Short story: "Freeze Frame"

[qzar9999]

"Freeze Frame"
Inspired by tinytaletellergirl

Katie double-checked the apartment number, then knocked hesitantly. She didn't have to wait long before it opened and she came face-to-face with a woman who looked to be about her age. Her hazel eyes looked small behind the huge, boxy black frames of her glasses, her blonde hair was twisted up behind her head into a bizarre-looking knot, and she wore a Dropkick Murphys shirt and faded jeans under a bulky white smock splattered with multiple colors of paint. She flashed a toothy grin at the woman on her doorstep.

"You must be Katie! Hi, I'm April!" she said, energetically grasping her guest's hand and shaking it. "Come in, come in! So glad you could make it!"

"Nice to meet you," Katie said as she was ushered through the door and April closed it behind them. "And I wouldn't have missed it. I can't afford to say no to a paying gig, and I need the exposure. Plus, you made the project sound really interesting," she added, smiling at her hostess.

"Oh, yeah. It's gonna be something really special," April said, grinning again. The ebullient blonde led her down a short hallway to a space that was probably meant to be the apartment's living room, but was barren of furniture except for a few stools and an easel with a half-finished painting on it. The corner held some standing lights and a rolled-up portable green screen.

"You said it's going to take the whole weekend?" Katie asked, looking around at the still and video cameras set up on a few tripods around the room.

"Yep. Today, tomorrow, and Sunday," April replied. "Gotta make sure I get enough footage to make the project worthwhile."

"You know, I'm still not clear on what, exactly, I'm gonna be doing," Katie said. "I mean, this is supposed to be a short film when it's all said and done, right?" She eyed the green screen. "Are you gonna be using that for special effects, or something? I mean, what's the film actually about?"

"All your questions will be answered soon enough," April said, smiling at her. She looked Katie up and down. "Is that what you're gonna be wearing for the first part of this?"

Katie glanced down at her ensemble. She'd chosen a white short-sleeved shirt with a row of buttons (a few of which were left undone to give a hint of her cleavage), a knee-length black skirt, and black two-inch heels. She felt the combination looked attractive on her without being overtly sexual, and the heels made her legs look great. "Well, yeah. Why? Should I change? I brought a few other outfits in my bag."

April waved her hand dismissively. "No, no, it's fine. I just wanted to know if you were ready to start. I was gonna go ahead and begin the shoot as soon as you give the go-ahead." She flashed another grin at the model. "Besides, I bet you'd look pretty fetching no matter what outfit you wear. You've got the look." She raised an eyebrow. "Ready to go?"

Katie smiled warmly. "Sure, let's get started."

"Great! Give me just a sec." The blonde picked up a latched case sitting on the floor near the door. It was shiny and metallic, with a logo reading "T&B" on the side. Katie expected that it would contain a camera kit, which was odd given that some cameras were already set up, but instead, the case fell open to reveal that the sturdy foam interior housed a black metallic sphere about the size of a baseball.

"What's that?" Katie asked, peering at the sphere in confusion as April extracted it from the foam. It wasn't a perfect sphere; it seemed to have a few holes here and there, including one that looked like a USB port, and part of the sphere looked like it had been sliced off, revealing something that looked like a camera lens.

April held it in her hand and turned so the ball was in front of Katie. She pressed a button on the sphere and the lens suddenly telescoped slightly out with a faint whirring noise. Katie watched in fascination as it slowly rose out of the photographer's hand, hovering in the air and turning its lens to face her.

"Katie, meet Cambot. Cambot, Katie." April flashed that wide, toothy grin again.

"Wow! That's pretty cool. I've never seen anything like it," Katie said. The device hovered in front of her, moving around and occasionally adjusting its lens, as if it was looking at her.

"Isn't he neat?" April said happily. "He's an experimental device that I got on loan from T&B Technologies. A solar-powered, self-actuating, object-tracking robotic camera. He can do stills or video, and he's weather-resistant, so he's pretty versatile." She grinned at Katie again. "He'll be following you around this weekend, doing most of the photography. Then I'll take the stuff he shoots and edit it all together for my film project. Pretty cool, huh?"

Katie stared in wonder at the floating sphere. "Yeah, that's...that's pretty cool, alright. I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is pretty advanced."

April gave a brief snort of laughter. "Oh, you haven't seen advanced yet. I have another little gizmo that's gonna make this project really unique. But we'll get to that in a minute." She picked up a digital video camera, checked a couple of settings on Cambot, and gestured for Katie to stand near a stool that was sitting off to one side in the room. "It's showtime, Katie."

Katie moved to stand next to the stool, and at April's direction, she leaned against it, placing her hands on top of it and leaning slightly down and over it. April and Cambot took a few shots of her, then had her sit atop the stool and took a few more. April asked her to hold a pose for a moment while she produced another case like the one that had contained Cambot. She unlatched it and pulled out something that looked for all the world like some kind of science fiction ray gun. Katie chuckled at the sight.

"What's so funny?" the photographer said, fiddling with some dials on the side of the object.

"That thing. What's with the '50s laser gun prop?" Katie said, smirking.

"Oh, this isn't a prop. This is the other thing I, ah, borrowed," April replied, seemingly satisfied with whatever settings she'd been adjusting.

"Well, it looks like a toy or something. What does it do?" Katie leaned forward on the stool, trying to get a closer look at the device.

"You'll see soon," April said. "For now, say cheese!"

There was a blindingly bright flash of light and the click of a camera shutter. "Wow, that one was really bright!" Katie said, blinking her eyes rapidly. She thought she saw April putting the raygun back in its case, and when her vision cleared it was gone.

"Sorry about that," the blonde replied, smiling mischievously. "Alright, I'm going to switch to a bit of video now. You ready?"

"Go for it!" Katie said enthusiastically. She blinked a few more times to clear the remaining spots from her eyes and smiled at April's camera (and occasionally at the hovering Cambot). She posed sitting atop the stool, moving around to different positions. For some reason, her skirt began bunching up underneath her and she found herself having to smooth it out or adjust it, at first just every few minutes, but with increasing frequency as the shoot continued. Trying to ignore it, she kept smiling for the camera, but when she leaned back and lifted her legs out to one side of the stool, she was surprised by her heels falling off and hitting the hardwood floor loudly.

"What the hell?" she said, frowning at her bare feet. "April, can we hang on a second? I need to fix my shoes."

"Leave them for now," the blonde said. "I'm getting some great stuff here."

Flattered and temporarily mollified, Katie resumed posing. Shortly, she felt like her shirt had shifted out of place on her body. She tried to adjust it, but couldn't get it to fit right. Glancing down in confusion, she saw that the neckline was hanging much lower than she'd intended, showing a significant amount of cleavage and her lacy white bra. Embarrassed, she tried to shift it back into place, but not only would the shirt not sit correctly, it seemed to be sliding her bra around on her chest as well!

"April, I need to take a break. Something is up with my wardrobe."

"Aw, are you sure? I hate to stop when I'm getting such good stuff."

Katie chuckled. "If this keeps up, the good stuff is gonna be my exposed tits. I'll just be a second." She shifted around on the top of the stool-it seemed larger than she remembered-and swung her legs down to step off...only to find her feet didn't reach the floor, her bare toes instead brushing against the lowest of the horizontal bars between the stool legs.

"That's weird," she said aloud.

"What is?"

"I didn't realize this stool was so tall. Didn't seem this big when I sat on it."

"It doesn't look that tall to me," April said.

Katie looked up in confusion, seeing the blonde grinning down at her. Something about how the standing photographer looked so tall next to her seated form seemed wrong to her, but she couldn't figure out why. "Are you kidding? My feet don't even reach the floor. I can barely touch the lowest-" She froze as she realized that her feet were swinging freely, no longer in contact with the bar.

"What the hell?" she cried. She hopped down from the stool, but when her bare feet hit the floor and stopped her fall, her skirt kept right on going, dropping around her ankles in a puddle. She looked down in shock and embarrassment- which increased when she saw white fabric amid the black and realized her panties had fallen as well!

"Oh my god!" she shrieked, stooping to pick up her clothes. She lifted them to her waist, having to brush aside the low-hanging hem of her shirt, but found the skirt and underwear were ridiculously oversized. They gaped around her waist like a hula hoop, and even pulled all the way up, the skirt hung halfway down her shins. Stunned, she let go of the fabric; even after it fell she wasn't exposed, as the bottom of her shirt fell somewhere between her groin and her knees.

At least, she wasn't exposed down below. It took her only moments to realize that the top of her shirt was experiencing the same downward shift as the bottom. The neck seemed to have stretched until it reached her shoulders-in fact, it had already started to slip off of them-and the opening sagged low enough to reveal her breasts to the photographer. Even her bra was sitting near her navel, its straps long and loose on her shoulders and the cups big enough to hold boobs twice the size of hers.

"What's happening to my clothes?" she wailed. Hearing the click of a camera and April's giggle, her confusion turned to irritation. "Are you still taking pictures? This isn't... funny..." She trailed off as she turned to glare at the photographer and found herself giving a stern look at the zipper of her jeans.

She craned her neck to look up at the seemingly eleven-foot-tall April, her mouth hanging open in shock. The blonde smiled down at her and raised a camera the size of a shoe box to her face.

The click of the shutter snapped Katie out of her momentary stupor. "What happened? Why are you so big?" Clutching her too-large shirt against her chest, she fearfully backed away from the impossibly tall woman, stumbling out of the puddle of skirt at her feet. Her back thumped against something solid, and she turned to find herself eye-level with the top of the giant stool.

"Oh, I'm not any bigger," came April's voice from above her. Katie glanced around and saw that everything in the room had doubled in size, and the realization set in.

"I'm.... I... I shrunk." Katie breathed. "Oh my god, I shrunk!" she repeated, much louder.

"More like 'shrinking,' present tense."

"What?!" Even as she heard the words, Katie knew them to be true. Already, the seat of the stool was even with her forehead, and if she stared she could see it slowly rising higher. She whirled around and saw April appearing to slowly grow before her eyes (which were now below the zipper). She could feel the bottom of her shirt brushing against her shins, and her arms were completely buried in the huge sleeves, which had already fallen off her shoulders entirely.

"This is so cool! I can't believe it worked," April said, beaming at the dwindling brunette.

"Worked? What worked?" No sooner had the words left Katie's mouth than she got it. "That weird-looking gun! You did this to me!"

"See? Told you it wasn't a toy," the giant blonde smirked.

"But why?"

"Well, like I said, I wanted my project to be unique," April replied, snapping a couple of pictures of the still-shrinking Katie, who pressed her sagging shirt even tighter to her small body, dismayed to realize it was starting to drag along the floor. "I'm going to document how you cope with being tiny over the weekend. And I won't even have to use any special effects. I'm thinking of calling it 'Scale Model.' Neat, huh?"

Katie's jaw worked a few times, but she couldn't form any words at first. Finally, she found her voice. "Neat? No, it is not 'neat'! Are you crazy? You can't just....shrink someone! Make me my normal size!" she shouted indignantly from around the photographer's knee.

The only response she got was laughter. "I'm sorry," April said between laughs, "but you just look so cute and ridiculous!"

Katie was enraged by this, although she realized it must be true. She had to be less than two feet tall now and seemed to still be shrinking, and she was holding a shirt that looked more like a comforter against her otherwise naked body, her small arms lost in the bundle of fabric held before her diminishing breasts like a bath towel. She was trying to make demands of a woman who looked to be the size of a two-story building, could easily pick her up, and was getting bigger by the second.

Still, she was determined not to give up that easily. "April, please! This is nuts! Make me big again, I'm begging you--eep!" She shrieked in embarrassment (mortified that it sounded more like a squeak) as she unthinkingly spread her arms in an imploring gesture and the shirt fell off, exposing her dwindling (but still proportionate) figure to the camera. She bent and gathered the thick, heavy white fabric in front of herself again, her cheeks flushing.

"What are you so embarrassed about? We're both girls, you know," April chirped. "Besides, these pictures are gonna be part of the project."

"You got pictures of me naked just now? And you're putting them in the project?" Katie said in disbelief.

April nodded. "Just now, and earlier when your skirt fell off, and when your boobs were exposed by your shirt. Cambot did too."

Katie had temporarily forgotten the little floating robot. Well, not so little anymore; she glared up at what looked disturbingly like a small boulder hovering above her. Slightly unnerved by how heavy the flying camera now appeared, she turned her glare back to the blonde. Not that she was much less unnerving, since she was now easily five times Katie's size and still growing, but at least she didn't give the impression that she might suddenly fall down and crush the little brunette.

April continued, oblivious to the hostile look Katie was giving her. "And of course they're going in the project. They're great candid moments, and they stand out visually because they'd be hard for most people to do without serious special effects and giant props." She finally seemed to notice Katie's anger. "What's the matter? Your portfolio said you're willing to do nude photography, and it's not like I'm trying to get you to make porn." A thoughtful look crossed her features. "Although I bet there would be a market for--"

"Look, that's not the point," Katie said, not wanting to hear any more ideas along that line. "Yes, I'm willing to do nude photography, but that's not something you decide on set at the last minute, and certainly not without letting me know, or against my will."

April sighed. "If I had told you what I was planning to start with, you'd likely have refused to work with me because you thought I was crazy. I mean, I wasn't even sure I believed it until it worked." She grinned. "But it does, and it's pretty cool!"

"'Cool'? No, April, this is not cool. This is weird and scary." Katie fixed the giantess' eyes with her own and spoke as calmly as she could manage. "I'm not comfortable with this, and I'd like to call off the shoot." She felt a moment of relief when she noticed that the world around her seemed to have stopped growing. Measuring herself against April's leg, she estimated her height at around ten inches. "Find someone else to shrink. Please make me big again and let me leave."

April frowned. "I really hate to cancel. I mean, you've got the look I was going for, and I already got some really good pictures and video of you. It would be a shame to scrap it all. If it's about the nudity, I can pay you extra, you know."

Katie shook her head. "It's not about that. Well, not entirely. This is just...I don't like this. I'm very scared, and this caught me totally off guard, and I don't like it. Money isn't even the issue at this point." Which was a lie, as she needed both the pay from the gig and another notch in her belt, but that was beside the point. "You just...did this to me. Without even asking. It's practically kidnapping."

"Look, there's nothing to be scared of. I have some doll clothes and furniture here for the shoot, and I was gonna document you in normal-sized surroundings, seeing how you'd get around the apartment and stuff. You're not in any real danger," the blonde replied. "And I resent the allegation of kidnapping. You came here of your own free will. You even signed a release."

"No real danger, huh? Other than the fact that you could very easily accidentally kill me?" Katie snapped. Belatedly, the mention of doll clothes and furniture hit her; they would probably be just about the right size for her, as she was close to Barbie's height. "I mean, you could step on me or kick me without even realizing it. I could get mauled by a common house cat."

"I'm planning to be very careful where I step, and I don't have any pets," April said.

"Look, I'm just...this is freaking me out. I want to be my normal size again and go home," Katie said in as stern a tone as she could manage at ten inches tall.

April sighed again. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, I just thought this could be fun. So much for my project," she said dejectedly.

"You can find another model. Maybe give them a little more warning first," Katie replied, for lack of anything else to say.

"I doubt it, I didn't get very many responses. And of those, you were one of the only ones I actually felt comfortable working with on this."

Katie frowned, trying to remind herself that April had tricked her and she shouldn't feel guilty. "I'm sorry, April. I don't want to ruin your project. But I just can't go through with this."

"It's alright, I understand. Maybe I should have tried to prepare you better." April trudged over to the silver case containing the ray gun. As she opened the case and picked it up, adjusting the settings to return Katie to normal, a plan came to mind. Making a few other changes to the settings, she forced the grin off her face and turned around to the miniature model. "Okay. Just stand right there, and I'll zap you back to your normal size. You ready?"

"Couldn't be more ready!" Katie said, smiling.

"Okay! Here we go..."

Katie braced herself and shut her eyes, expecting the bright flash of light from before. When it didn't seem to happen, she cautiously cracked one eye to see April frowning at the device in her hand. Her stomach dropped. "Oh god, don't tell me something is wrong!" she said, terrified of being stuck at doll size.

"Er...define wrong," April said, frowning at the tiny Katie.

"Oh my god! What the hell?" the brunette cried. Forgetting her modesty, she dropped the huge shirt and sprinted across the floor as fast as her little legs could carry her, reaching April's shins faster than she would have thought possible. "What's wrong? Please don't tell me I'm stuck like this!"

"No, no, nothing like that," April replied, fiddling with the device. "It's just out of power. It has to recharge."

"Out of...you shrank me and you didn't think to check the battery?!" she roared at the top of her lungs.

"Hey, hey, calm down!" April said, holding up her hands in a placating gesture (which looked ridiculous considering their relative sizes). "I didn't realize it was gonna take that much juice to shrink you. Look, it should be recharged by Sunday morning. There's nothing I can do until then. In the meantime, why don't we go ahead with the shoot? You get to keep the money, I'll still pay you extra for the nude shots, and I don't have to cancel my awesome project." The towering blonde beamed down at the shrunken Katie. "Pleeeeeeeease?"

"Oh my god, I can't believe you!" Katie snarled. "Ugh. Fine. If I'm stuck like this until Sunday anyway I might as well get paid for the gig."

"Alright, cool! Thanks so much! And I'm super sorry for the inconvenience," April said, trying to sound sincere and thrilled that Katie hadn't questioned her lie.

"Whatever," Katie sighed. She shivered slightly and realized that she was still naked. "Um. You mentioned some doll clothes? It's a bit chilly in here and I don't want to do nothing but nude shots the rest of the project, if you don't mind."

"Oh, sure! Yeah, let's move on to that part of the project." April smiled enthusiastically. "And, I know it's a bad situation, but try to enjoy it, huh? How many little girls would've loved to have all the stuff Barbie does?"

"Somehow I don't think this is what they had in mind," Katie grumbled. Several minutes later, April had fetched a couple of different dollhouses and several outfits, letting Katie try them on and get a feel for the new surroundings, all the while taking pictures and video while Cambot hovered nearby doing the same. Katie discovered that, while it was nice not to be naked the whole time and to have furnishings that felt relatively normal, there were issues. For one thing, most Barbie outfits didn't come with underwear, so she still felt kind of naked even dressed. Another issue was that the fabric was kind of rough--after all, there was no need to make doll clothes feel comfortable, and at her size the texture of the fabric was larger. This went hand in hand with no underwear, and she often felt the shirts rubbing distractingly against her nipples. A third problem was that the furniture, also, wasn't actually designed for use, so it was hard, or lumpy, or otherwise unpleasant, and it was difficult to find positions and poses that were comfortable.

But above all that, there was a fourth problem, one that Katie hadn't expected: everything was too big. Since actual Barbie dolls tended to be around eleven and a half inches, everything was designed for someone an inch and a half taller than her. It might not sound like much, but scaled up to her normal height it would be like trying to wear clothes and sit on furnishings specifically designed for someone almost a foot taller. Around the sixth time Katie fidgeted with a pink-and-white striped dress that was particularly ill-fitting, April stopped taking pictures.

"Something wrong?" she asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

"These don't fit very well," Katie said. She followed it with a sarcastic laugh. "Ha. Can't believe I'm too small for doll clothes." April mumbled something in response that Katie didn't quite catch. "What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm sorry. I must have miscalculated how much to shrink you. My bad. It won't happen again," April replied, looking sheepish.

"Damn straight it won't," Katie said emphatically. "Like I'm gonna let you anywhere near me with that shrink ray again after I'm back to normal."

"Heh. I don't suppose I blame you," April said with a half-smile. "Well, I think we've got plenty of shots of the 'doll' phase. It's time to move on to the next part of the project. You ready?"

Katie scowled at the giantess. "Do I have a choice?"

A few minutes later, she found herself atop the counter in the kitchen. April had talked her into letting herself be picked up, but only by promising to get Katie a snack. As she sat on the counter in a pair of doll pants that she'd had to roll up the legs on and a Barbie business blazer that settled loosely around her shoulders, her stomach rumbled watching the big blonde cut a paper cup in half and put some cold water in it, then pull out some cheese and crackers from a cabinet.

"Well. You're hungry. I heard that all the way over here," April said with a smile.

The shrunken model shrugged. "My last meal was several hours and almost five feet of height ago. Maybe being shrunken takes it out of you. Or maybe I'm stress-eating," she said pointedly, staring at April.

"Look, for what it's worth, I really am sorry I freaked you out, and that I can't put you back to normal yet. But I really didn't mean you any harm. And I honestly think you'll appreciate the project when you see it."

Katie scoffed at that, but was too busy munching on a tiny bite of cheese to say anything. The photographer produced a small woven basket from somewhere and set it on the counter near her miniature subject. Intrigued, Katie stood up with a chunk of cracker in hand and walked over to inspect the basket. Inside were miscellaneous objects like safety pins, paper clips, toothpicks, scraps of fabric, and twine. "Wha rrr thee fr?" she managed around a mouthful of cracker.

"Glad you asked! These are for the next phase of the project. Like I said, I want to document how you adapt to being tiny all weekend. I'm not going to be carrying you around constantly--not that you'd probably let me," April added hastily upon seeing Katie's look, "so I figured these might be useful to you. I wanted a model in good physical shape, not just for reasons of beauty, but somebody who could climb and stuff. I think that'll be cool to see."

Katie swallowed the cracker and took a quick sip from the cutoff paper cup. "Ok, so I get most of the stuff if that's your intention. What about the scraps of fabric?"

"Well, I thought you might use them to make outfits. You said the doll clothes are uncomfortable and don't fit you all that well."

"Hmm. True." Katie fingered one of the scraps; it felt smooth, like silk or satin. "Oooh, that is nice. Still, I'm not sure I want to tie together some makeshift outfit if there are ready-made clothes that'll do for the weekend. Besides, it wouldn't look very fashionable for me to be running around in last season's loincloth and strapless bra," she said, smiling in spite of herself.

"Since when is this a fashion shoot?" April said. "I'm going for something a bit more organic. The doll clothes were a neat idea, if I do say so myself, but I don't think it fits with the project for you to go around in them the entire time, you know?"

"Well, let me think about it," Katie said, longingly fingering the soft fabric. "It is tempting not to wear this scratchy stuff." She returned to her snack pile and pulled off another hunk of cheese, then returned to the woven basket. "You know, I don't know if you thought this through very well," she said, munching on her cheese as she absently perused the contents.

"How's that?" April asked from somewhere behind her.

"Well, I'm not sure if these will be as useful as climbing tools as you'd hoped." Katie picked up a paper clip and bent it fairly easily, despite its unfamiliar thickness. "I'm not sure if something like this will hold me. Besides, why bother? There are probably plenty of handholds I can reach without having to resort to this stuff."

"You know, I think you're right about that."

There was something in her tone that struck Katie as odd. It was almost...threatening? She turned to face April just in time to be blinded by a flash of light.

When her vision cleared a few seconds later, she saw the giant blonde holding the shrink ray, still pointed in her direction. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, utterly dumbstruck for a moment. She felt the doll clothes begin to shift on her body, and that broke her trance. "What the hell did you do?!" she cried.

April shrugged. "I made sure the climbing gear would work for you, and that you wouldn't wear doll clothes all weekend and mess up my project," she said nonchalantly.

"What is WRONG with you?" Katie screamed in outrage. "You're shrinking me even smaller?"

"Only down to about six inches or so. Not an appreciable difference."

"'Appreciable difference,' my ass! That's almost half my size, April!" She stopped suddenly, her mental gears slipping slightly as something stuck in them. "Wait a minute...you said the ray needed to recharge! How did you even do that?"

The giant blonde chewed her lower lip and looked away. "I, uh, might have told a little white lie so you wouldn't back out of the project," she said, not meeting Katie's furious gaze.

"You colossal bitch! I can't believe you!" Katie's hands were clenching and unclenching, even as the sleeves of the Barbie business blazer began to slide down to cover them. The rolled-up pants legs were already collapsing onto her feet as she stomped across the counter toward the ever-larger photographer.

"Hey, calm down, Thumbelina," April said. "You agreed to stay and do my project, and I realized the next phase needed an adjustment to the plan if it was going to work."

"I agreed to stay and do your project AFTER YOU LIED TO ME!" Katie yelled, producing an impressive volume for her diminishing size. "You're gonna pay for this, you hear me? You'll get yours!"

"Now, now, there's no need for threats. I'll pay you extra to make it up to you. And I promise I'm still gonna return you to normal size as soon as the project is done."

"Pay me...oh my god," Katie said flatly. "Yeah, because money is gonna make up for this." She gestured down at herself, the motion causing the pants to lose their hold on her shrinking hips and fall to the countertop. "And I've got news for you, this project IS done. I am not going to participate any further. You return me to normal right now and maybe I won't sue your ass," she snarled.

"About that," April replied. "Now I know I wasn't exactly honest before, but this time the shrink ray really does need to recharge. It won't be ready until at least Saturday night, and probably not until Sunday morning."

"You expect me to believe that?" Katie said scornfully. "Go on, pull the other one."

"See for yourself," April said, holding the gun up near the shrinking brunette. Sure enough, a display on the side showed a battery level that was flashing a small red light near the bottom of the indicator. The blonde set the gun in its case on the opposite countertop, closed and latched the container, then plugged a cord from the case into a wall outlet. "Look, I'll double your fee for the whole shoot, okay? That's seriously cutting into the budget for my next project, but I feel like I owe it to you."

"Jesus, you really don't get it, do you?" Katie rolled her eyes, her frustration and anger with the blonde boiling over. "There is no amount of money, at this point, that will make me feel any better about what you've done to me. You withheld really important information, stripped me against my will, terrorized me, manipulated me, lied to me, and all for your stupid project!"

"Hey, that's a bit harsh." April seemed genuinely offended. "I promise I had no intention of hurting you, and I still don't. And my project is not stupid, it's gonna be great. Now, before you say something that we'll both regret, I'm going to end this discussion and leave you to the final phase." So saying, the blonde pulled a picnic basket from the fridge. "I have a couple days' worth of food in here. I'm going to go to my room, lock the door, and marathon something on Netflix. You take the weekend to chill out while Cambot follows you around. I'm sure you'll feel better once it's time to restore you, and I'll get everything I need for my project." So saying, she spun on her heel and left the kitchen, the tiny Katie's screams fading rapidly behind her as she strolled down the hall and slammed her bedroom door shut.

* * * * *

April woke in darkness. Rolling over to look at the bedside clock, she saw it was around 2:45 am Sunday. She started to turn over and go back to sleep, but felt an urge to use the restroom. She was fortunate that the apartment's bathroom adjoined her room--all she'd had to do to keep out her tiny houseguest was lock her bedroom door and the one that went to the hall from the bathroom, then stuff towels under them both just in case.

Groggily, she rolled out of bed. Feeling a slight chill, she fumbled for a robe and put it on over the thin sleeveless tee and boy-shorts briefs she'd slept in, then slid her feet into her warm fuzzy slippers and ambled slowly to the bathroom. She took care of her business, but as she was preparing to head back to bed, she heard a faint electronic beeping coming from the hall beyond the bathroom door. Opposite the bathroom was the small spare room where she had her computer set up, and this sounded like a computer tone. She didn't think she'd left it running, but it was probably worth checking on. She reached for the doorknob automatically, but stopped when her foot bumped the towel stuffed into the crack. She hesitated for a moment, then felt silly.

"She's six inches tall and needs me to restore her. What could she possibly do?" April muttered to herself, sliding the towel aside and unlocking the door. A moment later and she had her answer: the floor beyond the bathroom and bedroom doors was littered with upended tacks and pushpins. Katie had even found a mousetrap, likely from one of the junk drawers, and had set it up, though April hadn't the slightest idea how.

"Very funny, Katie!" she called down the hall. "Okay, I get it, you were mad at me. Hopefully we can be big enough to put this behind us!" She carefully nudged aside most of the sharp objects and the trap, cautiously crossing the hallway to the open door of the computer room. "Heh. Big enough," she repeated under her breath. She reached the doorway to the computer room and saw it was pitch black--no dim glow from an unattended monitor. Still, the beeping had persisted, and was definitely coming from in there. She started to walk in to switch on the monitor, but then realized the hallway might not be the only booby-trapped floor. She fumbled along the wall for the light switch, and her fingers found it after a few seconds and snapped it on.

Her darkness-adjusted eyes were dazzled for a moment by the bright overhead light flashing on, and she had to blink several times to clear her focus. Looking down at the carpeted floor, she saw no traps lying in wait. Over at the computer desk, she saw the source of the sound she'd been hearing: Cambot was sitting beside the computer, plugged in to a USB port, a small red indicator light flashing periodically above his lens.

"Oh, are you done?" she asked the little robot. He was programmed to return to his case or a nearby computer when he was low on either memory or power, and since he wouldn't have been outside the apartment to get a solar charge, either one was possible. Of course, he had also been set to follow her model this weekend...

"Katie?" she said softly, glancing around the floor again. There was no response, and she saw no sign of the shrunken brunette. "Eh. I'm sure she'll turn up soon. It's almost time to restore her anyway." Satisfied, she closed the computer room door and returned to the desk.

Switching on the monitor, she sat down in the computer chair, adjusting it slightly for comfort. Accessing the drone's internal memory, she brought up the images he'd been taking over the weekend and set them to play as a slide show, then leaned back to relax in the chair.

"Wish I had some popcorn," she chuckled to herself. The images began appearing, changing every few seconds to the next one in the series. It started with the full-sized Katie posing on the stool, looking cute and sexy. The images soon changed subtly; the casual observer might not have seen it, but April knew what to look for and could see the slight shifting of Katie's clothing and shoes, as well as the occasional expression of discomfort or confusion Cambot had captured on her face.

April lifted one slipper-clad foot to scratch at her opposite heel, then scrunched her toes to burrow her feet deeper into the warmth of the fuzzy footwear as she set it down. The slide show continued on the screen, Katie's expression growing increasingly concerned even as the pictures showed her gradually getting smaller relative to everything else. Cambot had tracked her as she hopped down from the stool, and April smiled at the candid nature of the shots of her skirt falling off.

However, she was feeling a bit impatient. It was nice to know these pictures had turned out well, but she was anxious to get to the stuff she hadn't been present for. Leaning slightly forward in the chair, she shook her hand free of the robe's dangling sleeve and gripped the mouse.

Stopping the show, she skimmed quickly through the thumbnails. Katie shrinking out of her shirt... Katie yelling up at April (who was already too tall to be in the frame)... Katie running toward her when the shrink ray 'didn't work'... One picture caught her eye and she had to examine it more closely. Cambot had captured the little woman in a perfect action shot at the start of her sprint. Her legs were spread in a runner's stride, one miniature bare foot pushing off the wooden floor, the other starting to swing out in front of her, her huge white shirt still falling to the ground behind her, and an intense expression on her face.

"That's a great shot, Cam," she said, reaching over to pat the little robot affectionately. "I might have to frame it." She frowned pensively. "Wow. I'm alone at 3 am anthropomorphizing a robot. Maybe I should get a dog. Or date more," she added, staring wistfully at the frozen image of the lithe little brunette. It was no wonder she was willing to do nudity. She had toned, sleek legs, a firm butt, flawless skin, perky breasts, that long dark hair that probably felt lovely to run your fingers through, maybe giving it a playful pull as you bent her head back to nuzzle her neck...

April blinked rapidly and shook her head. She jerked her free hand guiltily back from where it had been sliding down her belly, the loose robe sleeve flopping with the motion. "Now, now, edit the project first, you naughty girl. These pictures will still be here later." She grinned to herself and couldn't resist teasing her stiff nipple briefly through the fabric of the baggy tee. Forcing herself to focus, she sighed and closed the picture, then scrolled down through more thumbnails until she got to images of Katie standing on the counter near the basket. She lingered briefly on the shot of the doll pants falling off of Katie's hips, then leaned in closer and restarted the slide show.

The shots showed an obviously angry Katie shouting in the direction of April's bedroom, oblivious to the Barbie shirt becoming larger and larger until it hung on her like a sack. Eventually, she seemed to tire out and slumped into a dejected posture, sitting on the counter and munching on the cheese and crackers some more. After a while, the pictures showed her getting up and casting off the ill-fitting shirt, then bending over the basket to rummage through it. April involuntarily licked her lips at a particularly delightful shot Cambot had captured of the shrunken brunette's ass as she bent over the edge of the basket. She emerged a few photos later with some scraps of silk, and the next images depicted her tying it around herself in a sort of makeshift two-piece bikini. She dug in the basket again and produced a few more scraps, then tied them into something resembling a carrying bag with a sling. She broke off several pieces of cheese and crackers and stuffed them into the sling, which April had to admit was thinking ahead.

The pictures continued, showing the mini-model gathering some twine, paper clips, and a few other tools, then attaching them to the strap of the sling. Her next step appeared to have been climbing down off the counter using her implements. On the way down, she managed to pry open the drawers and inspected their contents; as she didn't open the drawers far enough for Cambot to follow and he lacked anything like arms or grabbers, he hovered outside them, as the brief sequences of pictures of cracked-open drawers indicated. She emerged from them empty-handed a couple of times, but once she came out carrying the mouse trap, and another time she brought out a package of thumbtacks, staring right at Cambot's lens with a wicked grin.

"Well, she didn't waste any time before she started planning how to get back at me, huh, Cam?" April said, shaking her head. Her feet felt cold, and she drew them up into the seat of the chair, tucking them under her in the warmth of the big robe. She adjusted her position, scooting a bit forward in the chair as the show continued.

On the screen, Katie was exploring the contents of the kitchen cabinets. At some point she found a toolbox, and she spent some time working out a careful arrangement with some pliers and a clamp to set the mousetrap. April had to chuckle at her ingenuity. She shivered as the slight chill of the room slipped down into her loose shirt, and she wrapped the thick robe more closely around her before returning her attention to the screen.

Katie spent some time experimenting with the other tools, but some were too heavy or unwieldy, and others she evidently couldn't think of any use for. She did find a keychain flashlight that appeared to be an industrial-sized work light in her tiny hands; a couple of images were washed out as she tested it by pointing it at Cambot. Afterward, with the sun almost down, she maneuvered through the kitchen to the living room. April realized after several more shots that the brunette was heading back to the dollhouse. The images showed Katie digging through some of the doll clothes, pulling down some of the larger items to make bedding and wrapping herself up before nodding off. Cambot took a few infrared pictures of the sleeping shrinkee before going into standby mode due to his subject's lack of activity.

The next images were some time after the sun had come up; Katie rolled sleepily out of her bed of doll clothes and Cambot had captured her face falling as she realized the previous day wasn't some weird nightmare. She spent the next few hours climbing around on the assorted equipment in the living room, seeming to have a little fun despite herself; one picture showed her atop the stool she'd sat on the day before, holding a toothpick with a scrap of fabric attached as if she were planting a flag on a mountaintop. Her other hand was giving a mock salute, leaving no doubt that she'd posed for the picture. April laughed at the image, leaning forward in the chair again for a closer look.

Some time later, Katie dragged the box of thumbtacks down the hall to April's bedroom door and spent a little while arranging them all over the end of the hall, resulting in the field of sharp objects April had seen when she awoke. Katie also walked down the hall and retrieved the set mousetrap; her posture in the photos and her apparent slow progress made it obvious that she was being careful with the trap. After setting the hazards, she stopped for a snack from her sling, then seemed to be thinking about something for a few minutes in some obvious discomfort. April had a guess what that was about, and a few minutes later the photos indicated Katie moving toward the bathroom door, only to scowl at it when she realized April had blocked it. The little woman ventured down the hall at a fairly rapid pace and climbed the kitchen counters. As soon as she reached the top, she proceeded to the sink and turned on the taps--no mean feat given her size.

However, as she started to clamber down into the basin, she seemed to remember Cambot's presence. The next several photographs were of her staring directly into the lens, her mouth clearly moving and her expression passing through various shades of anger, frustration, and desperation. Finally giving up on reasoning with the robot, the images showed her opening a few drawers until she found one containing folded dish towels. She clambered down into the sink basin and threw the towel over herself as she squatted near the drain, rendering her invisible to Cambot except for one tiny hand sticking out and giving it the finger. After several images like that, Katie stood up from under the blanket and stepped toward the falling water. Apparently realizing that the dish towel trick wouldn't work for what she was about to do next, she stripped off the scrap bikini. She stood under the faucet, totally naked, and started giving herself a shower. After luxuriating under the water for several shots, she climbed up the side of the sink to a hand soap dispenser, and with some effort got some soap to squirt out. She returned to the faucet, rubbing the soap into her skin, lathering up her body as the images continued.

April stared at the images, transfixed. "Mmm. Cam. I wish you'd taken a video of that." She had set him to images only in order to help conserve his battery power, but the sight of the miniature Katie's hands roaming her body made her regret that decision. She didn't know how long she sat there staring at the images of the shrunken woman showering; she only knew that when she finally noticed a problem, she had to pull one hand away from rolling her exposed nipple through the drooping neck of the shirt and the other out of the front of her extremely loose briefs. Irritated at having to stop, she momentarily couldn't figure out what was wrong with the pictures that had drawn her attention and taken her out of thoughts of Katie showering, but soon it hit her: the images were blurry.

She wasn't sure at what point they had started becoming blurry, but she was angry. Cambot was supposed to be state-of-the-art, but these pictures looked unfocused. She could tell that Katie was no longer in the sink, and she seemed to be standing on the counter near an outlet and an open box of some kind, but the details were fuzzy. Annoyed, she decided to stop the slide show and scan the thumbnails, hoping she hadn't lost the entire final portion of the images. However, when she reached for the mouse, her hand swung through empty air where the desk should have been. Puzzled, she looked over at the mouse and saw it seemed farther away, as did the desk, and they both looked slightly blurry as well, as if she needed her glasses to see them.

"What the hell? I'm not that nearsighted," she muttered to the room. Growing more confused by the second, she tried to lean forward to grab the mouse, but found she still couldn't reach the desk, even straining as far forward as possible. She was paying no attention to the slide show at this point, so she missed the image showing a blindingly bright flash of light, as well as the ones that depicted a dark-haired figure gingerly stepping down the hall to the computer room holding something in its hand, then hiding in the closet with the door open a crack.

Finally, unable to understand what was going on with her desk and why she suddenly felt like she needed her glasses, April swung her feet down out of the chair and stood up. She was shocked when she fell what felt like a few feet to the floor, and more so when her robe, sleeveless tee, and briefs all continued down without her, leaving her standing nude in a puddle of heavy fabric. She gasped and covered herself with her hands...and suddenly, belatedly remembered that Cambot's lack of appendages left him without a way to plug himself into a USB port.

She heard heavy thumps approaching her from the direction of the closet. Turning, she found herself staring at two flesh-colored tree trunks that rose up to something human-shaped that towered far above her, the details of which were fuzzy.

"Well, well, well," Katie's voice boomed from far above her, "won't this make for an interesting new angle in your project?"

[mtshrink]

I loved the ending!!! Keep up the good work.

[GIANT KEITH]

Great story, loved the turn of events, very well written,keep on writing.

[Nom Anor]

Nice; seems like a spiritual sequel to Digital Prototype in a lot of ways.

[qzar9999]

Oh my god, someone actually remembered that story. That takes me back, lol. I'm flattered.

Thanks for the comments, folks. ^_^

[OhZone]

I remember it! I have it.

[MadmanDarkHeretic]

Cute story, Qzar.

[gladewalker]

Now's when the fun begins! =-)

[Nom Anor]

Originally Posted by qzar9999

Oh my god, someone actually remembered that story.

Do I remember it?

Of course!

It's one of my favorite SW stories.