The American girl's voice became less distinct as Chloe ran through the back gardens and alleys of Traverston. It was still a basso rumble that competed with the sound of her own blood pumping through her tiny body but at least she no longer understood what the girl was saying. The voices of the other giant couple echoed somewhere in the distance as well, sounding almost normal thanks to how far away they were.

Chloe slowed down when she reached the high street, and as she doubled over to catch her breath, she saw how her hands shook. Looking up and down the street at the mostly fake shopfronts, listening to the distant sound of gigantic university students terrorizing the miniature village, she couldn't fight the memories that welled up inside of her.

She stumbled with her next step and braced herself against the nearest store window.

It was one of the fake shops, designed to look like a computer repair place that probably went out of business around the same time the locals had converted The Traverston Model to Lili-Traverston. Even though she had a mirror in the house she shared with Tabitha, it was still difficult for Chloe to recognize the woman staring back at her.

Her once dazzling and full red hair was limp and, since there were no proper scissors for shrunken people, awkwardly cut. The woman reflected back at her had more of a tan than Chloe ever had but she was also composed solely of hard bony angles and wiry muscle rather than her previous pleasant curves. She had never been the most stylish but anything would have been better than the shapeless blue dress she wore, whose only redeeming quality was its pockets. The sidewalk rumbled beneath her cloth sandals and she immediately looked toward the sky.

No one loomed over the buildings and Chloe let out the breath she had held.

The reality of what was happening made her start moving again, though more slowly this time. She was shocked that no one had ever told her what to do in a situation like this, especially if it had happened before. Chloe stopped for a moment and shut her eyes tight as she thought about Tabitha. She doubted the older woman could have survived being crushed beneath the blonde girl's enormous ass but she didn't want to believe that Tabitha was simply gone.

Chloe forced herself to keep going until she finally spotted one of the real buildings.

Racing across the street, she shoved open the door to the village's tailor, the same one who made the dress she wore and almost all the clothes she had worn since shrinking. “Hello?” She called out as she slammed the door shut.

Without power, the place was lit only by the light coming in through the window and with the cloud cover that day, there wasn't much. Stacks of folded fabric, most of it donated by larger people from Traverston, filled the shop alongside three different sized dolls that the tailor used as models; a Barbie, a Bratz doll, and a GI Joe figure that looked terribly out of place with a dress hanging off of it. There was no answer and she didn't hear anyone moving on the floor above.

“It's Chloe! Tabitha's housemate!”

She stood in the center of the shop and simply stared at the ceiling, expecting to hear a floorboard creak.

Chloe walked through the backdoor and stared up the wide staircase that lead to the apartment above, the steps sized for the larger woman's ten inch tall frame. “Eliza!” She shouted, hoping that using the woman's name would somehow get her a response but instead she was met with only silence. Slowly and awkwardly, she clambered up the stairs to find the apartment door ajar.

Opening it up, she braced herself for some horrific scene only to find the vast studio apartment empty. Like the shop below, it had a vaulted ceiling so Eliza could easily move around, and was filled with furniture as well as more stacks of donated cloth. Chloe frowned as she noticed the higher quality fabrics that Eliza kept hidden; there were pleasing patterns, interesting textures, and even a few pieces of silk and velvet from what she could see.

Near the windows, she saw that Eliza had essentially the same set up for what could charitably called a kitchen that she and Tabitha had. The handful of appliances were silent and Chloe couldn't help but open the chest high refrigerator simply to peer into it. She found mostly the same allotment of food that everyone else had, tiny portions of real food that came from the village's donations. Though Chloe couldn't help but notice that there were a few empty spaces where there had most likely been choice items. Looking to the bed and the standing closet that was still open with half the clothes missing, Chloe figured that Eliza had run off at the first sign of the giants causing trouble.

Chloe sighed again and blinked tears from her eyes as she thought of Tabitha.

The high street below was deserted and looking out at it, Chloe was instantly reminded of the last time she had looked down on the high street. Of course, that had been the actual high street in Traverston when she was still normal sized.

She had decided that a weekend in a cute village would be the perfect cure for a dreadfully boring work trip and there was a well reviewed bed and breakfast in Traverston along with a few places to walk and hike that were supposedly charming.

The idea that she might shrink had never crossed her mind.

Chloe had known that she was asymptomatic but she was also twenty-five and the fear of suddenly shrinking had abated with every passing year after she finished uni. Growing up, watching people go from classmates one day to her classmate's playthings the next or coming back from holiday to learn that someone's dad or mum or whoever had been sent to a protected village, it had felt like shrinking could happen to anyone. The world didn't stop just because people shrank though and by the time she was out in the real world, the fact that the majority of asymptomatic people didn't shrink was more than enough to put her mind at ease when the errant fear popped into her head.

She was sitting in the bed and breakfast's little dining room, enjoying a scone laden with jam and cream while deciding what to do that day when loud voices passed outside the window. Lisa, the friendly older woman who ran the place came in after that, shaking her head and muttering about the 'damned music festival.' Chloe had quickly learned when she arrived that Traverston was annually plagued by an EDM festival that brought in 'droves of druggies and burnouts.' Lisa had paused when she saw her and gestured to the cup beside her plate, “More tea, dear?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Lisa walked by and again Chloe found herself wondering just how old she was. She was tall and thin, without a trace of gray in her thick dark hair, and though there were faint lines around her brown eyes and thin lips, there wasn't much else to go on. She kept thinking that the woman had to be at least as old as her parents, if not older, but that might have just been because she thought running a cutesy bed and breakfast was something people did when they were retired.

“They're out in force today,” Lisa said as she filled Chloe's cup before she poured one for herself. The woman's seemingly endless hatred for young people and new music also helped to make her sound quite aged, “Best steer clear of the campgrounds unless you fancy breathing in marijuana smoke and Lord only knows what else.”

Chloe had smiled politely and tried not to laugh as she sipped her tea, wondering how the older woman would react if she knew about the weed gummies in Chloe's bag that a friend had given her after returning from a trip to California earlier that month.

As she walked down the high street twenty or thirty minutes later, the discomfort in her stomach made her think about having one well before she left the village. The feeling got worse while she rummaged through her bag and suddenly she began to wonder if her visit to the local chip shop that everyone said was great the night before had really been the best idea. The vertigo hit her as she started to turn back toward her bed and breakfast, certain that she would need a toilet in a matter of minutes. The pain wracked through her body next and all she managed was a gasping cry before the world went black.

The next thing Chloe knew, she had been tumbling through the air and screaming.

Soft fabric rushed past her and when she tried to reach out for it, it shook and she was hit by a burst of warm air. Sunlight rushed in and the sidewalk below turned into a blur as she plummeted. Her own terrified cries were instantly overwhelmed by the booming voices around her, then all the air rushed from her body when she hit the ground.

Gasping for breath, Chloe pushed herself up to a sitting position and her eyes went immediately wide. Enormous trainers seemed to encircle her; black Nikes on one side, thick chunky soled Filas on another, and outrageously colorful high tops in front of her. It was the high tops that held her attention though since they were far larger than the other pairs.

And that's when she finally started to parse the basso roars above her.

“Jackpot,” a masculine voice boomed above, and Chloe's eyes quickly traveled up a pair of long joggers then past a baggy shirt to where immense hands held her purse. In the impossibly large hands she saw the package of weed gummies she had been searching for.

Feminine giggles thundered on either side of her and Chloe trembled as she watched a feminine hand snatch the package out of the giant's grasp. The dainty hands belonged to an Asian girl whose dark hair was covered by a neon pink bucket hat and whose face was coated in glitter and glow paint. She instantly ripped the bag open and popped one of the tiny bears past her plump lips.

The mere sight of the girl chewing something made Chloe whimper and crawl backwards. With the package so far overhead, she couldn't help but wonder how she compared to the tiny weed-laced gummy bear the gigantic girl had devoured without a thought.

The world shook and a gale blew across her back as the other giantess slammed her foot down right in Chloe's path. Her head snapped away from the giant girl counting up the weed gummies to her friend whose dishwater blonde hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail to reveal a long narrow face similarly coated in glitter.

The enormous white girl sneered when her pale gray eyes landed on Chloe, “And where do you think you're going, bitch?”

The same enormous hand that had just been digging through her purse settled on the girl's bare shoulder. The giant South Asian boy towered over the annoyed girl and his handsome features did little to blunt the menacing look he wore. He gently pulled the blonde closer as he kissed her on the top of her head, “Your new plaything tryin' ta run, babe?”

“She better not be,” the giantess said while the bag of gummies was passed into her hand. “I'm gonna need these trainers spit shined when we get home tonight.”

All of Chloe's old fears welled up inside her when she heard those words. Memories of shrunken teachers licking the bottom of their former students' shoes, shrunken people being crushed under the tread of someone's boot, and shrinkees being tossed like candy into Immune mouths. Her eyes went wide and she yelped as the blonde tossed a bright red bear into her gargantuan maw. While her lips smacked together loudly, Chloe watched as her enormous boyfriend plucked another out and the gummy looked even smaller between his immense fingers.

“Aw, look at her, she's numb with fear,” the bucket hat wearing girl cooed. She leaned over Chloe's world, casting her in deep shadow as she regarded her with already glassy eyes. “She's definitely a keeper. You can tell she'll be super easy to train.”

Looking about frantically, Chloe's eyes went wide when she saw the giant had simply set her purse back down on the ground. Her phone was half out of it and the mere sight of it sent her scrambling.

“Oi!” The blonde's toe rammed into her.

Chloe cried out in pain and tumbled across the sidewalk.

“What do you think you're doing?” The girl asked with a scowl.

“Ooo, she was goin' for her phone, babe.” The giant nudged it back into her purse with his ludicrous trainer.

Then Chloe's view was blocked by his girlfriend's black Nike, which her thick milky leg rose out of it before disappearing into tight jean shorts. The giantess leaned over her and sneered, “Cheeky little bitch.”

“Maybe we should just squash her,” the other girl suggested.

“Nah, she won't try that again,” the blonde leaned down so far until it seemed like the entire sky was taken up by her face, “Will ya?”

Her little body shook with fear and Chloe knew that her answer in that moment would determine if she lived or died. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shook her head and whimpered.

“What?”

“No,” she sobbed while she felt her dignity slipping away, “I won't...”

“You won't what?”

“I won't try to-”

“Get away from her you lousy ingrates,” thundered another voice.

All three giants straightened up and turned to face the newcomer. Through the forest of enormous legs, Chloe could see a sensible pair of flats and tight jeans that she dimly recognized.

“Mind your own business,” boomed Chloe's ostensible owner.

The new giantess stepped up to her and Chloe's neck craned back as Lisa towered over the bratty girl. “If you think I'm going to let you take one of the nice people of our village back to whatever council house hole you crawled out of, you are sorely mistaken.”

“Hey,” growled the giantess's boyfriend.

Lisa simply shoved a finger into his face and wagged it, “Be quiet, young man. If you so much as raise your voice at me, I will scream.”

Chloe sat shivering in terror while the giant quickly weighed his chances with the local police service. He then tugged on his girlfriend's shoulder, “C'mon, babe, it ain't worth it.”

The world shook as the girl stamped her foot and the trio walked off.

She could hear the girl who planned to imprison her shout in futile rage and a moment later Lisa flashed her fingers in a v at the girl. The rude gesture made Chloe blink in surprise and a giddy feeling bubbled inside of her only to be instantly squelched when Lisa looked down at her.

“Oh, it's you,” she said with a clear hint of disappointment.

The fear that Lisa would simply walk off, leaving her to be claimed by one of the 'nice people' of Traverston or even for that girl to come back and snatch, made Chloe burst into tears. She sobbed so hard that she didn't do anything when the giant woman's warm hands wrapped around her and began to soothingly stroke her hair and back.

The rest of that day passed in a blur, though Chloe distinctly remembered sitting beneath a tea towel on the same table she had eaten breakfast at that morning, flinching every time she heard a booming voice pass by the window outside. The car ride had been equally terrifying and the only thing that took the edge off was the luxury of the heated leather seat beneath her.

It had been jarring to be set down on an eerily similar street in the model village, but then someone was handing her clothing and helping her in to a nearby house while her gigantic savior spoke to someone she held in the palm of her hand.

Sitting in Eliza's apartment and staring down at the high street, Chloe found it difficult to accept that she had only shrunk last summer. It felt like a lifetime ago and she realized that in many ways it was. She no longer thought about any of the normal day-to-day minutia that had made it easy to forget about the possibility of shrinking.

She mostly thought about ways to pass the time in the quiet little village she lived in and wrestled over whether or not to ever contact her parents to let them know she wasn't dead. Every time she had thought about it, she thought about how they'd want to protect her and take her away and that had always sounded like a terrible idea.

But that was when she thought she had been safe in the village.

She knew it wasn't actually an officially protected place but no one had ever thought to mention that there had been multiple attacks. Tabitha had made sure to let her know, constantly, that Lisa had been the town bicycle when they were girls and how she had used her daddy's money to buy up the businesses of people when they shrunk for a fraction of what they were worth. Others had also readily told her all the gossip about the giants who dropped off supplies or maintained the parts of the grounds the shrunken people couldn't. That they wanted her to know the things that any local would know had helped to make her feel welcome.

Now though she was furious that they had wasted time telling her about everything but what to do if somebody decided to simply hop the fence and start kicking in their houses. Her hands were balled into fists as she jumped to her feet and looked across the apartment that Eliza had abandoned to clearly go somewhere safe.

Chloe released a raw wordless scream.

It took her several seconds to calm her nerves but once she was no longer shaking, she stood by the window and tried to figure out where people would go in case of an emergency.

Movement on the high street filled her with hope and then instantly confusion.

A naked young man was running through the streets with his hand cupped over his privates.

He ran past Eliza's shop then immediately stopped and backpedaled to stare at the clothes on display. Peering down, Chloe's heart skipped a beat as she recognized him.

It was Callum.

The window in front of her rattled and Chloe looked up to see Faith's face looming over the building across the street. Her blue eyes roamed across the high street as she cooed, “Aw, baby, there's no reason to run. Isn't this what you wanted?”

On the floor below, an action figure clattered to the floor and Chloe heard the recently shrunken boy yelp in fear.

“I'm going to find you, baby,” Faith thundered but thankfully her face disappeared behind a building as she leaned down low to peer through its windows, “But I think I'll play with these guys first.”

Bricks and wood crumbled somewhere beyond the high street as Chloe began to back away from the window.

The American's voice rang in her ears, “Hiiii...”