Eve's Boutique - Ch 45

Eve’s Epiphany

She was still struggling to get up, when the three of them came through the door.  The horror and revulsion they felt at what Mackenzie had done to her shop twisted her stomach.  And the acid-bite of anger burned her tongue – that was Abigail.  But it was nothing compared to what came next.

“Eve!  Oh my God!  What happened to you?”

She made it to her hands and knees, even as the weight of concern pressed down upon her.  Then Abigail was there.  Her enormous hands picking her up, cradling her to her chest.  And the gentle wash of love and affection came as the most exquisite relief.  Eve sank into it like a warm bath, and allowed herself to be cared for by her beloved.

“I’m okay,” Eve managed.  “She didn’t hurt me.  I’m just tired.”

Abigail held her for a moment, gray and uncertain, until she flared bright with inspiration.  The giant woman pulled on her bra strap, creating a little space against her skin.  She tucked Eve down inside, helped her drape her arms over the top of the cup so she could still see the world outside.  It was a bit tight, but Abigail’s breast was soft and giving as it pillowed around her.  And Eve could feel the woman’s heart pounding against her back – regular, and grounding.

Eve fought to hold back her tears.  Her beloved had known exactly what she needed.

She wasn’t sure which of them experienced the arousal first.  Mutual emotion was hard to disentangle, but it was always such a delight when it happened.

Abigail stayed with her in the feeling for a few seconds, then shifted back to business.

“Chloe, are any of those plants salvageable?”

“Some.  Maybe.  If we hurry.”

“Triage, figure out which ones are worth saving.  Kayla, I need you to go outside.  Flag down the Giantess Squad, tell them to get in touch with Parks and Recs.  We’ll need planters, and lots of potting soil.”

Kayla shot a thumbs up, from just above the level of Abigail’s knee.  “I need you to open the shop door – I can’t reach the knob.  You’re setting the standards too high, sweet thing.  The room is enormous.”

“Good point, hold on.  Eve.  Did you manage to finish that experimental growth potion?”

Eve let the nuanced emotion behind that question swirl, testing the currents and eddies.  Her beloved wanted the answer to be yes.  But it was a complex feeling, a storm blowing from many points of origin, all converging at that central answer.  She sensed for addiction, a wanton desire to grow ever larger, for Abigail to try and fill a bottomless hole within herself, and it was there.  But blessedly, it was faint.  Eve idly considered if she could have refused Abby even if it had been the only reason she had asked.  Eve wanted more than anything to please her, and even the knowledge that it could ultimately lead to Abigail’s destruction might not be enough to stay her hand.  Was that not an addiction of its own?

“Yes,” Eve said.

Abigail squeezed her shoulders, hugging her between her breasts.  “You’re amazing.  Alright, girls: before we do anything else, we’re sizing you up.  This is going to be a big job, and I can’t do it when my friends are both munchkins.  Or you know.  Relatively.”

Abigail fetched the potion, Eve bouncing along in her bra as she went.  There were perks to being this small.  Maybe she’d try it later when they were alone.

Chloe and Kayla lined up, and Abigail knelt before them, offering them the eyedropper of growth potion.

“Wait,” Chloe said.  “We should figure out how big we want to get.  Not to mention dosage.  How strong is this stuff, anyway?”

“As strong as I could make it,” Eve replied.  “It’s hard to be exact, but there should easily be enough in that vial for all of you to outgrow to Mackenzie – many, many times over.”

Kayla whistled.  “Impressive.”

Eve beamed.

“We could let Abigail drink all of it,” Chloe suggested.  “She still has some immunity to Mackenzie’s Glamour.  If she was a lot bigger, say a few thousand feet….”

Abigail let out a pink pulse of temptation at the idea.  She quickly suppressed it.  “We’re not going to win that way.  That’s part of what I got out of my meeting with Lilith.  Oh, Eve, that reminds me!  Our side has a penalty shot.  I provoked your sister, and she did this sick-ass judo throw on me.”

Someone felt heartsick.  It took Eve a moment to realize it was her.

“Why don’t you sit down for a minute?” Kayla said, with blue concern.  “You look pretty banged up, Abby.”

“Soon,” Abigail said.  “Let’s handle this first.  Why don’t the two of you aim to be about my size for now.  You’re thirty feet?  Eve, how much to get them to a hundred?”

“Seven drops.  More or less.”

Abigail doled out the potion, and the girls prepared to get to work.

“Okay.  Kayla, get outside and start gathering those garden supplies.  I’ll help you haul them into the shop.  Chloe, how many pots do you think we’ll need?  Worst case scenario?”

“This plan isn’t going to work,” Eve said quietly.

Abby looked down at her.  “Why not?”

“Because Kayla is big.  Everything from the outside world will be tiny to her.  So when she steps into the shop….”

“She’ll be holding mini-sized planting supplies,” Abigail finished.  “We need a size shifter.”

“Yes.  Don’t worry, I can do it.”

Eve tried to hoist herself out of Abigail’s bra, as the three women watched her with concern.  Yet she was still so very tired, and even with all the strength left in her body she wasn’t able to free herself.  Her arms gave out.  And as she slipped further down between Abigail's breasts, she felt a terrible thing.

The girls were afraid.  Afraid… for her.  It was a deep, all-encompassing emotion.  Not transient sympathy, explainable by Eve’s exhaustion, which was after all temporary.  It was something much darker than that.  Fear for someone helpless, lost in the woods, when a monster waits around the next bend in the path.  Ready to gobble her up.

Eve whimpered.

“What’s wrong?” her beloved asked.

“Nothing!”  Eve laughed nervously.  “Um.  Is everything okay, you three?”

“Don’t worry.  Okay.  So no way in hell are we making Eve haul around forty pound bags of dirt today.  Let me think.”  Abigail took a deep breath, and pushed her palms down over her eyes.  After a moment she looked up, smiling.  “Hey.  Your magic doors – the ones that lead to the shop, and to your bedroom.  They have a way to transfer information when you pass through them, right?  So the room knows what size to be when you come inside?”

“Don’t ask me.  It’s magic.  I don’t think about it, I just do it.”

Abigail bubbled a combination of frustration, amusement, and adoration.  It tickled a little.

“Okay, well.  I watched you go through one of your doors, the other night.  At the very center, you went completely thin, then disappeared into a tiny white dot….”

“Oh!” Chloe chirped.  “Like Flatland?”

“Yes exactly like Flatland!”

Eve frowned.  “What’s Flatland?”

“A book,” Chloe said distractedly.  “I’ll tell you later.  But it sounds like there’s an infinitely thin two-dimensional plane at the very center of your doors, that briefly reduces you to a one-dimensional point.  That’s what allows a giant person to fit through a tiny door on the outside.  Then the room decodes their size while they’re in that flux state, growing or shrinking as needed.”

Eve blinked.

“Don’t mind her,” Kayla explained affectionately.  “She’s a total nerd.”

Eve smiled.  Both Chloe and her beloved were suddenly radiating excitement.  She gave up trying to understand, and simply relaxed into the feeling.

“Okay!” Abigail said, punching her fist into her hand.  “I’ve got a theory.  If someone outside the room holds an object that’s large to them.  And hands it through the door, into that two-dimensional plane, to someone that the room considers large….”

“Then the object will adjust mid-stream, and pick up the size from the big person,” Chloe finished.  “So you could make something – anything really – much, much bigger.  This has some intriguing possibilities.  You could solve world hunger, completely end resource scarcity, or–”

Eve laughed out loud.

“What’d I say?” Chloe asked.

“Not you,” Eve wheezed.  “Abigail.  She thought about something dirty.  I got the image of her lying with her legs spread in front of the door, and–”

“Just you wait ‘til I get you alone,” Abigail growled.  “We’re going to have a long talk about privacy.  Among other things.  Anyway.  There’s just one thing missing for my idea to work.  We’d need a normal-sized friend.  And those are in short supply lately, no pun intended.”

Just then, there was a knock at the shop door.

“Oh wow, what a coincidence,” Abigail said sarcastically.  “I wonder who that could be.”

She opened the door.

Into the massive shop stepped a tiny speck of a man.  He was dressed in comically oversized clothes, and feeling a rather lovely vintage of awe.  Eve peeked down at him curiously.  Even from this height, it was clear he was pretty cute.  There was something odd about him too – besides the fact that he couldn’t have been much more than half her own size, and that he was currently surrounded by three beautiful, gargantuan women.

Then the man met Abigail’s eye, and it took Eve’s breath away.  What the two of them shared.  The raw power Abigail felt over him – savory, like a steak prepared by the finest of chefs.  And the perfect complement: his unfathomable sweetness as he looked back.  How everything about him seemed to shift and melt, to become whatever Abigail most desired.  The way he longed to please her.  It felt familiar.

Eve grinned, feeling an immediate sense of comradery for him.  This must be…

“Dylan,” Abigail said.  “I’d like you to meet someone very important to me.  I’m going to pick you up, sweetie.”

The tiny man fit perfectly in her hand, as though riding on a palanquin.  As Abigail straightened, her emotions shifted confusingly.  Between Dylan, and the door, and the little bulge in his jeans that suggested he was fairly well-endowed for someone so small.  It took a moment to parse, but then Eve understood.

Her beloved brought him in close, and held him out to her.

“Eve, this is Dylan.  He’s a little short at the moment, but I think we agree it’s a good height for him.  I owe him a lot.  I hope the two of you can be friends.”

“Charmed,” Eve said.  Feeling charmed.

The tiny young man looked back at her.  His mouth fell open.  “You’re Eve?”

It struck her like a blow.  Fear.  The very same as before, that something precious and innocent was about to be destroyed, and that no force on Earth could stop it.  And the certainty that Eve’s own destruction was what he feared.

Her smile faltered, briefly.  She fixed it.

“Yes, I’m Eve.  Please, make yourself welcome.”

“Hey little guy,” Abigail rumbled.  “We need your help with something.  Are you in the mood to do some lifting?”

He clearly wasn’t.  Yet Eve was able to take strength from his determination to make Abigail happy.

“I see where this is going,” Kayla said.  She was already tall enough to open the door, and growing faster all the time.  “I’m going to get those supplies.”

“Does someone want to explain what’s going on?” Dylan squeaked.  “I ran away and hid as soon as whatever Mackenzie did to me wore off.  Then I figured you all might be headed for the address you told her.”

“You did so, so well Dylan.” Abigail raised the teensy thing to lips bigger than his entire body.  She kissed him.

After that, Dylan wasn’t in the mood to talk.  It left him a perfect audience as Abigail explained how they would save Eve’s plants.

“One thing bothers me,” Chloe mused, as she examined the ruined trumpet tree.  “How come the Glamour wore off on him?  How come it wore off on us, for that matter?  It seems to permanently affect everyone else.”

“It’s curious,” Eve said.  “I would say it’s my immunity potion.  But Dylan hasn’t had any of that.”

“And it broke when Mackenzie looked away from me, even back on Wednesday,” Abigail put in.  “Before you made that stuff.”

“Mm,” Eve agreed.  “I confess I’m at a loss.  There’s nothing special about being bound to me that would shield you.  I’m not even certain he is bound, except through virtue of my essence potion, and before you ask, I have no idea how that works, either.  It’s magic, and I just do it.”

Abigail smirked.  “I’ve got another theory.  Want to hear it?”

Her beloved didn’t wait for an answer.  She reached into her bra, and scooped Eve into her hand.  She found herself kneeling in the woman’s palm, giddy and disoriented.  Her vision filled with Abigail’s adoring face.

“It’s because,” she whispered.  “Eve is stronger than she thinks.”

There was pride in it, and love, and so many other wonderful things.  Eve drank it in, her whole body singing with it, like she was wrapped in her favorite blanket still hot from the dryer.

Then Abigail’s fear broke through.  No more than an instant of it, a tiny burst of radio static.  Enough to let her know that Abigail was hiding the fear from her intentionally.  Smothering it under those happy feelings.  Which made it worse, because it meant anything could be hidden this way, that the scary thing could be anywhere, about to strike at any moment, and how could you feel safe when the most beloved person could lie to you this way, and….

“Eve.  What’s wrong?”

Eve said nothing.  There was nothing.  No thought.  The emptiness an injured gazelle must feel, as it stared into the encroaching jaws of a lion.

“Eve?  Hey.  Hey, talk to me!”

“What’s going on?” Chloe said.

“I don’t know.  She stopped responding all of a sudden.  She’s just staring into space, taking tiny breaths….”

Chloe looked up from her plants.  “That sounds like a panic attack.  Take her somewhere cool and quiet.  Sit with her.”

“W-what?  You need me here, though!”

“No I don’t,” Chloe snapped.

Abigail glanced at the door to Eve’s bedroom, frozen with indecision.

Chloe spoke sharply, like a practiced emergency room doctor.  “Abby!  I don’t need you.  I anti-need you.  You’re too big, it’s making these plants gigantic, and that makes my job harder.  Go!  Get her out of here!”

Eve only barely felt Abigail's hurt.  She was dimly aware of the force of it, crashing around her like a tidal wave.

Abigail set Dylan on the floor, and dashed for Eve’s bedroom.

Eve's Boutique - Ch 44

Blind Faith

The little ones were afraid of her.

Mackenzie couldn’t remember a single time that had been true.  Not her whole life.

The kids in first grade weren’t scared just because she was fifteen feet tall.  And she got along fine in middle school, even after she hit puberty and was growing multiple feet every month.  No one was scared of her when she’d topped out at fifty feet around her sixteenth birthday.  And even today, when she learned the trick of accepting tribute to grow even bigger, fear was the last thing on their minds.  Her height just made them happy.  More friendly.  More accepting.

But now, they were cowering.  Fleeing the streets as she stomped her way across town.  She saw mothers shielding their children.  Blinds drawn in terror at her approach.  Even the Giantess Squad was too afraid to provide an escort.

There was subjugation in it.  Fear could be a form of worship, and some deities preferred it that way.  Was she that kind of deity, now?

She knew why the little ones were acting this way, of course.  It wasn’t because she’d grown – more than tripling in size since morning, a hundred and fifty feet tall at least.  She’d be taller than Lady Liberty herself, if the stuck-up b-word ever got off her pedestal.  They weren’t afraid she’d steal their size either.  She only took a few inches from each, or a foot at most.  They weren’t even afraid because she was angry, though she was certain she made an intimidating sight.

It was that… stuff.  That awful goop, that Abigail had smeared all over her face.  Some of it had even gotten in her mouth, and it was disgusting!  So bitter!

The moment it touched her, everything had changed.

Abigail had done this.  Abigail, who she loved more than almost anyone.  She’d ruined everything.  But Abigail wasn’t herself.  She was under that witch’s spell.

Eve.  The one who hurt Lilith, who was still hurting her friends.  Manipulating them into hating her.  Lilith couldn’t stop Eve, or no, she could, but she wouldn’t.  Even if Lilith was better and more powerful and more beautiful than anyone.  It was Mackenzie’s job, and she had to do it because, well, because Lilith said it was her job.  And she had to do that awful thing to Abby, because that would stop Eve.

Somehow.

She needed a happy thought.

She latched onto sisters.  Eve and Lilith were sisters, though as Lilith had pointed out to her many many times, not biological.  Mackenzie was an only child.  She imagined what it might be like when you had a sister, and pushed everything else out of her mind.  Because the other thoughts were unhappy ones, and no one liked an unhappy girl.  She’d been too weak to follow Lilith’s orders, her friends were all mad at her, and no one was smiling, but it was all okay.  She just needed not to think about it, until she could fix everything.

She couldn’t make herself hurt Abigail.  But Eve?  Well, that was a different story.  Lilith would be so proud.

She was almost too big to walk down the street in this part of town.  Her feet took up whole lanes of traffic.  It was like walking a tight rope, trying to maneuver her massive calves between knee-high shops and apartment buildings.  There were so many tripping hazards.  And try as she might, it was impossible to avoid crunching a few cars beneath her feet.  Their occupants ran from their abandoned vehicles, trying to stay out from underfoot.

Their screams.  She hated their screams.  Sounds of fear, not of pain, and she was thankful for that, but she hated that she had to think about the difference.

Sisters.  What if she had a sister.  What would her sister say right now?

Eve was living in Lilith’s old shop.  She knew that address sounded familiar.  It was far too small for her to enter, but Lilith had shown her that trick.  She pinched the little doorknob, carefully turned it….

And found herself in another world.

Every wall, every surface, was covered in the most lusciously green plants Mackenzie had ever seen.  They were all so big!  For a moment she thought it might be because this place made her small, like at Lilith’s house.  But there were chairs and tables, and even a polished chrome cash register, and those were all normal size.  It was so beautiful and peaceful in here, that it almost felt unreal.

She thought she was alone.  Until she spied the woman.

She was on the counter, in the back of the shop.  Standing in the very center, as though hoping Mackenzie would find her.  The woman was tiny – absurdly so.  Not even the size of Mackenzie’s littlest finger.

Mackenzie stalked forward, glaring angrily at the woman.  Being as scary as possible.  It was hard – the woman was wearing such a nice little outfit, and Mackenzie was completely naked.  It was hard to feel scary when you were naked.

“You’re Eve?” she snarled.

The woman said nothing.  Only looked up at her, and nodded.

“I’m here to put a stop to you.  All the evil you’re doing, in my town, to my friends.  It stops.  Now.”

Eve continued to stare up at her, arms at her side, spine neutral.

“You have a lot to answer for.  You’ve stolen all my friends from me, turned them against me.  You’ve manipulated everyone around you into believing you’re some force for good.  Well you’re not!  You got Abigail addicted to magic!  You hurt Kayla, and Chloe!  But worst of all, you hurt Lilith!  Do you have any idea how much suffering you’ve caused?”

The witch was silent for many seconds.  Then at last she made a sound – a sniveling little whimper, from the back of her throat.

Mackenzie leaned down, and put her chin on the counter so she could see.  The woman flinched slightly at her approach, but stood her ground.

“You’re… crying?”

Tears were streaming freely down the woman’s face.  She was completely quiet, as she wept.  But there were so many tears, too many.  And from the puffy look around her eyes, it looked like she’d been crying for a long time.

“That’s not going to help you!” Mackenzie roared.  “No one is going to be nice to you just because you’re crying!  It doesn’t solve anything, don’t you know that?”

Still, that silent stare.

“If you don’t have anything to say for yourself then… then I can’t forgive what you’ve done.  I’m going to finish this.   Hold still.  I’ll make it quick.”

Eve only watched her, tears soaking her shirt.  Her eyes followed Mackenzie as she stood up to her full height.  Tracked her fist, as she raised it high above her head.

With a look of resignation, the evil little witch closed her eyes.

Eve didn’t move, as Mackenzie’s fist slammed down.

The counter shook under the force of her blow.  The windows rattled.  The vibrations almost threw the woman off her feet, as Mackenzie’s fist landed less than an inch from where Eve was standing.

“I’m so sorry.”

Mackenzie jerked back violently as the witch spoke.

“Well!” Mackenzie shrieked.  “Well!  It’s too late for sorry!  I’m gonna… gonna….”

She looked around the shop frantically.

“Those plants!  You use them to make potions, don’t you?  That’s where your evil comes from!”

Eve said nothing.  Her eyes, still closed.

The nearest plant was a giant monstera, nearly twice as tall as Mackenzie.  She grabbed the pot, heaved with all her might, screaming.  It smashed to the ground, ceramic and soil spreading like an avalanche all over the shop floor.  The next plant came easier – it was something exotic and top-heavy, and a good hard shove was all it took.  She jumped up and down on it for good measure.  She swept pots off shelves with both arms, a dozen or more landing on the linoleum in a rough staccato.  She went down the line, methodical now.  Kicking over smaller pots, overturning the larger ones, lifting with her back.  She was bleeding, a piece of ceramic or one of the sharper branches had cut her, but she didn’t care, she didn’t care.

Happy thoughts.  Happy thoughts.

She was in the front window of the shop now.  There were only a few left, but they were the biggest of all.  She was panting with the effort, her body aching all over.  Covered in sweat, and chlorophyll, and the tiny fibrous remains of the living things she’d murdered.  And still that terrible witch was standing there.  Just letting it happen, not even watching her!

There was some kind of tree, that almost filled the floor to ceiling window at the front of the shop.  It was so heavy, but she couldn’t, wouldn’t give up now.  She could still fix this, make Lilith proud.  She set herself, pushed with every last bit of strength in her body.  The tree tipped gradually, ever so slowly losing the fight against gravity, and at last hit the point of no return.  The trunk snapped as it hit the floor.

The shop was suddenly filled with light, the plants no longer blotting out the afternoon sun as it poured through the window.  It should’ve felt like a symbol of purity, like she’d expelled the evil in this place.  But it was blinding, and it hurt so bad.  She wasn’t crying.  Tears were streaming from her eyes, but it was the sun’s fault, she wasn’t crying.

There was a brilliant flare of light, from beside the place where Eve was standing.  She winced, thinking for a moment the witch was finally launching a counter-attack.  But it was just a reflection, glare from the old metal cash register sitting on the counter.  Disoriented, she stumbled forward, bent….

And got a look at her reflection.

It was far, far worse than she imagined.  Lilith’s beautiful make-up had smeared, becoming a horrible parody, a nightmare mask.  What once had made her beautiful had left her beyond grotesque.  No wonder people were afraid of her!  And worse, there were tell-tale streaks, at the corners of her eyes.  Proof for anyone to see that she’d been crying.

“It isn’t you.”

Again, the witch’s voice shocked her, made her stagger away in surprise.

“It hasn’t been the real you,” Eve said.  “Not for a long, long time.  You poor girl.”

Eve sank to her knees.  Weeping inconsolably.

“You poor girl.  You poor girl.”

“I don’t even remember what I look like under this,” Mackenzie whimpered.  “I’ve been wearing it for so long.”

“But you aren’t ready to take it off.”

“I can’t let her see me without it.  I can’t!  But I can’t go back to her like this either.  Please.  You have to… to go away, to let her win.  If you don’t, she’ll never, I’ll never….”

“What if I fixed it for you?”  Eve had suddenly stopped crying.  “I can put it back the way it was.”

“I’m not going to let you work your magic on me!  I don’t trust you, you’re evil!”

“Do you have another choice?”

Mackenzie stared down at the miniscule little witch.  She could feel her bottom lip starting to quiver.  If this kept up, she wasn’t going to be able to stop the tears.

Eve held up her hands.  “I promise, on all I hold sacred, that I won’t do anything other than put your make-up back the way it was before.  It will be the exact same enchantment Lilith gave you.  No tricks.”

“She won’t be able to tell?”  Mackenzie’s voice was very small.

“She won’t be able to tell.  You won’t have to tell her what happened.”

Mackenzie sniffed.  She did her best to wipe plant debris off her face, and nodded.

“I need leaves.  From that one, that one, and that one.”  Eve pointed.

Mackenzie obediently gathered them.

“The one with the slightly yellow tint.  Hold that in your left hand.  The one with the fronds – the pointy bits – that goes in your right.  Put the fat round one under your tongue.  And lay your fists on the counter.”

She did.

Eve stepped forward.  She wiped her eyes with her palm, and spread her tears on Mackenzie’s hands.  The tiny woman took hold of Mackenzie, setting her body as though about to move an immense weight.

Her face contorted with effort.

And Mackenzie could feel the change – on her cheeks, all along her face.  It was the exact same sensation as when Lilith had done her make-up.  The soothing, sensualness of it, far more intimate than the mere the application of product as she’d done so many times before.  It felt like the touch of a lover.  Someone who cared for her, wanted nothing but the best for her.

When it was done, the witch collapsed.  Eve looked spent, utterly exhausted.

Mackenzie spared her a glance – then checked her reflection in the register.

Perfect.  It looked perfect again.  She was… herself.

Or, almost.

Just like before.

Without a word, Mackenzie headed for the exit.  She paused once, to look back at the witch.  The woman was up on her hands now, still shaking from exertion.

Their eyes met.

Mackenzie thought about saying something, but there were too many things to say.  So instead, she opened the door, and stepped out into the sun.

Her friends were waiting for her.  They stumbled back in alarm at her sudden emergence.

Chloe and Kayla, shorter than the hollow of her knee, so far beneath her she could hardly see them anymore.  Both of them looked up at her, not with fear, but with expressions of transcendent joy.

And Abigail, there at her navel.  Not as small, but still insignificant by comparison.  Her pretty dress was torn and filthy.  Yet Mackenzie felt a little pang of jealousy, because even if Abigail’s outfit was a mess, at least she had something to wrap herself in.

Abigail stepped back, creating space between them.  Her teeth were gritted, a look of intense concentration on her face.  Slowly, she assumed a fighting stance.

Mackenzie watched her sadly for a moment.  Feeling all the things she wanted to say, but again, there were far too many.

So she turned.  And went back to Lilith.