A Sting of Conscience (Eddsworld) ♢ SLOW UPDATES ♢

[4] Small, In A Massive World

Tord stomped against the pavement, kicking away stones and pebbles in his way. The wind whistled past him, caressing his damaged face and pulling at his clothes.

The road was still flooded with muddy puddles. Children shouted in the distance as they played in the dirt. Tord only frowned and decided to avoid them. Kids are a waste of space.

He flattened out his hair with a cold hand and fixed the hood on his head. Stealth was the main plan. He won't risk getting caught a second time by Edd and the others.

Tord arrived at the grocery store, stepping in without suspicion. Immediately, he strode down from aisle to aisle in an attempt to find something interesting. Cola, cookies, chips, cereal boxes... Everything he looked at seemed to remind him of his old friends. He grumbled.

He fished his satchel for the shrinking serum, dropping some of it onto dirty magazines hidden in the magazine rack. Like deflating balloons, they shrank until they were as tiny as microchips. Tord hid them in his hoodie pocket for safekeeping.

"After few hours, they grow back to their normal size," he mumbled, reminding himself of what Pat said. He stared blankly at the floor, wondering what else was worthy of stealing.

"Where are you, oh where are you, my dear cereal~♪" someone sang. The voice was somewhat familiar.

Matt?

"La-la-la-la-la~♪"

Tord jolted and fell over, the flask toppling sideways and splashing its liquid all over himself. In his eyes, it was as if everything around him grew taller and taller until all things towered over him. It didn't take long before he realized his stupidity.

He cussed.

Tord had shrunken himself. His outfit had shrunken along with him. Despite that, his shoes remained large, untouched by the serum. His feet were cold and bare.

"Oooh! A teeny-tiny little man!" Matt said.

Tord turned and stumbled, gazing up at an approaching giant Matt. His heart thundered in his chest as he scrambled backwards, yet there was no escape. He had never felt this frightened before. The wild chill in his bones, the shaking of his limbs, it was horrid. His mind listed hundreds of gruesome possible ways of death.

"I'm not who you think I-" Tord began before Matt clamped his tiny body in a fist and shoved him in his purple hoodie pocket.

"Mine! My tiny man," Matt said. "How lucky of me to find something like this!"

Tord gasped, struggling to breathe in Matt's pocket. The air was stuffy and there was no way to move around. He pushed the fabric away from his face. The hot air, the loss of oxygen, it all made him panic. Tord wondered if this was why some people are claustrophobic. Matt sang off-key once again as he started walking, oblivious to the torture he was giving his ex-friend.

Tord buried his face in his hands and groaned. A tiny drop of the serum would take an hour to return something to its normal size, but the whole thing?

"Here we go," he couldn't help but say. This day had started terribly, and now it was turning for the worst.

Tord climbed and pushed himself up. In his desperation, he propelled until his arm popped out of the pocket, waving it in hopes of alarming anyone. Matt noticed this and poked him back in. He tried the same thing over and over and each attempt resulted being pushed back in. Every shove got rougher and angrier after each one.

"Stop it!" Matt shouted. "I won't give you candies!"

"You think I'd want candies at a time like this?!" Tord yelled, pounding his fists onto the cloth of Matt's hoodie. After a few minutes of trying, he finally gave up from lack of oxygen.