To say Lana was having a bad day would be an understatement.  Granted, Lana hadn’t had much in the way of good days since the Condensing Cataclysm.  Being one of the quarter of the human population that was brought down to a few inches tall by the mysterious event, she was used to people seeing her as an insignificant bug.  But of all the people to commit this sort of sadistic torture, she never imagined Max to even be capable of such a thing.

Max looked beneath him at the desk.  Max had known Lana for decades, and never once had she looked as weak and helpless as she did at that moment.  It pained him to see his friend Lana held in place by the tape, struggling against her bonds.  She always tries to fight her way out of difficult circumstances.  That trait, in fact, was the reason he even had to restrain the rambunctious tiny in the first place.

Only a few hours ago, Lana had gotten into a fight at the bar.  One particularly rowdy patron had gotten handsy with her and caused a stir.  The drunkard, not one to take no for an answer, had taken a swing at the shrunken woman.  In fact, if Max hadn’t been there to snatch her up, she would probably be a smear on the bar’s counter.  

Max did feel bad for Lana.  He understood that she was more than justified in feeling that she still deserved the respect due to any human being, but that simply wasn’t the reality of her situation.  Whether they liked it or not, Lana wasn’t really in a position to push back.  She was a small person in a world too large for her, and it was hardly impossible that she would die if she didn’t wise up.  As little as he wanted to do this, it was for the shrunken woman’s good.

Max grabbed his satchel from beside the desk and removed a pouch from inside.  Peeking inside, he saw thirteen shrunken women scrambling to try to get out and escape.  He felt sorry for this assortment of frightened tinies, shuddering at what he was about to do, but shook away his inhibitions.  After all, everything he was about to enact on them was for Lana’s sake.  These women were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If he didn’t capture them, somebody else would have.

Removing eight of the tinies from the bag, he placed one in the space between each of his toes.  They all started screaming and clawing away at his toes, but they were powerless to escape the grip of his digits.  Lana couldn’t even believe what he was doing.  This couldn’t possibly be real, right?  Max wasn’t a heartless monster.  At any moment, he would release his captives and she would reprimand him for his poor-taste joke.

“La-la, I know you don’t want to be here, but you have to learn your place.  I want you to watch carefully.  You need to learn to be more careful.  I know you don’t think it’s fair that regular people treat tiny people like dirt, but that’s simply how things are.  I taped you up like this for a reason.  See these women trying to fight their way out from between my toes.  This is what happens to little things like you when they try to resist big people’s wishes.”

Lana tried to turn her head, but the tape held it staring up at her friend’s soles.  Even if she could turn away, there was no way to ignore the wailing and clamor of the small strangers as their cries grew loud, then deafening, and finally silent as their bones crunched into pieces and their bodies burst.  The image of blood dripping from Max’s soles was permanently engraved into her mind.

Max looked down at the mess in disgust.  In truth, the gooey guts between his toes was somewhat uncomfortable.  He rarely even harmed bugs, much less former humans, but this was the only way to get Lana to take her situation seriously.  But that didn’t mean he had to deal with the gunk between his toes.  Besides, if he didn’t clean up, he’d get his socks dirty as soon as he tried to put them back on.  So he pulled a few tissues from his tissue box and wiped away any evidence of these poor souls’ existence.  

Lana could do nothing but watch as Max in one simple motion removed the corpses from his feet and crumpled them in his tissue.  She watches him walk over to the trash can and toss the tissue inside.  But the thing that disturbed her the most was the cold, emotionless, indifferent look in his eye as he did the deed.

Indeed, why would Max feel anything for these random women he picked up off the street?  While it was a bit unpleasant having to pop them to get his point across, they were complete strangers to him.  He owed them nothing.  If the choice was between protecting his best friend and helping these fairly insignificant nobodies, the answer was quite clear.

Max turned and saw the fright in Lana’s eyes.  He was thankful to finally see the fear and understanding that Lana had thus far been lacking.  He could still help her help herself after all, it seemed.  He beamed from ear to ear.  He returned to his position above his friend and reached down for her.  She went into a frenzy, trying everything she could to create some slack in her bonds.  Anything would do if she could just escape.  But to her surprise, Max simply patted her on her head.

“It’s okay, La-la.  Just calm down.  It’ll all be over soon.  You just need to trust me.  Shhhhh.  Shhhhh.”

Max hated knowing how much distress Lana was in, but it was necessary if she was going to survive while he wasn’t around.  He tried to calm her down, but the sound of squealing and panic from inside the pouch reminded him that his work was far from over.  It was time to begin the next lesson.