The centimeter-tall woman looked up at the bed towering over her.  In all honesty, Clara knew that what she was about to do was stupid and could get her killed if she wasn’t careful.  But too much emotion was wrapped into this ritual already.  Sorrow, anger, excitement, thrill, vindication… all swirled into a ball of bad decisions that led her to this point.

Heading to the nightstand, she slinked and tiptoed over to the extension cord.  A host of plugs led up into the air above, to appliances like the alarm clock, a charging cell phone, a portable game console, and other such items.  But Clara had only added her own personal touch to one of these paths, and that was to the cord to the lamp.  It was the only cord that was safe from constant plugging and unplugging.  Or in the case of the alarm clock, being flung across the room.  Thus, it was the perfect structure to add platforms and footholds to accelerate her journey.  

It had taken weeks to break down a popsicle stick that fell to the side of the trash can, and even longer to steal the adhesive to affix the broken pieces into place.  But the benefits spoke for themselves as a journey that would have been perilous and exhausting could now be completely with far greater ease.  Her goal was already crazy enough, so every precaution helped immensely.

The cord led up in the tight space between the bed and the nightstand.  So close were the two that the same cord could be used to get to the nightstand and to Clara’s true goal, the bed.  From there, she saw the thing that had led her to such insane lengths in the first place.

Xavier.

Standing near the shoulder of the towering titan of a man, Clara made the long trek down the length of his body.  Unfortunately, due to the heat, Xavier was sleeping on top of his sheets instead of beneath them, which would make the journey she was about to make even more perilous.  But this wasn’t untred ground for her.  She had some experience making her way to her destination even without the natural ramp formed by the blanket.

After walking for a minute or two, Clara finally reached the giant’s hands.  She almost wretched at the tips of his fingers, permanently stained red.   Xavier had a penchant for causing suffering and ruin to the tiny people around him.  Whenever he found a tiny civilization, he would go out of his way not to leave until every building, every road, and every person had been crushed in horrifying ways.  Over time, his fascination had allowed so much tiny blood to absorb into his pigmentation that his fingertips always appeared red.  

In her mind, Clara tried to shake the feeling that some of these particular tinies had been people she had loved and known.  At least before Xavier ground them between his fingers.  Or popped them against the ground.  Or whatever sick game he decided to subject his victims to on the slightest whim.  Clara shook off those thoughts.  She needed to keep her courage up.  

One small blessing was that Xavier was a very heavy sleeper.  Even when the lazy giant was taking an afternoon nap like this one, he could be passed out for hours at a time.  Clara pulled herself up onto his index finger and walked down his palm up to his arm.  She was very careful as she crept to his arm.  If her footing was only slightly amiss, Xavier could end up closing his fist and smushing her.  She would know, since she had experienced more than one close call of that nature.  But today, things were going swimmingly.  She made good time as she reached the wrist and headed toward his elbow.

Clara was almost out of breath as she made it midway along his arm, but the view she got filled her with new energy.  Seeing Xavier spread out and below her gave her an energy she could never feel otherwise.  He always used his position as a giant to tower over tinies and torment them.  But now the shoe was on the other foot, at least in a small way.  Now he was below Clara!  Clara started to whisper under her breath.

“I’m coming for you Xavier!  You’ve smashed so many of my friends and family beneath you.  Now it’s your turn to feel what it’s like underfoot, you…”

Clara lost her footing and landed face first onto the colossus’s lean, smooth muscles.  Xavier’s snoring stopped for a split second as his other hand swung into motion.  She only barely jumped out of the way in time before the large man’s fingers collided with the patch of skin Clara had previously been standing on.  He began to scratch the area on instinct.  Just a second later and she would have become just another indistinguishable stain on his fingertips, and without Xavier even realizing.  Xavier’s other arm went limp and the snoring returned in earnest.

Even just a few months ago, this would have been enough to send Clara back home.  She might have curled herself up like an armadillo and cried for hours at the thought of nearly losing her life.  But a combination of the endorphins pumping through her body, her anger at Xavier, and the general lack of anything in her life to live for drove her forward.  She finished her journey up to his shoulder.  She could feel his breath pulling her hair in it’s breeze.  She got low to his chest to keep herself from being sucked towards his face, crawling through his chest hair.

Clara finally reached the lazy giant’s stomach.  She stood up and walked to his toned but sweaty abs.  The salty water squished between her toes.  She half-wondered if that was what it felt like to Xavier when he stomped on tiny civilizations.  She remembered the blood running through the streets as he simply laughed at them.  And the thought made her blood boil.  She stomped down as hard as she could on the monster beneath her feet.

“Take that, you rotten son of a bitch!  It doesn’t feel as good when it’s you getting stomped on, does it?”

She knew in her mind that Xavier couldn’t actually feel anything she was doing.  Heck, if he could, she would probably be turned to mush by the sadistic brute.  But her heart burned with righteous fury as she stomped and screamed.  Tears ran down her face and snot ran down her nose.

“You’ve taken everything I’ve ever loved from me, you awful bastard!  You’ve crushed my parents in your hands, you’ve stomped my home into rubble, you took my sister and did god-knows-what to her…  And just because you were born bigger!  You don’t deserve to be giant.  You deserve nothing but to be a stain under my foot.  Do you even give a shit what you’ve put me and everybody else through?”

Xavier had to admit, she had a point.  He really didn’t give much care how the tinies felt about getting crushed for his amusement.  But he had to admit, watching this puny bug stomp around on him like she actually had any power did make him grin.  Especially when she started recounting some of his favorite moments.  He took occasional peeks at the angry, crying tiny, but he tried to keep his eyes closed.  After all, it wouldn’t be as fun if she knew he wasn’t sleeping during her excursions.

Admittedly, the first time the tiny had climbed on top of him while he slept, Xavier had been tempted to tear her apart for a quick laugh, but he was glad he didn’t.  Watching the tiny get more and more upset with him as he ruined her life was simply exhilarating.  He enjoyed the little massage on his tummy as the angry bug took her anger off on him.  

Xavier relaxed and thought about how he was going to mess with her next.