"No doubt." Scott felt like he'd been run over by a truck. And not just because of the four beers. He'd never seen Jake so...well, so down. D.X. was the sort of guy who was generally upbeat, the sort of guy who could take a six irregulars into the heart of the League, and make everyone believe that they could win.
"Good thing I don't have class tomorrow morning. I think I probably need to be there. It sounds like he needs some people to talk to."
Scott sat down next to her. And then quickly embraced her. Jake's story was also bringing up some old wounds. Scott had been orphaned, too. And shrunk against his will. At least he'd found Sarah.
Thank God he'd found Sarah.
* * *
"So do you feel better for telling him?"
"A little. I just want to get free of it. There's a piece of me stuck there, Teri. And I've been trying like Hell to free it. I just want to free it. Or cut it off."
"No Jake," said Teri. "You don't want to cut it off. You don't want to lose your connection to Madison. It's part of who you are, and part of what you do."
Jake sighed. "Teri, I love you," he said into the phone.
"I know," she said, quietly. "I love you too. Pick me up at the airport at five?"
"I'll be there," said Jake. They said their goodbyes, and he hung up the cell phone.
He looked at the gate of the cemetery. It had been a while since he'd been here to visit her. It was late, and the gates were locked, but that was hardly a problem. He shrunk the car until he could drive it under the gate, and proceeded a ways in before restoring it to the size of a remote control car.
He drove the paths by feel. He knew exactly where he was headed. Finally, he stopped at a corner of the cemetary, near a stand of willows.
He exited the car and restored his height to full. "Claris," he said softly. The guard was watching TV, and eating pizza; it would be a while before she did a round. He walked forward, and saw them.
Donald Andrew Thiessen, born July 8, 1948, died August 12, 1991
Mary Elizabeth Thiessen, born October 4, 1948, died March 4, 1988
Melinda Elizabeth Thiessen, born March 11, 1970, died December 4, 1989
And Jake fell to his knees, and he cried.
* * *
And the dreams came.
"Little One," she said to him, "did you never love me?"
"Of course I loved you."
"Then why did you try to kill me?"
...Try to kill her. There it was again. Her insistance that she was alive. In his dream, he tried to initiate the "Claris" spell, but to no avail. No, she was surely dead.
"It doesn't matter, Little One. Only a few more days."
* * *
The office was a little more somber than usual. Scott and Sarah were chatting about the daily news, the run-up to war. They had barely noticed the time--had they, they would have seen that D.X. was late. That's unusual.
A few minutes later, he appeared, bearing a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and some juice. "Sorry, guys, it was a weird night last night. Here, enjoy," he said, dropping the food on the conference table.
Scott and Sarah filed in, both took a donut, and both sat down. And waited. D.X. smiled. "So...story time, eh?"
Scott chuckled. "Well, I've brought Sarah up to speed...."
"Oky doky. So let's see," said D.X., munching a donut. "Where were we?"
* * *
I awoke disoriented. I sat up, and instantly regretted it.
I was still in the drawer that Liz had put me in.
I had been secretly hoping she'd unshrink me while I was asleep, leave me to think that it had been some odd dream. But she hadn't.
The drawer was open a crack. Carefully, I crept to the edge. I could reach the top if I stretched. Doing my best, I pulled myself up. I found to my surprise that it was not as difficult as it would have been if scaling a similar wall full-sized. I pulled myself onto my elbows, and looked around the room.
It was a pretty standard dorm room in Elizabeth Waters Hall, the all-women's dorm. "The Virgin Vault," I snorted derisively under my breath; of course, that wasn't quite true. And, backtracking in my mind, I realized that if my sister had been living in an all-women's dorm, she might be alive today.
Liz was nowhere to be seen; she must have awakened and headed to class. I was surprised I hadn't awakened when she had.
The door swung open, and I prepared to drop--if Liz was returning, she might not be happy to see me halfway out of the drawer.
But it wasn't Liz. Instead, it was a gorgeous Asian woman with her hair wet, wearing a robe and carrying a massive container with bath products.
I probably should've called out to her, but I was too stunned. Especially a few moments later, when she took off her robe.
The woman--I would later learn her name was Sue--looked thoughtful for a moment, and then walked over and locked the door. Walking back to her bed, she laid down, and spread her thighs, and dropped a hand between them.
I gasped as I watched her work on herself. She was just masturbating--but it was awe-inspiring, watching this giant beauty work on herself. As she finished, I found myself rock-hard, gasping for breath. She simply finished, and after a moment or two of afterglow, she got up and dressed, and unceremoniously exited.
I dropped back into the drawer. I wasn't sure what the implications of this were. I didn't want to be three inches tall forever.
But I didn't mind the show.
* * *
It wasn't too much longer before Liz entered. She walked over to the drawer, and smiled down at me. "GOOD, YOU'RE UP. SORRY TO NOT BE HERE, BUT I HAD CLASS."
I looked up at her, awed by her beauty. She had obviously just gotten out of bed and rushed off to class--her hair was pulled up in a pony tail, and her face was bereft of makeup.
"No problem," I replied, stretching. "I just woke up a few minutes ago."
"I BROUGHT YOU SOME BREAKFAST. SCRAMBLED EGGS. I HOPE YOU LIKE THEM--THOUGHT THEY MIGHT BE EASY FOR YOU TO EAT."
"Thanks," I said, meaning it. I was hungry. I had another urgent need, as well.
"I also kinda, uh...."
"WHAT IS IT? DID YOU WANT SOMETHING ELSE TO EAT?"
"No! No. It's not that. It's...."
"OH. OH! OF COURSE. UM--ARE YOU TOO MODEST TO USE A PLANT?"
* * *
After I saw a man about a horse, we sat down to breakfast. Me, perched on the edge of a plate from the cafeteria, eating handfulls of egg; she, seizing pieces of egg the size of my torso. We talked about her powers, about their source, about what she'd done.
"Any chance I can see the scroll?"
"HAH. NO, SORRY JAKE. THE LAST THING I NEED IS FOR YOU TO FIGURE OUT THESE TRICKS TOO."
"Hey, we'd make a good team. Between the two of us we'd pretty much have the state of Wisconsin covered. If we found some people we trusted, we could branch out. Sort of like the Superfriends."
She smiled a bemused smile. "I DON'T THINK SO, JAKE." Then, her face fell, just a bit. "NO, I WON'T DO THAT TO YOU."
"It's a burden, isn't it?" I asked, after a few moments.
"OF COURSE IT IS," she snapped. Then, sighing, she simply said, "I MEAN, I KNOW I'M DOING THE RIGHT THING."
"But it doesn't always feel right."
She just looked at me for a minute, like she wanted to correct me. Instead, after a moment or two, she smiled, and said simply, "ENOUGH OF THIS. SO, JAKE, TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF."
* * *
It was late evening when we finished talking. We were down by the lake, me tied into her hair so I wouldn't get lost. We'd talked about just about everything--her rape, my sister's rape, the upcoming election, our mutual interest in the new "alternative" music, whether she should fork over money for an email account, how cool gopher was, whether the Badger Herald or the Daily Cardinal was a better paper, whether American democracy was simply a means of impressing a patriarchal system upon the masses--the basic things young students at Madison talked about when they were falling in love.
We were silent, now, looking out over the lake. She broke the silence in a most unexpected way.
"YOU KNOW," she said, "I HAVEN'T BEEN WITH ANYONE SINCE I WAS RAPED."
"I would think not," I said. I wasn't sure how you could be intimate with someone after that kind of violation.
"IT'S NOT LIKE YOU THINK. I'M NOT AFRAID OF INTIMACY, OR EVEN OF SEX. I'M NOT EVEN AFRAID OF NOT BEING IN TOTAL CONTROL. I'M JUST AFRAID OF NOT BEING AT ALL IN CONTROL. "BUT THERE'S SOMETHING THAT'S OCCURED TO ME," she said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"I HAVE ALL THE CONTROL I EVER COULD NEED." With that, she untied the knot of hair that held me in place, and brought me up to her face, and without a word, she kissed me.
To say I was startled would understate the point completely. I was so startled that I failed to enjoy the kiss--at first. Indeed, I struggled and pushed her away. Well, tried to.
Actually, she backed off quickly. "OH MY GOD, I'M SORRY, I NEVER MEANT--"
"No! No no no!" I cried, realizing quickly my mistake. "I was just surprised. Had I been expecting it, I mean...."
"OH, LIKE IF I HAD SAID 3...2...1...."
"Yeah, that would have oomph!" She kissed me again at zero.
This time, I didn't struggle. Her plush lips played over my entire body, covering me in saliva. Her tongue pushed out slightly, licking me. I was bathed in her hot-pungent breath. I did my best to kiss her back--not that I think she noticed much. But when she finally broke the kiss and pulled her head back and smiled, I gasped and smiled right back.
Despite everything, I was the happiest man on earth.
* * *
I went to bed that night trying to envision what it would be like to be with her in the biblical sense. I tried to imagine what it would be like to make love to a woman with a vagina the size of me. It was an awesome possibility--one I'd never really considered before. I found myself excited by the prospect. I hoped Liz would allow me the opportunity.
Certainly, she seemed like she cared for me. She'd kissed me good night, and stroked my hair tenderly. Of course, I was still in her desk drawer. But things would come together, all in good time.
* * *
"That's just sweet," said Sarah, munching on the burgers Scott had brought back from Andy's for lunch.
"Yeah, Jake," said Scott. "It's a little like our story."
"Except I had nothing to do with your shrinking, and we didn't kiss until later."
"It's just like us," said Scott, grinning wickedly. "Jake was even spying on a woman while she--"
"Oh, we're going there, eh? Am I to surmise that you'd like me to morpheus you right into my insole again?"
"Hey, come on, I'm just teasing. Put your hand down. Hey--don't make me parry--"
"You won't parry. Not if you know what's good for you."
Scott and Sarah dissolved into hysterical laughter, falling back against the chairs and giggling until their sides hurt. Scott knew, of course, that Sarah really would turn him into her insole as punishment later--it wasn't like she hadn't done it before. But he'd go along with it, especially since they both knew damn well that he didn't mind it a bit. Later, he might turn her into something. And if not, he'd probably just turn himself into himself, only smaller. It's good to know what you both like.
Jake smiled, and rocked back in his chair. "Are you two finished? I'm trying to tell a story here."
"And a sweet story it is, boss. Liz seems like a nice girl."
"Oh, she was. She was one of the top five women I've ever met. If that asshole hadn't raped her, she could've become anything."
At this, the room fell silent, and Jake's face hardened for a second, before softening again. "It would get worse later, but that time--the end of 1992--that is one of the happiest times of my life."
He smiled, and said simply, "I've got to check the report quick. I'll be right back."
As he entered his office, Sarah looked at Scott, and said, for the eight thousandth time, "Honey, I'm sorry about New York."
"I know, Sarah. I know. I just thank God things turned out better for us than they did for D.X. and Liz."
"So...you want to be my insole tonight?"
He grinned. "Only if you want me to, my love."
Sarah laughed, and said quietly, "I do."