Ash stood on the tablecloth, holding his hands over his privates, as Casey gobbled down another shrinky. Ash had seen hundreds of his tiny felloe shrinkees eaten since the epidemic started and he had yet to get used to the sight of them getting eaten. Every time he heard one of them scream or beg for mercy, a pang of guilt hit him. He’s never tried to stop Misty outright, the only thing he ever did to prevent her appetite had been suggestions to eat normal food, but he never put his foot down. The saddest part of the whole ordeal was that with every shrinky he saw eaten, the less bad he’d feel about it. He could watch someone swallow down a shrinky without blinking once. That lack of remorse made Ash feel like he was losing something, like a piece of his humanity.

“Ash, look at this,” Casey said to him from above. Staring up, Ash saw that Casey open her mouth and stick out her tongue. Ash glimpsed up to see a naked Shrinky balancing on the tip of her tongue; he was covered in mustard sauce and desperately trying to stand strait on the uneven tongue. Casey winked at Ash and jerked her tongue in with one quick pull, sending the shrinky into total darkness. A wet swallow followed and Ash looked at the twitching bulge that traveled down Casey’s neck. Ash would swear he heard something go splash when the Shrinky disappeared from Casey’s neck, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Oooohhh,” Casey groaned as she looked into the packet of shrinkees and saw none. “I’m all out, well except for one.” Her eyes landed on Ash and she grinned hungrily. Ash backed up, feeling the same dread that he had experienced when the waitress had picked him off his table. Now that there weren’t any shrinkees left, was Casey going to turn on him? She leaned over the table until her big hungry eyes were level with Ash’s tiny body. Her chin was positioned on the table and Ash knew that all she would have to do was lunge at him and he was lunch; she wouldn’t even have to use her hands to take him in.

“Gottcha!” Casey squealed before she leaned back to her original position against the booth. Her sweet giggles made Ash roll his eyes, after all the teasing from Misty; he should know when a girl was bluffing about eating him. Casey slammed her palm against the table when her giggles became full-blown laughter. The vibration knocked Ash to his rear end and sent Casey’s soda toppling over. A wave of Coca-Cola came strait towards Ash, he didn’t even have time to shout before he was picked up by the sea of soda and was dragged over the table and right into the lap of Casey.

“Hey!” Casey cried when she felt the ice cold drink splash between her legs. She looked down to see her lap completely soaked and Ash couching for air between her legs. Carefully, she picked Ash up with her thumb and forefinger and put him back in his original spot. Still sputtering, Ash glared up at Casey who could only look away in embarrassment. She gave a curt laugh, but had none of the humor as her previous laughter. An apology was on the way, when a familiar voice screamed out.

“ASH!” Ash snapped to the sound of his name being called and saw Misty come rushing to him from across the restaurant. In her hast, Misty knocked down several patrons, but never stopped to apologize. The only thing that mattered to her was finding her sorta boyfriend before he ended up in someone’s colon or worse. Misty’s greatest fear was that someone would do some of the horrible things that she had done to her poor, innocent Ash. Casey watched Misty rush to her with apprehension, she had just stared to get reacquainted with Ash and she didn’t need his overbearing babysitter ruining the longest conversation she has had with a boy, since they had started shrinking. Ash on the other hand, was touched by how much Misty was worried about him. Sometimes it seemed like she was totally obsessed with his safety, nevertheless this world was dangerous for someone his size and he needed normal sized people to watch out for him.

“Ash,” Misty gasped as she jumped in front of her tiny friend. Her heart was racing and tears were starting to form in the corners of her eyes. When she had come back and saw her friend gone, she was sure that she’d never see him again. It was so easy for someone of his size to die in so many different ways. Although, now that she knew he was safe, it was time to find the person responsible for taking her Ash and give them a beat down. Since seeing Ash, Misty noticed the other person sitting beside him. She saw the wet crotch and the out of breath condition she was in, and then she saw that Ash was sticky. Rage filled Misty as she came to the only possible answer to what she was seeing.