I yelled “Cindy!” as I impatiently spun the car keys around my finger. What was taking her so long? Girls always took too long preparing themselves, but she was only 9; what could she possibly be doing? All her things were already in the car - all she had to do was put her swimsuit on underneath some clothes and we would be off to the beach. I could have hung out with friends but no, instead I selflessly offered to take my niece to the beach today. I’ve been waiting by the door for an hour and every time I call her she tells me ‘five more minutes’. Well enough was enough, I start climbing the stairs; I wanted to see what was so important that she made me wait so long.
I pace over to her room and pushed open the door. “Cindy, what is taking you?”
She was kneeling by her closet and upon seeing me, jumped up and threw her hands behind her back. “Hey, you can’t come in here without knocking!” she said, backing up a little and keeping her eyes locked on mine.
Her light brown hair frayed when she leapt up, but a moment later fell right back into place. A white sundress hung loosely on her small frame and danced around when she moved. I always forgot how delicate she looked: her flawless soft skin curved innocently around her face and her clear marble eyes teased me with their audacious gaze.
Her room was a mess – blouses, skirts and underwear lay scattered all across the carpeted floor. “I hope you were cleaning, this place is a mess,” I said while picking up some of her clothes.
She stepped side to side, mirroring me as I picked up a pair of socks and put them where they belong. “I’ll be down in a minute, just go back downstairs.” She said, obviously hiding something.
“What are you hiding in your closet?” I asked.
She looked at me intently for a moment, making grumbling noises as she thought to herself. “Only if you don’t tell anyone” she mumbled.
“Of course, you can show me anything.”
I saw her expression relax and her shoulders drop. It looks like she was really worried that I would tell her parents about whatever she was hiding. She started to smile and took a step forward, bringing whatever she was holding in front of her, and keeping it covered with both hands. Then she opened her hands and held them up to me.
At first I didn’t see anything, but then I noticed some speck-sized crumbs trapped in the grooves of her hand. They were varying shades of skin color but all had four small appendages sticking out of them. What was this? Saw dust? Then I noticed them squirm, trying to escape from between the two walls of skin that made up the wrinkles on her hand. They crawled out of the grooves on all fours and then actually stood up on two of the appendages once they reached the smooth skin. That’s when I leant in closer and noticed they looked a lot like humans!
“Remi, what are these?” I asked while continuing to observe them crawling around her hand.
“They’re my mants!” She bubbled, finally smiling.
“Mants?”
“Yeah, they’re people I shrunk for my kingdom. See, I’m their princess and their job is to make me happy,” She giggled.
This can’t be real, there is no way Cindy could shrink people, but the longer I watched them the more I started to believe that she was telling the truth. I noticed the mants grouped up and started to do what looked like talking. Then they started jumping and waving their arms at me as if to call for help. There were so many micro-sized people that I couldn’t spot them all; every time I thought I found them all I always noticed there were more down another tiny wrinkle on her hand. Cindy’s hand then shut closed without warning and she brought them to her chest.
“I was picking out as many as I could for playing at the beach,” She explained. Then, without hesitating, she lifted her sundress and stretched her bikini bottom out. I reached out to try and grab her wrist, but she stepped away and quickly brought her fist down against her lower belly. I was about to yell out for her to stop when she opened her hand and what looked like fine bits of sand tumbled down into her bikini.
I shouted “No!” But I was too late and her bikini snapped shut. Mortified, I stumbled a little but continued to stare at Cindy’s crotch - where most of the mants were probably dead or held tight against her skin. Cindy let her sundress fall back down, covering her bikini.
Could humans even survive a fall like that? It must have been stories and stories of falling distance, and what of the force of her bikini bottom slamming them against her skin. Just a moment ago I was appreciating how soft her skin looked; for their sake, I hope it was as soft as I thought.
Cindy brought her hand up to her face to inspect it. “Looks like some of them stuck to my hand because it got all wet from keeping it shut so long,” She said before placing her hand on her thigh and rubbing the layer of moisture and trapped people into her skin, grinding them into a paste which would be later absorbed.
“Ok, ready to go!” she announced with a smile. It was like she didn’t even consider them as people. She could have been talking about the weather for the amount of concern she showed, having just murdered hundreds of people.
“Cindy, did you just kill all those people?” I panicked.
“Nah, about half of them probably survived; I’m going to have fun with them at the beach, now let’s go!” She said, walking past me. “C’mon, you were waiting, right?”
I grabbed her arm before she made it out of the room. I couldn’t let this happen, those people didn’t deserve that. There was something seriously wrong with her morals if she could shrink people and then treat them worse than insects.
Taking a large breath, I told her: “Cindy, I want you to take all the survivors out of your swim suit and show me where you are keeping them all; what you’re doing is wrong.” I tried to keep calm and sound stern; there was no other way she would listen to me.
In a sudden flip of attitude she glared at me from over her shoulder. “I’ll turn you into a mant,” She threatened. I let her arm go and she continued downstairs, giddy as if nothing happened.
And she looked so innocent.