"All right!" Lance yelled back. "I choose--"
He started to say Olivia. He was sure he wanted to say her name, for he'd already eliminated the all-too-willing Vanessa in his mind. Yet, for some reason, he opened his mouth, and "Stacey" came out.
"What?" screeched Vanessa, throwing her hands up in the air. "I did everything you wanted!" She spun on her heels and stormed off to join a relieved Olivia behind the box. That left Stacey, who was staring up at him in complete shock, as if his selecting her had been the last thing on her mind.
"Are you certain?" asked Enrik. "You must be sure!"
Lance started to change his mind, thinking once again about trying to bend Olivia to his will, but when he saw the expression on Stacey's face, he knew he'd made the right choice. She was looking at him with sad little eyes, and yet, somewhere in that miniature face he saw something very much like hope. "Yeah," Lance said, giving her a smile, "I'm sure. Don't worry, Stacey, I promise to take care of you, all right?"
She returned his smile and gave a tiny nod, causing the last of Lance's doubts to slip away. "All right, Enrik," he said, turning to face the little man, "what do I do now? Just put her in my pocket and--"
He stopped. The dwarf was holding something in his hand. It was some kind of device like nothing he'd ever seen. It was futuristic-looking, though, something straight out of Star Trek.
"Thank you, Mr. Harrison," said the little man. "And now, as I promised, she will be yours."
He pressed a switch on the hand-held contraption and everything went black.
Lance awoke with a start. What the hell happened? His head spun, but he quickly got that under control. Everything was blurry, but after blinking a few times in the unfamiliar light, he found he could see just fine.
He was in some kind of room, rectangular in shape, with a diffuse glow coming right out of the walls. It looked familiar somehow, but he couldn't make sense of why. He looked around to see if he could find the exit, and stopped when he saw someone huddled in the corner behind him.
It was a woman, and she seemed to be softly crying. She was wearing a familiar-looking flowered dress, and in an instant he realized who it must be. It was Stacey! They must have returned her to normal size! Was that what Enrik meant when he said she was his? That he'd put her back to normal and let them leave together? Was this some kind of wacko dating service or something?
He stood up on wobbly knees, fought to control the sudden vertigo, and then moved over to her. "Stacey?" he asked, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "Are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?"
She turned to look at him, and now he could see that she was actually quite lovely. Her nose was small and stood above a pair of narrow, perfect lips. Her eyes were a dark, deep brown, and her chin tapered to a point that made her look dainty and cute. She couldn't be more than twenty-five years old, just a few years younger than himself.
She had been crying again, he could tell immediately. "Oh, Lance," she wailed. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know what would happen to you! If I had, I would've warned you--"
"Warned me about what?" he asked. "What's the matter?"
"What they told you--it was true, but it was twisted," she replied sadly. "They said you could have one of us, but you thought it was to take home, didn't you? It's not. Now you're stuck here, just like I am."
"What are you--" Lance suddenly stopped, looking around in horror as the full impact of her words descended upon him. The room they were in wasn't a room at all. It was a box, just like the one he'd opened earlier. The box with tiny women in it. Which meant Stacey hadn't been restored to normal at all, didn't it? No, quite the opposite.
He'd been shrunk, hadn't he? He was now four inches high, just like she was, and the others. He knew this to be true, and though he felt a wave of terror sweep over him, he fought it down. Well, he may be tiny, he thought, but he'd figure out a way out of this, somehow.
"Lance, I'm so sorry," sobbed Stacey. "Please, believe me, I wish I could have--"
"Don't worry about it," he told her. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't do this to me. We'll get out of this, I swear it."
She smiled at him then, and it was that same smile of courage and hope he'd see on her little face after he'd made his choice. "Thank you, Lance," she replied, brushing away her tears. "Please, just hold me," she went on, almost desperately. "Hold me and make this all go away."
He reached out to her and she fell desperately into his arms, wrapping around him and holding him tightly. He leaned back against the side of the box, running his hand through her brown hair gently. Then, as if on impulse, he leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek. She sighed at that, and her trembling seemed to lessen as she settled contentedly up against his warm, comforting body.
Then, almost involuntarily, she tilted her head back and their lips met gently. In that moment, Lance knew he had made the right choice, despite the obvious consequences. Whatever inner voice told him to pick her had been right.
Would Vanessa have still been so eager if the two of them had been the same size? He doubted it very much. She had seen him as a way out of her prison, that was all, and tried to manipulate him with her body. He'd met women like that before, who tried to literally use sex as a weapon. What a stroke of luck that he hadn't fallen victim to that trap this time!
As for Olivia, she still might have made a nice conquest, but such relationships never worked out in the end. They were one-trick ponies. In his mind he ran through the scenario, imagining trying to break through her defensive screens over and over again until finally the last of them collapsed. Sure, they'd have an amazing experience then, that much was certain, but how long would it last? A week, maybe two, and in the end she'd wind up hating him.
Stacey was something else, though. He could tell, as he cradled her in his arms, that she was perfect. She needed him, too, more than anything else in the world at that moment, and he was more than happy to be there for her, no matter what else came to pass.
"It'll be okay," he whispered, rocking slightly back and forth and wishing it were true. "I'll take care of you, Stacey, just like I said before. I'll keep you safe no matter what."
She sighed and kissed him again, and they both knew everything would be all right.