The judge stared at him with disdain in his eyes before clapping the gavel against the small wooden surface. It was time for sentencing. Jake had a long history of abusing women, and despite serving time repeatedly, his behavior never changed. As he awaited yet another sentence, he glanced over at his recent victim, Becca, who was sitting calmly in the rows behind him and his lawyer, and smiled. She immediately looked away, cowering in fear, only fueling his sense of power.
“Given that prison time doesn’t seem to teach you much, I hereby sentence you to a year of extreme rehab at the Institution of Abusers Anonymous. Their recent experimental programs have cured nearly 100% of their participants. I’d almost prefer to let you rot in jail, but given that statistical success, I’m inclined to send you through it,” the judge stated, still visibly upset with the human trash sitting across from him.
Jake couldn’t believe his ears. Rehab?! This was going to be even easier than any past time he had served in the penitentiary. A walk in the park, really. He hugged his lawyer and looked back once more to see Becca already making her way to the exit. The adjourned courtroom’s participants all stood, most shaking their heads in disapproval of the judge’s decision. The discontent of others was exactly what Jake thrived on. He yelled, throwing his arms up as though he had just won the lottery.
—
The first day of rehab was exactly as he had envisioned it. Nurses and assistants ran around in blue scrubs, patients walked around in white uniforms. Jake still couldn’t believe his luck - he was going to be running this place by the end of the week.
After taking his vitals, measuring his height and weight, and asking him some questions about his medical history, Jake was finally escorted to his private cell. A bed with pillows and blankets was tucked into the corner, a small lamp sat on a nearby table with several books on a lone shelf against the same wall. This was practically heaven compared to prison. He jumped on the bed, shouting in glee.
“I love rehab!” he repeated incessantly before his true nature rattled out of him. “Fucking bitch tried to send me to prison. Can’t wait to slap her around when I get out of here.”
He sat for several hours, unsure of what was next, when a woman finally entered the room. She was extraordinarily tall for a woman… or any person, for that matter. Her presence loomed over Jake, who was ironically more towards the other end of the spectrum at a meager 5 feet 5 inches tall. His eyes trailed up to indulge in the model-like face of the apparent doctor.
“Hi, there. I’m Vera, but you will address me as Dr. V,” she said, introducing herself as she flipped through several papers on her clipboard. “I see you are a repeat offender.”
The woman’s eyes darted up for a moment to meet his gaze and then zoomed back to the clipboard. “You’re a pretty small guy to be acting so violent. Napoleon would be proud.”
Jake couldn’t believe his ears and certainly wasn’t going to stand for that type of disrespect. “What was that, you giant cunt?”
Dr. V looked up once more, but rather than look alarmed and threatened by the repeat abuser, she simply smiled at the new patient. “Most start out like real tough guys. You won’t be much different. All I can assure you is you will likely never abuse another woman when you leave here.”
The shorter man took a couple of steps in her direction, hoping to instill some fear in her, even if just a little. “I might just add you to the list of dumb bitches I’ve laid hands on.”
“I assure you, Jake. You will not be doing any such thing.”
The constant provocations nearly sent him over the edge. He clenched his fist, tempted to draw it from his side and up into a striking stance. The short moment of rage was reasoned against given it was his first day in. The judge would likely send him to prison if he acted out this quickly, and that would be a much harder sentence to serve. His hand remained idle before finally relaxing back to his side.
“Smart man,” exclaimed Dr. V. “You’ll start therapy tomorrow. I’ll be back later this evening to check on you. Until then, feel free to read any of the books we provided.”
The door closed behind her, and he was left alone again. His eyes scanned the titles of each of the books on the shelf. “Serving Others”, “Reducing Rage”, and “Be The Best You” all sounded like self-therapy books that he would spend zero time reading. He grabbed the first book on the shelf and pitched it as hard as he could against the reinforced glass window. It bounced off aggressively, the pages fluttering in the air before landing loudly with a thump against the hard floor.
Dr. V’s voice suddenly sounded in the room from a hidden microphone. “Please abstain from destroying our property or further action will need to be taken.”
Jake couldn’t contain himself and immediately hucked the remaining two books against the door, creating identical thumps against the metal door. Rebelling was in his nature, and he wasn’t going to let some tall bitch tell him what to do. Suddenly the sound of the door unlocking echoed in the room, and Dr. V entered once more, this time with a weapon in hand. The gun had two barbs ready to launch; Jake had been tased before and managed to let a couple of swings fly before it overtook him. He prepared himself to charge, but before he could take his first steps, the two barbs sunk into his chest. Instead of an electric current running through his body, a mixture of heat and a cold numbness overtook his body. Then the world went black.
—
Vera looked down at the unconscious man lying on the floor, watching as his body dwindled in size. It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last time she had to use force on the first day of a patient's arrival. Typically she liked to ease into their new reality, but in some cases, she had to expedite the process.
She looked to her assistant just outside the door in the hall, with her finger still hovering over the trigger. “Sometimes it’s better to set the precedent early if they act this aggressively. The earlier they break, the sooner they can get on with recovery. Don’t feel sorry about taking action quickly.”
Vera explained her actions, having done this now for several years. This was her facility, her rules, and she was an expert in the road to recovery for these women abusers. Her assistant, Kay, a small 5-foot Asian woman, wouldn’t seem as intimidating as Vera, but that wouldn’t make her any less effective. After all, shrinking to 60% of your original height made you fairly harmless to most, even the shorties like Kay. A quick calculation in her head estimated Jake’s new height to be around 39 inches, making Kay nearly 2 feet taller than him.
“If he wakes before I am back, let me know. I think I’ll need to be the one to break this patient. He is extremely pushy and easy to enrage. Might need to taser him again this week, which would not be typical in our procedures,”she instructed the assistant while jotting down some notes. “Go ahead and change him into his size-adjustable clothing so he doesn’t end up naked in front of the others during misbehavior.”
Vera stepped aside, allowing her companion to pass. Kay quickly stripped him of his current uniform before meticulously dressing him in spandex-like attire. Upon the impact of a taser, it would shrink with the patient, making it the correct size at any given time.
—
The feeling of cold water snapped Jake awake. He wiped his wet face, brushing excess liquid to the floor. He swung his legs out of bed, frantically preparing himself to tackle whoever had thrown the water. When his vision finally cleared and adjusted to the incoming light of his cell, he saw a small Asian woman standing in front of him. Although it quickly became apparent she wasn’t as small as she seemed. Her head was nowhere near the height of the door frame, yet she towered over him. Upon a quick scan of the room, he realized something was off. The table seemed higher, the shelf was now unreachable, and his bed looked massive.
“What the fuck did you do to me?” he yelled, now lunging at the new rehab assistant.
The Asian woman immediately caught the incoming fist, wrapping her fingers around the child-sized hand with ease. Jake couldn’t believe his eyes. He pushed with all his strength, but made no progress against the woman adversary. Before he could pull his hand back for another attempt, Kay sent her knee flying into his chest, leveling him to the ground. The blow was enough to break a normal person’s ribs, but she knew his body, although unchanged in feeling pain, wouldn’t succumb to injury. Jake coughed, winded and shook from the woman’s thrust, unable to get to his feet.
“Dr. V said you’d probably do that,” she said shyly, taking several steps back towards the door.
Heavy footsteps could be heard approaching the cell when Vera finally entered the room. Her heavy breathing suddenly disappeared at the sight of her assistant. “Are you okay? Sorry, I thought I’d be here in time.”
“Yes, I am okay,” Kay replied. “I’ll let you take it from here.”
The small woman stepped out, closing the door behind, leaving Vera and Jake alone in the cell. He was still motionless on his back, still struggling to catch air back into his lungs. Vera decided it would be as good a time as any to inform him of his new reality in rehab.
“Hi, again Jake. I see you haven’t calmed much. I’m going to let that one go with a warning since Kay looked like she got the upper hand on you. But any violence from here on out will not be tolerated. Any disobedience will not be tolerated. Any attempt to escape or conspire with others will not be tolerated. You are here to get better… just like everyone else.”
Jake sat up on his elbows, attempting to piece together the situation. “You can’t do this to me.”
“We can, and we have. You’re here by state law, and we are allowed to do as we see fit. If you haven’t noticed, you are even smaller than before. Sixty percent, to be exact. That makes you the size of a small child at best. Not very threatening to me or my staff, but regardless if you continue to act out as you have, sixty percent will become much less very quickly. Do you understand?”
Jake could feel his anger building inside but managed to nod his head in agreement and then slowly stood to his feet. “So I’m stuck at this height?”
“For now,” she swiftly reminded him. “Act poorly, and it will be a privilege you lose. Now for the rehab routines. Each day you will be given a schedule. You may have therapy, either solo or in a group. You will have social time with other patients. You may have physicals for medical evaluations. Some days you will have assigned reading or assignments that we expect you to complete by a given deadline - failure to do so will result in repercussions that you are now well aware of.”
Jake stared up at Dr. V, her clipboard hovering above his head now. Her squared manicured nails were covered in a hyper-feminine shade of neon pink. Her tanned skin contrasted the bright nail polish and complimented her dirty blonde hair. Her squared glasses sat over a youthful face, which always seemed buried in the clipboard in her hands. Her fitted coat wrapped her nicely shaped fit physique, as if she was a prior college athlete, and her scrubs covered her long legs before ending in some comfortable Nike trainers. She was rather attractive, but Jake couldn’t help but want to hit her bossy face. Given he couldn’t even reach the statuesque woman’s face, it would be unwise for him to try. A sense of helplessness began to settle in.
“Now one last thing. Your biggest challenge will actually come from miscellaneous asks. The therapy and other formalities are a part of our curriculum, yes, but the real growth comes from your willingness to obey any requests of any women in the facility. You must show respect to those you have hurt most in your past, even if it means humbling yourself in the process.”
Jake wasn’t sure what she meant by that. What dumb things could they possibly ask for?
“To give you your first taste, I’ve brought a few items,” she hinted, revealing a bottle of red paint along with a brush from her pocket. “Now I want you to paint every inch of the bottom of my right foot. Got it?”
“You want me to paint the bottom of your foot?” he repeated, confused on why she would request something so silly.
“Yes,” she said, tossing the bottle of paint in his direction.
The giant woman snatched the desk chair, dragging it in her direction before taking a seat. She set her clipboard on the table, removed her glasses and eyed Jake carefully as he kneeled to the ground. Vera leaned over, handing him the brush. Even when sitting, she towered over the shrunken patient, which she always felt empowered by. The small man hesitated for a moment, realizing she still had her trainers on, preventing him from starting his task.
“Yeah, you’ll need to take it off,” she said, noting the obvious.
She watched his hands carefully untie the knot, then loosen each of the laces from their eyelets. Once the laces were loose enough, he pulled the tongue up, allowing her foot to easily exit the shoe. Vera held it close to his face, taking a mental note of his disgusted expression. They had been trapped all day in those shoes, and she was an avid walker around the facilities. Jake’s fingers brushed against her heel as he pinched the elastic fabric of her sock before peeling it away from her warm damp foot. Vera admired her matching pink toenails, meticulously cut to the tips of her toes in a squared shape. Her nail beds were well taken care of, allowing her pedicure to shine its biggest and brightest. She crossed her legs over her remaining leg, allowing her to rest her foot suspended in the air next to Jake as he dipped his brush into the provided paint bottle.
The paintbrush became saturated in the thick red liquid as he loaded it up for the fleshy canvas. He couldn’t believe how big her feet were… truly giant in comparison to his current stature. Using his left hand, he grabbed the outside of her exposed foot, steadying the appendage for the paintbrush. His thumb dug into the warm doughy skin, which eagerly awaited the paint on his brush. He lifted his right hand and dragged the tip of the brush against her biggest toe. Dr. V’s toes immediately scrunched in reaction, and she let out a small giggle. For several minutes, he rigorously painted her toes until each was covered in red. Then, using long strokes, he painted the exposed sole, reapplying globs of paint to the brush each time it ran dry. After a very focused session, her sole was stained completely red.
“Done,” he said, admiring his own work. “Now get your big ass feet out of my face.”
Vera was surprised to see Jake work so carefully to complete the rather mundane task. She thought his humiliation would get the best of him, but she was pleased to see him overcome it. The snide comment at the end was a small price to pay for his first sign of obedience. Vera leaned over and inspected the work of her sole - red from heel to toe. Without warning, Vera’s left shoe hooked behind Jake’s legs and swept them away, knocking him backward to the floor. The stunned man had little time to react when the enormous foot he had just painted collided firmly against his body, pressing him into the unforgiving floor. Vera added some weight to her planted leg, careful not to smudge the print of her foot against his new attire. The white fabric soaked in the red paint, and by the time Vera lifted her leg, the silhouette of her foot was now embroidered over the freshly assigned uniform, extending from his groin all the way up past his chest, just below his shoulders.
“Thanks. Size 15… in men,” she replied smugly, snatching her shoe and sock from the floor. “Good work today… I think we made a little progress.”
Vera sauntered out, leaving a trail of lengthy red footprints against the concrete floor. A subtle reminder of her size to her shrunken patient, who remained stunned on the floor behind her. Treatment was as much mental as it was physical, and she was no beginner in the world of rehab.