Barbara sighed, snuggling up against Rich's smooth chest and resting there. Their breaths came evenly now, in time with each other.
"God, I love you," said Rich in a contented voice. "I can't wait to marry you, Barb. I'd go buy you a ring right now, but--well, you know."
"I couldn't wear it anyway," she told him with a happy smile. "I'm probably so small I couldn't even see what it was."
"Yeah," he told her, "we were shrinking that whole time, weren't we? I wonder how tiny we are now?"
They sat up and looked around. Sometime during their lovemaking they managed to fall through the fibers of the carpet, so now they were nestled between grains of wood on the stair underneath. They could barely see, since not much light penetrated this far, but what they could take in was bizarre and alien.
"Look over there," said Barb, pointing. "What's that? It looks like metal."
They got up and walked over to the object, treading carefully on the rough, sharp surface, and looked down to see something very much like a miniature spaceship, or a motorboat with wings. The machine looked like it was about two feet long. "This must be the thing Sam saw," Rich said. "It's our ride out of here. Does that look like it's large enough to hold us?"
"Not at this size," Barb mentioned.
Rich grinned. "Well, you know what that means," he told her. Laughing, they hurried off to duck behind another carpet fiber and get small enough to finally climb aboard.
Bob peered over the edge of the towel at the giant form of Sandi. She stood staring out the window as Steve retreated into the distance and settled down on the couch, looking very satisfied with himself. After a moment, the naked woman looked away from the walls of her prison, sighed, and rubbed her eyes. Then she walked over to the middle of the towel, sat down, and started to cry.
"What's going on?" asked the much smaller Tricia from down near his leg. "I can't see anything from here."
"Nothing," replied Bob, clearly relieved. "She's sitting down. Crying, actually. I guess I can understand that. Not that I have any pity, mind you."
"Good, let her cry," said Trish somewhat angrily. "Stupid bitch. At least she's not taking out her frustrations on us."
Bob settled back down under the folds of cloth to look at his doll-like girlfriend. "She still could, you know. As soon as she gets over being sad, we could be her next targets."
"What can we do?" piped tiny Tricia. "I mean, she's still what, ten times bigger than you? I guess I could bite her little toe or something while you kick her in the ankle."
Bob wiped some sweat away from his face. "There is one way we could get away from her, if you want," he replied grimly. "Do you remember what Pete and Marcy did?"
"What? Of course I do!" she gasped. "You aren't saying we should--?"
"I've been thinking," he replied slowly and confidently. "We're going to shrink anyway, right? I can feel this stuff in me right now. That's why I'm sweating. Just looking at you makes me want to grab you and start--well, you know."
"Yeah, I feel it too," she replied with a weak smile. "It's getting worse. I'm already, well, you know, pretty moist down there. It's all I can do not to touch myself, or beg you to touch me. And every time I look at you, especially that--" she pointed at his barely concealed manhood, which he quickly covered with his hands as though embarrassed, "--I have to bite my lip not to run forward and jump all over it."
"Anyway," he replied, blushing a bit, "I mean, pretty soon we're both just gonna lose it anyway, so we might as well enjoy it while we go. And, of course, by doing it we at least get away from Sandi."
"But--but what's going to happen to us then?" Tricia asked in a small and frightened voice. "What's down there? How will we ever survive?"
"I don't know," he told her honestly. "I haven't the slightest idea how small we'll get. Maybe we'll get so small the bacteria don't even notice us. Who knows? All I know is I'll be there with you, and that's enough for me right now."
"Oh, Bob, I love you so much," she told him, reaching out involuntarily to put her hand on his leg. The touch sent something very much like a spark of raw energy coursing through her, and she could stand it no more, suddenly rushing forward and forcing her way past his huge hands. His penis snapped erect like the proverbial salute, and she jumped on it, wrapping her sweating body around it and writhing in passion.
Above her, the colossal form of Bob clutched at the towel's rough fibers and gasped. He wanted to reach down and take hold of her, but through the drug-induced haze he knew he might hurt her if he did that. Instead he simply spread his legs and let her go to work. Perhaps only a minute passed before he orgasmed, his face contorting as if in pain. The resulting jet of ejaculate almost knocked Trish off her perch. She wiped herself off as best she could while he shivered and began to shrink, finally stopping when he was about twice her size.
"Good," she called up to him, pulling the last threads of sticky semen off her body and climbing up on top of him. "Now the fun can really start!"
"Oh, baby!" he gasped as she mounted him, and like so many others, he quickly found he didn't mind the shrinking so much any more.
Frank and Melissa stared over the edge of the towel at the sobbing six-inch form of Sandi in the middle of the aquarium. "What are you gonna do?" asked Melissa, noticing how her boyfriend's fingers were flexing back and forth, as if he were planning to grab something.
"What do you think I'm gonna do?" he growled in reply. "As soon as she shrinks enough, I'm gonna go over there and wring her scrawny neck for what she did to you!"
"You can't!" she gasped. "If you touch her, you know what'll happen--you'll start shrinking again!"
"Oh, it'll be worth it, believe me," Frank replied, watching eagerly as Sandi shuddered and dwindled another inch or so. "Yeah, that's right, bitch, just keep on shrinking. Maybe you'll get small enough that I can have some real fun with you!"
"Don't say that!" Melissa practically begged. "Please, Frank, don't be like them, I couldn't stand it! You're a nice guy and that's why I love you--I don't want to see you really hurt anyone."
"I'm not going to hurt her," he replied grimly, but his voice was starting to lose some of its anger as her words soothed him. "Just have some fun with her, like she did with you."
At that, Sandi suddenly wiped her eyes and stood to face their corner of the aquarium. Carefully, looking down at the towel to make sure she didn't step on anyone smaller than her foot, she made her way through the folds over to Frank and Melissa. "I could hear you, you know," she said in a low, even voice. "I wouldn't blame you, Frank. Go ahead and do whatever you want--I won't even try to resist. You know, I'm still at least five times as big as you, but I don't even care about that. I won't do a thing to you now. I just feel numb all over."
"Don't even try to fool us with your penitent act," hissed Frank from a position where he could still try to get away by wriggling under the towel if she came at him. She seemed pretty subdued now, but she had a way of suddenly striking without warning. Come to think of it, he thought, she had a lot of snakelike qualities, didn't she? "You're not really sorry for anything, Sandi, except that you got the tables turned on you by Steve. Serves you right."
She settled down to her knees and shook her head sadly. "You're absolutely right on all counts. If I were still big, I'd probably be plucking you out of here to play with right now. You know what I'm really sorry about? Not that I'm shrinking. No, that part I guess I can accept. I deserve it, after all. No, I'm sorry because I was such an idiot about Steve in the first place. I really thought he was stupid enough to marry me, so I could get my hands on his bank account. He saw right through me, though. Am I really that transparent?"
Frank and Melissa exchanged glances and then nodded. "Yeah," Melissa said, "I think pretty much everyone had you figured for a gold-digger from the first time we saw you. You know, we were going to tell you not to come back to the frat house tonight."
"God, I wish you had," she replied, giving a little shiver and shrinking another inch or so. "I wouldn't have listened, though. You know what? I think its poetic justice," she said after a pause, almost as though talking to herself. "Karmic retribution. What goes around, comes around, doesn't it? I tried to play Steve for so long, but instead he just played me."
"Yep," Frank replied, leaning back and relaxing a little. Sandi no longer seemed so scary now. In fact, she was looking more and more pathetic with every word she spoke and every tear that rolled down her face. Real tears, he thought, not faked ones, but they were still empty of any real feeling. She didn't have any real regrets, he knew, except that she played the game and lost. "You know what, Sandi?" he said after a moment. "I was going to come over there, once you were half my size, and do some things to you, but I don't think I'll bother. You're in your own hell now, and nothing I do will make it any worse. The only bad part is, if we all eventually wind up microscopic, I'm going to have to share the microverse with someone like you."
She sniffled, but didn't reply for a long time. Instead she just shrank, slowly but steadily, until she was no bigger than Frank and Melissa. The other two stood up, emerging from their hiding place to look at the once enormous woman, and saw to their surprise that she had one hand underneath herself, between her legs. She was actually tickling herself there, ensuring that she would continue to shrink. Self-inflicted punishment, they both realized at once, and suddenly they felt only pity.
Finally, Sandi looked up at them and spoke. For the first time since arriving in the aquarium, her face really took on some emotion. "There's only one thing I really regret," she said forcefully, "and that's Steve. I don't care what happens to me now--you all can kill me if you want. Shrink me down and step on me--put me out of my misery! But the fact that Steve's still out there, normal sized, with a bottle of shrinking formula--that really galls me to no end. If only there were some way I could get even with him, cut him down to size--"
"Well, you can't," said Frank, pointing at the far wall, " but maybe he can."
Sandi turned to look and joined the rest of the aquarium's tiny occupants as they watched Mark's towering form pull Steve to his feet by his collar.
"All right!" Frank said with a grin. "The cavalry's here!"
"What shrinking potion?" asked Steve in mock surprise as Mark yanked him to his feet. "I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about."
"Oh, come on!" said Mark, shaking his completely passive prisoner in his grip. "I saw what you did to Bill and Judy, and Michelle too!"
"Bill and Judy?" Steve raised an eyebrow, but didn't say any more. Michelle he might buy, but the others? How had they gotten to Mark? Didn't he have them safely locked up? He almost glanced at the aquarium, but managed not to. Surely those two were still in their cage--but then, he hadn't looked at it that closely since dumping his little prisoners inside. They must've climbed out. Yeah, that Bill could've done it, too, since he was on the track and field team. Crap! Attention to detail, Steve old boy, that'll kill you every time. Now I just have to get out of this somehow...
"Yeah, they just visited me in my room!" growled Mark. "They were just a couple of inches high, you little prick! Then I had to watch them shrink out of existence! You fucking killed two of my friends!"
"Really, man, I don't know what the hell you're talking about," said Steve as innocently as possible. "Shrinking? Are you nuts? I thought you didn't do drugs, Mark, or did you start this week?"
Mark flung him away, sending Steve slamming roughly into the floor. He sat up, his head coming level with the aquarium, but didn't try to get to his feet. Instead, he just started to tense, preparing for any opening he could get. Mark may be a wussy goody-twoshoes, he thought, remembering all the times their insufferably nice frat president urged them all to take on various community service projects, but he was also much taller and quite muscular. Whether or not he could fight was a complete unknown. He played basketball and volleyball, which made him athletic, but for all Steve knew, Mark couldn't swing a punch to save his life. He'd never done anything violent that Steve could remember, but that was about to change, he figured.
"Shut your lying mouth!" barked Mark. "I knew we should've kicked you out months ago. We should've done it when you started bringing that slut Sandi in here and deliberately stirring up trouble with the rest of the frat. Now hand over the potion, or I'll kick your ass from here to next week!"
"It's funny you should mention Sandi," said Steve, pretending to look around in confusion. "Have you seen her anywhere? I haven't. Oh, wait, there she is, right there in the aquarium. If you look real close you can see her."
Almost unconsciously, Mark looked into the glass-walled cage, where he could just barely see several inch-high forms moving around, looking back at him. His eyes widened for a moment and he took a step closer, wondering if one of them really was Sandi, and that's when Steve struck, leaping up from the floor and plowing into him. Both combatants crashed into an end table, smashing it and destroying the table lamp there. For an instant it looked like the square piece of furniture might support their combined weight while Mark lay stretched out on it and Steve leaned back to punch him in the face, but then the legs collapsed, sending both men sprawling.
"You bastard!" hissed Mark, leaping to his feet and balling his hands in fists. "You're going to pay for what you did!"
"Yeah, right!" laughed Steve. "You better beat me, Mark, or you'll be the next one going down!"
Mark lunged forward and swung a couple of times at Steve, but the more agile, smaller man just leaped back to avoid the blows. They circled each other a few more times, looking for an opening, and then Steve pulled back and started throwing glasses and half-empty beer cans at Mark. He dodged, but a few struck home, angering him with the pain they caused. He lowered his head and charged, catching Steve off guard. Both of them bounced off a wall, arms flailing at each other, and then they lost their balance and fell, knocking over a table as they did so.
They were too busy fighting to notice that the piece of furniture they just overturned was the one with the aquarium. The former cage was now lying on its side on the carpeted floor.
Michelle sighed as she finally made it all the way back down to the ground. All the way down the thick sheet of cloth, she kept waiting to shrink again, but hadn't. As best she could tell, she was still about a quarter of an inch high. The chunks of carpet under her feet were like a field of enormous furry snakes. She looked down into them dubiously, wondering how small she had to get before she'd start seeing the mites Samantha mentioned earlier. Sooner or later, that was going to become a concern.
She started to make her way across the sea of threads, wondering what might have become of Sam and Ben, but she might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack. Ben was shrinking fast last she saw, and Sam was already so small she'd be impossible to see in the dim night light along the far wall. She looked up at the glowing square and frowned. In a long-ago time, such a light might have seemed like a small beacon of safety in the darkness of her room. Now, it looked like a four-cornered moon rising into an ever-growing sky.
Suddenly she found herself wanting to cry. She collapsed up against a black electrical cord and buried her face in her hands. So this was what it comes to, she thought sadly. I'm shrunk down so small Mark can only barely see me, my boyfriend turned out to be the biggest jerk to ever walk the planet, and now I'm all alone, with only continued shrinking to look forward to followed by a sure death at the hands of insects I normally can't even see!
The worst thing was that she wasn't even going to get small enough to be rescued by that crazy Duncan guy. In the end, while the others got picked up, she'd be stuck somewhere in the middle. Just her luck, she thought. Never quite good enough to do anything or get anywhere important. The story of her life.
She suddenly stood up and looked around, refusing to completely lose it and just start bawling her head off. There was a way out of all this, she thought--a way to end all her pain, lose the memory of what Steve did to her forever, and stop herself from a final fate too horrible to even think about. With a strange and sudden purpose, she began to climb the electrical cord, the one attached to the clock radio far above.
After about ten minutes of shimmying up the thick, clingy plastic cable, Michelle reached the connector end and pulled herself atop it. She moved her way over to the outlet itself, leaning down to peer inside at the metal prongs that connected, somewhere deep within, to the power lines that provided electricity to the house. If she squeezed in there, she could easily find that junction, force in her hand--and at her size, release would be instant, immediate and painless.
She stared inside. Getting in would be no problem, she thought. She only had to shrink some more. With her right hand she teased herself, thinking alternately about boyfriends she knew, and the pleasant fantasy of having Steve there in front of her, his tiny body dwindling away as he screamed. After a while the giant, boyish face of Mark filled her dreams and she felt herself shrinking again.
She opened her eyes and saw that now she was perhaps only a quarter of the size she was just a few moments before. The plastic was now rough and covered with dimples and bubbles she never would've noticed at a larger scale. The gap between the end of the cord and the massive metal bars below was now wide enough to accommodate her. She wiped off her hand on the now gigantic scrap of cloth that once served as a robe and stepped forward, wondering if she could really do this.
Michelle stood there, staring at the bar for a moment, thinking the thoughts anyone contemplating ending their life considers in those final moments. Who would miss her when she was gone? She was effectively gone already, so that didn't matter. Was there any hope left? No, not really. What would people say when they found her body? Well, not much, because it would be too damn small to see. Were there any other options? None that she could think of.
She took a final look around, and then started to move towards the opening. That's when a tiny, barely audible voice sounded almost directly next to her left ear.
"No," it said, surprising her with its sudden presence. "I won't just let you die. Don't go in there, Michelle. It's not too late!"