[Shifted] Consuming Grief

On the plush sofa sat a young woman, her frame trembling with every ragged breath. Though she was Normal-sized, her presence felt small, crushed by the weight of her own grief. Around her wrist, a size bracelet pulsed green light; the unmistakable glow of a Tiny currently grown to Normal height.

She sobbed into her hands, her shoulders shaking. “O-Oh Sister…” she whimpered, her voice thick with regret. “It’s all my f-fault… I-I never should have yelled at her-”

 

A soft rustle of fabric preceded the approach of a woman. Maria Willow moved with the grace of a predator masquerading as a saint.

“There, there… Maria murmured. She stood beside the girl, her presence overwhelming and maternal. “Let it all out…”

The girl looked up, her eyes red and swollen. “I-I’m really sorry for intruding… It’s just that… No one ever gives people like us the time of day…”

Maria reached out, her hand patting the girl’s head with a soothing motion and a tenderness that masked the cold calculation behind her expression. “I could never turn away such a tenacious Tiny,” Maria cooed. “You even bought your own size bracelet to cover more ground.”

The girl wiped her eyes, “Still…. It’s been days and there’s no sign of her…”

 

Maria stepped back, her movements fluid. “Now, none of that. You must be famished from all that worrying. I was just preparing some treats. I made them especially for you, dear. A little something to sweeten the afternoon.”

She returned a moment later carrying a small, porcelain plate. On it sat several decadent, dark chocolate sweets.

The girl wiped her eyes, her hunger momentarily eclipsing her grief. She didn’t think much of it; in her state of exhaustion, she simply accepted the kindness as part of the woman’s sweetness.

 

What the girl did not see was the true nature of the confection.

 

Maria put the plate at an angle that was carefully calculated. Tucked into the center of one particularly large sweets, the top half of a tiny body protruded from the chocolate. The Tiny sister was trapped, her face contorted in terror, her mouth sealed shut with a strip of heavy tape. The tiny figure’s frantic, muffled struggles were visible to Maria alone.

 

“I know she liked baking too,” Maria said, her voice dropping to a playful whisper. She picked up the treat with a delicate, manicured finger, tilting it so that the struggling, gagged face of the sister was turned away from the larger girl, facing only toward Maria’s predatory, hidden delight. “So you could think of her… while you eat some.”

“Even if you can’t see her…” Maria teased, her smile becoming something sharp, something cold, lurking just behind the mask of the housewife. “She’ll always be a part of you… Never let that tiny little head of yours forget that.”  And she pressed the chocolate against the girl’s open mouth.

 

The girl bit down. The rich, dark chocolate flooded her senses. It was delicious, bitter and sweet; but as she chewed, there was a strange, momentary resistance. A texture that felt almost… fibrous? Or perhaps just a hard bit of nut? She swallowed hard, her mind too preoccupied with the grief to notice the metallic tang of copper hidden beneath the heavy scent of cocoa.

The girl wiped her mouth, feeling a strange sense of fullness yet still burdened by an emptiness in her heart that the chocolate couldn’t fill. “Thank you, Mrs. Willow,” she whispered. “It was… very rich.”

 

“You’re most welcome,” Maria said, her smile bright and utterly hollow. “And if you ever crave one of my sweet treats again… I can show you a video I took on how I prepared this batch later…”

The girl looked up, a small, grateful smile touching her lips, completely unaware that the woman she trusted was waiting for the moment to show her the very instrument of her despair.