Pete’s head was dazed. Focus was hard to come by, his head was swimming. He faintly heard discordant noises, none of which helped him understand where he was. He heard a whimpering noise, the sounds of a crying child, the hurried whispered shushes of someone trying to comfort said child and half a dozen other random sounds and noises. They all seemed to have one thing in common, they had an underpinning of despair in them.

Pete shook his head, a bit of his vision returning but not enough to piece together something useful. He tried to remember what had happened to him. Had he died somehow, was that what this was? Was he dead? No, he still felt alive, or at least death felt the same as being alive. Had he passed out? He had been on his way to Kevin’s sick party. Maybe he’d drank too much booze and got wasted. But if that was the case why was there a crying child and why did everyone seem so sad? Something was off.

“Hey, hey look! He’s waking up!” the voice floated through the haze and into Pete’s eardrums making him dimly aware that his presence had been noticed. Some of but not all of the noises stopped as he briefly heard a shuffling noise and the patter of feet before a solid presence landed on his shoulder. 

“Hey man, you doing alright?” A heavy Latino accent greeted Pete’s ears. It didn’t seem familiar in the slightest. He didn’t know any Mexicans.

“Wha-wher-?” Pete’s groggy senses forced his mouth to form words but all that came out were half completed syllables. 

“It happened to all of us, take your time. Just let it flow over you and it’ll wear off.”

Wear off? Flow over him? What was this kid talking about? The situation was turning downright confusing but left with few other options Pete decided to comply. As soon as he stopped trying to force himself awake he felt a tugging presence sweeping through his mind. It was the strangest feeling he’d ever had, like suddenly becoming really tired but being awake and alert at the same time. His eyes fluttered quickly as they struggled to pick a lane, sagging as if he were going to fall asleep or springing open like thrust shudders on a window to take in the world before them. Eventually they settled on open to which they began to make our blurry shapes in what appeared to be a dark room. The longer he sat there the more his eyes adjusted.

“What the…” He marveled, as he failed to stand and flopped back to the ground, arms limply lying before him. The sight that greeted him was a tangled menagerie of people. A brunette woman with glasses in a yellow shirt and blue apron sobbing openly, an older man with white hair, as much growing out of his face as his head, a huddled couple gripping each other and crying into each other’s shoulders, a young black boy, couldn’t be more than 10 years old in a black and cream polo neck. Looking further over to his left produced the images of another man in a tuxedo and red tie, his face in his knees in some kind of prayer, another man in a gray suit and a white shirt who was gazing in his direction with a forlorn expression a couple of college age girls gripping each other, foreheads touching as they also openly cried and a sullen young man who seemed at least a few years older than Pete himself.

In front of him Pete spied the individual who had been helping him, a young Hispanic teenage boy, wearing shorts and a striped polo shirt. 

“What, what’s going on?” Pete said, sweeping his vision over the crowd of people several more times as if their forms would change or they suddenly disappear. “Where am I?”

“Try to stay calm señor but you’ve...I believe we’ve been kidnapped.” Pete gave the boy a wild look. “Kidnapped?” his mouth felt like peanut butter as he said the word.

“Sí and what’s more...well...we think we’ve been shrunk.” Pete became aware the boy’s hand was still on his shoulder. He swiped at it as he let out a noise of disbelief. 

He turned away from the Hispanic young man and turned to the man who had been gazing at him. “Who are you? What are we doing here.” As if he’d been called by name the Hispanic young man appeared at Pete’s side. 

“His name is Mr. Ford señor. My name is Randall, Randall Vasquez.” He motioned with his arm from left to right over the assorted group of people. “We are all in the same-” he didn’t have time to finish as Pete, cut him off, retorting in irritation.

“Thanks but I didn’t ask you.” He snapped causing Randall to withdraw slightly. “What are you the boss here?”

“Please, Randall means well. He’s just trying to help you.” The old hairy man said from his position along the dark wall. 

“Yeah well I didn’t ask him for his help!” Pete shot back at the old man.

“Please calm down,” This time it was the one Pete had leveled his first query at that spoke up, Ford. “I understand that these circumstances are upsetting but lashing out isn’t going to help anyone right now.”

Pete turned his head, folding his arms, clearly upset. “So what’s this nonsense the kid was talking about us being shrunk?” He asked. 

“It’s as Randall says,” the older man said. “We’ve been shrunk, reduced in size, miniaturized.” 

“Yeah but that’s not possible!” Pete snapped back. “It’s not possible for people to be shrunk!”

“Do you remember how you came here?” he countered. Pete struggled to recall. He had been on his way to Kevin’s party and then...and then... He couldn’t remember...but that didn’t matter. He knew what he knew and these people were just crazy.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not possible to shrink people.” he said once more matter of factly stamping his foot in annoyance. As if the world sought to contradict his proclamation the sky split open revealing a vast amount of light that blinded everybody. Descending on high was the visage of a human hand but blown completely out of proportion. Judging by its shape its owner was female with fingers as big as Pete was tall, no they had to be bigger. The black nails alone were the size of his head. Scrapping at the bottom of the room the grasping digits made their way to the side where they brushed into one of the crying college girls.

The enormous fingers grasped the tiny young woman before pulling upwards, eliciting a shrieking scream from her as she was forcefully separated from her friend, who clung to the outside of the fingers being hoisted into the air as well.

Pete stood petrified as he witnessed this event, the one outside of the fingers grip, slipping back to the floor with a thud before turning her gaze skyward and reaching out for her friend who continued to scream as she was lifted away as if by some mechanical arm in a claw game.

“KIMBERLY! KIMBERELY!” the girl continued to scream as the other girl was lifted out of sight, her screams becoming distant memories before the sky folded back over itself entombing everyone in darkness yet again. The young woman who had been left behind wailed as she beat the ground in despair and fury. The volume inside the room, which from the way the sky had folded seemed to be some kind of jewelry box increased dramatically as those who had been crying before now were crying even louder. No one did anything to stop them.

Pete stood, mortified by the sight he had just born witness to. A giant hand? No, no that couldn’t be. Things like giants didn’t exist! Nor did shrinking! You couldn’t shrink people! But that girl....it had just...grabbed her. She was gone, what had happened to her. A sick feeling filled Pete’s stomach as he realized he probably didn’t want to know what had befallen that poor girl. 

“What…” his voice cracking Pete cleared his throat and tried to begin again, “what the hell was that?” 

Randall tossed him a gaze absent of any animosity, filled only with pity.

“We’ve been shrunk señor.”

****

It felt like an eternity had gone by since the girl, whom he now knew to be named Kimberly, had been airlifted out of the box by the humongous fingers. In reality it had been thirty minutes. Shortly thereafter in the time span following they’d felt their entire prison violently shove them to the floor only to be succeeded by a periodic shaking implying to the occupants some form of movement on the outside but that had been what felt like ages ago. While they had been sequestered in darkness Randall had obliged to help Pete learn the names of their fellow prisoners. After everything that had happened, he didn’t have the mind to refuse.

He had learned the names of all who resided with him in this box. The glasses wearing woman in yellow was named Ashley. The older man who had backed up Randall earlier was named Forest McNeill. The man in the tuxedo was named Ahmud, the other young man, Tyler, the college student who had been companioned with and tried to save Kimberly, Debra, the couple Issac and Isabel and from what the others could gleam from him the little boy was named Louis. 

Pete had silently listened to the Mexican kid list off all their names wondering what good any of that information would do him? What did it matter what they were called? They still were trapped here. Pete sighed, as he folded his arms around his knees. The adults had managed to compare notes, seeing if they could identify a theme or pattern as to why they had been selected in this box by the unknown giant. As far as anyone could tell, none of them had anything in common. 

Ashley was a suburban housewife, through and through, mother of four, who made sure every meal was cooked on time, the like. The old guy was just an old guy, literally someone’s grandpa. The only thing that connected the two was that they had family’s, at least one child of each gender for the both of them. But then there was Ahmud. He wasn’t married nor had he ever been, in fact he had been on his way to another friend’s marriage. Jackson also a parent but was divorced then there were the younger kids, the teenagers Isaac and Isabel, the college girls, Randall, Tyler and Pete himself who had been on a way to a friends party. Not to mention the actual child. None of them, other than the Isaac and Isabel, were in a committed relationship and half of them, Pete happily excluded, hadn’t even had sex.

Then their locations. Did they all live within a given area and had just been kidnapped out of convenience? The answer to that had been hell no, in fact they all seemed to come from a different part of the country. Kansas, Florida, Montana, Colorado, Mississippi, they were so spread out but the strange thing was, after comparing notes they all had seemingly been deposited one after the other, with Ashley having been first and McNeill following. Old Man McNeill had a watch and had counted only a few minutes between the time new people were put in here meaning their captor could be a giant stalking around the country or more accurately some type of size changer that was just enlarging and shrinking as the proportions of the hand that had taken Kimberly didn’t fit with someone big enough to casually jaunt between states.

That as well, no one had witnessed anyone taken from the box either, Kimberly had been the first. People had only been put in and following Pete no new additions had been added to their ranks. On top of all that there was some form of symbol Pete hadn’t noticed earlier, on the ceiling of the box. It pulsated with a soft green light, too far and too weak to illuminate the whole box. None of them knew what it was. That had been all the information they had been able to consolidate or come up with. They still had no idea what it all meant or how it all came together.

And so they had drifted to their own little corners, Tyler and Randall conversing in Spanish, no doubt about Pete he figured, Ahmud and Old Man McNeill had begun talking, seemingly striking it off and discussing differences in cultures, Ashley had taken to comforting Louis who had quieted down significantly, Debra’s head was buried in her arms and the couple was so speaking soothingly into each others ears, every so often making out. On one hand it disgusted Pete as he couldn’t understand how anyone would be lovey dovey in this situation but at the same time he figured if they didn’t know whether they’d make it out of this or not they might as well have a few last moments together. He was just glad they hadn’t gone all out and done the devil’s tango in front of everyone.

For his part Jackson had fallen asleep. Sitting propped up against the wall he had said, “nothing could be done about worrying about their fate” and had just nodded off. Pete had been incredulous and honestly had wanted to punch the man but had thought better of it. He wondered, would he get to see his friends again? Would he get to see anybody again? Maybe he should have answered his mom’s call the day before, said something to her one last time. The last interaction they had could only best be described as a shouting match. Pete’s head sank further as his gaze turned to the ground. Faced with uncertainty he was finding a lot of things to be sorry about.

Shouts of indignation and a few screams were released as an enormous quake rocked the box, sending people tumbling across the floor. It was followed by another quake and a violent motion towards the ground as the box was lifted somewhere before another quake and downward motion signaled they had been dropped in a new place. People were just coming too and trying to get their bearings when blinding light filled the space yet again.

A feminine scream pierced the air before it trailing off as it was lifted into the air and then cut off. Pete’s eyes were still adjusting so he couldn’t comprehend whatever had just happened but someone else did, because the next sound that they let out pierced Pete to the soul.

His eyes finally adjusted to the influx of light and showed him what had caused all the commotion only for him to wish he was back within the dark safety of the box. Before him was a woman, not just any woman a titanic one. Everything about her was blown up in proportion, the dazzling curls of black hair that fanned her face, the soot colored frames of her tinted glasses, her cute nose dotted with freckles and her dainty pink feminine lips between which a pair of kicking legs protruded. Debra’s legs. 

The lips curled into a smirk as they puckered, producing a sucking noise as Debra’s legs instantly vanished. Not even a second later a gulping sound was heard and the fear in Pete’s chest rocketed to a climax as a small bulge traveled down the woman’s neck. That woman had just eaten her, and alive at that. He could have been mistaken but he was quite sure he hadn’t seen her jaw move once.

“AH.” The thunderous sound shook Pete’s world as the lips separated from their cushy embrace, to show an immaculate set of alabaster teeth, a salivating pink carpet of a tongue and beyond that no human form or sign of the college girl that had previously occupied it.

“WHY DO PEOPLE SETTLE FOR A TRICK OR A TREAT WHEN THEY CAN JUST USE ONE TO GET BOTH?” a tremendous giggle echoed through the air. Suddenly it all came flooding back to him. Pete knew this woman, or at least had seen her.

He distinctly recalled now, a freckled woman with shades glasses, a large hat, low cut dress and heels with matching jewelry of the same obsidian color had wandered up to him as he took a back alley shortcut to Kevin’s party. She had waved at him and charmed that such an attractive broad had noticed him he waved back. Then he had heard something, she had spoken to him. He could tell because he had seen her mouth move but what had come out was a phrase he didn’t quite understand, a different language he presumed. Then she had seemed bigger than before and progressively was getting bigger. She had smirked at him, a malicious look as if she had just gotten away with something. He had looked at his hands before turning around and trying to high tail it down the way he came but every step had lengthened the distance as his legs could no longer carry him where he intended to go in quick motions.

Soon vibrations shook his world and a pressure on either side of his ribs had taken hold lifting him from the ground before letting him roll into the palm of her hand. The sky had closed in on him as he settled into her fist, beating wildly and uselessly at her fingers for egress. Then they had relented, revealing the world to him once more before he had seen the box open from above, the terrified faces looking up at him. In the next moment he had plummeted to what appeared to be a red velvet interior. He had blacked out, the fall must have knocked him out. But now he remembered, for all the good it did him.

“OH HOW I LOVE EDUCATED LITTLE BLACK GIRLS. KINDA TASTE LIKE DARK CHOCOLATE.” the evil smirk on this enormous bitch’s face widened further.

“LET’S SEE, HOW ‘BOUT THE LITTLE BOY AND THE MOTHER NEXT.”

Another piercing shriek filled the air, allowing Pete to correctly identify the first screech he had heard following Debra’s to be Ashley. He turned in the direction only to see Ashley, cowering, shielding poor Louis who was back to crying with her body as if she could protect him from the inevitable. Protect him should could not as both were enclosed in an enormous fist, the fingers of which were capped by polished inky nails.

The fist erupted into the sky, taking the screaming woman and sobbing child with it. The woman’s head leaned back, her mouth exposing itself to her victims as her fist opened directly above it. Pete made out the flailing shapes of the mother and the boy as they fell between the parted lips. Before the titanic mouth closed and turned his way.

The woman’s eyes darted around beneath her darkened eyewear as her tongue formed visible pockets on her cheeks, suckling and enjoying the helpless people she contained within, working them around her mouth as much a stunt for the little people watching as it was a tasting of her new morsels. Finally her eyes focused directly on the current inhabitants of the box, a smile adorning the gargantuan face, as a distinct swallow signaled the passage of one of the poor cohabitants into her digestive system. Pete could had sworn he heard the bulge descending down the woman’s neck let out a wail.

The woman reached a hand up to her face, fingers wrapping delicately around the ebony colored glasses and pulling them free of her face revealing two very large sienna colored eyes darting back and forth as she surveyed the remaining contents of the box. Her tongue flexed under the skin of her jaw, clearly moving something back and forth within, hidden from the onlookers below.

At this point Isabel and Isaac lost whatever left of ‘it’ they still had. Screaming and crying they held each other in tandem as their mental conditions deteriorated at an accelerated rate. This only caused that malevolent smile to return to that immense face.

“OH DO CONTINUE THAT. I LOVE THAT JUST ALMOST AS MUCH AS-”

A massive hand flew up to the giantess’ mouth, a look of surprise springing across her features. This in turn morphed into a twisted toothy grin as she leaned forward, closer to the box.

“I DO THINK I JUST ACCIDENTALLY SWALLOWED THE LITTLE BOY.”

Before he could gather his bearings or even process the horror unfolding before him a prodigious weight pressed against Pete’s sides, scooting him backwards until he collided with three other grunting bodies. Pete found himself hoisted into the air at incredible speed, the air leaving his lungs faster than he could draw it, disorientation and nausea beginning to set in as his brain struggled to determine which way was up or down. 

He and his trapped companions were brought to an abrupt halt in midair right before those marvelous coffee colored eyes. As Pete lost himself in those orbs terror flooded his heart. He had managed to pick up on something within those spheres, something terrifying, something primal, as if he were staring directly into the soul of this woman herself. A lustful hunger, not of a starving individual or one who desired food simply to eat, but the desire of an animal, a wild beast who finally got to devour a catch she had been looking forward to, finally got to savor the literal fruits of her labor. These were the eyes, no this was the soul, no, not even that, this woman...this woman was a predator, her prey, human beings. All remaining blood drained from Pete’s face.

The stygian haired beauty smiled as she opened her hand, letting the four men in her palm roll around unimpeded. The pure undistilled terror that had been awakened by this monsters gaze fueled a long dead instinct within Pete’s body, an animalistic need to survive at all costs. His limbs, without any input from him whatsoever scrabbled across the warm wrinkled skin of the woman’s palm, using the divots and creases as handholds. Within seconds, before any of the other three men had managed to even collect themselves, he was at her thumb, the single digit larger than his own body. He gazed down seeing the floor disappear into a fuzzy patchwork of shapes from the height. The fall would kill him, no doubt, but that in itself was the only hope he could luxuriate in as at least that would be mercifully quick compared to the horrid fate this colossal bitch was going to prolong on him. 

No. His instinct screamed We have to survive! He’d have to jump, maybe grab onto her dress and slide down it so as not to hit the ground too hard. All these thoughts passed him in the breath of only a few seconds. Before he knew it his muscles had tensed up, pushing his legs off the base crest of her thumb like a springboard and within a moment he was launched into the air. 

The fall was petrifying and only lasted a moment. The ground had only begun to come rushing up to him before their introduction was cut short, a shadowy five legged spider creeping out from the corner of his vision and engulfing him in its presence. Pete collided with the rough texture, cushioned only briefly as the world closed in on him in an epidermal vice before the now to familiar feeling of ascension returned.

“OH, WE HAVE A VOLUNTEER NOW DO WE?” he heard the humongous woman chuckle.

Nonononononononononononono, this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. Survive, we have to survive! Every instinct in his body was screaming for release, to fight to do anything to preserve him but Pete’s mind had come to the inevitable conclusion. There was no escape, there was no survival. The cessation of his existence was imminent. It was his intrinsic nature as this woman’s prey to be eaten.

As if to affirm his recently realized worldview the woman’s fist opened before the gateway to his last journey. A gaping maw of epic proportions filled his vision, gleaming white teeth, set in perfect rows like a dentist’s wet dream. Strands of saliva connected the ceiling of her mouth to the living floor, the back of her throat contracting and expanding like some horrific portal to hell, her uvula dancing an unchoreographed interpretative production of its own, his final curtain call spelled out like the gate in Dante’s Inferno;

All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

But it was the tongue that scared him the most. The thriving pulsating mass at the bottom of her mouth kept flattering and arcing, not able to decide whether it wanted to wait for the boy to come to her or leap out and greet him like an eager puppy. The thing was moist in saliva to the point he could see droplets sliding along the woman’s taste buds. It was like a living creature inside another living creature, a parasitic organism assisting its host in consuming her prey, with all the biological trappings and makeup of something from a horror movie.

It was disgusting but more than that, it was horrifying. All these emotions began to run together blending into yet another primal cocktail that galvanized his instincts into responding on their own. This was not how he wanted his life to end.

But the Fates had decreed it and their will was law. With a playful toss Pete’s destiny was sealed and he flew, flailing and screaming like the others before him, into the maw of this unknown woman who had plucked him off the street.

His first moments were uncomfortable to say the least. All of his clothes immediately soaked up saliva like a towel in the ocean, making his skin clammy and sticky. While he was able to close his eyes and keep them from getting absolutely flooded a bit did manage to get under his lids. A stinging sensation immediately blossomed forcing him to open his mouth involuntarily to let out a cry of pain. This turned out to be a mistake as gallons of the viscous solution surged into his mouth clogging his airways and forcing him to swallow so as not to choke. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough the tongue began to squirm under him, thrusting him all over the mouth in a wicked dance. Disorientation was total as he could no longer correctly figure out which way he had come in from. Coughing and spitting, trying unsuccessfully to free his mouth of this other person’s saliva he felt his hand slide down slick flesh and into thin air. Suddenly his whole body was suspended over nothing and like a man dropped into a body of water with a stone around his feet he sunk into oblivion.

Darkness gripped him pulling him into the abyss in a constricting embrace, the tightness of the cramped space and amount of liquid present with him releasing a thunderous suckling noise Pete would later realize was a gulp. He struggled for all he was worth but it did nothing to aid him or slow his descent. As his claustrophobic prison spasmed and constricted pushing him further and further down he heard various upsetting biological machinations, gurgling, whooshing, thumping...screaming?

Pete felt himself brush up against a tight ring of muscle. Compared to the rest of the journey it had been practically gentle. Before he could fully orient himself the sphincter unfolded sending Pete, for the third time in less than three minutes, into a plummeting free fall. This time instead of landing directly on wet squirming flesh he splashed into an uncomfortably hot chunky soup that smelled heavily of vomit.

Doggy paddling his way up from the frothy mess, he surfaced breathing in stale biological air.

He had made it to a party but much different than the one Kevin was throwing. Instead of appetizers and a punch bowl there was half digested chunks of what he assumed used to be food and a thick sludge of unidentifiable foul smelling matter. While there were no young adults talking, laughing and having fun making a racket there was in fact a racket, this one composed of horrid wailing cacophonous gurgling and pained screams as flesh was doused in gastric juices. 

Pete heard a variety of cries. One voice yelling for the pain to stop, a small voice further from the center of the tumultuous organ whimpering asking an unknown god why her and at least one young voice crying weakly for their mother, having mostly succumbed to the acids. 

Pete was rocked back and forth as the stomach prepared its meal for digestion. As the sensation on his skin went from a dull itching to a raging burning he tried to swim through the muck to the stomach wall. His arm impacted something as he reached out. Feeling the unknown object he let out a yell and jumped back, taking a bit of the digesting chyme into his mouth as he did. A body, floating upside down, motionless. Pete felt he could bout imagine who it was and what condition they were in.

Above him Pete heard a suckling noise and a distant male voice. This was soon followed by the voice getting much louder as it descended, a murky splash resonating in Pete’s burning ears as a wave of chyme washed over him, threatening to drag him to the bottom of the stomach. Managing to surface yet again he tried his best to get out of the center of the stomach but it’s undulations were making it difficult. 

Not too long later another yell could be heard coming from above before a second voice descended from on high with a wet sloppy pop, through the orifice at the top of the organ. Having failed to make significant progress to the stomach wall the body collided with Pete, dragging him under yet again. As this new individual tried to best to extricate their limbs from Pete’s own he felt them drag him further down as they were lifted up. Desperately he clung to their torso, grabbing their sopping garments and pulling them towards him, using them as a prop to hopefully rescue himself from this fate. 

As Pete surfaced yet again above the digestive sludge he heard a voice crying out in Spanish he recognized to be Randall’s before a sloshing wave dragged the boy back under. Pete did his best to breaststroke, trying as much as he could to get out of this, to find the edge of this massive organ and hopefully find brief respite but it was all for not. He had expended most of his energy and the chyme was much thicker than water and therefore that much harder to move in.

By the time a third voice came falling from above he had no energy left. He lazily floated in the digestive sea as it churned its meal, breaking down those that had already given in and wearing out those yet to follow. Pete could only think about how his life could have been, how this was how he ended as for the last time the sludge washed over him and he did not resurface.

***

The sight was gruesome and tortuous but he couldn’t look away. Forest could only look on as those who he had shared company with not so long ago were devoured, one by one. Following Tyler, her last morsels ingress into her maw, the young woman who had done the deed suckled each finger as if she had just been eating finger food and not shrunken human beings, savoring every last taste she could, her eyes practically rolling into the back of her head.

“AAH.” she rumbled before caressing her belly as if she were nurturing a child and not ending lives. “HITS THE SPOT EVERY TIME.”

The gargantuan woman turned her gaze to Forest. He didn’t move at all but Isaac and Isabel, the only two left in the box with him let out twin shrieks at this new attention. This brought a smile to their captors face.

“LOOKS LIKE I DID A NUMBER ON MY LITTLE SNACKS FOR THE NIGHT.” she reached one of her hands down the front of her long black dress and pulled out a tiny squirming shape. She leaned in, her shadow overtaking the box and opened her hand, giving a slight toss.

A small red head crashed into the velvety floor, skidding across it as her ruby colored glasses were thrown from her face, cracking one of the lenses as she rolled before coming to a stop.

“HERE, HAVE FUN WITH LITTLE REBECCA HERE FOR A WHILE. I’M GOING TO CHANGE, I’LL BE BACK TO HAVE YOU ALL FOR DINNER.” the giantess winked a sinister grin cresting her face as she began to walk away, her tremendous footsteps rattling the box as a booming Latin phrase exited her mouth and her clothes and appearance began to change. She didn’t even bother to close the box.

Forest simply looked on before turning to survey what was left of the box’s occupants. Isaac and Isabel were buried in each others arms, crying and whimpering. Rebecca hadn’t moved, she herself in tears, face buried in the velvet, her arm twisted in a way that suggested possible injury. Forest sighed and closed his eyes, a single tear rolling down his cheek as he reflected on what was to come.