In this chapter:    Ana begins her preparations to return home once the semester concludes but finds herself in a disappointing situation before she is offered a stress-relief opportunity at the expense of the micros. Miranda asserts her growing confidence over her people after an annoying discovery.  A disturbing inside look into the daily life of Biraal City from the perspective of a micro inhabitant who has managed to stay alive throughout all of Lacy’s cruel experiments until a beacon of hope is offered to her.  Lacy sets up the scene for her final project with Biraal City as center stage. 

Day 268 – Anastazja

              “Are you excited to go back home, Anastazja?” the college counselor asked.  The older woman dressed up in professional apparel, fluffed up short, curly, and greying hair, smiling across the large desk, a few paper forms stacked upon each other placed in front of her next to a computer keyboard.

              “I think so, yes” Ana said, her tall figure hunched over in the small chair, her knees up against the back wall of the counselor’s desk.  Ana dressed in loose t-shirt, her hair in a ponytail, her favorite blue short shorts exposing the fair skin of her thighs downward, and some black and white sneakers with three strips on the sides along with some plain white socks that reached up just above her ankles. 

              “You only think so? You didn’t enjoy your time in America?” The counselor said with some obvious and forced disappointment in her voice.

              “I… I loved the food, the people, this school was great, and so big, so many students to talk to, but… I just did not get to do as much as I thought I was supposed to, yes?” Ana said, her face tilting as she nodded her head.

              “Things like what?” The counselor asked, folding her hands together above the edge of the desk.

              “I thought I would travel more, I wanted to see New York City, Los Angeles I wanted to see a baseball game and eat barbeque, go to big music festivals, ahh… I do not know, it is stupid” Ana said, frustrated, crossing her arms over her lap.

              “But you traveled all around with the volleyball team for games, no?” the older woman asked.

              “Yes, but only around the south states to other schools, not to stay long, just to play and leave…” Ana said, staring off out of the window behind the woman, seeing the clouds turning darker at midday, the heavy rain on the edge, poised to fall at any moment. 

              “What stopped you from going off and doing all of the things you wanted to do?” the counselor asked.

              “Other… things, I suppose” Ana hesitated.

              “Care to elaborate, Anastazja?” the woman asked.

              “Ehh… no, that is okay” Ana quickly dismissed.

              “Was it your roommates at the student apartments? Did they treat you poorly? I can write up a comment to send to the international studies department, how many did girls you live with? Remind me of their names as well” the counselor eagerly said, reaching over for a pen next to her keyboard.

              “No, no… they were good roommates, I loved living here in America, I just imagine it would have been a tiny bit different when I came here is all” Ana said, saying some truths, but forcing a smile at the pestering woman in order to progress the conversation.    

              “Okay, well that’s fantastic to hear! When you get back to Odessa, you’ll get an email with a huge survey to fill out, send it back to me so I can turn it in and you get credit for it, okay, hun?” The woman warmly asked.

              “Okay, I will” Ana said, nodding her head.  The rain starting to audibly trickle onto the glass behind the counselor as Ana began to tap her fingers against her thighs impatiently, wanting nothing more but to leave and head back to the apartment.

              “Good, now let’s talk about your grades and how your transfers are going to work” the counselor said, tapping a few commands into her keyboard.

              “Sure” Ana said, changing her posture in the chair as she tried not to show her escalating boredom.

              “Your grades last semester were great.  If you pass all your finals this semester, which I think you’ll have no problem doing, then there shouldn’t be any difficulties when we send the transcript back to your home university for credit” the counselor said, Ana rapidly nodding her head with a forced smile in understanding as the rain started to turn into a downpour. Ana noticing a few students down in the quad below the window running under roofs or into neighboring buildings to avoid to the sudden torrent.  “Alright, take these forms with you, hand them into your professors on your last of classes, okay?  Email me if you have any questions and have a safe flight back, Anastazja!” the counselor chirped. 

              “Cannot you just email the forms to me, so they do not get wet?” Ana asked, pointing a finger towards the window behind the counselor. The counselor snapping her head over her shoulder to glance out towards the dreary greyed campus.

              “Oh! Sorry, hun, sure!  I’ll just send a little email over to you” the older woman said, humming to herself as she tapped away. 

              “Thank you” Ana said.  Ana grabbed her bag off the floor next to the chair in a rush, hurrying out of the building and across the wet and puddle-ridden quad towards the parking garages, Ana nearly drenched and her hair soaked as she climbed into her car, dampening her cloth seats. Ana drove through the wet streets, pulling into her normal parking space a few spots away from Miranda’s car, Ana rushing up the stairs as a few loose drops of rain trickled off her clothes and skin onto the wood floor of the entryway as she closed the front door behind her.   Ana leaving a set of wet shoeprints in her wake as she treaded across the empty living room, Ana shutting her bedroom door softly.

              Ana spent the next few minutes drying off, kicking off her shoes and socks and changing into another set of shorts and a dark t-shirt, her hair in a bit of a wavey frizzle after she dried it off with a towel.  Ana laid on her bed, listening to the rain crash against her bedroom window, her room dim, a hand behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling, her mood relaxed, the lower half of her legs hanging off the edge of the bed as she casually batted them forwards and backwards, her bare heels softly colliding with the bottom edge of her mattress. 

              Ana nearly drifting off into a midday nap with the gentle sound of the rain lulling her eyes closed atop her bed for a few moments. Unexpectedly, Ana’s phone began to vibrate in her gym bag, muffled under the avalanche of dirty volleyball socks within, the low hum removed Ana from her trance as she reluctantly picked herself up off her bed, fishing the phone out from between her discarded and stale gym clothes. 

              “Hey dad! You’re calling pretty late?” Ana spoke naturally in her native language. 

              “Anastazja, are you alright today? Excited to come back to your real home?” Ana’s father asked. 

              “Definitely excited! I can’t wait to see everyone again and have my old room back, all my old friends…” Ana said, pacing around her room as she talked, the conversation drifting on for a few minutes.

              “Alright, Ana… I’ll let you get back to your studies, your mother just wanted to know what day and time we need to pick you up from the train station” Ana’s father said.

              “Oh, I’ll just text you when we get closer, how about that? I’m still a few weeks from the plane ride anyway” Ana said with a smile that could be heard through the phone.

              “Okay! I can’t wait to see my big champion USA winner” Ana’s dad said. Ana immediately halting her pacing, her heart sinking a bit a she stood in the center of her dim room, knowing her father always just assumed Ana won everything, forgetting to tell him, knowing he would have been heartbroken if he found out Ana’s team had crashed out of the championship tournament a few weeks prior.

              “Actually… my team… uhh… we didn’t win” Ana said, struggling with her words as she swallowed hard and cringed her teeth with a wave of stress washing over her.

              “You what?!” Ana’s dad shouted, Ana pulling her phone away from her ear a bit at the rapid change in volume.

              “I did everything I could, I was the team’s best player by far!” Ana said, raising her voice in defense of herself.  

              “We paid all that money to send you to America to win a god dammed trophy! You realize how little money we had to send you there?!” Ana’s dad exploding with rage.

              “I’ll just win one when I get back then!” Ana yelled in return, tapping the end call button before her father could say anything else.  Ana heavily groaning in anger as she sat on her bed, gripping her phone tightly between her hands.  “Ahhh!” Ana wailed aloud in frustration, setting her phone next to her, continuing to grit her teeth, rubbing the palms of her hands repeatedly over her forehead to try to calm herself down. 

              A few gentle knocks at the door not catching Ana’s attention as she simmered atop her blankets, the door swung open softly as Jessica walked in with a concerned look on her face.  “Hey, I couldn’t understand what you were yelling, but you sounded pissed, girl! Or maybe that’s just what Ukrainian sounds like all the time haha” Jessica laughed as she walked into the middle of Ana’s bedroom.  Ana not responding as she continued to rub her forehead. “Oh shit, what’s wrong?” Jessica asked, realizing the situation was a bit more serious than she thought, Jessica sitting on the bed next to Ana.

              “Nothing…” Ana mumbled. 

              “Yeah, right, I know it’s not nothing” Jessica prodded, Ana rolling her head around in frustration, avoiding speaking. “Aww… you want to talk to Miranda instead?” Jessica teasingly asked.

              “No… I am just mad” Ana said, chewing at her bottom lip a bit. 

              “At what?” Jessica asked.

              “Please just… I do not wish to talk about it” Ana said.

              “Alright… well… I guess you don’t what my help then” Jessica said, shrugging her shoulders and standing up from the bed as she walked towards the door. 

              “No… I do, but ehh… can we maybe talk in your room?” Ana asked, Jessica turning around with a confused look on her face.

              “Why would we do that?” Jessica asked.

              “Maybe I could… see Toy Town?” Ana asked, finally taking her hands off her face, looking towards Jessica with sad eyes. Jessica sighed, dropping her shoulders.

              “Yeah… I guess” Jessica said, exiting the room, “come on…” Jessica beckoned from around the corner. 

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 268 – Asif

              Asif felt the familiar rumblings of the goddess’s footsteps from behind the closed closet door, waking him up as usual, noticing that the tremors were far less severe underneath the shiny, hot-pink, strappy platformed heel he now called his shelter from harm.  His old, abandoned shack in the city would have shook, dust would fall on him while he tried to sleep, but no longer, finding himself in his own makeshift house just across a flat path from the woman who introduced him to the under-heel colony.  Asif felt a new level of comfort as he exited his house made of half-destroyed stone, concrete, and wood, his new bed soft enough and better than most of what he could find in the city, easily.  The ceiling light of the closet shining bright like a lingering star as he looked upward beyond the immensely long and curving plastic of the underside of the heel, the goddess forgetting to turn out their light during the night, which happened quite often.

              Asif walked to the colony center, passing up his new neighbors with friendly waves and nods, stopping for some small talk with people, feeling like a new person as he became used to actual conversations again.  After a few minutes of walking, Asif reached a crowd of a few dozen people gathered around a shoddy wall with everyone’s names along with their assignments for that day.  Asif noticing the woman who brought him to the colony in the first place was there, Asif taking the chance to stand next to her as everyone read off quietly to themselves what their duties and tasks were, people walking off as they finished up. 

              “So… you ever going to tell me your name?” Asif asked, standing next to her.

              “You’ve only been here for 10 days…” the woman said.

              “Ah, but your name is on this wall somewhere, I just have to look where your eyes look!” Asif said in excitement, the woman scoffed as she turned away back towards the path leading away from the colony center. “Ah wait, come on!” Asif said.

              “Let’s go… you’re with me today, anyway.  We’re going to what used to be Old Town” the woman said.

              “Old Town?” Asif questioned as he kept pace with her.

              “Used to be a really upscale neighborhood where a lot of the military leaders lived” she said.

              “You mean the dumb guys who sent thousands of people to their deaths to fight the goddess? Asif rhetorically asked.

              “Yup…” she replied.

              “The assholes who tried to bomb her, the assholes who agreed to fight for her against some other giant girl for nothing?” Asif droned on.

              “Yes… their neighborhood” she replied sternly. 

“You think there’s still stuff there?  Seems like that would be one of the first places looted after they were all crushed” Asif said.

              “I guess we’ll see” she said. 

              Asif and the woman grabbed their supplies from their houses, rolling some carts through the cleared-out pathways and out of the shadow form underneath the heel back towards the city, mostly staying silent on the walk apart from a few questions from the eager Asif. Toy Town on the horizon, a long walk away. 

              “Are you adjusting to the colony?” the woman asked as they approached the outskirts of the outermost neighborhoods.

              “Yeah, everyone has been so nice to me, and you were right, people under the heel actually smile… I’m grateful you found me that day” Asif said.

              “Don’t mention it, kid” the woman said.

              “How much longer do you think?” Asif asked.

              “Unless you want to hike into a set of toe prints to reach the neighborhood, we have to go all the way downtown and cut east, or what used to be east… we have to cut towards her dresses that hang up above the east side” she said. 

              “That’s fine, I don’t think I’ve been downtown since this all started” Asif said.

              “Well then watch our stuff when we go back through, some people might try to take it” she said.

              “Are there a lot of survivors downtown?” Asif asked.

              “Yeah…” she said with a disappointed tone.

              “The good news is that the goddess hasn’t really messed with us in quite some time… it’s so strange, all she really does is turn the light off and on above us and grabs her clothes sometimes from the hooks” Asif said.

              “Whatever, kid, let’s not hold out breath on that bitch” she said. 

              Asif and the woman continued through downtown, passing up roving camps of thousands of survivors on the destroyed streets and city blocks, entire skyscrapers ripped out of the foundation, rubble and debris lay everywhere, more than Asif had ever seen before, yet there still stood hundreds of buildings packed with people on every floor that they used for shelter, the depressing apocalyptic scenery hard to look away from. 

Asif and the woman walking all the way around a fingerprint embedded deep into the city’s foundation and continuing their journey towards Old Town.  For hours, the pair scavenged the old, rich neighborhood together, climbing into the half-destroyed mansions and opulent apartment buildings surrounding the upscale shopping centers, the pair finding quite a bit of useful supplies and loading up their carts nearly to the brim.  Asif noticing that the woman had taken a nice set of expensive looking teacups and plates with a few cracks and chips in them. “I can’t believe these survived all this time!” the woman said with some surprising excitement to Asif’s ears.

              “You deserve it” Asif said with a smile.

              “You’re right… I do” the woman said with an even rarer smile back.

              “How about we use those later? I found some powdered tea from a few leftover military rations last week that I’ve been saving under my bed” Asif suggested.

              “I haven’t had tea since that blue storm took us… that would be lovely” the woman said, nodding her head. 

              “Maybe you can finally tell me your name over tea” Asif said with a chuckle.

              “Depends on how good that powdered shit is, kid” the woman laughed, “We should get back though, it’s been a few hours” the woman suggested. The pair agreeing, setting their sights back towards downtown as they carefully navigated the debris ridden streets. 

              The pair of scavengers wandered back into downtown, catching envious stares as the citizens looked at their overloaded carts full of nice-looking supplies, a few of them scoffing, their faces upturned as well, but leaving their supplies unharmed.  The downtown district was more active this time around, thousands more people on the streets, occupying makeshift markets for bartering and supply trading, a low hum of quiet conversation was even audible, but this brought more and more attention, people from the markets turning towards the carts, rushing over to the pair, yelling and screaming in their faces that they wanted to trade for certain things, Asif and the woman trying to squeeze past everyone, yelling back towards the crowed to get away, trying to fight off a few loose hands reaching into the carts, Asif and the woman batting the thieves away successfully, until Asif was shoved down to the ground as the crowds grew more rabid, the crowd starting to take their things forcibly, fighting amongst themselves even as the yells only grew in volume.

              Abruptly, there was a deep rumbling quake that growled across the cityscape, the crowd halting in an instant as Asif picked himself back up without resistance, wiping off some dirt from his shirt as he helped up his friend from off the ground.  The crowds dropping a few items, some still hanging on to their stolen supplies as they ran off towards the buildings and the few skyscrapers that remained in the city.  “Why don’t they just go to Old Town themselves?!” Asif shouted in exasperation; his words followed soon by another deep rumbling. 

              “Because they’re fucking selfish cowards” the woman said, dusting herself off and picking up a few of the supplies scattered around her cart.  A more intense rumbling shaking them a bit as they wobbled, bracing themselves against the handles of their supply carts.  “Hey… Asif, we need to go, now” the streets becoming eerily quiet as the crowds continued to pour into the surrounding buildings for shelter. 

              Suddenly, the closet door whipped open with a soft thud. In the door frame was the massive figure of the tall red-headed goddess standing an entire head taller than Toy Town’s goddess who stood slightly behind her. 

              “DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, GIRL” Jessica’s booming words rolled over the city like a thunder.  Asif and the woman stunned in place, now the only ones on the street. 

              “ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE OKAY WITH THIS?” Ana’s voice, like a deeper thunder.  Asif and the woman releasing their grips from their carts, began to run down the street, the woman moving much slower than Asif before he realized, turning around and going back to her, tugging at her hand as they moved around broken cars and broken concrete.

              “YEAH! JUST TRY TO PICK ONE SPOT THOUGH, THERE’S NOT THAT MANY TO PLAY WITH ANYMORE” Jessica’s words rolled over the city once more. 

              “OKAY, I WILL” Ana boomed.  Asif taking a brief second to look upwards towards the two giants, Jessica taking a small step back and leaning against the wall behind Ana.  The red-head’s green eyes staring down towards the city, her legs going up for miles in the distance as she began to lurch forward, bending over the city and peering down over everyone that was still alive, Asif looking up at her as he persisted in pulling at his friend’s hand to help her along.  The giantess’ hair flowing down the side of her fair like a firestorm surrounding her fair and freckled skin miles above the city, her entire face looming over the cityscape, blocking out the ceiling light behind her head only illuminating the strands of hair behind her even more as her face darkened in the shadow.  Her eyes looked weary, and her brow furrowed in anger, the giantess squinting her eyes as she scanned from so high above, her breathing slowed as her nostrils flared, her lips turning into a scowl, the anger in her becoming more apparent by the second as Asif took his gaze off of her and tugged at his friend as fast as he could…

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 268 – Anastazja

              Ana had her knees bent outward as she leaned over the city, her toes in the sand at the edge of the closet feeling gritty between her skin as she peered over the city sprawled out across the floor of the closet.  The grid-like streets were still somewhat visible, and the obvious destruction from Jessica’s antics were apparent, a toe print there, a shoe print there, entire city blocks flattened, or totally wiped out of existence as Ana looked for a spot that seemed like a fun place to get a better peek at as she looked towards the more dense part of the city still packed with half destroyed buildings, but a good section of what seemed to be mostly untouched, Ana holding her hair, parting it to the sides of her face and out of her view, but the loose locks flipped back downward annoyingly as Ana stood back up straight, fixing her hair once more behind her shoulders as she looked back down towards downtown. 

Jessica behind her, leaning on the wall with her arms crossed across her chest as she tried to look around Ana’s imposing figure, Jessica curling her lips up and down as she played with the thought as to let Ana mess with her dwindling city on its few last breaths, but Jessica legitimately wanted to help Ana feel better, knowing what the rage inside feels like, knowing that sometimes the only way to get rid of it was to act on it.  “Hmm…” Ana hummed, placing her hands on her hips as she continued to stare down.

“So… are you going to do anything, or…” Jessica insisted.  Ana hmphed in response, one hand on her hip, using her other hand to hold the door frame for a bit of extra balance as she lifted her right foot high in the air, angling the ball of her foot and her toes downward over the dense metro area.  Ana hovered her toes over the buildings for a few extra seconds, not seeing any of the dot-sized people scattering across the streets in a craze like she was expecting apart from a few here and there, the shadow of her foot caused by the light from closet light above her making it more difficult to see the darker micros as she pivoted her toes around the angle of the light just above the tallest remaining buildings to try and get a better look. 

Ana, dissatisfied with the amount of people below her, furiously slammed her toes into the buildings anyway with a soft smack of her flesh against the structures, a huge puff of white smoke exploding outward from where she pressed her skin deeply into the foundation of the city.  Ana feeling the crumbling buildings under the ball of her foot and between her sandy toes and she wiggled them in response to the feeling, seeing tinier puffs of grey and white smoke waft outward from the impact zone. Ana hmphed again, not getting the feeling of relief that she sought while unknowingly killing a few hundred stranded micros in the process. 

Ana picked up her foot, seeing a little bit of dirt and debris fall off the bottom of her toes back down towards the destruction as she wiggled them once over the city.  Ana slightly admiring the new set of larger toe prints in the city as compared to Jessica’s scattered around the floor of the closet randomly.  Ana placed her foot back into the sand next to her other foot, twisting the ball of her foot and her toes into the sand to rub away some of the thicker pieces of debris and micro gore embedded into the wrinkles of her skin. 

Jessica hiding a small grumble from her throat as she thought to herself those could have been her buildings to crush, but knowing it was her choice to help her friend out.  Jessica took ease in the fact that she knew the majority of the smarter bugs had flocked away from the metro area after repeated acts of cruelty by hers truly and that the tens of thousands of micros that still remained in Toy Town would be fine if Ana just kept her fun to that area.  Jessica watching on, trying her best to be patient.   

Ana pulled off a hair tie from her wrist, tying her hair up into a tight ponytail before she kicked her legs back, extending her arms out as she brought her knees down, Ana down on all fours, scooted herself a bit closer towards the city, her knees feeling the gritty sand on the outskirts of the city.  Ana brought her eyes over her freshly constructed toe prints, lowering her face over the city as more and more details came to fruition, Ana saw the smoldering toe prints, a fine white smoke wafting up from them a bit as saw a few hundred speck sized micros running in all directions away from the prints. Ana picking up a hand and lowered her index finger onto a group of scattering tinies, feeling the tiniest of pops against the creases of her finger, Ana giggling gently as she relaxed her brow and tightly clenched teeth. 

Jessica watched as Ana continued to poke at Toy Town, Jessica seeing a few more buildings disappear into tiny puffs of greyish smoke with each stab of Ana’s appendage.  Jessica relaxed, smiling a bit as she could tell Ana was losing herself in the power and having fun.  Ana reached her hand back and wiped the bloody tip of her finger on the side of her bare thigh so that she could better feel the other groups of micros as she crushed more, knowing her finger pad had been engorged in gore and destruction, Jessica seeing a small red mark streak across Ana’s fair skin.  Ana scooted inside of the closet a bit more and lowered her face further downward, her large chest nearly over the edge of the city as she stuck her ass up in the air without even realizing it for a better view. 

Jessica could hear Ana giggle more often with each demoralizing crunch of her finger being smushed into crowds of panicking tinies, Ana starting to cruelly twist and grind the groups of micros into the foundation of the city as she unknowingly started to wiggle her upturned butt as Jessica grinned, shifting her weight off the wall, Jessica stepped up right behind Ana’s rear.  Jessica peered over Ana’s body to get a closer glimpse of the action, seeing that Ana was walking her middle and index together like it was a giant pair of legs in the city streets, Ana struggling to not laugh as she pretended to kick over buildings with her finger-legs and randomly picking out crowds to step on with her fingernails. 

Suddenly, Jessica backed up, taking her free hand and slapping Ana’s ass with loud smack, scaring Ana upright as she shot upward, resting on her knees as she looked over her shoulder in shock.  Ana’s imposing frame straddling the city between her knees.  Jessica bursting into a laughing fit as she stumbled off into the middle of her room, Ana rubbing her ass a few times with her open palm of the hand she had just been using to crush parts of the city, rubbing off a few blackened streaks of former micros and formerly proud architecture.  “What was that?” Ana said with an open mouth smile. 

“I had to get you to stop somehow ahah!” Jessica said laughing. 

“I am sorry, did I play around too much?” Ana asked, her voice sounding embarrassed.

“Nooo, you’re fine, girl… I just would like to keep the rest for later, duh” Jessica said, Ana stood back up to her full height, shutting the closet door softly as she took a few steps into middle of the room giggling along with Jessica. 

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 268 – Asif

              Asif had seen countless horrors throughout his time in Toy Town, but never so up close.  Asif and his friend that he had been tugging alongside him missed the red headed goddess’ toes slamming into the city by a few hundred yards, not wanting to look up as the shadow grew darker the closer it came down after hovering over them for what seemed like an agonizing eternity.  The massive shockwave from her foot impacting the city threw the pair to the ground in a heap, smoke blasting all around them as it felt suddenly hot, their vision blurred as they tried to pick themselves up, Asif helping up the woman, too much adrenaline pumping through their veins to say anything to each other, both instinctively knowing just to run away from the immense wall of peachy colored flesh behind them that had just flattened a quarter of downtown killing hundreds who still wanted to live there. 

              The low hum of the goddess starting to remove her toes from the city could be felt in the pair’s bones, a deluge of debris and crushed bodies began to fall off the bottom of her skin, the loud crashes of concrete and cars exploding into the large craters that shaped the ball of her feet and toes, just removed.  Asif could feel something was wrong with his leg, his running slowed as he grunted in pain with each step, realizing that he had fallen on it awkwardly after the impact of Ana’s foot, too scared to look down and check what was wrong with it, he kept pumping his legs up and down just to get away.  

              Another violent shock sent him and the woman down to the street, scraping up the side of his face and feeling a crack in his shoulder.  Asif turning over on his back to look upward, met with the crazed green eyes of the giantess seemingly staring right back down at him, but knowing her eyes were so massive that she could have been looking anywhere.  She was on all fours as her arms were on either side of the city, just like her knees miles away, Asif closed his eyes and winced as she lowered her face further down towards him, but she stopped, every fine detail of her face so close, yet still so high up above the buildings.  Asif could hear the crowds and frantic footsteps of all the people around him, thousands of people scattered out of their shelters from within the buildings and flocked into the streets, flooding them from side to side. 

              Asif rushed to his feet once more and helped up his friend to avoid being trampled by the distraught and frenzied crowds shoving against them, only aggravating the pair’s injuries more.  Asif looking over towards the woman who had been his savior, guide, and more importantly, his only real friend in Toy Town, but her face was bloodied, and her leg painfully twisted at the knee, the woman refusing to scream or yelp in pain as she held on to Asif hand, Asif knowing she was tough and refused to give up, but also knowing he was her only chance. 

Asif felt a shadow hovering over him as he looked up, seeing the giantess start to lower her finger down towards the city, the impact was softer, but the screams were louder and more depressing, seeing an explosion of red mist spurt out from underneath her skin as a wave of people disappeared under the curving flesh, a terrifying giggle rumbling through the air above him.  Asif realizing the impact was only just a few dozen yards away and could have easily been him underneath her. 

              The crowds panicked further and became more unpredictable, impacts were raining down from the giantess’ fingertip all around Asif as he tugged his friend, screams silenced and explosions of pink mist splattering every which way, the violent rumbles nearly throwing them to the ground as each impact felt random, a street over, a few yards away, on the other side of downtown, Asif just kept running on his broken leg hoping the shadow wouldn’t fall on him.  The giggling from a few miles above them made it so much worse, the girl was enjoying it, her smile wide as her eyes darted around looking for more victims below.  Dozens of people being squished at a time as the creases on the skin of her digit was stuffed with blackened blood and smashed, unrecognizable gored bodies.

              The crowd more frantic as Asif looked back for a brief moment, a few city blocks away was her towering hand hovering over numerous buildings, her fingers pivoted downwards like long legs as she playfully walked them through the streets, the screams of people vanishing with each soft thud.  Asif lucky enough to be a few paralleling streets away, suddenly the giantess flicked her middle finger through a large building shattering it outward as debris, bodies, and rubble rained over everyone in front of Asif, halting his progress, his breathing heavily, his friend’s breathing even worse as she slowed down, coughing up blood into her hand as she fought to keep herself from feinting. 

              A mob of crowds ran through the pair as the fingers turned their attention towards the center street Asif found himself on, the giant towering flesh pillars methodically tapping and walking, the pads of her fingers digging into the pavement with a gross, wet squishing sound as people disappeared under them without resistance.  Pushing and shoving to find any kind of safe place, everyone with their own ideas of which direction they should go as people were knocked over and trampled without much care. 

The crowds fighting in between a broken Asif and the woman he had learned to call his friend were separated, Asif yelling and screaming for her, the woman silent as she was pushed and carried off in another direction, her body limp as it looked like her eyes were closed, her body being tossed around like a lifeless ragdoll, unsure if she was dead or just unconscious, Asif trying desperately to fight against the crowds of people with his injured leg to get to her, but her figure was lost in another group, slowly drifting away with the motions further down the street as the crowds pulled Asif away in the opposite direction, nearly knocking him down, feeling elbows and knees shove into him just causing more and more unbearable pain. 

              Suddenly, the massive middle finger of the giantess took a playful step atop the group Asif knew his friend was in, the crunching sound was horrifying, unlike anything describable.  The puff of pink mist wafting away as the titanic finger lifted up and away, on the pad, some flattened bodies stuck to her skin, unrecognizable.  Asif in pure shock tried desperately to peek over the heads and shoulders of the people running away, trying to look in the smaller circular crater for anything left alive, but was only met with the sight of a small pond of blood and squished bodies embedded deep into the destroyed street. 

               A loud smack cracked across the city as the giantess lifted her arms up and away, followed by the loud, booming laughter of Jessica.  The red-head’s immense figure straddling the city between her knees as she looked back towards Toy Town’s goddess, the two cruel goddesses giggling as Ana stood up and closed the door, the rumblings of the goddess’ footsteps dying out soon after, leaving the city back in a state of dread and isolation.

              The crowds starting to disperse in their separate ways as Asif limped desperately towards the crater dug out by Ana’s middle finger that she had used to walk her hand through the streets of the city.  Asif hobbled to the edge and peered inward, recognizing the clothes of his friend he didn’t even know the name of, her clothes bloodied and twisted up into a heap along with a pile of smeared flesh and guts, Asif quickly turning away from the horrific scene, his stomach sickly as he vomited on the street next to him, heaving and coughing.  Tears in the man’s eyes as he sat there for a few moments in the silent street, struggling to pick himself up at first, but eventually limping down the street, too sad to even feel the pain throbbing across his body as he stumbled across a broken pipe buried in a small pule of rubble, bending down and picking it up, using it to as a makeshift crutch to prop himself up off his weakened leg, walking for hours back towards the shoe rack. 

Asif finally made it back to the colony under Jessica’s heels, his leg throbbing, clutching at his shoulder in pain as he grimaced and grunted with each labored step.  The people of the colony coming out of their homes and shelters towards the middle where the center wall stood with everyone’s names and jobs.  Asif, still shaking, covered in dried blood and grey dust, the skin on his face clean only where his tears dripped down.  Asif stood at the center before the wall as a few people tended to his injuries, sitting him down on a crate, an older man asking for the story as they colony witnessed the destruction from so far away. 

Asif breaking down and struggling with his words as he gave the story, eventually confirming that his partner was killed.  The old man sadly sighed, turning away and towards the name board, the man picking up loose piece of scrap metal in a bucket below the board and lifting it up towards one of the names atop.  Asif watched as the man began to scrape the metal rod across one of the names he had so desperately wanted to know for weeks, the inside joke that the woman shared with him was now a harsh reminder of loss as the name Aliya was slowly erased from the board with each metallic scrape.

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 268 – Anastazja

              “I needed that so much… thank you” Ana said, hugging her smaller friend tightly. 

              “Yeah… sure” Jessica said, annoyingly receiving a face full of Ana’s armpit and curving chest, “So do you feel better at least?” Jessica asked, sitting on the edge of her bed, Ana sitting next to her at the foot of the bed, wriggling her toes into the carpet below, wiping away the last remnant of any debris, gore, and sand stuck to her skin. 

              “Yes, I do feel better now” Ana said with a smile. 

              “Good… hopefully that’ll hold you over until you leave the country, that was a one and done deal, alright? I can’t let that happen again” Jessica said.

              “Okay, yeah, I understand… I do not think I squish too many of them if that makes you feel better” Ana said.

              “I guess so, I know there’s way more in there hiding somewhere, just have to make sure I find them all before I move out” Jessica said, shrugging her shoulders.

              “Yeah, Miranda might freak if you go with the plan we talked about at the bar” Ana said.

              “That is the plan” Jessica said with a giggle.  “Speaking of Miranda, does she still not know you squished some of her dumb city?” Jessica asked.

              “No, and she has not mentioned it to me anyway since her coming back” Ana said.

              “Hmm… that sucks for her, she trusted you to watch over her city and shit, that’s hilarious” Jessica said, letting out a relaxed sigh as she stretched her back forward before leaning sideways on her bed with a padded thump.

              “Ehhh… yeah, she has been so different lately, you know? We still talk almost every day, but… it’s only about the gym, or school now, nothing like we used to be” Ana said, a hint of disappointment in her tone.

              “So what, ya got me and Lacy to ride with” Jessica said, propping up her head with her hand. 

              “Yeah, I am glad for this” Ana said.

              “So… what was wrong earlier when you were yelling in your weirdo European alien language?” Jessica jokingly asked.

              “I was mad at my father, he expects me to win everything always, and I do too, but… ehhh… I know I will be fine even when he does not think so” Ana said.

              “Ugh…. Trust me, parents fucking suck, everyone knows you’ll be fine, you’re the only girl I know who doesn’t take shit… I mean besides me of course” Jessica said with an arrogant click of her tongue. 

              “But you are better with your mom now, yes?” Ana asked.

              “Yeah, but it only took 20 fucking years” Jessica said, rolling her eyes.

              “Hmm… yeah, but it must feel good now for you.  I know my dad will get over it, but for now, thank you, Jess, I am glad for today” Ana said with a tightlipped smile. 

              “Duh… you’re welcome.  I’m glad we got closer Ana, really… Maybe I’ll even take a trip to Europe this summer and meet you in Italy or something” Jessica said.

              “Why don’t you come to Ukraine? I can show you so many cool things” Ana asked.

              “Uh…. That’s okay…. I’m more of a… first class type of person” Jessica jokingly snickered.   

              “Ugh… whatever.  And maybe I visit you in Los Angeles one day?” Ana chirped.     

              “Definitely!” Jessica cheered brightly.

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 270 – Miranda

              Miranda stretched her arms upward, letting out a tiny, cute squeak as she sat her desk in front of Ashton City, bringing her hands back down to her lap as she smiled across the brightly lit desk, Miranda’s bedroom blinds open, letting in a bit of extra sunshine illuminating the tiny city spread out before her.  Dressed in a black sports bra and some dark red exercise tights, Miranda was prepped to go to the gym yet again, but she wanted to check on her city for a few minutes before she left, scanning the city, seeing all her little happy people go about their day, her dot-sized followers trickling up and down the streets.  Miranda waiting on a text from Sabine as well, but it was taking her an unusually long time to respond which seemed to be becoming the new usual for her.  Miranda looked across the city some more in the meantime before something else caught her attention, totally disregarding her attention for Sabine’s text. 

              Miranda noticed a sizable group of her micros atop the barren wood of the empty section of her desk.  Miranda pivoting her head and lowering her brow in confusion at the sight that was so out of the ordinary. The group was a few inches away from the border of the city, Miranda knowing that a few inches to her was a much more significant distance for them, wondering how they managed to walk that far from the city without her noticing earlier.  Miranda lowered her face in for a better view, seeing dozens of her people continue to walk towards nothing significant, albeit, very unnoticeably making progress in distance to Miranda’s eyes.  Miranda hmphed in annoyance as she brought a hand up from off her lap and gently placed her palm down in front of them like a wall, impeding their progress, Miranda unknowingly shaking all the micros to the ground as they slowly picked themselves back up from the deep rumble.

              “Hey! Nobody should be wandering outside of the city without me knowing, like… ugghhh” Miranda scoffed, scolding her micro people, peering down at them with annoyance.  “Now, turn around and go back please, okay, thank you…” Miranda insisted, keeping the side of her hand firmly on the desk in front of her micros, only picking it up when she saw the group turn around and slowly making their way back towards the border.  Miranda shaking her head in disbelief as she felt her phone vibrate on her lap, her face turning back into an innocent smile.

              “Nothing to really report, Miranda” Sabine texted.

              “Okay, just checking… can you find out why a group of my tinies were wandering outside of the city limits please?” Miranda typed back. Miranda waiting a few minutes while Sabine looked for an answer, scooting back from the chair, and lacing up her white and pink athletic shoes under the desk, wiggling her socks into the comfortable soles. 

              “It appears they just wanted to hike across the desk to sight-see is all, nothing to worry about” Sabine texted back.

              “They can’t do that…” Miranda sent, placing her phone next to her gym bag on floor by her feet before she stood up from the chair.  Miranda at crotch level with the city as she placed her hands on her hips, pivoting her posture a bit to the side as she looked town towards her city with a concerned smirk. “Okay, so like… no one should really be leaving the border without my permission, it’s dangerous out there, okay?” Miranda said, nodding her head like an annoyed parent to a child, “I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are, got it?” Miranda said with a quick and cute smile, bending down towards her side and picking up her gym bag and phone, turning on the twist of her soles in the carpet and walking towards her bedroom door, locking it behind her and stepping out into the living room where Lacy relaxed, laying across the length of the couch, glued to her phone. 

              “Hey, Lace” Miranda said, her gym bag slung around her shoulder.

              “Oh, hey, what’s up?” Lacy said, barely taking her eyes off her phone to acknowledge Miranda. 

              “I’m headed to the gym, you wanna come with?” Miranda asked.

              “Pffff… good joke” Lacy dismissed. 

              “Oh, come on, don’t you want a nice California beach body before you move there?” Miranda giggled a bit.

              “Fuck no, dude… you can go right ahead with that” Lacy laughed.

              “But seriously, are you… like, ready to move an all that?  All the way across the country?” Miranda asked. 

              “Totally, new scene, new place, better weed…” Lacy giggled.

              “So uhh… what are you like, gonna do with the tinies in your room? You never really talked about it” Miranda asked.

              “What do you mean?” Lacy asked.

              “I mean… you can’t really take the whole city with you to California, right?” Miranda said.

              “No…?” Lacy annoyingly questioned, clicking her phone screen off and placing it next to her comfortably outstretched legs, finally turning her gaze up towards Miranda. 

              “So, you can’t just leave them there, ya?” Miranda said. Lacy playing dumb as possible to not admit her true plans for Biraal City. 

              “Why not?” Lacy asked, shrugging her shoulders against the couch cushions.

              “Well… the next girl that moves into your room, what if she like… doesn’t care about them or something” Miranda said.

              “So what, that honestly wouldn’t be that much of a change for them if she didn’t care” Lacy giggled.

              “Ughh… can you just maybe give them to me when you move out?” Miranda scoffed.

              “Do you really want to have this conversation now?” Lacy emphasized, raising her brow.

              “All I’m saying is if you’re just going to leave them there, then you might as well let me give them a new home” Miranda said.

              “Trust me dude, you don’t want them… they’re weird, you wouldn’t like them…” Lacy muttered.

              “Whatever, just… think about it” Miranda said, turning on her heels and readjusting her gym bag around her shoulder as she stepped to the front door.  Lacy reared her head back and shaking it a few times in annoyance while Miranda had her back turned.  Miranda jingled her keys a few times in her hand as she reached her free hand for the door.  Miranda suddenly met with young man standing outside in the apartment hallway with a few open boxes and a clipboard.

              “Oh hey, I’m sorry, I was just about to knock” the young man said with a smile. 

              “Okay?” Miranda said indifferently.

              “Uh, sorry, I’m maintenance with the apartment complex” The young man said, arbitrarily pointing towards the main office in the distance. 

              “Shouldn’t you look like a maintenance guy then?” Miranda asked with a dismissive tone.  

              “I’m a student here too, all the maintenance guys are just volunteers, I’m just here to change out your air filters and inspect your fire alarms if that’s cool, we gotta do it before the semester ends” the student worker said.

              “Can’t I just do it?” Miranda asked.

              “I still need to see you’re uh… fire alarms” he said, Miranda noticing the guy looking up and down her body, trying his best to pass it off by looking at his clipboard. 

              “Pleaaaase” Miranda said, pivoting her hips a bit and smiling a bit seductively.

              “Oh… uhh, yeah… I’m sure they’re fine, do you know how to change the filters?” he asked.

              “I’m sure I can figure it out” Miranda said, shaking her head with a cute smile. 

              “Alright, I’ll just leave these here then” he said, placing a few filters on the inside wall next to the front door. “I can’t believe I’ve never run into you before; I definitely would have noticed you” the guy said.

              “Oh yeah?” Miranda asked without much care or emotion.

              “Yeah, do you think maybe you wanna get food sometime after finals, or are you going home for the summer?” the guy asked.

              “Oh, I’m going home for the summer, I’m sorry, but thank you” Miranda said, grabbing the filters and scooting them behind her.

              “Oh okay, maybe I’ll see you when you get back then?” the student asked.

              “Uh-huh, okay, have a good day” Miranda dismissed, closing the door gently. Miranda sat her gym bag down and sighed, picking up the air filters and placing them on the kitchen counter.

              “Wow, that guy was so fucking into you!” Lacy shouted from the couch with a wide sarcastic grin.  “And you told him you were going home for the summer, that’s so harsh, dude ahaha” Lacy laughed.

              “Ughh… yeah” Miranda groaned.

              “How often does that happen to you?” Lacy asked.

              “I don’t know, I usually just say I have a boyfriend though” Miranda said.

              “Have you ever even had a boyfriend?” Lacy curiously asked.

              “Yes, my freshman year and then a few guys in high school, why?” Miranda asked.

              “I don’t know, it’s just, I can’t picture you with a guy, ya know?  I don’t even know what your type is, it’s like you never talk about that shit” Lacy said, sitting up a bit from the couch. 

              “Do you really need to know though?” Miranda asked.

              “I guess not, but like… all you really do lately is go to school, go to the gym, and stare at your city all night like a robot, it’s fucking creepy, maybe a date with a guy can snap you out of it” Lacy said.

              “It’s better than smoking weed all night like you…” Miranda said.

              “Dude, you’re so high strung, how do you even relax?” Lacy asked. Miranda rolling her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest as her lips curled more into a scowl. “Miranda, I’m not trying to make you mad, but all of us wonder these things about you” Lacy said.

              “It’s none of their business anyway?” Miranda questioned.

              “Ugh… I’m trying here” Lacy frustratingly admitted.

              “Aww… Lacy, I’m sorry” Miranda said.

              “It’s fine, you’ve just changed a bit since you went home, I miss when we could all hang out together without you and Jessica tearing each other apart, but now it’s almost over, so I guess it doesn’t matter that much now” Lacy said.

              “I’m sorry, but she sucks…” Miranda said.

              “She’s really not that bad, you two were even kind of friends for like a week, remember?” Lacy said, laughing nervously a bit.

              “She’s so mean to everyone, she even like, bullied you when you first met, how does that not bother you?” Miranda asked.

              “Ehh… she’s nice to me now” Lacy said.

              “Oh my god… forget it, I’m going to work out” Miranda mumbled.

              “Miranda, chill…. You need a vibrator or something” Lacy said with chuckle, shaking her head.

              “Excuse me?” Miranda said, her voice turning with a bit of anger.

              “It was just a joke” Lacy said.

              “Didn’t sound like one” Miranda said. 

              “Well shit, now I’m curious, do you even masturbate?” Lacy asked, sitting upright on the couch, placing her hands under her chin in excitement.

              “Do you really want to have this conversation now?” Miranda asked.

              “How about if you answer my questions, I’ll actually think about giving you some of my people to save or whatever it is you do to them…” Lacy teased, watching Miranda eyes dart around as she thought the proposal, her posture stiffening as she became increasingly uncomfortable. 

              “Ugh… sure, yeah, sometimes I do, whatever, okay?” Miranda admitted.

              “Hmm…” Lacy said, smiling and raising an eyebrow in curiosity. “Do you use your city to, ya know… stir the pot a little?” Lacy giggled.

              “No, that’s weird… and who says it like that?  I’ll like, go to the shower or my bed, I’m not going to hurt anyone, unlike some people that live here” Miranda said.

              “Mhmm… I’m sure your people love hearing you do that, too” Lacy sarcastically said.

              “I don’t think they can hear me? I don’t really think about it anyway” Miranda said, an inquisitive look on her face.

              “Oh, they definitely can hear you…” Lacy said.

              “How do you know?” Miranda asked.

              “You’re fucking miles tall to them, everything you do, every noise you make they can hear… how have you not learned that by now?  Also… totally sneaked by your room a few night ago to smoke outside and I could hear you… I was trying not to laugh” Lacy said.

              “Oh my god…” Miranda mumbled, covering part of her face with the palm of her hand out of embarrassment. 

              “haha no, it’s okay!  I didn’t mean to, it was just really bad timing, I thought everyone was asleep” Lacy said, noticing Miranda’s cheeks getting a little flushed, “Awww, dude it’s okay, everyone in this apartment does it, anyone who says otherwise is a total liar haha” Lacy said with a laugh.

              “Ughh… I don’t need to know that” Miranda said, sighing a bit, lowering her hands back down to her side as she leaned against the wall next to the kitchen.  “So, is that it? Can I like, take some of your tinies over to my room later?” Miranda asked.

              “Whoa, not so fast… do you watch anything when you’re down there?” Lacy asked.

              “Watch something?” Miranda questioned.

              “Oh my god, you prude… like porn” Lacy emphasized.

              “Oh, no… not really” Miranda said, shaking her head. 

              “Well then what do you think about?” Lacy asked.

              “I don’t want to say that stuff out loud to you, god” Miranda said, rolling her eyes.

              “Fine, then I guess no micros for you…” Lacy teased.  Miranda groaned, kicking her head back dramatically.

              “Sometimes I’ll think about some guys from classes… uhh… or I’ll think about like, how much my little people love me, all looking up at me, or… I don’t know” Miranda said, stumbling her words. Lacy enjoying the sight of Miranda becoming embarrassed, knowing Miranda never talked about such intimate things in her whole life.

              “Ahh… see, so you do enjoy the power” Lacy said.

              “It’s not power, it’s making them feel safe…” Miranda said.

              “Sure… whatever you say” Lacy said.

              “Satisfied?” Miranda asked with some sass.

              “For sure!  I’ll give some micros later, go, lift weights… or whatever people at a gym do” Lacy said, lying back down on the couch.  Miranda hmphing and turning back towards the front door, quickly grabbing her bag and slamming the door behind her with some anger. 

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 279 – Lacy

“Haha, yeah… she’s been texting me every day about it” Lacy said.

“Where is she now?” Ki asked.  The pair of lovers cuddled up together in the dark room atop Lacy’s bed, a movie playing in the background quietly on Lacy’s laptop at the foot of the bed, the two barely paying attention to it.  Biraal City dimly glowing a few feet from them. 

“I think she’s at the library studying for a final” Lacy said.

“Maybe you should just get it over with, give her some, yeah?” Ki suggested.

“I was trying to save all of them for my final project, I still haven’t even started” Lacy said.

“You should start, you still have to pass to officially get the internship in LA, otherwise, why are we even moving out there?” Ki emphasized.

“I know… ugh… I’ll give Miranda a few, but I tried to warn her that they’re fucking weird” Lacy said.

“Not as weird as you” Ki joked, muffling a giggle into Lacy’s side.

“You know you love it” Lacy teased as Ki squeezed her a little tighter.

“We still need to sign a lease somewhere” Ki said.

“It’s between the two, right? Want to look at them again?” Lacy said. 

“Sure!” Ki chirped. Lacy pulled her phone from out under the covers of her bed, turning the brightness down a few notches as she squinted at the sudden light in face.  Lacy opened up a few internet tabs that she had saved as Ki nuzzled up closer next to Lacy’s face.  “I still think we should live here; it’ll be a better location for my Instagram followers since it’s only like a 20-minute drive to the beach where I can get good spots” Ki said, pointing her finger at her choice pulled up on Lacy’s phone. 

“I’m not going to be paid that much, Ki, it’s super expensive” Lacy said.

“Yeah… but I’m getting paid a little more now, I don’t mind covering you, I can afford it” Ki said.

“But I don’t want you feel like you have to” Lacy said.

              “Lace… it’s okay, you decide” Ki said, the two sitting in near silence for a few minutes as Lacy continued to scroll through the pictures and information about the place before Lacy sighed heavily.   

              “I want you to be happy… so, I promise I can pay more when I get an actual job, I say we sign there, for you” Lacy said with a smile.

              “Really?!” Ki chirped brightly.

              “Yeah, let’s do it, let’s call them tomorrow” Lacy said.

              “Fuck yes!” Ki shouted, hugging further into Lacy.

              “God, I love it when you get excited” Lacy said with a wide smile.

              “And I just love you all the time!” Ki cheered. Lacy reaching her face down and kissing Ki with a few cute, quick pecks.  Ki overwhelmed with joy, excitingly crawled on top of Lacy under the covers and pinning her down with a giggle as Lacy smiled. Ki clasping her fingers through Lacy’s on either hand and pressing them into the pillows behind Lacy’s head.

              “Whoa… can I help you?” Lacy teased as Ki bent downward, extending her legs down Lacy’s body and accidentally kicking off the laptop from the foot of the bed as it thudded against a pile of dirty clothes.  The pair pausing for a second and laughing before their smiles slowly turned into lip biting, their eyes lowering in anticipation as Ki leaned her face in towards Lacy…

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 279 – Biraal City

              “Please… Please… Not… again, not right now…”  the young woman groaned in her bed, hearing the sticky, thwapping sounds of the massive goddesses in the distance throw themselves at each other.  The woman tried her best to cover her ears as she attempted to fall back asleep.  The woman throwing a pillow over her face and pulling the sides over her ears to muffle out the heavily sexual sounds, her house shaking from the low rumblings of the girls tossing over each other every few moments.  The woman could hear crowds gathering outside in the streets beyond her window, loudly and resentfully screaming into her pillow until the air in her lungs was gone before throwing it off as it thumped against her wall, reluctantly standing up from bed and looking out of the window, seeing the cult like followers of the city staring up at the action atop the massive bed.  “Here we go again…” the woman muttered to herself, before sighing.  Knowing that she had to blend in, the woman left her house, rubbing her eyes tiredly, wearing tattered up clothes that had seen better days before the blue storm ripped Biraal City away. 

              “Disciple Natalie… join us on this blessed night, won’t you?” her neighbor creepily muttered from across the yard.  

              “Of course…” the woman said, trying to not to roll her eyes, turning around, peering over the roof of her small house, and sitting on the street with hundreds of others who had come out to watch Lacy and Ki sloppily fuck.  Natalie watching alongside them, seeing the two titanic naked and colorful bodies toss and turn over each other atop the gargantuan dark bed.  The disgusting, wet noises only turning Natalie’s neighbors into a lust as a few of them started to bow forward as if worshipping the act.  Natalie refusing to follow along at first until she saw everyone but her doing it, Natalie reluctantly bending her body forward, knowing how ridiculous it was, knowing the giants couldn’t see them anyway, especially knowing that Lacy was face deep in between Ki’s legs as the high-pitched moans and coos followed.

Natalie was like any other post graduate student before the storm ripped away Biraal City.  Trying to find a stable career, working a terrible food service job to pay the bills, living with a few roommates so she didn’t have to move back home with her parents on the other side of the old country, but she found herself bowing to two women her age having sex, the same women who had tortured and broken the minds of the city’s people practically turning them into cult fanatics.  Natalie knowing it was either bow or die, the cult of Lacy noticed the non-participants, especially after the terrorist group bombed Elle’s statue in the middle of downtown, Natalie knowing that if anyone was caught not participating then they would be sent away to a prison to be offered up to Lacy as a sacrifice in an attempt to appease her, but that seemed to dwindle down after the last prison was destroyed during a similar sexual encounter that Natalie was witnesses behind her house.  The city living in total fear for so long until they were convinced that the only way to cure the fear was to do whatever Lacy said, to the point of obsession.

Natalie had survived the horrors of Lacy for months upon months, watching the city get burned, eaten, shoved inside her pussy, or her girlfriend’s, she saw people melt alive in nail polish remover, over and over again as thousands died, Natalie saw the shift of people’s sanity fade, convinced by Elle that Lacy was an actual divine goddess that controlled life and death for the people of the city, all the pieces were in place, but Natalie knew she was alone in her struggle as she resisted all forms of brainwash, dissociating herself from everything going on around her and just focusing on staying alive.

 Natalie lost one roommate when she was smoked alive in a skyscraper sized joint, Natalie losing her other roommate inside of Ki’s stomach, leaving Natalie to her lonesome in the house, for months she sat in bitter contempt, knowing there was a growing resistance of normal people who thought Lacy wasn’t a goddess, she could have been any other artsy bitch that Natalie went to school with.  Natalie grateful that her neighborhood was never targeted, grateful that she wasn’t crushed in her sleep, grateful that if she blended it then she would get food and water rations every week, grateful that she could feel her heartbeat through her chest. 

Natalie spending nights thinking why so many of the people in the city wanted to die for this girl, but as she reflected in her thoughts, a soft moaning rolled across the city from Ki, shaking her bones a bit, looking up from her bow to see Lacy on top of her, caressing her body against Ki’s.  A familiar sight over the last few months for Natalie as she peered back down along with the others, slowly the bowing subsided as the crowds wanted to look back up towards the action, some of the people praying to Lacy that she would pick their neighborhood to help please her, Natalie hoping deep down in her heart that Lacy and Ki wouldn’t even interact with them that night.  Another moan crept across the city with the sound of their skin slapping together, as the people of the city watched as Lacy rocked and rolled her hips up and down against Ki’s most sensitive skin, the crowds around infatuated with the act as Natalie pretending to smile with empty eyes. 

Suddenly, Ki’s arm reached over the city towards downtown as she attempted to pluck a city block up between her fingers, the violent rumble quaking beneath Natalie as she witnessed dozens of people fall between her pinched fingers as they fell hundreds of feet down as the mass of buildings and people were carried across the sky, people dropping down like rain in the distance over other neighborhoods, screaming until the horrifying smack of their bodies against the streets, or houses, dying for their goddess as they so wanted, they would have to be cleaned up in the morning, Natalie thought.   Natalie watching as Kiyoko carried the destroyed city block over the bed, a few crushed buildings in between her white painted nails, hundreds of people trapped in the destruction as Ki reached the building around Lacy’s backside and downward, Ki began shoving the city block into Lacy’s ass as Lacy stopped humping, closing her eyes and shivering downward towards Ki’s chest with a soft and muted moan at the pleasant feeling of thousands of sentient tickles entering her body.  Ki wiggling her finger further deeper into Lacy as she smiled upward, slowly pulling out her finger a moment later.   

Natalie watching on in horror, but her face still smiled as every else around her did the same.  Natalie hearing murmurs and whispers from her neighbors all around her saying they would have done anything to have been there just so bring pleasure to Lacy as Natalie forced herself to nod up and down in agreeance.  With nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, as usual, Natalie sat there for another hour, watching her goddess cum atop her bed.  Soon after, the neighbors dispersed back into their homes for the night as workers and volunteers rushed to the destroyed city block to put out any fires and find any potential survivors, but there were none, there were always none…

Day 282 – Biraal City

              A few days later, Natalie found herself in a temple dedicated to worshipping Lacy, Natalie describing it more like an abandoned grocery store with tattered black curtains that resembled the ones the goddess had blocking out the sunshine from the massive window in the bedroom.  The temple lined up with aisles of chairs all around, some terrible, and some not so terrible artworks of Lacy on some tables spread out across the large room. Natalie so jaded and empty inside as she listened to a man stood atop a table as he yelled and screamed about the final servitude, the coming apocalypse, the goddess leaving and taking her slaves with her to the beyond to serve her for all eternity.  Natalie sitting up right, almost forgetting to blink as she tuned out the words, knowing that this was the only way she would get her food and water for the week as they kept track of attendance.  An hour going by as Natalie felt the gentle rumblings of Lacy’s footsteps periodically throughout the worship session, suddenly the people around the large room had begun to pick up and were leaving the old grocery store, Natalie following suit accordingly, forcing some goodbyes to some people and other small talk that almost seemed normal.  Lacy’s looming figure in the distance seeming to be cleaning up her room, loud thuds of clothes and shoes being thrown about the floor.

              Suddenly Lacy’s figure walked closer towards the city, the crotch of her ripped black jeans hovering above the city, everyone around Natalie looked up towards her face with glee as she bent her visage downward towards the streets, Natalie’s eye nearly twitching as she forced another smile to fit in with the crowd.  Lacy brushed her messy hair over the side of her head as she pursed her lips forward and looked downward over the city, “HEY, SO UHH… I KINDA PROMISED MIRANDA THAT I WOULD GIVE SOME OF YOU TO HER, SO… IF ANYONE WANTS TO GO TO A DIFFERENT ROOM, GET IN THIS BUILDING HERE AND I’LL TAKE YOU OVER LATER, I GUESS” Lacy said, pointing her black nail towards a mid-sized skyscraper still left standing in the city near downtown, Lacy turning on her heels and walking back towards the center of her room to resume her tidying-up.

Natalie’s heartbeat picked up in speed as she realized this was the only real opportunity to escape her guaranteed death sentence, Natalie already hearing the murmurs around her from the people that it was a stupid idea and dying by Lacy would be better.  Natalie had to do everything she could to slip into the building…  “Who would want to do that?” Natalie said aloud.

“Exactly! Whoever goes into that building isn’t a true believer in Lacy!” a man shouted a few feet away. 

“Yeah!” a few members of the crowd yelled all together. 

“We should stop whoever goes into that building!” another woman shouted.

“You dare question the goddess’ decisions?” Natalie replied, the crowd looking back towards the woman in disgust.

“No… I-I…I would never” the woman stumbled.

“Rest assured that the non-believers will be purged in the afterlife, and those that follow her will be saved, we do not need to stop anyone from leaving, for goddess guides us…” the man who have the sermon earlier spoke confidently, calming the crowd as he walked gingerly through the people.  The gatherings slowly disappearing back to their homes as Natalie trailed a bit behind on the walk back towards her neighborhood, Natalie turning down a side street trying to lose the view of her neighbors, spending a few moments behind a random fence until she was satisfied nobody could see her. 

Natalie continued a calm pace down the street as to not attract any attention from the cult, passing up cars haphazardly scattered about the streets, but knowing the city had run out of fuel long ago, every last bit still being used to power the electricity.  Natalie kept her head down as she walked towards the beacon of hope a few miles away to her, just hoping Lacy wouldn’t take the structure away before she got there, Natalie peaking up towards the dark bedroom every few minutes to make sure Lacy was still occupied with her tasks. 

Natalie eventually entered the building through a back door exit, having to climb over a few fences and squeeze through some overturned dumpsters, Natalie noticing a large crowd forming in front of the building, not wanting to be seen by them as she hurried up a set of stairs, the building seemingly dead quiet as she made it up nearly to the top with a few floors above her to spare, her breathing was heavy as she walked into a trashed office floor, computers and desks overturned, paper and equipment scattered everywhere, almost too dark to see as well, Lacy’s always dark room never helping the vision of the micros.  Natalie exhausted from the long walk and hike up the stairs, sweating and sore all down her legs as she took a few minutes to catch her breath.

Natalie walked up to the window, peering down at the large crowd of cult members surrounding the front entrance of the building, but none of them coming close to entering, they just sat there, staring upwards the length of the small skyscraper, “What are they doing…” Natalie quietly whispered to herself. 

“They’re waiting for her… they want to get up close as possible when she picks us up” a whisper came from behind Natalie as she turned around shocked and startled, not expecting a reply.

“Are you… like them?” Natalie hesitantly asked, a deeply concerned look in her face. 

“No, are you?” the lowly voice asked. 

“Would one of them even ask that question?” Natalie quipped.

“I suppose not” the voice said.

“Is there anyone else inside?” Natalie asked.

“A few, yeah, all on different floors, all hiding, all not wanting to be seen, I’ve been here for a while, been checking up on people,” the voice said. 

“Who are you?” Natalie asked.

“Just some guy who doesn’t want to live here anymore” he said.

“Fair…” Natalie muttered. 

“When do you think she’s coming to get us, do you think Miranda is going to be happy to see us?” Natalie asked.

“I hope she gets us when everyone that wants to leave gets here… and I hope so…” the man said.

“Yeah…” Natalie whispered as she took a few steps back, collapsing into an old office chair and sighing.  “How did we get here?” Natalie asked.

“It’s like they were always so scared that it slowly turned them… it turned them into mindless, obsessed zombies” he said.

“They’re so willing to die for her, and she doesn’t even care about them… how does that line up… did you have to pretend to belong?” Natalie asked.

“Every damn day” he said, Natalie hearing the desperation in his voice.

“Same… I’m sorry about all these questions, but it’s just been so long since I’ve spoken to someone… normal” Natalie said.

“Don’t’ worry about it…” he said.

“Were you a rebel?” Natalie asked.

“No, I didn’t want to be anywhere near that craziness” he said.

“Same, I wasn’t going to blow myself up for someone who can’t even see me just to mildly annoy her” Natalie said as the man’s voice chuckled a bit. “So, what do you think Miranda is going to do with us?” Natalie asked, turning the office chair towards the darker center of the large room to focus on the man. 

“Let’s just focus on surviving the ride over there first…” the man said, gesturing a nod back towards the window, “Speaking of… I would probably find something sturdy to hang on to” he said, quickly running off into a cubicle and throwing himself under it.  Natalie panicking as she turned her gaze back out of the window, feeling the rumbles grow in intensity as Lacy came back towards the city, her skinny hips dominating the horizon of the city in the distance before she stopped, Natalie not daring to look up towards her face, instead, crawling on the floor and under a desk, holding on to the nailed-in foundation, tightly wrapping her arms around a floor beam.  Natalie could hear the faint noise of the crowds on the street below cheering before an ear shaking explosion of glass ripped through the building, Natalie feeling herself flying upward making her stomach sick as she couldn’t find the time to scream, feeling like the air shout out of her lungs as she felt pinned to the floor, feeling heavy. 

Natalie holding on for dear life as she saw people fly out of broken windows as the building tossed and turned, seeing a few floors collapse and reduce to rubble, the pinkish pale hue of Lacy’s fingers wrapping around the building tightly as Natalie could hear the concrete and metal twist and creak inward, Natalie thinking the foundation wouldn’t hold as she closed her eyes tightly thinking she would surely be crushed between the goddess’ fingers.  With each step from miles below, the vibration felt like the floor was going to collapse underneath her, sending her falling to her doom. 

Suddenly, Natalie could tell the view was brighter, almost symbolically as she felt the building thud and crash against a hard surface, Lacy’s grip loosening as the fingers wrapped around the building disappeared followed by some intense creaking from the building, Natalie slowly opening her eyes, feeling hurt, her arms stiff and sore, her cheeks hurt from clenching her teeth out of fear, but she could tell that the building was sideways. Natalie saved from falling towards the ground by resting within the cubicle walls.  Natalie could hear a booming conversation happening a few miles above but was too focused on trying to climb down the sideways office, stepping downward from cubicle to cubicle like an upright ladder, seeing the man she was talking to earlier doing the same as they both made it down to the surface at about the same time. 

The two stepping outside of a broken window and onto the brightly lit surface of a new land, Natalie turning back to see the building nearly crushed inward, ripped and split almost in half, Natalie seeing a few dozen other people crawling out from their floors and onto the desk, some of them with way worse looking injuries or covered in blood, Natalie turning back to see the view of the brightly lit room, pink and cute decorations everywhere, Miranda and Lacy standing in the middle, their massive figures imposing still from so far away.  Natalie turned to her left, seeing the outskirts of a city, a city that looked intact and safe as she started walking towards it along with the other survivors, but for the first time in months, with a genuine smile across her face. 

***                                                                 ***                                                           ***

Day 282– Lacy

              Lacy picked up around her room, tossing clothes and towels into a hamper besides her bathroom door.  The carpet of her floor slowly being revealed for the first time in months.  Lacy bent down to pick up a pair of dirtied-up sneakers, tossing them into another pile of shoes in her dark closet before she sighed, Lacy hearing her phone buzz atop her bed, seeing Miranda’s name pop up across the screen, already knowing what the text was about without having to open it.    Lacy rolled her eyes as she stepped up to her bed, fixing up the covers and blankets neatly before she put her phone into the pocket of her skinny jeans. 

              Lacy, annoyed, clicked her lips together and stepped up to her city, bending her face down over the city a bit and slicking her hair to the side of her head with a quick brush from her hand, pursing her lips together before she spoke to her people, “hey, so uhh… I kinda promised Miranda that I would give some of you to her, so… if anyone wants to go to a different room, get in this building here and I’ll take you over later, I guess” Lacy said, pointing to some random building near downtown area, Lacy surprised that such a big building had survived that long without Ki or herself ripping it off the desk during sex. 

              Lacy went to her closet, taking a rip of smoke from a pipe that she had hidden in there, loading it up with some weed before she started cleaning, blowing the smoke out towards the floor thinking it would help mask the scent when she would have to see Miranda later.  Lacy feeling more relaxed as her eyes lulled downward, her body feeling a little lighter as she placed the pipe back onto a clothing rack slightly above her. 

              Lacy continued to straighten up her room, for a while, almost making it look like she had just moved in for the first time, everything organized and back in place, the room feeling much bigger and spacious to Lacy as she hummed to herself in surprise.  Lacy bent down and reached under her bed, pulling out a few cases and boxes of camera equipment that she hadn’t used in quite some time, reaching up and placing everything on her bed carefully, walking over to the closet and pulling out some extra studio equipment and gently leaning it against the base of her bed.  Lacy turned her attention back towards the top of her bed, reaching down and snapping open a thick black case, revealing her expensive camera, Lacy couldn’t help but smile as she looked back over towards the city and back down towards all of her different lenses sat in their other cases.  Lacy grew excited, but knew she had to take care of something else first before setting up her equipment upon her newly cleaned floor.

              Lacy walked back over towards the city, peering down at the streets, she saw a crowd of micros surrounding the building that she had pointed out earlier, confusing her a bit as she leaned in over the city, “You’re supposed to get inside the building you idiots…” Lacy whispered, shaking her head briskly with a sarcastic smile.  Lacy reached her hand downward anyway, hearing what sounded like a tiny hum of screams and cheers as she gripped the building with her fingers, pulling it upward gently as she saw a few pieces of debris fall off and fly into the crowd surely killing some of them she thought, Lacy placed the building into the open palm of her other hand and carefully closed her fingers around it, keeping it snug against her skin. 

              Lacy turned and exited her room, taking a few steps down the hallway towards her closest neighbor’s room, knocking a few times with her free hand, “Come in” Miranda’s voice muffled behind the door.  Lacy entered, leaving the door open behind her as she stepped into the room and up towards Ashton City.

              “Hey, just wanted to drop some micros off like I promised” Lacy said.

              “Yay! That’s great, I was waiting for days” Miranda chirped from her bed. 

              “Cool, I’ll just put them on the desk, I need to go film my final project anyway” Lacy said.

              “Okay, do ou need any help with it?” Miranda asked.

              “Uhh… hehe, nah, that’s cool” Lacy said, turning back towards the desk as she bent downward, keeping her palm level and dumping the building onto the desk as gentle as possible, a tiny puff of grey smoke spurting upward but disappearing quickly, seeing that the building made it intact.  Lacy saw a few bits of rubble in her palm that she used to carry the building, seeing a few brightly colored dots stuck to her skin that must have been micros that fell out of the building, Lacy quickly bringing her hand down towards her thighs and wiping off the loose dirt and micros against the black fibers of her jeans until they were clear, Miranda not noticing.

              Miranda stood up from her bed with a wide smile, taking a few steps up next to Lacy and peering down at the half-broken skyscraper, seeing the tiny mites started to trickle out of the building.  “I thought you would like… I don’t know… bring me more of them?” Miranda questioned. 

              “Ugh…” Lacy groaned with some attitude, rotating her head around. “I told them whoever wanted to come over to your room should get in this thing, and that’s what they did, what else do you want me to do?” Lacy asked. 

              “And that’s really it?  But you treat them like slaves, how is that all of the people that want to come live with me?!” Miranda said shocked.

              “Ughh… you suck sometimes” Lacy said, walking out towards the hallway and turning towards her room.  Miranda sighing heavily as she closed her bedroom door, turning her attention back towards Lacy’s people, her new people, greeting them with a bright smile. 

              Lacy closed her bedroom door behind her, stepping up to her bed as she took a camera tripod out of a long sleeve, clicking it into place and raising it in the center of her floor, attaching her camera to the base-mount and securing it with a few twists of some knobs and screws.  Lacy, attached a special lens to her camera, turning it on and setting the focus towards Biraal City.  “Alright… time to get this A” Lacy whispered to herself…