Adam checked the paper he had been given. This was the right apartment building, he realized. This was where he'd been asked to come.
Adam double-checked his recorder. The batteries were charged and there was nothing in the memory at present. The stories that had been in it had been downloaded.
The apartment building was of the sort where each apartment had its own entrance. Adam climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" came a female voice through the intercom.
"Adam Doric," Adam said. "I'm with the story project from the Phillipa College. They said someone here, a … Megan Danielson, had called wanting us to record her story."
"That would be me," the voice said. "Come on in."
Adam heard a buzz he recognized as a door lock being released. He opened the door and entered the apartment.
Adam was surprised at the lack of furniture in the living area of the apartment. There was basically nothing there. What was there -- books and a smartphone -- were all strewn across the living room floor. He glanced to his right at the kitchen, and saw no signs of life there, either.
"I'm in the bedroom," said a voice from behind him. Adam turned and saw a wall-mounted intercom, from which the voice apparently had come. "You can come on back."
"If you don't mind my saying so, you sound a lot younger than most of the folks who we've talked to," Adam said. "The project is mainly for people who fear their story will be lost because no one will record it in time."
"My reason's a little different than theirs, but I have the same feeling," the voice said. "You'll see why when you get to my room."
Adam walked back to the single bedroom. He found the door open and walked inside.
He stopped as soon as he got in the room. Almost everything in the room was at ground level again -- no shelves or storage. The two most notable objects in the room were a tiny fridge, a beanbag chair and a dollhouse.
But what was most notable in the room was the most beautiful woman Adam had ever seen. She wore her blonde hair in a short bob, and wore wonderful looking clothes that were clearly tailored to her small-waisted but curvy physique.
The clothes had to be tailored, because the woman was only about seven and a half inches tall.
"Hi," the woman said. "I'm Megan." She gestured to the beanbag chair. "Have a seat," she said.
Adam followed the instruction, even though he hadn't recovered enough from the sight to find his voice yet.
"You can see part of why I asked you here, Adam. It is OK for me to call you Adam?"
Adam nodded.
Megan smiled. "You see, Adam, I'm afraid my story will be lost because I'm afraid I'll grow too small to tell it, and could die due to something connected with becoming so tiny."
She walked over beside the beanbag chair. "See, Adam, I'm still shrinking, and it probably will never stop while I'm alive."
"Let me get out my recorder," Adam said.
Megan looked slightly wistful. "All business, huh?" she said.
"Not necessarily," Adam said. "I'm just … surprised by your … size, that's all."
"I understand," Megan said. "Get the recording started. Let me know when it's ready."
"Um, your voice is … well, it's as small as you are," Adam said. "Without amplification, you'll need to be right by the recorder for me to be sure of getting a good recording. Let me sit it down by you."
Megan raised her right hand in a gesture to say, stop. "I don't get a lot of company," she said. "I mean, my mom comes over a lot, but … well, look, I know you don't know me and all, but … would you mind if I climbed up in the beanbag and sat up there, near you?"
"Not at all," Adam said. "I could give you a lift up here, if you want."
Megan smiled. "That's OK," she said. "I can get there. Just put it on this side of the chair, please."
Adam put the recorder on his left, nearest Megan. He watched as she climbed up the chair, grabbing hand and footholds. It was obviously something she was used to doing. It took almost a minute for her to get there, but, for her scale, it should have been longer.
Once she was in position, Megan asked, "Is this good?"
Adam nodded. "I'll start the recording," he said.
Megan's story followed.
"My name is Megan Lynn Danielson. I'm 25 years old, and my life isn't going as I thought it would when I was a child. Like all children, I expected to grow up. I never dreamed that I would start growing down instead.
"I was an apparently normal child until shortly after my 13th birthday. That was when I reached what would turn out to be my peak height of 4-foot-2, 50 inches tall.
"It wasn't long after that when my parents realized something was wrong. I was still developing normally in all other respects, but I started getting smaller -- shorter, and my proportions would have been normal if only my height were.
"By the time I was 14, I had shrunk 7 inches, and stood only 3-foot-7. Now I was getting alarmed, too. All my classmates were either at or nearing their adult heights, and I was becoming increasingly tiny.
"The shrinking continued. By the time I was 15, I had lost another four and seven-eighths inches. It picked up again, becoming faster before I was 16, so that I lost more than five and a quarter inches that year. Now I was less than 2-foot-9, and the shrinking showed no signs of stopping.
"It was around that time that the doctors broke the news to us. I was shrinking because of a freak genetic mutation. Once I hit puberty, my body started sending me down in size rather than aging me. While I was maturing to physically 15 it slowed a bit, but it kicked in for good by the time I was 16. I was going to lose about 14 percent of my height, and a proportional amount of my body mass in every direction, every year.
"My parents kept me in school until I graduated high school. By then I was only a quarter-inch above 2 feet tall. Those guys who asked me out thought they could force themselves on me, so I stopped dating and became a recluse.
"I think watching me always growing smaller really was harder for my parents than it was for me. I learned to cope with it because I had no choice. This was part of my genetic makeup. It was a fact of my life. For the rest of my life, I would be physically a teenager and grow tinier and tinier every year.
"I took college-level correspondence courses and got a job with a web service. Bu this time, I was 18 inches tall, but the web service didn't care about my height as long as I could do the work, and I could. At first I used laptops, but as I got smaller it became more practical to use smartphones.
"As of today, I'm just under seven and a half inches tall. Every four years, I lose a little bit more than half of my height. By the time I'm 29, I'll be well under 4 inches tall. If I make it to age 40, I'll be less than half an inch tall. By then, no one will be able to hear me at all without some sort of microphone and speaker. If I make it to 50, I'll be so tiny that I'll be a speck to most people. I don't even want to think about living to 60; I'll be microscopic if that happens.
"I am increasingly dependent on my Mom. When I first moved into this apartment, I used all the rooms. Now I go into the living room just for a change of scenery. The kitchen is unusable for me, and so are the toilets. Mom comes in and empties my little makeshift toilet in the bathroom every few days. We're going to have to jerry-rig a new toilet setup for me soon; I'm having to climb on this one now.
"My parents have set up a trust fund for me, so that, when they die, someone will be able to take care of me. But my world is, in a sense, shrinking as fast as I am. I'll only be able to sustain my job for a few more years, maybe a decade. Then I'll be too small even to use a smartphone as a computer."
With the recording still running, Adam asked, "Are you afraid of the future?"
Megan shrugged. "It is what it is," she said. "Shrinking is what's going to happen. There's no cure for this, no way to stop or reverse it. I'm just going to get smaller and smaller, just like everybody else get's older and older. I'd be lying if I said I don't fear dying as some small creature's food. My parents had to get rid of our pet cat when it got to the place where it weighed nearly as much as I did. They realized that, as I shrank, the cat might view me as prey. But, it's just what I have to live with."
"Um … what about love?" Adam asked.
Megan took a deep breath, then sighed. "I'm a recluse, remember?" Megan said. "What am I supposed to do? I mean, I've seen online people who seem to have a fetish for tiny women, but some of them scare me, and how do I know which ones will be gentle and which ones not? Remember what I said about high school? I'm way smaller now. They could kill me. I don't want to die a horrible death, remember?"
Adam nodded. He stopped the recording. "Am I right that this was the end?"
Megan nodded. "Thanks for recording it. I know the story will be hard to believe without video, so I set my smartphone to record some video of me up here. I'll send it to your email address."
"That'll work," Adam said. "I should be going." He rose. "Thank you, Megan."
Megan craned to look up at him. "Thank you, Adam. It was a pleasure meeting you. The door will open for you when you're ready to leave."
Adam got as far as the living room when he realized he was hearing the faint sound of sobbing, so soft as to be barely audible, from the bedroom, He turned back and saw Megan there, stretched out on the beanbag chair, crying.
"Megan?" Adam said. "Are you all right?"
Megan bolted to a sitting position and tried to recompose herself. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just that … No, you don't want to know."
"I wouldn't have come back if I didn't," Adam said.
Megan bit her lower lip, then said, "I'm a recluse, remember? Seeing a good-looking guy like you, and you're so nice and gentle and seem so caring and shy, which is kind of cute… and then there's what I can see and hear."
"What do you mean?" Adam asked.
"Adam, I'm seven and a half inches tall," Megan said. "When I climbed up to sit next to you, I could see that bulge rising in your pants, and I could hear the blood flow. I had already figured you were attracted to me from the way you reacted when you came into the room; the people who are just shocked by my size get a different stunned expression. But then, when I was starting to get my hopes up, you turned to leave, and I just felt so … alone."
Adam sat back down on the beanbag, being careful to neither sit on Megan nor send her flying by plopping down on the chair. "Megan, you know those guys with a fetish for tiny women you talked about? Well, I'm one of them. I already thought you were the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, and then I found out you're going to just keep getting tinier and tinier."
Megan's gaze shifted from Adam's face to his crotch. "You do have a fetish," she said. "You're growing just talking about it."
"But you said you were afraid of making contact with a guy with a fetish," Adam said. "That made me nervous about saying anything, and I didn't want to upset you. Guess that plan kind of backfired, huh?"
Megan chuckled. "Adam, don't go," Megan said. "At least, not until you have to."
Adam reached a finger down and caressed the tiny woman's cheek. "Gladly" he said.
Soon Adam was spending every free moment at Megan's apartment. Within a month, he could tell she had gotten smaller since they'd met. The change was subtle to him, only about a tenth of an inch, but it was noticeable.
As Adam was preparing to leave one night, Megan said, "Adam, what would you say to the idea of moving in with me?"
"I'd love it," Adam said. "Where would I sleep?"
"In here," Megan said. "With me … when we want to sleep."
"Really?"
"Adam, I'm tired of merely hearing your penis and seeing the bulge in your pants. I know sex between us can't be conventional, but I'm a young woman with needs, and I can tell you want me to help satisfy your needs, too."
Adam smiled. "Wait here," he said as he headed out of the room, then apartment.
"Like I have a choice?" Megan yelled after him.
Adam quickly came back in, carrying a rolled up, thin cot mattress and a sleeping bag. "I've been carrying this for two weeks, hoping we'd have this conversation," he said as he spread them out.
Once he finished, Megan pointed to the sleeping bag. "I need you down here, Mister, and naked."
"Yes, ma'am," said Adam. He swiftly dropped is pants and underwear and got rid of his shirt. "What would you like me to do?"
"Just lay down and let your little mama handle things," Megan said. She was pleased to see Adam was already well on his way to an erection. She climbed up his thigh and grabbed hold of his cock. ""Wow!" she said. "It's so warm! And it smells so -- male, so musky."
Megan used her entire body to rub up and down the dick, which was now nearly as long as she was tall, and would have outweighed her. She worked her body so hard the penis bounced, which made her squeal with delight.
Soon Megan's own passion began to overwhelm her. She simply squeezed Adam's member with all her might, with her arms and her legs.
Then she heard and felt it; the surge of semen. She smelled it before he ejaculated, and she laughed as she saw what were, to her, gallons and gallons of cum shoot forth from Adam.
Adam moaned. "Well, that hit the spot," he said.
"Glad I could help," Megan said. "So, am I woman enough for you?"
Adam beamed down at her. "Yes, and you will be no matter how small you get."
Megan's expression got serious. "Adam, that won't be true if I get too tiny," she said.
"Whether you're woman enough for me isn't just about sex," Adam said. "My passion for you can't be out-shrunk. We'll find a way to keep things working for both of us, somehow."
"I look at you and I believe that," Megan said.
"And, speaking of working for both of us," Adam said. You did a good job of meeting my needs, Let's see what I can do about returning the favor. Turn your crotch toward me, please."
Megan did as she was told. Gingerly, Adam placed his left hand behind her head to act as a cushion, then used his right index finger to begin to gently rub Megan's breasts. He was amazed when he realized her tiny nipples were erecting under his fingertip.
Then Adam carefully slid his finger down to Megan's pussy. He began to rub, ever so carefully. She tipped her head back, her bobbed hair falling backward, catching a golden luster in the light.
After a minute, Megan said, "Use your fingernail,"
Adam was surprised. "I'll cut you,' he said.
Megan smiled. "No, you won't," she said. "Your nail is so thick to me that it isn't sharp at all -- and it will be able to penetrate enough to add to my pleasure. You might even get to take my maidenhead, if we're lucky."
Adam nodded. "Let's go cherry-picking," he said. He pressed his nail against her womanhood, and realized she was right; he was penetrating.
"Harder!" Megan yelled. "Push harder!"
Adam did, and Megan screamed. He was momentarily afraid until he realized the scream was one of joy. He had pulled his finger back, and could see Megan bouncing her hips.
"What's going on?" Adam asked.
"You gave me an earthquake, and I'm still experiencing aftershocks," Megan said. "Wonderful, wonderful aftershocks."
Gently, Adam lifted his little lover to above his mouth. He stuck out his tongue and began to lick her pussy. He could taste her fur, but also tasted her juices flowing. He realized that, with each lick, Megan was spasming in increasing ecstasy.
Megan was beginning to get limp. Adam placed her over his heart. "How'd I do?" he asked.
Megan smiled. "I'm … definitely not a virgin anymore," she said, "Although, it was your tongue that actually picked the cherry, not your fingernail."
"I thought I tasted something different at one point," Adam said.
"That … was … amazing!" Megan said.
"For me, too," Adam said.
"You know, things will change as I shrink," Megan said. "Some things won't work anymore, and new ones will."
Adam smiled. "Well, that'll keep things fresh," he said. "You know what they say: Variety is the spice of life."
As he stroked her back with his lightest possible touch, he added, "And a little spice is more than enough for me."
Megan smiled, then snuggled in on his chest as she listened to his heartbeat and basked in the afterglow of their love-making.