"Miss Hart, please, have a seat." Catherine couldn't will herself to be more relaxed, but she did what she could to give the appearance of nonchalance. "How has your day been?"

"Fine, Catherine." Zoe was young, nearly ten years Catherine's junior, but she had the confident demeanor of someone much more experienced. She sat down across from her boss. "Let's do the review. I want to know what I got."

"Well," Catherine stalled, clearing her throat and looking down at a loose collection of papers in front of her, arranging them in some non-existent order. "Overall, administration is pleased with your performance, but there are... we have some notes."

"So I'm doing well."

"Well," the older woman repeated, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. "Yes, however-"

"So what's my raise?"

"Zoe, you will listen to me!" Catherine's voice was a harsh whisper, and she was pleased to see it gave the other woman pause. Zoe glanced away, brushing a strand of platinum blonde hair back into her pixie cut. "You're certainly an effective earner, but there are problems with your relationship to your direct superiors. You have a problem with authority."

"No I don't." Zoe's cool blue eyes locked with Catherine's. "I just know it when I see it, and I know it when I don't."

The nerve of this girl! "Tell me, Zoe, do you see a future for yourself with this company if you continue to antagonize those above you?"

"Catherine..." Zoe let out a sigh, slouching back in her chair somewhat. "if you're asking if I'm worried about you, I'm not. You've gotten to where you've gotten, and that's fine, good for you. But I'm going to get there in a year, and then I'm going to keep on climbing. I don't have a problem with authority, I just have a problem with you."

For a moment, neither woman said anything. Zoe continued to stare down her reviewer, whose insides were knotted up so tight, she was struggling to keep her composure. When she spoke again, it was with a careful, metered tone. "This report says you are to be given a raise, yes. And to be considered for promotion, certainly." The knotting feeling continued to grow, but Catherine swallowed it down and put on a spiteful grin. "However, I have certain discretionary actions I'm able to take. Unfortunately for you, I'll be terminating your employment, effective immediately."

"Wh... what?" Zoe sat forward with enough momentum to carry her to her feet, stepping forward and leaning over the desk between them. "You can't do that!"

"I can, you spoiled little child, and I have." Catherine's vision was blurring now, and she scooted back in her chair, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. She screwed her eyes shut, concentrating on her words. "Get your shit and get out of this building."

"You have to be fucking kidding me. After everything I've done, after - whoa..." The sudden change in the younger woman's tone raised the hairs on the back of Catherine's neck. "Whoa, hey, what the hell? Are you doing some kind of trick?"

"N... no trick, Z... Zoe..." Catherine tried to stand, but her feet didn't reach the floor when she expected, and she ended up tumbling face-first out of her chair, landing on the carpet below with a soft thud! She heard Zoe let out a soft peal of laughter, but her head was spinning too much to concentrate. Foreign sensations, each more worrying than the last, flooded her being. Objects seemed to be lifting and expanding away from her, yet at the same time the floor became more and more detailed. She pushed herself up onto all fours only to realize she was completely nude! Her clothes lay in a pile behind her, now as expansive as everything else in the room.

"Ho. Lee. Shit." Zoe's voice pierced through the fog of Catherine's mind, and she looked up towards the source. The young blonde had walked around the desk, now standing in front of the chair Catherine had been in only a moment ago. She was unimaginably large, and wearing the most infuriating shit-eating smirk Catherine had seen in her life. "Cathy... this is a great new look for you, I gotta say."

"What... how did you... what even...?" The tiny woman reeled backwards, scuttling away from the towering woman, who let out another soft chuckle.

"I didn't do anything, Cathy. The universe just sort of... saw fit to give each of us what we deserve." She looked backwards at her former boss' chair. "Mind if I have a seat? You're not going to need this anymore." Grinning, she sat down, placing her arms on the rests and sighing. "Yeah... this feels right."

"Q-quit being a bitch and help me! I've - I've shrunk, for God's sake!"

"Now, I appreciate all the feedback, Cathy, and I'm definitely going to take it under consideration. However, don't you think we should talk about your performance?" Zoe arched an eyebrow and placed a finger on her lips. "How do you think you're going to do? Ballpark."

"...Zoe, please, I'm sorry for what I said, but-"

"Ah-ah-ah. That's not an answer to the question I asked. That's not going to help you out at all. Tell me, in your own words, how you think I'd rate your performance right now, say on a scale from one to ten." Clasping her hands in her lap, Zoe leaned back in her chair, looking down her nose at the tiny thing on the floor.

If there was a positive to this whole situation, it was that the blurred vision and knotted feeling inside her had all but cleared up - only, they had been replaced by a gnawing sense of dread, a sense that was made worse every time she looked into those cold, smiling blue eyes. "A... a three, Zoe."

"A three?" The giant girl clicked her tongue and shook her head. "That's not good, Cathy. Not good at all. I think you're going to have to work extra hard to earn some good will around here, hmm?" She leaned forward, reaching down and casually scooping the little thing into her cupped palm. Catherine squealed in fright, her little limbs kicking this way and punching that, and producing the most delightful tickling sensation against Zoe's hand.

"Put me down! Stop it, let me go right now you horrid little cunt! I'll tell everyone about this, I'll gemmmmmmmm-mmmmmm!!" Catherine continued to screech even as Zoe slid her hand beneath her suit jacket, through the sleeve of her shirt, and pressed the little thing up against the flesh of her armpit. Her arm then came down, sealing her newest toy in a damp, warm pocket of flesh.

This can't be happening. This cannot be happening. I cannot be here, this has to be a dream, this has to be a mistake, someone made a mistake and I'm not really here. Clawing at the slick, pliable flesh, she succeeded only in giving her captress tingles of pleasure, as well as running her oxygen out that much quicker.

"Y'know, I'm not seeing anything about that authority thing you were mentioning here." Zoe's voice boomed around Catherine, vibrating the tiny woman to her core. "'Highest performance', 'top earner'. 'Fast-tracked for promotion'... oh, what's this? Here it is, 'Catherine Green has repeatedly raised concerns over Ms. Hart's demeanor, however it is the general consensus that this does not impact her performance.'" A self-satisfied giggle thundered around Catherine like a death knell. "So... one person has a problem with me, and that person is now licking sweat out of my armpit?"

I'm not licking anything, you smug brat! Catherine fumed, though she was keenly aware that the taste of sweat had still permeated her lips, and was presently crawling across her tongue. Her struggles had weakened, and she was concentrating more now on breathing, refusing to let herself acknowledge the looming possibility of smothering to death underneath this horrible girl's arm.

As if reading her thought, Zoe's voice returned. "That was a command, by the way. I want to feel that little tongue of yours, or you can forget ever seeing the light of day again." The flesh around her squeezed, pushing out what air she'd had in her lungs, and the little woman immediately stuck out her tongue, dragging it across the moist skin in long, quick streaks.

"Ahaha! That tickles!" Zoe burst out into a fit of laughter, the convulsions of her arm mercifully allowing small wafts of fresh air in, keeping Catherine from blacking out. She began to lick harder, exploiting the correlation between subservience and life-giving air, though she refused to let herself consider the implications. "Oh my gosh, stop, stop!"

Two points of pressure squeezed into either side of Catherine, and she squeaked out a protest before realizing it was Zoe's fingers, dragging her back out of the fleshy hell she'd spent the past minute within. When she emerged into the light again, she was staring up into Zoe's massive visage, only a short distance away.

"You kinda got into it there, didn't you? Got a bit of a freaky streak, Cathy?" Zoe taunted, prodding her bare belly with the blunt end of a pen. "I bet you pay for it, don't you?"

"P... pay...?" Catherine wheezed, still gasping in air. "Zoe... Zoe, please, I need hel-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Later. Right now, we're still trying to boost your review score, remember? I'd say that performance definitely got you up to a solid four, but that's still no good, right?" Zoe reached out with the hand holding Catherine, and slowly started to tilt it to the side. The older woman let out a squeak of fright, scrambling to keep ahold of the somewhat-squishy flesh, but as it continued its inexorable ascent to a vertical position, she lost her footing and tumbled head-over-heels into the air, landing hard on her back. Zoe placed her elbows on the desk, one on either side of Catherine, and cradled her head in her hands.

"I'll tell you what I want, Cathy, and then you'll give it to me, okay?" She spoke with the same level of confidence that had always grated on Catherine before, but now it was positively bone-chilling.

"And... and then you'll help me?"

"One step at a time." Zoe sat upright, moving her arms to her sides. "I want to see you on your knees, hands clasped together, head bowed. I want to hear you apologize for everything you said to me today, and to accept me as your superior. Then I want you to beg me for death."

The silence that followed felt like an eternity to the tiny woman. She thought for sure she hadn't heard Zoe correctly, that somehow she was misunderstanding a word - had she spoken in French briefly? But looking up into those cold blue eyes, Catherine knew there had been no mistake.

"No, no..." The tiny woman rose to her feet, backing away. "No, this is... you can't do this, Zoe, you just - you just can't, this isn't fair, this isn't right, please! Please Zoe, you have to see me as a person, right? You have to... y-you can't just..." Her pleas faded away as the self-satisfied smirk grew with every word.

"Y'see, Cathy, here's the difference between me and you:" Zoe picked up a paperclip off the desk, straightening it in her slender fingers as she spoke. "When I want something, I get it. It doesn't matter how hard it is, or how messy it gets. I set a goal for myself, and I accomplish it." She reached out and scooted Catherine closer. One end of the paperclip, now straightened, pressed against the tiny woman's calf as Zoe manipulated her legs into a certain position, easily overcoming Catherine's feeble attempts at resistance. "If I want you kneeling, for example... you'll kneel."

A sudden shock shot through the little woman's legs as the paperclip lanced through one calf, then the other. She felt a bone snap, pushed aside by the unyielding metal, and she screamed out in agony. Zoe worked quickly, her fingers carefully keeping Catherine from moving too far out of position as she curled the paperclip around her legs, looping it across her thighs, then her waist, before angling the last length of it wire directly up her chest. The solid beam of metal sat between her breasts, extending just far enough that Catherine had to look up into Zoe's face to keep it from jabbing into her throat.

Catherine's mind reeled, her eyes rolling back in her head as she let out the most horrifying howl she'd ever heard herself produce. Zoe had pinched each of her wrists, holding them out at her sides, keeping her from clawing at herself as she struggled to grasp what had just happened.

"Shhh, calm down. Calm down. Stop struggling, you're only making yourself tired." Zoe cooed, the gentleness in her voice a stark contrast to the horror of Catherine's reality. Every time she considered calming down, a small twitch would spark the daggers of pain lancing up from her legs again. The scene was somehow as humiliating as it was agonizing, being held there as powerless as an infant while her opportunistic serpent of an employee gently chided her over her outburst.

In her mind, Catherine envisioned someone coming through the door to her office and seeing what was taking place. She imagined they would scoop her up, whisking her off to safety as Zoe was apprehended by the authorities, locked away forever for her selfish, sadistic cruelty. The picture was clear as day, every detail accounted for, as someone approached her door, and-

Her door.

The door she had made a sign for just this morning.

A sign which read, "MEETINGS ALL DAY. DO NOT INTERRUPT IF THIS DOOR IS CLOSED."

Catherine looked up into Zoe's eyes, and she knew the younger woman could see the moment the fight left her. Her head tilted forward ever so slightly, and her smile brightened that much more.

"That's a good girl~" Zoe said in a sing-song voice as she gently released Catherine's arms, stroking the tiny woman's long brown hair with a finger. There was no point in resisting her. She had won, utterly and completely, and Catherine was helpless but to give her everything she wanted. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a blur of movement, and it wasn't until Zoe explicitly lifted the object into the tortured thing's field of vision that she understood what came next.

A small, blue stapler.

"No, no Zoe, no, wait-" Catherine's pleas were ragged and raw, but she voiced them just the same. The younger woman was already squeezing her arms together, getting the palms against one another just right. "Wait wait wait, Zoe listen to me, listen!" The cold metal of the stapler pressed against her forearms, and she could feel the bite of the stapler queued up.

"Zoe please I'll give you everything you want! I'll give in to you! I submit! You win, for fuck's sake, PLEASE!"

For once, the younger woman paused, taking Catherine's words under consideration. "Oh yeah?" She eventually prompted, cocking an eyebrow. "Tell me about it."

"You- you're better than me," Catherine let out in a sigh, her body relaxing - though not too much, as the hard prod of the paperclip at her throat reminded her. "You're bigger, and smarter, and just better than me in every way, Zoe. You have everything and I have nothing. You're a Goddess, and I'm an insect beneath you."

As she spoke, she watched Zoe's entire demeanor change. The young woman went from amused and curious, to full-blown self-righteous. She straightened in the chair, raising her head another several inches, and her chest swelled out slightly, making her seem overall more imposing. In any other context, Catherine would have found the attitude nothing less than grating, but now she could only hope it was enough to spare her whatever grisly fate Zoe had imagined.

"That's... very good, little one." Zoe chuckled and gently adjusted the paperclip closer to her toy's throat. "And now...?"

Was there a way around giving Zoe everything she wanted? If there was, Catherine's mind was too pain-addled to think of it. "Please, please kill me, Zoe."

KA-CHUNK!

The shock of her arms being crushed together so swiftly brought her jerking forward, and in the next moment she found the metal rod lodged in her throat. Blood trickled down the length of the paperclip, covering her chest and pooling out around her knees. Lifting her arms into view, Catherine gave one long look at her mangled limbs, mashed together and held there by another twisted piece of metal.

"I've gotta say, Cathy," Zoe taunted, using a finger to gently knock Catherine onto her side, chuckling as the little form twitched like a bug. "I don't see much of a future for you here at this company. I'm gonna have to give you a poor review, and recommend you for termination." She gathered up a pair of kleenex from the box on Catherine's desk and scooped the little thing up, her limbs still spasming. Zoe winked, balled the kleenex in her fist, and let it tumble into the trash.