Irreversible (Patreon)

A gasp and a thud. Jess was sure it's what she had heard coming from the room as she was readying up in the bathroom for a night of partying. Tonight was the night. The end of five long years in college, the beginning of a new chapter...

"Rose, what's happening over there? Did you fall or something?" Jess asked, concentrated on applying her lipstick to perfection.

No answer. If she really did fall, it wasn't like her best friend to not be dramatic about it. Jess finished applying her make up with precision and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She looked stunning. Ready to conquer whatever the future would bring her way. The redhead smiled, before turning around to finally uncover what was Rose getting up to.

"Rose, can you tell me what you were do-" Jess started, before realizing the luxurious hotel room they had rented for the weekend was empty. "Rose?" asked Jess, confused as to where her friend could be. "If she had left, I would have heard the door..." thought Jess to herself, "...she would have told me.". Jess made her way to the huge closet, half expecting her friend to jump out of it, screaming in an attempt to startle her.

"Rose, we're not in high school anymore. You haven't managed to scare me like this since you jumped out of the showers after Ms. Clark's PE class. Gotcha!" Jess exclaimed as she triumphantly opened the closet's double doors. "What the..." thought Jess, as she faced nothing but emptiness. "Rose?" wondered Jess once again, visibly more confused. The redhead closed the doors before turning around to consider what could have happened to her friend.

That's when she saw it, still smoking and glowing. Jess' heart sunk as she rushed towards her RR-17 on the floor. It had clearly just fired and it could only mean one thing. The redhead dropped to her knees above the personal defense shrinking device and just as she feared, her eyes locked on a jumping and screaming minuscule figure below her. A blonde woman, barely an inch tall, screaming her name at the top of her lungs - Rose.

"Oh Rose, no, no, no, no..." Jess whispered, her breath short. "Okay, I know this must be crazy scary for you right now, but I need you to calm down and listen. First, let get you off the floor. Climb up." said Jess as she extended her delicate fingers towards the now shrunken woman. 

For Rose, the sight was as terrifying as it was reassuring. She had been screaming for Jess to help her for the past five minutes, becoming more and more scared that her best friend would not spot her on the ground. Jess towered above her. Even on her knees, the redhead looked as massive as a cathedral. Rose knew that the slightest wrong movement on Jess' end could prove fatal to her. For the first time in her life, Rose truly felt helpless.

"Okay, good. Slowly, be careful..." Jess whispered, afraid to burst her minuscule friend's eardrums. Once the little blonde woman was securely sitting in the center of her vast palm, Jess slowly rose her up towards the bedside table nearby. "Alright, you can get down now, it's safe." the redhead delicately instructed Rose. Jess couldn't believe her eyes as well as the sensations she felt on her skin as her little friend's bare feet walked on her colossal index finger. "Let me pick that up too so there's no more accident in here." Jess said, this time forgetting to regulate the volume of her voice, as she bent down to pick up the shrink ray resting on the floor, still smoking.

Now that she was under the beam of light formed by the bedside lamp, Jess could take a closer look at her shrunken friend as she safely put the RR-17 next to her on the small table. Rose was a mess, her makeup ruined by sweat and tears from her panicked screaming. The redhead knew the reason for her endless tears and sobs, but for now, she wasn't ready to talk about it. Not yet.

"Rose..." Jess started, trying to get her friend's attention and stop her from sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm here Rose, I'm here..." Jess continued, not knowing how to approach the situation she was facing. There was no good way to go about it. "Are you... okay?" Jess asked, her voice hesitant as she already knew the answer.

As the booming words and the warm breath of her titanic best friend washed over her little self, Rose turned around. Startled, she took a step back and to add hurt to misery, fell on her small butt. Rose was not ready to come face to face with her best friend in such a way. Above, Jess' visage dwarfed her completely. The woman she had spent all this time with since high school was a titan compared to her. Jess' beautiful feature suddenly looked threatening to Rose - each one a potential way to snuff the life out of her, even by accident.

"Ouch!" screamed Rose, in between two sobs. "No, I'm not okay Jess. But you already knew that... It's okay, I'm not mad at you for asking." continued Rose, trying her best to control her crying so her friend could at least understand her.

Jess didn't know what to think. She was still stunned by what she was looking at - no, who she was looking at. Right there, no bigger than her pinkie, sat her best friend since high school. A girl she knew like herself, someone she has spent the most time with for the past few years. It was all surreal. "Do you want to tell me how it happened, if that's okay?" Jess asked, still confused as to how Rose could have activated her personal shrink ray.

Rose tried to recall the past ten minutes. Everything felt like a big blur. "I was on the bed, watching TV and chilling. I think I was trying to... the vape, that's it, the vape! I was trying to reach for the vape and I squeezed it. But it must have been your RR and... I remember falling. I was on the floor and I was so scared. I heard you call for me and I answered but you wouldn't reply... That's when I opened my eyes and I realized what was happening. I was so scared Jess, I thought you'd never find me and now I'm like this and-".

"Shhh.. Shhh... It's okay Rose, it's okay" whispered Jess reassuringly to her shrunken friend. They both looked at each other in silence. One terrified, dreading the truth she knew she would come out in the open soon. The other, stunned by the fact her best friend, the woman she was ready to take on the world with a few minutes ago, was now barely an inch in height.

Just as she thought she was finally calming down, the heavy feeling of dread punched Rose in the guts once again. The little blonde was thinking about the same thing than her best friend... the future. With a feeling of desperation rising to her throat, Rose fell on her knees, as if begging Jess to do something she knew would not be done - could not be done.

"No, no, no, no, Jess none of this is okay. We gotta do something about it! This isn't happening to me. This is just a dream, right? I'm just dreaming. I'll wake up. I was vaping and I fell asleep. We'll go to that bar on Fifth like we were planning to and we'll party till dawn. That's it. This can't be happening to me right now..." Rose started pleading, keeping her teary eyes locked on her friend's vast face, hoping to see anything that would validate any of the words she was screaming at her. Jess' face, however, did not show any of the awaited signs. Instead, Rose could see an ounce of sadness starting to make its way into her immense friend's eyes. "Rose... I..." Jess said, trying to be as reassuring as possible for her friend.

"Don't you Rose me, Jess! Fuck! Look at me for fuck's sake! I'm a fucking inch tall. Oh it's easy to be all high and mighty for you huh, look at you, all giant and normal fucking size! If it wasn't for your stupid shrink ray I'd still be normal too. This is your fucking fault, Jess. Why was that shit on the bedside table anyway? Huh, why? If you had kept your shit tidy, I wouldn't be like this..." Rose screamed at the titanic redhead above her. Jess was still speechless in front of the emotional journey her now puny friend was going through.

"Rose, you're not thinking straight. It was an accident..." Jess softly pleaded, trying once again to be a calming presence for the panicked shrunken woman.

"An accident... A fucking accident... I... You're right. I'm sorry for snapping at you Jess. But there has to be a way to fix this right. We can call RR's customer support and they'll fix it, right Jess? They'll fix it and we'll go party like we were planning to..." Rose continued, still on her knees, as if begging the giant young woman for a solution she knew didn't exist.

"I'm sorry, Rose... but you know just as well as I do that this-" Jess started, trying to find the right words to ease her friend into the reality of her situation. "You know that this is irreversible." finished Jess, finally letting the truth out.

The silence that followed was long and heavy. Only the sobs coming from the shrunken woman would interrupt it. Rose was still looking straight into Jess' eyes, hoping for a miracle - that this would be somehow fixable. Unfortunately for the tiny blonde, the miracle never came. She lowered her head, her eyes letting two tears drop on her sore knees.

"We were going to take on the world together, weren't we?" quietly asked Rose, her voice calmed, but drowning in tears. Jess nodded. "We were gonna open our own firm, keep on being the best partners the world had ever seen, remember?" continued Rose, her voice cracking at the end of her question. "We were going to party so hard..." the tiny woman scoffed. Jess stayed silent, preferring to let her friend externalize her pain in this difficult moment. "Now, I'm just a fucking shrinkee. No better than the scum that fucking RR is made to shrink... Will you at least keep me Jess? I'd... I'd understand if you'd put me on the mark-" but Rose was interrupted by the booming voice of the titaness blowing warmly against her sweaty, shivering skin.

"Hey, stop that! I'm not gonna put you on the goddamn market, okay? You may be small, but you're still Rose, my best fucking friend! And sure, partying tonight clearly won't be on your list of things to do, but it doesn't mean I'll throw you away on the street like some random shrinkee, okay? Of course I'll keep you Rose. I'll take care of you. Hell, we'll even put your name on that law firm entrance door, okay?" Jess replied with determination, hoping to get her little friend to look back up. The two friends remained silent for an instant. Jess held her breath, hoping her little speech didn't make things worse for the tiny woman she now felt responsible for.

"In very small font under an asterisk?" shyly replied Rose, slowly getting her tiny face back up. Jess could see a little smile on the shrunken woman's lips. The redhead suddenly let go of her breath in a wide smile, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Yeah, and you'll have a tiny desk on mine..." Jess continued, her voice half giggling, half crying.

Things would never be the same for Rose. Her life as she had always imagined it was gone. Her aspirations were now limited to whatever Jess would undertake, as shrinkees didn't have rights or autonomy on their own. Would the pair prove fate wrong? Only time could tell...

Man this was an emotional rollercoaster to write! I have to say, this might be one of my favorite piece of mine - from the render to the story, I feel like this one isn't bad :D

I hope you'll like it! Feel free to let me know your thoughts on how you imagine Rose's future. Will Jess be able to truly take care of her shrunken friend and make her feel like she still belongs, or is trying to take care of shrinkees as if they still were equals an impossible task? Let me know! :)