Lydia knocked thrice on the large oak door before returning her hand to her coat pocket, she and her friend Mallory shivering from the night's chill. They waited only a moment before it swung open.

“You're here! I was starting to think you slowpokes didn't believe me or something.”

Mallory quickly pushed past June, the girl who had invited them in. “Shut the door, it's fucking freezing outside,” she said brusquely, removing her jacket and hanging it on a rack just inside the door. Lydia followed close behind, and June closed the door, cheerful despite her friend's cantankerous attitude.

“Where's the surprise?” Lydia asked, peering around a doorway as if she would discover a gigantic, gift-wrapped box just waiting for her. June laughed, leading her friends deeper into the house.

“So eager to have it spoiled? Where's your sense of mystery, of delayed gratification? I've made snacks and everything, are you sure you don't want to sit around and talk for a while?”

Mallory and Lydia exchanged a look. “June... you said tonight was going to be the best thing to ever happen to us in our entire lives, ever, ever, ever.”

“You said it exactly like that,” Mallory confirmed. Their host laughed, directing them to take their seats at the dining room table.

“Oh, fine. I'll bring the food and the surprise. Wait right here.” She sauntered off to the kitchen, humming idly to herself. Lydia's leg bounced nervously beneath the table.

“Don't worry, she's always been like this.” Lydia was new to their school, having only transferred in a couple months back. She'd been slow to make friends, going from wrong crowd to wrong crowd until she'd finally fallen in with June and Mallory, two girls who mostly kept to themselves. They'd been welcoming, especially given Lydia's friendless state.

“O-oh, yeah, no, I'm not worried,” Lydia lied. June returned carrying a tray of deviled eggs and a small bag. She set the tray on the table, then gently dumped the contents of the bag out. A few metal rods tumbled out, followed shortly by three small, pink objects that wriggled on their own on the hard wooden surface. Mallory reached out and snatched one up before June could slap her hand away.

“Be careful with her!” she said as Mallory drew the thing to her face. It bent and struggled weakly in her grasp, and it took the blonde a few seconds to realize what she was even looking at. Her eyes went wide when she figured it out.

“Oh my god, June! You actually did it!?” June just giggled in response. Lydia leaned over, trying to see what she was holding. Mallory studied it more intently, and for the second time made a startling, delightful discovery. “Oh god, you didn't!”

“I did!” June exclaimed. “But like I said, be careful with her for now. Like, don't hurt her at all. You're gonna want to see what I have planned.”

“What is it?” Lydia asked, thoroughly confused. Mallory held the tiny thing out face-up in her palm, and that's when the newest edition to the friend group realized what they were talking about.

There, in Mallory's hand, struggled a bound, two-inch tall girl.

“W... what... what is that?” she stammered.

“It's Tera, from school. See, a few weeks ago one of June's cousins came by, talking about this new device he picked up in, like, China or something.”

“He was spending his Junior year abroad in Korea,” June clarified as she tinkered with the metal rods, constructing a small device. “He comes back and he's got this little pen-thing, and says it can shrink things. Living things, like animals and people. He had this rat that was already really tiny – I think he'd shrunk it once before – and he pressed one end against the thing, slid the trigger back, and it shrank away to practically nothing. It was stupid how small that thing got.”

“So we started saying that he should give it to us, and he said we were too young and stupid to understand how to use it. We got upset over that, and June never really liked her cousin that much anyway, so...”

“So we shrank him. Mallory held him down and I pulled the thing out of his pocket and shrank him down to nothing.”

Lydia sat in stunned silence. Half of her wanted to run, felt like she needed to escape these people who were clearly delusional, despite proof of their claims laying restrained in Mallory's hand before her. “Wh... what did you do with him?” she eventually asked.

“I buried him outside.” Mallory gestured towards the backyard. “Tore up a small hole with my hands, put him in it and just put the dirt right back. Pressed it down with my shoe a little for good measure.”

“While he was still alive?”

June shrugged. “Why not? Not like we had to watch him suffer or anything.” She made a few final tweaks to the contraption she'd been building and nodded as though satisfied with a job well done. “Speaking of which, however...”

“So what are we going to do with her, anyway?” Mallory looked down at the preppy girl in her hands. She looked so overwhelmingly normal now, stripped of her status in their school. It was fascinating how much more human she looked, laying naked in Mallory's hand like a lab rat. Despite her vulnerability, the blonde giantess remembered all the times Tera had made their lives difficult.

“We are gonna play a little game I'm calling 'Needle Jenga'.” June giggled, holding her hand out to take the tiny Tera back. Mallory relinquished her prize, and June tore the restraints off. “Even though it's more like reverse Jenga. The rules are really easy. We're gonna go in a circle sliding needles into this little cunt's body, and whoever places the killing needle loses!”

As she spoke, June fastened Tera into the device. Two poles rose up from a metal base that allowed the poles to slide back and forth. On the rods themselves were two clamps each, also able to slide up and down their own poles. June clamped the shrunken girl into the device vertically, then adjusted it such that she was as taut as possible without tearing her skin, twisting screws in each moving part of the device until everything was rigid and firm.

“Please... please let me live...” Tera pleaded as the gag was removed from her mouth. June and Mallory just giggled at her pleas, while Lydia frowned. She had been victimized by the tiny woman too, but not nearly to the extent that her friends had. She didn't feel the same sense of loathing towards her that the others clearly did.

“Doesn't this feel a little... cruel?” she suggested. “I-I'm not saying we shouldn't punish her, but this... this seems like it's a little much, doesn't it?”

June rolled her eyes. “I promise you'll have fun with it. Just don't think of her as a person. Think of her as a heartless bitch. You'll see how great it is – we'll even let you have first stab at her.”

“Uh-uh. No way. I get to hurt her first. I've earned that.” Mallory was staring daggers into the tiny girl before her. She picked up a needle from a small pile that June had collected. “I just stab her anywhere?”

“No, actually!” June sounded excited. She reached into the bag and pulled out a small, handmade die. It was wooden, with words etched into each side. “I made this myself in workshop. Mister Lewis even inspected it, but of course he had no idea what it was for.” She dropped it onto the desk, and it came up reading 'Left Arm'. “See? Now you would stab her in the left arm. But – but wait, there's more I came up with, to make it more competitive.”

“Oh my god let me hurt this bitch!” Mallory said.

“Hold on. Each stab has to happen within thirty seconds of the last. I've even got a little timer here; you stab the bitch, and hit the timer button. At fifteen seconds it'll start ticking faster, and then at five to go it'll be even faster, to let you know you gotta play. Finally, needles can't touch one another. You're not allowed to just make thick-ass needle holes, that's not fun for anyone. No part of any needle can be touching any other needle. That's why she's pulled tight, so she can't squirm around and fuck it up. Is all that clear?”

“Yes, yes, yes, let's get on with it.” The two girls nodded, and June smiled.

“Okay. Mal, you're up first. Go ahead and roll.”

Mallory took the small wooden cube in her hand, rolling it between her fingers and looking down at her prey. “Bet you never thought you'd see me like this, didja Tera? Are you scared? Are you afraid for your life?”

“Y-yes...” the tiny girl sobbed. “Please, you guys, I never meant to make you this upset...”

“How upset? Upset enough to kill you? Do you remember that month – that entire month – when you made it a point to tell us to our faces that we were trash? Do you remember doing that?”

“Please...” Tera had been colossally cunty to the girls who now held her life in their hands, much more so than she had ever really meant to be. It was her position as the lead of a group of Mean Girls. The sycophantic sociopaths that sucked up to her pressured her to be cruel, and rewarded her behavior with more attention. The crueler she was, the more they praised her. It was a vicious cycle that had turned her into a bitter, rotten person, and now she was staring retribution in the face.

Mallory didn't say more. She didn't need to. She could see the defeat in Tera's eyes, and now she wanted to see suffering. With a grin stretching across her lips, she let the die tumble from her fingers and roll onto the table.

'Free Space'

“Oh! So, that means wherever you want. I couldn't come up with a sixth slot – there's left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm, torso, and then free space there. So, just wherever!” She touched Lydia on the arm. “Honey, have your needle ready. You'll go next, then me, and then like that.” The new girl nodded hesitantly, taking a needle from the pile.

“Anywhere, huh?” Mallory was smiling ear-to-ear. She teased the tip of the needle from the naked girl's navel up her body, delighting in the whimpers of fear that came from the tiny creature. Finally, when the needle was pressed against her throat, Mallory gave it a hard press, shoving it through the soft skin like it was a marshmallow. Blood spurted from the wound, coating the needle in a sheen of red, then rolled down her body. Tera began to gurgle and cough, blood trickling out of her mouth, but the restraints kept her squirming to a minimum. Mallory admitted to herself that she was impressed at the level of quality with which June had made the instruments.

“Mallory!” June exclaimed in clear frustration. The blonde hadn't even hit the timer, but it didn't matter. The three girls could already see the life draining from Tera's eyes as she took a last look at her murderer. Tera, young as she was, had never really considered her own mortality. In her final seconds, Tera was gripped with an overwhelming fear. Was this it? Was she just Not Going To Be anymore? Infinite blackness suddenly stretched out in front of her and a tear rolled down her face as she passed away. “That's not how you're supposed to play! Now you lose!”

“Do I really, though?” she said slyly, smirking down at the dead girl whose head had slumped forward onto the needle. “I feel like Tera here is the real loser.”

June's signature happiness was gone. She instead wore the biggest frown Lydia had ever seen from her as she took the dead girl down from her restraints. “I put a lot of time and effort into this, Mal. I really made sure everything was going to be perfect for tonight, and it... if you're just going to shit all over it...” June was trying her best to blink back tears, but it felt like a fresh wave came every time she opened her eyes.

Mallory looked down at the table, embarrassed. It was clear June really had put a lot of work into it. “I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry, June, I really am. I didn't mean to insult you, I was just... you know I hated that bitch.”

“I hated her too, which is why I wanted killing her to be slow and special!”

The blonde girl's face was red. “You're right. That would have been better, I'm sorry.” She looked at the other two figures still writhing on the table. “The fun isn't all over, though. Let's play with them.”

June stared at the tiny people before her. “You promise you'll play it right?” she asked.

“I promise. We both will.” Mallory looked to Lydia, who nodded quickly.

“O-of course! I want to play! I didn't even get a turn, anyway!”

June sniffed, wiping one of her eyes, then started undoing the ties around one of her captive's limbs. “All right. Lydia will go first, then me, then you Mal.”

“Okay. I'm sorry.” Mallory said, but June just shook her head. While she was strapping in the new one – a man, by the looks of him – Lydia took the limp form of Tera, slowly rolling her head around with her thumb.

“What do we do with them once they're dead?” she wondered aloud.

“I figured we'd just bury them in the backyard, like Trevor.” Emotion was slowly returning to June's voice. “Once they're dead they're just like little meatdolls or something. Not really as fun to mess around with as when they're alive.” She playfully tickled the little man's chest with her index finger, giggling softly. “Isn't that right, little guy?”

“So who's this, then?” Mallory asked.

“Oh, he's Tera's boyfriend. Or, was, when she was still around. These three were all hanging out together – I meant to just get Tera alone, but that's practically impossible. Finally I decided to bite the bullet and just take them all at once. It was a little tricky, since the shrinking thing is so close-range, but I got 'em!” June was back to smiling brightly by this point, happily securing the last of the restraints. The tiny man was obviously struggling, but nothing other than his head really moved. Lydia set down the lifeless body of Tera and picked up a needle.

“So I roll the die, stab him, and hit the timer?”

“Right. And then I have up to thirty seconds to see if your stab'll kill him, then I have to do it, then Mal, then you, and so on and so on.” June was already holding her needle in preparation. “Whoever deals the killing blow loses.” Playful sternness crept into her voice as she shot a glance at Mallory, who sheepishly lowered her eyes.

“Okay, here I go.” Lydia still felt this might be a little more cruel than necessary, but watching Tera bleed out, unable to even squirm, had been truly thrilling like so few other things in her life. Now a boy her age was helpless beneath her, and she wanted to watch him hurt. She took the die and gave it a roll.

'Left Arm'

Lydia nodded and pushed her needle through the man's upper left arm. It slid cleanly through, drawing a prolonged scream of pain from the tiny boy. His head whipped back and forth and he slung insult after insult at the sadistic teenagers above him. Lydia just giggled and pressed the timer, starting it ticking down.

“I'll roll now, to get it out of the way.” June announced. She rolled the die, and it landed on 'Left Leg.' The three watched the boy as the timer slowly ticked out the seconds. June shrugged. “Ah, that's probably not gonna kill him anyway.” She leveled the needle at his thigh and pushed it in. He screamed again, tears now flowing freely down his face as he begged for mercy. June slapped the timer.

“Roll it, Mal!” Lydia said. She was clearly excited about the game, her leg bouncing now in eagerness. She already had her needle ready, and her eyes hungrily darted between the boy and Mallory's needle. The blonde girl rolled the wooden die, and again it landed on 'Left Leg.'

She hesitated, the slow ticking of the clock an ever-present thought in her mind. “What're you waiting for?” June asked.

“I don't know, isn't there a major artery in the leg? Maybe you hit it or something.”

“If I hit an artery, wouldn't blood be gushing out by now?” As June finished her thought, the timer started to tick every half-second. “Fifteen seconds,” she added.

“Argh, fine, fuck!” She slid the needle into his thigh, only a small distance below June's. The two angled their heads to take a look at him from the side, but neither needle touched the other.

“It's clear!” June announced, and Mallory hit the timer. The die was already in Lydia's hand, and she threw it forcefully onto the table. It clattered across, sliding over the edge and clacking onto the floor.

“Oh no! Fuck! Get it!” She said, and she and Mallory both dove for it. They scanned the ground where they'd seen it fall, but it was nowhere to be found. “Where is it!?”

“I don't know!” Mallory yelled. Lydia got on her knees, feeling around the ground with her hands.

“No! Where is it? Goddamnit!”

“There! There, by your feet!” Lydia twisted around, and sure enough it lay behind her, several feet back from where they'd all clearly seen it land. Above her, on the table, the timer started to tick faster.

“It's on Free Space!” Lydia exclaimed.

“Doesn't count! Roll it on the table!” June was laughing with excitement. Lydia scooped up the wooden cube and cast it quickly – but carefully – at the table. After what felt like the longest rolling sequence of her life it finally fell onto the 'Torso' space.

“Quick!” Even as Mallory said it, the timer ticked even faster. Lydia didn't have time to think; now standing behind the tiny man as she was, she thrust the needle forward into his back. It came out through his stomach and he threw his head back, letting out a pained choke. Lydia tapped the timer and moved to her seat, the three girls watching the tiny man's signs of life intently.

"Is he dead?" June wondered. Lydia frowned, tapping her index finger against his head. He responded weakly, his head lolling from side to side on its own.

"He's alive! Roll the die and stab him, quick!"

"Oh, sure, you just want me to stab him so that I'll lose because of your bad stab!" June joked, rolling the die.

'Right Arm'

"An arm again? Really? I'm getting all the boring rolls." She stabbed him through the forearm, drawing another groan of pain from the tortured man. She hit the timer and passed the turn. Mallory picked up the die and rolled it, keeping an eye on his little movements. The girls were sure he was dying, it was all just a matter of when.

"Torso, huh?" she said to herself, scanning his tiny body for the least lethal option. "I guess just other side of the stomach, huh little guy?" She nudged his head with the point of her needle, sliding the tip along his cheek. She giggled as he murmured a weak plea, calling for mercy. "Sorry, no can do. I'm on a timer." She tapped the clock briefly, then stuck him through the gut with the needle. He screamed, but his voice was noticeably losing strength.

Without saying anything, Lydia took the die and rolled it, grinning as it came up on 'Free Space'. "Oh, I know exactly where I want to put this one." She raised the needle up from underneath her tiny prey, lifting the soft flesh of his testicles up with the sharp point. He began to squirm more frantically, and the girl's giggled.

"Oh, so now you've got the energy to move, huh little guy?" June teased. He tried to look up at them, but his vision was unfocused and blurry. The act of thinking felt like trying to navigate a curved path through a thick fog, but even through that he could feel the discomfort from his groin, and he knew he wanted to do something to stop it.

"Please..." he whimpered, but Lydia didn't hear it as anything other than incoherent murmuring. She pierced the needle through his pelvis, cracking his hip bone as it drove through. His weak body tensed against the restraints, holding the position for several seconds before it went slack again. Lydia hit the timer and June took her turn.

"Right Arm!" June said as the die came to a stop, but when she looked at the little man before her, she hesitated. "Wait - is he already dead?"

"No, that's impossible," Lydia said, irritated. "A blow to the pelvis did not kill him."

"Actually, I think it did." June was right. The shock had finally overwhelmed him, and the tiny man just gave up, letting the last of his energy slip away. Blood leaked onto the needles and dripped down to the table below. Frustrated, Lydia folded her arms over her chest and pouted.

"Oh sure, punish me for my creativity," she muttered as the other two girls laughed. June began taking him down, and Mallory picked up the last victim, another girl.

"So, you were friends with Tera, huh?" Mallory accused of the girl who was bound and gagged in her palm. "Bad move. Friends of Tera get fuckin' dead." The tiny girl whimpered and struggled, shaking her head furiously. She had seen how horrifically her friends had been murdered and it had instilled unbridled panic within her.

Leaning over, Lydia reached out and untied the little girl. As soon as her gag fell away she began to plead for mercy. Lydia shushed her by placing her index finger over her tiny face, cutting off her supply of air. "Now now, little girl, don't be a nuisance. I'm gonna lift my finger, and if I hear the word 'Please' come out of your mouth one time I'm going to make sure you hurt a lot more than you will anyway, all right?" The girl's nodding was indistinguishable from her other struggles for air, but Lydia lifted her finger regardless.

Now staring up at two looming goddesses who wouldn't even allow her to beg for her own life, Holly was at a loss for words. She opened her mouth to speak, thinking she needed to keep her captors talking as long as possible, because if they were talking they weren't torturing her to death. "W-w-what are you... gonna do to me?"

Mallory and Lydia exchanged a glance. "Well... I'm sure you could figure it out," Mallory began, but Lydia cut her off.

"No, maybe she doesn't. Maybe she was looking away the entire time." She took the tiny creature from Mallory's hand, laying her out in her own palm, and began to gently stroke her side. "We're going to shove needles through your flesh. Giant, thick needles. We're going to stick them all through your arms, your legs, your chest. Everywhere, really. And you know what the best part is? We're going to be aiming to maim."

"She's right," June cut in, having prepped the stands but enjoying where Lydia was going with this. "We're honestly looking to inflict minimal damage. It's just... we'll be using these to accomplish that." She brandished one of the needles, still bloody from their last victim, and lowered it gently towards the helpless girl's face.

Holly was losing her mind to fear. She was screaming and clawing at the stroking finger, which had since moved to keep her pinned to the palm. As the blood-covered needle descended her screams became more shrill, tearing her throat apart as she wordlessly begged for help from anyone who could hear her.

"Oh, honey, don't be afraid. Most people would find it comforting to know how they're going to die. We just want to comfort you and make sure there are no surprises. Now, you're going to be seeing a lot of your own blood, so if seeing someone else's is already freaking you out, that's something you may want to work on in the next few minutes, okay?" Mallory giggled as June smeared the blood against Holly's face, to the vocal and vehement objection of the latter.

Lydia licked her lips. There was something about this, something about terrorizing someone so completely helpless, that excited her like never before. Tonight, she thought to her self is a night of beautiful self-discovery. "Does screaming make you feel better, sweetie? Is squirming getting you further away from us? Or are you ready to accept the truth of the situation: that you're completely powerless to stop us. We're going to kill you because you're tiny and weak. It's going to be slow. It's going to hurt. And in the end, we're going to get away with it and you will decompose into nothing. We'll all live full lives, and yours ends here, tonight, because of us." She took a breath, but immediately realized she wasn't done taunting her captive. "So struggle, little girl. Struggle and fight and scream because all of it means nothing. You've already lost. We're just toying around with your life now."

All eyes were on Lydia as she stared hungrily at Holly, drinking in the utter terror on her tiny face. "D-damn," Mallory said softly before letting out a nervous laugh.

"Are you... um, ready to play?" June asked hesitantly. Lydia nodded, and as June took the tiny woman away from her, Holly began struggling again, fighting the overwhelming fingers as she was brought to the contraption. Once more June locked her wrists and ankles in place, sliding the restraints to the limits of Holly's flexibility. Her tiny squeals were audible throughout the room, but June paid them no mind as she picked up the die.

"Okay, my turn to go first." She rolled the die across the table, smiling. "Torso, huh?" She read the result aloud. "Hm, hm, hm... now where on the chest could I pierce this needle with a low chance of lethality?" She pressed the tip of the needle against the side of Holly's left breast. The tiny woman begged for mercy, pleading for all she was worth. "Yes, I think this will do nicely."

The giant metal spike drove through her breast with no resistance. June continued to push, piercing her right breast as well, sliding it through until it came out of the sides of both breasts. Mallory let out a noise of annoyance. "Did you really have to take them both, June? One would have been just fine." June shrugged and smiled, passing the die and the turn to Mallory.

"Please, I have money..." Holly whimpered. Only Lydia was paying keen attention to every little noise the tiny woman made, but she did nothing to acknowledge she'd heard it. She enjoyed the frustration and the fear that played across her tiny face as she realized these giant girls couldn't be reasoned or negotiated with. Lydia thought that she must be struggling to realize that her pain, her suffering and ultimately her life was worth more to the trio than anything else the girl could ever come up with. Holly saw Lydia staring intently at her and mouthed a frightened plea. Lydia just winked in return.

"Left arm," Mallory said, picking up a needle. "Okay, easy enough." The motion with which she pushed the needle through Holly's forearm was casual, practiced. She hit the timer and passed the turn. Lydia tore her gaze away from the woman's screams long enough to gather the die and a needle, casting the wooden cube to the table. It went wild again, this time bouncing back and falling in the space between Lydia and June. Lydia scrambled for it, eventually catching it once it had hit the ground, and quickly rerolled it.

"Left leg!" She gingerly placed the tip of the needle against Holly's thigh, keeping it there by pressing the pad of her thumb against the opposite end. She waited to apply more pressure until Holly was looking her in the eye, then began pushing the needle in, spinning her thumb in small circles such that the tip wriggled around inside her leg as it advanced.

Holly had never known such pain. The constant moving and shifting of the needle in her leg sent racking waves of agony through her entire body. The needle easily snapped the bones in her leg in a few positions, swirling about the loose bone shards, causing even more damage. The tiny woman shrieked everything she could think of, from promises of material possessions to death threats. Her mind was alight with sensation, too filled with pain to act on anything other than pure instinct. She fought against her restraints, but like every victim who had come before her, she was just too weak.

"Um... five seconds," June stammered. Mallory's hand was cupped over her mouth as she watched the cruel delight with which Lydia tortured her prey. Lydia gave the needle a final push, punching through the back of Holly's leg, then reached out and pressed the timer, smiling innocently as she handed a needle off to June.

The die clattered loudly in the otherwise quiet room as June rolled it, the three girls glancing down at its face. 'Left Leg,' it read, and the three looked back to the bloody hole Lydia had drilled through the thigh. Holly sobbed, her whines too high-pitched to be intelligible. Without fanfare, June lifted the needle and pierced it through the calf of her left leg, drawing a short scream, but nothing more. She wordlessly passed the turn to Mallory.

"What's the matter, girls?" Lydia wondered, looking back and forth between her friends. "Isn't this... the game? Did I do something wrong?"

"Well... no, I... guess you didn't strictly do anything wrong," June said as Mallory rolled the die. It came up 'Torso,' and the blonde girl pressed a needle through Holly's stomach. Somehow, after seeing Lydia's display of true sadism, hurting people didn't seem as fun. She didn't even have anything against this girl, she'd just happened to be around Tera. Tera was the one she'd really wanted; the more she thought about it, hurting the others just seemed mean.

"So I was thinking," Lydia said as the turn was passed to her. She rolled the die, getting a Free Space, and teased the tip of the needle across Holly's skin as she spoke. "This is our last one, right? Well I was thinking, why don't we go out and get a few more after she's done? Keep the party going, you know?"

"Who else would we get?" Mallory asked, a knot growing in her stomach.

"Oh, just anyone I figure. We could just go up to peoples' doors, they'll come down all grumpy because of how late it is, and then BAM!" At her exclamation, she shoved the needle through Holly's cheeks, piercing a few of her teeth out in her recklessness. Blood instantly filled her mouth, and she let out a horrific gurgling as she tilted her head back to scream, the blood running down her throat. It then sprayed outwards as she coughed and choked on it. "We shrink 'em and play with 'em." Lydia tapped the timer.

"I... don't really know about that, Lydia. We were really just looking to punish... bad people, y'know." She shot a meaningful glance to Mallory on the word 'bad,' and registered her friend's slight-but-definite nod. She casually dropped her arm to her side, sliding her thumb into her pocket. Lydia rose, walking over to Mallory and putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Mallory asked, then gasped when she felt something thin and hard press against her throat. June's eyes opened wide, and she looked frantically down at her pocket.

"No, you had it right, this is it here," Lydia said, smiling. "I'm really sorry about that, by the way. I got the feeling you two weren't as on-board with this game as I am anymore."

"Lydia... don't... don't do this. There's no way to reverse it, Lydia, once you pull the trigger it's done forever." The timer ticked in the background, unheard by the girls. Lydia just shook her head.

"It's already done." In a flash, Mallory disappeared. Lydia hadn't been quite sure how it would work, and was momentarily surprised by how quickly the shrinking took place. June leaped out of her chair, shoving Lydia to the ground before falling on top of her, wrestling for control of her wrist.

"You bitch! How could you, after all we did for you! We took you in when nobody else would, you ungrateful cunt!" June shrieked. Lydia's heart hammered in her chest as June used her weight to force her own arm down, the tip of the device angled at her skin. She lashed out with her forehead, catching June hard on the nose and stunning her attacker. In the brief delay she shoved her aside and pressed the shrinking pen to her arm, pulling the trigger and diminishing June to the size of a small toy.

She sat in silence for a long moment, watching a small lump clumsily make its way through June's clothes, and she thought about what she'd done. It was true, June and Mallory were her only friends, and now they were both just dolls. Still, Lydia was unwilling to give up the feeling of supreme power she'd tasted when she held Holly's life in her hand. When June emerged from the neck of her shirt, Lydia reached over and plucked her up. She rose and grabbed Mallory, who was nervously gauging the distance from the edge of the chair to the floor, and set them both on the table. The timer had been buzzing for a while now, and Lydia turned it off, looking at her newest acquisitions.

"Lydia... Lydia, please..." Mallory croaked, her throat constricting in fear. Lydia just smiled down at her friends as she gathered up the rubber bands used to bond the previous captives, and began working them around Mallory and June.

"Don't worry, you guys. You're my best friends. I'm not going to let one little disagreement change that. Still though, I get the feeling that keeping you tied up is best for now. Who knows, maybe you guys will prove me wrong and turn out to be good little girls. For now, though, I still have one thing I need to do." Once her friends were immobilized, she set them off to the side, then turned her attention back to Holly, who looked up at her with naked fear. Lydia picked up a needle and the small wooden die.

"We're going to have a lot more fun now that we don't have distractions like spoilsports or time limits, don't you think?" Holly slowly swung her head back and forth, the weight of the needle through her mouth preventing quick movements. Lydia giggled and cast the die to the table, a wide grin plastered on her face.

"Free Space. Perfect."