[Eelskin]

7

I sat in the dinghy in shock. Mia and Kristen were both staring at me. ?What?? Kristen asked.

?I, uh? I?ve seen your face before. Um, somebody came by the bar looking for you a few days ago. How long have you been here??

Mia looked surprised and a little embarrassed. ?I?m not sure. I guess maybe a day or two??

?No, that can?t be so. I saw your photo before I came here, and I?ve been here for? uh?? Wait a minute. How long have I been here? Only a few hours, right? Or? a day? A week? I can?t? seem? to keep track of time here.

Kristen interrupted me. You?ve only been here since last night, Richard. Mia, you came almost two weeks ago.?

Mia?s eyes opened wide. ?Two weeks? That?s? no, that?s impossible! I can?t have been here for two weeks! I have a job! I have friends! I was just going to be gone for the weekend??

Some of the other people in the pool were beginning to stare at Mia, who was being quite loud. Especially since most of the swimmers were quite a bit smaller, so she was very audible. Kristen noticed this as well, and looked around unhappily.

?Mia,? she said quietly, but loudly enough for us to hear, ?maybe we should discuss this more quietly. And elsewhere.?

?Discuss what? My life? How am I going to explain being nowhere for two weeks? I have to go! I have??

And suddenly we were in another room. It was an average-sized living room, with no doors or windows that I could see, but several lights hanging from the ceiling. I found myself sitting on a semi-circular couch with a towel wrapped around me. My hair was still dripping chlorine water. I turned to my right and sitting next to me was Mia, who was now the same size as me. Did I grow or did she shrink? Does it even matter? Is there a difference? Now that we were about the same size, I could get a good look at her, and saw that although she wasn?t tall (anymore), she was very strong. She was probably an athlete, which made her slightly imposing, despite the fact that I would have to look down slightly when speaking to her. She was also very beautiful, with black curly hair falling down just past her shoulders, almost blending in with her dark skin. Her eyes were wide and bright, and her body was toned even more than mine had been- when I was still playing basketball, years ago.

Mia was staring at the table in front of us, and I turned to see Kristen, approximately 15 cm tall, sitting in a tiny chair, fully dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, and dried off, staring back at Mia.

?Now, Mia, when I ask you to lower your voice, I expect you to lower your voice.?

?Lower my voice?? Mia stood up. ?Lower my voice?? Kristen sat unfazed, looking up at Mia, who was many times her size. The table she was sitting on was at Mia?s mid-thigh, and Mia was bending down now, shouting at her. ?I?m going to be fired by now! I?m sure my boyfriend had started fucking someone else. Hell, what if my rent is late? I might have been evicted! How come you kept me here for two goddamn weeks??

?You could have left anytime. You know that.?

?Yeah, if someone told me how much time had passed! You ruined my life!? And Mia hit the table with her fist as she said it.

The table shook, but Kristen didn?t need to take a step to keep her balance, she just shook with the table. She barely noticed. Kristen didn?t flinch, didn?t even look at the hand that was much bigger than she was at it struck the table. She just continued staring impassively at Mia as she yelled. ?You think you can just kidnap people and keep there here without? with? out?? and Mia?s thought trailed off as she began looking at her fist on the table. I could see her arm muscles flexing, but her hand wasn?t moving at all. She bit her lip, and I could tell that she was exerting all of her arm strength, but nothing happened. I understood that she was trying to pick her hand up off the table, but it had been stuck there. She turned back to Kristen. ?Let me go.?

Kristen, still sitting in a perfectly relaxed position, said calmly, ?You are in no position to be giving orders. Now I want you to calm down, Mia. Once you?re calm, we can discuss things rationally. But I am not going to sit here and listen to you vent your anger. Do you understand me??

Mia?s eyes flashed back and forth. I could tell that she was debating something internally, and I hoped to high Heaven that she wasn?t contemplating doing anything stupid out of anger. Looking at Kristen, I could see that she had come to the same realisation as I had, but she continued to sit there, perfectly at ease.

Kristen saw that, and, unused to being unable to intimidate someone, got angry. She brought her left hand around quickly and snatched up Kristen, bringing her up to her face. She smiled, as the tiny woman only centimetres away from her nose.

?Listen here. I know you can change size and shit, but I can crush you in a second. Now I want you to unstuck my hand, give me some goddamn clothes, and send me back home NOW. I?m going to count to five, and if I?m still here, you?re getting squished! One!?

I took a step forward. ?Mia??

?Shut up, you! I mean it! Two!?

I held my breath. Kristen seemed upset, but not scared or even nervous. The look on her face was one of surprise and anger, but not concern of any kind.

?Three!?

Kristen lifted her arms out of Mia?s grip, with no effort whatsoever. Mia was surprised enough that she actually stopped counting. ?What are you?? She then watched in horror as Kristen pulled away her fingers, one by one, and stepped out onto Mia?s hand. I could see Mia?s muscled bulging once again, but her hand was fixed in place.

Kristen stood nonchalantly on her hand and explained calmly, ?Mia, I can do a lot more than just change size. I can do anything whatsoever. Now? you know that threatening any of my guests with violence is completely unacceptable, don?t you?? Mia said nothing, she just glared at this tiny woman standing on her hand. ?Well, no matter if you answer. I know that you know this. Did you imagine that threatening me would be accepted any better??

Mia began to look concerned. ?I? I didn?t??

Kristen waved her hand and Mia stopped talking. ?You think because you?re physically strong, that you can convince others to do whatever you want. If you?re upset, you?d rather take out your anger on others than listen to what they have to say. I think you need an adjustment.?

Mia looked on her with confusion, and then she shivered. ?What was that??? She looked down at her arms and gave a cry. I followed her gaze and saw that her arms were thinner than they had been a moment before. She recoiled her arms suddenly, leaving Kristen in mid-air. She didn?t fall; instead, she simply floated there, and even rose slightly until she was in front of Mia?s face. Mia looked on her in shock, not knowing whether to scream or run away. But where would she run to? I thought, looking around at the doorless room. Mia, meanwhile, continued to dwindle, losing her muscle mass as I watched. Her arms began to look more like a model?s arms- she was still beautiful, but she didn?t look like she could lift anything heavier than a few kilos now. And her arms weren?t the only part of her body to get smaller- as she stood there, the towel that had been wrapped around her chest became looser and fell off her frame, and I could see that her breasts had shrunk dramatically, not sagging, just retreating inward to her chest. Her stomach lost the definition that I had seen before, and as I continued to stare, it began to take on a new definition- but rather than showing her abdominal muscles, her stomach now showed her ribs. It was slight, but it was certain. Her legs received the worst of it; she had had thick, powerful thigh muscles, which I did not doubt she used often, but as they thinned I was sure that I could have touched my thumbs and index fingers together around them.

I looked back to Kristen, and saw that she had risen slightly higher, so that Mia had to look up to see her. Then I realised that Kirsten was actually keeping perfectly still- Mia was getting smaller, as well. She hadn?t been tall to begin with, but she began to dwindle even shorter, a few centimeters per second, until she was no higher than my chest. I looked at this terrified, skinny, weak, tiny person in front of me and scarcely recognised her as the athlete who had been threatening Kristen just a moment ago.

Kristen began to speak again. ?Now then. Think about this. Remember what this feels like, because I?m going to send you home now.?

Mia looked up in horror. ?No. Not like this. Please! I?m sorry!?

?I don?t actually care whether you?re sorry. But no, I?m not going to send you back like this. I can?t have questions as to what happened to you, especially if the police are already noticing my guests? absences. But this will happen to you again if you ever try to tell anyone where you were. Or if you try to use your size to intimidate anyone else again. I brought you here because I liked you, Mia. You?re intelligent and you?re interesting. But you?re just too violent to stay here. Now go.?

And with that, before Mia had a chance to respond, she simply disappeared. I blinked and missed it; there was no flash of light, no pop sound, no smell of oxygen. She simply wasn?t there anymore. I turned slowly to see Kristen, still only as long as my middle finger, floating in mid-air, looking at me.

I turned around and vomited.