Chapter 13:

(Posted: March 2)

“Guys,” Kat said, approaching Harrison and Rich “Jessica got some guy to lead her upstairs. We gotta get up there too.”

Harrison and Rich were already working on their second scotches. When Kat approached them they didn't recognize her at first, and upon finally realizing who she was, they couldn't help but gawk at her, still dumbfounded by her looks. She easily stood out as one of the most beautiful women in the room.

“Kat, this alcohol is real!” Rich exclaimed in his buzzed excitement. He hadn't taken his eyes off of her for an instant. “And it's fucking good too!” he added.

Rolling her eyes, Kat impatiently replied, “Guys, did you not hear what I said? Jessica is upstairs right now! We need to get up there too.”

Harrison and Rich looked at each other, then back at Kat. “You sure you don't want to stay at this party?” Rich asked her. He was clearly enjoying his time doing nothing.

“Kat, I'll go with you,” Harrison proudly announced, putting his hand on her bare shoulder. He'd been drinking doubles. “What're we lookin' for?”

Jesus Christ, Kat thought. These men were both a drink away from being veritably drunk. Unceremoniously, she grabbed their current drinks out of their hands.

“Hey what the hell!”

“Kat, what're you doin'?”

“Listen up!” she scolded them. They both tensed up, their eyes growing wide. “You're going to help me get upstairs and we're going to figure out, once and for all, why the fuck this world exists in VERSA!” There was no arguing with Kat's intensity. Though she hadn't sobered them up, she had their attention now.

“Ok what's the plan?” Rich asked, finally taking her seriously. “Should we go back for the gun outside?”

“No, that'll draw too much attention,” she assumed. “I have an idea for a distraction but I'll need both of you.”

“Lead the way,” Harrison conceded with a sigh, gesturing with his arm. He was curious to see what she had planned.

Upstairs, Jessica stood confidently over Evan as he whined and begged at her feet. She couldn't get over the foreign and delightfully strange feeling of holding so much power over someone. Her body tingled in equal parts anticipation and ire.

“You pathetic little piece of shit,” Jessica spat at him. Wanting to scold him further, she couldn't choose the right words to convey her disgust. He looked pitiful below her and had given up on fleeing from her titanic and powerful form. She continued to hear his annoying apologetic words flutter up to her ears; the sound of his voice started grating on her. “Shut up you little fuck!” she finally yelled.

With a boom she stomped her heeled foot next to his quivering body. He collapsed and somehow looked even more miserable than before. His cries for mercy quickly devolved into quiet whimpering. Jessica wondered briefly if she could make him pee his pants. That would be fun.

Looking at her pretty open-toed shoe towering next to his body, an idea struck Jessica. It was bizarre but she was feeling giddy. She pointed a finger down at her right foot. “Kiss my foot!” she commanded, trying to mask the mischievous grin forming on her face.

Evan sat frozen at her feet, not comprehending her order. “I said KISS IT!” she shouted again. “Or I'll step on you!” she added for effect. She'd never talked to anyone this way before, but she was starting to get a feel for it. All her frustration over the last few days was being channeled into a new dominant role.

Her latest threat scared him into compliance. He quickly crawled over to her exposed toes, and to Jessica's surprise, she felt little kisses on her big toe. Oh my goodness, she thought, he's actually doing it! He was kissing her toe! Fighting the urge to crush him right on the spot, she bent over a little to watch him pathetically worshiping her.

Without compunction, Jessica closed her eyes and savored the sensation of Evan begging for his life with his pathetic kisses on her foot. “Kiss all my toes,” she calmly addressed him, knowing that she had him obedient and under control. She didn't feel bad for him at all. He'd lured her in and tried to rape her and kill her, and on top of that, she reminded herself, he wasn't even a real person. Jessica was suddenly using VERSA for a much stranger reason than it was originally intended.

Evan tried desperately to please her as he crawled around on his hands and knees, covering the red-painted toes on her right foot with kisses. Jessica thought he looked injured moving around below her, but maybe it was the fear making him shake so much.

Once she'd lost the initial thrill of having this broken man worshiping at her feet, she commanded him to stop. He leaned up and sat on his knees, watching her intently with fear.

“Take off your clothes,” she ordered him next. Her command surprised him, and he paused. “Do it!” she yelled, stomping her foot down next to him. The shock knocked him over, but he quickly writhed out of his suit, stripping down to his boxer shorts. He looked up at Jessica for approval, but she glared down at him in disgust. Sheepishly, he finally pulled down his underwear. Still surprised by his dutiful submission to her commands, Jessica marveled at the tiny naked man standing below her.

Quickly reaching down and grabbing him, she brought him up to her face. Unlike her friends who she always tried picking up gently and slowly, she did not consider Evan's comfort. Painfully gripping him, she inspected his small body closely, hoping to humiliate him further.

“What a pathetic little thing,” she said of his cock, bringing over the index finger of her other hand to push it around. She inadvertently bruised his groin with her finger and he cried out in pain, but she didn't care. “It's as big as a grain of rice now,” she taunted him. “What ever could you do with it at this size?”

She locked her big blue eyes on him. Too scared to look away, he faced her visage nervously.

“Do you want to rape me now?” she asked him. “Do you?!”

“No! I never did! Please let me go!” he cried out.

“You didn't?! Really?” Jessica was working her anger back up again.

“Please! I didn't mean it!” he begged.

“Oh, you didn't mean it back then?! So what did you mean?”

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!”

“Answer my question!!” she yelled directly at him. Her words were a force of nature blowing angrily in his face.

He was crying now as she held him in front of her. His body was warm and sweaty in her grip. As he kept apologizing, he blubbered so much she could hardly make out his words. It was utterly pathetic. It made Jessica feel wonderful.

“I'm sorry I trapped you!” he sobbed. “I'm sorry, it wasn't right! I didn't mean anything. Please forgive me, please!”

Jessica lowered the tone of her voice. “Evan,” she said calmly, “you were trying to have sex with me earlier, even after I said no. Why?”

“No I've... I've never had sex before,” he admitted through his tears. “I don't even know what it's like, or what it is. I've... only heard about it. I didn't even know what to do to you, even if I had wanted to!”

Pursing her lips, Jessica watched this pathetic excuse for a man try weaseling his way onto her good side. He didn't know about sex? He sure seemed like he did. He knew how to wrestle at least.

As she digested his words, it occurred to her that VERSA may have tried acting out a scene that it did not know how to conclude. It could have been using her to learn, somehow...

No, she was still mad at him. Even if his naiveté was genuine, she was having none of it. This bastard deserved a cruel punishment.

“You thought you could do whatever you wanted with me, didn't you?” she asked him condescendingly.

“...yes,” he sniffled.

“Huh, was it because you were stronger than me? Is that why?” Evan could only nod half-heartedly in agreement. “Ok I understand,” she continued, “stronger people get to do what they want, don't they?” She didn't bother waiting for him to reply. “Evan,” Jessica asked him simply, “who's the stronger one now?”

“Y... you are...” he cried, his tears slowing down.

“That's right, I am,” Jessica said coolly, flexing her superiority before him. Behind her stoic face she was enraptured with excitement. The relief of having power over this little man and knowing she was in charge sent shivers down her back. Zeroing in on his face, Jessica contemplated everything about Evan's detestable existence. She abhorred whatever line of code brought him to life inside VERSA.

Jessica shifted her grip so she could cradle him in the palm of her hand. “I'm going to show you real strength now Evan,” she informed him casually. Her fingers wrapped around his body. She started squeezing and he started screaming.

As she increased the pressure, his voice shrieked into a terrible wail of pain. Activating the muscles in her arm and fingers, she relentlessly squeezed his little body. She felt a few snaps at first, probably his ribs, and then more of his insides collapsed. His scream was cut off by a geyser of blood erupting from his mouth, his insides slowly liquefying inside of him. Jessica watched his death with callous intent, fascinated to see what she could inflict on the tiny man. Wonderment filled her eyes; she was awed with the discovery of destruction.

Some of his blood ran down her fingers, pooling around her cuticles. She noted with amusement that his blood practically matched her nail polish color. Giving him a final, bone-crunching squeeze, she let go of him and his compressed and broken body shifted in her hand. And then, with great contempt, she let it slip out of her hand. She watched his mangled body land on the carpet a moment later as a deformed pile of broken bones and flesh. The room was silent.

She stared at his remains for a minute, thinking about what she'd done. It had been fun playing with him, but the thought of what had happened to her beforehand still bothered her and she felt awful. Jessica didn't regret what she'd done to him, but her experience with him in the room had been jarring.

Quickly, without trying to think about it anymore, she grabbed the key off the table and let herself out of the large bedroom. Quietly closing the door behind her, she finally had the chance to do what she'd come up here for.

Walking back down the hallway, Jessica turned the corner and realized she's forgotten about the two men guarding the top of the stairs. In her haste, their existence had slipped her mind. Catching her off-guard, one of the men turned to see her standing alone and frowned wordlessly. Frozen in place, Jessica watched him unholster a gun from his jacket.

Jessica immediately decided she needed to run. But where? If she ran back the way she came, the men would trap her in one of the rooms. She had to confront them somehow, or get help. Focusing on the guards, an eerie warmth suddenly radiated through her body. It shocked her when they suddenly disappeared. Both men simply blinked out of existence.

Recovering from her surprise, Jessica noticed movement on the floor. Expecting what she eventually saw, Jessica immediately knew they'd shrunk. But how? The woman in black wasn't around anymore. Had Jessica somehow done this herself? She recalled what the woman in black had said, how she'd make sure Jessica could fight back in the future or whatever. Did she have some kind of superpower now?

Feeling faint sensations pricking her stomach, Jessica snapped out of her inner confusion. She looked down at her dress to see if something had blown against her body, but she saw nothing. Catching a glimpse of the two diminutive figures standing on the landing before her, she squinted to see what they were doing. Both incredibly small, Jessica could barely make out the two men holding up pistols at her. And then she realized they were shooting her. She barely felt it. How cute, she thought, a playful grin spreading on her face. Her tolerance for tiny people had drastically fallen in the last few minutes.

Stepping her pretty high-heeled feet forward, Jessica could see the inch-tall men stumble from the impact of her steps. Sensing their mistake in aggravating her, they both started running, but with a few more steps Jessica was right on top of them. Deciding she was not in the mood for a tease right now, Jessica swiftly brought her right foot down on one of the men, instantly pulverizing his minuscule body under her red shoe.

Spying the other man near her left foot, she raised it over him and slowly stepped down. Misjudging the step, her foot landed just next to his little body. “Oh, you're a fast one,” she said out loud. Stepping once again, but more quickly and forcefully this time, Jessica crunched the guard under her foot. These men were so tiny that she hardly felt any resistance under her shoes when she lowered them down on top of them. It made her job a lot easier.

Standing at the top of the stairs, Jessica looked over the party to see if anyone had noticed what she'd done. Down below, the celebration continued, ignorant and unaware. The band had just started a new song. But standing directly at the bottom of the staircase, three shocked guests looked up at her in awe. Beaming confidence, Jessica gave them a wave.

Harrison, Rich, and Kat bounded up the staircase, unsure if anyone would notice or care. They'd arrived just in time to watch the guards disappear, then Jessica appear and snuff out their little lives.

“Um, what the fuck was that?” Rich asked her in astonishment and confusion. Internally he was questioning his level of alcohol consumption.

“I'm... I'm not really sure,” Jessica admitted truthfully. “They were about to attack me but then they just shrank.”

“What have you found up here?” Kat asked, all business. “Anything?”

“I just went down there.” Jessica pointed at the hallway she'd just come from.

“Hmmm, it's just bedrooms that way,” commented Kat. “If we go into the east wing, Leo's study is there. I want to search there first.”

“Um, hey guys,” Harrison interjected. The other three looked at him. “I think we've been spotted.” He nodded his head towards the bottom of the stairs.

Standing at the foot of the staircase, a couple of gentlemen in suits silently gazed up at the four guests standing on the second floor landing. As the men kept watching, emotionless and blank, more and more partygoers took notice and turned to look at them. The din of the party throughout the house fell to a hush. A feeling of dread crawled up into Harrison's gut.

“So that guy I came up here with,” Jessica explained quickly, “said that this party always has the same invitees, every single time. I think they've figured out we're not on the list...”

“Shit,” Kat muttered.

A man emerged from the crowd at the bottom of the staircase and, keeping his eyes fixed on Harrison and his friends, took a step up towards them. The masses behind him followed. The party, it seemed, was over.

“Fuck we need to hide,” said Rich.

“No wait!” Jessica interrupted him. “You guys go search the study, I think I know how to handle this.” Everyone looked at her like she was insane.

“Jessica, what?!” Harrison finally exclaimed.

“Just go!” she shouted.

Kat wasted no time breaking into a run down the hallway. Rich paused a moment, then ran to catch up with her. Harrison lingered behind, utterly confused by what Jessica had said. The party guests slowly climbed the stairs, coming closer and closer.

“Jessica we gotta go!” he pleaded with her, suddenly sobered up by the situation.

“Harrison, I'll be fine,” she hurriedly reassured him.

“No let's go! We gotta run-”

“Harrison,” she said abruptly. She put a finger to her lips and looked into his eyes “Shhhhh...”

Stunned into silence, Harrison watched her turn away from him and face the staircase, which was now clogged with bodies walking up it. In a couple more seconds they'd be overwhelmed by the tide of people. Jessica stood there, staring at the crowd, lost in thought.

Concentrating, Jessica starting thinking about the threat they faced. Looking at the nearest man coming up the stairs, she focused her thoughts on him and how helpless she'd be to stop him if he attacked her. Actively willing it, she pictured his body shrinking down to one inch.

Watching from next to her, Harrison saw the man at the front of the group suddenly disappear. A moment later another man blinked out, then a woman next to him. One by one, the party guests seemed to turn into air as Harrison watched in confusion and relief. What the hell was happening?

And then he noticed the party guests hadn't disappeared. They were still on the stairs, just no more than an inch tall. Like an invisible pestilence, before any of them reached the top of the stairs they were culled into a shrunken state. Some of them were even crushed by full-sized partygoers coming up behind them, who moments later were reduced too. It all seemed so evil and efficient. These people stood no chance.

Harrison knew something this bizarre could only be the work of one person: the woman in black. Desperately, he glanced around the landing and down the nearby hallways for a glimpse of her, but he quickly concluded she was not around. Who was doing this?

His eyes fell on Jessica and he immediately recognized the truth. Her blue eyes remained fixed on the staircase as she watched more and more people shrink down. He could even see a tiny smile forming on her face. She was doing this.

The first thought in Harrison's mind was that Jessica had somehow unlocked the powers of the woman in black. Or maybe the woman in black had taken her form. He couldn't believe how any of that was even possible, but if Jessica had these powers, he reasoned, she could have also acquired the wickedness that seemed to go along with them. It wasn't safe for him anymore to stay with her. He needed to find Rich and Kat and tell them what he'd seen. And he needed to get out of VERSA more than ever before.

Breaking away in an instant, Harrison swiftly left Jessica as he ran down the hallway to chase the others. Jessica briefly watched him run away, but soon calmly returned to her work as the staircase turned into bedlam. The party guests who could see what was happening started fleeing her, only to run into the guests at the bottom of the stairs trying to ascend. As if a switch had been flipped, the once cheery people had turned into emotionless automatons, but even they had a flicker of self-preservation built inside of them.

Running down the east hallway, Harrison didn't have trouble locating Kat and Rich; he found an open door and walked in. Leo Starr had dressed his study to rival those of the wealthiest Old World mansions: wood paneling, floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and an ornate chandelier to light the room. His study had been stuffed with sculptures and all sorts of figurines dotting the shelves between the books. A large brown and tan globe sat in a stand next to an impressive oak desk. The large window against the back wall overlooked the circular drive in front of the mansion.

Kat was walking over to Leo's desk when Harrison burst in. She raised her head to look at him and immediately asked, “What's going on out there?”

“Where's Jessica?” added Rich.

“They're shrinking...” Harrison babbled. “She's shrinking them, all of them. They're small. I don't know what's going on.”

“What?!” shouted Kat in confusion.

“I don't know,” admitted Harrison. “Go look yourself. All the people coming up the stairs are being shrunk and somehow I think Jessica is doing it.”

“Is that damn woman around again?” Rich said, walking over to the door and looking down the hallway to see if he could spot what Harrison was talking about.

“I didn't see her,” Harrison replied, catching his breath and calming down. “But Jessica is clearly in control.”

In silence Kat listened to him talk, thinking about the consequences of what he was saying. “We need to ditch Jessica,” she suddenly concluded. Harrison and Rich both looked at her in surprise. “Guys, Jessica disappeared upstairs with some guy for about ten minutes before we next saw her. Maybe he did something to her. Maybe it's not even her at all anymore. She could be working with the woman in black now if she's gained the ability to manipulate VERSA. We can't take any of those risks.”

“It sounds like she's saving us right now!” Rich exclaimed. “You really think she's gone rogue?”

“Do you want to be in here when she come back?!” Kat argued with him. “If she's out there shrinking people right now, how do you know she's not going to come in here and do it to us too?” She turned to Harrison. “Did she seem... ok?”

“You mean like, not crazy and evil? I mean, she didn't seem insane,” replied Harrison. “But she's out there right now just casually mowing down a few hundred people.”

“Well, not real people,” Rich corrected him.

“Fuck you, you know what I mean.” Harrison was distressed.

Kat, in getting sidetracked by Harrison's story, had failed to examine Leo's study yet. But lying on his empty desk, next to a dusty computer, a solitary piece of paper lay waiting to be read. Finally noticing it, Kat picked it up and began intently devouring the words someone had typed on it.

“Guys!” Kat said. “Look! This was on Leo's desk.” She held up the paper. Snapping out of their dialogue, Harrison and Rich looked over at her.

“What does it say?” asked Harrison. Kat stepped over to them and let them read the short, cryptic note:

Hello,

Enjoying your stay?

Let's meet up now.

Perhaps at my other house?

My apologies for not being around.

Excited to see you soon,

*signed* Your Host

“Well that's just fucking strange,” Rich said after reading it.

“This must have been left by Leo, from the outside!” Kat said excitedly. “I knew this world was some kind of message for me. He must have a connection to VERSA at his house.”

“So what now?” Harrison asked. “Leo wants us to go up to Dos Palos when we de-sim? Is that the 'other' house?”

“I think so,” Kat said. She paused a moment. “I just don't see why he'd have me travel all the way through VERSA just to ask me to come visit. Could have just sent me an email for Christ's sake.”

“I thought you said his house was off-limits to everyone now?” Harrison asked Kat.

“Well yeah, but if he wants me to show up, I can find a way to sneak up there. Something is obviously going on.”

“Um...” Harrison started, “how do you plan on 'sneaking up' there in your... wheelchair?”

Kat shot him a look. Caught off guard, it took her a moment to responded. “I've got ways,” she mysteriously replied. “I get along well with the security guys. They'd let me up there if I asked nicely and they thought nobody else was looking.”

“Oh shit,” Rich suddenly said. He'd been rereading the letter. “Look.” He pointed at the sentences typed out on the page. Kat and Harrison looked back at the page intently.

“What?” Kat asked in confusion.

“Look at the first letter of each line,” Rich said seriously. Harrison looked. “H-E-L-P-M-E,” it spelled out. Kat gasped.

“Holy shit,” Harrison said quietly. “Something is wrong.” He looked at Kat. “Guess that's why he hid his invitation deep in here.”

Recovering from the surprise, Kat looked at the two of them. “We need to de-sim as soon as possible.” It was music to Harrison's ears.

“How? Where's the nearest out-key?” Rich asked her.

“No idea,” Kat said. “Might be in a different world. We should head out the way we came in. Let's go.”

“Wait Kat!” Harrison stopped her. “Are we really leaving Jessica behind? How do we get downstairs?”

Kat glanced him over. “Yeah, let's leave her. Once we're de-simmed I can manually take her out from the control room where she won't pose a threat to us anymore.” Rich, and Harrison for that matter, looked at her with disapproval, but also silence. “There's an old servant's staircase we can use to get back downstairs. It's at the end of the hall, follow me.” She turned to walk out of the room, but suddenly Jessica appeared in the doorway, her red dress standing out brightly from the more muted colors of the study.

“Hey guys,” she casually greeted them. “What did I miss?” The three of them stood stunned, afraid to speak. Harrison felt like a bank robber standing in a looted vault, caught by the police. A lump formed in his throat. “What?” Jessica asked, unsure how to read their odd expressions. Harrison couldn't decide if she was acting dumb like the woman in black always did, or if she was genuinely confused.

“Um, hey Jessica,” Rich finally said, breaking the awkward silence. “We were just about to go...”

Jessica's eyes drifted off them and looked somewhere back behind them. A look of worry slowly crossed her face. “Um, guys?” she said. Harrison turned around to see what was bothering her.

Looking out the large window of the study, the lights from the house illuminated the fallen snow that surrounded the open land around the manor. The outside drive snaked into the distance, quickly disappearing in the darkness. Coming up the drive, a long convoy of headlights approached the house. Shadowy figures began emerging onto the snow, walking towards them out of the nearby woods. These new men held rifles in their hands. Harrison could see the outline of helmets on their heads.

“Well fuck me,” Rich muttered.

“Not again...” Jessica sighed, looking unhappy. She paused a beat. “You all should hide,” she finally told them, “I'll have to deal with these guys too.”

Her friends looked at her with incredulity and fear.