Leslie sighed as she stepped in from her front door, taking her shoes off and looking out across the living room. Her apartment was clean but slightly unorganized, she concluded, as she made a mental note to fix that at the end of the week. Not tonight, she was tired, and it had been a long week but once the weekend was here it was time to clean and organize a bit better.

Walking into her bedroom she sighed again as she sat down on the bed and leaned back, just laying there for a moment.Finally done with the day she could breathe and think about something besides work and clients, and clients and work. Today had been a bruiser, and she was ready for what had gotten her through the day.

She was ready to be pampered, and drowned in worshipful words from people that loved and adored her. Glancing over at her dresser her eyes fell lower, focusing on the tiny city underneath. She knew just how she would get it.

Sliding off of her bed she was at her dresser in only 2 thunderous steps. Her booming footsteps echoing through the room as she smiled and looked down ready to greet her citizens.

However, rather than an intact city, full of people ready to make her feel better about herself she saw something more frustrating. She frowned and immediately turned towards her open door as she shouted. “Rebecca, what did you do?”.

“Huh, what did I do what?” Her roommate shouted back from the other side of the apartment.

“my city?” Leslie said flatly before continuing,  “Why did you touch my city?” 

Leslie shouted back to her roommate, frowning again. Looking down, there was a clear and definite footprint in the middle of her city. If she squinted, she could still see the microscopic people still scrambling and scavenging amongst the rubble. Probably trying to find loved ones or their belongings.

Her eyes scanned around as she waited for a response from her bimbo of a roommate. No fires, and the scene looked fairly still, no still crumbling buildings or dust still wafting around. This wasn’t recent. Whoever had done this had done this a bit ago long before she got home.

“I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't touch your dumb city. Besides, I have my own and it's way better than yours.” She exaggerated the way better as if to make a point. The two of them had a friendly rivalry for a long time about who's city was better, even though Leslie knew hands down hers was the winner.

It had been a while since she even saw Rebecca’s truthfully, but the last time they'd had some competition hers had come out on top in nearly everything. Hers had better chefs, athletes, architecture. Rebecca skimped on the supplies she gave hers, she was sure of it.

“Well, somebody stepped on my city and it sure wasn't me.”She shouted back a little annoyed that her roommate wouldn't just admit it. The two of them had pranked and demolished parts of each other's city as far back as she could remember, but this was the first time that Rebecca had ever lied to her about it. Usually shed have some sly joke or taunt about it.

“I'll say it again leslie I didn't touch your stupid city” she said firmly, the annoyance clear in her own voice this time. She paused, then continued.

“Besides, if you're so sure it was me. Just look, you know how much larger my feet are than yours. There's no way that you could confuse my footprint for anyone else's”.

Rebecca was right, Leslie looked down and sighed. The footprint was too small to be Rebecca's. In fact, she glanced down at her own foot hovering it slowly over the city. Barely audible sounds reached her ears as people screamed, and the area emptied as the shadow of her colossal foot moved overhead. Lowering heer foot slowly, she stopped feeling the tip of something graze her heel.

She shook her head and frowned as she noted that it was a perfect match for hers. When had she done that? She had been gone all day, was this from the morning? Why were there no signs they’d started rebuilding?

“Never mind, I'm sorry.” She shouted over towards  Rebecca’s room, as she embarrassingly realized that it was her own footprint. She must have stepped on it in the morning as she got ready by accident. But there was still the question, why it wasn't rebuilt already? If they were slowing down that much there was a problem.

Well, there were two problems. Most importantly, if she wanted to destroy more of the city, for any reason as was her right, it was already damaged. Secondly, the slowdown suggested something was wrong, the city was used to rebuilding. Destruction both intentional and accidental happened frequently.. Had they run out of construction workers? Resources?

Walking over to her computer, she opened up the app she used to communicate with the microscopic people within her city and immediately reached out. Hammering a message off to the local leader demanding to know why her footprint was still left in the city.

He responded immediately, and she frowned  as her eyes scanned across the screen.  Some nonsense about out of supplies and needing gasoline to power their machinery. Her city wasn't supposed to need that stuff or wait……Was it? She scratched her chin trying to remember the last time she'd gotten a supply re-up for them.

They were pathetic and they needed her for everything sure, but a city with no one left in It was completely useless to her, so she begrudgingly would give them supplies every so often so that they could rebuild and have everything they needed to worship her like the goddess she was. That and a starving or under provisioned city would end up lame like Rebecca’s. She took pride in hers being the best.

Logging in to her tinies n’more app, She went to her “your cities” section and shook her head. Of course, it had actually been almost 4 months since her last supply run, and they were certainly out of new cement and gasoline to power their vehicles. She reviewed some charts, a notable dip in resources on a fairly regular cadence she recognized as some of her rougher “worship sessions” with a smirk.

She’d have to either slow down her usage of the city’s buildings, or supply them more. Not even taking a full second, it was clear what the answer would be. Her fingers tapping on some supply orders, adding a couple extras on top of the last one. Next her eyes flicked to some of the citie’s stats.

Judging from the population count, they probably could use another batch of newcomers too.
Leslie wasn't a particularly destructive goddess not compared to some of the people she’d seen on social media. She’d watched a woman who seemingly ravaged the entire city multiple times a week. Leslie  preferred her people to worship and make her happy in as many ways as she can imagine, but destroying the city itself was expensive.

It happened sometimes of course, but rarely was her primary focus the actual destruction. Sometimes the best foot massage was crumbling houses, or she just needed to remind them all who was boss. Thent of course there were accidents….like this one, and the occasional interference by Rebecca or one of her other friends.

She thought back to the time she had caught Sally stealing some skyscrapers when they had a girls night. Apparently too poor, or too scared to just get her own, shed found Sally collecting some of her largest buildings and stowing them in her purse.

Refocusing on the app in front of her, she made a couple more selections for her next order.

Tinies were cheap. She really had no idea where they got all of them, but all she knew is you could get a good couple hundred microscopic little midgets for some bucks, supplies were less cheap, but still not as expensive as buying a  whole new city. That got pricey fast.

Replacing buildings outright was expensive so while she wish she could be as well off and have fun like all of those TikTok influencers, making videos of them stomping over their city or dropping buildings into their cereal in the morning she wouldn't have the luxury of using up her city in such a manner, not with the frequency they seemed to.

Well, she guessed it was time to order the city some stuff!  A quick couple of keystrokes later, and the delivery would be at her house in only an hour.

She looked down at her city, may as well give them a little bit of something else to Do while they both waited for the supplies that the city so desperately needed. 

Firing off another message to the local leader. She told him she needed 200 people ready to help worship and climb all over her toes. After all, she'd been on her feet all day and she was ready to relax.

Promising him the supplies that he needed would be here later this evening, She collected the small petri dish full of specks and carried them off to her bed.

 Time to relax.

(Fin)

“Sally, your break ended 5 minutes ago. If you aren’t back at the counter when I get back in a second you can go find a new job” The woman scowled as she walked onwards the dumpster across the parking lot, carrying a large trash bag in each hand.

Sally sighed, watching one more TikTok before closing the app, not wanting to push her luck she began heading back inside.  Kaley was a bitch even on a good day but today she seemed to be in a  particularly bad mood, and was taking it out on everyone else at the shop.

SHe frowned, her eyes staring at the screen, as she refreshed the page one more time. “Come on universe, give me a break” she muttered hoping desperately that the page would look different after a re-load.

Today was payday, but unless there was a sale, the object of her current fixation would remain out of her reach for a while longer. Grunting in frustration as the page finished loading, with no discernable change. She put her phone away as she rounded the corner to the front of the business.

It wasn’t fair, All her friends had one, tons of people on TikTok had one, but here she was, barely scraping by, and wasn;t anywhere close to being able to afford one. She knew of course even after the initial purchase there was upkeep, maintenance and the like. Tiny towns weren’t cheap.

“About time you showed up, I was supposed to be on break 20 minutes ago” Her co worker said dryly, interrupting her train of thought. Turning, she intentionally bumped into Sally’s shoulder as she headed out back. Rolling her eyes, Sally ignored her as she stepped up to the register, her eyes being greeted by the empty store.

She had no idea why they even had so many people on shift right now, the morning rush was over, and until people were wanting snacks, or a pick me up on their way home no one was rushing to buy coffee at 2 PM. Her mind wandered back to Tinies N More.

Sure she had purchased small population packs here and there, even scrounged a discounted suburban block once that was salvaged from a dropped city, but without the right infrastructure, or supplies they never lasted long. It was like buying a snack, or a fine dessert, enjoyable, but gone too soon.

Even the buildings shed stolen from Leslie had been disappointing. Unaware of how truly fragile they were, only one had even survived the trip in her purse. Both a disappointing reward to the verbal fight shed had when she got caught,but also a pain to clean up. Her purse was riddled with specks and smeared remains for days until she deep cleaned it finally.

“Look at you, actually where you are supposed to  be for one” Kaley chirped as she returned from the trash, heading over and beginning to make herself a latte. Naturally if Sally made herself a drink,  it would be deducted from her already meager paycheck, but Kaley managed to either get away with it, or perhaps was even allowed to. Either way she knew Kaley enjoyed rubbing it in their faces.

Her face flashing crimson for a moment before she put her anger aside. Knowing nothing positive would come from arguing with her supervisor, Sally nodded and began some idle work behind the counter. Tidying up and preparing for future orders.

Her shift passed slowly, a mixture of dreadfully boring, and full of unending pokes and jabs from Kaley, who seemed to need constant validation from others today. Sally wasn’t sure she could listen to Kaley complain one more word about her dumb boyfriend. Hanging her apron up, she spared no time hoofing it out to her car and beginning her drive home.

She was in a piss poor mood. Today had sucked, and the universe just didn’t seem to be offering her any help. Even the paycheck deposited in her account seemed small and unhelpful to combat her bad mood. She knew what she needed to fix things tonight. She had planned on saving it for a special night, or once she could afford to buy something else, but those plans evaporated as her patience for today did.

She needed to feel in control, to feel like she mattered. She wanted someone to tell her how much she mattered to them. A date would be good too, but the answer sat on her dresser, only slightly damaged from her very careful movement.

For the briefest moment she felt bad, recognizing that like Kaley, she was just taking her bad mood out on someone else, but that was what they existed for.

She was going to imagine every single one was Kaley.
—------------------

Colby exhaled deeply as he shoveled another pile of rubble into the truck bed. They had been at this for hours, and as far as he knew, they hadn’t found a single survivor. Fortunately, he had personally not found any bodies either, knowing that digging one up would be sure to give him nightmares.

He reached down, pulling a larger slab of bricks up and out of the way, revealing more debris underneath. Shattered plates, a mug, barely recognizable dust covered food.Well into the internals of the apartment building, this was the third or fourth kitchen he had dug up as they got deeper into the massive pile of rubble that was once a 6 story building.

It was strange how emotionless he felt as he did all of this but their life was sadly one where this was constant. People died, buildings broke. They would clean it up, remove the debris and remnants of theta was there, and rebuild, just like they always had. It wasn’t easy, but if there was a silver lining, it was never boring.

Looking over at a couple other workers as they heaved together, pulling down a partially demolished wall to get behind it he wondered why they were doing this at all. They had the machinery to take care of this much faster than by hand, and everyone knew there wasn’t going to be any survivors. Not this close.

“Bastards” he muttered as he looked over, a large crane and some bulldozers sitting idly over in the distance. They'd have this place cleanest up and ready for rebuilding already if they were using them but instead hundreds of people across the city were here, toiling away.

He had heard rumors that they were running low on gasoline, which would of course explain the lack of working heavy machinery present, but that's not the public explanation. Probably trying to earn publicity points, the new mayor had insisted they focus on the people, and survivors had a much better chance of making it if they did this by hand.

“If there are any…” he thought, as he heaved another load of gravel and refuse down towards the collection spot. Taking a break to wipe his brow, he looked over. Across the street was just…nothing. It was almost unreal, and if you didn't know what you were looking at you’d probably assume your eyes were deceiving you.

Like a video game that had failed to render, the world abruptly ended at the other side of the street, falling off into a dark brown void.

Her footsteps.

Earlier that morning, in a rush Leslie had mis -stepped, and in a blink dozens of buildings, and probably hundreds of lives were just…gone. Colby looked out, trying to remember what buildings had even been there.

The earth trembled, and loud sounds from the heavens rumbled over the dig site. She was home. Watching as the shaking caused a bit of the road to crack, and slip into the gaping crater, he shuddered and resumed working, hoping that his shift ended soon. Reaching for his phone to peek at the time, he quickly remembered he’d stowed it away. Losing it here meant it was probably gone, something the foreman had tried to beat into them as they'd geared up for the task ahead.

More rumbling, focusing a bit he could make out some words, Leslie and her roommate were bickering about the city. Having missed the beginning though he wasn’t quite sure what until it dawned on him.

Did…did Leslie not even remember she had done this? Sure enough, he looked up and was caught off guard to see her face looking down over them as she inspected from an unfathomable height. Her Hand reached up, brushing her shoulder length brown hair out of the way, as she leaned closer, her green eyes now visible to everyone down below.

She leaned back away, and Colby tried to put her out of mind as he began shoveling again, nearly halfway through this section. She made a “hmm” noise far above, and a moment later he was alerted again as shouting picked up all around, it wasn’t until it began to grow darker and the shouting increased tenfold.

“What the fuck…” He muttered as he looked up, only to be greeted by the sight he imagined many this morning saw as their last. Her foot was moving over the city, and it felt right for him. Knowing taking cover was useless, he rolled his eyes as some of the others screamed or ran to shelter.

The foot passed overhead, and as it began lowering Colby couldn’t resist crouching down, as if that would help. What was she doing? Her foot looked mostly over the crater she had already made… A crashing sound pulled his attention towards her heel, which had just impacted one of the still standing buildings along the rim. A cacophony of crunching stone and metal thundered across the empty void, as the foot began to withdraw. Whatever she was doing, she wasn’t *intentionally* causing damage.

Just as quick as it had appeared, the foot withdrew into the distance as Leslie retreated from view herself. Colby collected his wits and stood abc up, unsure what that was all about as a city government vehicle rolled up lights flashing to the dig site.

‘For fuck sake, what now” Colby muttered, walking down towards it to hear whatever they needed to share.

“The mayor is calling for volunteers. All who partake will get the rest of the week off”

Without even hearing what the volunteering was for, Colby dropped his shovel, raised his hand and marched towards the man.

—--

Sally sighed happily as she laid on her bed, feeling much better than when she had gotten home. Rolling over, she looked down across her floor, a small giggle leaving her mouth as her eyes fell on the crushed remains of the skyscraper.

The mess told a story, as her eyes followed the debris and rubble, and the barely discernible spots of color she knew to be crushed remains. It had taken all of her remaining patience to let them start running away just to be more than one foot length but it had been worth it.

She closed her eyes, reliving the moment of her foot slowly hovering over the panicked specks, sprinting for their lives away as her toes pressed down on the building they'd been stowing in for the past several days before lifting up and moving towards them.

She was the only person that mattered in this moment. Whether they lived or died, or rather *how* they died was all up to her. And only her. Taunting them with each step, or toe press, the lucky survivors who made it to the end of her “race” were rewarded by being scooped up and brought up to the bed, where they found their end underneath fingers and hands.

Looking at her dirty sheets, and speckled abdomen, she rolled out deciding a shower and a new set of sheets was in order.

“Fuck you Kaley” she muttered as she stepped down on a moving speck on her way to the shower. Missed one.

Frank  pulled back as hard as he could against the desk, straining his muscles as he exerted himself more than he probably should be. He felt dizzy, his blood sugar was low, and he knew he needed to conserve what strength he had. The sound of budging metal spurred him on though as inch by inch the large desk slid away, eventually making space for the door to open.

Collapsing against the toppled cubicle wall, he panted for a moment, looking out across the office floor. Completely trashed, everything was flipped, toppled, and piled up in places where it caught. Tons of furniture was completely missing, the shattered windows along the wall telling the story of where a lot of them went.

He wasn’t even sure how long it had been, it felt like ages ago that that woman had just taken their building, dropping it semi-gently into her purse. Now the survivors scavenged the building for anything they could eat.

Getting back up he pried the door open, smiling weakly as his eyes fell on what he had been looking for. The break room. Untouched since “the incident” he knew it would have some form of sustenance inside, and since it had been covered up by debris and desks no one else seemed to have gotten to it.

Weakly staggering over he began tearing drawer after drawer open, looking for the food he knew should be in here. Break rooms always had snacks, maybe some drinks. He had finished the last water bottle he found last night and was feeling the effects of dehydration.

“EUREKA” he couldn’t help himself as he pulled open a cabinet door, revealing a fridge behind it, still stocked with some juice and water. Far from cold, he didn’t even care as he reached in and grabbed a bottle, tearing the cover off as he gulped down the much needed hydration.

Collapsing against the counter he sighed, unsure what he does next, but happy he knows he won't die from a lack of food or water.

THUD

Franks sat up as he felt the tremor, and familiar sound of the footstep of a being far far larger than he. “No no no no” he muttered, he had JUST found food, water, a safe place to hide, she was back already?

She had left them alone for a couple of days but Frank had a bad feeling about this.

“Arghghghggh” her thunderous voice groaned into the room as he heard her slide off something and the creak of her bed.

‘Please leave us alone. Please leave us alone” he prayed quietly.

“Today fucking sucked” She continued, he wasn’t sure if she was on the phone, monologueing, or actually speaking towards them, from his spot in the building he couldn’t *see* anything, but he could definitely hear her. The next line left no room for confusion though.

“Good news everyone, You get to help make up for it!”

His blood ran cold, there was no way that boded well for them. Sally had proven to be a completely different monster than leslie. Leslie was careless, and sometimes callous, but rarely could ever be described as cruel. Far from defending her, he was no stranger to witnessing death and destruction at the hands, or more often feet of Leslie, Sally though seemed to take delight in their suffering.

Even the act of getting them out of her purse had been ghoulish. Muttering with every collapsing floor or crumbling building she didn't care at all than her rough handling was killing dozens or even a hundred people. Likewise as people tried to run or escape her finger came down, smearing person after person with a mixture of cruel boredom and fascination, the way she so casually snuffed out dozens of terrified people still made Frank sick.

No, there was no doubt, Sally was going to be the death of them, and by the sounds of it it was coming soon.

THUD THUD THUD

She walked quickly over to the dresser she had left them on, the spire of the building leaning at an awkward angle, propped up by a pencil and pair of nail clippers, she had forced the building, despite the damage to its lower floors to stand up straight, ish.

“Who wants to plaaaaaaay” she asked the building in a singsong voice. The building shook as the sound of crumbling concrete,and distant shouts marked her hand once again wrapping around their refuge.

Frank held on for dear life as the building shot upwards, shaking and moving sideways as everything moved around. Desks slid, things crashed into each other, looking out the doorway, he watched as a flailing body flew past the shattered windows as someone fell out of the building, no doubt splattering onto the ground far below.

Frank screamed as the cabinet doors opened, random items falling out all around him, pelting him and falling to the floor, sliding down the slope out towards the outside. Suddenly the g forces shifted and he felt like he was free falling, as they plummeted downwards. Had she dropped them? He closed his eyes, bracing for the impact.

It never came, but the sound of crumpling and breaking building did, as the skyscraper fell onto its side, and was placed sort of gently onto Sally’s bedroom floor.

“Better get moving everyone, I know some of you are still hiding in there. It'd be a shame if you were still inside when…” the building creaked and it grew darker, she was poking the building.

Not wanting to wait to find out, Frank staggered to his feet, stumbling towards the openings, still dizzy and disoriented from the rapid movements. He could hear the footsteps and movement around as others did the same, rapidly leaving the imaginary safety of their building.

The building creaked further, and a booming giggle was audible from far above outside. Frank leapt from the small ledge, rolling as he landed on the carpet below.

No matter how many times you saw one of them, it didn't make it any less awe inspiring, and terrifying. Standing up Frank craned his neck back, as he looked up at the colossal woman above him.

Still dressed in her work clothes, the faint smell of coffee reached his nostrils. She was rather pretty, brown swept back hair, and crouching down he could make out the sparkle of her blue eyes, staring down at them.

Snapping out of his gaze, he followed her toned leg down to a bare foot, sliding back and forth on the skyscraper behind him with what sounded like increasing pressure.

“Uh oh, doesn’t look like it'll' last much longerrrrr” she taunted  as she pressed down harder. Frank watched sullenly as the building began to crack, her toes pressing down more, as the concrete and steel superstructure began to buckle.

Around him people began to run, in a variety of directions. Anything to get away from HER.

Deciding they were probably right, her attention seemed to be on the building, Frank looked around and made a beeline for her bed. He had no plan really, just new standing here was unlikely to be any better.

“Awhhh there it goesssss” she continued taunting in a booming sing song voice as her toes finally pressed through, making contact with the floor in a resounding THOOM.

Screams reached Frank's ears as he dared look back, the debris and rubble front he building scattering around, and some people still visible climbing out of the wreckage. Her foot twisted slightly, overtaking a couple climbing down the side. He looked away, but there was no doubt their fate.

“Now, where are you all going? Don’t you want to make me feel better about my day?” Sally asked, her attention shifting front he remains under her foot, to the specks spreading out across her floor. Like a crane at a vending machine she moved with precision, as Frank watched her foot pass overhead, the shadow of her immensity causing him to slow down for a moment as the helplessness of their situation reached his brain.

Slowing to a jog as he pivoted, changing direction in a feeble attempt to escape he couldn’t help but watch as the foot aimed,and lowered. Her big toe pointing straight down like a spear as Sally brought it down on a couple of people in the distance.

“Awhh, you barely got anywhere!” she called out as the toe pressed down, slowly, deliberately…powerfully. The ground shook a bit as she made impact.

Dragging her toe back, she left no visible remains at all as she giggled far above him.

“That's right. I'm the boss. None of you shits even matter” She rambled as her foot began to chase after its next group of people. Frank looked in front, he was making progress, relatively, and her attention seemed elsewhere Maybe he would make it?

He panted, the exertion burning his lungs he wanted to stop, but knew he couldn’t risk it. He didn't even look behind him as he nearly fell over, a powerful stomp sending a thudder through the floor.

“Take THAT. and THAT. How do you like it, Kaley?” She roared with each stomp. 

Kaley? Who the fuck was Kaley? Frank wondered as after what felt like an hour he had made it under the shadow of the bed. Turning back, he watched as Salley’s foot slid along the floor, giggling as she went in a haphazard motion, smearing what he assumed was more survivors underneath.

“That's right. I’m the BOSS” She chuckled as she suddenly began walking towards him. Frank’s heart stopped for a moment, had she…seen him? It felt impossible, but as the groan of the bed above him reached his ears he sighed.

The bed creaked as she shifted, no longer in sight Frank could only sit there wondering what he was even going to do as she got comfortable.

“That was just what I needed, and now for something else I need….” Frank’s eyes grew wider as the sound of some rustling clothing and a moan left little wonder what she was doing now that she had finished killing hundreds of them.

For whatever reason, Frank felt compelled to try and escape her room. Knowing she was distracted he began the slow journey of crossing the floor towards the doorway, hoping he could get out of there before she was done.

Unfortunately, he was mistaken, and as the room shook with her completion, she just as abruptly sat up, the ground shaking under her rough footsteps.

Falling over, Frank couldn’t do anything but roll onto his back and look up as the shadow of a barefoot approached him. A now topless Sally peered down at him, her blouse unbuttoned, and her face still flush.

“Fuck You kaley” she muttered as she lowered her foot towards him.

Frank didn’t even scream.