Martin shifted the box of creamy-cakey sweetness in his hands as he
stepped across the threshold, closing the door with his hip. A dollop
of icing had had fallen on his tie, and he cursed. One more thing to
worry about.
The door shut,
locked. They were in. Martin’s heartbeat quickened, already feeling
the primal rush of wrongdoing. The shoe rack was sectioned neatly
into the corner, though mysteriously it was devoid of footwear at
all. Martin mentally noted it must be solely for guest-use. He rubbed
his black Oxford dress shoes on the welcome mat which read “Merry
Christmas” despite it currently being April; recent sets of
footsteps seemed to have eschewed this suggestion, tracking light
trails of similar footprints further elsewhere into the abode. His
friends must’ve gone further inside, Martin thought, and then he
took another look around the apartment.
It was a
lightly-but-chicly furnished living space. The entryway was tile,
leading to the hard wood of the rest of the living room area,
softened with a massive Persian rug. The couch was a clean gray-black
with a floral-print throw atop it, and it faced a coffee table and an
old school CRT television box with a pair of bunny-eared antennae
sticking from the top. A flowerpot sat in the corner, its petals and
leaves reaching diligently to grab the vestiges of afternoon light
that peaked through the ajar window blinds.
Martin took a few
steps further in, now noticing the serving hatch that led into the
kitchen, equally clean and tidy. In front of this hatch was Courtney,
seated at a bar stool with a casual fervor; she turned to Martin and
smiled. Martin replied with a nervous smile of his own and said out
loud with an uncharacteristically strong voice, “I’m still not
completely sold on this idea.”
“What’s not to
be sold about?” Courtney replied, weighing a couple of jars of
preserves in her hands before putting them down on the counter with a
clink. “It’s just a little going away present.”
“Breaking and
entering, though? Couldn’t we have just, like, waited for
her to come home? Maybe give this to Yu-mi, just, normally?”
This next reply came
from elsewhere, muffled. “Her fault for being such a hardass.”
A toilet flushed.
Water rushed through pipes. From deeper within, a door opened, and
Johnny walked out, wiping his hands on his slacks. “And for
stashing her key on top of the door frame. But dude, c’mon. It’s
just a harmless little prank to lighten her up a little.”
Hands dried, Johnny
plopped onto the couch, reaching for the remote to turn it on. “We
find a good hiding place, pop out, say ‘Hey, thanks for
being such a cool supervisor’, we eat cake, we leave. What’s so
bad about that?”
Martin started to
open his mouth, when two feminine voices screeched out from the
depths of the hallway, “Guys?!”
Martin, his danger
sensors going off like a fire alarm, prepared to charge further into
the apartment but remembered he was still carrying the cake. Soon,
out of the hallway came two professionally dressed young women with
unprofessional but decidedly not mortal expressions. The
taller of them, Suzanne, exclaimed, “Have you seen how
fluffy Yu-mi’s bed is?”
Martin, Johnny, and
Courtney simply stared at the pair.
“It’s like
sleeping in a clouuuuud!” The other woman, Tina, breathed
out with delight. “I never want to leave! You all must try
this before she comes home!” And Tina grabbed Suzanne’s hand,
dragging her through the hallway again before Martin could even call
to the pair to tell them not to rummage through Yu-mi’s stuff.
Martin sighed.
Courtney clocked her
friend’s expression and turned around in the stool to face Martin.
“Martin, it’s okay. We can do the surprise on our own. You don’t
have to--”
“No, no, it’s
fine,” Martin said, finally walking around the counter and entering
the kitchen proper, placing the box of cake on top of an empty
cutting board. “I’ll stay. It’s just… I don’t know, I feel
like… like something awful is going to happen.”
“That’s why
Yu-mi loves you so much, dude,” Johnny called over a re-run of All
In the Family. “Neither of you know how to chill.”
Martin stood there,
evaluating Johnny’s words as a wry smile curled at his lips. “Yeah,
I guess so.”
Martin sighed,
finally allowing relaxation and joy to enter his heart. He liked
Ms. Park. And deep down, a part of him knew that she would continue
liking him even if she disliked his involvement in this
well-intentioned, probably stupid, but potentially hilarious
practical joke. The interns had been planning it ever since they
heard that Ms. Park’s ten-year employment anniversary gift from
upper management was a $10 Applebee's gift card. Of course, Ms. Park
was never one to complain, but for someone so hard-working, diligent,
firm, but kindhearted, the interns took this as a perversion of
justice. And so, with their own hard-earned dollars, they embarked to
the local Walmart with a plan to make things right.
Martin chuckled.
Perhaps it was true he worried too much.
Then…
Rerererererereeerererereererereeeererereeeee…
“Hey…” Martin
put a hand against his temple. “Are anyone else’s ears ringing?
Courtney, cheek lain
in her palm, perked up. Her eyes were twisted in agitation. “Yeah…
I think I hear it too…”
As Courtney became
aware of this ringing, it grew louder and louder, and more
ear-splitting.
“Ach, dammit,
what the hell is that?” Johnny shouted. He slammed the TV off. “Is
it this?” The television switched to black, yet the screeching
remained.
“I don’t have a
clue!” Martin yelled. He wanted to get up, but it felt like static
electricity was magnetizing him to his seat.
“I… I-I-I can’t
move!” Courtney had her hand on the counter, trying to push it
away, so she could achieve some semblance of locomotion. But her arms
felt more like logs, and she could not hold them against the surface
for long before tiring out.
Slam!
Courtney passed out,
forehead cracking as she slumped against the counter.
Martin saw this,
eyes wide in horror, as the static that had so possessed his ears now
went on to conquer his vision, lowering a snowy gray veil over his
inner eyelids as he was ripped forcefully from the waking world and
into a slumber.
***
There stairwell felt
uncharacteristically long and drudgerous as Yu-Mi Park ascended. She
was carrying three bags – a briefcase in one hand, and a purse and
hefty satchel in the other, each one carrying something critical to
her sane functioning in a business environment. She huffed; the day
had been uncharacteristically draining to her, and she sought nothing
more than the comfort of her apartment unit.
Yu-Mi reached the
second floor.
Stopping for a
moment, she glanced to the side. Her door was first on the right,
closed as always. But instead of turning to it, sticking her key in
the door, unlocking, entering… she turned to the adjacent wall. She
took a few steps to it, leaning her forehead against the rough
painted surface.
Sniffffff…!
The hallway was
always empty this time of day; few worked as far from this apartment
as Yu-Mi did, so their return times seldom intersected. Still though,
there was something oddly cathartic about expressing her herself in a
nominally public area. Yu-Mi had made this observation many times in
her years living here, and now, as her own emotions threatened to
overwhelm her and make her explode… she couldn’t help herself.
Yu-Mi wiped her
sleeve across her nose. She was always careful to keep this suit
blazer clean and free of blemishes… She’d need to attend to that
when she got inside.
Ten years…
Ten years. An entire
decade; by all rights, anywhere between a 7th and a 9th
of her entire life, a life that she’d already spent 35 years living
by the time she got this job. Ten years of barely moving up the
corporate ladder, ten years of draining, emotionally-exhausting,
mentally-taxing, soul crushing data analysis. Ten years of devoting
herself to the company in the hopes… the hopes they would
recognize the value she added to the corporation.
Yu-Mi rubbed her
eyes, and she reached into the faulds of her blazer to pull out a
small plastic rectangle.
At least she
wouldn’t have to cook dinner tonight.
Yu-Mi stayed there
for a few minutes... but time was ticking. Eventually someone would
either come in or come out, and that would open a whole new awkward
can of worms, best to be avoided. Yu-Mi planted her key into the
slot, twisting it to open the door. She pushed through, closing it
behind her, and leaned back against the rough-hewn wood. She sighed.
Somehow, even after so many years, she was reluctant to refer to this
place as a home.
Yu-Mi locked the
door, then reached down, pulling one shoe off and tossing it aside,
followed immediately by the stocking. Now confined to the tightness
of the apartment unit, the true results of Yu-Mi’s day of work were
laid bare. It was hotter than it typically was this time of year, and
additionally, her stockings were tight. She hadn’t purchased new
shoes in quite a while, and these flats had seen their fair share of
use. This meant that as her toes splayed across the Merry
Christmas mat, they emanated the scent of a woman at work, a
scent that was only truly appreciated by someone already familiar
with it, as it was impossible to replicate otherwise. Drips of sweat
were still running down her thighs, beneath her black skirt, further
coating her in this unique yet alluring odor.
Sniff, sniff.
When it hit Yu-Mi, all she could say was: “I could use a shower…”
***
Courtney was the
first to come to.
“What… ow…!”
The moment she became conscious, she became aware of the lightning
bolt of sensation that was still coursing from her head down to all
her nerve endings as she tried get her bearings.
“What… what in
the hell?” Courtney was on the floor. Or a floor. Of some
kind. It was relatively smooth and composed of a mottled pattern of
neutral colors.
As Courtney stood
up, her gaze went to the horizon, a view that only gave her even more
questions. As far as she could see, it was only a collection of
blurry, indistinct shapes, fading out into the aether from their
distance.
“… oh shit…”
Courtney’s heart began to pump. She didn’t know where she was.
That was bad. And yet, still… it looked… familiar.
“HEYYYYYYYY!!!”
Courtney heard it. A
sound. A sign of familiarity -- Martin. It was coming from just up
ahead, just down the way from… wherever she was.
“I’m coming!”
she yelled back, at first running to the source, only to realize that
her heels were going to be a hinderance on this flat surface. She
swore, stopping in her trot to take them off. Grabbing them both, she
continued her jog in her stockinged feet until --
“W-WHOA!!”
Courtney stumbled, dropping her shoes from sheer fear.
They fell downward,
hundreds of feet, off a cliff that she didn’t even know was there.
“H-huh?!”
Courtney looked left and then right. The cliff was like no cliff
she’d ever seen; it simply continued straight for what felt like
miles in either direction. No rocky crags or indentations. As though
it had been delicately carved by a master craftsman.
“HEYYYYYY,
COURTNEY!!!!”
“MARTIN?!”
Courtney yelled back, scanning her surroundings for the source of the
sound until:
There.
Across the cliff.
Unreachable. There was a golden platform, seemingly suspended on four
towering legs. And there, a minute speck in the distance on the
platform… was Martin.
“Oh… oh no…”
Courtney could not fathom it. It was impossible to understand. It
couldn’t be.
But somehow…
Creaaaaaaaaak…
SLAMMM!
“I could use a
shower…”
Those simple words
were delivered with what felt like uncharacteristic mundanity from
the group’s supervisor considering her typical sternness. But
Courtney was far more taken aback by the fact that those words had
been delivered with the force of that of a God more so than a
man, an utterance that shook her to her very bones. It came from a
being whose walks dug at something deep in Courtney’s core, and it
was coming closer…
Closer.
Closer…
Closer…
Until she
finally came into view.
Ms. Park was
standing right in front of Courtney, at what was certain to be many
thousands of times her own size.
Somehow… Courtney
had shrunk. Martin had shrunk. God knows who else had shrunk.
Courtney was not on
a nondescript cliff; she was on Ms. Park’s counter. And Martin was
nestled smack dab in the middle of the seat of Ms. Park’s bar
stool.
Courtney felt the
bile rise as she saw Ms. Park awe-inspiring form walk across the
floor, each step a thundering quake. Martin too was transfixed, for a
moment at least, until he came up with the idea to again scream for
help.
“MISS PAAAAAARK!!!
HEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!!!”
Courtney saw this,
and realized he had the right plan. They had no clue if Ms. Park
could even hear the two… but they had to try.
So, Courtney joined
in the chorus of Martin, hundreds of feet away, screaming for dear
life, hoping that Ms. Park would notice them.
***
“Hmm…”
Yu-Mi noticed the
box on the far counter first, next to the fridge. It was an odd
sight; how’d it get in here?
Yu-Mi walked toward
it, each step on the dusty dry floor saturated with a single print of
her saturated stockings. She reached the box, opening it a bit
tentatively until the smell of chilled frosted icing wafted into her
nose.
“A cake!” she
exclaimed, her heart already leaping. Yu-Mi wasn’t known for it,
but she loved sweets. And what’s more, this one had a letter
attached to the inner underside of the lid.
To Miss Yu-Mi
Park.
Our time at
Icarus Chemical Solutions was short and had a few ups and downs. But
none of us would have become better workers had it not been for your
guidance, patience, and support. So as our internships come to a
close, we thought to give you this gift, for everything you mean to
us.
Signed
Martin, Courtney,
Jonathan, Suzanne, Tina
Yu-Mi’s heart
could only melt the more she read the letter, any remembrances of the
pain of earlier in the day forgotten. She carefully folded it up and
put it aside, then grabbed a plate from a nearby cabinet, carving out
a piece of the white-blanketed chocolate confection and placing it on
the platter. She wanted to eat this now!
Once the cake was
plated, she took her newfound evening snack to the bar counter,
hopping up on the stool and sighing rapturously as her tired muscles
relaxed in its seat, digging her fork into the meal and coating her
mouth in its chocolate, licking her lips as she swallowed greedily.
***
Martin watched Yu-Mi
walk back, a thundering quake with each step, punctuated by the wet
slap-slap-slapping every footfall took. She was getting closer
and closer.
Martin’s heart
raced. Closeness meant that she’d be able to see them. Renewing his
breath, he doubled down and screamed again.
She was getting
closer. Even at this size, as Martin stopped to catch his breath, he
couldn’t help but admire Yu-Mi’s beauty. It was unbelievable how
a creature as big as Martin now comprehended her could move with such
grace, especially without a knowing audience to flaunt toward. Her
hair, straight jet-black, shoulder-length, silvery midnight, was like
a silky curtain guarding the precious pale treasure of her face’s
beauty. Her body was slender but toned, fit. Yu-Mi had often confided
in the group her use of public transportation when chastising them
for being late, as well as her frequent walks and jogs on her days
off, which added to this veneer of athleticism. But more than
anything, Martin respected Yu-Mi. She had been a brilliant
supervisor, a capable data-analyst, a skilled computer technician,
and a firm-but-fair mentor to both Martin and the entire group of
interns. He genuinely liked her and could only hope she enjoyed his
company as well. In any other situation, Martin would consider the
opportunity to witness Yu-Mi Park, candid, in this most intimate of
spaces, to be a wondrous and cherished memory.
Yu-Mi didn’t hear
Martin at all.
It was only as the
shadow of Yu-Mi’s shrouded ass fell atop Martin that he realized
what was about to happen to him.
He cast a quick
glance to Courtney, but realized he lost her location while trying to
get Yu-Mi’s attention. Of course he did, she was a speck. They were
both specks, practically dust-motes in the presence of this
phenomenal creature. It was a miracle the two of them had even found
each other in the first place.
And as Martin looked
back up at the eclipsed sky, heart pounding with a ferocious fear, a
will, a need to get away, he looked across the expansive plain of the
seat, searching for an out, for a way to escape this terrifying,
inconceivable situation. Even now he didn’t want to believe it. To
believe that somehow the two of them shrank, reduced to barely a
millimeter in height. And that his boss and mentor was about to snuff
him out without even knowing he was ever there.
Martin put his hands
up in a futile plea, his screams becoming less screams for attention
and more simply fear-addled yelps and screeches as the fabric of
Yu-Mi’s dark-colored panties stretched across the back of her
buttocks, her rubbery gelatinous orbs jiggling and undulating with
their massive, floppy weight until –
CRASHOOOOOOM!!!
It was over in an
instant.
In that instant,
Martin was bombarded. In the spare moment between being utterly
smothered by Yu-Mi’s ass and her weight relaxing into the seat,
Martin’s thoughts went into overdrive. His mind went everywhere, if
only to prevent his last conscious thought to be pain. He thought of
his family, once so sure and confident of Martin’s future business
success, unaware that he was about to be reduced to a splatter. He
thought of his friends, fearing for them, wondering if this same
eldritch fate would befall Johnny, Tina, Suzanne… He thought of
Courtney. He hoped, prayed that she would be able to get out of this.
To escape, to get Yu-Mi’s attention somehow, as unlikely as that
may have been.
The cacophony of
horrendous crackles and pops raced through Martins body, compressing
from his feet up to his waist, with more to come. Martin squirmed
relentlessly, painfully and he took in what breath he could, a
foolhardy move as his inflated lungs were mercilessly squeezed,
sending out the last oxygen inside the young man up through his mouth
in a choked gasp. His heart hadn’t even the time to beat, but his
mind still had just enough time to think. To reason. To hope that
something would save him. Save everyone. In that
split-millisecond as his skin ruptured, his lungs burst, his brain
broke… yet he could not stop fighting.
Martin choked on
blood as his skull cracked, his mind completely addled and broken in
more ways than one. The horror of this predicament was not lost on
him, even in his final moments. The heartbreaking, incomprehensible
question of what did he do wrong? What did they do to deserve this?
Why was he being punished?! How could Yu-Mi so thoughtlessly take the
lives of these youths she worked so hard to cultivate?! Why was he --
SPLA-CRACK!
A minuscule spurt of
super-sonic blood spritzed from beneath Yu-Mi’s leggings like a
grape. The tougher materials, bones, sinews, were ground down into
dust only moments later.
Martin’s final
delirious shrieks were eaten by the expansive mass of Yu-Mi’s
voluptuous derriere, but Courtney could just barely make out the
miniscule crunch that curled upward into her ears, sending
bile into her mouth.
“M-Martin…?”
She knew her voice would be unable to carry what felt like hundreds
of feet downwind. In a way, she was counting on it. She feared what
Yu-Mi might do to her, unknowingly, a goddess whose whims could
determine her life or death in an instant. But still, Courtney had to
put her feelings to voice. She tried to ball her hands into fists,
but their trembling prevented any cohesion amongst her fingers. That
the object of her affection had died, so unceremoniously, suddenly…
randomly. What had happened? Why had this occurred? Courtney
had no end to the questions she demanded answers for, but currently
there was only one other entity in the room she could ask, a creature
that loomed up with bounteous, endless girth and size, one that cast
an expansive shadow across Courtney’s world.
Yu-Mi was already
digging into her cake. Brown frosting speckled the outside of her
mouth, quickly lapped up by her probing tongue before being replaced
by the leftovers from Yu-Mi’s next forkful. The sweetness was
decadent, so much so that Yu-Mi had to moan in delight as she shoved
another helping of delicious chocolatey cake into her cheeks. The
massive slice was already half-way done; Courtney had to wonder
whether she’d been staring so long at the display, transfixed by
Yu-Mi’s impossible size, that time seemed to have sped up for her.
It didn’t feel real that a cake with so much apparent mass could
disappear so utterly and completely.
“Hm…” Yu-Mi
scanned the counter, and Courtney froze. She looked up as Yu-Mi
looked down, stern, and lifted her hand up above the platform. Five
perfect, beautiful, heavenly fingers descended, locking Courtney in
place as she could only observe their enigmatic umbra.
Yu-Mi scratched at a
piece of crusted pancake batter on the counter, breaking it into
dust.
A few centimeters
away, Courtney wanted to throw up. For a number of reasons, chief
being the speed at which she had darted behind a mason jar filled
with peach preserves. By sidling her profile against it, she managed
to avoid the attention of Yu-Mi’s gaze. As much as Courtney wanted
to get Yu-Mi’s attention, she wanted it to be before she was forced
to contend with her fingers, each one the size of a redwood to her,
and a proportional thickness exceeding even that.
For now, Courtney
could only watch. Watch, and stew in the despair of having lost
Martin. But… there was no time for that now. She had to look after
herself first.
Yu-Mi finished her
cake, scraping the extra icing and crumbs with the side of her fork,
forming a thin ridge of flavor on its edge. Yu-Mi licked it up,
content. Then, she set her fork down and got up from her stool, back
on the floor. She walked into the rear room.
Courtney let out a
breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, and she inched out of
her hiding place. The fork was no longer a fork to her – it was a
colossal, giant, huge bridge of metal, terminating in four
equally-spaced, terrifying points. Each one was sharp at normal size,
yet Courtney knew if she were to be skewered by one of them… well,
she wouldn’t be. She would sooner be crushed beneath their blunt
ends. The reality she was only barely larger than a grain of salt was
deeply, deeply unsettling to Courtney.
Courtney looked
across the endless chasm and into the rectangular portal through
which Yu-Mi disappeared. She was like a thunderstorm. Dangerous, yet
beautiful, impossible to look away from. Still, not something you
wanted to be caught in the middle of. And Courtney thought of the
rest of her friends, hoping, praying that they were able to make it
out of this okay.