“You don't have to believe in everything, but don't mess with it, just in case.”

  That's what Holly had always told herself, but at that moment, staring through the gaps in the cornfield at the red, eye-like lights deep within the murky darkness, it was a phrase that seemed particularly appropriate. She gunned the throttle on her old Honda Hobbit and sped past the field as fast as its tinny motor could move, but she could not resist the urge to glance behind her once more. The lights seemed to have moved to the edge of the crop, and were peering back from behind the tall stalks. Holly turned away and did not look back again.

  The moped struggled up the steepening roads, in the hills past the flat farmland, but Holly pressed on. She soon found herself on unnamed dirt paths, the temperature cooling to an uncomfortable degree, as tree cover thickened to make the area almost impenetrably dark. Around one turn, past the lightning shattered tree she'd been told about, Holly saw her destination: a small, indistinct cabin, covered in kudzu and ivy, its door barely lit by a single, orange lantern.

  She was in between her first and second knock when the door swung open, revealing a peculiar woman wearing a tall, conical hat with a wide flat brim, from which long, black hair spilled out. In the lamp light, the woman's dark, arresting eyes almost looked red.

  “O-oh, I didn't, um...” Holly sputtered.

  “You did not think we actually wore the hats, right?” The woman said in a voice that was vaguely tinted with an accent, or accents, that Holly could not fully place, “What do you want?”

  “I, er, I was hoping you could help me with something?” Holly said plaintively.

  “Hm.” The woman looked Holly up and down, before stepping aside and extending her arm in invitation.

  “Ah, thanks.” Holly stepped in, pulling off her leather jacket and folding it over one arm. She looked around agog at the crowded, dusty room. Jars of unknown oddities lined shelves, decaying books littered table tops, hundreds of nick knacks, totems, and talismans were crammed into any and all available space, and two thick, iron cauldrons hung near the roaring fireplace.

  “What is your name, child?” The woman asked, leading Holly to a thickset table. Holly looked down, watching the woman's bare feet gracefully slide along the wooden floorboards.

  “Holly. What's yours?” Holly turned and extended her hand.

  “You can call me Tess.” The woman said, firmly gripping Holly's hand.

  “Tess...” Holly turned the name over in her mind while sitting down, “It's nice to meet you Tess.”

  “Likewise.” Tess said, “What leads you all the way out to a witch's cabin?”

  Holly laughed at how cavalier Tess was about her profession, but quickly stifled it at Tess's rigid expression.

  “I, um, I've been...” Holly took a deep breath, before looking around quickly, “Uh, not to change to subject, but on the way here I passed a cornfield and saw something weird.”

  “Mm?” Tess raised her eyebrows.

  “Like, jeez this sounds crazy, but like a weird animal, I guess? With two red eyes?” Holly winced.

  “Ah, I am aware of him.” Tess said.

  “You know it? Er, him? Is he like, your pet or something?” Holly asked.

  “He is like a neighbor, I suppose. We do not interfere with each other.” Tess said weighing her words carefully, before becoming deeply serious, “You did not speak with him, did you?”

  “N-no, I just saw him...He was actually kind of staring at me first...Why?” Holly asked.

  “He is not to be trifled with, that is all.” Tess said sternly, “There are some things in this world which are simply bigger than you.”

  “Ah, I'll, um, I'll keep that in mind.” Holly said.

  “Best.” Tess replied. She continued to stare unblinking at Holly.

  “I...ugh, it's just everything, you know?” Holly said, finally, “My job, my folks, my friends, my entire life! It's like I don't really belong in the world! And then this...this total asshole breaks ups with me, and...”

  “Hm...” Tess mused, turning around and fiddling with the cast iron pots.

  “I guess he didn't break up with me. We weren't even dating, not really. Like, we'd gone on a few dates, but it wasn't official or anything. But he just stopped getting in touch! No warning, just no replies anymore. That's screwed up, right? To just stop talking to someone?”

  “Quite.” Tess said, seemingly conjuring a glass of brown, speckled liquid, “Here, this will calm you.”

  "Thanks.” Holly sighed, taking the warm cup and taking a sip, “Oh, this is kind of smoky. Is this lapsang souchong?”

  “Knowledgeable about teas, are you?” Tess sat across from Holly, smiling, albeit faintly, for the first time.

  “I guess I just think they're neat.” Holly blushed a little bit, taking another sip.

  “It is not zengsaan siuzung, but the similarities are notable.” Tess said with impeccable Cantonese intonation, “Please, go on. This man you were seeing?”

  “Ah, well...” Holly said, “It just feels like I'm never in control of my own life. I'm tired of feeling small, you know? And this jerk! Jacob! He just...augh! I can't. I just can't, you know?”

  “Hm, and you want to feel large?” Tess asked.

  “Well duuh...” Holly began to slur, “Who wouldn't want to be like that, right?”

  “You would be surprised at how few seek actual power.” Tess narrowed her eyes and smirked, “You though, you seem different.”

  “You do too!” Holly laughed, “You're so cool and witchy! S'where do you even git a hat like that? I want one...”

  “Is that so? Well, perhaps we can make an arrangement.” Tess rested her chin on her hand.

  “Like what...?” Holly started, “Like what is even in this stuff? Ooooh, you naughty witch, you're trying to get me drunk, aren't you? Hmm...feels nice and warm though...”

  Holly's head pitched forward, but it was caught by the skillful hand of Tess, who then gently lowered it onto the wooden table. She stood and stepped towards the door, grabbing a hanging cloak and swirling it over her shoulders on the way.

  “...being big...” Holly mumbled in her sleep, smiling.

  Tess glanced once more at Holly's flushed face and stepped out into the world.

 *

Holly awoke to the feeling of Tess's narrow fingers tousling her curly, blond hair.

  “Wh-what happened?!” She shouted, bolting up in her seat and frantically looking around the room, before finally fixing her gaze on Tess. At first she could only perceive the remnant sparkle and ripple of what was certainly a hallucinogenic experience, but soon the memory of a few hours prior trickled back into her consciousness. She attempted to stand, but found that her legs were still weak.

  “Careful, careful now, dear.” Tess said soothingly, “You are probably still a bit relaxed.”

  “Jeez, that stuff is strong.” Holly said, sitting back down and sucking air through her teeth.

  “Yes, it was perhaps a bit much for someone uninitiated.” Tess said.

  “Uninitiated? What do you mean?” Holly asked.

  “What do you think of this?” Tess evaded, pulling a small, wire cage from under the table, and placing it atop the milieu of errata which covered the table. Holly peered between the bars, expecting to see a cricket or a hermit crab, but instead she found the figure of a tiny, seemingly unconscious human.

  “Wh-what...what is this?” Holly gasped, “Some kind of...what do you call it, a homunculus?”

  “Look closer.” Tess said.

  Holly moved her face closer to the cage, trying to focus on the miniature person. It began to stir, turned towards her, opened its eyes, and immediately screamed in pitch barely audible.

  “Jacob?!” Holly shouted, nearly blowing out the little person's eardrums. She looked up at Tess.

  “Well?” Tess asked.

  “How did you...?” Holly glanced back down to Jacob, who was now trying desperately to squeeze his way through the narrow gap between the bars, “Am I hallucinating? Is this from that tea?”

  “Do not worry about how. How will come later.” Tess said, “And I assure you this is very real. This is the man who wronged you, correct?”

  “Yeah, it is...” Holly peeped, “Wh-what are you going to do with him?”

  “Me? Nothing.” Tess smiled, “You, however, are free to do as you wish.”

  “I...I don't know what...” Holly said.

  “He made you feel small, did he not? He made you feel ignored and forgotten. Should you not make him feel the same way?” Tess asked.

  “I...” Holly stared down at the tiny man and bit her lip. He was so small.

  “Return to him three times what he gave to you.” Tess said, pulling up the door on the cage and pinching up Jacob's body. She opened her fingers and allowed the tiny man to roughly fall to the floor, “If he treats you as disregardable, then truly disregard him. Crush him like you would crush an insect.”

  “I...” Holly stuttered.

  “What will you do?” Tess asked, narrowing her eyes.

FALSE ENDING

“I...don't know.” Holly said, barely, “He hurt me, but this seems like a lot. I don't know if I can...”

“I see.” Tess sneered, “I suppose I was wrong about you. Shame.”

“So, what-” Holly started, but she was quickly cut off.

Tess dropped her foot forward and crushed Jacob underneath, twisting it and scraping it backwards, leaving a small streak of red on the floor. Holly stared down at the tiny smear, the infinitesimal splash of red which was just a moment ago a person, and felt her heart beating hard against her ribs. She snapped her attention back to Tess, who had just stepped closer.

“This will be the end of our crossing, unfortunately.” Tess said, as she reached out with both arms, placing one finger on Holly's forehead and another on her sternum. It was as though thick, black smoke was pouring from Tess's fingertips directly into Holly's shivering body. It worked its way through every vein, every capillary, into every cell of her being, until finally, as quickly as it started, it stopped, and Holly lay on the floor, as small as an insect.

She gaped at the mountainous form of the witch, tall and wide, a human Olympus Mons on Earth.

'Is this what you saw, Jacob?' Holly thought to herself.

“You could have been a god among ants.” Tess thundered, shaking her head side to side, “But you chose to be an ant. I will never understand people like you.”

Tess lifted her foot again, her bare, dusty sole quickly overtaking Holly's miniscule form. There was nowhere to run, and Holly didn't have the strength regardless. She saw the remainder of Jacob, a stringy mess of viscera still hanging from the ball of Tess's foot, moving towards her.

'Were you scared?' Holly thought.

The soft underside of Tess's foot pushed Holly over and pinned her to the ground. Weight piled on and on; a podological peine forte et dure. In her last moments, Holly saw the eyes of that great, hidden beast again, but only for a moment. In another, Tess's sole met the floor, and Holly splattered like a bug.

 -The End-

TRUE ENDING

“I...I wonder what it'll feel like.” Holly whispered. She lifted her boot and hovered it over Jacob, before dropping the heel mere inches from him, pivoting the toe back and forth, watching the tiny person beneath appear and disappear from her line of sight. She began to breath harder, her cheeks flushing, as she took in the intoxicating feeling of completely overshadowing a human life.

  Jacob screamed, but it was an inaudible squeak to the giants above.

  “This still feels like a dream.” Holly said, unable to look away from her shoe and the body that lay beneath it, “But I don't want to wake up.”

  Tess smiled in response.

  “I...I'm gonna do it.” Holly breathed, “I'm gonna crush him.”

  “Go on.” Tess said.

  “Hold my hand.” Holly reached out her hand, and Tess's thin fingers clasped around it.

  Slowly, the thick tread of Holly's boot lowered onto the wriggling form of Jacob. Dried specks of mud bounced around his body as they shook loose. Light became dimmer as the shoe eclipsed the candle light of the witch's cabin. The cold rubber touched his tear stained face, and in another moment, it crushed bone and organ alike to a coarse paste with a distinct crunch.

  Tess felt the heat rise in Holly's palm and gripped her hand tighter. She looked at Holly's serene face, head lolled back, cheeks red, forehead sweating, lower lip bitten, air being pulled raggedly through her flaring nostrils, and grinned.

  “Congratulations, child.” Tess said.

  Holly barely heard Tess's approval. She lifted her boot slightly, and looked breathlessly at the string of red which stretched from her sole to the floor.

  “You've taken the first step away from your world, and into mine.” Tess continued.

  “Y-yeah...” Holly placed her foot back on the ground and twisted it, grinding away any discernible features of the man she had just erased.

  “I'm proud of you.” Tess suddenly wrapped Holly into a hug. Holly, broken from her trance, took a moment to recognize what was happening, but returned the embrace in kind.

  “Th-thanks.” Holly said waveringly, “What, um, what comes now?”

  “Now?” Tess said, breaking the hug, but keeping her hands grasped firmly on Holly's arms, “First, we should anoint you. But, before that, would you like to be fitted for a hat?”

“I'd actually really like that...” Holly smiled, “Thank you, Tess.”

  “Come, come, let us be quick about it.” Tess finally broke her grip and whirled around, “There is much to do to get you settled in as my new student. There is so much for you to learn.”

  Holly followed quickly behind her new teacher, but allowed her gaze to fall once more on the bloodstain, which was now drying to brown on the wooden floor, soon to be indistinct and forgotten. She felt the same pulse of pleasure radiate throughout her body, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she had made the right choice.

 -The End-