Chapter 7

Five police cars and two fire engines approached. Jorien walked towards them, bent over and picked up a fire engine at its ladder. It looked like a red lollipop between her huge fingers, with its ladder extended. How strong she was! Jorien realized her strength when she was looking at the tiny vehicle. She was holding an entire fire engine, with nothing but her thumb and index finger! As if it weighted almost nothing! Well, to Jorien at least, it did.

"No fire here guys," she smirked, and threw the engine away. Jorien looked at it as it spun through the air.

"Isn't that abusing power?' the voice in her head began again.

"Oh, shut up," Jorien thought. She was not in the mood for discussions.

Looking at the police cars, she grinned. With a look of utter delight on her face, eyes twinkling, she stepped on three cars at once. They made a soft crushing sound and Jorien heard them scrape over the asphalt as she grinded her foot.

She saw tiny police officers coming out of the remaining two cars, but before they could do anything, she had them squished as well. Cars and all. For good measure, Jorien trod upon the last fire engine, flattening the once-impressive vehicle to a thin layer of reddish thin foil.

"Is that what I can expect as thanks from the city I worked for?" she said aloud, hands on her hips. "Police officers coming just because I demolished my former working place? Can't a girl not even destroy an office building anymore without being disturbed?" She was not angry anymore, she said it more out of sarcasm.

Jorien looked around her. Houston lay before her, and she savored the view. She was a titan, a giant, a colossus! The power she had seemed to beg to be used. And why not? She was gigantic, and the little city invited her almost to be trodden down by her.

"What has Houston even done for me? I have gained little for all my toiling. Little.... I'll show them the meaning of "little", oh yes!", Jorien thought and started walking.

As she strolled through the streets of Houston, she stepped on cars as if they were roaches. Jorien's boots crunched them without her even noticing. She didn't feel the slightest resistance or lump under her feet. Every car was flattened thinner than a penny under her weight.
For the people it was quite a sight. A huge, black leather wall descending upon a car, a real big car, engulfing it in darkness before pressing it flat under the giantesses’ unimaginable mass. A large footprint in which a metal plate, mixed with shattered glass and gasoline lay embedded was all that remained when Jorien lifted her foot. The leftovers of the metal where in the shape of her boots' underside, with ridges and sometimes, the number of her shoe size was imprinted in the metal. It was almost ironic to read a "9" in a footprint the size of a small swimming pool.
Jorien approached a skyscraper, one that reached her shoulders. Smiling, she swung one leg alongside it, stepping on a small garage. Then, she stepped forward, so that her chest bumped into the building. Jorien felt the resistance, but kept going forward. She swung her other leg alongside the other side of the skyscraper, thus colliding with her entire body against the skyscraper. The building first shook, then broke in half. The upper part of the skyscraper fell down like snow from a roof, slow, crumbling, with smoke mulching out of already appeared cracks in the walls. Jorien's crotch took a story or two with it as she moved forward.

The upper part of the skyscraper had fallen on the ground, burying the entire parking lot under it, destroying countless cars. Jorien make another stride, her right foot now stepping on a good part of the remains of the skyscraper. The debris, along with its contents, crumbled as if made of thin plaster. She deliberately stepped with her left foot on another part of the debris, with the same result. Smiling, she trampled down everything as if it was a sand castle. Everything was destroyed under her huge feet, her thick rubber soles and her enormous weight. Stone, concrete, glass, steel beams, the cars underneath it all and the occupants, everything was pressed together. Nothing remained unbroken, all that was left when Jorien continued her journey were crumbs and mangled metal, mixed with the gory remains of people. The lower half of the skyscraper still stood, like a broken tooth in an old man's mouth.

Walking through a living area, she trod upon the now tiny houses. They looked like little souvenirs, hardly bigger than the small ceramic Dutch house, white and blue, she had standing on a shelf at home. It was nothing but tourist junk, but Jorien had always kept it as a reminder of where she came from. Part of her at least.
CRUNCH! A small house crumbled under the sole of her boot, as if it was made of thin porcelain.
SMASH! Another house fully disappeared under her foot, leaving nothing but shards of walls and glass embedded in her huge footprint. Jorien tried to step on the next one slowly, but her weight was just too much for the pathetic little building to bear. As the underside of her boot touched the roof, it already collapsed. The walls fell like apart like a house made of playing cards, revealing the contents of the house, under the huge shadow of Jorien's foot. She had only touched it lightly.

"No, this ain't fun," she thought, bringing her foot down and destroying the house entirely. She continued to step upon houses as if they were insects, each one crunched like a large beetle.

Jorien tried to pick one up, but her huge fingers were just too strong. The tiny house broke to smithereens under her powerful grip, leaving nothing but dust.

"This is fun", she thought. She was so gigantic! It gave her a rush, a feeling of power. Everything around her was so insignificant now. "You are no longer impressive," Jorien thought, looking at a cluster of skyscrapers she now stood next to, no one higher than her chest. "I don't need to marvel at your height anymore, looking up at you. No, I look down on you. I am more powerful than anyone inside!"

She grabbed one of the skyscrapers, her fingers smashing the glass and concrete, and pulled. It came out of the ground like a small shrub. Jorien wanted to use the skyscraper as a club to batter the others with it, but as soon as she hit another skyscraper with it, both crumbled to dust with a loud noise. A huge cloud of smoke and dust covered Jorien's clothing and face while stinging in her eyes.

"Oh, damn!", she cried. "Now look what you've done! My clothes are dirty!" Muttering curses, she walked away, looking for a place to brush the debris and dust off. She saw a nice building she could use as a stool.

The Hobby Centre for the Performing Arts.