I don't know how I got here. I don't know why I'm the size of an insect, but I know who I am. I'm a graduate student at Cal Tech University in Pasadena, California, working on an important project. But how did I end up here at an all-female private high school for girls? It's the time in between classes right now, so I have to struggle to avoid their heavy footfalls. Leather-clad feet storming down all around me as I try not to get noticed. 

I ran behind a trash can, and tried to get my bearings. I could stay here for a few minutes and not get noticed. I closed my eyes, and I saw a woman's hand coming towards me, hitting me and knocking me into a wall. In my memory, I slid down the wall and lost consciousness. Lisa? She was my assistant... was she responsible for all of this? Of course... now it was all coming back to me! I had been working on a neutrino dissimilation experiment. Lisa had doublecrossed me. She locked me in the reactor, and that's how I ended up shrunk. 

But why did she bring me here? What was the significance of it? I remembered now why she shrunk me... I had trusted her with the secret of my miniaturization theory, telling her and no one else. By getting rid of me, Lisa could take credit for my work. But there were more efficient ways of getting rid of me. Did she really expect one of these girls to kill me once I was discovered? That was possible, but highly unlikely...

The last bell rang, and the last girl entered her classroom, so I headed down the hallway. The floor was made up of black and white linoleum tiles. To me, each square was as big as a basketball court. I looked behind me, and headed forward. Something occurred to me... at my size, my body would require water and food that had been reduced down to my proportionate size. Oxygen atoms would automatically be reduced when they crossed the dimensional membrane separating the miniaturized atoms of my body from the normal-sized atoms of the outer world. Did I have a matter of days before I slowly died of thirst? If I drank normal water, the miniaturized cells of my body would fail to process it and it would pass through my system unused. So Lisa had a touch of kindness in her heart by leaving me here... I would spend my last hours as the pet of some schoolgirl before I died of thirst. 

As I pondered my fate, I saw a sign high above me that indicated that I was leaving the high school area and entering the junior high portion of the school. The doors on both sides of the vast hallway seemed like skyscrapers to me as I made my way toward the exit that was slowly drawing closer as I walked at a pace that was no faster than that of a very quick ant or beetle. Just then, a junior high school girl exited one of the classroom doors and went into a girl's bathroom far ahead of me. If I turned around, the other exit was too far behind me. If I stayed where I was, I could be discovered... it seemed my only choice was to run forward, and hopefully clear the bathroom before the girl exited. 

I ran full throttle, tearing across the linoleum like a matchbox car. I ran out of breath when I was right in front of the girls' bathroom door. I knelt over and tried to catch my breath for a moment, then stood up and walked briskly forward. The bathroom door opened behind me, and I was right in the girl's path. It took a moment for her eyes to lock onto me, but only a second! She was wearing a skirt that fell just above her knees, and a private high school girl’s uniform. She had on white socks that extended most of the way up her calves, and her shoulder length blonde hair was tied into a pony-tail behind her head. Her inquisitive blue eyes peered down at me. 

"How on Earth did you get so small?" she asked me as she approached me in three quick strides and knelt down on her left knee. Her right calve was vertical, and her left thigh was tilted down, pointing in my direction. She lowered her hand, and allowed me the choice of whether or not to step into her hand, rather than simply seizing me. If she wanted to kidnap me, she would have had absolutely no problem doing so; but seeing that her first reaction was to treat me with some semblance of equality was a good sign. 

"I need your help!" I shouted up to her as I stepped onto her massive palm. She lifted her arm up, and a moment later her palm (and me) was just below her chin. "I'm going to die of thirst unless you can get me restored to normal size!" 

The girl had a concerned look on her face. "After school, I'll take you wherever you need to go, but right now I need to get back to class! Is it okay if I stick you in my purse for awhile?" 

Considering the circumstances, it wasn't a bad idea. I would've preferred to have her take me back to the laboratory immediately, but beggars can't be choosers. I nodded my head in assent, and she lifted her purse up and carefully lowered me in. Instead of fastening it shut, she opened it wide and looked down at me and smiled, saying, "I'm Ariana, and you're safe now!" 

When she closed her purse, there was still enough light for me to see by. Lipstick, a cell-phone, gum, and a couple of ink pens littered the inside of the purse. I laid down and stroked my aching forehead, and tried to remember. Lisa had said something to me after she had shrunk me. 

"You might've discovered miniaturization," she had said, "but you'll be maggot food before anybody ever discovers a way to re-enlarge someone!" 

I had smarted off to her, and that's when she had struck me. Apparently, the blow had caused me to suffer temporary memory loss. I couldn't even remember being driven over here to the school, or her dropping me off here. The purse bounced around for a few moments, before Ariana finally settled down after taking her seat in class. As I drifted off to sleep, I recalled making my pitch to the grant people who funded my research. 

"Neutrino dissimilation," I had told them, "is soon to be a reality. The question is, will it be the United States who who first successfully miniaturizes atoms, or Europe?" 

I had actually sent my theory over to CERN while I was trying to find thesis material for my doctorate, so I knew they had an idea of my theory. I went on to explain to the skeptics about subtracting matter in the form of neutrino particles from the quark and gluon particles composing the protons, neutrons, and electrons of the target atoms. I was only successful at getting them to take my theory seriously when I showed them my schematics for the miniature particle accelerator and the reactor that could fit in a room. 

Then my thoughts began to drift to Lisa... oh, how she looked in a bikini. Lisa was studying to get her doctorate in quantum chromodynamics. Her lot in life was to prove to people that just because she was beautiful didn't mean she didn't have brains, too. She had been a straight-A student from K through 12th grade, and she felt she had something to prove to the world. We're about the same age, so we started dating, considering we had the same major. 

After we started having sex, I told her in detail about my theory. She seemed impressed, which really made an impression on me. After I e-mailed her the schematics and details of the theory, she broke up with me. It was only then that she admitted being seriously jealous of me because of my work... jealous enough to kill me! She didn't tell me she wanted to kill me, of course. I found that out too late. 

After thinking of these things, I had fallen asleep, because Ariana opened her purse and woke me up. She picked me up and deposited me on her dresser. We were in her bedroom. Apparently, I had needed several hours to recuperate from my injury while I was in Ariana's purse. 

"First of all," Ariana said, "what's your name? It'll get pretty old calling you 'little man!'" 

"I'm Bruce," I said, "Bruce Flynn!" 

"Well, Bruce," Ariana said, "where do you need me to take you to make you big again?" 

I gave her the directions to the lab. According to Ariana, it would only take two bus transfers to get to the University. She stuck me in her purse again, and we were off. Before too long, we were there. I gave Ariana directions to the lab I worked in. When she got to the door, she pulled me out of her purse. There was a computerized lock on the door. I told her the combination, and luckily, Lisa hadn't yet had time to change it. 

I was still in Ariana's hand when we entered the empty lab. I directed her to the computer console on one of the work areas. She typed in the access code, and I looked at some of the files. I had been working on a prototype of my miniaturization device, one that could fit in a person's hand. Luckily, Lisa hadn't found out about it. According to the computer's inventory file, the shrink pistol was still inside of a safe that was electronically monitored. 

I gave Ariana the combination, and she soon had a hand-held miniaturization weapon to protect herself with. I knew Lisa wouldn't hesitate to lock her in the reactor and shrink her down just like she did to me, so I felt it was the right thing to do by making sure Ariana had the shrink ray-gun. She stuck the pistol in her purse (you could see the bulge, it almost didn't fit), and I directed her to the six water jugs lining one of the back walls of the lab. 

Ariana grabbed the water bottles and placed them in the reactor, as I instructed her to do. She programmed the main computer to shrink the water jugs using the proportions last used by Lisa when she had shrunk me, one over seventy-two. By doing this, I ensured that the water jugs within the reactor would be miniaturized in direct proportion to my minuscule size. When all six jugs were shrunk and in her purse, her forehead was covered with sweat. It was amazing that this kid who didn't even know me yesterday would go through so much trouble for me!

I told Ariana about the neural stimulator, a device that could force someone to vomit by stimulating the gag response in the brain. At an inch tall, I wasn't taking any chances. I didn't expect Ariana to swallow me, but teenage girls were unpredictable. After I gave her the combination to the safe, Ariana opened it and shoved the neural stimulator into her purse. I also told her to grab the re-chargers for the shrink ray pistol and the neural stimulator, so she grabbed those out of the safe, too.

Ariana scooped me up, and as I rode in the palm of her hand, the door swung open, and Lisa sauntered in! 

"What the hell are you doing in here, little girl?" Lisa demanded. 

"It's Lisa!" I shouted to Ariana. Without hesitation, Ariana pulled out the shrink pistol in one fluid motion, and pointed it at Lisa and fired! Lisa dropped out of view as every atom of her body decreased in size, weight, volume, and mass. Ariana briskly strode to the area where Lisa had stood, eager to look at her target. There she was, the same proportionate size as me. Ariana stuck the shrink pistol back in her purse, and knelt down and collected Lisa. At this point, it was dawning on Lisa that there was no escape from this situation. Even if Ariana was not a threat, there was still no way of ever returning to normal size again. Lisa had told me herself once that it would take a hundred physicists ten lifetimes to develop a method to transfer neutrinos from normal-sized atoms to miniaturized atoms in order to return them to normal size. I had joked that maybe a thousand physicists could take ten years to do it (which was actually possible), but that would still mean spending an inordinate amount of time at one inch tall. 

With me and Lisa in Ariana's purse, we were taken home and put in a jar while Ariana went to get the water jugs she had miniaturized earlier, in case Lisa was thirsty. Lisa and I were left alone in Ariana's room while she was gone, in an empty mayonnaise jar with air-holes punctured into the lid. 

"So just what the hell were you thinking?" I asked Lisa. 

"I felt like you used me!" she replied. "All these years I've been trying to prove to everyone how smart I really am, then I encountered you. Your theory was light-years ahead of anything I could've come up with! When we started having sex, I felt so used... I felt like we were in competition!" 

"So you shrunk me? Why did you leave me at a private school for girls?" 

"I went to a private high school for girls just like the one I left you at... I felt it was poetic justice! I knew you wouldn’t be able to live without your miniaturized body being able to process water molecules, so you’d only live for a week or two, so I wanted you to be happy. I thought every guy fantasized about school girl uniforms! I wanted you to die happy!" 

"That's what I figured," I replied. 

"So what's the deal with this girl?" Lisa asked. 

"Ariana?" I replied. 

"Yes," Lisa continued, "is she hostile, or can we trust her?" 

"She seems pretty nice, but it remains to be seen what she'll actually do with us once she gets used to us." 

When Ariana returned, I found out. Ariana said: "It's time to play a game. I love chess, so the two of you will be my pawns!" 

Ariana set up the chess board, and placed me and Lisa on the board. It was me versus Ariana, with Lisa helping me move the pieces. Before Ariana made her first move, she said: "And now the stakes! Bruce, if you lose a game, I swallow Lisa. If you win, I don't swallow either one of you. Every time you win a game, that counts as one credit toward me not swallowing you or Lisa. If you win ten times, then I have to beat you eleven times in order to swallow her. And if she gets swallowed after this first game, then it's your turn to get swallowed if you lose! I'm really good at this game, so you'd better play good, or you'll end up in my belly!" 

With a sinister smile on her face, my thirteen year old mistress made her first move. I saw within two moves what she was trying to do. She was using a maneuver in which she could put me in checkmate in under four moves, if I hadn't been careful. The game went pretty evenly for most of the game. If she lost a piece, then I soon lost one, and if I lost one, she lost one of hers. The plastic game pieces were pretty heavy, so me and Lisa had to slide them across the game board. 

"You were pretty nice to me when you first captured me," I told Ariana, "why the change of heart?" 

"I have a shrink ray-gun now!” Ariana replied, "So I can shrink as much food or water down as the two of you'll ever need! I'm giving my victims a fighting chance, though! All you have to do is beat me at chess!" 

"There's no telling what your stomach acid could do to us at our miniaturized size!" I told my young owner. “It could be dangerous for us in there!"

"Don't worry, I won't leave you in there for too long," said Ariana, "I have the neural stimulator, remember?"

With that, she moved her queen into a position that put me in check. I had a professor about a year ago who loved chess, and I went over to his house and played him regularly in an effort to glean technical knowledge from him as we played. I got pretty good at it, but I never figured my safety could be at stake over the game! As I pondered my situation on the game-board (was it checkmate?), Ariana said, "I'm in the chess club at my junior high school. I never lose!" 

I looked over my options, and found none. "I think you're in checkmate!" Ariana said triumphantly, with a sinister smile on her pretty face. I looked the board over, and saw that she was correct! Lisa was doomed... in spite of what she had done to me, I felt sorry for her. Her fate could just as easily be mine in the near future. Ariana reached over and grabbed Lisa in her hand, and clenched her fist around Lisa's struggling body. Lisa didn't want to die, and that's exactly what would happen to her in the savage depths of Ariana's belly. 

Ariana lifted Lisa into the air, until she hovered over her mouth. Tilting her face up and opening her mouth, she released Lisa, and she fell until she disappeared in Ariana's mouth. Closing her mouth the thirteen year old titaness maneuvered her tongue to force Lisa to the back of her mouth... when Lisa was in position, I saw Ariana's throat muscles flex, indicating that she was swallowing. When she was done, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, to prove to me that Lisa was indeed vanquished.

Lisa, at slightly under an inch tall, plunged down Ariana's esophagus and dropped down into her stomach. There was a pocket of air for Lisa to breathe, and the stomach acid wasn't intense enough to burn her, at least for now. 

"It's going to be your turn, sooner or later!" Ariana told me. "Even if you beat me ten times in a row, eventually, I'll beat you, and if I ever win more games than you, you're getting swallowed!" 

Ariana pointed the neural stimulator at her head, and she reflexively vomited. Lisa came tumbling out into the small trash can Ariana kept inside her bedroom. Ariana reached down and grabbed Lisa, then placed her on the desk. Lisa was drenched in moist chyme from within Ariana's belly.

I listened as my mistress laughed at my plight. We played another game, and I lost to Ariana a second time; this time, it was my turn to get swallowed by the voracious vixen who had captured me and enslaved Lisa. She grabbed me and lifted me above her mouth, then dropped me onto her pink tongue. Her teeth came slamming shut behind me, as I was directed toward the back of her mouth. She swallowed, sending me crashing down the length of her massive gullet. I splashed down in her gut soon afterwards, and found myself floating in her chyme.

Since she swallowed Lisa and vomited, there was more room in her belly for me than there had been for Lisa, because there was less food. Before long, Ariana used the neural stimulator to vomit me into her trash can, and she scooped me up and placed me next to Lisa on her desk.

A life of playing chess knowing I'll consistently get beaten and be forced to suffer the fate of being a chew toy to some random teenage girl. I'm good at chess, but Ariana claims to be a champion... how can I ever hope to win against her? As the hours turned into days, and the days turned into weeks, I did indeed beat Ariana several times, but she beats me once for about every two or three times that I beat her. I know there's no escape from my massive mistress. Right now, I have four wins. How long can I hold out? At one time I was a scientist working at a high tech laboratory, now I'm just a play-thing. She could easily swallow me permanently any time she wanted to, and there would be nothing I could do about it. With the re-charger for the shrink ray pistol and the neural stimulator there is no need for her to ever worry about running out of power for her two devices. Ariana reads up on chess strategies all the time, and doesn't allow me to do the same. My only advice to you, is to be careful if you ever run into a blonde-haired girl in a private school girl uniform who loves to play chess. You could be next! 

The End