Eva waited. Patiently confident that at any second Tina would return. There was no way this was real; it was impossible. Tina didn’t have the spine to do something this callous. There wasn’t a doubt in Eva’s mind that somewhere beyond the scope of her microbial senses Tina remained. Watching. Probably with a smirk at Eva’s expense. The game would soon end and then Eva would grow back to her normal pathetic scale so they could continue their back and forth.

That’s right.

Any moment now.

…

Ten minutes had passed and there was still nothing. Doubt began to inch its way into her as a deep, existential dread crept along the back of her mind. Ahead. Behind. Above. Below. No matter where she looked it was all an endless void. The destination Tina had oh so helpfully suggested she spend her time heading towards was nowhere to be seen despite being only three floor tiles away. Though, truth to tell, Eva couldn’t even tell which way was which anymore. Everything just looked the damn same. An infinite stretch of nothing.

Not content to simply sit in place, she eventually chose a direction at random and went with it. Eva traversed the rolling molecular hills of her new world, indignant rage keeping the worst of her doubts at bay as she took in this strange new world. The rational side of her mind struggled to reconcile what she knew everything to be with what it now was. She was simply on a flat floor, but the interwoven roads of thread-like particles appeared to be like an uneven series of rolling hills. Trapped in infinity with nothing but her thoughts, the woman pressed on. 

Time passed. An hour. Two? Ten? It all bled together. Only one thing changed in that time. In the same manner that Tina’s infinite foot had suddenly vanished, something had appeared. Eva only knew it when the ‘sky’ had been replaced with denser molecules of a more beige color. They loomed over her as a vast wall hundreds of feet high, compact and interconnected. A frightening new thing, yet they were the only break Eva had from this maddening monotony she found herself in.

Beige...What could it’ve been? Had someone dropped some kind of crumb and it had landed near Eva? Or was this a situation like Tina, and it was a person’s footwear? A shoe sole so vast that the near non-existent space between the foot and the ground was this vast open space; and in that space was Eva. Following that train of thought, of all people it was curiously Dana who came to mind. Dearest Dana and those new tan pumps she bought after her promotion. Was this her then? Eva found herself wishing she could tell, but the object was simply too big. If it truly were her old friend then her shoe went on for miles upon miles with no end in sight. 

“Stupid Miss Tina. Couldn’t even put me somewhere secure like a lab?” Eva groused.

God, it was unimaginable to consider looking at the wall and trying to equate it to Dana. Mere weeks ago they had been equals; Vice-Presidents of their respective departments who enjoyed their little lunch dates together. Then came that day. That thrice damned accursed day. Where Dana rose that one little notch above her. That was the tipping point, looking back. Her decline began long before she shrank. First came her lost promotion, then her job, and then finally her size. Though they were but the first three steps in a long and winding road of humiliations and disgraces. She had fallen far; so very, very far.

Far enough that her friend could simply walk into the break room for any reason and her foot could land directly upon Eva - and never could interact or even fathom the other. 

Are you a person? 

Eva hugged herself. It was back. That nugget of doubt that plagued her. The Voice as she came to consider it. “Yes, I am…I...I have to be…” Words spoken once so defiantly now rang feeble and hollow.

The mass of beige particles, whoever or whatever it was, eventually left and it was back to the void for Eva. Once again the microbe wandered the field of nothingness. The only sense of time came when everything suddenly went dark, the void entering a ‘night’ of sorts. The change puzzled Eva until, after several minutes of deliberating, she realized it was likely just that the lights were turned off. Their jobs done for the day, everyone had gone home for the weekend and the support staff had turned everything off.

Tina had really just left her. 

“Knew that nice thing was an act.” Eva muttered, for no other reason than to hear something. She was the only living thing for miles; this new world utterly silent and now dim as night. Bitter and tired and growing despondent, Eva soon allowed herself a chance to rest. And then to wander. Rest. Wander. Repeat. Rest. Wander. Repeat. Rest. Wander. Repeat. 

That was all she knew for hours upon hours on end, the most exciting happenings being the occasional irregularity in the otherwise perfect series molecular structures. It was a void in the truest sense of the word. Nobody came. Nothing happened. Nothing changed. 

Just Eva and her thoughts.

Try as she might, her mind couldn’t help but reflect on it all. Her situation, Tina, all that had happened, and all that would happen still. Anger kept her going for a time, although it too faded before long. There was nothing to fuel her here in the void. In time Eva simply laid against the ground, arms wrapped around herself as the edges of her nerves started to fray. Thoughts barely held at bay trickled in, and as soon she entertained one then others followed. The dam had burst and the despair was finally washing over her all at once.

Would Tina really come back? Would she grow Eva back? Could she grow Eva back? Was she safe like this? Had Tina considered that? Could Tina find her? What if there were some sort of microscopic predators? What if she was stuck like this? What would she do for food...or water? Could she even survive like this?

That final one rattled her most of all.

Come what she assumed to be evening, Eva found herself yearning for the creature comforts she had grown accustomed to. The warm glow of the LED Lamp in Tina’s drawer. The little pool of water she could use to wash herself. The fuzzy softness of her bed of cloth. Even Tina’s looming visage would at least be something. As it was there was...nothing. Just the cold, endless expanse. For as much as she loathed her captor, right now Eva deeply missed her nook in the depths of Tina’s underwear drawer. 

Hungry, thirsty, and weary, sleep eventually overtook Eva. A dreamless rest that helped little, but at least saw her through to the next day. At least...She assumed it was the next day. It was still quite dark and as a result hard to tell. Her stomach growled and her throat was still paying the price for her screaming the day prior. The woman ran her fingers along her neck with a tired scowl, letting out a sigh as she stood to face a new day. 

Time had long since lost any and all meaning. Even with a night’s rest Eva was no more rejuvenated than she was the day before. The body was fading and running on fumes, though the mind still remained sharp. It ran circles around itself, dancing from anger to despair to bargaining to even prayer at an increasingly frenetic pace. Before long, when Eva didn’t even have the strength to walk further, that was all she had. Just the rampant mind of a woman regretting all her life’s decisions.She fell upon one of the many hills surrounding her with no idea how far she had gone and how far she would’ve had to go to reach anything. 

Her eyes felt...heavy. 

Was this how it would end for her? This was the grand prize for fighting and resisting Tina? Exile to a nanoscopic abyss beneath even the lowest of ants? Even her rage was too exhausting to bother with by this point. For all her pontificating over these weeks, there was only one person she could blame for this, and it wasn’t Tina. Yes, the giantess had crushed her. She had belittled her, but she also cared for her. She had offered the carrot many a time. It was Eva who always demanded the stick; and for what? Some meaningless pride?

No, not meaningless…

She had to remind herself of the greater stakes here. She was Eva Rhodes…! She wasn’t some...some...Oh what was the point? There was nobody here to prove anything to. The raven-haired woman let out a low whimper as her eyes began to water. She hadn’t allowed herself such emotions since the beginning, and now as they finally began to boil over all she could do was lament wasting unnecessary water. That only made the welling in her eyes worsen as Eva sobbed quietly against the ground. 

I’m a person! I know I am! I am I am I am I am I. AM! I’m-

A speck of a woman stranded on a floor tile.

No! 

A freak of nature who lives off light like a fucking flower.

NO! I’m not-

A pathetic shell of a creature who got bested at her own game.

I-I…

Eva just sobbed quietly into the night, the Voice’s harsh truths dominating her thoughts. By comparison, her own attempts to assuage them seemed as pitifully insignificant as...well. As she was. It was a temptress whispering the things she never dared entertain, but it wasn’t wrong. One admission. That was all it would take. Accept one simple, undeniable truth and she could finally know peace.

And really, was it such a bad thing? Tina was a beautiful, kind-hearted woman who would care for her. The woman wasn’t naturally mean. That was a response to Eva. Really, it was only fair that she repay her owner for all she had put her through. She was beyond Eva in every way, and the gap only widened with each step forward Tina took in her life. If anything, it was an honor to get to devote herself to such a wonderful goddess. 

She did this to me…! She’s no angel and she’s sure as hell not any kind of goddess! She’s just stupid, insignificant Tina!

Eva’s protest rang hollow as the Voice spoke through her own lips, the audible sound far greater than anything mere thoughts could hope to do. “The only stupid, insignificant one here is us.”

She’s a fraud! A LIAR!

“She is someone who worked desperately hard for everything she has. We played the same game. Crushing everyone in our path to get what we want. She merely did the same to us, and we are her prize.”

Eva had no rebuttal for that and the Voice seemed well aware, curling her lips into a wry smirk. “Are we a person?”

...Don’t do this…

“Are we. A. Person?”

O-Of course...I’m…

“Are we or are we not?”

Biting her lip until it split, Eva let out a sound that was all at once a joyous laugh and a monstrous wail. 

---------------

Light eventually dawned on Eva once again. She knew what that had meant if only vaguely. It was Monday. Despite all her thoughts to the contrary she had lived through the weekend. She struggled to roll over, hunger and thirst clouding her senses. It almost seemed like a hallucination, but it appeared like the familiar particles of the Reducers beam were raining down upon her. They ushered in a pleasant warmth that brought some degree of life back into her body.

She was growing, Eva realized. Slowly at first, but gaining speed as her form expanded to absorb more of the beam’s divine light. She remained too exhausted for any sort of fanfare or cheers; nonetheless a relieved breath parsed her lips as the void dwindled away to nothing around her. Nearby was a familiarly endless wall. Soon not-so-endless; and then it was merely the glossy surface of a heel. One that led up to a familiar dainty foot and a pair of crouched legs. 

“Wow, you couldn’t even cross one floor tile huh?”

That voice was the first sound Eva had heard in days. Her eyes forced themselves open and turned to the heavens; where an angel almost boredly observed her from on high. Her glasses hid the truth well, but Eva could see the tangible relief in her eyes. Relief that she was okay. That despite everything, she was fine.

“Ready to come home Evie?”

There was no hesitation. The last of Eva’s energy was put towards crying out in a dry rasp. “...Yesssss…!”

Miss Tina released the button on the Reducer just as Eva returned to her rightful size, extending her hand towards her pet with a warm smile. 

“That’s what I thought.”