Chapter Text
The world had ended and begun again the day the Minerva Virus went global.
One random morning you wake up sweating, dizzy, heart racing, and thirty seconds later you’re an inch tall, naked, and legally no longer a person. That was it. No cure, no appeal, no rights. The shrunken became property. Some got sold as pets. Most got eaten. It was just how things were now.
Emily Carter had always told herself she was above it.
She didn’t hate tinies. She didn’t love them either. They were background noise, like the hum of the vending machine in the dorm hallway. You saw them get swallowed at parties and you just… kept scrolling on your phone.
Tonight was supposed to be about Lily.
Lily Harper (nineteen, auburn hair down to her waist, the kind of shy beauty that made people stare too long) had finally agreed to leave their dorm room and meet Emily’s new friends. Chloe, Madison, and Savannah were loud, gorgeous, and absolutely shameless about the glass bowl of tinies that lived on Chloe’s coffee table like a centerpiece.
The apartment smelled like vanilla candles and rosé. Music thumped low. The four tinies in the bowl were already down to three by the time Emily and Lily walked in.
“Em! You brought the mysterious roommate!” Chloe squealed, leaping up to hug them both. She smelled like coconut and money. “Lily, right? God, you’re even prettier than Em said. Sit, sit, sit.”
Lily gave a tiny wave, cheeks pink, and tucked herself against Emily on the couch. Madison and Savannah greeted her with lazy, predatory smiles.
“Wine?” Savannah offered, already pouring.
“Sure,” Lily said softly, taking the glass with both hands like it might bite her.
Chloe flopped back down, bare feet tucked under her. “We were just saying these tinies tonight are extra feisty. Campus security scooped them out of the library, apparently. Cute little family.”
In the bowl, a middle-aged woman clutched two teenagers (a boy and a girl who looked about eighteen) close to her chest. All three were naked, trembling, staring up at giants who might as well have been gods.
Madison reached in without looking, pinched the father between two glossy nails, and popped him into her mouth like a peanut. Crunch. Swallow. She didn’t even pause her story about some frat guy.
Lily’s knuckles went white around her wine glass.
Emily nudged her. “Relax. It’s fine.”
“I’m good,” Lily whispered. “I’m not… I don’t eat them.”
Savannah smirked. “Yet.”
Chloe turned her full attention on Emily. “Speaking of. Em, you’ve been here, what, five times? And you still haven’t tried one. That’s practically rude at this point.”
Emily laughed, rolling her eyes. “I’m good. I don’t need the extra protein.”
“Come on,” Madison teased, leaning over to flick Emily’s knee. “One. They’re literally begging for it. Look at them.”
The mother in the bowl was openly crying now, holding her kids tighter.
Emily opened her mouth to brush it off again, but Chloe was already moving. She plucked the tiny son (eighteen, maybe nineteen, dark hair, wide terrified eyes) and held him dangling over Emily’s lap.
“Open,” Chloe sang.
Emily hesitated. Everyone was watching. Lily was watching.
It’s just a tiny, she told herself. It’s not a person anymore. Everyone does it.
She parted her lips.
Chloe dropped him.
He landed on Emily’s tongue screaming, a high, thin sound that vibrated against her taste buds. Warm. Salty. Alive. His little hands scrabbled at her tongue, legs kicking frantically.
The girls cheered.
Emily closed her mouth.
For one stunned second she felt him thrashing, felt the heat of his body, the frantic drum of his heartbeat against her tongue. Then instinct took over. She swallowed.
He slid down her throat in one terrified lump, a living marble forced down by muscles she didn’t control. She felt the bulge travel behind her collarbone, felt him hit her stomach with a faint plop.
The room erupted.
“There she is!” Savannah whooped, slapping Emily’s thigh. “First one always feels weird, right? You’ll be addicted by next week.”
Emily forced a laugh, but something felt… off. A flutter low in her belly. Not the tiny (he was already curling into a ball somewhere inside her), just a strange heat.
Chloe ruffled her hair. “Proud of you, babe.”
Lily was staring at her like she’d grown a second head.
“Em?” she asked quietly.
“I’m fine,” Emily said, too fast. The heat was spreading now, crawling up her spine. “Totally fine. I just, uh… need to pee. Be right back.”
She stood too quickly. The room tilted.
“Down the hall, first door,” Chloe called, already turning back to the bowl.
Emily made it to the bathroom on shaky legs, shut the door, locked it, and leaned hard against the sink.
Her reflection looked normal. Same hazel eyes. Same freckles. Same girl who’d just swallowed someone whole without blinking.
Then the heat turned into fire.
“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no—”
Her knees buckled.
The world lurched, expanded, roared in her ears as her body collapsed inward.