"Hey, wait a second, Sonja," Derek said. "Let's do this 'master and slave' thing as a proper scene."
Sonja still had the leash dangling down her back and Derek picked up the loop, slipping it around his wrist. "Heel, slave."
Sonja giggled, sidling up next to him. "Yes, master."
Derek saw her growing shorter and shorter. "That's a good slave. Make your platforms into flats."
"Huh?" said Sonja, still dwindling, then stared at him. "Derek, you're getting taller!"
"What?" Derek said, then realized what she said was true. His shirt had pulled out of his pants and was exposing a good six inches of midsection and his calves were protruding from his pants, making him look like a middle schooler whose mother hadn't bought him new clothes. And the gaps were continuing.
Sonja giggled nervously. "My god, I think you're over seven feet tall."
Derek looked around the room, noticing how he was looking down at the chandelier then putting his free arm up and touching the ceiling a half foot above his head. "How tall am I?" he gasped.
Sonja gazed up and up at him, then said, "Three feet." She clicked her heels and her platform shoes elongated into stilts, making her rise up and up until finally she was taller than him. In fact, she was looking down at him from exactly the same angle as usual. "Okay," she said, "this looks normal."
"Normal?"
"I mean the same height I usually am over you. Four inches taller. Since the shoes add three feet, I'm standing seven foot nine, which means you're seven foot five." She paused, thinking. "You're a foot and a half taller than regular, and that's how much the collar shrunk me. The leash must have transfered that from slave to master."
Derek stood there, feeling the leash and realizing that he was still growing, albeit slowly. Sonja was getting smaller and he was getting bigger. "Was this supposed to do this?"
Sonja dug in her purse. "The guy at the shop gave me an instruction manual."
"For magic?"
"Hey, it's the twenty first century," Sonja said, looking at a little gilt booklet. "Okay, the collar works like I said, it shrinks the wearer an inch every ten minutes and lets the height come back every ten minutes after that." She paused, then said, "Wait, there's another page. It's stuck." She pried at the page with her fingernail then turned it over. Her eyes grew wide.
"What's it say?" Derek asked.
"Unless transfered with the leash," Sonja read, "in which case the transferal is permanent. Collar and leash charms are single use items. As such, please do not break the charm before desired transference has occured. Charm may be broken by unbuckling collar."
Sonja looked over at Derek, who was now standing eye to eye with him. "We've got to stop this," she said.
"I know," said Derek, and started trying to unbuckle her collar. "It's stuck."
"What do you mean 'stuck'?" Sonja said, frightened.
"I mean my fingers are too big," Derek said. "I'm having a hard time working the buckle.
Sonja tried herself but her fingers were too small and not strong enough. "What are we going to do?"
"We'll need to cut it," Derek said, dragging her over to Kevin's kitchen, both of them having to duck for the doorframe. Inside, however, he found a knife block with a pair of kitchen shears. He stuck them inside Sonja's collar and cut down.
With a snap, it parted. A thrill like electric current ran up his arm and he realized he was now standing taller than Sonja, even with her platforms.
Derek was now seven foot eight while Sonja was four foot six. "What are we going to do?" Derek asked. "I wanted to be taller than you, but this is ridiculous."