The Crystal Talisman
Volume I:
Meredith
by Dr. Music

 

Part 1: the Talisman

Meredith tossed about on her bed, changing positions yet again in a vain attempt to remain comfortable long enough to drift off to sleep. Cracking an eye open, she looked over at the digital clock next to her bed. 3:22. It was no use. She'd never get to sleep. Even if she did, there were only two and a half hours left until she was supposed to get up. What was the point?

Throwing the covers back, Meredith climbed out of bed with and exasperated moan and slid her feet into her slippers.

"Bastard," she mumbled as she grabbed her robe from off the floor.

For a week now, the nights had been the same for Meredith: rolling around in bed trying to sleep while fighting back all the thoughts that kept her from it. Usually, it was easy for her simply to push those thoughts away long enough to rest, but this was different. A week ago, her fiancee David had broken off the engagement for reasons that he thought were best left undisclosed, leaving Meredith with several unanswered questions and frustration galore. It was impossible to rest! What had happened? Her friends tried to reassure her that there were other men, but she didn't listen. She was 23, dark-haired, brown-eyed, and didn't have the best body in the world. Sure, she wasn't bad looking by any means, but she wasn't exactly a voluptuous bouncing blond (something she suspected David really left her for.) At best, she thought of herself as average, no matter what people told her. 120 pounds of average.

Meredith trudged down the short hall and into the kitchen. Flipping the light switch, she noticed an alien object in the corner of her eye. Alien because it stood out alarmingly on her stark-white, spotless linoleum. A cockroach. It sat there, staring back at her, unmoving. Courageous, but stupid.

"I dub thee 'David,'" Meredith said as she walked toward the roach.

The roach tried to scurry away, but Meredith brought her right slipper down on it with a crunching impact before the roach had made it more than a couple of inches.

Lifting her foot, she examined the crushed body with a slight smirk. "If only it were that easy," she muttered. "Just like men: moving in on your nice clean life only to scurry off leaving nothing but shit to remember them by."

Meredith took a paper towel and cleaned up the mess, wishing that was that easy, also. Then she fixed her self a nice strong cup of tea and sat down at the TV.

"Infomercial . . . infomercial . . . infomercial . . . Absolutely nothing on. I'm wasting my money on cable."

Switching the tv off, she decided to go to old reliable, her PC. At least there was always something interesting on there.

As soon as she had logged on, however, the power to her apartment went out. Meredith sat staring at the darkened computer screen, not believing her life. Everything seemed to be going wrong. She closed her eyes just as the lights came back on. Opening them again, she saw only darkness. "Huh? What, did the power flicker?" Then the lights really did come back on, and stayed on.

Shrugging, Meredith decided to go take a nice relaxing bath. Standing up, she noticed a small object lying beside the keyboard of her computer. She bent down to examine it closer.

It was some sort of crystal, about the size of a marble. At least it wasn't a roach this time.

Meredith picked the crystal up and turned it over in her hand. It was transparent with a smoky hue. Its surface was smooth, flawless. She peered inside it and realized that the smoke was moving. And in the center of the smoke was a tiny white light. As she stared at the light, it seemed to grow, seemingly coming out of the crystal toward her. And then she was surrounded by it, enveloped in thousands of whirling white lights. They whistled as they spun around her. In spite of her predicament, Meredith began to giggle. The tiny lights actually sounded like they were singing. Strange, discordant tunes: rhythm-less yet oddly meaningful. The songs became words that came to her ears as if from a long distance. No, not words as such, but more like ideas and thoughts. They were searching her soul, her innermost dreams and fears in order to find what she wanted most. What she wanted, needed most of all even if she herself did not know it.

The lights and songs began swirling faster and faster, making a wall which acted like a second skin over Meredith's body. She felt her body become weightless and her feet left the ground. Her mind reeled and she became aware that she could no longer feel her body. Her thoughts and sensations merged with the lights and then she was the light. She was searching her darkest secrets, her unconscious wishes and dreams. She saw years of her life displayed before her as if she was watching them on tv. She saw herself as a young girl, stomping over an ant hill, marveling at the strange sensations it gave her. Sensations she had only begun to understand. Looking down, she pictured all the scurrying ants as people, and she was an angry goddess, crushing the fleeing humans beneath her mighty feet.

Meredith's mind spun away to other points in her life. Her various relationships. Boyfriends had always dominated her, never letting her have any control in the relationship. She wished there was some way to gain part of that control. She wished that she had all the control. The relationships sped by her: middle school, high school, college, and then finally David, whom she fell in love with her senior year at the university. They were together two years and had promised their lives to each other. Then David had become distant. He spent less and less time with her, and refused her suggestion that they move in together. When she had asked what was wrong, he said nothing, just that it was wrong to live together before they were married. Two weeks later, he called her and ended the engagement. The vision before her shattered then and was replaced by her, standing in the kitchen over the crushed body of a cockroach. Only, as Meredith stared down at the roach, its form changed into that of a tiny man. Not just any man, but David. The smashed face gazed up at her with a frozen, if somewhat distorted, look of disbelief. And then the sensations overtook her. The same sensations she had first experienced on an ant hill as a young girl. The sensations grew, became painful, blindingly painful. And then she passed out.

* * * *

Meredith opened her eyes and squinted into a bright blue morning sky. She sat up and looked around her.

She was outside in the middle floating above a rocky desert. Meredith was sitting on a soft mattress that was floating above the landscape. The mattress stretched out for a few feet on all sides of her and had a lined, bowl-like surface. Just as Meredith began to contemplate standing, the mattress turned until she was facing away from the sun, and the sun was blocked off by something behind her. Meredith found this odd considering she had just been facing the opposite direction and there had been nothing in that direction to block the sun. Turning where she sat, Meredith nearly lapsed back into unconsciousness. Before her was an immense face, larger than any billboard she had ever seen, except this face was three-dimensional. The face smiled down at her, showing huge, gleaming white teeth as long as her forearm. Meredith gazed up into the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen. The gigantic face before her frightened her beyond belief, but she also found it overwhelmingly beautiful. That strange sensation overtook her once again.

The lips came together and parted in a whisper, which to Meredith sounded like a loudspeaker. "I bet you're wondering what the hell is going on."

Meredith could only nod in numb agreement.

There was a rumbling chuckle from the titaness.

"Well, let me explain it for you. My name is Sheila. You should have no fear of me. In fact, I suspect that what fear you do have is changing itself into utter lust. It should. After all, I am a product of your deepest rooted desires. The crystal searched your inner being and discovered that you have a secret wish to be dominant over every other human on earth. You want to be a goddess, bigger than anything in the world, and to have mankind trembling beneath your feet. You also have the desire to have someone bigger than you, to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. That's where I come in. But don't worry, you still have utter control over me. Think of me as sort of a genie, except that instead of only three wishes, you have an infinite amount of wishes to make. Anything's possible, as long as it's in your imagination. By the way, did you notice that I'm female. What else does that tell you about your desires?"

A slow grin spread itself across Meredith's face. "So, I can have anything I want? Anything that I can dream of?" Sheila grinned in turn, nodding her head.

Meredith was tingling all over.

"Well. Wow. Wow! This is great! Where do I start? Unlimited wishes! It makes my head spin!"

"Um, there is one catch. Every power has its price. And one day you will have to pay yours."

Meredith didn't like the sound of that.

"I knew it. What is it? I don't have the kind of money that this must cost. Is this some sort of a money making scam or something?"

Sheila laughed, "No, no money. The price will be determined over time. And you will be able to pay it. I guarantee you that. Now, shall we have some fun?"

The thought of payment slipped from Meredith's mind. "Yeah, and I think I know where to start. Take me to Terre Noire, my city."

Sheila placed Meredith on her shoulder, snuggled into a lock of her blond curls.

"Okay, just leave the traveling to me."

Had anyone been in the desert, he would have seen a five-hundred foot tall goddess, dressed in "tiny" denim cutoffs and a skin tight white midriff, slowly fading from sight, the only mark of her passage a monstrous set of foot prints left by her sandals.



Part 2: ...and the band played on

Terre Noire, Oklahoma was a large city nestled on I-44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Interestingly, it was larger than Oklahoma City, though it covered less land area than the capitol. The streets were wide enough to accommodate up to six lanes of traffic at once, and the majestic buildings rose hundreds of feet into the air. The tallest building, dubbed Terre Haute because it was home of one of the largest law firms in the middle part of the country, stood tall and proud in the exact center of the city. For the time being, anyway.

Being the month of May, Terre Noire was celebrating Mayfest, which mostly consisted of parades, money-making booths, and a lot of beer. Sort of like Oktoberfest, except in the spring. An entire street for one square mile was devoted to booths, while two blocks over, another had a long parade moving down it. This was one of the few times of the year that citizens of the Black Earth city put aside their mundane tasks and went out into the streets just to have fun. Thousands thronged on the side walks and into the lanes. It was a wonder the parade made it through the town at all.

Though the tall buildings blocked most of the sunlight from filtering down to the streets throughout the day, there were times in the morning and the evening when daylight actually reached the city dwellers below. Which was why it was strange when sudden shadow fell upon the parade. Most assumed it was a passing cloud. Several people curiously gazed up into the sky, wondering if the tornado season was about to hurl another damaging storm down at them. They were right about one thing, it was a bad storm. But it had nothing to do with the weather.

Gasps rose up from the crowds as more and more people turned to see what their brethren were staring at. Soon all was silent save the beat of the high school marching bands. All eyes that weren't intent on playing music stared into the air above the roofs.

A monstrous figure hung suspended in midair, feet downward. It was that of a beautiful woman. The crowds eyes in unison followed her tall, graceful (had she been normal sized) body from her brown sandaled feet, on up to her skin-tight denim cutoffs, and higher still to where her flat stomach showed between the shorts and the white midriff she wore. Her breasts all but burst from the white fabric and they could see them heave with her great breaths. Then, peering over the swell of her bosom and down at the people, they saw a grin. A mischievous grin. A sinister grin. That face struck fear into the people, yet they were mesmerized to their spots. Even as the woman began to lower toward them, they did not move a muscle. Except for a few men. Between their legs a muscle suddenly sprang to life.

Slowly Sheila floated downward, all the while grinning down at the foolish mortals. Her breath came faster as the anticipation of the fun to follow grew. From the soft yet excited breathing coming from her right shoulder, she could tell Meredith was excited, too.

Lightly, to her, Sheila's left foot sat down in the street. Amazingly, that section was wide enough and long enough to admit the entire length of her foot without crushing anyone. The parade had a break caused by some unruly people deciding they needed to cross the street in the middle of it, causing the space to open up.

The entire parade behind her stopped when they noticed the titaness standing before them. Oblivious of the new developments, the parade before her kept its momentum.

As she applied more of her weight to the street, the asphalt began to groan, and then to crack. Slowly, her left foot sank into the street and came to a halt. All eyes (that had noticed her) stared up at the giantess who stood with one foot in the street and the other drawn up her leg like a stork. Sheila's smile broadened and she looked down at the marching band a few yards in front of her.

"That's Union High's marching band," Meredith said from her shoulder. "I was in Broken Arrow's band. We were rivals." She said this last with a sneer.

Sheila turned her head as much as she could without knocking her little friend off, and gave her a wink. Then, raising a finger to her plush lips, she said "Shhh."

Sheila slowly swung her right foot out and positioned it above the band, which was still oompa-ing away. "I hate Sousa," was all she said, and stealthily brought the sandaled foot down on the back half of the band.

Trombones and trumpets could be heard bleating in surprise as the sudden pressure struck them from above. The entire brass section was immediately knocked to the ground. With a great crunching thud, the band members were squashed to a thin pulp along with their precious instruments.

All hell broke loose.

The crowd snapped from its trance at the sight of their beloved band being flattened beneath the woman's foot and began screaming. The percussion section of the band, who had been right in front of the brass, turned in unison to see what the squelching sounds were. At once they stopped playing and their visions traveled up the twin towers behind them. The sudden loss of rhythm caused the woodwinds to falter, and they turned to see what had happened to the percussion.

Sheila had already lifted her left foot over the rest of the band. Several members screamed and broke from he ranks. They didn't have time to get far enough away, however, for just then, Sheila slammed her foot down with a huge boom.

Instruments and gore alike sprayed out from beneath her sandal and rained down upon the panicking crowd-turned-mob as she stomped the puny people with all her might. The road bucked and asphalt erupted into the air, the tremors knocking most of the crowd to their knees.

Sheila was stunned to hear cheering behind her, and she turned to see another band jumping up and down and waving their hands at her.

"That's Broken Arrow," Meredith laughed. "The sickos! I have another wish, Sheila."

Sheila listened as Meredith explained what she wanted, and with a grin, she plucked the tiny woman from her shoulder and lowered her to the street in front of the BA band. Meredith noticed that only a few members, those of the tuba section, were cheering at the demise of their rival band. It seems nothing's changed about this band, she thought.

Meredith recognized no one since she had graduated nearly eight years before, but she soon saw two familiar, flustered faces appear from the side of the street and rush toward her.

"Meredith Danforth, what the hell is going on here?" shouted a red faced Tom Stark. His partner, the co-director of bands at Broken Arrow, Phil Brown stood along side him, looking like a grizzled and deranged John Denver.

Meredith smiled and visibly shuddered with anticipation. "Why Tom, it's so good to see you again after all these years. Mad Dog." She nodded at Brown, who's face grew even redder with anger at the nickname.

Stark stuttered and his veins began to pop out from his neck. His mustache plumed outward with angered puffs of air. "Who is that?!?" he screamed with a motion up at Sheila. "You can't just go around stepping on bands, even if it is Union!"

Meredith laughed. This is strange, she thought. He really must be crazy. We always thought so.

"Sure we can," Meredith said out loud. She looked up at Sheila who was watching the three with interest. The giantess winked down at her. Turning back to Tom, Meredith said, "For two years I was your drum-major. I directed this band and took all your shit when they screwed up. It didn't matter if they were wrong, I was the one getting yelled at." Tom was fuming at this point. Meredith ignored him and turned to Mad Dog.

"And you, you hick, pompous piece of shit." Phil's eyes bugged behind his glasses, nearly popping out of his head. "You egged him on. You laughed at me when I cried. Now it's time for me to get even."

Meredith closed her eyes and concentrated. When she opened them again, the two directors were gone. She smiled and looked down at her feet. There stood the two men, barely an inch tall each, staring dumbly at her loafers. With sudden awareness, they both followed her legs up into her grinning face. Meredith looked closer and saw that Tom had wet himself. She thought he was crying, also.

"I'm no longer under you, Tom. You're under me, now." She lifted up her foot and slowly brought it down on the stunned man.

Tom threw his arms up in a last ditch effort to protect himself. He felt the unyielding leather of her sole touch his hands, and then it was forcing him to the ground. Despite his best efforts, his strength did nothing at all to stave off the increasing weight of Meredith's foot. Tom soon found himself lying on his back with his head turned to the side as her sole pressed into his cheek. The pressure intensified, and pain flared through is body as his legs cracked. He tried to scream, but the air had already been forced from his lungs. Stars formed in front of Tom's vision, and soon thereafter, his sight became completely dark.

Meredith's foot met the pavement with a crunch and a gush of blood from beneath the ball of her foot. She stood there for a moment, shaking in her sexual excitement and leaving her foot resting upon the crushed remains of the former director of bands. With a sigh of contentment, she lifted her shoe and looked down at the squashed form beneath it.

He wasn't there.

Meredith was puzzled for a moment, then she smiled and turned her shoe over.

The flattened corpse of Tom Stark was stuck to the sole of her shoe. Meredith giggled and, sliding her shoe on the street to scrape off the remains, she looked around for Phil. He was gone, too.

Movement caught her eye, and she soon saw the tiny man running away from her and into the forest of legs that belonged to the band members. Before he had made it too far, though, a white marching shoe slammed down on him with a wet crunch. The poor man's insides splattered a girl's leg and she screamed.

Meredith looked up with astonishment and into the pale blue eyes of one of the flute players. The girl was smiling. She was pretty, in a plain sort of way, with sandy-blond hair that was pulled back, because that was the dress code while marching. The girl blinked and shrugged.

"I've been wanting to do that since summer practice began." She said with a sigh.

Meredith smiled elatedly at her. "I've wanted to do it for ten years."

The girl smiled back, and look down at Phil's crushed remains, which were stuck on her own sole. She sat her foot back down and looked back to Meredith. "I think I'll leave him there," she said. "I like the feeling of knowing I have Phil Brown stuck on the bottom of my shoe whenever I step down."

Meredith laughed at that, then she grew serious as she leaned close to the girl. "I'm letting you go," she whispered. "My friend and I are about to have...a smashing good time." She looked around, then pointed to a nearby building. "Go in there and don't come out. I promise we'll leave the building alone and you'll be safe." With a thought, she said, "Is your family nearby?"

The girl shook her head. "My parents are out of town."

"Good," Meredith said, then pointed to the building again. "Now run!"

She watched as the girl took off, stepping gingerly whenever the foot Phil was stuck to came down so as not to dislodge him too soon.

Meredith looked around at all the stunned faces staring at her. The band seemed to be the only group that had hung around. It seemed that they were interested in what happened to their directors. Too bad for them, Meredith thought, almost sadly. She looked down at herself to examine her clothes. She wore brown loafers, blue jeans, and a white tee shirt. She had wished herself into more public-worthy clothes before they had entered the city. Now she thought that they were too drab for a night out "on" the town.

She closed her eyes again, and thought hard. When she opened them again, she looked appraisingly down at herself.

Her loafers had changed into black sandals with boot-like tread and two-inch heels. Her jeans had become a black skirt that came down to mid-thigh. Her white tee-shirt, a blue silk, sleeveless blouse.

Meredith reached up and gently touched her hair to find that the shoulder-length, dark tresses had curled into a fashionable hairdo. She smiled then, and closed her eyes once more.

The band stared at the woman in awe as she grew before their eyes. Their necks craned back as she grew taller and taller, till she seemed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the other giantess. They stared in awe, the tuba section loving the view up her skirt, as the woman hugged the other with affection, and the band shuddered as one as the two titanesses turned their gazes down upon them.

Sheila giggled with excitement. There was no need to ask Meredith if she intended on letting the rest of the band go, she could read her mind. As she watched, Meredith spread her arms and lifted her right foot.

The band screamed as they stared up at the sole of the woman's shoe. Before many of them had a chance to react, though, she brought it down into their midst. Half of the band, including the tuba section, was crushed mercilessly with terrifying swiftness. The remaining broke in all directions.

Sheila was ready for them. With pummeling feet, she began to crush the fleeing insects one at a time. Actually, sometimes she got five at a time, but who was counting. Tiny screams rose to her ears, serving only to drive her excitement further. Raising her knee to her chest, she brought her now bloody sandal down on a shrieking clarinet player. Her other foot found a trombonist.

Meredith lifted her left foot, keeping her right firmly planted on her squashed victims, and stomped down hard on two fleeing flutists. But, before she lifted her right foot for the next squish, she noticed a small trombone player approach her sandal. This intrigued her and she bent down to get a closer look at him.

The boy had red curly hair that hung down to the middle of his back. What intrigued Meredith the most about him was that he was smiling up at her. In fact, he was literally red with excitement. Closer inspection revealed a considerably bump in his pants.

"Ha!" Meredith laughed. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

The boy nodded vigorously, and began shouting.

Meredith wished for herself to be able to hear him, and suddenly his voice was clear in her ears.

"...the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! I love this!"

Meredith smiled and picked the boy up. "What's your name?"

"Sean!" he said excitedly. "Yours is Meredith?"

"Yes." She looked at him quizzically. "Are you some sort of pervert?"

Sean shook his head, although he looked embarrassed. "No. It's just the thought of a giant woman stepping on people has always...excited me." He looked down in shame.

Meredith felt sorry for him. "Oh, don't feel bad," she said, lifting a finger to stroke his red head. "Why do you think I'm doing this? It excites me, too."

Sean looked up and brightened. Then he looked at her arm. "Do you mind if I, uh...that is...uh...."

Meredith was puzzled again. She didn't know why he was looking at her arm that way. But then she got an idea. Grasping Sean around his waist, she placed him on her exposed arm and began to rub him back and forth.

Sean shook in ecstasy as Meredith ran his body across her flesh. She smelled so good, and the hair of her arm tickled his face in the most exquisite way. With a little effort, he managed to work himself out of his uniform coat and then out of his tee-shirt.

Meredith saw what he was doing and decided to help him. With her other hand, she grabbed the pants of his uniform, and with only a slight tug, ripped them off. Then she did the same with his underwear, exposing his throbbing penis.

"Aww, how cute," Meredith cooed. Then she began to rub Sean along her arm again.

The feeling of her skin and hair on his naked body elated Sean. His breath began to come in shuddering heaves, and soon he felt his manhood leap in response to the constant treatment.

Meredith slowed her pace and looked down at Sean as she let him go. He lay breathless, lying limply on her forearm. After a moment, he turned over and looked up at her.

"I have one more request," he said to her. "If you will, please step on me."

Meredith recoiled in momentary horror. Then, seeing Sean's hurt look, she smiled again. "Well, if that's what you really want."

Sean brightened and nodded his head with more vigor than before. His arousal was apparent, even though he should have been worn out.

Meredith shrugged. "Okay, then, but I sort of liked you. Can I ask you why?"

Sean thought for a moment. "My life's not going too well right now, and the only way I would want to die is beneath the foot of a beautiful woman. I'd never be able to commit suicide, but I don't' really want to live."

A tear came to Meredith's eye. "That's so sad. But if that's what you want, then I'll do it."

Meredith found a spot on the street that wasn't embedded with squashed bodies and laid Sean down on his back. Rising up to her full height, she looked down on the tiny boy. She thought she saw him smiling up at her, then he made a motion with his hands.

"Do you want it fast and painless?" she asked him.

"Yes, but hold your foot over me for a few seconds first. Then stomp down hard."

Meredith raised her foot into the air, some how keeping her balance, and held it over the boy. She counted to ten, then brought her foot up till her knee brushed her breast, and slammed it back down on the minuscule form.

The streets echoed with the thunder of her stomp, and the street lurched and bucked.

After the echoes had faded, Meredith lifted her foot.

In the center of a perfect footprint lay the crushed remains of Sean. His body was flattened and his fluids rayed out around him in all directions. He wasn't recognizable as the boy he was before, but Meredith thought she could see a smile frozen on his squashed face. With a sad sigh, she turned her eyes away from the sight and looked over at Sheila.

Sheila was standing a few feet away (by their standards) and was examining something in her hand intently. Meredith came closer and saw that it was a tiny band member, a girl.

The girl was screaming and hitting at Sheila's fingers as she poked at her. Sheila was laughing wickedly.

The sinister lust Meredith had lost when killing Sean returned to her now in force. "Are you ready to go find the little people?"

Sheila looked up and a new grin spread itself across her face. "Sure!" With one quick motion, she clenched her hand into a fist and cut the girl's shrill scream off with a squelch. She didn't even look as she opened her hand and let the crushed body slide from it onto the pavement below. The girl's body had taken on the form of Sheila's palm, but splattered into a shapeless mass when it hit the street.

With no more thought for the band, the two giantesses strode off down the street in search of more tiny victims.





Part 3: More tiny victims



The crowd had made it a surprising distance in the time it took the two giantess to squash the bands. Sheila and Meredith found them three blocks away. The tiny people had begun to slow down, but they still moved en masse away from the direction the women had been in. When they heard the titanic footfalls, and saw the giantesses closing on them, smiles beaming, however, they screamed in unison and resumed their stampede.

Meredith looked at Sheila and said, "Ewe, Sheila, would you look at all those bugs?"

Sheila laughed. "Yeah, aren't they disgusting? What do you do when you see bugs, Meredith?"

Meredith winked at the other woman. "I step on them and squish their little guts out."

"Me too," said Sheila, and they turned back to the fleeing denizens. "Ladies first." She made a slight bow and motioned to the people with her hands.

"Oh, I couldn't," Meredith joked. "After you, my dear."

"But I insist," Sheila said with mock seriousness. "Besides, if you go first, you can lay out the red carpet for me."

Meredith laughed. "Oh, sure. You get a red carpet and I get a carpet of insects. Oh well, mine will make neat crunchy sounds when I walk on it."

The crowd being so large hadn't been able to move much because they were even more frantic to get away from the women than before, therefore tripping and falling over each other. Meredith looked down and saw a man fall to his knees to be knocked down by a woman and stampeded by several more. She watched this crushing go on for a moment, then decided that she wanted to go see where all the people were running to, so she tried to follow them.

She didn't succeed in her endeavor, but did succeed in using them as the carpet she had mentioned. She looked down and around her feet as she stepped into the shrieking crowd. People fell in the shadows of her feet and were instantly squashed beneath her soles. She continued deeper into the crowd, laughing because as she passed through the people, the ones she didn't step on kept running in the same direction, which ended up being toward Meredith.

Meredith decided to have a little fun, then. She stood in place and looked down at the tiny things running between her feet. She made up a game where she decided to stomp only on people who had black hair. There wasn't much to the game since black seemed to be a popular color with this crowd. Closing her eyes for an instant, she opened them and concentrated on the first person she saw with black hair.

The man struggled to remain upright in the wave of bodies that surged with him and around him. Running was difficult in such a tightly packed mob, and he had already seen several people go down to be crushed beneath the feet of their fleeing comrades. There was a great wind when a large, heeled sandal came down only a couple of feet to his right, squelching several bodies beneath it in screaming crunches. One man was trapped beneath the tall heel and didn't have time to scream before his upper torso was crushed, leaving his legs kicking in spasms from beneath it. The foot lifted again before he had a chance to run past it, and he saw the flattened remains of a dozen or so people become unstuck from the sole to fall limply back into the footprint created by the monstrous woman's step. Despite his best efforts at changing direction, the man was forced by the crowd to follow the giantess, even though he knew that it was the wrong direction to be going.

When the woman had stopped moving, the man tried to stop as well, but again the people forced him onward. Was he the only intelligent person there? He watched in horror as he was pushed between her feet and on past her. Once he was through, however, he redoubled his efforts at running forward, praying for good fortune.

But only bad fortune was in store for the citizens of Terre Noire that day. The man began to cry when he heard the wet sucking sound of the woman's foot rising into the air. And he began to outright weep as the shadow passed over him and he felt the warm drippings of blood rain down from above. His tears did not last long, however, as the ponderous weight crashed down on his head, driving him to the ground and breaking both his legs when they weren't fast enough to bend in the right direction. It hardly mattered, though, because his neck was instantly broken when the sole contacted his crown, paralyzing his body. The man was hardly aware of the lights going out of his life forever as the woman put the full force of her weight into the step, squishing all those unfortunate enough to be near the man with black hair she had been aiming for.

Meredith shrugged when she realized how many people she had to squash just to step on one guy with black hair. With hardly another thought, she raised her other foot and tracked another person with black hair. This was a woman. Meredith noticed with delight that two other people near the woman had black hair. Or was it brown? Meredith didn't care. She was going for three points in one.

Her foot came down with a crash and drove fifteen people into the pavement. Five others were pinned by their legs or other limbs, screaming and flailing in pain. A man lay shrieking in agony with his legs crushed beneath the sandal, but his scream was cut off abruptly as a woman's Reebok landed on his face with enough force to squash his head like a melon. The woman hardly noticed in her panic to escape the rampaging titaness.

Meredith was having the time of her life, and began to dance in a small circle, pulverizing many small people as she did. She stopped after a minute and turned to see Sheila smiling at her.

"Your turn," Meredith said. She motioned to the bloody footprints strewn with flattened corpses. "I've laid out the red carpet for you, Madame."

Sheila shook her head. "I plan on making a larger, redder on." She pointed to an area in front of the mob, and Meredith turned to see what she was pointing at. In an instant, a building appeared ahead in the street, blocking all passage out of the newly created blind ally. The crowd surged to a stop and slowly turned to face the titanesses.

Sheila smiled at her artwork and then strode forward and caught up with the mob. Wading into it with crunching steps, she suddenly fell to her knees. Many people were caught beneath her descending knees and splattered in all directions. Sheila then put her weight on her hands, squashing even more people beneath her palms. Stretching out and letting her toes slide through the crowd, she laid her great body down.

Citizens looked up in terror as Sheila's flat stomach came crashing down upon them. A woman was miraculously spared for an instant as Sheila's navel engulfed her and plunged her into darkness. The woman's ears popped at the sudden change in air pressure, and she soon felt the end of the navel pressing down upon her head. As Sheila let more and more weight rest on the underside of her body, the woman was slowly crushed in the collapsing belly button.

Other people had a momentary vision of the giantess's breasts falling upon them. A man was caught beneath the hard nipple of Sheila's left breast and squished instantly as the areola was driven into the ground. Several other people felt the smothering, pliable weight of her mamaries and thought that they would be spared. They underestimated the force behind that weight, however, and soon met the same fates as the hundreds who came before them.

Sheila reveled in the feel of so many tiny bodies flattening beneath her. She luxuriated in the ecstasy that the man brought to her nipple, and even felt and shuddered at the unfortunate woman trapped in her navel. Thanks to her heightened senses, Sheila was acutely aware of every person lying under her trim body.

She bent her elbows and rested her chin on her hands, sweeping and crushing several more under her arms. Then she focused on the crowd immediately before her face. The insects screamed and fought against one another in the packed mob, but between the lying Sheila and Meredith standing behind her, they were trapped. Meredith made this point by stomping on any who tried to flee the area.

Sheila grinned seductively at the people before her. Then, pursing her lips, she blew them a kiss.

Ten people were caught by the gale force of Sheila's breath and lifted into the air, only to fall to the ground with the breaking of several limbs on both them and the people they landed on.

Sheila playfully reached out a hand and began pinching the tiny people between her fingers. She felt like a school girl squashing ants on the playground. She loved to watch the minuscule faces of her victims turn first red, then purple, then nearly black before they burst like grapes, sending forth a plume of blood and entrails forced up through their necks. A thought occurred to her then, and she looked over her shoulder at her new friend.

"Hey Meredith, why don't you find a way to keep these ants from escaping and come over here a minute."

Meredith nodded and looked around her. Deciding what to do, she reached out and pulled on a building that was about as tall as she was.

The building creaked and groaned. Meredith dug her fingers into the walls, noticing quite a few scared faces peering at her in terror from the windows level with her eyes. She smiled and winked at them, and doubled her efforts. With a mighty ripping, the building began to lean toward Meredith. Unable to withstand the pressure she was exerting on it any longer, the structure finally gave and began to tumble forward. Meredith was amused to see the people withing scramble in the opposite direction in a vain attempt to escape the oncoming ground.

Meredith sidestepped and let the building topple over. It crashed to the ground, shaking the surrounding buildings and sending up a great plume of dust and debris. Dusting her hands together, she smiled innocently at Sheila. "How was that?"

Sheila smiled back. "Perfect, my love. Now, come over here."

Again Meredith obeyed. Crunching through the screaming people, she moved to stand in front of Sheila. "Yes, dear?"

Sheila looked up at her. "So this is what you look like to them," she said gleefully.

Meredith giggled and raised her foot into the air, holding the sole over Sheila's face. "Watch out, or I'll step on you and squash you like a bug."

Sheila grinned devilishly and pursed her lips in a kiss for Meredith. Then she said, "would you be a dear squash these insects for me? They're annoying me with their high pitched squeaks."

Meredith was enraptured. "But of course, my dear." With that, she began stomping her feet all around like a girl throwing a tantrum.

Sheila peered under Meredith's pounding feet and saw countless bodies being flattened beyond recognition in quick succession. Blood sprayed into the air and into her face. Sheila's tongue snaked out and licked the residue from her lips, smacking them as if she had eaten something extremely yummy.

Meredith stopped for a moment and looked down at her friend. She covered her mouth in embarrassment when she saw the red stains on Sheila's face. Sheila wore a mock expression of disgust.

"I'm sorry," Meredith said.

"Not a problem," Sheila replied and then got another idea. "Hey, come down here. I want you to taste something."

Meredith hesitated at the ominous phrase. But, deciding that nothing could phase her at this point, she consented.

Hundreds of miraculously un-squashed people screamed in unison as Meredith's firm buttocks lowered quickly upon them. They were crushed instantly beneath her ass as she sat down, paying them no mind. Shifting to get a better position, she grimaced and reached under her right cheek. Pulling out a flattened car, she shrugged and tossed it over her shoulder where it landed on more screaming people.

"Alright," Sheila said. "Now, this may sound disgusting, but these guys are actually quite tasty." She ran her finger through the blood on her face and held it out to Meredith. "Here, try it."

Meredith scowled and blanched a little.

"Don't worry," Sheila said, "Have I ever led you astray."

Meredith thought for a moment, then shrugged. Leaning forward, she made an "o" with her lips and encircled Sheila's finger with it.

She had tasted blood before. Anyone who has ever accidentally bit their tongue or lip too hard has. But this was somehow different. This blood tasted salty, and yet sweet. Almost like candy. Idly she wondered if Sheila had done something to make it taste that way. She didn't care. Removing her lips from Sheila's finger, she looked between her crossed legs.

There was a sizable crowd trapped there, all cringing in terror. Some had even gotten up the nerve to scale her shoes and skirt in an effort to escape. Smiling, Meredith reached down and seized two men between her fingers.

Raising her hand above her upturned face, she smiled briefly at the screaming men before opening her lips and dropping them inside. With no more thought than she'd give to popcorn, she began to chew.

Surprisingly, they were better tasting than the simple blood. And they crunched and crackled more than popcorn. She made a slight "ooh" sound as a trickle of blood escaped her lips, then she simply slid her tongue out and lapped it up. Her mind finally made up, Meredith eagerly reached between her legs and scooped up ten or so people. They all went shrieking into her mouth and she began chewing.

Inside her mouth, people screamed and beat against her teeth. Then the teeth parted and her tongue began pushing them between her molars. Heads and limbs cracked and were pulverized between her grinding teeth. Arms and legs were ferociously ripped off, and some people were lifted by Meredith's tongue to be squashed against the roof of her mouth. Those still alive felt the horror of her great tongue lifting and pushing them into her throat. They clawed with their remaining limbs in an effort to keep from sliding down that dark, dank tunnel at the back of her throat, but it was to no avail. Soon they were plunged into darkness, the strong muscles of Meredith's throat pushing them down her esophagus.

Meredith burped and lifted three more to her lips. When she popped them into her mouth this time, she noticed their clothing dissolving like cotton candy. Another trick by Sheila, she thought.

Sheila herself watched Meredith closely, enjoying every moment of the people's terror. Then she began a feast of her own. Putting her hand in the crowd before her, and squashing several people in the process, she lifted the tiny morsels to her own mouth. She didn't bother chewing, but swallowed five people whole, relishing the feelings of their weak struggles all the way into her stomach.

It went on this way for several minutes. Soon, however, all the prisoners in their little arena appeared to be gone. Sighing, the two giantesses stood up, brushing the flattened corpses from their bodies.

Looking behind her, Meredith saw that some of the people she had sat on weren't entirely dead. They writhed like half crushed insects, gazing up at her with hurt, terrified eyes. Meredith raised her foot over them, then shook her head. Dropping her foot back to its place, she said, "Nope. I'll just leave you there. I used to love doing that to bugs when I was a kid.

She looked at her bloody clothes and concentrated on them becoming clean. With a flash, the stains were gone and she looked as pristine as ever. Sheila did the same for her clothes.

"What now?" Sheila asked.

Meredith thought for a moment, and then a slow, mischievous smile spread across her lips.

"Let's go find my ex-fiancé."





Part 4: the Ex

Meredith and Sheila picked their way through the rubble of the collapsed building at first, then they shrugged and together pushed the other buildings in their "arena" over. The once majestic structures collapsed with greater noise and smoke than the first. Looking at each other, they both said "Oops" and then began their search.

After they had cleared the debris, Meredith asked Sheila to stop for a moment and bent down to unstrap her sandals. Setting first one long, graceful foot on the street and feeling its cool texture slowly give under her weight, and then the other, Meredith looked briefly at the mangled and crushed corpses on the shoes' soles. Shrugging, she set the sandals down on the roof of a nearby building, never noticing the small crowd of screaming people who had been watching the giantesses from their imagined safety. They too caught a brief glimpse of the flattened bodies before the dark soles crushed them down through the roof and into the top floor of the building. Several people were pushed screaming over the side where they plunged to their deaths ten stories below.

Sighing, Meredith nodded to Sheila and they proceeded onward.

Sheila looked over at her friend as the two strode down the streets, barely aware of the tiny cars and people they crushed beneath her feet. "So," she said, "your ex...David? Where can we find him?" Of course she already knew the answer. Come on, she was somewhat of a genie. Like she couldn't read minds.

Meredith was extremely aware of the objects which found their way beneath her bare soles. She was in a heightened state of enrapture, in fact, and her breathing was quite erratic. She hoped that she would have the pleasure of crushing whole crowds beneath her feet as before, except barefoot. The tiny beatings of minuscule hands and the feel of crumpling metal from scale model cars was exquisite and quite stimulating to say the least. She barely heard Sheila, and the other woman had to ask a second time before she looked up from the screaming face she had been concentrating on. Consequently, her latest victim went unnoticed as he crunched beneath her heel.

"Huh?" Meredith said, licking perspiration from her upper lip.

Sheila giggled. "David works in that law firm, right? Over in that tall building that they call Terre Haute?"

Meredith nodded, suddenly excited in a new way. A vengeful way. "Yes. I bet he's in his office right now screwing some blond bimbo." A car full of a screaming family of four visiting from Oregon was flattened beneath her foot as she accented the last word.

* * * *

David was in his office on the 100th floor of Terre Haute screwing some blond bimbo. Actually, it was the office of the founder of the Parker and Parker law firm, Louis Parker, who was out of town at the funeral of his brother, Rich Parker, but that scarcely mattered. David was a young, still fairly wet-behind-the-ears lawyer, but Patricia didn't need to know that. As far as she was concerned, he was the founder. It didn't matter that he was just in his mid-twenties and the firm was founded in the fifties, Patricia wasn't very good with math, even if she had known when it was founded, which she didn't. How did David get access to this prestigious office? Who cares. Let's get back to the story.

Neither of the two lovers knew what was going on just ten blocks east of the building. At that moment, neither of them even knew Meredith existed, let alone Sheila. David's mind wasn't on his ex-fiancée, but rather the blond bimbo he had left her for. And the blond bim...uh...Patricia didn't know who Meredith was, even if she had known that David had been engaged, which she didn't. But anyway, the two were whooping it up on the expensive suede couch of Louis Parker's office, which hadn't even been Scotch-Guarded.

As the two heaved to a sweaty finish, David weakly pushed himself up into a push-up position over Patricia and smiled down at her. "What'd I tell ya? Suede does feel better than leather."

Partricia smiled back. "You were right. But what animal does suede come from? I bet they have fun having sex." She giggled her bubbly giggle and squinted her cutesy squint, and David very nearly sprang to life once again. Had he remembered who Meredith was at the moment, he would remember that he hated that about her. Her intelligence. He liked Patricia much more.

Suddenly he remembered who Meredith was. And suddenly Patricia felt a warmth spread across her tummy which tickled her and made her giggle again.

"Davy," she bubbled, "Did you just have an itsy moment on my tum-tum without me?" She looked down at her "tum-tum" and chirped in disgust. "Davy! You peed on my tum-tum! Is this some kind of sick fetish?!?"

Davy didn't respond.

"Davy!"

She looked up, and saw David staring in shock out the window.

Patricia struggled to sit up and look too, but he wouldn't move.

"Get...off...of...me, you sicko!" With a mighty heave, she managed to shove the frozen man over to the side where he collapsed to the floor and immediately sprang to his feet, grabbing his trousers and pulling them on, frantically and backwards.

"What's going on?" Patricia sat up, spilling the urine onto the non-Scotch-Guarded couch. "Ewe!" She grabbed David's shirt and began to wipe off her stomach. David quickly snatched it away and tried to put it on.

"What the fuck's wrong with you?" Patricia squeaked.

"We...we have to get out of here!" David stammered. "She's after me!"

Patricia placed her fists on her curvaceous hips and put on a scolding expression. "Who's after you? Are you married?"

David was trying his best to put on his shoes, wrong feet of course. "No! It's her! My fiancé! Ex...ex-fiancé!"

"Oh shit!" Patricia rolled her eyes. "Is she stalking you? Those exes can really be psychos!"

David shot his terrified eyes out the window and stared. "You might say that," he whispered.

Patricia looked out the window, and screamed.

There, two buildings away, standing taller than either of the two, but still shorter than Terre Haute, stood the biggest pissed off bitch she had ever seen. Patricia made boom-boom in her undies. Except she had no undies on. Shoulda Scotch-Guarded the couch.

Breaking his horrified frozen state, David picked up Patricia's skirt and blouse and threw them at her. "Get dressed! She's coming for US!"

"Why me?!?" Patricia shrilly queried.

"Because I left you for her and she probably knows it, you stupid bimbo!"

"Oh." And then, "Hey! I'm not a bim...Hey!! You were enga...."

"Shut up and come on!" David shouted as he shot from the room.

Patricia snatched at her clothes and began to pull them on as she ran after him. "Wait, Davy!"

* * * *

One foot resting on three parked cars, and the other on a once shrieking and squirming crowd of innocent pedestrians, Meredith stared with smoldering eyes at the top floor of Terre Haute. With enhanced vision courtesy of another wish, she watched as the blond bimbo screamed and soiled herself and her surroundings. After the two lovers fled the room, Meredith took a step toward the building. Beneath her flaming anger, she felt things crunch beneath her bare sole. It soothed her somewhat, and she imagined what it would feel like to have that bitch beneath the same soles. She would wait for them to reach the ground floor and then have some fun. First, she would have other fun.

"Sheila," she said.

"I'm on it." Sheila thundered around to the other side of the building to wait at the other doors and catch the man if he decided the back was the best way to leave.

Meanwhile, Meredith crunched over to the front door and amused herself with the screaming mob in front of the building. Slowly and carefully, she swung her foot from left to right, lightly touching it on the heads of the tiny people. It felt just like soft grass. People screamed and fell, some losing their heads, literally. Sighing, she put her weight into a step, and reveled in the feel of their tiny forms squishing beneath her foot. She did this over and over again, each time imagining that it was the blond bimbo.

On the other side of the building, Sheila lay down in the street, head to the back door. Her legs stretched out and toppled the building directly opposite the law firm, but she paid it no mind. Dozens of people fell to her mighty body as it collapsed upon them, but she paid them no mind, either. Her attention was concentrated on the doorway and soon she saw what she was waiting for.

David and a half dressed Patricia came screeching to a halt as they burst through the door and were confronted by the immense façade of the giantess.

"Hello, lovers," Sheila whispered and blew them a kiss.

David shrieked.

Patricia squeaked.

They both turned around and ran back into the building, making their way to the other doors, not realizing in their blind fear that Meredith was probably on the other side waiting for them.

Sheila waited a moment, then, holding the doors open with two fingers, she blew hard into the building.

Patricia and David had just opened the other doors when they saw the massive feet standing on either side of the building's awning. They stopped and tried to go back in, but just then a strong wind blew from inside the building and lifted them into the air. They landed with a thud beneath the canopy, knocking the air from both of them and stunning them.

Meredith was ready for them. With her right hand, she ripped the awning away to reveal the two lovers. With her left, she swept the stunned blond out into the street, directly between her bare feet. Meredith had taken great care to remove all pedestrians and cars from the street. She wanted this bimbo to be the only one in the area, with the exception of David, whom she wanted to watch what she was about to do.

Patricia rolled over onto her back and stared up at the form looming above her. Shock took the new air from her lungs and her eyes grew wide with terror. She was huge! Her shapely legs rose like thick columns on either side of Patricia until they met the hem of the woman's black skirt. Higher up there ballooned a blue silk blouse, and higher still was the frightening face of a pissed-off woman!

Meredith stared angrily down at the insect between her feet. Then she looked over at David, who was trying to regain his feet, but apparently had hurt his leg badly when he had landed.

"So, David. Is this the blond bimbo you left me for?"

David didn't answer, he just kept trying to climb to his feet, but kept falling down.

Meredith laughed. "Why David, you look just like a half squashed bug trying to crawl away." Then she looked back down at the blond, who still hadn't moved. She just lay there staring up at her like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car.

"This one looks just like a bug, too," Meredith said with a sneer. "I don't like pests. Especially ones who still my fiancé. Why don't I just squash it." She raised her right foot into the air over Patricia.

Patricia could do nothing but stare up at the huge, dirty sole that hung above her. Her voice wouldn't work.

"No, wait!" David tried. "Don't hurt Patricia!"

Meredith smiled. "Patty, huh?" She lifted her foot higher, and then brought it down with sickening speed.

Patricia found her voice at the last moment, but only had time to let out a partial scream before the giant sole slammed into her body and flattened her into the ground with and earth-shattering boom. It was a surprisingly dry stomp.

Meredith stood on the remains of her ex-fiancé's lover for a moment, admiring the way her foot looked pressing into the asphalt of the road. When she finally decided to lift her foot, she revealed the completely flattened yet miraculously preserved body of Patricia, still staring up at her in terror. Well, flattened terror.

"Patty-cake," Meredith whispered with a pleased smile.

David threw-up.

Meredith looked over at him. "Now, what was I saying you looked like?"

David suddenly found himself lying spread eagle in the middle of the road. His wrists and ankles were pinned to the ground by some unseen force and he was completely naked. Looking up into the air, he saw Meredith towering over him.

"You know," she began, "I stepped on a roach last night, and I wished it was you. Looks like I will get that wish."

David swallowed and began pleading.

With a snap from Meredith's fingers in the air, David's words were cut off and replaced by guttural grunts and howls. Needless to say he was surprised, but he could only express that surprise in an animal like wheeze.

"I mentioned that you looked like a half-squashed bug earlier. Let's see if my description was accurate." Meredith thought for a moment, and on her feet appeared the heeled sandals she had been wearing.

"Now," she said, "what should I start with first." She examined her tiny captive. "How about..." she lifted her shoe over him, "...this arm." Her foot came down on his left arm, crushing it but not sinking into the street.

David howled in pain and looked through teary eyes at the giant sandal where his arm used to be. The sandal lifted, revealing his pulverized arm squashed as flat as his late lover.

"And now," Meredith said as she swung her shoe over his body, "this arm."

The foot came down with equal ferocity. David screamed again. This time when her foot lifted, he watched dumbly as his arm stuck to her sole and ripped away from his shoulder.

"Now the legs," Meredith said as if showing a student how to dissect a frog.

Crunch! went the left leg. Excruciating pain and screaming! Crunch! went the right leg. Blinding pain and howling!

David wondered why he hadn't passed out yet. The pain was maddening, yet he remained clear headed. He thought that once one limb had been crushed, the other's having the same done to them would hardly be noticeable. Yet amazingly each limb had brought forth new and wider pain.

Meredith was using her new powers to keep David conscious. She wanted him to feel every bone in his body crushed to powder beneath her feet. Every howl of pain, every scream of anguish was fuel for her lust. Her breathing was deeper and heavier than ever before as she stared down at the crushed and bleeding form of her ex-fiancé. His head lolled back and forth and his eyes rolled like those of a terrified horse. She saw him look up at her, and she smiled.

Lifting her foot, Meredith wondered aloud, "What's left?" She looked upon the broken body of David, her eyes wandering over what was left of his naked form. They wandered down his torso, and lit upon the one extremity not yet crushed.

Through the pain-ridden haze that covered his vision David watched Meredith's eyes move over him, and his gorge rose as he saw what she was looking at. "No, Meredith, not that," he tried to say, but all that rose from his throat was a hoarse groan.

"Well," Meredith said with a teasing lilt, "what have we here?" She looked down at his limp, flaccid organ lying between his legs and grinned an evil grin. "I can't help but notice that you aren't too happy to see me. Too bad, because my foot is anxious to meet 'little Davy.'"

David moaned and tried to lift his head, but he couldn't muster the strength. Despite the unbearable pain shooting through his torso, he wanted to roll over so as not to face the inevitable. But even if he had the means to do so, the unseen force which held him to the ground would prevent it. Dumbly, he watched as Meredith's foot, stained with his blood mingled with that of countless others, slowly lowered on top of him. Or rather, on top of his pelvis.

Meredith lowered her foot until she could just feel resistance, and then began to increase the pressure.

David groaned louder as his entire midsection was covered by the toe of her shoe. Then the moan became a low whine as her weight increased on top of him. His bones groaned in response as the pressure mounted, and David imagined he could hear them start to creak. More and more pressure built, and suddenly there was a loud Snap! as his pelvis broke in two.

David screamed as he never had before and hardly noticed as his penis and testes were slowly flattened beneath Meredith's sole. Soon there were three slight pops as his gonads were crushed into shapeless blobs and the skin of his manhood split. Finally, with a release of the hold Meredith held upon him, David slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

Meredith lifted her foot and examined her handiwork. David was nothing more than half a torso with a head attached. His midsection was smashed flat, his organ resembling a squashed worm. She let David fall unconscious, reasoning that she could do nothing more to him that could outweigh the pain she had already caused. For a moment, she considered leaving him in the state he was, but her conscience took over and she lifted her foot over him one last time. With a great heave, she brought her sandal crashing down on what was left of David, splattering his insides on the façade of Terre Haute. Lifting her foot, she saw that his crushed body indeed resembled that of the roach she had stepped on that morning. She felt good, yet...drained and empty. For some reason, she no longer found what she was doing fun. She wondered what came next.



Part 5: Payment

Meredith looked up at the sound of clapping to see Sheila standing at the corner of Terre Haute. She was applauding Meredith's deed with a sardonic grin on her face.

"Bravo," the blond giantess said. Then she noticed Meredith's expression. "What's wrong, wasn't that what you wanted?"

Meredith looked back down at the remains of David and felt sick.

"Well," she began, "I did, but now that it's done, I feel somehow empty. Like...like there's nothing left to do."

Sheila smiled. "We could squash a few more people. There're still plenty left here. And if not here, how about another city? OKC, perhaps?"

Meredith shook her head. "No, I think I've had enough. I think it's time to end this and change everything back."

Sheila smiled again, this time with an evil knowing quality that sent a chill up Meredith's spine.

"Change what back?" Sheila asked innocently.

Meredith motioned around her with an arm. "This. All this. What we did. I want it back the way it was."

Sheila shook her head. "I'm sorry, but you can't change what's happened."

Meredith's knees suddenly went weak and it was all she could do to keep from falling over. She put a hand on the roof of a nearby building to steady herself and felt tiny things crunch beneath its weight. Quickly, she drew it back and looked at the squirming forms of minuscule people in her hand print.

"Wh-what do you mean? I thought this was all a game. I thought I could change it back whenever I wanted to." She felt the familiar taste of panic rising in her throat.

Sheila still wore that same smile. "No. What's done is done. There's no going back."

"But..." Meredith tried, "...but I have all the wishes I want! You said! I can just...."

"No," she shook her head, "You can't wish it away. When will you learn that you can't just run from your problems." She raised her hand and waved one long finger at her. "Let this be a lesson to you."

The strength in Meredith's legs finally gave and she collapsed noisily to her knees. Feeling more bodies scrunch beneath her knees, Meredith wretched and vomited into the street below. After the spasms had passed, she looked up at Sheila with hatred in her face.

"You bitch!" she snarled. "You said that I could have anything I want! I want this to have never happened!"

Sheila grinned wider, feeding off of Meredith's rage. "Did I say that? Well, what I should have said was, 'You can have almost anything you want.'" She nodded curtly. "There, I amended myself. Sorry." This last she said with the innocence of a child.

Meredith somehow found the strength to jump to her feet and lunge at Sheila. But before she could reach the other giantess, the world seemed to swirl around her and she found herself as she had started, lying on what seemed like a soft mattress floating in the air. Looking up, her eyes began to tear as she stared into the giant blue orbs of Sheila's own.

"It seems you have forfeited your remaining wishes," Sheila said with a sweet smile. "Well, I guess that means that you have to settle your payment to me."

Meredith considered jumping to her death. And she would have tried had she not been sure that Sheila would catch her anyway. "Wh-what payment?" she asked shakily.

Amazingly, Sheila's smile grew sweeter. "Why, the one we discussed before, of course. You know, the one I told you not to worry about till later? Well, it's later."

Meredith stared up at the titaness for a moment, then rolled over onto her stomach and buried her head in her arms. After a couple of minutes, she inhaled deeply and looked up.

"What is the payment."

Sheila's eyes twinkled with ominous anticipation.

"You will become mine," she said in a whisper. "Mine to do with as I wish. Your life from now on, and after, will be given to me. Your flesh, blood, mind, and spirit will belong solely to me. I will be your owner."

Meredith sagged. She thought of all the people she had killed, of all their loved ones waiting for them at home. She realized that she deserved worse than what Sheila was proposing. She hoped she deserved worse.

Looking back up, Meredith asked, "What if I refuse to pay?"

Sheila laughed and tossed her head back, then looked back down into her palm.

"It doesn't matter. The terms are non-negotiable. We had a deal."

Meredith nodded grimly. "Okay, fine. I'm yours." A pause. "What now."

Sheila slowly and gently wrapped her long fingers around Meredith's body, and again the world around them seemed to shift. When the movement stopped, they were standing in the center of nothing but white. All around them was endless white. No visible ceiling, floor, or walls. Bending down, Sheila set the tiny Meredith on the white, which surprisingly felt solid.

Meredith looked up at Sheila as the giantess stood up to her full magnificent height. Despite herself she felt a twang of arousal, and she blushed.

Sheila raised her hand and wiggled her fingers at Meredith.

"Ta-ta," she said in a cheerful voice. "I have to go grant more people their fondest dreams now." She started to turn away, but then turned back. "Get to know your new friends. Your going to be together a long time."

Sheila laughed, then turned and strode silently away. After a few steps, she faded from sight.

Puzzled by Sheila's parting words, Meredith turned around and was confronted with a startling sight. Standing before her were countless people the same size as her. They varied in all types and ages, and wore a wide variety of clothing. The strangest thing about them, in fact, was their clothing. Some were dressed in normal clothes like she was wearing, while others were dressed in period costumes. She saw Elizabethan dresses and Native American leathers. Fifties style hoop skirts and turn-of-the-century tuxes. She even thought she saw some silvery, iridescent clothing unlike anything she recognized. One man directly before her was dressed in loose-fitting, drab gray clothes.

Meredith shook her head. "That bitch," she whispered to herself. "What the hell has she been up to?"

End