Anthony could worryingly feel his stomach starting to lose its composure, his fleeting ability to tolerate the overpowering sense of fear was thinning out now, building unease hampering his body, bringing him to almost nausea. He looked over again at the height he was placed at, the red of the bottle cap ended abruptly no matter where he dares let his eyes wander. He had been face to face with death at the prospect of losing his balance for the past hour now, and it was by far the hardest thing he had done in the entirety of his short life. Each moment that came and went seemed like an eternity, but he shut his mind down as best he could, steeling his jittery body each time he felt it coming loose with rolling discomfort.

Anthony tried to focus, tried anything he could to get his mind off the petrifying heights. The thoughts of the perspiring young man for some reason always seemed to drift back to Mira, the curious inhuman girl that he’d recently intertwined fates with. Ignoring his obvious attraction to her physical appearance, he found that the more he spent time with her, the more he felt an odd spark of something unnatural in his heart, something not unlike a small crush developing for the half-demon, though he practically swore beneath his breath he’d never use that word again to describe anything positive.

It’s always interesting to reflect how things would change after someone found themselves thinking about another in a possibly romantic way. Words, places, simple things like songs or movies, everything took on a different light when one became attracted to another. Anthony remembered his first girlfriend, a couple of years ago, had a special love for vegetables, especially corn, and never again after being with her could he walk through the canned food aisle or the open garden area of the grocery store without thinking of her. Life in all its small details changed in a manner that was difficult to describe, and even less easy to understand.

The first relationship he’d found had not been anything of serious note, though they had been together for almost two years. It was really a match made out necessity rather than actual attraction. They’d met shortly before homecoming in their sophomore year of high school, dated a few times, then gotten together after a sexual encounter that had quite honesty move a lot faster than Anthony had been comfortable with. She was nice, her name had been Kristen he recalled, and she had been pretty without question, but as Anthony reflected, still failing to lose his touch with reality in the face of a sheer drop and sudden stop, knew he hadn’t really loved her. The short high school fling had been, however, the only real relationship he had ever actually been in, and though it was imperfect with many basic flaws, and he didn’t miss it, he hadn’t regretted it either. It was his only real source of experience in the understanding of attraction, and without a doubt, it had been one of exclusively physical connection.

Anthony’s thoughts fell back again to Mira, he couldn’t begin to understand why he was thinking about her the way he was, but he knew in a way it didn’t matter because he did not try and stop himself. The perilously placed college boy hadn’t felt the same way about Kirsten as he did about Mira, that much was absolutely certain. She was gorgeous, stunning to be truthful, and it was obvious she’d dealt with men a lot in her macabre adventures over an uncertain amount of time, but he was more tantalized with her personality and uniquely dominant character. He wondered if she had a boyfriend or indeed if she’d ever had one, as ridiculous as a thought that was, he still inexplicably couldn’t help but hope she didn’t. Anthony knew it would be hard to hide a secret as large as she had from someone like that, and even more grimly true, he felt in his bones that she couldn’t even manage to keep a poor sod in tow for that long without wanting to eat him or do something equally terrifying to satisfy her unpleasant cravings. Another thought began to slither through the back of the tiny man’s mind as he finally daydreamt about his beautiful new friend, a confusing question that he himself didn’t understand the purpose of, and even less so, the feeling the answer might give him should it be brought to light.

Mira came down the hall in distant echoes as Anthony glanced up, jarred from his innermost feelings and conscience and pulled back into reality with surprised eyes as if woken from a dream. She looked over towards where she knew the bottle was and her eyes quickly found him as she let a new smile creep to her lips. Her hair was still wet and gathered behind her ears, laying behind her back tucked beneath her tank that she had been wearing previously. She also seemed to have put on the same blue cotton shorts as before, and with quiet reflection, Anthony found that she was so relaxed around him that she did not appear to care what he thought of her and her choice to wear the same outfit twice in the same night.

She made it to the side of the table and let her eyes take in his still nervously standing, minuscule figure. Mira put her hands on her hips as she said down to him,

“I’m glad you haven’t died yet.”

“Why? Because If I did something would happen to you? Or because you’re starting to like me as company?”

Anthony questioned himself as to why he had suddenly decided to test the waters between the pair of them with that comment; he had to almost shout inside his own mind that this woman had killed him only a day ago, a shout that his stupid young heart chose to ignore.

Mira raises her eyes with a sigh and casts her gaze around the ceiling, emphasizing to him that she’s contemplating her reply. Anthony is for some reason the most nervous he’s been in her company in anticipation of the girl’s answer. She, of course, knows the truth of the reason behind her observation of his well-being. While she was in the tub, cheekily taking a longer time than usual to soak, she was honestly a little worried about him. Mira was scared that he would fall and injure himself or almost certainly die if he lost his footing, but she had to make sure he was kept in check and deterred from further incidents of irresponsible disregard for the circumstances of their ordeal. He also needed to understand who was in charge, and not because it was important to the situation, though at one point that could be useful, but because Mira liked it that way.

“Because if you wound up a little splatter on my table I would be doomed to a fate worse than death, of course,” she said with a spike of mock sympathy, though if it intended for herself or Anthony was not completely clear. She saw his mood change with his candle-light of hope suddenly ruffled, the same small flame that Mira could still feel flickering in her own thumping heart. She decided immediately as the words left her lips that she didn’t want his to burn out, so she quickly tried to stoke it. She did in all honestly love to play with him, in just about every way possible, his emotions that were as fragile as his tiny body included, but just like his frail bones, she didn’t want to crush them utterly, only take pleasure in toying with them.

“But I’m glad you’re alright, without you I’d have nothing left to play with,” she says looking back down at him with a smile and leaning over to him but not taking a seat, her glorious chest dangling its pair of slightly glistening pale mountains.

“So, are we going to talk about something,” Anthony says with a hint of a nervous quiver.

“Why, because you think it’ll get you down from there,” she responds seeing through his very ill-hidden intent.

“Well, yeah, that and I was actually interested in talking.”

Mira raises her eyebrow and chooses a sarcastic flattered tone that comes out as a whisper, and while she can’t help but smile a genuine grin at his desire to hang out with her, she adds on a gasp to help hide that before saying,

“You wanted to talk to me? Really?” She can see him roll his eyes and smile at her reply, which softens her a bit in turn, the pair both enjoying her humor.

“Tell you what, if you get me down from here I’ll talk to you all night if that’s what you want.”

It was actually what Mira wanted, but she wasn’t about to admit that, she much rather he work for it.

Mira didn’t answer and instead brought one of her massive hands around the back of the bottle, Anthony of course taking notice and watching her cup her digits together just behind the sheer cliff of plastic. Her hand was about halfway down the length of the soda container, but to the insect sized-man, it was easily too far of a drop for comfort.

Anthony jerked his head back over in disbelief to where Mira hovered in front of him, she was wearing that smirk again and had her eyes narrowed as if she was about to do something naughty, the same look she’d given him just before she had killed with her foot the night previously.

With a smack of realization that nearly sent him over the edge on its own, Anthony connected the obvious dots as his eyes widened an instant before he panicked and stuttered out,

“M-Mira, no!”

As if to tease his memory with the incident of his death, she chewed on her lower lip and gave him a wink, tasting the moment of his rising alarm for an act she had absolute control over, and that he was powerless to prevent.

“No no no no no!” Anthony said in rapid succession, louder and much more alarmed as he rose his hands holding them out in front of his torso shaking them desperately, trying to keep her inevitable push from coming.

He was not successful, however, and Mira puckered her lips as if about to blow him a kiss, but instead of something like that, a form of expressing one's infatuation, she effortlessly forced out a focused blast of air from her mouth that sent him falling backward off the bottle cap. She heard his low scream as he fell down and towards her cupped hand, his voice when he spoke wasn’t squeaky like in TV shows or movies where someone shrank, he was just not as loud as normal, his shout of sheer terror though was actually pretty easy to hear and she grinned as she watching him plummet.

Anthony landed neatly after his fall into the side of Mira’s soft hand, her skin warm and full of youthful vibrancy, he tumbled, side over side for a few turns as he came to rest on his back in the center of her palm. Mira was looking down at him with her smile, as Anthony opened his eyes and they were caught in her own stare, she let out a small laugh accompanied by her shining rows of teeth. The small boy in her hand let out a groan and put his hands on his face, exhaling deeply as he lay without trying to stand. He was mumbling something to himself and rolling around slightly back in forth as if to be certain he was safe from the pull of gravity.

“What was that?” Mira says with her grin, not trying in the least to hide it at all.

“You’re…” He tried to start for the first time and trailed off, Mira waiting to hear what he had to say, “You’ll… You’ll be the death of me one day.”

Mira brought him up to her face as she stood back up to her full height, towering to an altitude far higher than the table had been before, she whispered to him as he sat up with his hands flat behind him,

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t love it…” Mira says, anticipating Anthony’s loud rebuttal as he barks out a response that only makes her smile more and giggle a second time.

+ + + +

Anthony poked buttons on his phone and read posts on social media as his enormous owner stood comparative miles away, humming to herself as she washed some dishes in the sink across the kitchen. It was a not to his understanding why his phone and anything on his person seemed to alter its size when he changed back and forth, but he just didn’t care to wonder and was just thankful for the fact things did. The man had been browsing around for a few minutes anxiously, just previously he’d run across Mira’s personal profile and was keeping it in a tab below a few other, less important sites, nervous about actually clicking on the blue button with white text reading, “Send Friend Request.”

There was a bottle cap behind him that he was standing leaned against, the same red cap in fact that had come from the bottle he’d been perched upon a few minutes ago. It was now overturned and filled with water for him to drink, issued to him by Mira before she went about her cleaning leaving him to wait on the table. He was hovering over the button now, pulling the tab up as if to finally face it, trying to build up his courage as he glanced over towards Mira, beautiful as always and scrubbing plates without a care in the world.

“What’s the matter?” a voice came like barely control thunder, a cacophony of voices in not quite perfect harmony, vibrating like an aftershock from beside where Anthony stood.

The young man jumped up, completely surprised, but when he saw who it was, the yellow-eyed devil with bulging musculature and covered in black tribal tattoos, he wasn’t any more relieved. He hesitated as he held his phone in one hand, standing to his feet and opening his mouth to speak. The man was now his general, miniaturized height, but still around two or three heads taller than he, and as he saw Anthony’s eyes widen, he held up a single index finger to his mouth as the right side of his face split into a savage grin of razor-sharp teeth. Anthony calmed a bit and blinked a few times in surprise, taking a half glance to Mira who had not yet turned around.

In a hushed response, not intending to be dishonest with Mira by speaking with the black demon without her knowing, but finding his curiosity peaked to its highest, he spoke lowly as he had been gestured to do so,

“What do you mean, what’s the matter?”

“You know exactly what I mean,” came the devil as he stalked over, his heavy boots clunking out lowly as he made it to the human’s side, leaning against the bottle cap just as casually, his metal rings of random chainmail and animal tooth fetishes dangling as he did so.

The devil sat and emulated Anthony’s posture, lazily slouching against the plastic of the lid and tilting his head fractionally back while looking down at the young man. It was smiling at him, whatever it was, and he could feel unexplained heat emanating from the figure of the strange, deceptively humanoid being. Anthony leaned back against the cap when he decided this exchange had been something intended to be non-threatening, though unbeknownst to the fragile ant-man, the creature before him had long since needed to employ something as archaic as violence to achieve its incomprehensible goals.

“You mean to assert that you don’t wish to be companions with that one,” the being spoke with a tone and vocabulary that was refined, and it was obvious in its character it carried an intelligence that seemed to transcend the ephemeral. Anthony felt strange by its conflicted nature, it’s appearance was just completely at odds with its overall personality.

“I mean, I do want to be friends with her, but-“

“But what,” it cut in, knowing full well how he would answer but wanting to pull it out of the human anyways, only for the purpose of helping him of course, though he knew wasting time with explaining that would result in lost opportunities for Anthony to learn.

“I’m…I’m just…” Anthony knew what he wanted to say, but even to his closest friends or family he would hesitate to admit the truth, and here this thing was, trying suddenly for some unknown reason to have a conversation with him concerning such a personal topic.

“Scared,” the demon finished for him in a low confession, as if he’s just heard the word for the first time.

Anthony turned to face the man and looked into its yellow eyes, it held a considering demeanor, like it was trying to understand the concept of what fear even was. In the end, he simply nodded and sighed, ashamed to confess he was afraid, even to some devil he’d just met yesterday and didn’t even know the name of.

The thing lets a huge smile break its lips as its tongue came out and licked its teeth silently, it seemed incredibly excited by Anthony’s response to its question, like a child who had just been told a secret that none of the other kids on the playground knew of. It brushed its razor-edged canine teeth with its slippery muscle, then it looked over at Mira as she nonchalantly went about cleaning cups in her hand with a washcloth. Anthony followed its gaze and examined her himself, noting with his gnawing male mind that she was curved entirely to his liking.

The demon looked back to Anthony and when he turned his head the young man followed suit. The barbaric deity stared over at him as his head cocked to one side, as he looked at the boy curiously, wearing his excited smile. He leaned in slowly towards Anthony, and while he was hesitant to do so in turn, the human did as well.

The devil nodded his head over to his right, indicating towards where the beautiful brown-haired woman continued about her chores.

“She likes you, you know…,” it said, as its smile grew even wider.

The young man’s eyes glistened as his face flushed a warm red, his mouth opened to speak but the man across from his held up a finger to silence him.

“She’s afraid, like you are. She’s afraid because she knows you’re unique, special, and the half-breed doesn’t feel like she deserves you.”

A million questions circled Anthony’s mind all at once. It was all together, unconscionable to think that this entire time Mira had actually felt something like he did, it was too good to be true, but he held on to the hope that it wasn’t as the monster was about to keep talking. He eagerly allowed the thing to speak, giving him his complete attention, hoping with each word he uttered that it was the truth and that it was a hint at what could possibly be.

“Mira Lamia is like you, she knows what you are, just as you know what she is. And she fears more than anything else that it will keep you from feeling as she does for you, about her.”

Anthony was speechless. It all made sense when he thought about it, but just couldn’t bring himself to believe it immediately. Truth be told, he had hated her this morning, but as the short time went on, he could feel her tugging his heart closer and closer towards her. Inwardly it had crossed his mind that being part demon, maybe she was seducing him into falling for her to alleviate herself of the pact they both found themselves in, but he didn’t want to entertain that possibility. He felt she was certainly capable of that, and that she may even possess that power, but he wanted to believe there was something inside her that was good, he wanted to, more than anything.

The black one paused and looked on as Anthony turned his head to face Mira, he contemplated in silence what the thing had told him, and as he did so it continued once more.

“Why do you hesitate human, she is to your liking, why not simply tell her?”

Anthony’s face cascaded a bright shade of crimson as he restrained himself from shouting, he stammered at first but then managed to force his voice into the rushed, hushed, semblance of a reply,

“It-… I-… Things aren’t just that easy, man! Who the hell even are you? I’m sitting here getting relationship advice from a fanged demi-god, on a girl I basically just met yesterday, who happens to have already killed me once already in our short time together!”

“Demi-god? “The things picks out from amongst his rabbled response, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, a demi-god. I mean, isn’t that what you are, you can do anything, you seem to read everyone’s minds, what even are you? What’s your name? And why are you even trying to help me?”

The thing appears to have been taken aback at the last question, as if the answer is blatantly obvious.

“Why wouldn’t I try to help you?”

Anthony is plainly confused by his answer, his complete lack of understanding when it came to the devil’s plots and schemes is easy enough to anticipate, and the demon seems to take notice when he reacts with a quizzical face.

“You think because I placed you both in this situation that I want you to fail?”

“Well, I mean, yea. Isn’t that the point?”

The monster in black shakes his head as if disappointed, its mane of thick jet black hair shifting loosely. All this time had already passed and neither of them had caught on yet to what was actually occurring, but he knew, if he had enough patience, that they would eventually discover together.

“You should spend more time with this one,” he said gesturing to Mira with a nod once more, “Have patience, and you’ll both see what I’m trying to show you. And Anthony…”

“Yea,” the young man says looking up to him, the thing for the first time in the conversation having used his actual name.

“It’s O.K. to be afraid. Remember, she is too.”

Anthony nods slowly, understanding, he can’t allow his life to be controlled by his worries or anxiety anymore, especially now given the crazy situation it had just become. He felt in his blood cells that things were very likely to get even more difficult as time went on, the magnitude of the otherworldly test the two young adults had been sealed into assuredly still beyond his full comprehension.

Adjusting his gaze back to Mira as she turns around wiping her hands, a dry towel cleaning them of water and remaining soap, he hurriedly cycles through his phone’s internet tabs and strikes the button sending Mira a friend request, casting aside doubts and planting a seed of nervous anticipation in his stomach. She looks over to him and carelessly tosses the towel away to the counter, taking steps towards the table away from the sink. Anthony glances to his right where the demon had been, the warm air was gone, and when his eyes arrived at the rim of the cap where the thing had sat, he found the source of the heat had vanished too.

Mira sighs and holds out her open hand to Anthony, the fingers and connected palm vast stretching out and away.

“Come on, let’s go sit down somewhere.”

Most of Mira’s body is dry now, though a bit of her hair still shines with damp moisture as Anthony steps into her hand, this time without a moment of hesitation. She smiles down at him and raises him to just below chest level, carrying him at her side as she walks over to the longer couch he slept on the night before. Her footsteps boom and he sways softly as she makes her way to the living room, setting her hand down gently and waiting for him to get off onto the cushion of the green sofa. After her little pet disembarks, Mira sits down on the floor, her back against the other matching sofa, and places her right arm over the couch Anthony is on using it like an armrest.

“So,” she says simply, her low cut tank and casual demeanor comforting the tiny man’s thoughts,

“What would you like to talk about first little Anty?”

It was about 9 PM, and the pair were both wide-awake, Anthony wasn’t sure where to begin though, he had countless questions and curiosities he wanted to ask her about, but he wanted to start light. He wondered if she had work or school, or anything else she was supposed to do tomorrow, so he figured he’d work his way that direction.

“So, do you have any plans tomorrow or do I sort of take up all of your free time?”

Mira leaned back and her eyes narrowed at him, her mood was calm and she seemed to be, if not a little put off, entertained by his first question.

“Well, I don’t have to go to church if that’s what you’re asking,” she says with a smile, as Anthony chuckles.

“No, I guess I more meant do you have a job? Class? Anything like that? I just want to get to know you a little better.”

Mira smiles and crosses one ankle over the other getting more comfortable, she reflects on how innocent and sweet her tiny pet man is, she’s even trying markedly to control herself from seeming too excited as she remains engaged with him despite his social inexperience.

“I do have a job actually, and I don’t have class on the weekends. I’ve almost finished my B.A. in chemistry and I work at Kroggen, as a cashier.”

Anthony can’t conceal a surprised raise of his eyebrow, like he doesn’t believe what he’s hearing. The small human is standing statue still, a little awkwardly as if he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do while the two talk. Mira sees him question her statement that she works at a chain grocery store as a cashier, as he does so she takes her other hand’s fingers and pinches him by the back of his shirt, transporting then plopping him down the short distance away up against her arm that’s on the couch cushion using it for support.

“And why is that odd? Is that not a good enough job?”

“Uh, no! No! I just…I just sorta find it odd that you have a job at all, I mean, now that I know what I do about you,” the tiny man making himself comfortable against her forearm says hurriedly. It’s pretty clear he’s very new to this whole, “female friend,” thing and Mira is finding it adorable that he’s struggling to learn on the fly.

“Well, this place doesn’t pay for itself, and neither does school. Why is it so hard to believe that I have a job and live a pretty normal life?”

“Well,” Anthony begins cautiously but not shying away from the question, “from my perspective it’s just weird I guess, I mean I don’t know you very well, though I’d like to,” he quickly adds, “and we’ve never hung out despite being in the same class.”

“That’s because I never wanted to hang out with you,” Mira says curtly, though when she sees his reaction to the statement she also quickly adds, “but it’s not because you didn’t seem nice or anything.”

Scolding herself internally for being a tad too blunt and not explaining herself, she glances down to the floor and anxiously curls her lower lip, Anthony sees she has something to confess, and he gets nervous at the idea of what that might entail. Mira doesn’t make him wait long though, and she visibly pushes herself to admit,

“I’m just…I’m not good at making friends really…I do have a couple, but only a few, all girls on top of that. I find most guys to be fake and only interested in one thing… The obvious thing...”

“…Oh,” says Anthony, at once understanding, and pricked by a curious pin of territorial spite he’s never felt for anything or anyone before.

“Well, I mean, you are really pretty Mira.”

“Easy there ant-boy, that’s the second time you’ve said that now,” the huge woman says over to him with a smile and raised eyebrow.

Immediately as Mira pierced his eyes with her own Anthony heard the black demon’s words resound within his head, reminding him to be patient, and he concluded to himself that this is what he had meant by that. The girl overhead was by comparison warm with the caressing touch of new emotions as the tiny man sent over a compliment, as she pointed out, for the second time. People had said things about her before, certainly a couple of men, but she enjoyed hearing it come from Anthony much, much more than anyone else. Moreover, she craved it from him, almost needing it like food or water.

Mira watched her shrunken classmate stand and walk casually forward, towards the edge of the cushion but still a comfortable distance from the drop. He seemed much more relaxed now, looking off into the center of the room examining his surroundings, and the woman was internally debating whether now was the best time to bring up a question that had been clawing at her since she first saw he had been brought back to life. Mira knew what was going on with herself as the hours went by and the two spent time together, but she was worried, scared about something that she knew was going to be difficult to talk about, maybe even for months, or years to come. She asked herself if now was a good time, so soon after it had all happened, but continuing on without an answer was proving painful, so she decided it was now or never.

“Anthony,” she breathed out at last, looking away slightly, for the first time not able to meet his eyes as he turned around to regard her.

“Yeah,” his hands were on his hips as he turned, then upon seeing her demeanor, the young man became slightly concerned.

She took a deep breath and drummed her fingers keeping them busy with a nervous jitter.

“Why…” She bit her lip anxiously and finally looked over towards him, forcing herself to face the consequences of her disturbing decisions.

“Why don’t you hate me…?”

Anthony was caught off guard by the question; it was arrow straight, and to the point. The man let his eyes drop and then he searched around the room, trying to formulate a genuine response. He stopped thinking however about what to say, deciding he would just speak his mind’s truest thoughts, and he instead began to organize how he would go about vocalizing it.

He starts after a sigh to release his feelings, being honest, and just to the point as the towering beauty had been when asking about it.

“I did at first,” he continues lowly, “I hated you, more than anything or anyone I’ve ever hated before. I thought to myself, how could someone like her… enjoy such cruelty. How could she have lead me along like that, and use me and throw me away like I was some piece of Kleenex, or something…”

The man trailed off and she saw him quickly wipe one of his eyes with a hand. It was just as hard on him as it was on her, and she was now really feeling the effects of the pent-up guilt. She had done exactly as he had described, she’d used him and casually disposed of his life as if it were nothing to her. There had been a moment, Mira knew she’d felt it, where the last fragment of her humanity had begged her not to hurt him as he stood transfixed in her merciless gaze far below on the floor, completely defenseless. Her soul pleaded with her not to kill him, but she had ignored it, and had taken dark joy in causing his violent demise.

“But, as the night has gone on, I’ve realized that no matter what you feel when you hurt people, or what you felt when you killed me, or what you think you really are on the inside, that it’s not who you are. The truth is, I don’t know why my mind has changed so quickly. Maybe it’s the way you’ve always looked at me,” he says with a chuckle, “even before last night you’ve always had a look in your eyes that I can’t describe, like you know something I don’t, like you’re waiting for me to learn something about you…”

Everything he was saying was inwardly making sense to Mira as she listened apprehensively, she didn’t want to move too quickly, so she just listened and let him for the first time take her emotions and treat them however he chose too as she allowed herself to become vulnerable to him.

“I don’t know,” he said turning and walking a few steps back to her arm, heading towards her enormous, idle hand, “maybe I’m not giving you the best answer…” Anthony pauses and reaches out with his fingers, putting his palm flat against the skin of Mira’s thumb, his minuscule touch registering just barely to her as she resists the urge to cry.

“But, for some reason, I feel like I know you, Mira, there’s something about you that I can see more clearly than maybe even you can… And between you and me,” Anthony says as they pair stare into each other’s eyes, “You’re more than worth saving.”

Mira wants to believe him, in what remains of the good part of her heart. She begins to shake her head slowly disagreeing, he doesn’t know most of the truth yet, and she really needs him to, but Mira knows it can’t all come out at once. Anthony is the first person to ever know even a slight piece of who she really is, and she both loves and painfully regrets that.

“You don’t…” Mira says in a whisper, maintaining the stare, her eyes reddening as they begin to water, “You don’t know what I’ve done,” she says in a mutter, and though she is keeping herself composed well, the words are riveted with pain.

“You’re right, I don’t, and maybe one day you’ll have to tell me, but I do know what you’ve done in the past day. And we’re both alive because of you, aren’t we?” He taps her skin reassuringly as she nods, a tear of salted water dripping from her left eyelid as she glances to the floor again.

“It’s a start, Mira, “he says to her with a small smile, trying to bring up her spirits. Mira is usually so cold, and so menacingly ruthless in everything she does, and while Anthony knows her current mood won’t last, he does everything he can to try and improve it, bringing her back to her normal, merciless self as best as he’s able to manage.

The small man watches her as she wipes her eye, taking a measure of air into her lungs to try and stem the flow of bad emotions and guilt. He turns his hand into a fist, bumping her with it to help her reconstruct her composure by reminding her she isn’t alone. She looks over to him and allows the right half of her mouth to upturn, and as the pair share a quiet moment of recovery together. Anthony wonders if he’ll ever come to regret what he’s doing, making a friend of this monster wrapped in pretty flesh, but he tells himself that if he ever does come to, he’ll try and think of this moment.

As the thoughts reach his mind, the woman who was now reclaiming her calm, typically dark-humored personality, brings over the hand she’d been resting on the sofa over to where he stands. He turns and sees her offer the huge adjacent thumb to him, the nail polished an ominous deep black, and he immediately understands the gesture. The dime-sized boy who was her newest friend walks a few strides over and hugs the side opposite of the nail it with his arms, closing his eyes as he puts his cheek against her skin. Smiling over to him, Mira sinks her head back against the couch she reclined in front of as she too closes her eyes, reflexively bringing her index finger gently over to carefully stroke the tiny human’s shoulders and back. The massive woman had quickly become oddly accustomed to being careful with Anthony since he’d come back to life, and as she massaged his back, she could feel a tiny vibration of pleasure like a purr coming from his chest. She’d never kept one of her victims as a pet, indeed as she had made clear before they rarely lasted any length of time beyond a few minutes, but she was honestly really liking having him around. There was no doubt she loved to play with him, especially still savoring his occasional bout of terror at her expense like a fine wine, and though she knew she’d never kill him again, she wondered to herself how far he’d be comfortable going to help appease her specific interests.

As she plotted a new exciting scheme, hiding it in the back of her mind from her favorite, completely unaware, living toy, she held her fingers together clamping him not uncomfortably within her calculated grasp. She brought him up to her face and saw him stay relatively calm between her thumb and index digits, holding him by the torso, she asked him a casual question that she knew after tonight they’d always consider another inside joke.

“Hungry?” She says with a smile.

“Actually yeah, I haven’t really eaten all day.”

“Good, cus I’m freakin’ starving…” The demonette pauses briefly, “In fact…” her last two words ushering the change of her tone to a low, sensual whisper.

“I could eat anything…or… anyone…,” the frighteningly large girl says, bringing Anthony’s tiny body closer to her mouth and narrowing her eyes at him. As if to exaggerate the not-so-subtle threat she grins and brandishes her pearly white teeth, raising the right side her upper lip in playful imitation of a snarl.

“Yeah, well,” the small young man starts to say nervously, “I’ll be the last thing you ever eat if you try it, Lamia,” he counters with vague confidence. Under more equally proportioned circumstances, Anthony would have found her behavior, and especially her teasing, to be attractive, and insanely enough he did still find it a little cute despite its purpose to unnerve him.

“Lamia?” Mira says with a raised eyebrow and a distasteful sneer, “What, am I one of your “bros” now, pest?”

Immediately put off and his thoughts flung elsewhere, and also admittedly looking for a way out of the prospect of being a snack, he veered her attention away and towards a passing recollection of his, brought up by her use of the slang word commonly used for, “friend.”

“Oh yeah! That reminds me!” he blurts out happily, surprisingly forgetting his fear as she responds to his change of demeanor with a curious look of her own, waiting for what he suddenly wants with such excitement to say,

“You should probably check your phone notifications...”

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