waist.

“Ah yes, how could I forget how small you were. It always made you so nervous when my friends were around.”

She was right, he always hated it when she was with friends. Outside on campus Neil spotted Grace several feet away flanked by one of her gal pals. He considered changing paths before they reached him, but he had no chance given their immense size.

“Hey Neil, how’s it going!” Grace yelled down to him.

“H-hi, it’s going great.” Neil answered, with his focus fixated on her raven-haired companion. Putting his best foot forward he tried to initiate conversation. “I don’t think we’ve met, you’re one of Grace’s friends I take it?”

“…Uhuh.” She dryly answered and exchanged a look with Grace that was riddled with subtext. In that split-second Neil was sure they had an entire nonverbal conversation.

“Is this loser really your friend?” The raven haired asked.

“Something like that.” Grace chuckled.

“But he’s a fucking pipsqueak, why are you hanging around someone so small?” She looked back down at Neil.

“Come on, think of it as my community service for college. He can’t help being so pathetic.” Grace smirked.

“That’s freaking sad, maybe I should put him out his misery now while no one else is here.” Both girls giggled to themselves.

“That’s great, anyway we need to get to class, see you around.” Grace said and went on her way. He watched her friend follow suit stepping over him. Her strut delayed when her foot hung directly above him as if she considered crushing him then and there before deciding against it.

Neil was at Grace’s knees, craning his head allowed him to see her chin at best. Lucky for him Grace stooped down resting her hands on her kneecaps looming large over him.

“It only makes sense that someone as small as you are was terrified that I brought you to this party.”

It was true, Neil stuck to Grace like glue from the moment she entered. Whereas she was energetic and vibrant he was down at her feet clinging to the strap of her sandal so he wouldn’t lose her. That hope was lost mere seconds after her arrival and she spotted her friends. Neil tried to keep pace with her but after a few of her massive strides it was impossible to catch up.

Neil was a deer in the headlights looking up at the shadowy silhouettes of partyers cavorting in his proximity. His initial thought deemed it happenstance that he wasn’t crushed within seconds by their thunderous footfalls. Yet time after time his body was missed by the smallest margin.

Neil treaded at a snail’s pace, clutching himself to control his quivering. From his vantage and dim surroundings he couldn’t discern anything about the individuals beyond their gender.

“G-Grace.” He tapped at someone’s ankle.

“Ugh, what the fuck!? Beat it creep!” The woman spat.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to-” He didn’t get another word out before being drenched in a cold liquid from the woman’s glass. She walked off leaving him several times more nervous to interact with anyone.  After that commotion his skin crawled every eye in the building was on him, he was sure of it. What was undecipherable chatter became full audible comments that saturated the room.

“Who the hell invited the runt?” A woman said.

“Did he sneak in hoping he’d get some?” A burly sounding guy said.

“He wishes, he can’t handle this much woman.”

“Look how small he is.”

“I’ll take him with me. Campus policy doesn’t say I can’t have a tiny person as a pet.” A girl giggled.

One after another the onslaught continued overpowering Neil’s very thoughts. He covered his ears in a fruitless attempt to stop the barrage and fell to a fetal position.

“Grace…” He uttered.

Neil lied flat on his back staring up to Grace’s incoming hand that now eclipsed his 3-inch frame. She lifted him up near her face.

“Now I recognize you.” Grace said. “This is how small you really are and how small you’ve always been.”

“P-please… help… me” Neil begged.

“Shh, I can help you Neil. I can put you somewhere nice and safe.” She whispered over his prone body. “I need you to do one thing for me.”

“What…?”

Grace leaned in closer. “I need you to be smaller.”

“N-no… please… I can’t… no more.” He begged, shedding a tear.

“You can do it Neil. Tell me how you feel right now, how scared you feel, how small you feel, tell me EVERYTHING!” Grace boomed at the end and in a burst of adrenaline Neil let loose.

“Everything is bigger than me, I’m too scared to even move now, I’m so overwhelmed, and I’m too weak to do anything about it!” As Neil squealed, his flowing tears masked Grace’s expanding hand relative to him dwindling. A small piece of his conscience compelled him to stop, but like a rock rolling down a hill he was powerless to stop himself.

“Keep going.” Grace encouraged to the shrinking boy.

“Everybody knows how small I am too, that’s all they think about when they see me. They think I’m puny, that I’m nothing! I’m scared because they’re right and that they all want to crush me because of it!”

“Just a little more.” Grace said.

“I wanted to be here with you because I’m too scared to do it alone! I can’t handle it! You’re so much bigger than me, I’m nothing to you, I just wanted to rely on you because I’m too small to do anything! I wanted to believe you were my friend… I tried so hard to believe it, but I always thought people like you weren’t friends with people like me.” Neil’s dry voice cracked and laid smaller than ever on the canvas of Grace’s palm at an abysmal 1 inch tall.

As he heaved gathering his breath, Grace furthered him from her monumental face “You did so well Neil, now I’m sure you will fit.”

He didn’t have enough strength to question what she meant, however the answer revealed itself as she showed her opposite hand holding an empty pill bottle.

An exhausted Neil only managed a weak shake of his head at her unveil.

“You’ll be safe in here from now on.” Grace smiled positioning the bottle to the side of her hand.

Neil was a helpless passenger as Grace tilted her hand and he slid towards the container. Even if he was free to move gravity ran its course and sent him plummeting into the confines of the bottle.

Grace screwed on a white lid onto the container taking a last look at the pitiful creature inside and pressing her lips against the surface. “This is goodbye Neil.”

Neil looked at Grace with pleading eyes, willing to sacrifice anything for her not to leave him. It was with his last bit of paranoia and fading willpower that he was able to take a critical glance at Grace. What he saw was a familiar set of lambent gray eyes.

“…Angel.” He mouthed out as his vision faded out with his final sights blurring between Angel and Grace, watching them rise higher as he shrunk into oblivion.

Angel’s Dust: Viral

“Ugh.” A somber Hazel groaned from the computer lab of campus. The young woman endlessly clicked away at her YouTube channel statistics, burning the numbers and graphs into her brain. She only picked a dozen new subscribers this month and the viewership was painfully stagnant.

“Purgatory.” She huffed, the worst place for a channel to be. There was one exception, the video last month where she helped that guy across campus. Like many online hits it came out of nowhere and she had no idea it’d go over as well as it did.

It blew all her other uploads out the water and was the first to enter six-digit territory sitting around the 300,000 ballpark in views. The unexpected success set her hopes high that she finally had her breakout upload that would elevate her into becoming a prominent name in the online community.

 Alas it was the dreaded one hit wonder.  Her follow up videos didn’t attract anywhere near the same attention and within a couple of uploads her viewership returned to their usual 5,000 or so views. Not terrible if you’re a casual content creator. But for someone aspiring for a full-time career of this, nothing to write home about.

Continuing her analysis Hazel opened a new tab to catch up on unread comments. While most were tame and supportive, the negative criticisms were the ones her attention honed in on.

“Just what we need, another basic vlogger chick. Hard pass.”

“Fucking hater.” Hazel grumbled; her fingers were raring to go on a tangent typing the most hurtful thing to put that jerk in his place. Halfway through her reply her better judgement kicked in and she deleted her entry. Tempting as it was, indulging the haters would only validate the fact they struck a nerve.

“is she a discount TT?” That comment especially reddened her face. She hastily clicked out of the browser window before she saw anything else that would rile her up.

Such is the life of a vlogger. In such an oversaturated genre standing out from the crowd was tough unless you had something special going for you. Some had a particular gimmick, others possessed a natural charisma, and a few were simply 10 out of 10 gorgeous and that alone compelled people to watch.

Objectively speaking, Hazel fell into a jack of all trades, master of none. She was nice to look at and energetic in front of a camera. However, she wasn’t covering any new ground with video topics that haven’t already been hackneyed to death. Detractors were quick to write her off as another pretty face wanting her 15 minutes of online clout.

Hazel tapped her cheeks a few times. “Perk up girl, the show must go on.” Consistency was key. Sure, things were stagnant now but not uploading would be a death sentence for her channel. Afterall, out of sight, out of mind.

Hazel grabbed her phone and tripod and left the lab to setup for her first ever live stream. She thought it would serve her well to show a more authentic side of herself without the framework of a script.  Plus, she announced ahead of time that it would be a Q&A style format with hopes of encouraging more engagement and it gave her subscribers time to have questions ready in advance.

“Ack!” After cutting the corner to the next hallway Hazel stumbled and dropped her phone after colliding with another student.

“Whoops! Sorry about that!” The girl said barely turning to stop and continued walking along.

“Fuck!” Hazel cursed, she caught enough glimpse of that platinum blonde hair and the shrill voice was unmistakable. Tina, better known as Totally Tina or TT for short boasted a sizeable 250,000 subscriber base and the viewership to match. Her channel was on the fast track and left all her contemporaries who debuted around the same time in the dust, herself included.

Hazel theorized Tina’s popularity was based on the shy girl persona she carried herself with on video. Standing at a meek 5’1 accompanied with a high pitch voice that rarely rose above a whisper in her content, it’d only take a glance at the comments to see her legions of fans gushing over how adorable she was.

Perhaps because Hazel’s demeanor was the polar opposite, she never saw the appeal of what made Tina blow up and not her. Regardless, she knew it would be foolish not to reach out and see if she’d be willing to collaborate with her on a video and harness some of that spotlight.

Not even the nastiest of trolls could have gotten under her skin the way her response did.

“I’m not really interested in collaborating with small channels. Maybe if your channel gets bigger, we can talk. TT~”

“I’ll show you.” Hazel said.

“Here you go.”

Startled, Hazel stepped back at the new face who practically appeared from thin air. What the heck was her deal? Better yet, how did she not notice her until she was inches from her face? And those silvery eyes, it was like she was staring into her soul.

“Yeesh, you surprised me.” She looked down and saw the woman had her phone in hand.

“You dropped this on the ground. See you later Hazel!” The mysterious student went on her way.

“Do I know … you?”  Hazel turned around to peek at the girl again but there wasn’t a trace of her. Thinking nothing further of it she made her way outside and found a nearby grassy spot to set up her equipment. She was pleased to see there were already a handful of people in the stream waiting for the broadcast to start.

“What’s that?” Hazel paused to ponder at the YouTube screen, “GO LARGE”. Where was “Go Live”?

“An update?” Maybe developers were testing a beta version of a new feature. The regular button was gone so it was fair to assume this new one was the replacement. With a tap on the screen a sudden green flash overwhelmed her retinas and a jolt coursed down the length of her spine.

“Whoa!” Was she just electrocuted? She gingerly moved her limbs one by one to ensure everything was in working order. The jolt wasn’t painful, surprisingly after it subsided a tingling pleasure dispersed throughout her body. What was that about? You know what, it didn’t matter. The camera was on and prior doubts were irrelevant, she felt great and the show must go on!

“Hey there Hazelnuts, it’s ya’girl Hazel going live right here on campus!” She waved and shined her perkiest smile.

“Drop in the comments how you’re all doing today and don’t forget I’m accepting all questions you want answered so pull no punches!” She gestured with a fist to her chin.

A few more viewers trickled in and comments populated in the live chat which already set her in a better mood than she was in before.

“Hey Hazel”

“it’s our girl!”

“afternoon!”

“first”

Seconds later the first question appeared.

“Whatever happened to the guy you showed around campus? Was he really that small?”

“Tch, of course.” Hazel repressed the urge to roll her eyes. It was a recurring comment left on the video, that still appeared in her subsequent uploads. She figured the inquiry was bound to show up and she couldn’t backpedal after saying she’d accept all questions.

“I assure you I meant it quite literally when I called him my ‘little’ friend!” Hazel chuckled. “He’s been overwhelmed with how popular the video ended up being and has been super shy with making another appearance. I make sure to tell him about all the positive feedback he receives in the comments.”

Thank goodness she prepared a response ahead of time. She had no idea what happened to him, she hadn’t seen or heard a peep about him since. In hindsight she wished she held onto him for herself as her one-way ticket to stardom. The mileage to harness from interacting with her cute tiny friend was endless and her lightning in a bottle video was proof that the masses would eat it up.

Follow up comments soon appeared.

“tldl it was fake.”

“just tell us how you did the special effects for that video already.”

“lol people still think that crap was real?”

“Idiots.” Hazel muttered in thought. The plain answer was that it was a one-off video that she didn’t expect to blow up the way it did and the barrage of comments questioning its legitimacy took a life of its own. How he became so small was beyond her.

In better news she looked to the number of live viewers that reached over 100 people and still climbing.

“Ah!” Hazel yelped after another jolt coursed through her body. Electrocuted again? Like before, another tingling wave washed over her. However, pleasure was not the only sensation she was experiencing. It took a whole minute for her to pinpoint what was amiss with her body and realized she was staring down at her camera. But the tripod was already adjusted for her height... It wasn’t just that though, everything looked off. Her vantage all around seemed… higher.

Perplexed, the vlogger slouched to view the influx of comments.

“uuuhhh what?”

“WTF!”

“please tell me someone else saw that???”

“did you just grow!!!”

Hazel at first was too baffled to draw any conclusions, but after reading what the viewers were saying the dots were connecting. Higher vantage, everything appearing lower, the comment themselves. Holy crap they were right!

Hazel stood upright and took several paces backwards until she was in full view again and began surveying. The commentors weren’t the only ones in shock. The nearby students who happened to be looking at the time were staring away like she had grown a second head.

While she always welcomed being the center of attention, the wide-eyed stares like she was a freak left her at a loss for words. How could she explain away her growing 6 or so inches out of nowhere to 6’0 tall?

“Well then…” She had to wing it, she couldn’t let dead air ruin the stream footage. “So much for being subtle about my growth spurt. You guys shouldn’t be surprised though, I am a growing channel after all. And you’re all my supporters who helped me reach new heights!” She announced stretching her arms up high.

“If you guys want to see me keep growing, make sure to like and comment!” That was a dud, Hazel thought. It wasn’t as eloquent as she would’ve liked, but it was the best she could improvise on the spot. She watched as more message surfaced and just hoped they would blow over it.

That was far from the case. Hazel covered her mouth to contain her gasp.

“You’re awesome!”

“I love you!”

“Let’s help our girl grow!”

“You’re the best!”

“Keep growing Hazel!” Someone shouted from a yard away.

“Go, Hazel!” Another one added.

Hazel flinched. Her message was obviously meant for the stream viewers. She looked over to where the voices came from… Were they listening to her? Not only were more students gathering at the scene all of them were retrieving their phones and typing away with their lambent green eyes glued to the screen.

She looked back to the broadcast and performed a double take to make sure she wasn’t misreading the numbers. The viewership was surging! It Surpassed 1,000 watchers and the likes on the video weren’t far behind.

Something bizarre was at work here, Hazel was sure of that and frankly she didn’t give a damn. Her face was incapable of stretching further to contain her grin. Whatever was going on it would help her have the stream of her life!

“I’m the best, aren’t I?” She asked, her elation was already building knowing how they’ll respond. Not missing a beat, they were eager to answer.

“Of course, you are! That’s why you’re our girl!” One guy answered.

“Better than the best!” A girl chimed in.

Someone else simply began clapping to start the chain reaction of the others joining in to complete the round of applause.

“You’re amazing!” Someone yelled at the top of their lungs above the clasps of hands.

“You’re all so sweet, thank-” Hazel paused. The tingling came back and was much stronger than before and stole the air straight from her lungs. Then the pleasure set in gifting her body a high that it never experienced. This time she was prepared with full focus as it happened and now had several more students around her for reference. She drunk in every second of them and everything else in her vicinity quasi-shrinking in her presence as she sprouted higher and higher.

Enamored her peers watched with bated breath at the spectacle and gathered closer in quiet support to will on her growth, wondering how high their idol would soar.

“Mmm.” Hazel hummed. “That’s much better. Being tall suits me, doesn’t it?”

“In fact, how tall do you all think I am now?” Hazel took stock of the heights of her onlookers. The tallest of the bunch were at her chest. The average sized students she gauged to be slightly underneath breast level and the shortest no higher than her mid-torso.

Several comments flooded the live stream and the people around her also answered.

“Seven feet!”

“7’0!”

“Our girl is 7’0 tall!”

“Tall Hazel is best Hazel!”

“Seven feet it is then!” She declared. “How’s about we take this show elsewhere!” She announced to her crowd who cheered in support.

Before she got moving, she pointed to a student. “Excuse me, would you be so kind to man the tripod and make sure it stays on me.” She stepped closer sporting a victorious smirk down into the camera. They maybe watching online, but she wanted to capture the essence of her new stature by giving them the impression of having to look up at her and all her glory. “After all, I don’t want any of my little Hazelnuts to miss out on this!”

Post haste the student she singled out hustled behind the tripod and lifted it up making sure the capture stayed on Hazel who was now on the move. Both himself and the rest of her fans followed in pursuit doing their best to keep up with her longer strides.

The sight of the oversized woman strutting forward commanded the attention of everyone she passed. Their heads pivoted as her statuesque body strolled by and a green hue developed in their eyes. Whatever they were doing was dropped without so much as a thought and they melded into the ever-growing crowd.

Hazel stopped in front of one of the largest campus buildings. “For those watching online, here you can see the Multimedia Department where I take most of my classes.” She then centered herself in front of the entrance way to highlight the sheer scale of the structure and more importantly the size differential between herself and the exiting students who froze at the sight of the anomaly before them.

“Not to toot my own horn, but I’m a pretty big deal around these parts!”

Two girls who she shared a class with her wedged their way out of the building, curious as to who or what was causing the jam.

“H-Hazel! Is that you?” One shouted out.

“Y-you’re huge!” The other gasped. Both mystified seeing their peer standing head and shoulders above everyone.

Amused, Hazel looked down to them.  The adoration of the general public was great, but that couldn’t compare to the satisfaction of having peers whom she was acquainted gawking up at her and having to accept her for what she truly was. Better than them.

She stooped down and easily scooped each girl in a crook of her arms with a swipe of her long limbs then reeled them tight to her. Both girls attempted to pull away, but neither were capable of matching her enhanced strength that accompanied her newfound stature.

“I agree, I am a huge deal. I’m a huge deal wherever I go. And you know what else is huge?” Hazel asked them. There struggles lasted a bit longer before settling down. The two women blinked and looked into the other’s emerald eyes.

“The stream!” They answered in unison, looking up to Hazel with toothy smiles.

“That’s right! We’ve hit over 10,000 viewers and if you want that number to keep going up, everyone knows what they must do!”

“Share!” The amassed group shouted.

“Share!”

“Everyone share!”

“Sharing now!”

Like clockwork the comments and chants flooded the environment and chat box. Hazel didn’t need to continue looking at the stream to know it was working. Every new viewer brought forth a new jolt followed by tingles of ecstasy.

A snicker escaped her mouth, oh how often she heard wind of the critics murmuring and laughing behind her back. She should focus on something real. She’s wasting her time with YouTube. She’d never make it, they’d say. Well, who was laughing now? Overjoyed, the growing vlogger looked down her nose at the flock of people. Strangers who she hardly knew and classmates who scoffed at her dreams were now cheering her on. They were her fans now… her Hazelnuts!

“Thank you everyone.” Hazel’s body rose further to the clouds. The onlookers silenced and the chat paused as if bearing witness to a sacred event.

“You really know how to make ya’girl feel 10 feet tall!”

The gathering around her burst into an uproar and the comments resumed at a vigorous pace, prattling on with their nonstop praises. Hazel didn’t need to look down to read what they were saying. It was all the same, they loved her!

“You’re amazing Hazel!”

“We love you!”

“Yas, big queen!”

Admittedly it was odd having all these people revel in her presence. She was always conscientious to maintain a relatable image to her audience. Of course, that didn’t stop detractors from calling her fake or basic any chance they got, but still. Going from a lukewarm reception to them behaving as if she were royalty had her taken aback.

Though on second thought, why wouldn’t they? She was the queen bee and none of them were even taller than her legs!  Giggling to herself she took a moment to bask in their adulation, their hands extended endlessly trying to push past the next person to get close enough to touch her. A bunch of small peasants trying for her acknowledgement.

“How do you deal with being so awesome!!!???” A comment popped in right as Hazel chose to look back at her stream.

She faked a humble gasp. “What can I say, it just comes with the territory when you’re the fastest growing content creator on campus.” She positioned her palms over her heart. “Even so, I still try to make myself accessible to my fans. But some of my Hazelnuts still can’t get enough of ya’girl!”

She turned her head and sauntered over to a plain looking guy who had his head buried in a book and ignoring all the commotion, it only took a handful of her lengthy strides to reach him. The sudden shade that swallowed him drove him to look upward at the mighty woman smirking down at him.

“Don’t you agree?” Hazel asked.

He wondered what the heck she was blathering about until they locked eyes and his pupils assumed a green tint. From apathy to nonplus, his mouth went agape that his existence was being recognized by Hazel, THE Hazel.

“W-w-wow! H-Hazel. I I.. I love you!!” He shouted upwards after a concentrated effort to get the words out.

“Aww, you’re so sweet!” She kissed her own palm before blowing it at him, igniting the jealousy of the other attendees.

“OMG, HE’S SO LUCKY”

“WE LOVE YOU TOO HAZEL.”

Their words were practically seeping into her pores and fueling the euphoria in her bloodstream for her next surge of growth. “Mmm, you’re all so good to me! Thank you everyone for helping me come this far!”

Another series of claps commenced like they received a rousing speech and confetti emojis were rampant in the chat in celebration of their 15’ tall queen.

Courtesy of being able to look above everyone else Hazel saw two additional folks rushing their way through the thick of the crowd. One had a microphone in hand with the other close behind with a video camera in tow.

Were they coming to talk to her? Pft. How silly to even ask, of course they were. Look at her! What else was there to talk about? No need to keep the media waiting. Her very steps parted through the denizens she dwarfed, giving them no choice but to get out of the way or be bulldozed over.

The woman with the microphone lost all train of thought as the Amazon approached her. She was momentarily afraid she would be trampled over until the towering woman stopped a few feet away from her. Taking a breath to gather herself she held the device with a trepid arm as high as possible for the star to speak into.

“Hello there, would you like to have a word with me!” Hazel chirped.

“O-of course, you blew up out of nowhere. Your stream has over 100,000 people watching right now. The speed at which your stream garnered these numbers is unprecedented and is still soaring as we speak. You’re reaching the top percentile of the number of live viewers in a stream EVER. Do you have anything to say to this sudden success you’ve found?”

“Ah, in fact I do. I owe it all to the Hazelnuts for supporting me, liking, commenting, and sharing the video. Now there’s only one thing I need you all to do. Subscribe!”

As if her voice had an echo of its own, the word was chanted over and over again by the masses and spammed in the chat.

“Subscribe!”

“Subscribe!”

“Subscribe!”

“Subscribe!”

Tina sat for the last half hour in front of her computer screen with a blank word document pulled up that she intended to write a new video script for. Brainstorming was impossible with the nonstop ruckus outside. As far as she knew there wasn’t any special events occurring on campus today, so what was all the racket about? One voice in particular came from a girl who sounded like she was speaking from a megaphone with the way she was shouting above the conglomerate of noise.

Curiosity took a hold of her and she ventured out to see what the fuss was about and her confusion amplified. It was like a concert crowd out here! That wasn’t even the most shocking part, off in the distance the cause for their assembly was crystal clear. Standing in the heart of it was the tallest woman she’d ever seen! What threw her though, the bystanders were all lauding and cheering for her. Were none of them alarmed? She was taller than three people stacked on top of each other!

And her face, Tina was too far away to tell for sure but it looked… familiar. Her short stature helped her sift through the cracks as she navigated the sea of bodies. She watched the massive woman soaking up the spotlight, posing and waving to her fans who were either taking pictures or stood starstruck to be so close in her proximity.

Finally, Hazel turned to Tina’s general direction and the latter squinted to get a better view. Within seconds, as fast as her eyes narrowed, they shot wide open when the epiphany hit her.

“Y-you, I’ve met you.” She mouthed to herself.

The raucous crowd silenced in an instant, leaving a gaping void of silence. All their heads turned towards the newcomer. Tina choked down a swallow at somehow becoming the focal point of their icy focus.

The cohorts who were ahead of her stepped to the way side to create enough space for her to stand directly in front of the woman of the hour herself, Hazel who already had her sights locked on her target.

Somehow Hazel knew she’d show up. Everything prior was a prelude for this very moment. Her presence, popularity, and height were impossible to ignore and now the subject of her envy was here to witness it.

“It sounds like you don’t know who I am. Can you guys please fill her in?”

In perfect harmony both live and in the stream a volcano of unbridled support erupted around the lone girl. The volume of their outcry was deafening, forcing Tina to tuck her head and cover her ears.

“IT’S YA GIRL HAZEL!”

Hazel expanded her lungs with as much air as they could hold and splayed her arms out for this glorious event. The power fueling her body felt like it was being channeled from the sun itself with the radiant yellow star encasing her body in a luminous shine.

Tina slowly looked back up to the chilling visual, Hazel was glowing an ominous shade of green. To top it off… she was growing.

Whereas the stream viewers and live audience were rooting Hazel on as she achieved and surpassed all records of human height known, Tina wondered when the hell it was going to end!

Smaller and smaller the crowd became relative to Hazel. Each passing inch accumulated to passing feet and using humans as a reference point of comparison was impossible. They resembled closer to toys now.

Tina craned her head, taking continuous steps back to keep the increasingly enormous vlogger in full view. Her brain was quickly losing their tethers to reality trying to process the magnitude of her size, leading to clumsy stumbles with each backwards pace. Forget all the adjectives, there was no other word to describe it, Hazel was a freaking giant!

After eternity of ascending to the sky with a horde of her tiny admirers surrounding her, the 50’ tall Hazel stood center of the unyielding rejoice of her supporters. From the depths of her diaphragm, she released the accumulated oxygen to deliver her most powerful message.

“AND SHE’S BIGGER THAN EVER!”  Her voice detonated with the force of a bomb, overpowering all the cheering spectators. The sheer decibel strength for those close by tremored the very ground they stood on and left them scrambling to reclaim their balance before resuming their cheers.

Then there was Tina herself. If her eyeballs could pop out of their sockets and her lower jaw disconnect from her mouth like in cartoons, they would’ve.

“H-Hazel! You’re gigantic!”

The smuggest grin formed on Hazel’s lips as she rested her hands on her hips. Towering over everyone was great and all, but like with her two classmates having Tina at her feet staring up in awe of her trumped it by a long shot. She was right where she wanted her.

“Wow genius, I didn’t notice.” She quipped.

On cue the whole crowd laughed like they heard the funniest punchline ever and the chat filled with “LOL” messages.

Tina’s focus darted all around the mob that encased them. They hung on the giantess’ every word like she was divinity. Why was she the only one reacting with the gravity this deserved?

“What is wrong with you people!” She snapped only then realizing speculation of the brain-dead minions was useless.

Her shouts fell on deaf ears as the laughs continued at her expense until Hazel’s lips parted to speak, then it all ceased.

“Now, now everyone let’s not laugh at her. As hard as it might be to believe, I looked up to Tina.” Two massive steps were all she needed to put her truck sized feet on each side of her puny rival and quake the concrete beneath her. Tina was sweating bullets as the giantess came forward, with the amount of absurdity going on she couldn’t rule out the chance of Hazel squashing her where she stood.

“Figuratively speaking of course.” She added causing an encore of laughter until their idol was poised to speak again.

“After all, there was a time when I was an up-and-coming channel and I reached out to her in hopes of doing a collab with her and well…” Hazel tapped her chin. “I’m a bit faint of memory. Can you please remind me what your response was?” She cupped a hand behind her ear and tilted sideways encouraging Tina to speak up for all to hear.

Tina quivered like a leaf, everyone was dialed in and the looming expectation of the gigantic Hazel weighed on her like gravity. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she remembered what the response and only wanted her to repeat it in front of her ravenous cronies.

With a dry gulp the outcast prepared to retell what would surely be an unpopular statement. “I said… I don’t collaborate with small channels.” She quoted.

A series of appalled gasps dispersed through the crowd that transitioned into a chorus of booing.

“What the hell Tina!”

“I knew she was a bitch!”

“Let’s flood her page with dislikes”

“I hope everyone unsubs her page!”

The visual was simply priceless for Hazel watching the girl swiveling her head about like a squirrel. The chastising hushed when she leaned down, eclipsing over Tina’s whole being with her overwhelming body. The frightened gal scurried for somewhere to hide only to be faced with the reminder that she was trapped by the army of Hazelnuts. With nowhere to go her shirt collar was pinched and she looked down in horror as the pavement moved further and further away.

In a frenzy Tina flailed her limbs to break free for a short while which soon faded to her limply dangling when she looked back down to see ground level the equivalent of several building stories down. There was no good option, but she decided the lesser choice of terror was to look at her captor than the peril of a potential free fall.

It wasn’t the better option by much, Tina’s gaze met Hazel’s and the former couldn’t begin fathoming what was going on in her mind. The ecstasy in her expression red flagged Tina that she was probably imagining all the things she could do to her now that she was a doll in her hands. The depth of Hazel’s grudge towards her was beyond Tina’s comprehension, but she found it in herself to ask a question.

“What did you do?” Tina asked.

“What did I do? Hmm!” Hazel hummed, looking upwards as if she were contemplating before returning her sight back to her captive. “I GOT BIG!” She bellowed instantly eliciting a scream from Tina.

“WHO’S THE SMALL CHANNEL NOW!” She boomed, jostling her captive with a couple of up and down twitches of her wrist.

“P-please! Don’t kill me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Mmf!” Tina’s pleas were cut short with a log sized finger smushing into her face.

“Ssh!” Hazel hushed.  The remainder of her digits coiled around Tina’s body; leaving her head poking out between the gap of her index finger and palm. It was hardly an improvement for Tina, her fear now transitioning from falling to the likelihood that Hazel may simply squeeze her into paste.

Though Hazel was already aware she was scaring the daylights out of Tina, having her ensnared in her grasp allowed her to feel every motion of her tiny body.

“Oh my god, you’re really shivering!” She cried in delight breaking into a fit of chuckles.

“Get it together girl, at least have some dignity, people are watching.” She laughed. Inadvertently it caused her grasp around Tina to sporadically tighten and loosen. The small girl shrieked in hysteria from the alternating pressure on her body. The perpetual panic was twofold, a cycle of her fearing whether she would be crushed or dropped.

“Phew, sorry about that.” Hazel panted, bringing the girl to the corner of her eyes to wipe with. Tina thrashed and turned her head to no avail as her face was saturated by the salty tears of joy.

Regaining a serious disposition Hazel took a final look at her beaten adversary. Her smile remained the whole time, however it transformed into something far more sinister.

“You’re like all the rest of them… you shat on my dreams. I never understood what made you so special, why did you become the star?” Hazel gave the barest increase of pressure to her grip, enough to make Tina squeal and expel the oxygen out of her. “I was at my wits end, ready to give up and then I realized it today looking at you…” Her tone lowered. “You’re the small one.”

Tina would’ve given a final desperation plea for her safety if she had the breath to do so.

“Is this who you all want as the online face of our campus!” Hazel asked, shooting her hand down with her prisoner for all to see at her lowest point.

“NO!” They exclaimed.

“NEVER!”

“HELL NO!”

“You all deserve more, someone better, someone... BIGGER!” Hazel declared and jerked Tina back up face to face. “And so long as ya’girl Hazel is here… there’s no room for SMALL channels.”

Tina shut her eyes preparing for the worst as the pressure around her body increased again, it would be too easy for Hazel to simply apply maximum force and end it quickly. It will be prolonged and agonizing.  Her mouth opened in a voiceless cry. The only sound primed to come from her was be her bones which were at their breaking point.

Then suddenly the constrictive force stopped. Though still being held up in Hazel’s grip, her body hung as a lifeless ragdoll.

“Today’s your lucky day though, I’D like to give YOU the opportunity to collaborate and become a permanent addition on my channel.” Hazel said “Do you accept?”

Tina was light headed from the mixture of shock and oxygen deprivation, Hazel’s voice barely registered beyond a low rumble. She barely managed to comprehend enough to discern a bargain was being made in exchange for her life. Of course, she’d be foolish to decline.

“…Yes.” Tina croaked in a raspy whimper.

“Thanks… little buddy.” Hazel gloated.

“I feel… funny.” Tina attempted to speak in a last unintelligible squeak.

The Live Stream Has Ended.

Epilogue

“Hey everybody, Hazel here!” The jubilant YouTuber greeted with the upmost radiance from her dorm room.

“I’d like to take a moment and welcome all the new subscribers to my channel and give my sincerest gratitude to my long time Hazelnuts for the success of the first live stream that garnered over a million views, and with all your efforts the Hazel Army is strong with over 500,000 subscribers!”

“At this time, I’d also like to introduce the newest addition to the channel.” As she spoke the camera which until that point was focused on Hazel panned down the length of her body until the capture was at ground level a where blonde-haired woman resided flanked on each side by Hazel’s feet.

“Let’s give a special hello to my little buddy TT! Also known as Tiny Tina!”

Tina offered a half-hearted smile and wave to the camera.

“Poor little Tina, always so camera shy.” Hazel’s voice chimed in from far above her head.

“She doesn’t need to worry though; she has all the support of the Hazelnuts and she is going to need it because she has a big challenge on her hands today.” The capture then tilted upwards, starting from what was Tina’s perspective at ground level and having to look up at the imposing colossus before her.

“We’re going to play a childhood classic, a game of tag!” Hazel said, spreading her feet shoulder width apart and hands akimbo to encapsulate the David vs Goliath type atmosphere she was going for.

“And I’m it!”

Tina didn’t listen further and took that as her signal to run. Her best bet to give Hazel the slip was to hide somewhere and her sights went to underneath the bed, where her size would play to her advantage.

Humoring her Hazel watched Tina sprint of her life, letting her gain a sufficient head start to encourage some false hope.

At the halfway mark to her haven, Tina’s blood chilled hearing the dramatic thud of one of Hazel’s steps, already consuming half the distance between them.  The captive willed her body to move faster, but fatigue was already triumphing with her pace taking a plumet.

Another exaggerated thud set Hazel’s foot mere centimeters away from Tina’s body. The power generated from the stomp staggered her into falling and was faced with the realization she could’ve been crushed just now if Hazel really wanted to.

“Uh oh, looks like our Tiny Tina is in trouble!” Hazel announced, lifting her foot again.

“Hazel, stop!” Tina begged, staring at the sole hanging over her body like a guillotine ready to descend.

“Those are your last words?” Hazel snickered. “Suit yourself.” She drove her foot down as hard as she could.

Tina closed her eyes for the worst and didn’t see at the last second Hazel halting her momentum, then simply nudged the girl on the forehead with her toe.

“You’re it!” Hazel chirped.

Tina cracked a single eye open to make sure she was still in this world. Barring the monstrous sole hovering by her face she was okay.

“That was a half decent first take.” Hazel mused out loud and rested her foot over her victim’s body. “I would’ve preferred it if you screamed though.”

Flattened out on the floor Tina haplessly squirmed in her losing effort against a lone foot.

“That tickles.” Hazel giggled and rotated her sole to snuff out the meager resistance and giving Tina a face full of her leathery sole for her troubles.

“Maybe I didn’t scare you enough… we need to do some more takes… Or maybe change the game to hide and seek instead.” Hazel carried on talking to herself still prodding and nudging Tina’s body with her foot until another idea came to mind.

“… I wonder how many people would pay to see this on OnlyFans.”