Alexis sighed wistfully as she leaned back against a tree, sitting in her favorite park. The sun was setting, slowly coloring the sky a dark orange that captivated her attention. She stared into the sunset for a long time, oblivious to her surroundings, until someone touched her on the shoulder. She jumped and gave a short cry of shock.

“Oh, sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, I-I called out to you but maybe you didn't hear me,” a young man had been kneeling beside her, but he fell backwards when she jumped.

“What do you want?” Alexis asked, annoyed.

“I was uh... well, I mean, I was hanging out with my friends,” he motioned with his head towards two other guys a good distance away, casually tossing a frisbee back and forth while stealing glances towards Alexis and their friend. “and I noticed you and I... I think you're beautiful, and I was wondering if you'd like to go out sometime?”

She snorted. “Beautiful, huh? You barely even know me.”

“Th... that's true, but I'd like to get to know you. I-if that's all right with you, I mean.”

Looking him up and down, Alexis shrugged slowly. He certainly wasn't bad looking, and the romantic in her had always fantasized about a boy in whom she could share her true self. “You really want to know who I am?”

“Of course!” He rolled forward onto his knees, holding out his hand. “I'm Stephen, but most people just call me Steve.”

“Steve, I'm Alexis.” She returned the handshake, then looked over at the two playing frisbee. “Call them over here.”

He looked confused. “Why?”

“You said you want to know the real me; call them over. If you're still in at the end, then sure, we'll date.”

Steve was perplexed. Did she know his friends already? Had she already dated them? “Hey, guys!” he called out, waving to his friends. “Come over here!” The two stopped throwing the disc between themselves and headed over, exchanging hushed questions as they approached.

“Steve here wants to date me,” Alexis announced. “He said he wants to know who I really am, and I'd love – with your permission of course – to give him the opportunity to do just that. Will you two allow me to demonstrate my true nature?”

The three boys were weirded out. There wasn't a trace of humor in her voice, nothing to indicate she was kidding. She wore a soft smile, but even that seemed genuine; more like adding courtesy to a request than letting them in on a joke. Slowly the two friends nodded, and her smile grew.

“Great! What're your names?”

“Uh, I'm Tyler and that's Greg,” one of them said.

“Ugh, Greg. Never liked the name. Nothing personal. Check this out.” Still sitting at the base of the tree, Alexis raised her arm, pointing it towards Greg. He felt an invisible force surround him suddenly, and before he could cry out it compressed his body inward, pushing in hard from every angle. He squirmed and flailed as the world around him rushed away. It was only a few seconds later, when all the motion stopped, that he realized what had happened.

“You... you shrunk him!” Steve cried. It was true, and what was more was that Alexis still held him in the air with her hand even though she wasn't touching him. She gently guided Greg to a position more between the three normal-sized people, holding him captive, suspended in midair.

“Please... guys, h-h-help me, please...” he begged, but the two young men were too stunned to move. Alexis twirled her index finger in a lazy circle, and Greg's head started to rotate clockwise, out of his control. “What the fuck is happening!?”

His cries were wild and terror-stricken, and his friends watched in horror as his head started to turn past his shoulder, his flesh tearing quietly away before the muscles and tendons followed suit. Tyler opened his mouth, tentatively lifting his hand, but they could all see it was already too late. Alexis smiled and gave her finger a final shake, knocking his head from his body and letting it tumble freely to the ground. She then flicked her hand casually, and what remained of little Greg sailed through the air, landing some distance away among the long park grass.

“H... how the ffff...” Tyler stammered, his mouth dry as Alexis' eyes settled on him.

“It's your turn, Steve,” she said. The same invisible force wrapped itself around Tyler, compressing him until he was only a few inches tall, but this time she let him fall to the ground uninjured. The two giants stared down at the tiny boy, who looked up in fear.

“Stephen, help me! Please, help! You've gotta stop her!”

Looking into one another's eyes, Alexis smiled at the prospective suitor. “Go ahead. Squish him.”

“Why?” Steve asked. His breaths were shallow, but he was working hard to remain in control of himself.

“You wanted to know who I am? This is me, Stephen. I'm Alexis, named after my grandmother. I've been able to do this since I can remember, and when I was – oh, what, eight or so? – my parents stood in my way for the last time, so I painted them across the kitchen. Ever since then it's just been me.” She smiled, and Stephen thought he detected a hint of sadness in her eyes. “It means a lot to me that you'd want to get to know me, Steve. Most people don't give me a second thought unless I make myself the most important thing in their lives, like with little Tyler here.”

The two titans looked down at the little man, who cowered on the ground by Stephen's foot. “Why don't you use this for better things? I mean, you can shrink things and you're a telekinetic? You must be able to help with like... construction work, at least!”

She shook her head. “I'm not interested in exposure, or in helping others. I just want to live the way I want to live.”

“Don't people like Greg and Tyler deserve to live the way they want to live, too?”

She shrugged. “It's up to me, though, not them. Now squish him.”

Steve reached out, placing his hand on Alexis' shoulder. “Alexis, I care about you, but I'm not going to hurt my friend. Why don't you let me show you how to live without hurting others?”

“So you want to impose your beliefs onto me?” Alexis asked snidely.

“Well I don't know if I would use those words exactly... but I want to show you you don't have to hurt people to feel real.”

She smirked, an expression that Steve found cute in jarring contrast to the tone of the conversation. “How about this: I'll show you my way, and then you can show me yours.”

“What do you – A-Alexis, wait! What are you doing?” Stephen was standing up, but it wasn't of his own accord. His leg kicked out softly and knocked little Tyler away, kicking the tiny man into the dirt at his feet. “Stop! Stop this!”

“Don't be such a girl, Steve,” Alexis giggled. “Come on, it'll only take a second, and then we can hang out and I won't kill anyone for... like, a week or something. I promise.”

“Please, no! Alexis, stop! Stop it!” Stephen watched in horror as he lifted his leg up, poising his foot over Tyler who was crawling away from the looming shadow. “Please don't make me kill my friend, Alexis! Stop it! Fucking stop it!”

His cries were completely ignored by the young woman, who just slowly lowered his leg to the ground with the slight movements of her hand. They could both hear it when Tyler crunched underneath the sneaker, the cracking of his bones vibrating weakly through the rubber and into Stephen's sole. He went wide-eyed, and the second Alexis released her grip on him he fell to the ground, retching into the dirt.

“Oh, come on. It's not that bad. He was so tiny anyway, it's not like he even made that big of a mess.” She leaned over to confirm her theory. “Yeah, see? Barely noticeable.”

“You... you're sick...” Stephen said as he spat into the ground. Alexis frowned.

“Hey, come on now. Don't be mean. We can date now, and I'll play things your way like I promised.”

“How can you be so fucking nonchalant!?” He screamed, climbing back to his feet and looking down hatefully at the woman who still sat against the tree. “You just made me crush my friend, you fucking psychopath! And you twisted Greg's fucking head off, and you... you killed your parents? You're a monster! Why the fuck would you think I'd want to date you?”

Alexis looked genuinely hurt, and she opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. “What, nothing to say? Nothing to say after you... you...” he gestured at the foot that had killed Tyler, grasping for words. “It's not even a thing! There's not even a fucking word for it, that's how fucked up what you did was!” He lashed out with his foot, kicking her across the face. She screamed out and fell to the ground, clutching the side of her head. He was about to raise his foot for another blow when he heard the sound of her sobbing, and hesitated.

“Please stop...” she whimpered, almost too quiet to hear. “Stop insulting me... you were supposed to like me...”

“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? Is that it? The perpetrator of a double homicide gets sympathy because she's cute and unloved?” Stephen paused to spit on her. “No, not here. Not today.” He kicked out again, catching her in the stomach. Alexis screamed, and the sound of her agony only angered Stephen further. He kicked her again and again, all over her body, long after she'd stopped making noise. He stood over her body, panting heavily. Her summer dress was spotty with blood and dirt, and for a moment Stephen almost did feel bad for what he'd done.

“Freeze!” The sound from behind him chilled the blood in his body. Slowly he turned around to see two police officers, each with their weapon drawn on him, standing several meters apart. His eyes went wide.

“N-no, this isn't-”

“Turn around and put your hands on your head!”

“This isn't my fault! She was evil, you have to understand that!”

“Turn around and put your hands on your head!” Stephen was shaking with frustration and fear, but he did as he was told.

“Please, just look at the ground, sh-she fucking shrank my friends! She made me step on him, look, he's just over there!” He tried to indicate with his head while the officers restrained him, pulling his wrists behind his back and cuffing him. “This isn't fair! She was fucking evil! You can't do this!”

“Hey – call an ambulance, she's still breathing!” One officer announced once Stephen was in cuffs. The other started radioing in for an ambulance, talking over Stephen's continued screams.

“She's still alive? You have to shoot her! You have to fucking shoot her, it's the only way! Please listen to me, you have to fucking-” Everyone went silent as she suddenly reached up, grabbing the officer kneeling over her by the collar of his shirt. “Oh, no...”

“Ma'am, you're going to be okay. Nobody's going to hurt you anymore, but I need you to lay still, okay?” The officer assured her, but Alexis continued to slowly rise. The three of them could hear her body snapping and crunching, her bruised skin slowly fading back to its natural pale color. She looked at the man she still held in his hand, and gave a powerful shove with her arm. He immediately flew into the air with a wet crunch, his body caving in from the force with which she shoved him. He sailed high over their heads, landing out of sight.

The remaining officer took a moment to recover before going for his gun, but it was too late. Alexis lifted her arm, raising him into the air, then spun around and slammed him as hard as she could against the tree. He hit it with a loud Smack! and his body exploded all around them, covering Alexis and Stephen in viscera. The two of them were alone again, and now Alexis stood above Stephen, who kneeled before her in cuffs.

“Pl... lease...” he whimpered. She looked at him through unkempt, blood-matted hair. Alexis reached out and he flew towards her, coming to stop with his throat in her hand.

“We could have had something, Stephen. We could have been a thing, you and I. Like one of those celebrity power couples you read about in magazines.”

“Please don't kill me...”

Alexis smiled, and Stephen noticed even her teeth were growing back in, reforming into that beautiful smile she had flashed for him minutes before. “I won't. You gave me hope that someone could care about me, and that means a lot to me... even if you did go back on your word like a rat fucking coward.”

“I-I-I'm s-so sorry, Alexis, I swear to g-”

“Shut up, I don't care. You blew it with me. Now I'm going to let you go, but I'm going to follow you for the rest of your life, Stephen, and everyone you ever talk to is going to die. Do you understand that?”

“...What?”

Alexis pulled him close. “Everyone,” she hissed before dropping him to the ground. The cuffs around his wrists burst apart, freeing him from their bindings. He scrambled to his feet and took off in a dead sprint away from her. He ran as hard and as long as he could, until his legs were too weak to support his weight, and he collapsed on the sidewalk where he stood, drawing in deep wheezing breaths.

“Are you okay?” A woman asked of Stephen, looking at him with concern from within the safety of her car.

“Please hide me!” he gasped, still unable to draw in a satisfying lungful of air. “I'm being chased by a killer, please please hide me!” His story would have sounded ridiculous if not for the passionate conviction in his voice. The woman started to make a move to unlock her doors, but suddenly her car shrank away, dwindling to the size of a Hot Wheels car in under a second. Stephen screamed and crawled backwards, watching as it raised into the air, lifted by an invisible force. It tilted to the side and the woman spilled out, falling a few feet to the ground below. She landed on her back, stunned and injured, but alive.

“Stop! I'm sorry, please! Don't hurt her!” The only response came in the form of the car following the tiny woman down a moment later. She raised her hands in a pathetic gesture of self-defense, but the small machine easily overpowered her, crushing her into the asphalt. It lifted up and slammed back down, coming down again and again on the woman until she was nothing but a red smear on the ground, and the car a twisted, flattened chunk of metal. From deep within himself Stephen found the energy to run, at least for a few more blocks.

He slept alone in an alley that night, terrified to ask anybody for help. A few times he thought he saw the silhouette of a young woman standing at the end of the alley, watching him. He yelled and threw rocks and garbage, but she was always gone by the time he looked up again. Terrified, cold, alone and exhausted, Stephen finally succumbed to sleep, passing out in the alley while his new companion watched on, a warm smile on her face.