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| Julie swung open the front door to the smiling face of Lindsey. She scowled at the scrawny blonde�s presence, an intrusion into her �quality time� with Rebecca. �What do you want, Lindsey?� �I want to see her.� �See who?� �Don�t play dumb,� she laughed. �I saw her through a crack in the bathroom door and I want to see your mother up close.� �Fine,� she allowed in surrender and led her to the den. �But I�m calling her by her first name now so she accepts her new place in my life.� Lindsey cooed over the minute woman and batted her around with a pinkie. �What�re ya doing for money?� �Rebecca was very stupid.� She leaned over the pet and lowered her breasts onto the diminished model. �Weren�t you the stupid one? That�s right you were.� Her voice had taken on the tone one uses when taking to a dog or cat. She stood back up and became more serious. �Rebecca added my name to her accounts when I turned sixteen and you wouldn�t believe how much she has in them. Just the interest will keep my partying until I�m thirty. She hasn�t made any noticeable complaints, so I rewarded her by making her four inches again.� Lindsey�s eyes widened, growing to maximum. She had heard the news stories from the nation�s capital and in Virginia, but always missed the details. �How?� �With this,� Julie answered, having pulled the ray from a secret hideaway. �No one else normal should know about this and Rebecca needs someone her size to talk to. You should�ve forgotten about it.� �I�m soorrryyyyy�� Lindsey shrieked. The impossibly tiny blonde fit that designation in a new way. She gasped as her former friend tossed her next to Rebecca. �Rebecca, you explain the rules to my new pet while I go to graduation rehearsal. And don�t worry about your boyfriend, Lindsey; I�ll make sure someone comforts him over your disappearance. Now you really have no breasts worth speaking of.� At rapt attention, she sat. Lauren�s focus was fixed on the box before her and the data it spewed out. The television, courtesy of the DVD player, was running her favorite Christmas special and she had to play the drinking game, with one significant variation. Poised between the golden-brown columns of her thighs was her special glass candy dish. The �candy� she had picked up the way home from Stacy�s squirmed and shrieked. Their numbers were diminishing faster than their sizes had. Girl after girl � chosen at random from benches, bus stops, and stoops � was hurled into the unforgiving maw without even the mercy of a quick demise between enameled walls. The only respite for those left behind at each turn came when Lauren paused the movie and swigged some vodka to cease the struggles within her stomach. The collegiate field hockey team regretted their trip to celebrate a winning season. Even the most optimistic members quickly accepted that none of them would be playing next season. They huddled together and dodged the fingers each time until it was over and they were the only women left uneaten. Lauren made a gesture to indicate being full and they briefly felt panic that their torment would be drawn out even further. The device that had shrunk them reappeared and the girls saw their world grow to even more terrifying proportions. Lauren disappeared into the distance beyond their range of sight until the ground shook and a rush of air yanked them into a pink cavern and down an ink-black tunnel. Two bodies intertwined in a competition for survival. Naked flesh pressed tight together and nipples rubbed off one another. The two shrunken women battled each other in the pan laden with ice water. The loser was pinned and Rachel, the victor, raised her arms in triumph. �You did very well, Little One,� Janel, her owner, said in reassurance. She was enjoying her precious gift. �Now to handle the loser.� She dropped the girl into the garbage disposal and ground her into a bloody paste that washed away. �Rest up, your next fight is in an hour.� Kylee kept her mind focused and tried to stay objective. Coughs, gasps, and unhealthy burps told her some other agents weren�t coping as well. Sadly, it was an even mix between veterans and rookies. She had to admit the computer video was disturbing, but she had survived worse. The boss spoke first. �She and a few friends, it seems, have obtained shrinking technology. A few days ago they began videotaping these wrestling events involving shrinking victims. As you have seen, other losers have gone through the blender and some the microwave. We�re in the process of finding the computer they send the video through. Most of the time, it seems to be a home computer. All we know definitively is that the ringleader is named Janel.� Alicia raised her hand and in the time spent waiting for acknowledgement she tried, unsuccessfully, to free her face from its twisted expression of pain and revulsion. �Why is there such a jump in the number of potentials and confirmed? Each one is up thirty percent,� she added, glancing at her notes. She noticed the discomfort permeating the room at the observation no one had wanted to voice. �Officially, the cases here and in Virginia Beach have inspired those with more twisted shrinking fantasies to seek out black-market devices and formulas. What I�ll tell all of you now is something previously known only to select top agents.� He paused for dramatic effect, taking in the expecting glances of all present except those in the know. �One person, or one group, is behind the distribution of over ninety-nine percent of al shrinking technology we�ve dealt with in the last five years. Agent Kylee will tell you more,� he added, uncomfortable with the shock and murmurs rippling throughout the briefing room and eager to leave. �Now everyone just shut your pieholes,� the tenacious blonde barked out once he had exited. �I�ll admit it looks bad: we don�t know who they are or how they�re obtaining the materials. Getting upset will not do one fucking bit of good. Stay level-headed, remember your training, rely on your instincts, and remind yourselves that whoever it is will be stopped.� That settled them down, and Kylee launched into the rest of the briefing. Her pets were anxious, scratching to be let out. Their faint whimpers trickled into her ears and shattered her solitude. Her work would have to wait as she left her office. She hated having something around so uncaring to the needs of others. She needed to finish her work and needed peace to do so. They only ever got that way when she was closest to a breakthrough. Such was the way when you owned pets, but she was tired of it. A stiletto hastily skewered one as a warning to the others. They took the hint and ceased their efforts to climb the walls of the fish tank. She dropped the weapon outside the tank with the tiny girl impaled on it as a reminder. The girl�s lifeless eyes were frozen wide in shock and stared back at her former roommates. They reeled back and kept to the other side of their clear prison. Their gazes would never drift over there again. She returned to her work, confident that there would be no further distractions. The schematics and formulas stared back at her, giving up none of their secrets. The itching in her mind she had felt before the interruption was gone. The woman picked her favorite toy from her cleavage and caressed the soft warm thing. �Did you know that the shrink ray was invented first? You would think the chemical, but no. You need to saturate every atom of the subject rapidly and that is best accomplished through a beam of coherent energy.� Her pet cast her glance upwards, not comprehending a word. |
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