This choice: He wants you and Jake to fight to the death. • Go Back...Chapter #4He wants you and Jake to fight to the death. by: Helping Hand   Sure enough, a big smile breaks out across Eric’s face. “I know exactly what to do with two little insects. Put ’em them together and make ’em fight!”
“B-But we’re your friends,” you protest, trying—and failing—to keep the tremor out of your voice.
“Not at that size you’re not, any more than I’d consider an ant, or a bug, or an earthworm my friend. And you know how I feel about puny runts who are too feeble even to wipe their own asses.”
It’s true: Eric has always had this obsession with getting his own way and demonstrating his superiority, both in sport and in everyday life. In fact, the thrill of imposing your will over younger, smaller or weaker kids was one of the things that brought the three of you together in the first place, which makes it especially mortifying for you and Jake to find yourselves suddenly so utterly tiny and helpless compared even to the smallest newborn baby, let alone your former friend. But while you are pondering this dramatic reversal of fortune Eric is continuing with his speech.
“But you know I’m nothing if not fair—”
You and Jake exchange a glance.
“—so I’m willing to keep one of you, for a while at least. Just for old time’s sake. Which one it is depends entirely on you. You need to prove that you are worthy to be the pet of a mighty god like me, and I think the best way to settle that is for the two of you to fight for the honour. To the death, of course!”
You and Jake chuckle nervously, not really believing he meant what he just said, but Eric merely settles himself back in your chair to watch, smiling coldly like a roman emperor presiding over the gladiatorial arena. And like an emperor, he has the power of life or death over both of you, entirely at his whim. He claps his hands thunderously together directly above your heads and issues his imperious command.
“Begin.”
You and Jake circle tentatively around each other, making a few desultory feints and lunges, but trying to avoid actually engaging in any serious body contact. Eric tolerates this for a moment but quickly becomes impatient at your none-too-subtle procrastination.
“Perhaps I should mention that if I feel that neither of you is taking this seriously and making a proper effort, then I may just dispose of both of you,” he drawls.
He then reaches across and picks up a large textbook from the other side of the desk and holds it with both hands directly above the two of you. Completely overshadowed, you and Jake stop and look up at it in horror. It’s the size of a building and easily heavy enough to squash you both instantly if he decides to drop it. Sure enough, he gives you a wicked grin and suddenly lets it fall… only to quickly catch it again before it has fallen more than an inch or so—by his scale at least. Eric smirks with satisfaction at the way the two of you have involuntarily cringed and thrown up your arms in futile protective gestures—and then carelessly tosses the unimaginably heavy object aside to land with a earth-shattering thump somewhere down on the floor. The terrifying point is well taken: you’re entirely at Eric’s mercy, so you’ll have to at least pretend to do what he wants and hope for the best, or try to find some way of turning matters to your advantage.
You and Jake shakily get to your feet, look each other in the eye, and then slam into each other like a couple of micro-sized—and seriously underfed—sumo wrestlers. You yank at each other’s limbs and clothes and roll over on the ground, doing your best to put on a convincing show for the blood-thirsty spectator gloating high above you.
Eric folds his arms and leans back in satisfaction. “That’s better!”
You thank your lucky stars that it was Jake rather than Eric who was shrunk: Eric is on the wrestling team while Jake is just a runner. Unfortunately, Jake’s somewhat more wiry body also makes him better able to wriggle like an eel in your grasp. All things considered, you are probably quite evenly matched. But for now, at least, the two of you appear to have an unspoken agreement to make this look as dramatic as possible without actually doing each other any harm. While you wrestle you do your best to have a conversation, masked by loud gasps and grunts on the very slight off-chance that Eric might hear you.
huff huff “You don’t think he really means what he said?” unhhh
oof “Are you willing to take a chance on it? You certainly seemed ready to step on me before you were dumb enough to get yourself shrunk too.” ahhhh
“Sure, I’m the bad guy. You were the one who started all this with your stupid crystal.”
“Yeah, that’s really what matters right now.”
You feel Jake make an attempt at a shrug, somewhere within the mutual death-grip you’ve adopted to fool your captor.
“Okay, so how are we going to get out of this—or are you planning on making this real?”
Angry as you are with Jake for trying to stomp you earlier, you can’t quite imagine yourself ending his life—and you’re pretty sure it’s no longer so easy for Jake to rationalise either, now that you’re back to being human-size to him rather than a tiny bug.
“I guess not. But maybe we can make it look as though it is real?”
“What! You’re saying we should try to fake it? Are you nuts? He’ll see through that in an instant.”
“Maybe not. Eric never was the smartest, and it must be pretty difficult for him to see us clearly at this size, so we might be able to get away with it.”
Jake risks a quick glance up at the face of the colossus, who is all but drooling at the sight of the pair of you tussling. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” he shudders.
You grimace as you flip Jake over onto his back. “Well, do you have any better ideas, dumbass?”
For a moment he seems about to say something, then he yanks you back over so that he is now on top. As your head slams painfully onto the wooden surface you snatch a glance at your surroundings. On one side, not too far away, is the edge of the desk and a vertical drop of who knows how many feet. On the other side, at the far end of the table, you see the crystal, lying there oblivious to all the trouble it has caused. If only it was possible to reach it…
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