Madison

Proud, hands on her hips, Madison glanced down upon her precious gift with glee in her eyes.
A miniature city, boxed between walls of sheer plastic, and it was hers, all hers.
The sight of it never gets old, there was always something going on in there.

Littler than millimeter-sized cars scurried off on a complex gray network of roads, whilst lofty skyscrapers cast blankets of shadow over thousands of street-roaming citizens below the all-seeing eyes of their teenage owner.
When she concentrated enough, she could hear vague sounds of honking and screeching cars rose up from the box. Sometimes, she could even smell the chemical scents escaping the chimneys derived from the industrial area.

This city is mine, which means that all of its inhabitants are mine too. Madison pondered.

Somehow this was the first time this realization sank in.
She got this Lilliputian city as a birthday gift from her mother and never really thought about what it meant.
It was just a matter of course, when you get a present, its yours. However, this fragile Lilliputian city is something entirely different than the regular presents people get.

These are real-life people living in a box, and I keep them imprisoned.

Madison was captivated for a moment by the sight of Ashley’s minuscule farmhouse lying among the sloping green hills. She plunged on her bed and grabbed her phone. A moment later, Ashley’s face popped on the screen.

‘What’s up Maddy. You look a bit worried. What's going on?’

‘Hey Ash, uhm listen…’

‘Yeah?...’

‘This may sound silly but… do I own you?’ Madison asked with uncertainty.

Ashley frowned. ‘What do you mean with "own"?’

‘Well, I was thinking about something, the city you live in. I got it from my mother as a birthday present, so its mine. But does this also mean all of its inhabitants are mine too? That YOU are mine. I find this a disturbing thought. I mean. You're my friend after all, I can’t own you, don’t want to own you.’

‘I see…’ Ashley responded. She didn’t seem to know how to react.

‘Come to think of it.’ Madison continued. ‘I don’t want to own any of you. I’m such a terrible person for keeping you all imprisoned like this.’ Tears welled up in her eyes.

‘Hey listen to me Maddy, you are anything but terrible. In fact, you are one of the most loving and caring people I have ever met in my life.’ Ashley announced in all seriousness.

‘On top of that, you are also one of the most clumsiest people I have ever met.’ She giggled.

Madison joined her laughter and wiped away her tears.

‘Talking with you always cheers me up. I so hate the fact we cannot hang out like real friends do.’ Madison said with a gloomy face.

‘You know what, fuck it, let's just do it!’ Ashley said.

‘Do what?’

‘Well you know, hang out. Your sister and my brother did it, so why not us?'

‘But last time we spoke of this you said you we’re afraid of heights?’

Ashley chortled. ‘I was actually more afraid of your clumsiness. I climb trees since kindergarten.'

Madison was all flabbergasted. ‘You lied to me!’

‘No I did not, I just bent the truth a bit.’ Ashley presented a cocky smirk.

‘That’s the same!’

'No, it's not.’

‘Your so gonna be sorry for calling me clumsy you.’

‘I probably will.’

They both laughed in merriment before a knock was heard on Madison’s bedroom door.

‘Come in.’ Madison called out.

Claire wandered in.

Well, that’s a first time she respects my privacy by knocking. Usually, she just barges in without asking. Madison thought.

‘Hey Maddy!’ Claire called out. She crouched and took a peek to observe New Oakton’s buzzy city life with fascination.
Its citizens, already used to Claire’s attractive moon-sized face peering at them, just continued to do their thing.

‘These creatures never bore, do they?’ Claire announced after a moment of observation. Her eyes shot from the left to the right. She nibbled her lower lip while doing so.

‘Creatures?’ Madison replied indignant. ‘They are…’

‘People. Yeah. Sorry. I should have remembered that.’ Claire broke off Madison’s sentence

‘You are all people, only seriously small and seriously… helpless.’ She chuckled with relish.

Claire slowly stood up to her full height, casting almost the entire city in shadow and; with her haughty eyes, the brazen beauty smiled down upon it with her hands on her hips.

‘Lucky for you my kid sister protects you all with her life.’

‘Yes I do.’ Madison suddenly jerked to her feet, defiant.

Claire’s odd behavior gave her an uncomfortable feeling, and she felt responsible for the Lilliputians safety.
Why did she just call the Lilliputian "creatures"? I thought she already passed that point when she, and Kelvin became friends.
In the beginning, Claire saw the Lilliputians as an inferior life specie and treated them alike, but when she discovered they we’re like normal beings, only incredible tiny. She started to respect them.
Nevertheless, it seems this old way of seeing is creeping back in. What could be the cause of this? There was only one explanation Madison could think of, something had to be going on between Kelvin and her. Could there be some sort of argue?

Madison strived to challenge Claire’s fierce gaze without showing fear.

Meanwhile in the streets of New Oakton, millions of inhabitants beheld the spectacle of tension between these titanic teen Goddesses with profound anxiety.
Cars pulled over and people pointed to the sky, while parents embraced their offsprings in a protective manner.
It was hard to comprehend the booming, thunder-like words these Gods spoke, but they felt that something was afoot, that their safety was on the line.
They saw the young blond Goddess, Madison, their protector, defying her big sister.
Would their guardian be strong enough to keep them safe?

Claire was at least 2,5 inches taller than Madison.
After a long agonizing moment of silence, Madison broke it, to deduce this imminent confrontation and asked a question

‘So, how is Kelvin by the way?’

Claire retorted with a high-pitched, derisive laughter before she left the room without saying anything.

After that, Madison heaved a deep sigh and watched her hand, shaking, all covered with sticky sweat. She stood her ground in front of her big sister with an undaunted attitude. Claire must have felt it too, or else she would have tried to intimidate her, but she didn’t.
Madison was no longer the little girl she could pester anymore.
Even so, despite the fact she defied her, at that moment, she did feel a deep fear under the glare of Claire’s challenging eyes.
If she had chosen to confront her, the odds we’re highly against Madison’s favor. Claire was not only stronger because she was bigger and older, she was also fiercer than Madison, whilst the latter was more of a girly-girl.

She picked her phone up again.

‘Your still there Ash?’

‘Yes I am. What's the matter with her all of a sudden?’

‘Frankly, I have absolutely no idea. The only thing I can think of is something is going on between her and Kelvin.’

‘Yeah, now your mentioning it. Last time I spoke Kelvin, he was also acting kind of queer.’

‘Let's just keep an eye out for these two.’ Madison finished the subject.

Cobra

With a gasp he shot up and opened his eyes. Looking about he realized he just had one of his common dreams again, one of the bad types.

‘Fucking memories.’ He moaned.

‘Why can’t they just stay submerged in my subconscious where they belong? I suppressed them for a reason you know.’

He massaged his temples, in an attempt to tame his pounding headache. Surveying his surroundings, he saw that he was in large gloaming room, with a musty smell, all sprouted with breathing lying bodies everywhere.
He pried through the veil of the gloom and recognized some faces of his crew members. They still appeared to sleep. It was in that moment, he recollected the recent events.

We went to scout the crack in Madison’s room, then the flash-bangs. He reflected. After that, all blank and fade.

A sudden groan shook him out of his contemplation. A few meters away he saw someone waking up. It was Jackson. He recognized him by his characteristic pitch black curly hair.
‘Jackson!’ he called out and leapt up, eager to greet his friend. A wave of dizziness suddenly floated up in his head from the quick rising. He slowed down and tottered towards Jackson.

‘Cobra?’ Jackson said a little dazed. ‘By the name of bloody Mary's holy soggy cunt. Where the fuck are we?’

‘You tell me.’ Johnson responded. ‘I just woke up a minute ago and am just as uninformed as you.’

More groans and moans arose. All around them more of their crew members we’re waking up.
On the other side of the room, he saw Zorban little by little waking up also. He shook the sleep from his eyes.

Where is Miller? Johnson thought.

Unexpectedly, the metallic-like door of their prison squeaked open with a loud bang; it hauled all of their attention. Beams of radiant light made their way into the room to brighten up the lethargic faces of Johnson and a some of his crew-members, while others remained unrecognizable shapes in dark corners.
Johnson squinted at the spectacle, whereby he held up a stretched-out hand in front of his eyes in a desperate attempt to block the invading luminosity.
Marching in through the doorway came a dark-haired woman of approximately around the age of 45 by Johnson's guess. She strutted in, clattering the heels of her black knee boots on the stone-cold floor. Right after her came streaming in a platoon of masked soldiers with heavy weaponry clawed in their grasp.
They formed up left and right of the woman and by the command of a roar, aimed their sights at Cobra and his overwhelmed crew.

What the hell. Do we even look like a threat? Johnson thought.

Stripped off their gear and weapons, he felt naked. He still possessed his lethal fists though, but that would be of no use against a gun.
The lights got switched on and the dark-haired woman took a few steps forward, looking about in a stern face. Next to a few slights of graveled wrinkles, the woman was still appealing to look upon. The most marked feature we're her shiny marble blue eyes. They radiated a sense of strength and wisdom.

‘Who is your leader?’ Her resounding voice filled the room.

For a moment, Johnson looked around, startled, all eyes on him.

‘That would be me ma’am.’ He answered.

‘Come with me.’ The dark-haired woman said, spun around, and left the room.

Falteringly, he followed her trail in a slow pace, his gaze nervous on the dozens of soldiers still standing there with their weapons high.

‘You heard the lady!’ A sturdily bald, bearded guy shouted out, apparently the commander of this squad. He has to be almost a foot taller than Johnson.

‘Move it!’ He plunged the stock of his rifle into Johnson’s stomach. With a gasp, he dropped to his knees from the unexpected thrust.

‘Don’t make me say it again.’ He threatened.

Hurriedly, Johnson stood up and followed the trail of the woman, with baldy and the masked soldiers on tow.

They sauntered through some corridors, turning left, then right, left again and so on, until he was gestured to enter a door.
Walking in a dim lighted room, an aroma of strong incense crawled in his nose as he saw the dark-haired woman standing in front of some pictures hanging on the wall.

‘I cannot even remember this girl anymore.’ She shook her head.

Johnson just stood there, not knowing how to reply on this sudden notion about a girl.
The woman turned her head, until her eyes met Johnson’s.

‘Come here, I won’t bite.’ She beckoned him gently. Every sternness promptly melted away.

Johnson took a few steps. Behind him, he heard a few muffled steps following him and felt the poke of a barrel in his back.
He slowly spun his head and got greeted by the sour onion fragrance emanating from the bald commander.
He stood right behind Johnson, presented a crooked grin, yellow teeth included, and gestured toward the woman.
Johnson would love nothing more than the chance of a fair fight against this pumped-up bravado.
He shook away the thought and trudged towards the woman.

‘Here, look.’ She pointed at some picture. ‘That’s me, about twenty years ago.’

Johnson saw an unmistakable resemblance with the youthful girl in the picture and this mysterious woman.
She stood embraced with a young guy on some balcony in front of a beautiful city skyline, all covered in the orange glow of a sunset. They looked happy together.

‘Do you found me pretty?' She asked.

With some reluctance and still on his guard Johnson nodded in agreement.

‘I was, was I.’ She replied with a warm smile.

‘It was the happiest day of my life. Doug just asked me to marry him on which I agreed with a full-out yes. With an ambitious job, and a notable house near the beach on the prospect things couldn’t get any better, could it?’ She dreamed away looking at the picture.

‘It got worse though. Much worse.’ Her facial expression suddenly turned into a dark hatred.

‘From one day to the next, impossible huge Brobdingnagians started to invade our land, crushing and clutching city after city, like mere toys. The military was powerless to stop them. All our hopes and dreams all smashed, just like that. I lost Doug that day too. He died while hiding in a building who got crushed to oblivion by the high heel of some enormous juvenile bimbo. That night, I cried myself to sleep under her thundering giggles and gags.' She uttered with a voice punctuated with deep abhorrence.

‘And all you people do is fight for them, serve them. Worship them.’ She spat out the last part with disgust. She spun her gaze towards Johnson.

‘Why?’ She demanded, hands on her hips with a defiant look.

The sudden question overtook him. ‘I’m sorry miss, but I think you are confusing us with someone else. We do not fight for any Brobdingnagian. We are here because we’ve apparently intercepted your communications and to see if we can help each other. We are prisoners just like you.’

‘Don’t give me that crap!’ She poked her finger into his chest. ‘Are there more of you out here? Sneaking about in our corridors to snatch off unsuspected women and children!’

‘Snatch off women and children? No you have to believe me ma’am, please, I’m telling the truth, we are not from here, and we are certainly not the people who you believe we are.’

‘LIAR!’ She screeched.

Suddenly; two pairs of strong arms jerked him over a table and chained up his arms and legs.

‘You WILL tell the truth.’ She stood over him, holding a machete in her left hand. ‘Or your balls will be fed to your own men, and believe me. They WILL eat it because I won't give them anything else. No children of mine will be sacrificed to that wretched whore. Not while I’m alive.’ She lowered the machete’s pointy end to the area of his manhood.

‘No don’t!’ Johnson screamed. ‘Please! We’ve escaped from our imprisoned city in the daughter’s bedroom to search for help.’

Johnson already felt the blade pricking through his pants. She stopped at the mention of the word "daughter" and looked up with a frown. ‘The daughter?’ She asked in disbelief.

‘Yes. The daughter, the youngest. A blond girl named Madison. She holds our city hostage in some aquarium in her bedroom.’

‘Than tell me, how did you end up being imprisoned by this girl?’ she asked with curiosity.

Johnson pictured Sophie’s stunning face in his head, more beautiful than she was deadly.

‘Its because her mother, Sophie, invaded our country, Tendaric. She caused havoc across our land and collected the entire city I life in. The next day, she presented us as a birthday gift for her daughter.’ Johnson answered.

‘Sophie you say…’ The woman said to particularly no one. She reeled around; hands folded on her back, and ambled through the room in contemplation.
After a few moments of silence, she looked at Johnson and then shifted her gaze towards the bald commander who stood there all stalwarts, with his arms crossed.

‘Boar, release him from his chains and show mister…’ She glanced at Johnson with a questioning look.

‘Johnson’ Johnson answered.

‘Show mister Johnson where he exactly is.’

Boar nodded and gave his soldiers a command. The pair of strong arms removed his chains and yanked him up again, roughly, and dragged him along.
After a short journey through a maze of corridors, they entered a lift and ascended high up. The folding door rolled open, and they took their step on what seemed like the roof of some high building.

‘Walk.’ Baldy motivated him with a poke.

He steered up to the edge and peeped over. It was a long way down. He couldn’t even see the bottom.
He looked around and saw that he was standing in the midst of a large desolate city, a dark city. No light was seen at all, and it was silent… so silent.
For a sudden, Johnson got startled by the sound of far-flung gunshot emanating from the dark depths below, followed by a feminine scream which echoed and bounced between the buildings.
Most of these structures we’re all wrecked up, some, entirely collapsed under their own weight.
What is this place? Who are these people who hold us hostage? And who are the ones who they thought we were? And last but not least, who the hell is this wretched whore that crazy woman spoke about?

On the horizon, beyond the dark city’s skyline, he could discern countless of other cities and villages, some sprawling brilliantly with lights and dazzling sizeable buildings, while others seemed like a ruination as well.
There was one particular city that caught his attention, it seemed like it was blazed in a sea of fire, with flames licking at the dim shroud engulfing them.
In the far away background, Johnson thought he could discern something like a…bigger than life doorway?
A Brobdingnagian doorway!

The shuffling sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention, he looked to the side and saw a masked soldier standing next to him. He took off his mask to reveal his face. It was a gentle face in contrast to that of Boar.

‘Great view isn’t it?’ The soldier grinned with sarcasm in his voice.

‘Welcome to Usophia. Playground of Sophie. Better known as God.’