Four students from the high school were missing. There were posters up all over town with their pictures, and police had led search parties through the woods and fields looking for any sign of bodies and found nothing. Now, police cars were on regular patrol around the neighborhoods, searching for a serial kidnapper.

So far, there had been no leads. The police had questioned one man who had traveled through town recently, but he was soon cleared of any guilt and sent on his way. That meant that the kidnapper was someone in town. Now, people eyed each other suspiciously. They peeked over fences and into basement windows, hunting for any evidence that one of their neighbors was the guilty one. Still, no one had found anything.

Some people believed that the students had just run away from home. That might have made sense if they had disappeared all at once, but they had vanished one after another about a week apart. Also, there was no sign that any of their things were missing. None of them had packed a bag or even an extra pair of clothes. In two cases, the students had even owned cars, but those cars were still sitting right were they had left them.

Students were tense in the high school. They walked or drove to school and home again in groups of three or more, too afraid to be caught alone by the kidnapper. They refused to wait alone at bus stops. They even went to the bathroom in groups.

Kyle was no exception. He planned to walk home that day with a pair of his friends. They were all unfortunate in that none of them had a car yet. Still, as nervous as were, they were not scared enough to stoop to riding the bus the short distance to their homes.

They figured that they could probably handle anyone that tried to take one of them. Not that they were very tough, but they were on the cross country team and could easily escape anyone who chased them. At least, they had been on the cross country team, before after-school activities had been cancelled. Now, they were stuck hanging out indoors after school everyday. No one was allowed to go out with friends and no dates either. Not that Kyle had been on many of those, but it sucked that he was not even allowed to try.

Today had normally been one of their practice days, and so, out of habit, they were hanging around the building a bit late just talking. Eventually, once the building had grown a bit too quiet for their comfort, they decided to leave.

“Want to go to my house today?” Alex asked as they walked down an empty hallway.

“Okay,” Jake said. “But, I need a ride home later. New rules, I can’t even walk down the block anymore without a chaperone.”

“This sucks,” Kyle said as they exited the building. “We’re practically adults, but we’re stuck going on play dates with our parents like preschoolers.”

“Probably won’t last much longer,” Alex said. “Whoever the kidnapper is will slip up soon. Someone will catch him.”

“John Wayne Gacy managed to kill 33 teenage boys before he was caught,” Jake said.

“What?” Kyle asked.

“I’ve been reading up on serial killers,” Jake explained. “What can I say? I was curious. Turns out, Gacy kept it up for years, and no one had any idea. He was killing them and burying them under his house. You know, he used to dress up like a clown… like for kids parties.”

“Creepy,” Alex said.

“Come on,” Jake said. “We can hang out at my place tonight. My parents will drive you two home.”

Kyle noticed a girl about their age standing alone on the street corner near the school. She was looking around nervously and kept glancing down at her phone. “Hey,” he said. “You guys know her?”

“Oh,” Alex said. “I think that’s Nichole. Doesn’t she live just down the street from you?”

“That’s Nichole?” Kyle said in surprise. He remembered playing with the girl when they were kids. They had drifted apart during middle school, and he had not noticed her for a while. “Wow,” he said. “She’s…”

“...Hot?” Jake suggested.

“Kind of,” Kyle admitted. Nichole had really grown up and filled out. He realized he had seen her in the hall recently and not recognized her. He remembered checking out her chest and noticing her wearing odd necklaces lately, cheap fake costume jewelry with large brightly colored plastic gems in them. Every time he had noticed her, she had on a different colored one.

“You want to check up on her?” Alex said. “See if she’s okay?”

“I guess someone should,” Kyle said.

“Oooh,” Jake said. “You should totally make a move on her. You know? Be cool about it though. Don’t creep her out.”

“What?” Kyle said. He could feel himself starting to blush.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “This is a good chance for you to get to know her again. Maybe you’ll have a shot with her then. She’s nervous and alone. You could be her big damn hero.”

Jake and Alex both gave each other a look and then gave Kyle a quick shove towards the girl.

“Hey!” Kyle said. “Cut it out, you two.”

“Go,” Jake said. “We’ll head home without you.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Wouldn’t want to cock block you, dude.”

“Wait, I’m not going to...” Kyle started to say, but his friends had already started running off down the street together.

Kyle sighed and headed for Nichole. He was careful to take loud steps when he got close to her so as not to startle her.

“Hey,” he said, when he got close. “Nicole?”

She let out a little yelp and turned to face him with her arms held up defensively in front of her. “Who is it?” she asked.

“It’s Kyle,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “...from down the street.”

“Kyle?” she said and squinted at him as if she did not recognize him. Then, her body relaxed and she let out a sigh. “Oh, Thank God it’s you. I was waiting for my friends, but…”

“They ditched you?” he asked.

“Looks like it,” she said. “And, my phone just died too.” She held it up showing off the blank screen.

“That sucks,” he said. “Well, I guess I could walk you home. I mean, we’re going the same way.”

Nichole smiled. “That’d be great,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

He smiled back nervously. She was even prettier than he remembered. “Come on,” he said. She picked up her bag, and they headed down the street together side by side.

“Been a while since we’ve talked,” she said.

“Yeah,” Kyle said. He felt like he should say more but he was feeling a bit tongue tied. He settled on simple small talk. “How’ve you been?”

“Okay, I guess.”

“Yeah, me too.” Then, there was a extended silence while they walked down the sidewalk together. He felt painfully awkward next to her, and every second the silence continued only made the feeling worse. Mentally, he told himself to calm down. When he looked at her, he realized that she seemed to be feeling just as awkward about the situation as himself. “You worried?” he asked.

“About the kidnapper?” she asked. “Yeah. I mean, of course. It’s kind of freaky. I even knew one of the girls he took.”

“That sucks,” he said. “Sorry to hear that. It’s kind of freaking me out too.”

“Yeah.”

“At least we’re not alone.”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s nice to have a guy to walk home with.” She walked a little closer to him.

“So,” he said. “You don’t normally have a guy to walk you home?”

“Are you trying to find out if I’m single?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I just figured that you wouldn’t have any trouble finding a guy to walk you home. I imagine a lot of guys would be happy to do it.”

“Aw,” she said. “Thank you. That’s actually kind of sweet.”

Kyle smiled and hoped he was not blushing. As they walked, he tried to remember what he knew about Nichole, searching for something to talk about. He thought about the girl she had been, a bit of a tomboy, happy to get muddy and play rough. She was a bit weird as well. She liked wearing odd colors, mismatching socks and even shoes sometimes. Other times, she had her hair put up in too many pigtails, sometimes as many as four at a time. Then, there was her grandma, the grumpy old lady with the funny accent that no one could place. All the kids used to spread rumors that she was a witch. Even though her grandma had been a bit cold to Kyle at times, she had never been mean, just a bit distant.

“How’s you grandma?” Kyle asked. “I haven’t seen her around in a while.”

“Oh,” Nichole said. “Baba passed on.”

“Sorry,” he said.

She shrugged. “She was old. It was her time. I miss her, though,” she said and put a hand on her necklace. This necklace seemed like more of an antique than the other ones he had seen her wearing.

“That’s a nice necklace,” he commented.

“Oh,” she said, letting go of it. “Actually, it belonged to Baba. I wear it to remember her when I start missing her. Makes me feel closer to her again.” Kyle noticed that the gem in this necklace had a deep pink color to it.

“And, the other necklaces...?”

“Well,” she said. “I started wearing one to remember that one girl I knew after she went missing. I thought it would help me like wearing Baba’s necklace helped me when I was missing her. Then, more kids went missing, and I started wearing more necklaces.”

“I see,” he said. They walked past a telephone pole, and he noticed a pair of missing person posters on it.

“I guess that’s kind of weird,” she admitted. “I bet people talk about it. I don’t know. It helps me, though.”

“It’s not weird,” he said. “I get it.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

He smiled back.

“You know,” she said. “You’re cuter than I remember.”

“Uh,” he said, but before he could respond, a bright light shone on them from behind.

They turned around, and Kyle shaded his eyes with a hand as Nichole half hid behind him taking his other arm in her hands and pulling him close to her. Their hearts beat frantically as they squinted at the source of the spotlight.

“Where are you two kids heading?” a man’s voice questioned them over a loudspeaker. It was a cop car, Kyle realized.

“We’re heading home,” Nichole said.

“It’s just about a mile away,” Kyle added.

“Don’t loiter around here at this hour,” the cop said over the speaker. “It’s getting dark. Make sure you get inside soon.”

“We will,” she said.

The cop shut off the spotlight and drove off slowly down the street past them.

As Kyle’s eyes adjusted to the evening light, he realized that the sun was already setting. It really was starting to get dark.

Then, he noticed that Nichole was still holding his arm. Her hands slid down his arm, and then she held his hand in her own.

“Come on,” she said, pulling him forward.

“Right,” he said as he followed her lead.

They walked together, hand in hand, until they reached a street corner. Nichole suddenly stopped walking, startling Kyle, who had been focused on the feel of her skin against his own.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Look,” she said, and he looked ahead to where she was staring.

There was a man approaching them on the sidewalk from the opposite direction. He had a shadow of beard stubble on his face and was wearing a long coat. His eyes swept around him, seemingly searching for something.

Then, the man’s eyes focused on the two of them.

“Do you know him?” Nichole asked.

“No,” Kyle admitted. “Never seen him before.”

“What do we do?” Nichole asked as she tightened her grip on his hand.

“This way,” he said, and led her down the side street away from the strange man.

“Should we run?” she asked.

“Let’s just walk for now. If he starts following us… well…”

“Yeah,” she said.

They walked down the street, and Kyle kept peeking over his shoulder. Then, he saw the man turn the corner and follow them down the street.

“Okay,” Kyle said. “He might be following us now.”

“What?” she said and peeked behind her. “Oh, God.” Her eyes searched around. “Where’s that cop car when we need it?”

“Maybe he lives on this street. Maybe we’re just walking the same way.”

“Or, maybe he’s the kidnapper,” she whispered. “Do you want to chance it?”

“No,” Kyle whispered. “You want to run for it?”

“Yeah, we can cut through the yards.”

“Okay, just say when you’re ready to go.”

She waited until they were between a pair of houses and said, “Now.”

She bolted for the gap between the houses, and Kyle followed close behind her. Neither of them looked back as they ran over the lawns and through some trees, branches scraping against them, until they reached the next street over. They turned down the street, their street, and jogged for home, repeatedly checking behind their shoulders.

“Did we lose him?” Nichole asked between panting breaths.

“I don’t see him,” Kyle replied. He was hardly winded. Running was his thing, after all.

“We should get indoors,” she said.

“We could go to my house,” he suggested.

“My house is closer,” she said. “Come on.” She jogged up to her front door and Kyle followed her. After fumbling with her keys for a moment, she succeeded in opening the door, and then the two of them were inside her dark house with a locked door between them and the stranger. Feeling safer again, they took a moment to catch their breath.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m a little shook up, but I’m okay.”

“Good,” he said. “Well, looks like I managed to get you home. Sorry it was so exciting. I guess I should be going, unless you want to…”

“Wait,” she said. “Duck!” She crouched beneath windows on the front door.

He copied her and crouched beside her. “What is it?” he whispered.

“I think I just saw him on the street,” she whispered back. He could hear the fear in her voice.

“He followed us?”

“Maybe,” she said.

“Did he see us?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do we do?”

“Follow me,” she said and took his hand again. She guided him upstairs in the dark, as he stumbled up the steps behind her.

“Is there anyone else home?” he asked.

“My mom’s at work. She’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Why are we going upstairs?”

“He might see us on the ground floor. Besides, I want as many doors between him and us as I can get.”

Nichole opened a door, and flicked on a light switch, causing her bedroom to be illuminated by strands of colorful Christmas lights strung around the walls. She dragged him inside and shut the door behind them.

“There,” she said. “That feels better.” She set her book bag down next to her bed.

Kyle stood there a moment in silence as he took in the fact that he was alone with her in her bedroom. Quite an achievement in itself. The circumstances were not ideal, but here they were, all by themselves in her house, standing right next to her bed. As nervous as he was about the man outside,  he was equally as nervous about spending time with a cute girl in her bedroom. He reminded himself of his friends’ advice. Be cool. Don’t be a creep. If something is going to happen, be ready for it, but don’t be too pushy.

She sighed and took a seat on her bed.

Kyle just stood there, not really knowing what to do next. He wanted to sit down, but worried that that might be a bit aggressive. Still, standing there felt kind of wrong as well. He looked around her room instead. There was not much remarkable about it. He noticed some of the books on her shelves and recognized the brand of laptop she used. He saw that she had hung most of her necklaces from one headpost of her bed. There was a single necklace with a green gem hung from the other headpost.

“You feel like sitting down?” she asked. “Or are you just going to stand there looking around awkwardly?”

“What?” he said. “I’m not…”

“It’s alright,” she said. “You can sit on my bed. Permission granted.”

“Okay,” he said and quietly cheered in his head. “I mean, I don’t mind standing.” Kyle set his book bag down and took a seat on the bed, leaving a few feet of distance between them.

“I get it,” she said. “You want to be a gentleman. You don’t want to assume you can sit on my bed. I respect that. A lot of guys would be trying to make a move on me or something.”

“Uh,” he said. “Yeah, I suppose some would.”

“Not you, though,” she said. “After all, you already did.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.

“What?” she said and smiled. “You don’t remember?”

“I guess not,” he admitted.

“Oh, wow,” she said. “And, here I thought that it was a major moment for both of us.”

“What was it? Something from when we were kids?”

“Yeah,” she said and giggled. It was an attractive laugh. “I think we were, like, nine or ten. We were hanging out in the backyard, and you just flat out asked me to be your girlfriend.”

“What?!” he said. “I really don’t remember that at all.”

“I do,” she said. “I said I would be, and then I gave you a kiss, right on the lips.”

Kyle focused his mind on the memories of the time they spent together. He could vaguely remember that day, but he had no recollection of the kiss. “Really?” he said.

She nodded. “I swear. I remember it well, too, because that was my first kiss. Was it your first kiss?”

“It must have been,” he said. “I think I got nervous about the whole thing and tried to forget it happened at all.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Funny thing was that we didn’t see each other much after that. I guess you did get spooked.”

“I guess.”

“I missed you,” she said, sadly. “You were one of my best friends.”

Kyle did not know how to respond. “I’m sorry,” he eventually replied. “I didn’t mean to hurt you or anything.”

“I know,” she said. “At least I have you here now.”

“Yeah,” he said.

She slid a little closer to him on the bed. “Want to pick up where we left off?”

“Uh,” he said.

Suddenly they heard a loud thud from just outside her bedroom door, as if something heavy had fallen down in the hallway. Nichole shrieked, and they both jumped up from the bed and stepped away from the door.

“What was that?” she asked from behind his back.

“I don’t know,” he said. His heart was racing. Could there be someone in the house? They had not heard anyone breaking in.

“What do we do?” she asked.

Kyle wanted to hide, but he found some courage in the realization that he had to protect Nichole if he could. “I’ll check in the hallway,” he said and slowly tiptoed to the door.

“Careful,” she said, following a few feet behind him.

He opened the door a crack and then a bit more. Carefully, he poked his head out of the room. The hallway was dark and silent now. He could even hear the sound of them breathing.

“H-hello?” he said. “Is there someone there?”

No answer. Just silence.

“I have a gun,” he lied, trying to sound tough. “You better get out of here if you don’t want to get shot.”

Silence.

Kyle took a step forward, and stopped when he heard an ungodly shriek, which caused him to jump into the air. Nichole flipped on the hallway light, and the two of them spotted the black figure of a housecat crouched on the floor in front of them, staring at them with green eyes. It hissed at them and ran off down the stairs.

Nichole burst out laughing. “Oh, my God!” she said. “I nearly had a heart attack. It was just Leo.”

There was a book on the floor that must have fallen off a shelf in the hallway. Nichole put it back.

“That stupid cat scared me half to death,” she said and looked back at Kyle. “You alright? You look a bit pale.”

“I-I think I want to sit down,” he said, feeling like his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

“Come on,” she said, leading him back into her room and shutting the door again behind them. Then, she walked him to the bed and gently pushed him down on it. Suddenly, she took his shoes off, and helped lift his legs up onto her bed. Before he knew what was happening, he was lying on her bed. That was freaking him out almost as much as the cat had.

“Rest there a minute until you calm down,” she said. “You were very brave.”

“Thanks,” he said, but he found it hard to rest knowing where he was lying.

She gazed at him a moment with a faint smile on her lips. Then, she seemed more somber, as if she had just decided something serious. She climbed on top of him and pressed her lips to his in a deep kiss that took him by surprise. He kissed her back, and immediately they started to make out.

It was wonderful, everything Kyle hoped it would be. Nichole was all over him, and his hands were all over her. She started shedding her clothes piece by piece, and he followed suit. Soon they were in their underwear, skin pressed against skin in a lurid embrace.

He was getting hard, and there was no way she could miss that with her on top of him. She undid her bra, giving him his first look at a girl’s breasts in person. Still, she wore the antique necklace with the pink gem, which glinted in the dim light of the room just above her beautiful breasts. He had never gotten this far with a girl before and had to concentrate on not blowing his load too soon. In the back of his mind, he was still struggling to believe that this was actually happening. He was going to do it, and she was so hot.

Their underwear came off, and she paused to look at him. Then, she muttered something.

“What?” he asked, thinking she might be saying something about putting on a condom.

“It’s nothing,” she said and kissed him, shutting him up. He could feel the cool necklace she wore resting on his chest.

Then, she slid him inside of her, and his mind exploded with pleasure. She was so tight and wet and warm that he felt like he would melt in her. She rode on him gently, slowly, while he focused on making it last as long as he could.

He gazed up at her. She was so beautiful, so perfect. She practically glowed. In fact, the gem in her necklace really did seem to be glowing now.

She loomed above him like a goddess, and he felt her press down on him more and more heavily.

She loosened up inside, and he started to feel strangely small beneath her. He could have sworn he was taller than her before, but now she seemed to be at least as tall as he had been, maybe even taller. Her weight seemed to be almost crushing him now as well.

“Nichole,” he said. “You’re so…”

“Shh,” she shushed him and put a finger on his lips. She said. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

“But,” he said. He was struggling to believe what he was seeing. Now she seemed to be almost twice as big as him, and she seemed to be growing even larger. He slipped out of her, and she slid one of her growing fingers inside of herself to replace him. The gem in her necklace was shining as bright as a light bulb now.

“What the hell?” he said as his mind tried to comprehend what was happening. She was turning into a giant woman. She was so big now that he thought she might burst through the ceiling, but the ceiling seemed to be getting higher as well. In fact, the whole room seemed to be growing bigger to fit her inside.

Then, he realized the horrible truth. “I’m shrinking!”

“More,” she said from high above him as her fingers slid deeper into herself. She began to massage her massive breasts with her other hand. “More!” she cried between panting breaths.

With every second that passed, she seemed to grow relatively larger and larger. Soon she seemed to be as tall as a house, dwarfing him below her.

Once she stopped resting on top of him, he tried to crawl out from underneath her, but she held him down gently but firmly with a hand almost half as big as his body. “Nichole!” he cried. “Let me go!” he pushed against her massive fingers, but he could barely budge them. “Stop this!” Her fingers only became relatively larger and heavier, keeping him trapped beneath her.

“It’s okay,” she said between pants. “It’s okay. Stay. More.”

“Why are you doing this?” he cried as he realized that he was completely surrounded by her thighs now.

“Good,” she said. “More.”

She let her hand go from him, and began massaging her titanic tits again. He considered running, but he realized that to him she was already the size of a tall building. She would just catch him before he got out of her arms’ reach.

“Please,” he cried. “Don’t do this.”

“Good,” she said and looked over at the necklaces on her headpost, angling her body to face them. Then, she gazed back down at him lovingly from half-closed eyes. “More,” she said.

Although he doubted she was even listening to him anymore, he asked, “What did I do?”

“More.”

“Why me?”

“More!”

Her massive fingers plunged into a vagina that could swallow him now, which dripped with enough juices to drown him. Every twitch of her mountainous body shook the bed beneath him like an earthquake. Meanwhile, far above, the hills of her breasts were fondled under her other massive hand. And, on top of it all, was her face, gazing down at him with lust and adoration.

He was too terrified to speak. She grew and grew as he cowered on the bed beneath her. She was as large as the biggest building he had ever seen and still growing. He could only compare her to a part of the landscape now: her legs, a the walls of a deep canyon; her torso, the cliff face of a mountain; her breasts, a pair of massive overhanging round cliffs protruding from the mountain; and her head, the summit of the mountain. And, at the center of it all, just above her heart, was the pink glowing of her necklace.

Her thrusting fingers picked up their pace, and she chanted, “Yes, yes, yes…”  The world shook around Kyle, and he thought she might crush him accidentally. Then, she came with a final shuddering of her hips. She collapsed on her back, like an avalanche, leaving him trapped between the canyon walls of her legs.

The bed shook with each breath she took, and he realized that he was no longer shrinking. He looked up at her body, to where the canyon walls met at her hairy crotch. He could not even see her breasts from his perspective now. She would not be able to see him either. He took off running the other way, towards her ankles and feet, and hopefully, to freedom.

But, it was not long before realized that there was not much point in running. Even with his runner’s stamina and speed, it had taken a minute to reach her knees. By the time he reached her calves, he had slowed down. He considered his situation. Even if he managed to escape her somehow, what would he do then? Hide in her room? Sneak out and run home? He doubted he could even get off of her bed, and if he did, getting out of her house would be tricky with that cat of hers roaming around. Plus, there was the biggest problem of all, getting home. His house was about a block away. At his size, that would be miles and miles. It would take days to get home, and all the while as he traveled he would be in danger of being accidentally crushed or eaten by some kind of wild animal. Running away like this would be suicide.

He stopped, and sat down, and started to cry quietly.

The world shook again as he felt her sitting up. Then, the ground twisted and turned beneath him, tumbling him wildly around on the bed. When he felt that he was on firmer ground again, he looked up to see Nichole standing on the bed above him.

To him, she appeared to be a thousand feet all. Her feet were planted firmly on each side of him, and he realized she could crush him to death with even her pinky toe. He was filled with utter hopelessness and a sense of awe at her unfathomable power. There was no way to fight her, no way to resist. There was nothing he could do, but hope and pray she would spare his life.

She crouched down above him, and he felt himself relieve his bladder as her massive face approached him. Just the distance from her eyes to her mouth seemed to be at least a hundred feet. She smiled at him with teeth as big as he was, and reached for him with her huge fingers. He braced himself as he waited for her to crush him, but she only held him gently between thumb and index finger and then set him down on her other palm.

She held him up to her eye, and he stared at her iris, noticing the complex textures and colors that made up her blue eye color. Then, he gazed deep into the dark heart of her eye, and realized it was large enough that he could live within it… or drown within it. She lowered him from her face and stepped down from the bed.

He watched her retrieve the one necklace with the green gem that had been hanging alone from the headpost of her bed. She lifted him up to her breast and tipped her hand, dropping him on top of it. Thankfully, her sweaty skin kept him from sliding down off of her breast to the floor far below. He watched as she pulled the clear green plastic of the rectangular gem off of the metal back of it’s base. She held the half gem shape up to him with the open side up, like a giant empty swimming pool. Then, she pushed him off her breast and inside of the concave plastic. He sat on the cold plastic and watched as the base of the necklace was lowered above him. With a loud click, the two parts of the necklace were snapped together again, trapping him inside. She let the necklace dangle from it’s chain causing him to tumble to the bottom of the plastic gem.

He felt a bit queasy as she walked with his necklace prison swinging from its chain. He watched as she approached the other headpost with all of her other necklaces hanging from it. Then, his view swung around as she hung his necklace from the headpost next to the other ones. He looked out through the green plastic at the other necklaces he could see. In one necklace, there was a naked boy of about his age pressing his face against the inside of his plastic gem, to get a good look at Kyle. They stared at each other sadly for a moment. Then, Kyle looked to his other side another necklace and saw a naked girl sitting in her plastic gem, with her back turned to Nichole and the rest of the world. He recognized them both from the missing person posters, and he guessed that he would find the other missing students trapped inside the necklaces he could not see.

Outside and above them all, the titanic nude form of Nichole stood there with a benevolent smile on her face as she admired her collection, leaving Kyle to wonder how long it would be before she wore him to school around her neck.

***

Kyle looked out from the green plastic of his gem at the world moving outside. It had been over a week since he had gone missing, and Nichole had finally chosen to wear him to school. He hung from her neck, just above the vast crevice of her cleavage, watching as she walked past other students the same size as she was, through the enormous landscape of the school Kyle had once known. Everything seemed familiar, until things got too close, and he was reminded of the terrible truth that he was barely the size of a ant now. Beneath it all, he could feel the rhythmic thump of her giant heart and the steady rising and falling of her rib cage as she breathed.

Still, as terrifying as it might be at times, he was happy to be back. This was the most entertainment Kyle had experienced since he had been shrunk, if you ignored all the times that Nichole masturbated in front her neckalces, while gazing lovingly at all of her miniscule captives.

Nichole never spoke to her shrunken prisoners. She never explained anything. She just pleasured herself in front of them and then went about her days as any normal teenage girl might do: working on homework, reading, watching videos on her phone, getting dressed and undressed, sleeping... Every morning, she fed them on some kind of coarse powder and gave them a single massive drop of water to drink and clean themselves, while she washed out their gems. For few precious moments each day, he realized how much he had missed color as his whole view of the world was green most of the time, but, all too soon, she locked him back in his green plastic prison again.

And then, there were the long boring times when she was gone, taking one of her necklaces with her and leaving the rest of them in her room. Kyle had entertained the idea of escaping again, but thought better of it after Leo, her cat, had visited Nichole’s room and gave her necklaces a terrifying sniff with his gigantic nose.

Kyle had tried communicating with the other captives, but they could not hear each other at all through all the plastic between them. He tried miming and charades, but none of that was not very helpful either. Eventually, he gave up, and they just went on living as if they were alone in their little not-so-private gem worlds.

As Nichole went about her day, Kyle hoped that someone would notice him inside the necklace. Unfortunately, Nichole hardly spoke to anyone, and the few friends she had never even looked at the necklace.

As the school day neared its end, Kyle watched as Nichole walked up to some missing person posters on the wall. He saw himself on one, his picture printed as tall as a movie screen. It was not a photo that he would have preferred to be remembered by, but he was glad that someone was looking for him.

“Nichole,” a voice said.

She turned around and Kyle saw Alex and Jake standing there, his old friends. Jake was even holding a stack of posters with Kyle’s face on them.

“Jake!” Kyle screamed and pounded on the plastic of his gem. “Alex! I’m here! I’m in here!” He waved his hands side to side, trying to catch their attention. If they saw him, he thought, maybe they could rescue him from her. Someone might even be able to force her to turn all her captives back to normal. Kyle had to make them see him. He waved. He jumped around and screamed his lungs out. “Please see me!”

“Hi,” Nichole said to his friends, who had not yet even glanced at Kyle.

“Hi,” Jake said.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“We wanted to talk to you,” Alex said.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “We know the cops had talked to you about Kyle.”

“Yeah,” she said with a hint of sadness in her voice. “I told them everything I knew. There was this guy following us, but we ran. He he got me home, and we thought we had lost the guy. Then, Kyle left on his own. I don’t know what happened to him after that.”

Kyle though back to the visit the police had paid to Nichole’s room. They had been searching for any signs that Kyle had been in there. Of course, Nichole had taken care of Kyle’s belongings by then. Before her mother had come home the night he had been shrunk, Nichole had placed all of his things on the wooden floor inside some kind of chalk circle with magic runes written around it. Then, she had chanted some words, and all of his belongings had caught fire. Yet, there was no smoke, only flames. And instead of burning, his clothes and shoes and bag just shrank down smaller and smaller until they disappeared, and the flames went out, leaving no trace that he had ever been in there at all.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else you remember?” Jake asked.

“No,” she said. “I’m sorry. I can’t think of anything else.” Then, she made a sound like she was starting to cry. “This is all my fault,” she said.

“No,” Alex said.

“It is. He wouldn’t have been out there alone if it wasn’t for me,” she said, sounding as though she was really crying now.

Jake and Alex looked at each other with guilt in their eyes.

“It’s okay,” Jake said. “We all should have stuck with him.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “We never should have left without him. Don’t blame yourself.”

She cried a bit more and sniffled and said, “Thank you.”

Jake looked at her, and then he looked down at Kyle, seemingly straight at him.

“Jake!” Kyle screamed. “It’s me!” He waved his arms and jumped around like crazy. “I’m here! Get me out of here!”

Then, Jake looked away awkwardly, and Kyle realized that Jake had only been peeking at her cleavage and had probably not even noticed the necklace at all.

“Let us know if you think of anything else,” Alex said.

“I will,” she said, recovering her composure again. “I will.”

Then, Kyle’s friends turned and left, and Kyle slumped to the bottom of his gem prison and broke down into tears. For a moment, Kyle had found some last shred of hope. Now, it was all gone.

The necklace shook, as a dark shadow appeared above him. Kyle looked up to see her giant fingers touching the gem, caressing it gently. She looked back at Kyle’s poster again for a moment and then walked away.

Kyle rested at the bottom of the gem and watched the world move by outside again, resigning himself to the fact that this would be his only experience of the world outside of her bedroom from now on.

After a short while, he realized that Nichole seemed to be tailing one girl around the building. He had seen the girl earlier in the day more than once. Now, it was clear that Nichole was actively following her. Kyle wanted to warn the girl, but he had finally given up on trying to do anything. There was nothing he could do. Nothing at all.

Kyle thought back to the day before, when Nichole had hung a new necklace from the empty headpost of her bed. He had wondered if it was occupied. Now, he was sure that it was empty. He knew that it was waiting for a new student to join the list of the missing.