Gwen was aware of Patrice's sudden retreat but didn't care, for at the moment everything felt good, good good good, so good. She'd drifted out of the haze of her sexual glow but almost immediately plunged back into a full-blown orgasm. This one lasted a while and she was vocal about it too. It took a long time for her to come down from it but finally she regained her composure.
Patrice was still gone, Gwen was gratified to note, although she thought she could hear faint sobs coming from the direction of the bedroom. That thieving bitch's peace of mind was the least of her concerns right now though. More important was to see if and how much this last episode had caused her to grow. She climbed off the couch, delighted to find that she was large enough now to get down almost normally, without needing to crawl or jump. She was bigger, all right, her eye level above the back of the couch, taller than the top of the television. Television. It was still muted but the news conference seemed to be over, a foolish game show on. That didn't matter anyway; she knew what she needed to know. Marianne, the girl she'd shrunk last night, was almost back to normal size. Gwen was growing back too; already she was large enough to take care of herself; soon she'd be normal sized again.
Her fears were receding now, it was time to turn to thoughts of advantage and control and, just maybe, revenge. She still owed Bryan and, besides, he was still a danger to her, as long as he controlled the shrinking device. Her shrinking device. In her mind it was still hers; she just had to get it back. She just hoped he wouldn't waste the remaining charge on some stranger. She was determined to use it on him, only this time she wouldn't wait until the timer was running out before she did it. But first she had to get it back. He'd be returning with it soon, she was sure. All she had to do was find a quiet place to hide and wait.
************* **************** **************
Bryan opened the apartment door and backed in, his arms filled with a box full of equipment and notes. He hadn't intended to bring it all home but after the interview with the police lieutenant, it had seemed like a good idea to clear out his workshop. The woman on the security tape had been Gwen, of course, shrinking the shipping clerk girl. Her face hadn't shown clearly but there was no question of her identity, although of course he'd told the lieutenant he didn't know a thing. He wasn't sure what the cop suspected but he clearly didn't believe everything Bryan had told him. He'd make trouble for Bryan if he could.
But none of that mattered, now that he was here at home, everything under control. He had all the evidence in this box; only the shrinking device itself wasn't here. He'd get that down from the top of the bookshelf right away. Then, of course, he'd have to use it. Too bad but somebody had to take the built-up charge it still held. Too bad that Gwen wasn't available now but then again Patrice knew too much anyway. He hated to do it, she was a good lay, but that was the way it had to be. Maybe she wouldn't object anyway; she'd certainly gotten turned on enough at Gwen's shrinkage last night. Where was Gwen anyway? If she hadn't come back, something must have happened to her. Surely if she was still alive she would have contacted the authorities long ago. Then his interview with the police lieutenant would have gone quite differently. He shivered at the thought. Too bad about Gwen but she'd brought it on herself.
He'd half expected Patrice to meet him at the door but there was no sign or sound of her. He noted the closed bedroom door as he passed it on the way to the living room and peeked in to see her on the bed. There was no need to disturb her. Not just yet.
He set his box down on the coffee table, pulled the charger out and set it on one of the bookcase shelves. He reached up to the top shelf, found the rounded metal cone of the shrinking device itself and set it in the charger's cradle. Not that the charger could do much, not until after the next full moon, but it was a good idea to keep them together. He looked at the now-fuctioning status display and was surprised to see, instead of the usual alpha-beta-gamma readings, a single number. 10553. A changing number. 10550. That was new; he'd have to find out its meaning. The trigger button was flashing, that was the important thing. The device still held its charge.
Bryan nodded in satisfaction and turned slowly toward the bedroom, not sure exactly how to proceed. Would it be kinder to warn Patrice or just shrink her unaware? He didn't have to do anything immediately, of course, there was no particular hurry. Thoughts of last night flickered into his mind. He could at least send her to her new life in a contented frame of mind. He smiled crookedly. He could spare the time for a mercy mission.
Patrice was huddled face down on the bed, asleep. When she awoke at his touch and turned to him, he saw that she had been crying. She clutched at him and began sobbing onto his shoulder.
'Easy,' he told her, patting her back. 'What's wrong?'
For answer she only shook her head and sobbed louder. He held her and stroked her shoulders absently. Giving comfort wasn't his strong point at the best of times and here he didn't even know what the problem was. 'What's wrong?' he asked again.
Patrice sucked in her breath. 'She was here,' she managed to choke out.
'Who was here? Gwen? She came back?' Bryan pushed Patrice away and held her shoulders. 'Tell me what happened.'
'She, she never left. She was hiding in the kitchen the whole time. I heard her and I caught her. We saw that other girl on TV.' Patrice looked pleadingly into his eyes. 'She shrank that girl and she shrank herself and...Bryan, I don't like the way I felt about them. I feel wrong, I feel...' She started sobbing again and tried to draw him close.
He held her at arms length and shook her shoulders insistently. 'Where is she? Is she still here?'
'I don't know. I don't know what happened to her. Bryan, could she do it again, shrink somebody else? Could she do it to me?'
'Gwen couldn't,' Bryan said, just a little too quickly, emphasizing Gwen's name a little too much. 'It could happen to somebody, though. But I won't let it happen to you,' he lied. 'You're safe with me.' He held her for a few more minutes and then let her down on the bed again. She could stay here while he dealt with his new problem. Gwen was still around after all. He'd have to find her, catch her, before doing anything else. Clearly something had happened between Gwen and Patrice but he hoped it wasn't too serious. After all, it looked like they'd be spending a lot of time together.
Maybe he should keep the shrinking device with him. He didn't like to have it on his person, not with it charged and ready to fire, but he'd just have to be careful with it. He went to fetch it from the living room.
The device was gone.
The charging cradle was where he had left it on the bookcase shelf but the cradle was empty. He stared at it as if he could make the the shrinking device reappear if he looked hard enough. No dice. 'Gwen,' he called, an edge of fear in his voice. 'Gwen, come on out.'
'I don't think so,' her voice reached him from some hiding place. 'We can talk just fine the way it is. You stay where you are and don't come looking around.' A note of bitterness tinged her words, bitterness overlying a core of threat. He knew she had the shrinking device, where ever she was, in the hall or the kitchen, and he was in no hurry to find her.
'You don't know how it works,' he began. 'Let's be reasonable. We can co-operate on this.'
'Nobody knows how it works better than me,' she snorted. 'I've used it before. You know about that Marianne girl down at your shop.'
'Yeah, but you were just lucky and you know it. Look at what you've done to yourself.' Bryan liked to argue, even though he wasn't especially talented at it. 'I know how it's supposed to work. You don't, you won't always be lucky enough to get the range.' Right. Get the range right, he'd begun to say before he stopped himself. All was silent in the room.
'Thanks, Bryan,' she told him quietly. 'Now I know why it didn't work on you or your chippy last night. I was too far away, was I, out of range? Not close like I was with Marianne. Thanks, Bryan. I hadn't guessed that.' Silence reigned again.
After a few moments, he spoke again. 'What now? You'll never get close enough to me, not at the size you're at. I'd rather not hurt you but I'll swat you if I have to.'
'Oh yeah,' she replied scornfully. 'You'll swat me, eh? What do you suggest? That I give it to you?' Her laugh was filled with contempt.
'I know you won't do that. How about you use it on Patrice instead of me. I don't know how much you know about it but there's one charge left. We have to use it on somebody, it has a hair trigger and it's not safe to leave laying around. If it goes off on you at your size you might shrink and never stop. If you use it on Patrice, at least you'll have some company while I work on reversing it.'
What a horrible liar he was, Gwen thought. Pretending concern for her, promising to try to find a reversal. But the interesting thing was, he didn't know that she didn't need any reversal from him, that she was well on her way to full-size already.
'Maybe you're right,' she said at last. 'We don't want her running around telling stories. I'll use it on her. But how do we set her up for it? I don't trust you not to try to take it away from me.' And use it on me again. The unsaid thought hung in the air between them.
Bryan let out a slow breath and relaxed his shoulders slightly. Maybe, just maybe, he would get out of this. 'All right, here's what we'll do. I'll bring her out here, get her to sit on the couch and then I'll get away. I'll say I have to use the bathroom or something. Then you can come out from where ever it is you're hiding, get a few feet away from her, and shoot her with it. I won't hurt you afterwards, you know that.'
Gwen considered it. 'Okay,' she finally decided. 'But go straight to the bedroom and straight back. If you try to find me first, I'll shoot you with it instead.'
'Don't worry,' he told her. 'I'll bring her here just like I said.'
Bryan emerged from the bedroom a couple of minutes later, partially supporting Patrice, her arms hung around his neck. 'I think she's gone,' he assured her. 'The front door was open and there's no sign of her anywhere.'
'I hope so,' Patrice said sadly. 'I just want this whole thing
over with. If she's gone, we can be together and forget about her.
She won't come back, do you think?''
ìNo, I'm sure she's gone for good this time,' he lied, his eyes scanning
the floor, the corners, everywhere he thought Gwen might lie in wait.
They turned through the entrance to the living room, Patrice still clutching
his neck, when he heard a shuffle behind him. So she'd been hiding
in the study. But she couldn't get close enough in time, she was
too little to move that far that fast, he could stop her or at least get
away in time.
He hadn't even begun his spin around when he heard the POP of the device and felt a cold thrill near the base of his spine. He tried to push Patrice away, to scramble out of Gwen's line of fire but it was too late. His feet had no purchase on the floor and he felt a cool wave flow slowly over his body. One arm flailed in the air but, encumbered by Patrice's clinging body, he couldn't struggle very vigorously. He knew better than to threaten Gwen, or to plead. A thin, despairing cry escaped his lips, directed at no one.
Patrice felt the cold too, spreading first from Bryan's neck but followed immediately by another wave emanating from her waist and lower back. Almost absently she felt the contact of his bare skin on hers as their clothes rippled away, disappearing from their bodies. She half-stumbled as her feet lost contact with the floor and she twisted and locked her legs behind his, frantically clutching at him for support. She realized what must be happening to them and almost welcomed it, welcomed the release from tension and fear. Whatever happened, she'd be with Bryan, with a man not a woman. She opened her eyes and looked through the glow surrounding them, at walls and doors growing in size, at a shape hidden in the brightest section of glow that must be Gwen, now larger than they were and growing larger.
************* **************** **************
The apartment was empty when the phone rang. Gwen had cleaned out what she had to take, the money and papers she'd need, a few clothes. Bryan's box of equipment and papers along with her shrinking device were safely stashed in the car trunk, Bryan and Patrice safely stashed in the solid wooden box she'd found for them, with some cloth napkins and towels for warmth and padding. They'd ride together in the back seat, off to their new life together.
Patrice didn't understand; she still thought that she and Bryan would grow large again the way Marianne and Gwen had. To Patrice, this was an adventure now, a break from her day-to-day routine, while Bryan was still too shocked and angry to disabuse her of the notion that their new size was temporary. Gwen didn't care what either of them thought; she was concerned about a clean getaway; about how she could best exploit her marvelous new power. Once he'd adjusted, Bryan would be helpful; she was sure of it.
She'd taken the precaution of removing the recording tape from the answering machine but she'd left the phone plugged in. The voice from the speaker echoed in the empty room.
'Mr. Watson? Mr. Watson, what are you doing?' Gwen would have recognized the voice on the telephone; it was the same girl as on the answering tape. She sounded more nervous this time, just as scared but less mournful. The man's voice was speaking continuously in the background, spitting out angry syllables that Gwen wouldn't have recognized.
'The news is on the television here, Mr. Watson.' The girl paused as the incomprehensible invective in the background continued. 'He is very unhappy. You were supposed to be more discreet.' She paused again. 'You are still supposed to pay off your wager but after that...' The man's voice slowed and the strange words came out individually, like shots from a rifle. 'He says his co-operation with you is at an end. But you still must pay your wager.'
And then a long pause, followed by a distant crash. 'Mr. Watson.' Her voice now had a different, frantic edge to it. Another woman's voice shouted faintly in the background. 'Help me. Help us. No one knows but you. Please send help. Please.' The telephone connection broke and silence descended on the room.
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