Erin's Living Nightmare - Ch 3

I wish that everyone…

Erin could feel her cheeks warming with nerves as she waited in the lobby alongside Xavier for the lift to arrive. It was a rare treat to get to ride up to her floor with him – and only him – but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him, much less say anything. The lift pinged and the steel doors slid open, and Xavier kindly stepped aside to let Erin enter first. She offered the briefest smile as she passed and retreated into a corner. He moved to the other side, giving her another glance.

“You’re on eight, right?” Xavier said, and Erin nodded keenly. He knew where she worked! That made her heart flutter. Of course, she knew he already knew this; they’d passed enough times in the stairs or been in the lift together that it was obvious, but it meant something that he’d retained that information. And here they were, just the two of them, no sign of anyone else coming from the lobby. They’d have a solid twenty seconds or more of close proximity private time. As he pressed the button, he asked, “Having a good morning so far?”

Erin’s insides flip-flopped. Square-jawed, bronze and perfect Xavier was talking to her. She wanted to say that she was definitely having a good morning, now, with the doors sliding closing to seal them in together.

The lift entry darkened as a hand came in to block the doors, a woman filling the space.

“Room for one more?” Janet said cheerily and Erin blanched as the doors pinged back to let her in. No no no! The giantess ducked into the lift, completely filling the space and driving Xavier and Erin apart to squeeze into opposite corners. She was wearing a thigh-length cream dress that hugged her body so closely it left little to the imagination.

“Of course, welcome, the more the merrier!” Xavier laughed as he bumbled around one of her knees. Erin folded in on herself, cringing as Janet manoeuvred herself around in the tight space. Her great behind swept past Erin’s face, right at head height, almost brushing her nose, and the giantess, folded almost in half, gave her a sly sideways look, aware of how uncomfortable she was making her. As the doors closed, and they started rising, Xavier said, “And how are you this morning?”

He’d redirected and sounded much happier suddenly. Janet had damn well stolen Erin’s greeting, her conversation. Where had she even come from? The lobby had been empty, and now a small light in the day had been unbearably twisted. Janet shifted to address Xavier, hip knocking into Erin so she had to lean away or receive a face-full of arse cheek. She tried to get around Janet’s tree-trunk leg, towards the front of the lift, but there was no space, with the giantess’s massive foot, in a white tennis shoe, blocking the floor ahead.

“I’m wonderful, thank you Xavier. You know, just really good! And even better seeing you glowing today.”

Erin tried to make a sound to show she was there, to gain some space, but it was either unheard or ignored as Janet shifted to better face Xavier. Her arse bumped square into Erin. She gasped, putting her hands up to push back, wanting to call out in alarm, but it was too late – the great cushion of Janet’s rear pressed Erin into the side of the lift, holding her in place, and the giantess didn’t even seem to notice! If Xavier did, he said nothing, making small talk as Erin struggled to get free. She shifted her arms, not wanting to actually put her hands on Janet, and her shoulder slid into the woman’s behind. Janet moved again, apparently tickled by Erin, so her cheek shifted and – oh hell! – positioned her crack more centrally. When Janet backed up, Erin was squeezed in the space between both cheeks, feeling in danger of sliding into her actual arse. She quaked with mixed fear and humiliation but tried to keep still. A wrong move from the giantess now and Erin might be squashed or smothered. Or actually sucked in. Somehow that seemed possible.

“… you know, my second gym session this week. I keep meaning just to take the stairs but who has the time?” The conversation was continuing. Xavier laughed as if Janet had just told a tremendous joke.

“Whatever you’re doing, it’s working,” he said. “And I am absolutely loving this new look.”

New look? Was he talking about the fact that she’d grown to nine feet tall? Like it was a bold lifestyle choice. Erin could’ve screamed with frustration, but now some moments had passed she couldn’t draw attention to herself. If they realised she was trapped under Janet’s bum, it was only going to beg the question of why she hadn’t said something sooner. The pair kept chuckling and chatting, oblivious and Erin wondered why this lift ride was taking so long.

Just bloody typical that the day she had a chance to talk to Xavier, alone, she’d instead end up with Janet hogging the limelight and basically sitting on her at the same time. Typical that the lift ride would also last forever.

The realisation crept in, then, that this wasn’t really typical at all. One of the things Erin had always liked about Xavier was that he didn’t pay especial attention to Julia in the hallways. He was equally polite to both of them. And Janet wasn’t supposed to be nine feet tall. Erin closed her eyes, remembering now, unsure how she’d forgotten.

Her nightmares were seeping into the office. She’d met Radik and made everything worse by wishing her miserable life was more obvious to everyone around her, and this was the result. It was going to keep happening, with fresh opportunities for discomfort and horror to seep out. The lift pinged, arriving at Xavier’s floor, and she opened her eyes again with alarm, hearing Janet say, “One second, Xavier, before you go…”

Erin tried to squirm free, to get out from the great mass of woman, but Janet shifted deliberately, pressing her tighter into the wall. The giantess was holding the lift door open as Xavier grinned back at her.

“We could get coffee some day this week, what do you think?”

“I would love to,” Xavier said brightly. “It’s a date.”

No! Erin screamed internally. It wasn’t fair. That was supposed to be her date! Janet would probably just eat him like she had Boran.

In her distress, she barely heard Xavier call out, “Have a nice day, too, Erin.” It made him pause, a little flicker of hope. His voice wavered slightly at the end, though, as he apparently noticed where she was. Just before the doors pinged closed, he confirmed it with a confused, “Oh.”

“What are you doing?” Janet demanded, finally relieving her weight to turn towards Erin.

Erin almost fell to her knees as the pressure was removed, but she caught herself and looked fearfully up at the massive woman bent over her. Janet wore an expression of disgust.

“Where you just…” She didn’t finish. There was no good way to finish that sentence, as they both knew where she’d just been, and it defied discussion. Janet shook her head instead, like this sort of thing was exactly what she expected of Erin. “Sorry, Dobson, but you’re absolutely not my type, you know that?”

Erin gaped in disbelief, not sure how such a comment could be justified. As if her almost getting crushed by Janet’s arse meant she was coming on to the woman? She had a sudden fearful flash of the prospect of harassment claims, saying she had deliberately positioned herself under Janet’s behind, and she frantically shook her head.

“Whatever, just keep your hands to yourself, alright?” Janet said, rolling her eyes.

The doors opened again, the lift somehow having taken a painfully long time between floors, and Janet moved to go ahead of Erin, knocking her once more with a knee. She placed a big hand on Erin’s head to steady herself as she crouched out of the doorway, almost pressing her into a crouch, then she lumbered off. Erin scrambled out of the lift just before it closed, and bitterly watched the giantess’s behind swaying into the office. Janet gave cheery hellos, everyone so damned happy to see her.

Erin followed more cautiously, trying to make it to her own cubicle unnoticed, and found that easy enough, at least. No one said hello to her. She sat down and huffed, feeling safe at last, for now. Janet thumped off towards the break room with her entourage merrily giggling at whatever she said. Given a moment’s respite, Erin tried to think fast. Where had she got to with a strategy to end this madness? She’d intended to brainstorm hard after seeing Radik, but couldn’t recall coming up with any good ideas. She couldn’t even recall going home, now she thought of it – it seemed like she’d come straight back to work.

Was that part of the wish? Like she was literally trapped in a nightmare with no chance of getting home, where she was safest.

“Not paying you to daydream, Dobson,” Yvette’s hard voice cut through her thoughts and Erin startled to see her manager suddenly standing over her desk. The woman was in a scarlet pantsuit today, arms folded unhappily over her chest. “How long have you been sitting there without even turning your computer on?”

“I –” Erin struggled to respond. She’d only just sat down! And most of the office were fawning over Janet again – why was Yvette picking on her?

“Honestly, it might be about time we reviewed your progress here, Dobson. Every time I look your way you seem to be either causing distractions or avoiding work. I hoped you might train up a new intern today, but doubt you’d give the best impression. Are you even happy working here? Do you want to do well?”

The quickfire comments made Erin shrink in her seat, like a schoolchild called out by the headmistress. It was unfair, with the amount of work Erin actually put in, but Yvette was clearly taking out bottled-up frustrations from elsewhere on her. As the manager continued, Erin balled up, cringing with discomfort, trying to quietly wait it out. How could Yvette be concerned what an intern thought of her? It’d been bad enough getting trapped under Janet, but at least there she’d been ignored – she felt Yvette’s full furious attention on her now.

“We could put you in another office. Maybe you’d be more comfortable on Floor Three?” Yvette rattled out, and that sparked a fresh fear. Bad as things were here, at least Erin was paid well as part of the team on Floor Eight. The lower floors were where careers went to die. But as she looked up, to fight for her job, she found Yvette standing fearsomely above her – big as a building. Erin shuddered at the sight, and the realisation of how massively big the office suddenly seemed, too.

She rocked back on the expanse of her chair, its back an immense wall above, as she was hit by the reality of what this terrible wish had conjured up next.

She had literallyshrunk under Yvette’s tirade.