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Author's Chapter Notes:

This next chapter is a conflict device I have to admit I am a total sucker for, especially when it comes to the female in the scenario having the power. I've always been captivated by people who overcome struggles that may decide the fate of a loved one or friend, and this chapter was, and I know I say this to myself a lot, my favorite to write so far. This honestly may be my favorite thing I've ever written, probably not the best thing, but my favorite.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The inspiration for this piece, oddly enough, comes from a device called the Butchers Nails. They make you do things, terrible things, because if you do they promise a purity of peace that is complete and total. The trade off? Absolute madness and uncontrollable rage as they degrade your mind unceasingly.

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“You pour your milk into the bowl before your cereal?” Anthony said with an almost shocked disbelief, watching Mira high above pull the half-gallon container up and away, walking back to the refrigerator with it suspended in her hand.

 

“Yeah, so, what of it?” She said glancing over her shoulder and capping the bottle before replacing it on the glass shelf within the chilly closet.

 

“You really are inhuman, Mira. Seriously, what’s wrong with you?”

 

The woman clad in her casual black tank came back over and as she boomed along, she rolled her eyes before sitting down, retrieving her box of Fruity Loops on the table next to her white bowl. Tipping the cardboard of the sugary cereal over, she poured herself a helping so she could finally eat for the first time today, though it was nearly 9:30 at night. Keeping conscious of her ant-sized friend, Mira eyed Anthony for a moment and asked him a quick question, ignoring his judgment of the order in which she personally preferred to pour each ingredient.

 

“What’s your favorite color, bug?” she asked while turning her attention back to her puffed multicolored grains.

 

“Green,” he said informally, fully expecting to receive a green, “O,” shaped treat, “yours?”

 

She plucked a pair of green circles from her ceramic bowl and set them down on the table, slightly dripping with milk in front of Anthony, taking up her huge metal spoon in the same hand and leaning over her late dinner to begin eating.

 

“Green, “she comments while looking down, before dipping her spoon down and into the bowl for the first time, lifting it back up full of unfortunate Loops headed for her opening mouth. Anthony watches her shovel in a half dozen or so into her eagerly awaiting teeth and tongue, the power of her jaws striking him momentarily with awe as they effortlessly crush the flavored O’s to paste. The small man reflects that everything about Mira, though very pretty and attached to a girl, is at his stature a source of destruction and power that if let free of her restraint, would annihilate his existence with ease.

 

Anthony glances down and follows Mira's intent, taking a look around his own pair of green, tire-sized Fruity Loops, unsure of how to go about breaking them up and eating. The small man extends a hand and scrapes at the surface, gravel-like shards tearing off, unorderly and falling to the table that is to him, the floor.

 

With both her elbows on the table, Mira has her phone in her other hand now as she dangles her spoon carelessly over the bowl by the tip of its handle, toying with its weight, she looks over to Anthony as she’s about to check her notifications, seeing him trying to work out how to start eating. She leans her spoon down and over to him, the partially surprised little human taking a step back as she uses the tip of the spoon to chop up the pair of puffed grains, smashing them a few times with very little effort. Now in easier to consume pieces, she raises her spoon back up and goes back to dangling it as her eyes head back to her phone, her finger poking her passcode in to unlock it.

 

“Can’t even handle cereal and he thinks he can handle being my friend.” She says staring into the rectangle of her glowing screen, her voice teasingly intending to hurt the lone member of her company.

 

Anthony glares up at Mira as she takes another bite, the crunching and smashing of the cereal grinding and rumbling out with each motion of her jaw. He takes a bite of the destroyed grain himself and says up to her,

 

“I think I’ve done just fine so far, thank you.”

 

Mira shifts her eyes down to him as she tries not to laugh at his bruised pride, then she reverts her attention back to the friend request sent by him awaiting approval on her phone, her earlier plot resurfacing into her thoughts. The man to himself assumed that so far, he had done fine, but in truth Mira was happy to have him around, and while she was still unsure of many things, she knew he'd done much better than just, “fine,” at being her friend. She was impressed, truly, but she knew enough about herself to worry, and on top of that she was of course a girl, one of the most dangerous, and also unpredictable of creatures.

 

“So you think earlier was as bad as it’s gonna get hmm? Ever been with a girl when she’s on her period?”

 

Anthony started coughing immediately, choking with a sudden reaction at the unorthodox question so abruptly shoved his direction, Mira looked down at him again, this time unable to hide her laugh and smile as his fist involuntarily raises up to his mouth. He beat at his chest with it after air returned in his throat, trying to dislodge a chuck of tasty cereal as he choked on a reply just as much as his food.

 

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

 

The man cleared the crunchy impediment and said out and up to her, his voice recovering in a rasp,

 

“Can’t be that bad, I mean, not when I’m regular size anyways…”

 

She looks down at him with a smirk of utter disagreement, as if she’s pleased with his reply, but totally aware that he’d be in way over his head, so far in fact, his optimism is hilarious. The pair of them laugh and she takes another bite, filling her gaping maw with more sweetened O’s.

 

Mira chomps and considers the request she's holding in her hand, taking note of Anthony's profile picture and how he looks rather attractive in the outfit he'd worn in the selfie, it was a simple white long sleeve button down shirt, the sleeves purposely rolled up to accentuate a particular style that she found appealing. He had added the compliment of a red bow tie and matching red suspenders, the choice of accessories making him reminiscent of a 60's or 70's barber, and in the apparent theme his actual hairstyle was that of a cleanly shaped fohawk, which completed his attire well. She looked dreamily at his picture for a moment, knowing the man before her was down on her table and unable to understand she was essentially checking him out. Mira really liked his smile, vibrant, full of light and happiness, it was something that in men was hard to find, and she wondered if one day she could make the stud who wore it her own.

 

That all of course, would require steps, some baby sized and others leaps of faith, one of which was still awaiting her thumb to approve it, but she couldn't resist using the proposal of friendship to have a little fun.

 

“Tell you what,” she says in between chews, “I’ll accept this request, if you manage to beat me at a game…”

 

Anthony’s interest as well as his discomfort perks up sharply, he has no doubt that this sort of thing is what Mira lives for, predicting it was a game involving their incredible difference in size, and it was definitely no coincidence that she’d offered it in return for the opportunity to, “officially,” be her friend.

 

The tiny human stands up straight and swallows his mouthful of food, cleaning his hands then crossing his arms and regarding her for a minute. Her eyes were staring him down, her face wearing a devious smile that was daring him to accept. He know this was almost what could be interpreted as a trap, and though he feels like the game is more of a formality than an actual prerequisite to becoming friends, he knows of course she intends to make it unfair, in any way she can.

 

Anthony ruffles his lips and licks his mouth, finally at last saying,

 

“Fine, you’re on,” he says with a confident nod, then adding, “but no crying when I win. When you lose, you accept the request, no funny business.”

 

Mira held up her spoon in between her thumb and index finger as she straightened the rest of her digits in imitation of a courtroom pledge not to lie.

 

“You manage to win, we can be friends, I swear.”

 

Anthony thinks for only a second, then nods and flexes his shoulders back and stretches his arms, preparing himself for something he’s sure will test him in a way he’s never been tested before.

 

“Alright, fine, deal. What did you have in mind, Lamia?” He could tell she didn’t like to be referred to by her last name, and since he didn’t much appreciate being called bug, or insect all the time, he let her know it by calling her something more formal that she disliked.

 

Mira begins shaking her head at his tiny spark of bold acceptance, “You’re either the bravest, or stupidest boy I’ve ever met, you know that?”

 

“Maybe I’m a little of both,” he said to himself as much as he said to the hungry girl looming overhead, “but,” he says with a brief pause, holding up a finger, and allowing his own smirk to confidently break his mouth, “I’m almost a friend of yours, who also happens to be a boy.”

 

Mira is silent as she licks her lips contemplating what he’s just said, the little flicker of fire in her chest giggling along with her subconscious. God she just wanted to eat him, she wasn’t sure if it was because he was awesome, or because she wanted to show him she liked him the only way she knew how, in her own violent form of affection.

 

“Tell me, snack,” Mira says in a sensual whisper, the one she loves to take on when talking to her pet, “do you know how to swim?”

 

Anthony could see now where this was going immediately, and he wasn’t too surprised. He could swim, pretty well in fact, and he figured this would be something he could conceivably achieve victory in given that particular skill of his. The young man’s pulse starts to quicken at the anticipation of a coming struggle, he's scared, his body is pumping adrenaline into his blood, but he's starting to really enjoy this feeling Mira gives him when she abuses her power over his life.

 

“Would it matter if I couldn’t?” he asks, with a low murmur and a smile up to her, knowing full well how she’ll answer.

 

“Not for a second,” she promises darkly under her breath, smiling down, her lips splitting as she licks her right incisor with deliberate slowness out of pleasurable anticipation.

 

Without explaining anything further, Mira puts down her phone with the ultimate prize of digital friendship waiting patiently on its screen, a distant thud echoing out as she, with barely contained excitement, plucks Anthony by the shirt between her fingers. He, thinking quickly, ditches his own phone as well, tossing it hurriedly from his pocket just as the towering demi-goddess hoists him high without pause over to and above the rim of her white bowl. Anthony ignores the height and tries to focus despite everything happening so fast, taking a deep breath and steeling himself for the coming physical exertion.

 

Without ceremony, Mira holds him over a slightly empty part of her cereal and drops him in, watching him splash into the white liquid and going under for a moment as his body embraces the breaking surface tension. Milk gets into Anthony's mouth, and he fails to keep it all out of his nose, the sweet flavored liquid tasting good, but making him choke uncomfortably for an instant as it reaches his lungs and nasal passage. The tiny man pops his head up and out from beneath the calm milk surface, exclaiming out a gasp and shout as his mouth bursts open.

 

“Oh god! It’s cold! Ho!” he shouts, “Cold! Cold!” He had honestly not thought of that while considering the challenge, and he shook his body trying to combat the shock of the frigid temperature. He paddled mildly keeping himself afloat, the milk feeling noticeably different from pool or even ocean water, he heard Mira laugh and he saw her cover her mouth with one hand as he waded around to face the woman.

 

“Of course it’s cold, it came from the fridge! Don’t tell me you want to quit already, it’s just milk Anty.”

 

He coughed a bit and gasped before responding, hoping she couldn’t hear, and then said,

 

“Never said that I wanted to quit! Just making an observation. It’s not even that bad, and I mean it tastes good, so there’s that.”

 

Mira smiles at his ability to either feign a complete calm, or actually tolerate his situation, she starts to think of more and more ways she could push him or use him to appease her needs, but she dismisses the thoughts away, excited for the current bout of fun.

 

“So, the game is simple, all you have to do is be the last thing in the bowl, not counting the milk. Easy right?”

 

Anthony reflected as he skin felt like it was freezing, that at Mira’s size, combined with the size of her spoon, and with her ability to react frighteningly quicker than him, he was in for quite a task indeed, but as he looked around the bowl he couldn’t see too much more cereal left, so his confidence held firm.

 

The smiling beauty above watched his body bob and maneuver painfully slow around in her bowl, she loved the way tiny humans made such vulnerable prey in cereal, they had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and their feeling hopelessness always sent a flick of pleasure through her excited heart.

 

“By the way,” Mira says with a final point to make, “You never asked what I wanted if I won…”

 

The floating, inch tall human, internally panics for a moment as his eyes widen a bit, completely caught unaware at the obvious point he’d forgotten to clarify.

 

“If I win, and believe me, I’m going to try to; you get to make friends with my teeth…” She says with a casual chomp and that fake snarl he wanted to think earlier would have been cute. There is not the single hint of a joke anywhere in the statement, or in the one to follow.

 

“Anyways, good luck! Try not to die for me!”

 

As soon as the words finish rolling off her tongue she lifts her spoon and comes after Anthony, the small floating little person an easy target to scoop up even on the first try if she’s quick enough she feels.

 

Anthony blurts out a curse as the metal of the spoon dips below the surface of the milk, the edge appearing, as he paddles frantically, to contain him within its perimeter. Thinking on his feet, or in this case his back, he rolls over the curve of the utensil as if lifts skyward, a few Fruity Loops captured within a pool of milk.

 

Anthony beats his arms keeping himself afloat as he glances upwards, watching as Mira nods as though she’s marginally impressed, her eyes still finding him easily as she devours a bite of cereal that could had as easily contained his life. The spoon comes back out from between her lips empty and shining, her eyes still affixed on his position, as she immediately starts moving to dip it down for another bite.

 

Jarring himself out of his fascination for her seemingly limitless power over the situation, Anthony takes a breath and dives under the surface of her milk. Bubbles, rock-like pieces of cereal, and the strange consistency of the bowls liquid greet him as he dives deep, trying to get under the scoop of Mira's next stroke for a bite. Anthony feels the rush of a sudden current toss him around like a rag doll as the tool for eating swipes just above him, thankfully missing him again and not impacting his comparably fragile body as it passes over. The spoon comes up and out of the bowl with only cereal and calcium enriched liquid as Mira frowns, shoving it into her mouth, actually frustrated she missed him again, and she wasn’t being purposefully easy on him either, the cocky little insect.

 

Anthony swims around the milk with his eyes closed, it’s obviously not like water and transparent, so he has to maneuver around with sense of sight removed from the equation, something else he hadn't thought of but had quickly learned. Feeling around with his hands, he bumps one of them into a floating circle and finds the empty center hole, slowly breaking the surface of the milk like a crocodile in a river and looking around with his face barely out of the surf within the ring. The hidden human finds Mira up and off to his left, tilting her head around, inspecting a spoonful of cereal that’s raised up to her face, and then irritably pushing it into her mouth, content it too didn’t contain her prey.

 

There’s only a few rainbow colored O’s left now in the bowl, maybe three or four that he can see, and Anthony starts to resist the urge to plan what he’s going to say after seizing victory from the literal jaws of defeat.

 

Mira shifts the spoon around and gathers up three of the last four tasty Fruity Loops, the waves and undulation of the milk violent and abrupt to the tiny man in her bowl hiding within the detached yellow loop. She brings them up to her eyes and inspects them as before, conscious of the duel’s terms, and maybe, hopefully, her little opponent's safety.

 

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, herself feeling a little defeated it seems, but as she trains her eyes back down at the last bite of puffed grain, she spies Anthony as he ducks beneath it, submerging himself again and trying to get away, attempting to be the last thing remaining in the white sea.

 

Mira smiles without meaning to, coming to a realization, and dangles the spoon between her fingers lazily; she stops trying to fish him out, and instead reminds herself that she’s the one in complete control, not him. She waits, patiently, narrowing her eyes and looking for the tell-tale sign of the little man poking his head up for air. She’s looking to one side of the bowl, but when she sees him break the milk's surface and gasp out for oxygen, her eyes shoot over and lock onto him in quicker than a heartbeat his alarmed reaction making her giggle.

 

Anthony gazes up at her and checks around the bowl for more pieces of cereal, finding to his disappointing realization, one still remaining a distance away. He sees her eyes sharp and focused on his floating body, and the both of them glance almost at the same time to the lone island of sugar off to the other side of the female-made lake.

 

Mira raises her eyebrow as her smile turns to a smirk,

 

“Almost, but not quite…”

 

The enormous girl plunges her spoon down and into the milk, though it isn’t angled with the intention to scoop up her tiny friend, she uses it to corral him over to the side of the bowl, cupping him against the hard surface, the metal encompassing his figure and protecting him from what comes next. Anthony isn't in total darkness, but the rounded frame of the utensil surrounds his vision, milk running off of it and back into his vicinity in paths like veins.

 

Mira reaches over and lifts the box of Fruity Loops, the lid already cracked and the corner still torn open. Knowing full well, and relishing in Anthony’s coming reaction, she pours herself another bowl, still abiding by the game’s rules of not allowing only him to remain left as the victor. Colorful, tiny tires of flavor cascade out as she keeps her minuscule prisoner shielded from the impact of the potentially dangerous, breakfast cereal.

 

Replacing the box on the table, and satisfied with the level of her reloaded vessel, she tilts the metal utensil down and lifts up a bite she knows contains her opponent, and as she brings the spoon to eye level, she finds that she’s correct.

 

The curve of the spoon only makes the milky pool about waist deep to Anthony, but as he feels the incalculable strength Mira’s hand and arm effortlessly lift up himself and all his assorted, crunchy friends, he makes sure to stand as best he can, to hopefully be seen and not unintentionally eaten.

 

Mira spots him in an instant, he’s at the very center of the group of piled, mismatched loops, and she smiles at him widely with her eyes narrowed, making it seem like she has to strain to find him.

 

“Oh, what’s this?” she says in a low, joking surprise, “Looks like I got a winner with this bite…” She sees the young man wipe off his face sighing heavily and lowering his head and arms onto a loop panting, more recovering from the physical aftermath than he is disappointed with defeat.

 

Anthony was trying hard to catch his breath and ignoring the fact he was several hundred stories in the air, only held up by Mira’s, less than kind support. He knew from the beginning she’d make it unfair, but for a naïve moment he thought he was actually capable of winning. Strangely, however, he was not that disappointed. He knew what she was, how she was, and he had actually enjoyed the rush of adrenaline at the prospect of being at her mercy. It was, alarmingly, a pretty fun little game they’d just played, though he’d lost count of how many times or ways he could have died, even by accident. For a moment of grim reflection, he thought to himself about the poor victims of hers that were not favored, and in no way, shape, or form, given any mercy even after entertaining Mira successfully. It was a dark thought that he shoved from his mind, that the people she’d killed, especially via this method that she had already said she delightfully preferred, really did face their deaths at the merciless power of her near-insatiable hunger. It was a game just now to the two of them, but for many, it had not been, and Anthony was troubled by how terrifying an experience that assuredly was, furthermore, he had seen how much real enjoyment she’d taken in playing and that was what stayed with him the most. Anything Mira had chosen to previously entertain herself with had been doomed from the start, heartlessly so, despite her devious enjoyment and Anthony couldn't help but sense that bleak emotion in himself.

 

Anthony cleared his throat and told his own conflicted feelings that she was changing now, that she, with his help, could finally help her get passed all the awful things she had done in life. There was, however, despite what he was feeling, something about her dark side he found dangerously irresistible.

 

She was waiting for him to respond and as he stood up, still within the boundaries of the spoon and among its cargo, he took a deep breath and said out at last,

 

“You,” he draws out a moment between words, “Cheated. Missy.” He says with an accusatory point of his finger.

 

Mira takes note of his newest nickname for her, and it pokes her appealingly in her jittery heart, making it beat fractionally faster at thought of being a tiny bit more special to him, enough to call her a cute name. She brings and holds her other hand to her chest, with an exaggerate gasp and playful look of surprise she responds,

 

“You think I cheated? Me? Come on Anty, would I do that?”

 

Anthony sags his shoulders and puts one of his hands beneath his right cheek leaning over the pile of cereal, giving her a look of total disregard for her humor.

 

Mira pauses and mumbles to herself with a nod, but loud enough for the tiny defeated human to hear,

 

“Actually, come to think of it, that sounds exactly like me…”

 

Anthony, still propped up on a fruit flavored loop, rolls his eyes and can't help but find her genuinely funny.

 

“So, are you going to get me down from here? I’m covered in milk and I have to admit it’s finally getting a little gross.”

 

Mira heard what he said, sort of anyways, she really registered keenly the fact he was covered in milk flavored like her favorite cereal. At once, for a reason beyond her knowing, something crept into the back of her mind like a whisper. Mira almost swore she felt a new evil thought travel up her spine, and twitch inside her mind, flipping an invisible switch in her soul that she had never truly had any control over. The deeply inhuman side of her had touched her heart and body she realized, beginning to sway the command of her muscles, her train of thought, and most worryingly of all, her desires.

 

Mira looked at Anthony with hunger in her huge, brown eyes, the razor edge of her stare always retaining the nearly apex predator visage, a look that relished in violence and took near physical pleasure in being superior.

 

It wasn’t though, it wasn’t just near physical pleasure.

 

Mira breathed in heavily, taking in the aroma of Anthony’s vulnerability as much as his coating of sweet milky perspiration. The faint odor of fruit and artificial flavors laced with sugar teased her sense of smell, and for the first time, her tongue pushed out as she licked her lips at the thought of his life ending for the purpose of only satisfying her taste buds. Her eyes rolled back as she closed them, sighing with a worryingly primal exhalation that felt to Anthony like it held a deeper, possibly even sexual origination. The small man in the spoon raised an eyebrow as his eyes widened anxiously, he thought he knew for sure that she had no desire to harm him, and though that assumption may in fact still be true, this was a side of her that he, and no one else still alive anyways, had ever seen before. He came to a horrid understanding as she seemed to be overcome with a demeanor that, even despite his time spent with her, was far more unique than anything he’d seen in her before; this was the terrible side of Mira at last manifesting, tempted too far by the company of an insignificant human companion.

 

“…Mira…” He whispered low to her, climbing over a Fruity Loop slow and cautiously, out to near the edge of the spoon that faced her, putting himself clearly in her vision. He held up his hands, placatingly, as if he were trying to soothe a wild animal like a lion or a tiger, an animal that at this very moment weighed roughly 900 million tons, had a craving for killing tiny humans that was near impossible to satisfy, and now was up to nearly a whole day without fulfilling her urges. Anthony swallowed hard, so hard he felt like his uvula slammed into his stomach, he forced his body however to remain composed, his nerve hardening while he ignored the discomfort of his wet clothes and chilled body.

 

Mira opened her eyes so suddenly it made the small man flinch; they shot immediately to his own as if they could see through her lids before they parted. Her pupils dilated sharply in a gaze that spoke of overpowering hunger, for the first time Anthony seeing the truth of her partially demonic nature as she smiled with a sadistic grin, a fully displayed set of white teeth that had every single voice in the tiny human’s head shouting at him to run away as fast as it was possible.

 

Anthony's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated, honest terror. Something had come over his gorgeous inhuman friend, something like a vicious need to inflict carnage and take life that no one with 23 pairs of chromosomes could ever conceivably begin to understand. Mira had become transfixed on his pathetically small existence, so much so that she had stopped moving in any context except for her low, almost growling, intakes and exhalations of air as the oxygen passed between the locked teeth of her jaws.

 

With his next breath though, the human who was almost the size of a Fruity Loop forced down his fear like a horse pill, standing up straight and wearing the hard look of a man accustomed to staring into the beautiful eyes of his potential death. He whispered out to her again, trying his absolute best not to provoke or anger this new beast.

 

“...Mira... Look at me...”

 

“I am, you fucking insect...” She almost snarled out while she still remained somehow unmoving. Her eyes weren't blinking, and they spoke wordlessly to her desire as they promised within seconds to end Anthony's life. A stab of hurt knifed into the tiny man's heart as she spoke to him so harshly, now almost totally forgetting her previous enjoyment of their short friendship, her desires had been let loose, her truest nature had been unchained and it threatened to literally consume him if he didn't act quickly. He cast his pain aside and focused, he need to calm her, if he didn't, they would both die, and whatever connection had been felt between them would be gone forever.

 

“Mira!” he shouted this time, as if to a disobedient animal, his voice razor-edged.

 

“Look at me!” His voice thundered, he brought up all his fury and courage and slammed it against her dark impulses, rising to meet it as if the two emotions were clashing swords in the hands of ancient heroes.

 

“Don’t do this, don't let it win, Mira!”

 

Mira saw only red. Something like blood mixed with an almost painful hunger flooded her vision and bayed for agony as she saw the small form of the helpless human trapped in her spoon. She shuddered for a half second as the utensil shifted in her hand, the ant-sized person maintaining his stance despite the tremor. The voices of things unnatural and hateful screamed in her mind, but she heard, as the shadows begged for satisfaction, another call and make an appeal to her heart. It was strong, and proud. Mira's eyes were unflinching, honed on her prey's outline without distraction, but as the urge in her rose ever higher, the need to devour him and taste his suffering as it slid down her throat, she felt a nagging pull at her compassion again, the same she felt only a day before.

 

Anthony kept up the horrifying staring contest as he battled for the right to Mira's sanity, it was coming apart at the seams before his very eyes, strand by tortuous strand, but he refused to give up on her.

 

Without prompting and after a very long pause, Mira responded, the compulsion within her seeming to be giving ground.

 

“But if I kill you, I can make it stop.”

 

“If you kill me, we both die Mira, you'll kill both of us! That's what it wants!”

 

She breathed heavier, as if the blood in her veins was beginning to boil and her urge to consume his flesh was becoming too much for her to bear. Anthony could see it in her eyes, he was losing her.

 

Anthony angrily gritted his teeth as the reality of her words carved an invisible wound across his chest, this disgusting thing that had a hold of this girl he'd found he cared for was plaguing her to the point that she prayed for it to release her. He could see that beneath her wicked demeanor, there was the unmistakable signs of pain. Whatever it was that refused to let go of Mira was hurting her, and he roared wordlessly in defiance as he swore one day he would live to see her smile, truly rid of it.

 

“Don't let it win, you hear me? Don't you dare let it win, Mira! Fight it!”

 

Mira, with visible struggle forced her head to look away and her eyes to shut, slowly the lids of both sides of her nose coming together and sealing as her body trembled all around. The demonette's mouth wasn't smiling anymore as she growled with renewed resistance, her nostrils flaring and her hair drooping in front of her face on one side. The spoon was becoming difficult to stand in, but Anthony focused his legs to remain rooted upright, his body solidly erect. He had gotten through just now, she was hearing him and his words gave her the strength to combat the evil within.

 

Mira raised her other hand and clutched her forehead, covering her left eye as it pushed her fingers through some of her perfect brown hair. She gasped out, trying to regain power over her lungs as she struggled with the non-human part of her body. Her voice groaned out suddenly, the tone coated with a clash of pure emotional battle as she fought with herself to stay in control. Her other eye opened, seizing Anthony's own vision as it did so, and now, instead of murderous joy, it displayed a pain that the human man felt peel away a layer of his heart.

 

The beautiful young woman stared over to Anthony as a tear rolled out of the same brown orb, she looked to him for love, for support, she prayed for him to make the feeling stop, the gnawing, scraping thirst for violence. With each passing moment that she tried to resist, the pain bit down harder and harder onto her senses, the only thing that gave her comfort as the horror within her soul clawed for purchase, was Anthony staring back at her.

 

Mira’s new friend refused to abandon her, Anthony was there with her through it all, the thing inside her skull screaming a command beyond any form of language to take his life, promising it would give her a wash of pleasure and satisfaction unlike any other she would ever feel. He willed her with his warm stare to fight it away, to resist the touch of darkness, and travel back to him, back towards the light she always wanted.

 

Mira grunted out suddenly with an audible force of focused effort, slamming her eye shut and tearing her gaze away from her tiny snack, the spoon he stood trapped in dipping immediately to his surprise and alarm. She hurriedly dropped the utensil that contained her little Anthony and bits of cereal, the metal of the silverware clanging and spilling out its contents, including its human cargo, onto the table beside it. Anthony rolled and landed hard on his shoulder, the rings of sugared grain crashing around him with the echoing of the spoon clanging loudly. The remains of milk, cereal, and other parts of the breakfast meal settled in a scatter as Anthony closed his eyes in pain, the fall on his right shoulder hitting him hard, though he couldn’t be sure how far he’d actually fallen.

 

Mira stood up without a word and angrily shoved her chair away, the wood of the dining seat booming as it fell over and onto the kitchen tile, tipped off its legs and discarded. The giant woman stormed off and away, not looking back as she marched straight to her room down the hall, both her hands as she walked coming up to her scalp and running their sets of fingers through her hair, trying to alleviate throbbing pain in her head.

 

Anthony sat up panting holding his aching joint as he pushed himself forward, the pain, the fear, and the scarred part of his compassionate soul all hammering him to a nearly unbearable degree. He caught a glimpse of Mira as she stomped away around the corner to the hallway, the residual effects of her internal conflict shaking away as she at last found herself back in command of her body and mind. He knew she had beaten it, as terrible as the whole ordeal had just been, she’d done it, probably for the first time in her life. He knew she wasn’t mad at him, as she slammed her bedroom door with a heavy throw of the handle, he knew it wasn’t because she was upset at the microscopic man, Anthony instead was certain she was trying to protect him. He knew that all this had been indescribably difficult, for both of them, and though she had managed to fight off the urge to kill him, he could tell she wanted to be completely sure he was safe from her by shutting herself away.

 

As Anthony breathed erratically, his body being overcome with shock, the new silence of the kitchen now his only company; he leaned over and collapsed onto his back. The man’s eyes stared off to the ceiling as he felt all energy begin to fade from his body, exhaustion seizing his muscles and tested resolve. He’d come close just now, far closer than anyone would ever be comfortable with to Mira’s unfettered wrath, and he had survived to embrace the blissful release of unconsciousness. He wanted to be happy for her, she was able to resist her urges at last, at least just this once if anything else, but he was so tired, she had really worn him out, in many more ways than one.

 

As Anthony’s eyes faded to black, pushed well passed the limits of his body and finally accepting the sweet caress of physical and mental shut down, he muttered something he wished Mira could somehow hear, a small smile on his face as his lids closed shut,

 

“Atta-girl.”

 

+ + + +

 

Mira locked her door behind her as she slammed the wooden entrance shut, the lock clicking over and ensuring there was a least some form of barrier between her and Anthony that may slow her down should she lose control again soon, or worryingly, in something like her sleep. The beautiful, brown-haired woman in her simple black tank collapsed into her bed and clutched an idle pillow to her face, groaning out loudly without holding back into the soft, clean cover, venting all emotions she had been holding in. She had pushed it too far, she had almost killed poor Anthony just now, someone whom she had begun to care about and even feel a spark of unmistakable passion for.

 

As Mira shook her head in the conforming cotton of the pillow, she shouted to her subconscious, commanding it to obey her will.

 

“You won’t hurt him. Not again, never again! I won’t allow it!”

 

The laying woman took in deep breaths and calmed herself at last, her thoughts coming back to normal and all urges of inhuman pleasure faded away. A tear ran down one of her cheeks as she began to cry, the one person she cared for on this earth was the one she was at risk of losing on a day-to-day basis, and worse yet, it was because of her. She promised herself in that moment, knowing that Anthony meant more to her than anything in her life, that she would protect him from harm, even if it meant protecting him from herself as much as that would pain her to do so.

 

Mira rolled her head over and looked to the doorway of her room, thinking to herself that she should immediately apologize, rush out there now and beg for his forgiveness at the horrible act of betrayal she had nearly just committed. She didn’t trust herself though, she didn’t want to risk seeing him until morning when he’d changed back to normal, but then, she would tell him how sorry she truly was.

 

The girl didn’t wipe her salted cheek as she allowed her mind rest at last, the small lamp on her nightstand the only source of illumination in the room, barely lighting it at all. She closed her eyes and tried to dream of Anthony’s smile from his profile picture, hoping, praying that he would be alright in the morning when she went out and gently moved him from the table to the couch like she’d done the night before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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