“Hey, glad you could make it!” Anise greeted me, stepping back from the door. 

“Been looking forward to this since last year,” I replied, stepping over the threshold.  “And this year I didn’t come empty-handed.”  I handed her a bottle of vintage 2000 champagne, and she wrapped her long, slender fingers around it in a way that left the label exposed.  “It’s supposed to be a good year.”

“Thanks!”  She rotated it in her hands to read the label.  “I might say this was the last good year,” she joked, and clapped her hand on the base.  “I’ll put this on ice.  Come on in, make yourself at home!”  She walked toward the kitchen, the heels of her boots thudding on the hard wood floor of her apartment.

Anise looked even more magnificent than usual.  Her straight dark hair was down, running to her shoulder blades, with curly rings falling on either side of her face.  She had accentuated her dark eyes with a touch of black eyeliner, just enough to be noticeable, and high cheekbones helped her look more refined.  A small pearl stud was in each earlobe, nothing too ostentatious, and a delicate silver chain was clasped around her neck, a small diamond in the setting resting just below her collar bone.  The sliming black turtleneck she wore made her look distinguished, and her tight crimson skirt accentuated her hips and rear, apparent with every step she took.  Black leather boots rising to her knees completed the picture, stylishly outlining her calves and giving a slight boost to her height.  Decently fit and quite tall already, they only added to her considerable natural assets.

While she was gone, I slowly made my way toward the living room.  There were a few guests already here, seated comfortably on her plush couch and loveseat with drinks in hand.  They were all people from work, and I did not expect a large crowd.  Anise’s parties were rather exclusive, never more than a half dozen or so people, and I always felt honored to be invited.  This was my fourth year in a row to meet the new year with her, and looking at the assembled crowd, I noticed that not everyone from last year had gotten an invite this year.

I sidled up to the loveseat and gently leaned against the arm, trying not to look too awkward.  “So, what’s on?” I asked, announcing my presence in the least threatening way possible.

“We’re watching the Times Square feed,” answered Jan, a blond accountant who had sunk so far into the couch her feet did not even touch the ground.  “Harold and I love watching the ball drop, and no one else really seemed to care.”

“Whatever we watch, it’s still the new year!” interjected the man next to me.  I glanced to the screen and saw a woman with dyed blond hair and a tremendous amount of plastic surgery interviewing a random Marine in his dress blues, typical of this annual broadcast.  While I was hardly attached to this tradition, I was not particularly attached to any other broadcast, either.  Whatever we watched, the new year would indeed come.

A loud pop made me flinch, and I spun to see Anise standing in the doorway with bottle of champagne in her hands, vapor rising from its neck.  “Anyone need a refill?” she asked, placing the cork on the table beside her.  Everyone else waved her off, and her dark eyes fell on me.  “You need a glass though, don’t you?”  Without another word, she filled a champagne flute and strode across the floor, then delivered it into my waiting hand.

I took a cautious sip and was pleasantly surprised.  It was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so, with the perfect amount of carbonation.  When I looked back up to thank her, however, I found that she was already leaning over to whisper into my ear.  “When you finish that, let me know and we’ll have the next glass in my bedroom,” she said in a sultry voice before standing back up.  Anise winked and headed back to the kitchen, exaggerating her gait to big round butt shake out further.

It seemed like a shame to waste such fine champagne, but it was for a worthy goal.  I pressed the rim of the glass to my lips and tipped my head back, opening my mouth wide and draining the flute in a single drought.  The liquid poured down my throat, and I felt the fizz buzzing in my stomach already by the time I brought the flute back down.  At least, I thought it was the fizz.  My drink lasted just long enough for Anise to return with a tray of hors d’oeuvres in her arms, and I waited until she placed it on the coffee table before grabbing her attention.

As she walked back toward the kitchen, I maneuvered to stand next to her.  “Excuse me,” I began, holding my champagne flute out prominently, “do you think I could get a refill?”

Anise stopped in her tracks and grinned slightly, then reached out and grabbed the champagne bottle by the neck.  “Of course.  Follow me and I’ll get you taken care of.”  She gripped my shoulder to spin me around, though I hardly needed the encouragement.  With her exaggerated gait she walked across the room to a doorway set in the corner, running her finger down the frame before stepping through it.

Eagerly I followed Anise to her bedroom, then quietly closed the door behind me.  Her room was much as I had imagined it to be.  All the lighting came from lamps, leaving it unevenly lit, giving it a mysterious air.  A large bed with red satin sheets stood in the middle, sufficiently raised to be comfortable for her long legs, with several layers of embroidered throw pillows at the head.  Her small home office was pushed into the corner, little more than a simple desk with a chair to avoid detracting from the room’s aesthetics.  Of course, the crowning gem was Anise herself, leaning against the foot of her bed with a half-filled bottle in one hand and an empty champagne flute in the other.

“Finished that a little quicker than I expected,” she said, striding toward me.  “Something you want to let me in on?”  Glass clinked when she set the bottle atop my flute and began pouring.

“Nothing you don’t already know, I suspect,” I answered, and she stopped pouring.  “It’s hardly a secret that you’re gorgeous and any man would be lucky to get time alone with you.”

Anise gave me a knowing grin and set the bottle down on the end table beside her.  “Is that so?” she asked, and we simultaneously took a sip from our glasses.  “And here I was thinking I was lucky to get some time with you.”  I nearly choked on my champagne, but after a brief coughing fit managed to get it down.

In an effort to recover from that sorry display, I took a long drink from my glass and stepped confidently toward her.  “I guess we’re both lucky, then.”  Something seemed off about Anise, like she was taller than she should have been, but I put it out of my head.  She normally wore flats at work, and the boots must have been throwing me off.

“One of us must be luckier than the other,” she said, gripping me by the shoulders, “and I’m pretty sure I know who it is.”  My heart raced, and she leaned down and pressed her lips against mine.  I could hear my blood thumping in my ears, and I reached around Anise’s waist to hold her tight against me.  Her touch made my pulse race, and as she slowly pulled away I stood on my toes to make the moment last longer.  Soon, however, even that was not enough, and when our lips unfortunately parted I dropped back so I was flat on my feet.

I could no longer dismiss it simply because she was wearing boots.  My eyes were down to her waist, and looking up, I felt like I was half her size.  Anise’s hands still rested on my shoulders, but instead of a gentle touch like before, her long fingers were now digging into my skin.  Shocked, I stared up at her and tried to find words to express my disbelief.

I did not have to say anything.  As she looked down at me, Anise let out loud, mocking laughter, seeming to grow taller with each moment.  She let go of one shoulder and held the hand above me, turning it so she pointed down at me derisively.  Still growing, her hand strengthened its grip on my shoulder, making me wince from the sharp, piercing pain.

When I finally overcame my shock I tried to slip away from her, but Anise’s iron grip held firm.  Her delicate fingers were stronger than I expected, no doubt helped by her sudden and rapid increase in size.  She seemed unable to do anything but point and laugh at me, and it was then I realized that, instead of her getting larger, I was shrinking.  By the time I figured out what was really happening, I was nearing the hem of her skirt, and the shrinking seemed to be getting faster.

As my body dwindled my feet lifted off the floor, her grip powerful enough to hold my whole body aloft.  I yelped when all of my weight was supported entirely by my shoulder clutched within her hand, and that only made her laugh harder.  The floor slowly drifted further away as I got smaller, and Anise had to use progressively fewer fingers to hold me up.  When all that was left was her thumb and middle finger pinching my body, she slid a finger underneath my free armpit and quickly shifted her grip.  Her thumb slipped over my torso and the rest of her hand clasped around my back, gripping my body firmly with just my extremities exposed.

Holding me like a doll, Anise lifted me to her face, where her dark brown eyes peered down at me from amid the pale field of her face.  Her eyes danced while she laughed, and she continued pointing at me derisively with her free hand.  Second by second more of my body slipped into her fist, and one word finally came to mind.  “Why?”

Anise finally stopped laughing, though she was still grinning ear to ear.  She tilted her head forward, giving herself a sinister look when her curls dangled beside her face, and her lips parted with a quiet smack.  “That’s the first question I get asked every year, I should really see it coming by now,” she said.  Her voice was deeper now to account for the great difference in our sizes, and I was taken aback by her alien voice.  “It’s a tradition going back to my sorority days.  Every year I shrink the latest arrival to my party, and we have our own, private ball dropping ceremony.  Bet you wish you hadn’t stopped off for that champagne now, huh?”

That only raised further questions, but when my knees slid into her fist I knew my time was limited.  “How?”  I wish I could have come up with more intelligent questions, but as my body dwindled into my office crush’s hand I had difficulty articulating more than one word at a time.

“What do you mean, how?” she replied.  “How did I shrink you, or how am I going to explain your disappearance?  I get asked both of them a lot.”  I stared at her dumbfounded while the wall of her thumb gradually took over more of my vision.  “For the first one… don’t worry about it.  I clearly know how to shrink you, and that’s all that matters.  For the second, do you think it’s an accident I’m in charge of HR transfers?  Didn’t you think it was weird that Rich suddenly moved to New Orleans in January, or Chloe to Seattle last year?”  She chuckled, making a low rumble that seemed to come from all around me.  “You’ve always struck me as the adventurous type.  I think you’ll get transferred to our Berlin office.”

The webbing between her thumb and forefinger butted up against my chin, making it difficult to speak.  “What’s going to really happen to me?” I asked before the flap of skin slid over my mouth.

Anise laughed again, and I wished I could cover my ears from the barrage.  “It’s getting hard to hear your tiny voice, so I’ll just run through the usual answers.  You’re the tenth person I’ve done this to, and nobody’s ever thought to investigate.  No one’s coming to help you, the room is soundproofed.  We can still hear the countdown thanks to my intercom, but I guarantee your tiny voice isn’t getting out.  Yes, I knew you had a crush on me, I just took it more literally when I reciprocated.  Anything new?”  With my entire body consumed by her hand, I could not have asked anything even if I wanted to.

The heat inside Anise’s fist was extreme, her flesh acting like an oven to contain her own body heat.  I could still hear her muffled laughter, however, and despite not being able to see anything I could feel myself getting smaller.  Shouting and struggling were both useless.  Anise had complete control over me and there was nothing I could do about it.

The world turned sideways, and I realized it was just Anise rotating her hand so her palm would be facing up.  Her fingers unfurled, letting the hot air out and allowing the dim light of the room to reach me again.

Though I had not been trapped in Anise’s fist for long, I had shrunk so much in that time that the whole world had changed.  Her huge face was now gigantic, with irises half my size and a nose that she could drape me over with room to spare.  Lips which had been thin and narrow before now looked quite thick and able to engulf me with no trouble.  I had figured out that I was not getting out of this alive, and if she wanted a way to dispose of me with no mess, I had to admit that eating me would be the way to go.

Anise had other plans, however.  She brought her free hand up and set two digits on either side of me, forming towering walls of flesh around me.  They pinched me along the whole length of my body, gripping me tightly enough that her hold was absolute, but loose enough to avoid inadvertently squishing me.  She lifted me out of her palm and blinked at me with her big brown eyes, fluttering her eyelashes as though she were inspecting me.  Without saying a word – though her smile persisted – she turned, making the whole world shift around me, and walked toward her desk.

When she reached her chair, Anise turned it around, then crouched so she was nearly level with it.  The rapid change of elevation made my stomach jump to my throat, and I was dazed when she laid my body on the seat of her chair.  She kept a finger across my body, holding me in place while she reached onto her desk.  When her hand came back into view, she brandished three push pins with wide heads.  My eyes widened, wondering what part needles played in this yearly ritual of hers.

“Most of my sorority sisters preferred using tape for this,” Anise said, pinching one of the needles between two digits.”  “I never liked it, though.”  She moved her finger aside so she could drive the push pin into the chair so it pinned my arm and shoulder against the cloth.  “It creates a barrier between me and the little person, you know?”  Anise plunged another push pin into the cloth so it held down my other arm, sliding the metal spike beneath my armpit.  “I like to feel ‘em go squish and have the wetness spread against me.”  The final push pin ended up between my legs, just missing my groin but holding everything between my waist and knees against the chair.

With me firmly secured to the chair, Anise stood back up.  She was gargantuan now, towering over me like a skyscraper.  Just a few minutes ago she had been rather tall to me, but now she was an outright giantess.  Anise looked down at me with contempt, then pointed and laughed at me one more time to ensure I was fully humiliated.  “Looks like it’s about time for the ball to drop,” she boomed while I struggled vainly against the pins holding me in place.  “Of course, the last ball you’ll ever see drop is my ass.”  Again she laughed, driving the point home, then turned around.

Gazing up at her, I understood why she wore a crimson skirt every New Year’s Eve.  She still had a party to host, after all, and she could not have people asking about the weird stain on her butt.  I watched her in silence, waiting for the final countdown to begin.  While I had always thought she had a nice butt and would normally relish the opportunity to admire it, I had never expected it to be the means of my destruction.

The intercom clicked on, and I knew my life was now measured in seconds.  “Ten!”  Anise’s knees bent slightly.  “Nine!”  They bent a little more, dropping her butt a few inches.  “Eight!”  I resumed futilely fighting against the pins to save my life.  “Seven!”  Her skirt tightened around her thighs as they strained it further.  “Six!”  I heard Anise stifle a laugh as her butt drew slightly closer.   “Five!”  With her knees at a 45-degree angle, she was halfway toward crushing me, and her tremendous butt filled my view.  “Four!”  The fabric of her skirt began tightening around her buttocks, making them look somehow even more defined.  “Three!”  Fabric separated the buttocks above me, and the shadow around me focused into pure black.  “Two!”  Every individual stitch and weave of fabric was visible as her skirt strained to contain the rear above me.  “One!”  For just a moment, Anise’s ass lingered close enough for me to grab if I could move my arms.

“Happy New Year!”  Anise’s butt landed atop me, and I was overwhelmed by the sudden load of weight from it.  I gritted my teeth, trying to resist its force, but my body boughed and compressed under her gargantuan body.  Pain flushed my system, overwhelming every nerve ending as my whole body was instantaneously crushed, simultaneously making it extremely painful and the most at peace I had ever been.  My vision flashed white, a stark contrast to the dark red that had dominated it before, then faded out entirely.  In an instant, I had become little more than an unnoticeable stain on Anise butt, with smashed remains in her chair that she could deal with at her leisure.

At least I had lived to see the new year.