Heather had never imagined she would see so many giants at once.

When Emily said they were going to throw a party for Halloween, Heather had assumed that the giant girl meant some kind of small spooky gathering where they sat around, watched horror movies, and ate candy. She had almost envisioned a relaxing night, draped across Emily's lap while the girl's friends occasionally cooed over her. It would have been embarrassing but ultimately good.

Even after Emily had started to hang up decorations, Heather hadn't thought anything of it. She simply sat down on the floor, struggling to pass even a ball of fake spider webbing up to the giantess, which only seemed to bring a smile to Emily's lips.

It wasn't until Lex came home the day beforehand with two bags filled with clanking bottles and then Emily went out to Lex's car to grab the cases of beer that Heather realized just what kind of party it would be.

And she also remembered the leash that Emily had bought.

She stood trembling behind Emily's tall Victorian-style boot, hugging the blue suede while a collar of black leather sat around her neck. It chaffed in a way that the soft black velvet of her 'pronoun pin' never did and the thin narrow lead of matching leather rose all the way up to Emily's beringed fingers, which were wrapped around a red solo cup. There was only just enough slack for her to not be choked when Emily took a sip, but any sudden movement forced her to run or stand on the tips of her toes if she didn't want to risk asphyxiation.

Past the pillars of midnight blue suede that sat before her was a redwood forest of gigantic legs.

It would have been intimidating at her previous height, but now she was utterly petrified. There was a constant low-level quake rumbling through the floor and while she wanted to believe it was the powerful bass thump of the music, Heather knew that it was just as likely to be the casual footfalls of the enormous party-goers.

She knew that the house wasn't jam-packed, she could see vast empty spaces between the circles of conversation, but she had quickly given up trying to count how many gigantic attendees were present. Once the count had surpassed ten, it had simply been too many giants for her to fathom, and her body began to naturally cower behind Emily's legs.

Most of the attendees were in costume, even if they were obviously hastily thrown together, but Heather didn't recognize any but the most generic or well-known, like the giant who had shown up in a Michael Myers costume. The sight of the classic slasher blown up to dozens of feet tall had made her yelp and the quakes his boots produced had been what had first sent her scurrying behind Emily for protection.

Heather truly hadn't been expecting there to be so many men in attendance.

After weeks of only seeing Emily and Lex, she had almost started to forget that the pair were not that big to normal sized people. Lex, who towered over their roommate, was still dwarfed by most of the men in attendance and looked positively dainty beside the Michael Myers. After her recent shrinking bout, she had started to notice that both Lex and Emily's voices sounded a little deeper and a little louder, but as the enormous men started to speak and then project over the music, Heather realized just how quiet and high-pitched their voices were. Even Emily's smoky alto was nothing in comparison to the bone rattling basses and baritones of a man.

If it had just been one behemoth of a college guy, Heather might have even been able to enjoy it. She couldn't help but think about her own husband, how he would look to her now and how his deep, commanding voice would shake her little body. But there were so many monstrous giants stomping about that Heather could not escape into any fantasy about Jason, she was left staring up in fear at them while they didn't even seem to notice her presence.

Unless Emily was showing her off as part of her costume, none of the giants seemed to spare a glance down at her. They simply walked through Emily and Lex's house without a care in the world, each of their footfalls hitting the floor with enough force to maim someone as small as her or utterly crush anyone smaller.

“And this is my ghoul.”

Heather's yelp turned into a gagging sound as Emily flicked the lead forward to drag her out from behind her leg. She landed on her hands and knees in front of a pair of shiny patent leather mary-janes. Her head craned back as she took in the long white stockings that disappeared into a plaid skirt, a field of white rose above it and then she noticed the short red cape that was draped over the brunette's shoulders with its hood currently tossed back. The girl's eyebrows knit together as she struggled to make sense of what Emily had just said.

It was a look that Heather had gotten used to whenever Emily explained what she was supposed to be, since half the party-goers seemed just as confused as she was when Emily had cinched the leash around her and happily said, “And you're my perfect little ghoul.”

She rose to her feet and then gave a slight bow to the enormous Little Red Riding Hood, before looking back nervously at Emily.

Her owner was wearing a long dark dress with purple undertones and a ragged asymmetrical hem. The dress's neckline plunged enough to reveal her cleavage, where several droplets of 'blood' had dribbled down from her chin. Heather could easily see the deep red blood that coated Emily's lower jaw, which was made to look like it was flowing out of her mouth, where she had slid in a set of vampire fangs over her own teeth.

She had put contacts in over her eyes to make them a deep crimson rather than their usual brown and Emily had also dyed her hair pitch black after her natural brown had started to show through the purple.

“So you're a vampire,” Red Riding Hood said and then she pointed down at Heather, “And your shrinkee is a ghoul.”

“My ghoul,” Emily tugged on the leash, making Heather stumble back and land on the tip of her boot. She looked up pleadingly but Emily was simply smiling at the girl she was talking to.

“But aren't ghouls like, a thing that hangs out in graveyards and eats people or something?”

“I mean, yeah, but this is a Vampire: The Masquerade thing, cause I'm dressed as my character, she's a Toreador and...” Emily's smile faltered high above before she sighed, “It's a tabletop gaming thing.”

“Oh!” Recongition dawned on Riding Hood's face, “You're Emily! Lex's roommate.”

“Yes, I am, I guess you have a class with Lex or something?”

“Oh no, I mean, maybe we did in freshman or sophomore year?” She shrugged and then held up her basket, which had been hanging at her side, “I'm Izzy and I'm actually friends with Kelsey and she told me to bring something special.”

Emily suddenly perked up and her free hand drummed across the top of the basket, “Wait, did you bring edibles? I haven't had any edibles since sophomore year when someone brought some gummies back from Colorado...”

“Uh, no, this is a different kind of special,” Izzy then smirked, “Though they are edible.”

“Oh...” Emily then started to giggle, “Oh!”

Heather stared up at the two giantesses, trying to understand what they could possibly be talking about.

“I probably only have enough for you, Kelsey, and Lex, so we'll probably want to enjoy them somewhere in private...”

“Yeah, Lex and Kelsey are around here somewhere,” rather than look for her roommate, Emily simply slid her phone out from where she had tucked it into her bra and started to text them. A second later, her phone buzzed, “Lex says we can go up to their room and they'll both meet us there in a second.”

“Cool,” Izzy bounced once with excitement, which made the floor shake extra hard.

Emily's fingers were suddenly grabbing Heather and with a giggle the giantess said, “Up we go, Hot Mom.” She was rocketed into the air so quickly she swore that she could feel her ears pop and then Emily began to walk, each step making her little body jiggle in the giantess's grip.

“Aw, Hot Mom?” Izzy cooed and a finger with bright red nail polish rushed in. She tried to reel away but the fingertip caught her beneath the chin and gently scratched at her while she squirmed, “Is that her name?”

“Yeah, she actually used to live in our neighborhood, so it's what we used to call her, you know between me and Lex,” Emily explained as they moved up the stairs, which thankfully resulted in Heather being out of Izzy's reach. The giantess's red eyes landed down on her and her 'blood' stained lips spread into a grin, “Though I guess she technically does still live in the neighborhood, just in our house.”

Heather blushed and squirmed in Emily's fist as she thought back to how she had foolishly turned herself over to the giant girl, which only seemed to make the giantess giggle.

They strode into Lex's room and Heather could hear a faint yelp from from the closet, where Siggy sat diligently working to clean her master's Air Force 1s. Lex seemed to regularly wear the pair and they obviously demanded that the white sneakers constantly look brand new.

Emily settled down onto the floor and a moment later, Heather found herself set down before the girl with a red solo cup that came up just below her waist.

But then she heard the thunderous footfalls of Izzy crossing to the closet and smiling down at the shrunken girl. “Well, hello there,” she boomed before bending down and snatching Siggy up. The shrunken girl went slack as Izzy carried her across the room and dropped her right down in front of Heather. The brunette turned her attention back to Emily as she spoke, “I didn't realize you guys had two shrinkees.”

“Mhmm,” Emily nodded as she lifted her cup to her lips while unclipping the leash from Heather's collar. The tiny woman breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped away from her owner and dug at the collar that remained, wishing she had the strength to undo the clip holding it together. “Lex has had Siggy for years and then I got Hot Mom a few weeks into the semester?” Powerful fingers came down and scratched at Heather's skull, making her stumble.

“That's so cute,” Izzy cooed as she set her basket down a few feet away, “Are they friends?”

Both Siggy and Heather looked at each other at the question. Their enormous owners had made it quite clear that they were to get along, but she could still see the distaste that simmered behind Siggy's eyes. Heather reasoned that that was at least an improvement though, since the girl no longer seemed to shoot her death glares.

“They're getting there,” Emily said, setting her drink down between the pair, “I think Siggy just misses being our only pet.”

Izzy laughed, “I didn't think Shrinkees could be like that.”

Emily shrugged and took another pull from her drink. The cup landed down closer to Heather, and though the cheap booze of the giantess's 'blood punch' made her eyes water and nostrils sting, the tiny woman found herself staring down into the bright red liquid, her little mouth watering at the thought of tasting alcohol or even just the overly sweet juices that Emily had mixed into the big vat of jungle juice that afternoon.

Booming footfalls echoed up the stairs and a moment later, Heather could feel the floorboards quake at Lex's approach. They entered first, dressed like Ryan Gosling in Drive, and Heather again found themselves entranced by how well the costume fit their tall lean frame. Behind them came Kelsey, who Heather had only seen in passing over the past few weeks.

Most of the time, the short Asian girl was dressed in fairly normal, almost plain, attire; jeans, hoodies, and sneakers. Tonight though, she was wearing what Heather could only assume was some kind of professionally made Sailor Mercury costume, a character she had been somewhat surprised any of the giants were familiar with. She was giggling, her cheeks already reddened from drinking, as she came to a short stop at the sight of other people in the room.

“Uh...” She began but when she saw Izzy, she jumped up with joy, which released a quake strong enough to knock both Siggy and Heather to the floor, “Izzy! Oh my God! You made it!”

Kelsey tackled the other girl in a hug, which kept Heather pinned to the floor while the pair's booming voices filled the air. When they finally untangled themselves, Heather could make out Kelsey's final question, “Did you manage to find enough?”

“Definitely,” Izzy opened her basket and all four giant college students leaned forward.

A chorus of screams erupted from the inside and Heather's jaw dropped.

“Holy shit,” Lex muttered as they hovered their hand over the basket, which elicited frightened pleas for mercy that sounded high pitched to Heather's shrunken ears.

“Where did you find them?” Emily asked, her question becoming a giggle as she counted them up.

Kelsey beamed with pride as she spoke, “Izzy's the best shrinkee hunter I know!”

Heather's eyes widened and her heart leapt into her throat as she turned to stare up at the gigantic girl. She tried to imagine what Izzy would look like to her at her original size. Since the girl was probably around Emily's height, Heather realized quickly that she would have written the petite brunette off as a sweet college girl, the kind of young woman she hoped Zoe would become. And she would have again, much like with Emily and Lex, been horrifically wrong.

“Oh stop, shrinkees are always around if you pay attention,” Izzy waved her hand, “I found most of them on campus, one at the Kroger, and another came up to beg me for food when I was on my way over here.”

“Do we owe you anything?” Emily asked and Heather shook as she watched the girl take out her phone, “I can venmo you.”

Heather couldn't suppress the horrified gasp that came out of her as she realized that Emily was talking about buying the shrunken people from the other girl. As if the tiny people inside her basket were no different than the weed-laced edibles Emily had originally thought she had brought. Beside her, Siggy let out her own frightened yelp.

“Don't worry about it,” Izzy replied with a wave of her hand, “I only charge douchey frat guys and people like that.”

Siggy barely suppressed the sob that came out of her and Heather immediately crawled over to wrap an arm around her fellow prisoner. She half-expected Siggy to push her away but instead, the smaller girl buried her face into Heather's chest while she whimpered.

“Ok, so we have six,” Lex boomed, rising to their feet as they snatched glassware and a bottle off of a nearby shelf. “We should at least all do a shot.”

“Oh yeah,” Izzy nodded as she leaned over the basket, “These three and the Kroger one are all perfect for shots.”

Heather wanted to look away, to bury her face against Siggy like the girl was doing with her, but she couldn't rip her eyes away from the horrific scene. Lex set a bottle of vodka down onto the floor with a heavy thud and then handed each of the girls a shot glass. One by one, they all reached down into the basket and pulled a shrunken person, who couldn't have been more than an inch tall, out and dangled them before their faces.

“Aw, so cute!” Kelsey boomed as she dropped a tiny Asian boy into her glass.

Lex dropped a screaming black woman into their own shot glass and immediately silenced her by pouring vodka down on top. The woman's cries turned into a sputtering gasp as the force of the vodka knocked her down, awkwardly wedging her near the bottom.

Izzy said nothing as she dropped her own shrunken girl into the glass, simply pouring vodka down on top of her with an eerily practiced precision. Beside her, Lex dropped a squirming boy into Kelsey's glass and then quickly covered him with vodka.

“Oh man, I think I had a class with this guy in freshman year,” Emily grinned as she twirled the screaming boy about in her fingers. He was crying and begging her to spare him while Heather stared up wide eyed at the gigantic girl, trying to comprehend how the giantess twirling a boy about could be the same one that cuddled her every night.

“Maybe I'd spare you,” Emily bared her fake fangs before she growled, “If you hadn't talked over every girl in class.”

She held her shot glass lower than anyone else's as she let him go, his scream echoing through the air before he hit the side of the glass and released a painful shout. He landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom, crying and writhing as vodka crashed down around him.

“Cheers!”

They all shouted it in unison as they clinked their shot glasses together, which battered the shrunken people trapped inside even more. All at once, the quartet of students tossed back their shots and each shrinkee disappeared behind their lips in an instant. They all shuddered as they swallowed the people whole, and Heather swore she could see tiny forms writhe against their necks, undoubtedly fighting their flexing throat muscles the whole way down.

Kelsey let out a dainty burp and then covered her mouth as she giggled, “Excuse me.”

The sound earned a chorus of booming laughter from the other giants and Heather shook as she watched Lex wrap an arm around Kelsey and then kiss her gently on her cheek.

Above her, Emily made a soft disgusted noise as she grabbed her cup and took a long sip, “We should have done rum, vodka is so gross.”

“You're not doing it for the shot,” Lex replied with a laugh.

Emily rolled her eyes as she set her cup back down and then looked back into the basket, “What about the other two?”

“We could play a stomping game with them,” Kelsey suggested.

“Four against two, no,” Emily shook her head while her fingers played against the side of the basket, “They wouldn't make it more than a few steps.”

“I don't want to get my shoes dirty,” Izzy added.

All of them nodded along with Izzy's statement as if it was the most obvious reason not to crush a shrunken person they had ever heard. Heather felt bile rise in her throat as she watched all of them eye the tiny people with their alcohol glazed eyes and she tried to comprehend where the giantesses felt the line was.

Staring at the basket ahead of her, she wondered at what point she would go from being 'Hot Mom' who was something between a pet and a slave to a living party favor like the poor souls that Izzy had apparently collected while walking around town.

She had expected the thought to bring tears to her eyes, especially as Siggy's body continued to wrack with silent sobs, but instead Heather just felt hollow. She had had a vague idea that this is what the world was like, it was why she had run to Emily in the hopes that the girl would be different. She had even begun to tell herself that Emily was different and while she had never raised a hand against Heather, she had never hidden the fact that she readily killed shrinkees.

She began to worry if this is what would happen to Zoe, might have already been happening to her. All of her daughter's friends were tall and Immune since they all played sports together. Was Zoe at some unsupervised Halloween party in some other part of town, doing a shot with a tiny classmate or playing a 'stomping game' or some other horrible torture disguised as something fun for the tormentor. Worst of all, she wondered if it had already happened and she had simply never noticed the monster her little girl had grown into.

“Wishbone,” Lex said authoritatively as they plucked out one sobbing young girl and dangled her between them and Kelsey.

“Oh my God, yes!” Kelsey groaned as she opened her mouth wide.

Heather's vision came into sharp focus as Lex gently laid the girl's kicking legs across Kelsey's lips. They then leaned in and their mouth engulfed the screaming flailing girl. For a moment, it looked as if the gigantic pair was kissing with the tiny girl trapped inside.

And then the lips started to curl back to reveal that the pair's teeth were digging into her waist.

The girl's screams of pain were completely muffled by the enormous mouths that trapped her, but Heather could almost feel her own midsection burning as the teeth bit down deeper and harder. Blood started to seep out of the wounds, flowing down across the pair's lips and trickling down their chins.

It was already the worst thing that Heather had ever seen and then they started to pull away from each other.

The origin of the game's name became horrifically apparent as they began to literally tear the girl in half. Skin ripped and Heather swore she could see tiny organs before Kelsey jerked back hard and swallowed.

Lex made a low slurping noise and Heather watched as something that looked like a strand of spaghetti but easily could have been entrails or a spine disappeared behind their lips. They smiled, their teeth blood stained, “I win.”

“How?!” Kelsey pouted but the anger was clearly fake as she leaned up and pressed her own bloody lips against Lex's.

Heather's body reflexively gagged but nothing came up, not even a burning bit of bile.

The movement of Izzy's hand drew her away from the enormous couple, and a writhing form was lifted into the air. “Wanna play?” Izzy used the tiny person to gesture to Emily and Heather's heart pounded hard in her chest.

Her owner said nothing, merely leaned down low and opened her maw.

The person's scream was so high-pitched and terrifying that Heather couldn't tell if they were a man or woman. A giant mouth could be horrific in general but between her make-up and the punch, Emily's already looked like a blood stained cavern.

Before Heather got a good look at the tiny person, Izzy's mouth was upon them. Her bright pink lips momentarily pressed against Emily's but then they began to pull back and bite down. Heather wasn't sure if time sped up or if Emily and Izzy were just that much faster than Lex and Kelsey.

It ended with a horrific snap and they all could see the bit of spine that landed on Emily's lip before her powerful tongue swept it up. Real blood mingled with the fake on her chin but she didn't seem to mind.

Emily rose up and extended a hand down to Izzy, “Why don't I give you a tour of the house?”

Izzy giggled, her cheeks blushing as she rose to her feet and took Emily's hand, “That sounds great.”

The floor shook as the pair walked off while Kelsey and Lex remained on the floor. Lex gently nudged their girlfriend and sweetly whispered, “You sleepy, babe?”

The giantess nodded and Lex gently helped her to her feet and then set her down onto the bed. The girl curled into a ball as Lex gently pulled a blanket over her and kissed the top of her head.

“Sleep it off, babe,” they boomed before walking to the door, each step shaking Heather's entire world. The enormous giant glanced back at Heather and Siggy, who still clung to her while quietly crying.

“Don't cause any trouble you two,” they said with a smirk and then the light clicked off.

The door shut and the sounds of the party became muffled.

Heather finally felt a tear roll down her cheek.