The college student waved down a trio of boys, who genuinely listened to her plea. Then she walked backwards into an older man, who took a flier from her without listening. Someone entering the movie theater ignored her, then a couple stopped for awhile, and then a black-haired girl nervously did the same.

This was the last hour of Erin’s known fate, played back fuzzily from a security camera stationed just over the doors into the outlet mall’s movie theater. Dozens of people made contact with the young girl, who fit the profile of all the other missing person cases of the area almost too perfectly. College-aged, attractive; A little more physically fit than the others, thought the one reviewing the footage, but not agile enough.

The detective was hunched over a keyboard surrounded by files, notes, photographs, cups of coffee, water bottles, and chocolate bar wrappers. Her office was clean, except for this one mess at her desk. It was proof that she had been there, all night and into the morning, collecting as much information as she could.

After weeks of having nothing to show of the police’s investigation, the case had been transferred to Candice Coller, an investigator with no small history in kidnappings. A specialist of the sorts, she found a twisted amusement in observing the patterns of these crimes, a sense of humor she developed to silently cope with the burden she hoisted. Time and time again, she caught herself reading a predictable story.

Every case had its quirks, character traits that she would identify with the kidnapper. In her head was an image of who she was building, built out of a gray blob that vaguely shaped itself into different people that could potentially be behind these crimes. It wasn’t always one person, either, sometimes it was a duo or even a small team. Mental notes connected themselves to each possibility, but the face was always blank, the skin always shifting, the frame never consistent.

Candice paused the footage. Her left hand looked fruitlessly for a bottle of water or a chocolate bar while she tried to regain some composure. She sighed, not because her stock of snacks had been depleted, but because of what she saw on the camera. She sympathized with Erin, who had only run herself into more problems by coming out this far in search of a friend, who had very well been kidnapped by the very same person or persons. It pained her to watch these fleeting moments, where Erin was still unaware that this would be the last time she’d be seen for two days and counting.

She chuckled. She was torn on what to think, actually, as she reclined in her chair and tried to look at matters from a new angle. There was a slight possibility that Erin, in her search for Adrian, had just been another victim, where shortly after this attempt to locate her friend did she end up kidnapped for the same suspected reasons as all the other victims. But, Candice had a hunch that there was more to it. This kidnapping was so responsive, it felt like, as though the kidnapper found out about her, and then aimed for her specifically to silence the search.

If that were the case, then the police’s failure to find a culprit -- or even provide enough community security -- had been a vital failing, and what lead ultimately to another girl being nabbed off the streets.

“If that weren’t the case, then it could have been anyone,” Candice said to herself. She looked up at the office ceiling, down to the window, and then back at her monitor where the scene was frozen -- Erin asking a black-haired girl for help. “It could have been her. Just another college student, in the wrong place at the wrong time…”

What started as a grim joke because a playful curiosity, a thought to toy with. But it grew into something bigger, something more tangible. She looked at this black-haired girl, almost intrigued by the green eyes that read over the sheet of paper with Adrian’s face on it. Candice tilted her head. She pressed play, allowing the footage to continue. This girl opposite of Erin pocketed something, just a couple seconds into resuming. Candice leaned in closer, but the person of interest moved, as though alerted that Candice was watching. She walked away with the flier, leaving Erin at the movie theater.

While absorbing all the mall footage, Candice had taken mental references of nearly everyone that was there -- hundreds of people, casually crossing over from one store to the other in what was an average day of business. And this black-haired girl, with the unnerving emerald eyes, had caught her attention before, situated in distant and lonely corners almost everywhere she went.

Mysterious, to say the least, and as a detective, it was Candice’s instinct to look into it. She reviewed all the footage, from the moment the girl was first shot on camera, right to when she left. There were no direct answers to be found here, certainly no kidnapping caught on recording, but what she did find were more perplex elements to who this young woman was. Candice watched her, and the way she moved away from crowds, how she was alone yet not lonely the entire time, how she bought so much from such random places, how she nervously glanced at the cameras, how she could almost be seen talking to something -- something held in her hand, but definitely not a phone.

Candice watched more into the footage, all the way up until Erin had decided to leave the outlet mall. Sure enough, just as Cadice had hoped, this other woman was there, not far behind her.

But her delve into this mystery stopped when she received a message, an update from the police. The message contained a new discovery about Erin’s final whereabouts; a text message from an untracked number, sent to Erin’s phone, and a witness account of her having been seen making her way to a campus library.

Candice felt a thrill, but an unpleasant one. She looked one last time at the frozen camera footage, the very last scene where the black-haired girl was spotted, then looked back at her phone. She typed a note; that’s all this curiosity would be for the moment, a timestamp added to a list of names and numbers she was tracking.

Melanie huffed, wiping her head into her shoulder to dismiss the excess sweat. Her face was reddening, as hot as her breaths were. She was flustered and entertained, but at the same time, she showed restraint, a teetering control over herself. Truthfully, she was nervous, doing this in a restroom that anyone could realistically enter.

“It’s been warmed up… all day, j-just for you!” Melanie chortled. Her expression was nearing ecstasy, devilishly pleased with the scene she made of Kimberly. At her crotch, where her skirt had been lifted and her panties lowered, was the oldest of the women Melanie had dominion over. An adult now turned into a toy that she would play with between and after classes, one of several that she traded out over the past few days. Today, she was in the mood for “big tits;” her words exactly.

Kimberly was overwhelmed, panting even more heavily than Melanie was. She couldn’t move out of the bush of pubic hairs that she had been laid into, hairs that curled around her body with a touch of moisture. She couldn’t move, not with a string of tape tightly binding her arms to her side and her legs together. Struggle as she might, it was in vain, her body completely under the control of this masturbating college student.

“I get so turned on during class,” Melanie joked, her words weighing heavy on Kimberly. “Knowing I’ve got you bugs to get me off… How am I supposed to take notes like that…? Y-Yeah, this is your fault f-for being so sexy, Kim…”

“Please…” Kimberly whimpered, her mouth hanging open to beg for more mercy, but she understood her situation to a terrifying degree. There was no changing Melanie’s mind, and she was reminded of that as her head was urged closer and closer to the wet maw hidden at the thick of the black bush.

Kimberly took a deep breath of the musk in anticipation. It was an intoxicating smell, resonating from this hole she was pushed towards. Two long fingers divided the gap in front of her, and like a monstrous mouth, it beckoned to consume her with a steamy, hungry breath. She leaned away from it, bending back as far as the transparent tape would allow her, but Melanie wanted her there. In the next second, Kimberly’s body was plunged into the cavern, her shouts drowned out by an overflow of hot juices.

Melanie huffed, an ounce of hesitation before continuing. She glanced up at the stall door, her ears open for any interference, though she was confident there’d be none. Like everything she did, this was planned. The fourth floor bathroom wouldn’t be used at the tail end of the day’s classes, she knew this just as well as she knew Anders Library would be unoccupied, or how Kimberly’s office building wouldn’t bat an eye at her lingering there.

Melanie laughed, amused by herself more so than she was with Kimberly’s arousing squirms, the likes of which she quickly returned her focus towards. “Keep it up, Kim~” she panted, twisting the body that was within her to choke out a satisfying scream. “Lick it, eat it! Maybe this should be your only meal for the day…? Huhu…”

This was part of her daily schedule now, to leave her final class of any given day with haste so that she could bunker into a safe spot and jack off using her human slaves. It was a part of her mental schedule, organically wedged into the other tasks of her day as if it were just another chore to take care of. Melanie had lessened her pursuits on other women for the meantime, figuring that she should enjoy her collection now before it became too big to manage. Besides, with a prize like Erin in her possession, there was much satisfaction to savor. Even while orgasming a flood overtop of Kimberly, her thoughts during that climax were about how to embarrass Erin when she returned, how to humiliate her in front of the others while she had Adrian watch.

Like a used tool, she removed Kimberly out of her cunt and into the open air, dangling there by her feet. Still did Kimberly shiver and shake, shamefully presented before the giantess’s expression, a blush and smile that reeked of erotic content, whose eyes lazily lingered on the suppressed breasts behind the sliver of tape.

With her other hand, she checked the time off her phone. “Time to go,” she casually announced, and back into her messenger bag did Kimberly go.

It was the usual traffic throughout the commons of the campus, and Melanie blended into the crowds as a regular student. It didn’t feel real to her. She would look at others that passed by her, she would hear them talk and snicker, and she would wonder. Was that about me? She’d refute the drive to turn around and look, because if she caved and did that, she would have to turn and judge everyone that strolled by.

Her eyes dug into the bricks of the path she walked. A shiver ran up her spine. Do these people have any idea? They don’t… They don’t realize they’re all bugs to me…

A smile wanted to take over her expression, like a wild flicker of a torch, but this wasn’t the place to let go. Her head ached with paranoia. She needed out of this, away from the approaching sunset and into the shadows that she would regularly take refuge in. Fortunately, Anders Library was only a turn away, a short detour that she could tuck away into. Just for a minute, she thought, finding composure in just this decision. Haah… Maybe I can crank another one out on Kim before I head home--

Melanie’s blood froze. Her steps stopped, ending almost in a stumble, as a scene ahead of her blew her away. Down the road she was so familiar with was Anders Library, her sanctuary, tangled with yellow police tape, flanked on all sides by officers.

Everything lost color. Melanie stood, paralyzed with fear, but she looked just like any other student in awe of the scene with intense curiosity. She heard gossiping, but it was gibberish to her, like an incantation she couldn’t comprehend. She observed the police officers navigating around the fences and trees around the library’s parameter, their faces and bodies blurring together as a faintness emptied her.

Is this what it felt like for them? To be cursed?

Melanie trembled forward. She waited, while others passed by her. Then, she turned around and left, her head held low, her pace in a hurry to retreat.

Regardless of how quickly and quietly she left, she did not go unseen. A detective on sight had been observing the crowds, with a specific trope in mind: They always return to the scene of the crime. Candice chuckled, not entirely confident yet in her assumptions, but certainly believing the instinct tugging at her. There were a number of faces that struck her as familiar, and thus she planned her pursuit.

The door slammed behind Melanie and her back immediately pressed into it. She was panting, her heart throbbing in her chest as though she had ran all the way back to her apartment. Every step she got closer to home made that rhythm louder and harder, at its peak right before unlocking the door did it feel like she would be pulled by her shoulder and stopped.

She didn’t have any idea what she would do in that situation. She knew what she knew not of only now, as her fingers crawled along the door in search of the lock. A satisfying click gave her a featherweight sense of safety.

“Melanie, did you--”

Melanie jumped, hitting the door behind her in fright. She nearly dropped her bag, which she then clutched to her chest, before comprehending who was speaking to her. It was only her roommate, Juniper, having just exited out of the kitchen. Her expression had been glazed and tired, but now it was lit up in shock after Melanie’s reaction.

“Okay, whoa,” Juniper scoffed, raising her hands up in defense. “Uh… Mel? Is it hot out there or something? You look sweaty as hell, dude.”

Melanie panted, struggling to compose herself. Her heart felt absent after everything it had been through. “I-It’s… yeah, it’s a little warm,” she lied. “A-And I hurried home, I sort of missed the bus again.” That wasn’t such a lie, now that jacking off with tiny people was a part of her schedule, catching the last bus out of campus was almost impossible.

Juniper continued out of the kitchen. In her hands were a jingling set of keys. “Okay… Well, I was gonna ask if you needed anything from the store. Maybe something for your, uh, electrolytes.”

Melanie wiped the sweat from her brow, still putting much of her weight against the door. She leaned forward, stumbling past Juniper. “No,” she plainly answered, and continued out of the corridor. Juniper shrugged, waved, and hesitated to leave only to make sure Melanie was returning to her room safely enough.

The bedroom door was closed as quickly as it was opened, with Melanie again quick to lock the door -- she never took any chances, but especially now did she fear the possibilities of a snoop. She backed away from the door as though it were cursed, her heel backing into the large bowl that held the enchanted wine. It was still there, after all this time, evidence of her messy behavior if the misplaced clothes and loose garbage wasn’t enough. Fortunately, with being on edge and all, the contact she made against the bowl spooked her enough to avoid knocking it over. She glared at it, yet she didn’t move it.

Instead, her eyes went to her desk. She panted, her iron expression leaving a cold air over top of her collection. Again, the shrunken women had been left to walk about the desk, except for one whose freedom was more restrained. She smiled at her work, the first flicker of positivity she felt since leaving campus. Erin, her most recent capture, had been tied up and hoisted with mundane floss, positioned in an uncomfortable, exploitative position, hanging from the arm’s end of a cartoon figure, a female character pointing outwards.

“Good evening, everyone~” Melanie sang, though her voice cracked while still trying to catch her breath. She leaned forward, her shadow casting over them all, though her immediate interest was on Erin. Melanie poked at her, feeling the weak body flinch. She chuckled as she poked the body harder, making Erin spin like a toy for a few rotations, which then spun backwards just as fast. Erin squeaked and whined through the sickening motion, but it got no mercy from Melanie. “You look so stupid! I wonder if you’re sore enough from being there that you’re actually happy to see me?” She leaned in closer, one huge eye focused on the small, shivering body. “Well? Are you?”

Erin whimpered. Her mouth was dry and her body ached all over. If she had been allowed to eat like the others, the spiraling motion she had endured would have made her vomit, she knew for sure. It felt more painful being reminded just how empty her stomach was, but with Melanie demanding a reply, she forced through the agony to answer. “Y-Y-Yes… I-I’m happy…”

“Weird. Weird little slut.” Melanie backed away, but left a finger just under Erin’s exposed breasts. The tip groped at them, as if mocking how they hung so loosely. “I’m not even forcing you to say that. Did Adrian tell you to just go along with it?”

“Fuck off, Melanie…!” said a voice that made Melanie melt. Adrian sat against the small cubbies, knees tucked into her arms, a foul disposition already displayed. “L-Leave her alone…! Untie her already…!”

“Hah? Well, which is it?” Melanie joked -- genuinely, as though Adrian would find humor in this too. “Do you want me to leave her alone or not…?” Before she could finish, Adrian was already flipping her off. Melanie just thought of it as cute, and continued, “I’ve had a stressful day, and Kim’s been through enough. She really does deserve a vacation~” With her in mind, Melanie dropped her bag onto the floor, a small drop but a significant one for the passenger trapped inside. “Something really pissed me off, and I gotta take it out on something.”

Carrying a wicked grin, Melanie pulled open a desk drawer and fetched from it a pencil. She admired it for a moment, exchanging a glance between its lead tip and Erin’s swaying body. Erin, in that moment, had been turned away from Melanie, which was the ideal position for Melanie. In the bondage-inspired trap Erin struggled to squirm in, the target between her legs was exposed and easily accessible.

“Melanie,” Adrian stammered from below, “for god’s sake, please--”

A harsh whine broke Adrian’s voice. Erin hollered as she felt herself be penetrated by the tip of an everyday pencil, its dulled end making a strong but slow presence inside of her. Erin shivered, the most movement she was allowed amid the web of floss, and Melanie did too, though this was because she feared laughing too hard might totally destroy such a sensitive part of her victim.

“Can you do anything while you’re this fucking helpless?” Melanie asked, twisting the pencil and forcing out another satisfying cry. “Can’t you sharpen a pencil? Are you that useless? Pointless?” She chuckled, and partly withdrew the pencil as a completely real bout of laughter at her own joke was threatening to make her lose focus.

“Stop it!” Erin yelled, her submissiveness immediately on the retreat. “Wh-What the hell?! Ahhg!!” A further plea she had tried to make was choked, as Melanie countered it with another small push forward.

“That’s right. You’re getting fucked by a pencil,” Melanie explained. “You’re screaming because a pencil is too big for you. I imagined a slut like you would be a lot looser…”

“Please!!” Erin screamed, rocking her head in a rhythm that went against that of the pencil. She gagged as Melanie continued to churn her with such a simple tool. “Guh… P-Please-- M-Mel-Melanie…!”

“Please what? Please fuck you harder?” Melanie laughed. Her face had become red, with her eyes and lips showing a more frantic and eager part of this sadistic emotion. “For such a shit pencil sharpener, you sure are willing to try your best! Just look at how wet you are, hehe…” Her head came closer, approaching right to Erin’s side, so that even a whisper would still rattle the diminutive person. “Cum! Cum like you want to! I’ll stop this if you just show me you’re done…!”

The event continued. Erin’s suffering was a complete show for Adrian and the others across the desk, none of them able to look away from the horror. Adrian was the most attached, watching her ex, yet again, be violated and tormented. All of Erin’s cries for help, desperate prayers to be rescued, left Adrian with immense unfulfillment for how badly she wanted to be there to put an end to this. However, just like Scarlet and Nicky, she was too weak to do anything. The sounds of Melanie’s idle giggling mixed between Erin’s terrified screams left them all feeling haunted.

Eventually, despite how horrible the experience was, Erin found herself ready to climax. She couldn’t help it, nor was she in the right state of mind to even comprehend why. Perhaps it was the promise, as bleak as it seemed, that she would be released from this game if she was to cum. At the same time, she despised the prospect, but it was all against her will. Her body grew hotter and hotter, ready to detonate -- and she did, howling as Melanie thrust the pencil deeper inside the tiny cunt.

Wickedly, Melanie removed the pencil. Erin gasped, feeling a sudden emptiness inside of her, as though her core was made hollow. Melanie sighed in relief, like such a circumstance had been tiring for her at all. She admired the wetness left behind on the pencil’s tip, which she then abandoned on her desk just next to Scarlet.

Silence created emptiness, even with Melanie breathing roughly overhead with her face glowing crimson. Every few seconds, another whimper bubbled from Erin’s abused body, reminding everyone of what just happened. Adrian buckled forward to her knees, her eyes glued to the limp and strained woman hanging above her.

“A-A pencil…” Nicky grumbled, her mouth covered. “This is… This is so, so fucked.”

Scarlet winced, stepping back from the pencil that had been laid close to her. “Are you just now noticing that…?” She shook her head, hoping Nicky wouldn’t reply.

Melanie exhaled, having the courtesy at least to direct her breath away from her collection. “Alright! I feel like I finally woke up!” she chuckled. A second passed, and she felt the collar of her shirt. A ring of sweat had formed around it, countering that refreshing feeling. By extension, she remembered how that came to be, due to her rush back home.

She closed her eyes, and without a word, removed the shirt from over her head. In that same motion, the shirt was dropped on top of the desk, carrying with it a light but notably distinct scent of sweat that she wished her prisoners to enjoy. To them, it was like a dark-colored tarp falling over top of them, with no warning that their air would become thick with Melanie’s personal aroma. Nicky and Scarlet were caught in the middle of it, tripped off their feet, but Adrian was covered only at the fringes, allowing her to crawl out quickly. Melanie had planned as much, and she giggled at the two bumps ruffling around and gagging under her shirt, all while she towered over them in just a gray bra.

“Oh. Shit. Kim…” Melanie muttered this to herself as she crouched down to her messenger bag. She opened the side pocket, revealing the miniature women still tightly bound by tape. Kimberly ached her neck to look up at the opening, greeted with that shadowy smile Melanie bore down on her. She was picked up and brought to the desk, discarded in the middle of the shirt. “Someone should help Kim out of that, her fat ass is really trapped under all that.”

Surveying the chaos she had strewn about on a whim brought Melanie to a content feeling. She breathed, thinking to herself how she was still able to get away with this. This torture, this evil -- No way in hell a fucking cop is going to find out… Let alone, stop me. She laughed quietly, her captives unaware of what amused her.

Just as Scarlet and Nicky were making their way out from under the t-shirt, Melanie began to remove her pants, sporting an equally gray pair of underwear. Purposefully, she bumped her ass into the side of the desk, rocking it hard enough that anyone standing was toppled, while Erin swung from side to side like a pendulum. Melanie’s head turned back to observe their reactions, imagining how pathetic it would feel to gawk at a girl’s meteoric ass hovering just over them. She shivered; even she felt a bit of fear and embarrassment.

“Alright… Time for a shower. I bet you all agree.” Melanie moved to her dresser, fetching a change of clothes that would help her destress. She glanced back at the desk, her eyes immediately befalling Adrian as though she had a mental lock on her position at all times. Despite taking some of her ire out on her tiny women, nothing would truly ease her heart like being close to Adrian. She silently chided herself for almost forgetting that, and letting this power distract her as much as it did. Yet, at the same time, she had no vows to limit what she would do to them.

“Let’s make it a bath, Adrian~!” Melanie said, reapproaching the desk and cupping her hands around her obsession.

“No!” Adrian yelled. “Go to hell! Seriously, j-just go to fucking hell!”

As always, Melanie smiled through the swearing and resistance, attempting to fight against Adrian’s squirming by applying firm pets over her body. “Hmm… Maybe a cold bath, to help you cool off. Hehe…”

With Adrian in stock, Melanie left the room, confident to walk around her apartment knowing Juniper was away. There was no parting comment for the other women, still stranded on the college student’s desk. No teasing, no farewell. The closing of the door signalled that there would be a quiet in the storm that was Melanie’s ferocious presence, a mere minute after she had just terrorized them.

Before the calm could be cherished, Nicky first ran to Kimberly’s aid. “Jesus…” she muttered, responding vaguely to all the circumstances. On her knees, she was able to tear away at the tape that kept Kimberly wrapped up. Kimberly was still, flinching as the tape was ripped off her exposed skin, but otherwise saying nothing, doing nothing. Nicky noticed, “H-Hey, are you okay? You look, uh, pretty beat up…”

“P-Please… Just get me out…” Kimberly coughed. In this attempt to talk, tears formed in her eyes, and a long breath shivered from deep within her dry throat. Nicky continued to free her, but even when she was fully released and able to move, her bones and muscles didn’t cooperate. Barely was she able to even get onto her knees, and even that required Nicky’s aid.

In the meantime, Scarlet found herself not far under where Erin was suspended. The hanging body, perpetually trapped where she was, caught Scarlet’s attention immediately after coming out from under the sweaty shirt, her interest captured a second time. This disgusting display, a human tied-up and abandoned like a decoration, lit a scorching heat somewhere deep within her.

Scarlet turned to Kimberly, knowing she hadn’t been through much better throughout the day. “This is the last time,” she said. “One of the last times, anyway. Hopefully. I’m fucking done here.”

“Mhmm…” Kimberly sighed, resting more of her weight onto Nicky, who happily offered the support. Normally not one for conversation, today Kimberly felt something from the way Scarlet spoke. “What’s gotten into you? Ready to try and kill yourself again?”

“Nah,” Scarlet chuckled. “That’s right… You haven’t been here until just now. Me and Nicky, well… all of us, we talked today about how to escape. We think we’ve got an idea--”

“Oh, oh please,” Kimberly interrupted, her attitude instantly pessimistic. “Impossible. You guys have got to be freaking kidding me.” She stood up, slowly and carefully, but clearly energized by this source of ire. “That’s suicide, all the same.”

“Wow, you’re not even gonna hear us out?” Scarlet spat. “Fine! Maybe fuck you, then! Maybe we’ll all just fuck off while you sit here forever to be a fucking dildo to some maniac bitch! I guess you like being treated like this!”

“Hey, dudes! Come on!” Nicky rose just after Kimberly, keeping herself somewhere in the middle of the fued. “C-Calm down… Kim, seriously, we’ve been talking--”

“No!” Kimberly shook her head violently. “That’s… Whatever you have planned, it’s just gonna get us all killed!”

“At least hear us out!” Nicky raised her voice -- seemingly a first for her. Somehow, if only because it was so surprising, this was able to stop Kimberly’s increasing rage, at least enough to explain. “When Melanie leaves us her headphones, w-we can use that to climb down to her computer.”

Kimberly shook her head already. “The headphones? You’d use the wire?”

“I mean, yeah. It hooks into the tower down below, right? It has to? So, o-one of us can hold onto the headphones to make sure we don’t, like, cause them to fall while we’re going down.”

“One of us,” Kimberly sarcastically quoted. Scarlet and Nicky both knew that this was, indeed, a critical problem with their escape, yet it wasn’t the lone problem Kimberly thought of. “What about from there? Do you just jump down?”

“We’d use the cables in the back of the tower,” Scarlet said, pointing through the desk to the general area of the computer. “Yeah it’s not gonna be an easy trip, but that’s all we’ve fuckin’ got.”

“Okay, and then what?” Kimberly was starting to laugh. “You make it to the floor, and get stepped on?”

“Fuck off!” Scarlet was riled up again.

But Nicky rose her hand, begging for some peace. “W-We’d have to get under the door… somehow. And then, into the living room. You see, uh… b-before I shrank, when I was s-smoking, I actually… left my phone in there.”

Kimberly perked up. Suddenly, there was a lot more merit to this plan. “... Your phone? I-It didn’t…?”

“I actually remember, heh,” Nicky scratched at her arm, “I, uh, pulled it out and it slid between the couch cushions. I was high, you know, so I just sort of--”

“Fuck it all,” Kimberly groaned, “the fucking couch? In the living room?”

“Take it or leave it, dammit!” Scarlet got closer to Kimberly, ignoring how Nicky tried to distance them. Her words were rapid, “You think someone else is just gonna waltz right through that door and go, oh shit, tiny fucking fairy people or some shit, and then-- just save us like that?! We’re fucked just sitting here, Kimberly! Wake the fuck up!”

Kimberly dragged her palm across her face, exhaling through the fingers. “And what about… her?” she said, looking up at Erin.

“Sh-She’s on board,” Nicky said.

“Obviously!” Scarlet threw up her arms. “Yeah, the girl that got fucked by a pencil? Surprise surprise, she wants out of here. Adrian’s behind it, too. In fact…”

“Sh-She said she would be the one to… stay behind,” Nicky completed the thought that Scarlet hesitated to. “It makes sense. Nothing happens to her here, really. At least compared to us, heh.”

“Assuming we can trust her,” Scarlet grumbled. Nicky shot a nasty look to her, but Scarlet ignored it. After all, it was a genuine concern, and she figured Kimberly would agree with her. There was no promise in any of this that Adrian -- or really, any of those cursed -- could be trusted with something so important and so sacrificial.

Kimberly absorbed this information, her body like a statue that could do nothing but comprehend it all. She ran through the scheme again, picturing the trail down the headphone wire, the scale down the computer, the trek across both the bedroom and the living room carpet, the scale up the couch, and finally the handling of a cell phone -- which may or may not even still be there.

Each complication she could conjure was a counter to her wisdom, a test of the maturity she had over these younger women. She closed her eyes, and hers hands rolled into fists, as if enraged to admit her feelings. “No,” she stated. “No. Just… no.”

“Why?” Scarlet groaned, then shook her head with a rough chuckle. “Actually, screw it, I don’t want to know why. You can stay back then and hold the headphones, maybe Adrian would be willing to come with us after all.” Scarlet turned and left to distance herself.

“I’m not agreeing to that,” Kimberly said dismissively, turning the opposite way and making her leave as well.

Nicky sat in the middle, expecting one of the two to flare up again, or for even herself to speak up and try to bring reason to this. Instead, filling the gap of silence were only the haunting moans of Erin as she cried from her suspended position.

Like a waterfall, it was impossible to hear over the noise of the tub filling, at least for someone as diminutive as Adrian. She waited impatiently for Melanie to finish preparing the bath, her back turned to the giantess at all times while she angrily replayed graphic scenes in her head. Just as she tried to drown out the droning noise of running water, so did she try to forget these memories that burned her, memories of what just happened minutes ago. Her ex-girlfriend, abused and fucked with a pencil. A sharpness cut through the center of her head, physically flinching to just recalling the sight.

Now she was here, in a bathroom, waiting for the god-like abuser to relax and soak. Melanie had immensely less on her mind, and she said little while the water ran. However, that wasn’t to say she wasn’t plagued by her own worries. Different from Adrian’s concerns, on a completely different level. She watched Adrian, thinking of ways to bring up the topic, without inspiring the wrong kind of mindset.

Melanie turned the knob, commanding the water to stop. Adrian breathed, able to hear again, though the very next noise to tear through her eardrums was the crashing of waves as Melanie stepped naked into the lake she had just formed. A spray of water, ever so light, launched up from the corner of the tub Adrian occupied, rising up just enough to give her a gentle taste of the cold water.

“Eee~” Melanie made a shivering noise while lowering herself into the water. Yet, despite how shocking it sounded, it was immediately followed by a long giggle of relief. “Oh… Oh, th-this is good…” she mumbled to herself. “Cold baths… Nothing beats them.”

Adrian turned, enraptured enough by the sight of water that she was willing to bear Melanie being in the image. The waves were hypnotizing at first, but it was impossible to not eventually look up and awe at Melanie, who lounged in the stadium-sized tub comfortably. Above the water, her body was an island, a hill of a person that was more occupied brushing out twisted hairs than it was understanding how massive its movements were. Adrian’s own naked form paled before the cold woman, or perhaps from the chilly air resonating around her.

“U-Unless you like warm baths, A-Adrian…” Melanie hid her lips behind a delicate hand when addressing Adrian, noting how conflicted she looked. “I-Is it too cold for you? Here…” She laid out her hand flat for Adrian, and with the other, she urged her into it. Adrian noticed the wetness of Melanie’s hands, which alone would tell her that the water was too cold. However, once actually taken to the water, she received a more drastic notice, as a wave from Melanie’s movements would rise up and sweep into her palm, washing Adrian up to her waist.

“Gghh!” Adrian winced, a ripple of shivers riding up her body. “Fucker!! M-Melanie!”

Melanie gasped. “I-I’m so sorry,” she whispered, lifting Adrian up quickly -- too quickly, in Adrian’s opinion. “Shit… I-It was an accident. My bad…”

Adrian stomped her foot, and in doing so, almost caused herself to slip. She breathed heavily, her pent up impatience running thin. “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.” She gripped at her temples with her forefinger and thumb. “J-Jesus. That’s so fucking cold. You really don’t feel anything, huh?”

Melanie smiled, having a taste for the salt found within Adrian’s words. “I… I like the cold,” she said. “I’m guessing you don’t…”

Silence was her answer, but it didn’t leave her without. Seeing that Adrian prefered warmer waters, Melanie sought a compromise. While keeping Adrian firmly above water this time, she moved around the tub so that she could fill up a small plastic bowl for pouring, which would now be used as an exclusive warm bath for her tiny desire.

“T-Ta-da~” Melanie rested the bowl along the edge of the tub. The rim was as tall as Adrian was, but it wouldn’t matter as Melanie brought her directly to the small pool. Adrian chose to step into the water, her feet hesitant to embrace something so hot. “That must feel a little better, right?”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed. She stepped in further, happy enough to at least get out of Melanie’s grasp, but the drop was a bigger plunge than she expected. Immediately, she found herself submerged into the water, but quickly did she get her bearings. She gasped for air, feeling the heat cover her.

“Ahh! A-Ahh…” Adrian was shaking while her body temperature adjusted, but once it did, she felt a strange sensation; relaxation. Her body melted with the water, and she laid against one side of the bowl for an even more comfortable position. The weight of the world was off her shoulders, for now and for the first time in so long.

Melanie was proud for being able to help Adrian like this, but she was still given silence in return. She waded forward in the tub so that she hovered overhead of the bowl. “Y-You’re still mad?” She grinned nervously. “We have this talk a lot, don’t we…”

Adrian kneeled down, deeper into the water, so that only her head was above the surface. She wished she could swim into the pool, ignoring how shallow it was, and get away. The person trying to act nice with her -- She’s a monster. She collects girls. Adrian reminded herself that.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Melanie said. It was all she said, before a long pause deafened both of them.

“You’re sorry? Sorry?” Adrian was on the verge of laughing. “If you’re--- Why are you sorry, if you keep doing this? I’ve told you before. I’ve asked you to stop torturing them. I’ve asked, I’ve begged. And now you’re… apologizing. I-It’s unreal. You know… How can you do this?”

Melanie, as she usually did, lacked a suitable answer. It wasn’t that she couldn’t explain herself or her desires, but that she understood Adrian would dislike that response. Yet, she said it anyway, “They entertain me. They’re small, and weak. And some of them… like Erin, and Wormslut… they deserve this. They’re just bad people. I-I can tell.”

“Erin… Erin is not bad.” Adrian stared blankly, her vision skimming along the rippling water. “You hate her… because she dated me once. That’s all there is to it.”

Melanie bit her lip. “M-More than just that. I mean it.”

Adrian lacked a response, giving one just felt wrong. This discussion was fruitless, a despairing reminder of what kind of life she and others were forced to live. She sunk deeper into the water, her mouth now submerged. It felt better to embrace the warmth, even if the cold, huge reality that surrounded her was persistently present.

Feeling this dejection, Melanie slumped back to her corner of the tub, leaving Adrian in the far part. Her expression seemed surprised, perplexed as to what to do, begging the rippling waters to float forward an answer. Something bitter was spreading its roots around Melanie’s center, growing around her ribcage, and a blackness threatened her mind. Anxiety, building up, because she had no idea what to say to fix this.

Worse yet, this was only another foreboding shadow in her path. Adrian was being distant, and Melanie wondered if this is how it would be. Besides the trip to the mall, and perhaps all the lewd encounters, the two had nothing as a couple -- she wasn’t living the dream she had dreamed, but instead a de-colorized version, a fogged-glass reality of what she wanted. And now, creeping up on her from behind, was another looming threat. The pressure of the police, an investigation, a more dedicated search into the missing Adrian and four others.

In the tub, she hugged herself. Melanie felt the very cold she had summoned bring a chill to her spine, yet she couldn’t shiver. Instead, her mind raced, popping with things to say and imagining their consequences. Something had to be done; she was so close to her destiny, to have everything she wanted, and these moments here were going to decided the angles of which her future would project from.

Melanie’s lips quivered before speaking. “Wh-What can I do to… make you feel better?”

“Let us go,” Adrian spat. “Easy.”

“I can’t do that.” Melanie closed her eyes. “You know that I can’t. I-Is there anything else? M-Maybe something I could do for the others, too. I can’t always control myself… b-but, I can try to do nicer things… i-if that’s so important to you…”

Adrian withheld a scoff, instead opting to roll her eyes. Fucking excuses, she growled, How can she live like such a maniac?!

Adrian clenched her teeth. She inhaled the steam of her bath, clearing her thoughts. “Actually, you know… the others like listening to the music you keep out for them.”

“Oooh. Really?”

“It’s something to keep their minds off things. It gives them… hope, I guess.”

“Hope…”