“Hey honey, come here!” Liza called from the living room. “I’ve got a big surprise for you!” Eagerly, I hopped up from my desk and headed toward her. She always got me great gifts, and our anniversary was in a few days, so it was bound to be something impressive.
I stopped on the threshold to look at her. Liza was standing in the middle of the room, smiling broadly, her bright blue eyes twinkling in anticipation. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and dimpled marked her soft, round cheeks. She had on a plain black t-shirt tight enough to reveal her hourglass curves and khaki shorts to show her long, slender legs. The lo-top Converse on her feet were fresh, like she had just bought them, though it was unusual for her to be wearing shoes inside at all.
Liza extended a pale arm toward me and curled a finger inward enticingly. “What’re you waiting for, big guy?” I was in no sense of the word big; she was several inches taller than me, and she was far from gigantic. “Come on in and get your surprise.” She tilted her chin back, keeping her eyes on me. It was a look I knew well, and she was clearly up to something.
Still, I was not going to pass up her surprise. I stepped into the living room, and as soon as my foot touched the floor a bright light overwhelmed me. It was like I had been hit by a flashbang, and my knees gave out, dropping me to the floor. As I laid on the carpet, it felt like the floor was moving away from me in all directions, then I passed out.
When I came to, I was still in the living room, though Liza was gone. Groaning, I stood and looked around for some hint of what happened to me. There was nothing unusual about the threshold, and I inspected the rest of the room. Nothing looked out of place, but it all seemed a lot cheaper. Touching the couch, I was surprised to find it made of plastic, as was the rest of the furniture. Only my favorite leather chair was the same.
The ground shook, startling me. There was no known seismic activity where I lived, and I had never felt the ground move like this. Before the frames on the wall settled it shook again, stronger this time, accompanied by a boom in the distance. Still wary of the threshold, I dove beneath the coffee table for cover as the ground continued to shake, rattling the entire house. A half-dozen more quakes hit the house, each stronger than the last, before they suddenly stopped. Cautiously I crawled out from beneath the table and stood, but what I saw rooted me in place.
The window was dominated by a field of white rubber stretching into the distance with black canvas joining it from above. In just a few seconds, it had gone completely dark outside, though it was not like the sun had gone down. It seemed much more like something enormous was blocking out the sun. My mind raced to find an explanation while large objects thudded against the exterior walls: one on the front, and four on the back, like the house was being gripped.
Cracks spread across the joints where the walls met the ceiling, and with a great cacophony the roof was torn free, kicking up a cloud of dust. When it finally settled, I was astonished at what I saw. Liza was above me, but also all around me as she stood astride the house. Seemingly hundreds of feet tall, she looked down at me with the same devious look she had before. I gaped up at her, astonished at her legs taller and thicker than any pillars I had ever seen while she maintained her same smug look with her hands firmly on her hips.
“Hello down there, little guy!” she boomed loud enough to make the furniture shake. “How do you like your new accommodations?” She giggled, though it was more like a horrifying rumble. I wanted to run, but where could I run to? Besides, it was Liza. Even if she could crush me, she never would. Right?
Suddenly she dropped, pushing her knees far enough forward that her thighs framed her face. Liza reached toward the house, and I flinched involuntarily as her thumb and forefinger dropped into the living room. The tips of her digits sought me out and clamped on the back collar of my shirt, then lifted me off the ground. My stomach dropped to my feet when she stood, lifting me hundreds of feet in an instant, then she continued drawing me upward. When her hand finally stopped, I was directly between her eyes, just far enough away that her face was the only thing I could see.
When I finally stopped swinging beneath her fingers, Liza let out a quick laugh that made my stomach churn as it rumbled through my body. “You’re so small!” she declared, her voice hitting me with enough force to blow my hair back. “But if anything, you’re cuter than you used to be. I think I’ll keep you like this.”
“Wait, you did this to me?” I responded in surprise. “Come on, I’m smaller than your fingernail, I can’t live like this!”
A low rumble emanated from her throat, and she showed no signs she had heard me. “You know, you look so good I could just eat you up,” Liza said. “And now that you’re small enough, I think I will.” Her lips parted, revealing a set of bright white teeth so straight they had to have been corrected by braces and an enormous pink tongue waiting behind them. A string of saliva stretched between her lips broke as she opened her mouth wider, leaving more than enough space to accommodate me and her fingers.
“No, Liza!” I cried out. “Please don’t eat me!” Her laughter drowned out my voice, and she drew me toward her cavernous maw. I could not even hear my screams over her horrific chuckling. When her hand ran into her face, momentum threw me forward as I dangled beneath her fingers. Liza’s digits released me, and I flew into the gaping pit of her mouth.
Just before I crossed the threshold her lips clamped shut, holding me tight. They worked outward, pushing me away from her mouth until they were significantly puckered as though she were going for an exaggerated kiss. I sank into the delicate pink skin, though I was so light now I barely made a dimple. Unsure what else to do, I planted a great big kiss on her lower lip, thankful she had not swallowed me.
Her lips parted, releasing me from their grip, and I rolled down the slope of her lower lip. After descending what felt like dozens of feet in an instant I landed in the middle of her palm, and the soft, smooth skin there welcomed me. Slowly she raised her hand up, and it felt like I was on an elevator until it reached her lips. Now that she was not threatening to devour me, I could appreciate the soft pink curves of the thirty-foot-long tracts of unadorned skin.
“You really thought I was gonna eat you!” she exclaimed with a grin, the crack of her voice thundering in my ears. “Good.” Her free hand descended, the index finger extended toward me. The tip of her finger pushed me along her palm, then suddenly crossed over and batted me back to the side. As it passed over me, I saw every minute detail in the whorl of her fingerprint. “I never would, of course, but I think it’s more fun for both of us if you believe I will.”
Liza withdrew her hand, flattening it out and extending her fingers. “Or maybe I’ll smash you, you puny bug? I might do it on accident or on purpose, you never know.” Her hand swung down, and I braced for a body-shattering impact. She had cupped her palms, protecting me, and the worst I got was the sonic boom of her gigantic hands clapping together. My vision swam, but in the darkness I could not tell the difference.
She pulled her other hand away, allowing light to reach me again, and she was staring down at me with the same shining blue eyes and smug grin. “Yeah, like that. I could squish you, but I like you too much. Just don’t get too comfortable.”
I was still astounded looking up at her. Liza’s face was several times my height, and her nose alone was taller than me. “But why?” I shouted, figuring it was the only way she could hear me. “Why did you shrink me like this? I thought our relationship was fine!”
“Oh, it was!” It would take me a while to get used to her low, rumbling voice. “But a few weeks ago I found that external hard drive. Four hundred-something chapters of stories about men being shrunk by women, and who knows how many videos? Even if you’d never tell me, this is clearly what you want. I remember you even tried to roleplay this stuff with me for a while, though I didn’t pick up on it.”
“But that was just a fantasy!” I protested. “I never really wanted to be shrunk, I have a job and friends to get back to!”
“Well then, I have good news! You will never have to work again. I make more than enough to support myself, and I don’t think you’ll be a huge drain on my resources now. And I think it’s about time I met your friends anyway, isn’t it? I’ll keep them from doing anything to you: if anyone’s going to smash you, it’ll be me.” Her smile did little to reassure me.
“This seems like a pretty big step though, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t think you’ll be taking any big steps now,” Liza teased, and it took her a few seconds to stop laughing at her own joke. “Look, we’ve been dating for almost three years now, and we’re still living in different places. I’ve been dropping hints that we should move in together, and you haven’t picked up on them. If I have to shrink you down to the size of a bug to move in with me, then so be it. Besides, it’s not like you didn’t want this, and I even gave you your own tiny little house!”
“But you tore the roof off it.”
“Sure, I did, but you know what? It was designed to come off like that.” Liza looked very proud of herself before continuing. “Something I read a lot in your stories was ‘giantess tears off roof,’ so I thought I’d give that to you early. But it slides back into place, so you can have your privacy, and I can do it over and over!”
“Well, okay.” I could find nothing else to object to, though in principle I wanted to. She had shrunk me, but no matter how much I wanted to deny it, I did want her to. Often I dreamt of being tiny on her desk, at the mercy of her hands as she decided what to do with me. “But what about exercise?”
“Oh, you’ll get quite a workout, trust me.” She turned her hand to the side, and I slid off her palm and into the air. I churned my arms and legs uselessly as I plummeted, though in a split second I dropped the enormous height of her body. The soft carpet cushioned my fall, and I bounced back so I was looking up at her again.
“You want exercise?” she challenged. “Start running.” The toes of her Converse twitched, and I ran from her. She really had thought of everything.