It Suits Me: Chapter 23 (Patreon)

Turning Tina into a doll was easy. Giving Tina instructions not to shrink people unless there were one hundred percent on board with the idea was easy. Telling Tina to never do anything for Gerald again was easy. Requiring her to restore anyone she shrinks as soon as they ask was easy. Making Tina obedient to me was easy, human or doll.

Tina’s kisses did not work when she was a doll, as expected.

Making Tina human again was awkward. The others spent time in the main room while I did it. Tina kissed me as we finished up, but just like my kissed did nothing immediately after sex, neither did hers.

“That was nice,” she said. “And I was able to kiss you safely. When can I shrink you?”

“What did we say about shrinking people?”

“I thought you liked it.”

“Whether I did or did not, I didn’t ask.”

“Okay. No shrinking. “

“Good, get dressed. You need to restore a few folks.”

Ken was brought into the room by Jessica.

“Tina,” he shouted.

Tina seemed not to notice.

“Did you hear Ken shout?”

“Not really?”

“Pay closer attention.”

“Restore me.”

“Restore you? Okay.” She took Ken from Jessica’s hand and kissed him. She then set him down on the floor.

Restoring Danny and Joel worked similarly. Though, those times she was more alert to the pleas of the little men. Between my wardrobe and Joel’s we found clothes for the three naked men.

Sandra was holding Isabella  -- before leaving, they found from her ID that her name was actually Isabella. She said, “I’m ready to push in her valve.”

“Do it.”

Sandra made sure she had a good grip on Isabella and pushed in the tiny valve. The eight-inch tall woman reanimated.

“Isabella, tell Tina you want to be restored.”

We all saw her mouth move. But none of us could hear her.

“You have to be louder.”

She cowered in Sandra’s hand.

“Tina, what did you do to Isabella these past six weeks?” Jessica said.

“Just fun stuff. She was a good pet.”

“Be more specific.”

“She was always hiding in a corner of her cage. So, I got some itching powder and put some in the corner when she was asleep. She would wake up and I would say ‘Boo’ to her and she run into the corner. She’d spend the rest of the day scratching. I’d say ‘Boo’ and she run to another corner. That night I put the powder in all the corners. Afterward we’d both laugh about it. One time I covered the floor of the cage with the powder. She stood in the center of the cage afraid to move until she just collapsed from exhaustion. Where did I put that powder?”

“Tina, no more using itching powder on anybody ever,” I said.

“Fine. She enjoyed it.”

“Tina, Isabella is terrified of you. Terrified.” Sandra said.

“No, she isn’t. We’re BFFs.”

“Do BFFs keep their best friend from going to classes?”

“She asked me to shrink her.”

“And put her in a cage and keep her there all semester.”

“Kind of,” Tina said. “After she found out I could shrink people, she said she wanted to know what it was like being a pet. She bought the cage.”

“Even if that was true, did you ever ask her if she still wanted to be a pet?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because she’s a human being and humans don’t like captivity generally.”

“Izzy likes being in the cage. Ask her.”

“She’s too afraid to tell you to restore her.”

“No, she isn’t. You aren’t afraid of me. Are you, Izzy?”

Izzy shook her head violently from side to side.

“See?”

“All I saw was someone so afraid of their tormentor they agreed with whatever the tormentor said so as not to provoke them,” Ken said.

“No.”

“Yes.” We all agreed.

“Izzy, really? Do you want to be restored?”

Isabella did not move.

“You just have to ask.”

Isabella nodded.

“You do want to be restored? Okay.”

Sandra lifted Isabella up to Tina’s face and Tina kissed Isabella. Sandra put the frightened woman down.

I handed Isabella a robe as she started growing but she did not seem to care about her nudity.

“Why didn’t you restore me sooner?” Isabella said.

“Why didn’t you ask to be restored sooner?”

“I did. You didn’t listen to me. Sometimes you would start humming or singing if you heard me shouting.”

“No, I didn’t,” Tina said.

“Is that true, Tina? You didn’t try to ignore her requests. Speak truly.”

“I may have playfully drowned her out when she tried to speak to me.”

“You will never do that again, right?”

“Right. I am to be attentive to shrunken people.”

“Okay, let’s wrap this problem up,” I said. “Isabella, when you leave, go to Professor Pritcher’s office. Tell him the Shrinker held you hostage for six weeks and you want his help changing dorm rooms and making up six weeks of lost work. If he says he can’t help you, tell me and I’ll talk to him.”

“I brought some clothes I assume are yours from your room,” Sandra said. “You should get dress in the other bedroom before you leave.”

“Your dorm room keys and ID are in with your clothes,” Jessica said. “Come back here if you don’t want to go back to your dorm room.”

“I can leave?” Isabella said.

“You’re no one’s pet,” Joel said.

“I need to call my mother.”

“Your phone is charging,” Sandra said. “It probably hasn’t been used in a while.”

“You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. But, we need to talk about other things now,” I said. “Let’s find out where our friends are. According to my inside source, the girls are being held in cages in the frat house basement.”

“The basement?” Danny said. “That place is more like a crawl space, ceilings are only like four feet high. But, no one goes down there. I suppose that makes it the perfect place to hide a body or seven.”

“Tina, how did you turn the DEBs into dolls?”

“They were unconscious in a bedroom. Gerald told me to shrink them all. When I found out there were three guys in there, I demanded to get to keep them. Gerald seemed happy he didn’t have to pay me. Win-win.”

“What else happened while you were there?”

“I told Gerald he still had to feed them, bathe them, etc. Human pets get very stinky, very fast. And they eat more often because of the smaller tummies.”

“Danny, how do you get into the basement? Interior staircase?”

“No, it’s an outdoor basement door.”

“Who would Gerald trust to do the care and feeding of little humans?” I said.

“I don’t know. Maybe, Billy and Ivan. They’re a bit weird, loyal, and don’t have friends outside the frat,” Danny said.

“I wonder if they have a conscience we can convince that keeping people in cages is wrong,” Ken said.

“It’s been five or six days. I think that ship has sailed,” Joel said.

“Probably.”

“I think we approach this through them. I don’t think a frontal assault on the house works. Catching Gerald outside of the house is risky. Anyone could interfere while we try to grab him. And I don’t think we want to send the police into that basement.”

“Why not? Isn’t that what the police are for? If the university doesn’t want people knowing about magic on campus, they can deal with it afterward,” Ken said.

“According to Professor Pritcher, the police know about magic on campus.”

“Really?”

I told everyone what the professor told me about magic at TFU. During the exchange Isabella returned to the room to listen to the story. She seemed reluctant to leave.

“They should put that in the recruiting pamphlets,” Joel said.

“I don’t think they want it to be public knowledge.”

“Let’s move on to our next problem,” I said.

“I love how everyone just nods because, of course, we have more problems,” Ken said.

“Gerald is going to know something’s up if he sees you guys out and about.”

“Or in my bedroom in the frat house,” Danny said.

“Right. We have to keep you guys under wraps. Or we have to act before he finds out.”

“Danny could just walk in the front door and while that causes a buzz, we could be rescuing the girls from the crawl space,” Joel said.

“We who?”

“All of us. How are they going to stop us?”

“I fear he could be listening to all this right now,” Ken said.

“If he is, then we have no chance. All the cats are out of the bags.”

“Why did he have you shrunk, Danny?” Joel said.

“Because Sandra escaped or some nonsense like that. I have no idea. I was working against him. So now I’m the bad guy.”

“Any chance the frat would eject him?”

“No, anyone who would stir up trouble, he has dirt on.”

“Of course.”

“That would solve our problem,” Ken said. “No frat, no taking over the Greek council.”

“That doesn’t solve my problem. My end game is getting Gerald to never use his powers again.”

They stared at me.

“What? I have to do it. Just like I had to do it to her,” I said, indicating Tina.
“These powers are dangerous, especially when paired with people lacking a proper moral compass.”

“And who decides you have a proper moral compass?”

“Everyone else in this room not under my control.”

“That’s brutal, man,” Danny said.

“I can be stopped. Sandra knows how to do this. I’m sure the three of you can overpower me.”

“Okay, let’s also table the Batman scenarios for taking out Barry,” Jessica said.

“You made a Batman reference?” Joel said.

“Why do you think I’ve been dating her?” I said.

“She’s hot.”

“Can’t have a conversation with hot.”

“Yes, you can. It just involves touching and feeling a lot more than normal words and sentences conversations,” Ken said.

“So, what are we going to do?” Danny said. “We should act quickly. And how do we plan when Gerald is probably listening in right now.”

“I’ve got it,” Joel said. “Sandra, he sees and hears what people experience but he doesn’t read their minds, right?”

“I think so. I can’t be sure.”

“And when someone is being worn as a bodysuit, they know everything the wearer thinks, right?”

“Yes.”

“What if Barry turns someone into a bodysuit and then puts them on. Barry then thinks the details of a plan without saying it out loud. Take them off, restore them, rinse repeat with another bodysuit. Once everyone has gone through a bodysuit cycle, we all know the plan and no one has said anything out loud.”

“And after the first suit, two people can relay the plans to two suits. Then four can relay the plans to four suits,” Ken said.

“That could work,” I said. “But it only allows for me to be the strategist. No brainstorming. And we need to make sure we don’t leave anything out or we end up playing a dangerous game of telephone.”

“That just means you need to keep the plan simple,” Jessica said.

“And foolproof,” Danny said.

“Great,” I said.