Erin's Living Nightmare - Ch 5

I wish that everyone could…

Two floors down from the main bull pen where Erin worked, the Pagen Paper Ltd building had a large canteen area, with shiny steel buffet alleys and wood veneer tables separated by cheap fake plants. It was popular with most of the office, which is why Erin almost never visited, preferring to bring her own sandwiches to eat in the break room. To come down here was to invite staring at best, but more likely to stir conversation or mockery from coworkers just far enough from the actual workplace to release their inhibitions. Here, Janet had once “accidentally” spilled a milkshake down Erin’s front, and another time, Russel had pointed out Erin had a twig in her hair loud enough for everyone to hear. Here, people laughed at Erin.

The one benefit of Chloe’s irresponsible attitude, Erin had hoped, was that they were so early for lunch that the place would be practically empty, but somehow that didn’t seem to be the case. Plenty of people she half recognised were already scoffing food or enjoying their coffees, and they all looked up as Chloe passed, Erin swinging in her hand. There were giggles and sniggers that made her want to shrink even smaller, to hide inside this warm fist. Chloe carelessly carried her past everyone though, and propped an elbow on a sneeze-guard to hold her even higher as she considered her options to eat. Erin tried to shift to get more comfortable, as the giant intern ignored her, except to distractedly prod at her with her twitching fingers. Erin pushed against her top finger, hissing, “Chloe, stop that!”, but went unheard.

Chloe chose a beef stew and a can of Coke and went to a table right in the middle of the canteen, where she finally released Erin and sat down to start eating. The intern continued to ignore her as she stirred at her stew and lifted a forkful to her mouth. Erin was chilled from protesting as she watched the massive woman’s mouth work, chewing, swallowing. Each mouthful was as big as an armchair, and Erin found herself backing slowly away. Chloe squinted, noticing her watching.

“What’s wrong with you?” the intern demanded, through a partly finished mouthful.

Erin turned away, muttering, “Sorry.”

“No, I mean, why are you so small?” Chloe lowered her hand to poke Erin with the fork, and Erin jumped to one side, pushing back against the gravy-slick prongs.

“Hey! Stop that!”

“What? This?” The fork came again, but this time lower, twisting to hook through Erin’s belt. She was too late to react, and when she tried to both dart aside and push the fork back at the same time, she tripped, only to be saved from splatting into the table by the fork lifting her up. Erin gave the briefest scream before clamping her hands over her mouth. She was lifted over the table, and Chloe’s stew, to hang precariously from the fork by her pinching waistline. She swung her legs about with no chance of finding any support for them, and trembled as Chloe held up her up to her face. Terrifying and mad as it was, to be speared on a fork by an enormous young lady, the giantess regarded her without especial interest, just vague curiosity.

“You’re so weird,” Chloe said. “Why’d Yvette lump me with the weirdest person in the office?”

“Chloe, please!” Erin cried, trying to keep calm and steady, to stop other people from looking and to keep herself from falling off the fork. “This isn’t right. You can’t treat me like this. Please, put me down.”

Chloe didn’t say anything as she studied the human plainly at her mercy. There were plenty of coworkers looking their way already, and Erin was grimly aware that more were piling in as the lunch rush was apparently beginning. Was that normal? Had her wish influenced things like that, too, to ensure the maximum audience for whatever humiliations came next?

Chloe blew out an irritated breath that wafted over Erin, throwing back her hair, and said, “What’s the big deal? You should be grateful I took you with me, otherwise you’d just be stuck on that desk.”

Erin said nothing, too incredulous at such a claim. As if she wanted to be here.

“I could dip you in the stew, you know,” Chloe went on. “Probably no one would even notice if I added you to my lunch.”

Again Erin kept quiet. That was not a normal thing to say, and she didn’t want to draw attention to it in any way. Thankfully, Chloe rolled her eyes, losing interest, and lowered the fork again, slanting it so Erin slid off next to her plate. Erin hurried to push herself up, standing as if she hadn’t just been plucked up into the sky and threatened. She flinched as the fork plunged into the stew next to her and a drop of sauce flicked out, smacking her arm. Erin moved away, wiping at the mess, as Chloe took out her phone to look at that while eating another mouthful.

“Go on then,” the intern said, though, not done yet. Erin frowned up at her, and found the giantess holding her phone over the meal, splitting her attention between reading that, eating, and apparently waiting for something from Erin. “Tell me what your deal is already. If I’m supposed to be learning anything from you, I’ve got to know your deal.”

Erin gave as big a sigh as her tiny body would allow and slumped her shoulders. She might as well share, she thought – she doubted it would help practically, unlikely to win any sympathy from this monstrous intern, but it was about time she voiced the madness of all this to someone.

“I’ve been having a bad time in this office for a while,” Erin began. “People don’t like me, I have way too much work to do, and I keep getting the blame for other people’s mistakes. I actually do a lot more than everyone else here, but it doesn’t get noticed.”

“Probably because you dress in such boring colours,” Chloe replied, eyes still on her phone. “And it wouldn’t kill you to brush your hair. Speak up a little, these sorts of things. Also you could do something about your nose.”

“My nose?” Erin exclaimed, instinctively touching it.

“Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t help, does it?”

Erin blanched. She’d had insults about her flat hair before, and its boring colour, and Janet frequently made a point of how her skin was too pale, her hands a little big, but no one had mentioned her nose. Not to her face, anyway.

“I suppose that’s one good thing about being small, anyway,” Chloe said, brightly. “People are less likely to notice that now. But get to the good bit, yeah? You were saying?”

Erin frowned, wanting to backtrack and defend herself or… somehow make this latest insult better. There was no point though. She shook it off and continued, “Well. I think I was having an especially bad week, and somehow I ended up in this strange place, where I met someone and I… The short story is, I accidentally made a wish for everyone to see what a nightmare my life is, and the result is –” Erin spread her arms, putting her tiny self on show.

“Insecurities made manifest,” Chloe summarised, like it now made perfect sense. “Jesus, Dobby, everyone knows better than to make wishes, don’t they? This is the twenty-first century.”

“Look, I don’t even really remember doing it,” Erin replied hotly, breezing over that Dobby moniker. “And anyway, now I’m trying to figure out a way back. If I can make another wish –”

“Oh my God.” Chloe almost snorted a laugh. “Are you actually stupid? You can’t fix wishes with other wishes. Haven’t you done enough?”

Erin scowled, not appreciating the insult but still aware of how massive this young woman was. Chloe took another forkful of stew and finally considered her again, past the phone, looking amused instead of wholly disaffected. The giant intern pursed her lips in thought, then said, “So let’s hear it. What were you going to wish for instead?”

“I don’t know. Maybe just to bring things back to normal.”

“That could mean anything.”

“I know. And it’s complicated. The wish giver –”

“Genie? Demon?”

“I don’t know. Whatever she is, she has rules, and outright told me it’d be dangerous to make any wish, as if they’re always likely to punish people. I can’t live like this, though.”

“Doesn’t sound like all that much has changed.” Chloe shrugged, fairly astutely. “Maybe just sort your attitude out. Enjoy things a bit more, life might get better.”

“Right,” Erin replied, back to disliking her. She walked away from the plate, leaving the giant intern to keep chomping her stew, and looked miserably out across the canteen. A man staring her way caught her eye and shook his head in a pitying way before going back to a sandwich, but otherwise a good portion of the busy room seemed to have lost interest in her. Chloe was right, though, much as she hated to think it – she didn’t have a good plan and needed something fresh. If she could just think straight for a minute.

“Dobson! Package for Dobson!” a woman’s voice called out, and when no one responded immediately she grew a lot louder, shriller. “Where’s Erin Dobson? I have something for her!”

“Here!” Chloe called back, pointing down, as everyone else got quieter and started to look. Erin cowered under the shifting attention of dozens of relaxing people, all of them noticing her again, making comments as they saw how small she was. Chloe explained for the audience’s benefit, “She got tiny because she made a stupid wish. But I’m taking care of her now.”

A few people laughed and someone actually shouted, “Is that Erin who kept falling in bushes? Got a twig in her hair today?”

Damn it, why!

“It’s apt, isn’t it?” Janet’s voice came terribly over the hubbub. “She’s leant really deep into that mousy look she always had.”

More laughter and Erin basically wanted to die.

But the courier was pushing through the crowd with a serious expression, holding up a manilla envelope, and she came to stand over the table. Giant as the rest of them, Erin recognised the receptionist, Shauna, from the downstairs lobby and shrivelled under her accusing stare. She was a slim, pale woman in a dark suit, her hair in a tight ponytail.

“You didn’t pick up your mail this morning,” Shauna said. “This came for you. What’s going on?”

Erin was ready to apologise again, to grovel, anything to get her to go away quickly and relieve all this attention; it was madness, there was no reason for her to come up here with the mail, only to bring Erin shame. But she heard a softness in Shauna’s voice and calmed slightly, realising the receptionist, at least, sounded concerned. It was almost a rule that the further Erin got from Floor Eight, the less hateful people were, even if only because they were less likely to notice her, but Shauna, way down near the building exit, was one of the few who might even be called pleasant. The giant receptionist offered a sympathetic look as she lowered the envelope, a piece of stationary three times Erin’s size.

“Perhaps I should just hold onto it,” Shauna suggested. “You can pick it up tomorrow.”

As if Erin would sleep off this shrinking.

“I can take it for her,” Janet offered, lurching into view over the receptionist’s shoulder. “We’re the best of friends.”

With the barely hidden smirks of onlookers all around, it was flagrantly clear this was a lie. Shauna shifted slightly aside, saying, “That’s fine. I only brought it in case it was convenient, seeing as I was coming up for lunch anyway. Sorry to bother you, Ms Dobson, I can see you have enough trouble.”

The receptionist turned to leave but Janet reached out and caught her shoulder, the massive hand engulfing half her upper body.

“Oh, don’t go,” Janet said sweetly, pulling Shauna closer. The receptionist’s eyes darted about with mixed confusion and fear as the nine-foot woman towered above, holding her in place. “Not when you came all the way up here… for lunch.”

“What…” Shauna replied, looking up into her face.

Janet’s grin spread – and spread more. Just as it had when she caught Boran.

“Shauna!” Erin cried, rushing forward. “Run!”

The receptionist glanced her way and in that moment’s distraction Janet snapped her vast mouth open and brought it down over her head. Erin skidded to a stop, the air rushing out of her as Shauna’s scream was smothered inside Janet’s mouth, her head filling Janet’s cheeks like an enormous gobstopper. Shauna tried to struggle, flailing an arm around, but Janet snatched onto her with both hands, clamping her arms to her sides, and lifted her with a great slurping gulp. It happened much quicker than with Boran, Janet seemingly now practised in this, and someone was clapping, someone else cheering, as Shauna was sucked up like a giant noddle. Janet had to take a step back from the force of ingesting the woman, but kept her balance with a hand out to one side, the other rubbing her vastly swelling belly. The human-sized bump jolted and flexed as Shauna pushed from the inside, her shrieks just audible as flat, suppressed squeaks.

“Mmm,” Janet mused with satisfaction. “Salty.”

That got a few more chuckles, and at last people started returning to their lunches, the show over. Erin stood in mute horror as Shauna’s movements got slower inside Janet. The receptionist hadn’t even done anything; she’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Janet looked down at the table then, her thick tongue coming out to lick her lips.

“Keep staring, Dobson, and I’ll make you dessert.”

Erin snapped her gaze away, hanging her head, and Janet laughed, a big booming sound that shook the table. The giantess thumped away, footsteps quaking the tiled floor. Trembling, Erin looked up again, into the empty space where Shauna had been standing. It was so brutal, and merciless, and really it was her fault.

“What is it then?” Chloe said, crouching to the side. She lifted the envelope Shauna had been carrying and must’ve dropped. The intern tore it open and pulled out a single sheet of folded paper. She read it out: “‘Dear Mrs Erin Dobson, Have you started planning for retirement?’ Oh, snoring, it’s just a circular for a retirement home!” She tossed the paper aside as if its pointlessness personally offended her, and Erin watched it drifting down with alarm. Shauna had come up here deliberately, made everyone notice Erin, and accidentally got swallowed whole, all for the sake of junk mail?

Erin’s fists balled at the madness of it. She was shaking more with rage than fear now. She had to do something. Screw the rules and the warnings. She could wish for pain. Destruction. Damn it, she’d –

“I’m done.” Chloe interrupted her thoughts, and a giant hand flew down towards Erin. “We’re going.”

Erin yelped in surprise as the giantess caught her again, balling her into a fist. This time she was pressed into darkness, face tight against the flesh of Chloe’s palm, but only for a stomach-dropping second as her captor lifted her off the table and thrust her into her jeans pocket. Erin tumbled down into a fabric canopy, tangling in her own limbs, and braced herself against the sides as Chloe started walking. She grew rigid again, shaken by the simple capture and the new humiliation of being pocketed by this young woman, no idea even where they were going.

Who was she kidding, this was all out of her control…