Neil acted on his first instinct which was to run back into the store. He’d rather subjugate himself to being humiliated by Valerie and Michelle again than deal with Angel for a third time. His hastiness did not serve him well, expecting the door to open Neil instead ran straight into the glass.

“Ack!” He shrieked in pain, having learned the hard way that the automatic doors were already turned off.

“Wow, I offer you a ride home and you run away from me? Way to hurt a girl’s feelings.” She stepped down from the bike and knelt to Neil's level.

Still rubbing his face Neil did not appreciate her lackadaisical tone. “Save it! What are you doing here!?”

“Didn’t I say I was going to pick you up after work?” Angel huffed at having to repeat herself.

Though Neil remembered that, he interpreted it as sarcasm rather than serious intent, plus if he’s learned anything about Angel so far it’s that she had an ulterior motive that didn’t include simply giving him a lift back home.

“I’m not going.” He crossed his arms.

Angel slapped her forehead with her palm in annoyance, it was like hearing a bratty kid declare they wouldn't clean their room or eat their vegetables. “Are we really doing this?”

“Yes.” Neil adamantly stated. Admittedly, he was aware how silly it looked trying to stand his ground when Angel dwarfed him by an exponential margin.

“Look, I know we got off to a shaky start but am I really the enemy here?”

Neil repressed the urge to snort at the understatement of them getting off to a 'shaky start'. “Let’s see, you forced me to take drugs, stalked me to my job, have my bike, I'd say yes, you are the enemy!”

Angel rolled her eyes. “If it makes you feel any better I'll let you ride in my boobs on the way back to campus.”

“H-huh!?” Neil stammered.

“What? It's hasn't crossed your mind to enjoy the female body in ways no one has before?” Surprisingly Angel asked this as a serious question as if it was something she has given legitimate thought. 

“No!”

“Ugh, you're so difficult.” Angel complained. “Let’s cut to the chase, you're coming with me either willingly or by force.” She explained and held out her palm for him. “If I wasn't here, what would you even do? Loiter around and wait for divine intervention or try your luck fending by yourself until someone squashed you or an animal makes dinner out of you? Is coming with me really that bad? Besides I have something to show you.”

It was that insufferable personality of hers that made it a bitter pill to swallow when she was right. Neil was between a rock and a hard place, she made it clear of her intentions to take him regardless of his stance and even in the unlikely event he managed to get away he couldn’t deny his chances of survival were even worse on his own. Angel was far from ideal company, but she’s had every opportunity to physically harm him so far and hasn’t. Until he returned to normal, he’d have to make the best of a bad situation. Begrudgingly, he stepped onto her palm.

“What are you going to show me?”

“Surprise.” She answered cryptically as ever and placed Neil in the basket at the back of his bike. “I know you were looking forward to it, but I don't think it's safe for you to ride in my tits.”

“I was not looking forward to it!”

Disregarding his defensive response Angel got back on the bike and began pedaling away. Neil watched as the scenery swished by him. He got some relief to see she was going the proper direction of the university and not taking him to the middle of nowhere. After a brief period of riding she reached campus and continued pedaling beyond the dorms. The thought entered his mind to cry out for help, but given it was Sunday night campus was practically a ghost town, the few people he did spot Angel flew by too quickly; it wasn’t like they’d be able to hear him anyway. Once she reached the front of the university library she pressed down on the brakes and kicked down the stand.

“Here we are.” She announced.

“What are we doing here?” He asked.

“Research.” Par for course Angel gave him another vague answer and removed the book bag from her back and fished inside of it.

“And you've stolen my bag too?” Neil added, noticing that the bag uncannily resembled his own. Once she located his school identification card she swiped it in the reader to gain access to the building. After the reader light turned green signaling the door was unlocked she picked up her captive and went inside.

The library was just as bereft of people as outside, the small handful of students who were present had their faces buried into books as they crammed for tests the following the day or into a computer screen rushing to complete papers that were due by midnight. To ensure they’d go uninterrupted, Angel headed to the upstairs lab that was entirely devoid of people and deposited Neil and his belongings on the table near the computer.

Taking a seat, Angel pressed the power button and waited for the desktop to boot up. There was something that interested Neil though, the login screen. In order to use the computer, she'd need a school account and seeing that she used his own ID to access the building was an indicator that she did not have one meaning she was not enrolled here. He was curious to see how she would get around this so he watched intently as Angel's fingers nimbly navigated the keyboard in the username slot.

“n-m-c-i-n-t-y-r-e” He saw her type, wait. “N-McIntyre” His own username? Neil accepted that anyone could’ve inferred that most usernames were generated from the first name initial and the entirety of the last name; but watching as the black dots appeared in the password field wasn’t happenstance. Her keystrokes were deliberate and when she pressed enter he could only stare baffled as she was greeted by the welcome screen and his desktop soon after.

Taking a quick glance at his surprised face, she answered. “Making your password your birthday is pretty freaking obvious y’know.”

Be that as it may, Neil was still perplexed at how she was so confident and getting it right on her first attempt when he also randomly had letters capitalized in it too?

Perhaps she was savvy with computers and was a hacker, he wouldn't put anything past her at this point. While they waited for the desktop to load, Neil was startled by his phone lighting up and vibrating. He was close to disregarding it as one of those phony automated calls, but when he looked over the caller ID belonged to Grace and he remembered that she was probably ensuring he got back to campus safely.

Seeing the opportunity Neil sprung to his phone and with reckless abandon tried to tap on the green symbol to answer the call. Even with his best efforts given his size he couldn’t generate enough force for the touch screen to recognize it. Thinking fast Neil jumped right on the screen to hopefully provide enough weight for the sensor to pick up on but by then Angel turned her focus to the phone.

“Oh, it looks like you have a  call.” She smirked and effortlessly shooed Neil off the phone and took it into her own hand. “Go ahead.” She answered the phone, putting it on speaker before holding out the device in front of him.

He didn’t question why Angel went out her way to do that, but he couldn’t pass up the chance. “Grace help, I'm in the library!” He yelled.

“What? I can't hear you very well.” Grace answered.

Fuck! His voice was too quiet.  “I'm in the library! Hurry!” Despite yelling his loudest the first time, he tried to speak louder nearly causing pain in his vocal chords.

There was another pause for a couple of seconds before Grace responded. “You’re where?” She said, able to pick up on some of the message. 

“The lib-” He tried to answer but Angel turned the phone away from him and towards herself.

“Don't worry Grace, Neil got home just fine. Talk to you later.” Grace responded and abruptly hung up. For good measure she held down the power key to shut the device off.

“Dammit!” Neil swore.

“Well that sucks, you were so close.” Angel snidely commented. 

“Oh piss off! Just tell me what you want from me?!”

“Wow, temper much? I guess hearing from your crush got you all hot and bothered.”

“I don't have a crush on her!”

Angel sucked her teeth after hearing the blatant lie. “Yeah, you sure convinced me.”

“Whatever.” Neil turned his back seeing no reason to have to justify himself to her.

“She’s beautiful isn’t she?” Her tone made her words come out as a declarative statement rather than a question.

“…She is.” Neil didn’t want to answer her, however just visualizing her kind-hearted face gave him a bit of relief in the midst of his frustrating predicament.

“You think she's out of your league.”

That statement made his relief go straight out the window. “...”

“Grace could have any guy she wanted.”

“...Alright you've made your point.” Neil sighed.

“Why does she bother with you, when there’s already guys who would bend over backwards for her?”

“Enough.” 

“There must be an ulterior motive right? She befriended a loser like you and not some popular guy?”

“Alright already, I get it! I admit I used to think that. But it's not like that, we’re friends!” He snapped.

“You think she sees you as a friend?” Angel rhetorically asked. “What if I told you she doesn’t?”

Neil’s apprehension was piqued and he turned and saw Angel had turned the computer monitor towards his direction. A browser was open with a video player loaded and paused on full screen. “Hilarious House Party 2k18.” He read aloud the video title.

“Mhm. You remember what was going on before you passed out at the party?”

“People were taking pictures and videos.” Neil nervously answered and the pit of anxiety in his stomach was growing upon the realization that this was leading into Angel’s reason for bringing him to the library.

“Watch.” She said, clicking on the play button.

Gripping on his pants to alleviate his body shaking Neil looked on as the video began playing. It started off on a curly haired girl who he vaguely recognized fumbling with her phone for a few seconds to get situated on the party.

“Holy shit, just wait until you guys get a load of this.” The recorder said to whoever happened to be viewing the uploaded video. For another couple of seconds the camera jerked up and down as she made her way through people to the front. Once she arrived to the main point of interest, Neil finally had the chance to see with his own two eyes... himself at 2 inches tall.

She zoomed in on his nude form and started to whistle. “Hey small fry, look over here!” She laughed.

In the video Neil was looking all around considering she was not the only one with her phone out recording or taking pictures. If he was on the outside looking in and watched the video his first assumption would've had him believe it was a skit with some high quality effects. With the knowledge he had and this video being right in front of him that wasn't possible, but he still couldn't wrap his head around it. It seemed so surreal to literally watch himself at such a minuscule size cowering on the ground dazed and confused while all the giants swarmed around him. The camera shifted a few times to keep focus on him during the points he attempted to move only to be road blocked by someone’s shoe. 

“What’s going on?” Neil was almost ready to avert his eyes until he heard that voice… Grace’s. The video moved over to his friend who made her way to the forefront.

“Hey Grace, you trying to see the scene?!”  The recorder asked.

“What the...” She said, her tone growing in amusement while she stepped closer to his shrunken frame for a clearer view.

“Oh my god!” Grace said before erupting in laughter. “I'm gone for all of an hour and you shrink because I wasn't there to hold your hand?!” She cackled.

“What the heck, you know this dork Grace?” The camera holder inquired.

“In fairness he's a smaller dork now.” Grace quipped before the camera jerked about again courtesy of both them laughing.

“His life is sad enough, you don't need to record this embarrassment too.” His friend continued laughing and held her hand out in front of the camera and everything went black until the video ended.

Needless to say Neil was speechless, the Grace who was always so nice to him was laughing at him, called him sad, and referred to him as a dork. Hearing it right out of her mouth hit him right in the gut left him unable to formulate a rational judgment. He looked over to Angel who was observing his reaction and resistance welled up in him. He may not know how, but Angel was behind everything, she just had to be.

“I don't know how you're doing it, but this isn't real, the video, the shrinking all of it!”

Angel wasn't amused in the slightest by his denial and groaned. “Chriiiiist, how many times are you going to repeat that? It's not real! It's fake!” She mocked. “Is that what you're going to keep saying to about anything that's beyond your perception?”

“Until you tell me what's going on, maybe I will!” He countered and for his troubles was blindsided by Angel driving her index finger right onto Neil's stomach forcing him on his back. By the skin of his teeth he managed to get his hands up to barely keep her digit at bay. “Get off, it's heavy!”

“Heavy? There's no way I can possibly apply so much force with a mere finger, right?” Angel said, throwing the reasoning Neil had been using up until this point to deny the events that have been happening to him right back in his face. He tried to force her digit up, but Angel pressed down harder easily overwhelming him and resting her digit on his belly. 

“Uh oh, you might be in some trouble.” She pressed down again and immediately most of the air abandoned Neil’s lungs and his back was pressed further onto the hard uncomfortable wooden table.

“S-stop!” He gasped, desperately trying to reclaim the oxygen his body lost.

“Quick! Tell yourself it’s not real, that'll help!” She mocked as she wedged her finger into his midsection further.

“Aa- Aag-...” If he had the wind, a blood chilling scream would've been let loose from his mouth to convey the excruciating pain of his stomach being forced backwards to where it shouldn't be and his ribs bruising. In his current state the most he managed to vocalize was a short and jagged wail until he regurgitated the acid in his stomach.

His already meager strength was fleeting rapidly and against all odds Neil weakly flailed his legs and still tried to push against her lone digit in a moot effort.

“You don’t look well little boy. Do you think something ‘fake’ could cause you this much pain?” She increased her force again and in a subtle sound akin to pencil lead breaking, Neil’s ribs cracked. Waiting a few seconds longer, that felt like eons for the boy at her mercy she lifted her digit having left a visible indent in his midsection with the shape of her finger tip.

Naturally he was trying to draw air in as quickly as he possible, but given the status of his dilapidated ribs and battered stomach, each painful shallow breath caused his body to convulse. 

“What do you have to say little boy?” Aware that he would not be able to articulate much of anything she held her ear near his body to hear his response.

He barely registered her question, being too caught up in the pain that ransacked his spastic body. His stomach was producing some of the most unpleasant rumbling he had ever heard or felt and when his body had another regurgitation response he was left with dry heaves that made his ribs ache in pain until he puked again. This time it wasn't the acid that left the back of his throat burning, but the very liquid that runs through the veins of every living animal, blood. Neil looked beside himself in horror at the sight of the crimson fluid that his body ejected on the table and then to Angel who still awaited his answer.

“It’s..real…” He lifelessly managed to croak out.

Angel in turn smiled deeply at the acknowledgment, lifting her hand over his beaten body and balling it closed. To everyone downstairs it probably sounded like someone dropping a textbook as she slammed her fist on him. “It’s very real.”  She added.