Chapter 18

Most people in History never lived a world-changing event. The current population of the planet would not be among those anymore. This was even more exacerbated in the case of Stacy, since the event reshaping the world was no other than her girlfriend, Laura.
 
Stacy had woken up late, as usual when Laura was not bugging her to go hiking or doing some other stuff. The TV, which she had meant as mere background as she cooked her breakfast soon let her know that this would be an exceptional day. There were no stupid talks about the properties of this fruit or that other or the usual gossip about celebrities. It was easy enough to identify the serious tone of a newscaster.
 
Stacy brought the volume up as she tried to make some sense of the imagery. It was some general cityscape. Easily identifying Emerald, the news grabbed Stacy's full attention as she identified several columns of smoke rising at random points in the city. Was the city under attack? From the nervous talk of the anchor speaking in the background, it was not obvious if this was some terrorist act or a natural disaster.  
 
A closer shot of a crumbled building let Stacy know that whatever was happening was very serious. She soon identified the area and the remainders of the high-rise as those of the Windsor.
 
Stacy realized she was hyperventilating. Her first thoughts were of Laura. Was she alright? She should have been back home by now, shouldn’t she?
 
She needed to learn more about the situation, so she focused and started identifying words without any apparent sense both in the speech and in the text in the lower thirds.
 
“Crush… woman… foot… giant…”
 
And then, her jaw dropped when a new image finally showed her the source of the city's distress. It was a general shot of the city, probably taken from a chopper flying pretty high. It covered some blocks, apparently without too much purpose, until Stacy realized that the cameraman was trying to keep an avenue centered. Laura was walking down that avenue.   
 
Stacy’s heard momentarily filled with glee when she found out that her girlfriend was OK. Then, she was taken by shock when she was not the woman she had met anymore.
 
Her naked body was still as hot as Stacy knew. Even hotter, once one considered just how confident she looked. The change was, of course, in size.
 
Seeing her girlfriend towering over everything in Emerald with her gigantic figure was both shocking and not crazy. How could it be when Laura had shared her secret wishes with her so many times, and they had even role played it on more than one occasion?  
 
Of course, one thing was talking about a fantasy, and another was seeing it turn into reality. Stacy was taken out of her trance by another word from the anchor: "dead." 
 
She had not heard the sentence before that word, so she hurried to read the lower third of the screen where several sentences were scrolling. She could read “Laura Anderson”, letting her know that the entire city knew, as she did, who the giant woman was. And a couple of sentences later she could read “Hundreds dead”.
 
Hundreds dead. They had often discussed it with Laura. If she ever became a giant, as she wished, people would die. Many people. Laura spoke about it naturally. There was nothing in her words that suggested that she longed for it. She accepted it as something that would happen and should not concern her any more than necessary.
 
Stacy then realized. Laura was walking, looking confident, down the avenue. She was looking to the front, not down. At her size, this could only mean that either the avenue was deserted or plenty of people were being crushed under her feet. Several hundred feet over the ground, Laura seemed oblivious to it.
 
Stacy realized that she did not know how to feel about it. Back when they had role played it and Laura had told her that it would be unavoidable to kill plenty of people it had sounded logical. Now that her girlfriend was killing hundreds of her fellow citizens the moral implications felt significantly stronger.
 
"At least she does not seem to be killing anyone on purpose,"  Stacy thought, as if trying to convince herself.
 
She remained transfixed, watching her girlfriend roaming the city on TV as the background comments kept repeating words like giant, conquest, murder, strength, speech…
 
Stacy caught herself thinking about Laura's size. How large was she? In their several conversations about the topic, Laura had shown a preference for a size in the thousand-foot range. Her rationale had been simple enough: she did not want anything to dwarf her. Being a visual artist gave Stacy a certain ability with three-dimensional perception. Still, it was hard to guess a size just from looking at Laura on a TV screen. Judging by how short the high-rises on both sides of the avenue looked, she did not think that Laura would be very far away from her wished size, in any case. 
 
This, of course, led to the next question. How had Laura got like that? Stacy's first reaction was to feel betrayed. What she saw on the screen was what Laura had always wished for, so her first instinct was to think that she had done this to herself. Which would mean that she had kept this from her. Then, something from deeper inside her told her that this was not possible. Laura was an open book to Stacy, and vice versa. They told each other everything, as proven by the fact that Laura had opened about her secret wish to Stacy early enough in their relationship. She had valued that so much that it had made the fact that she had been a bit freaked out pale in comparison.  
 
But, if Laura had not done this to herself, how had she then turned into everything she had ever wished to be? And… what did this mean for their relationship?
 
Stacy realized that having woken up late was playing against her, so she rushed to her bedroom to pick her laptop up. Soon enough she was watching the first existing footage of Laura as a giant, that of her approaching the city and stopping to deliver what was now being called her introductory speech.
 
 
 
 
"Tiny people of Emerald. I am your new Goddess."
 
It was amazing how, a thousand feet tall and as empowered as anyone could feel, Laura still sounded like Laura. Her voice carried to every corner of the neighborhood she had chosen to get into the city, but her tone was still that of her girlfriend. It was not the same tone she used when they were together in bed. It was more like the one she used when she was talking about hiking with confidence. Of course, Stacy did not miss the fact that Laura was referring to her as a goddess. She had often claimed she would be one, should she turn a thousand feet tall. When Stacy picked on her reminding that she was an atheist, Laura would simply shrug and say   "No one would be able to deny my existence."    
 
"My name is Laura Anderson, I'm 22 years old, and yesterday I was one of you. Luckily, when I woke up this morning, I had transformed into the amazing being that you can now see. It's obvious enough that it's unfair to consider me human like you anymore, so for lack of better word you can refer to me as a goddess. The first and only of my kind."    
 
Stacy had role played goddess scenarios with Laura for what seemed like forever. So, this part of the speech did not catch her by surprise. It was not that different from some of the stuff Laura had said when playing the part with her. There was a subtle difference in the overall mis-en-scène, though. Stacy realized what it was: this time, Laura meant what she was saying.
 
"I'm much bigger than you, much stronger than you and much smarter than you. And I'm going to do the only logical thing for someone of my station. I am going to take over. I will rule you. From now on, I am the one and only authority. There may be those of you that find this unfair. Consider this: I have the power to do as I please. Moreover, I have the power to force you to do as I please. And you are absolutely powerless to stop me. What would truly be unfair would be to deny this obvious truth."
 
Of course, it was logical. Despite the undeniable sexual aspect of it, Laura's wish for size had always been with a purpose. She was announcing it. Stacy had mixed feelings about it all, though. On the one hand, seeing Laura with such confidence was invigorating. Even exciting. On the other hand, Stacy could not prevent thinking that when Laura compared herself with the rest of humanity like she was doing, Stacy was on the other side of the scale.   
 
"So, this is how things are going to work from now on. I will issue commands, and you will obey. I will do anything I want, and you will accept the consequences of my actions. And if there are those of you stupid enough to challenge me or, even worse, to attack me, I will crush them. These are some very simple ground rules, once you think about them, aren't they?"
 
Laura had always been a direct person, and Stacy had not expected her size increase to have diminished any of that. So, her words were logical. Still, hearing her girlfriend talk so casually about killing hundreds of people and knowing that she had done that shortly after that speech left some weirdness in Stacy's mind. The Laura she knew was an empowered young woman that preferred to ask forgiveness rather than to ask permission. But she had never been violent, even less a killer. No matter how much she had grown and how much she had anticipated that this would happen in this scenario, it was still unexpected for Stacy to hear her girlfriend discuss death so blatantly.    
 
"I will be visiting the city. I'm eager to. I'm dying to check things out from my new point of view. I realize this will be disruptive. As I said, you have no other option but to accept it. Also, I've been this big for a very short while. It will take me a while to educate myself on the full extent of my power and the effects I have on my surroundings. I am not a cruel woman. I won't destroy things or kill you for fun or just because I can. I will be using my size and strength, though. I'll move around, check things out, test my power. Accidents will happen. The size difference is just too great." 
 
This was not the first time Stacy heard those words from Laura. All the previous times she had been just a head taller than her, though.
 
"I've always dreamed of being this size. This is the best thing that has ever happened to me. So you can be damn sure that I will never apologize for being big or its consequences."
 
 
And this was the final touch of Laura for her speech. It sounded like her, of course. And it didn’t. Stacy realized that what she had heard sounded like what Laura should sound at a thousand feet tall. She had never thought that this would be much more than a fantasy they would share to make boring Sunday afternoons a bit warmer or to get her excited enough for bed.
 
Realizing that she still did not know what to think about the entire situation, Stacy went back to TV, to watch her girlfriend live.
 
 
 
 
Stacy had barely stopped looking at one of the multiple screens she had set up to go to the bathroom. She was following the unfolding of events on TV while watching videos of Laura's previous antics in her laptop and following what was being said in social media. The multiple close-ups of her recorded from cellphones and uploaded on Twitter were especially awe-inspiring. From up close, Laura was not Laura anymore, but a gigantic creature that was wreaking havoc in the city.
 
Her girlfriend had never looked sexier than she did on the screen of TV, so Stacy had gradually got into the new world where Laura was a thousand-foot-tall goddess and caught herself enjoying her antics. The way she had handled the Beck Tower had been incredibly sexy and her lap dance over Bay Bridge had turned Stacy on so much that her nipples easily protruded through the thin fabric of her silk sleeping gown. She knew people were dying as her girlfriend did all that, but somehow it felt natural. It felt proportional. And seeing her deal with the city as her playground was incredibly arousing.
 
Choppers had some trouble to catch her playing with the cruise ships at first, but when they did Stacy felt her excitement growing once more. Of course, they both had read Gulliver's Travels and anything inspired by it countless times and seeing Laura playing the Gullivera role with ships that were much larger than those from the Blefuscu navy was nothing short of arousing. Her fingers had met her crotch when Laura had taken action to the next level and had lifted one of the largest cruise ships over her head.
 
In hindsight, Stacy could have said that this moment had marked the peak of her excitement about her girlfriend’s new self. Things started going south shortly after. The tipping point was probably the airport.
 
Stacy should have guessed just how turned on Laura was. She was, after all, living her dream. The image of her using a crowded plane like a dildo did not sit well with her, though. Rationally, Stacy knew that Laura did not have that many options, at her new size. But still, seeing the highly detailed images, broadcasted live by every single TV in the country, of her girlfriend pleasuring herself with an inanimate object as she moaned for all the world to see were disturbing.  
 
A glass broke when Laura climaxed, and the chopper cameras caught a very good close-up of the remainders of the plane. They were so twisted that there was no doubt about the wellbeing of the passengers. And there Stacy had it: Laura had gone off in public, and she had killed a bunch of people to do so. A glass inside Stacy's head broke there and then. 
 
Laura was still her girlfriend after that. She was still the person she cared the most in the world. But she could not find it in her to justify every single action she did. She could feel amazed by them, as she did when she beat the police helicopters sent to stop her. But she could not prevent thinking her too cruel when she destroyed several buildings because of some foolish attempts of shooting at her that Stacy knew would not have even annoyed Laura at a physical level.
 
Her girlfriend's wave of destruction had not ceased to increase since then. Stacy's ambiguity about her did not cease to increase either. She even caught herself cheering at Laura when she tortured first and finished later Jacob Strauss, the person both hated the most in the world. At that point, Stacy even felt jealous of Laura, thinking of herself being the one to deal with the despicable tycoon. The massacre she caused to destroy the city hall first, and the Strauss Tower later were less justifiable, even if Stacy still accepted them in the wake of the accomplishment of dealing with Strauss. 
 
It was a false comeback. Laura's posterior leveling of a large section of the city and the use of a high-speed train as a new sex toy made any excitement Stacy had feeling disappear. After that, every single sequence she had seen of her girlfriend had been one where she was using her size to kill arbitrarily, quite noticeably looking for maximum damage and very visibly enjoying it.    
 
Stacy knew that Laura too. It emerged in very few occasions, but she feared her when she did. She was childish, cruel, brutal. She had never been like this with her, thankfully, but she had seen Laura act without restraint a couple of times in the past.
 
Stacy was in that state of mind, still impressed and in love with her girlfriend but appalled by some of her latest actions when the general shot of her advance on TV made it obvious in which direction she was moving: hers.
 
There was some delay between the images on TV and reality, apparently, because the shakes started being obvious shortly after when she would have expected a much longer notice. Not knowing how to feel, Stacy headed for the window of her loft and dragged the curtain enough to see the magnificent body of her girlfriend moving towards her, the low-rise buildings in the area barely able to cover much higher than mid-shin.
 
She was still a couple of dozen blocks away, but she could see every detail of her gorgeous figure as well as if she had been standing in the living room with her. The shakes increased in intensity, each of them perfectly synchronized with the graceful movement of her legs. Stacy could not see Laura's feet, but she could feel them perfectly well, knowing that every time they set on the road, they were likely to cause a little carnage of their own. 
 
It then struck Stacy. As close as she was to her home, Laura was probably treading on her neighbors, people she regularly met at the grocery store or the gym. A look up to see her girlfriend’s face, which was starting to appear distorted by perspective, told Stacy that she was completely oblivious to it.
 
Dust stated raining from her ceiling as Laura got closer. Soon her windows cracked and several pieces of furniture toppled. Stacy was finding it hard to stay on her feet. And still, this was not what concerned her. Her main worry was what to do if Laura was here for her, as it seemed very evident she was.
 
Stacy had long headed into her kitchen, moving around it as she tried to make her mind up. Laura was still the most special person in her life. But… was she still Laura? No matter how long they had discussed this scenario in the past, some of the stuff she had seen Laura doing was too hard to accept for her. She felt like a different person and she… well, she was scared of her.
 
The two strongest shakes yet finally managed to make Stacy lose her footing, sending her to a knee as she held herself in the kitchen table. Everything that had not been yet on the floor fell, several vases and hanged pictures breaking as they did. The cracked window in the living room finally broke. And Stacy felt a terrible weight crushing her soul. She knew she was not ready for what was about to come.
 
The world remained idle for longer than she would have expected. Gathering her remaining strength, Stacy managed to crawl to the window and dragged the curtain. She caught herself letting a yell out when she saw the massive foot filling her visual field. Its toes reached as high as the second floor of the building her loft was in. Being in the penthouse of the six-story building herself, Laura’s foot felt close enough for her to jump into it and slide along its silky curves until the street. This was far from what Stacy wanted to do, though.
 
There was no doubt Laura was here for her. There had been no doubt the moment she had seen her walking down the avenue that led to her apartment. In a way, it was natural. They were a couple. But then again, nothing was natural with Laura anymore.
 
Her thoughts were interrupted when a voice that felt as if it were coming from God himself filled every inch of her attention.
 
"Stacy, I'm here for you. Come out. The roof is probably the best spot."
 
What she had seen of Laura on TV did not make justice to the sheer power her voice had. She did not only hear her girlfriend. She felt her words in every inch of her body. It was curious because she still sounded like Laura, but it was as if her voice had been amplified by the speaker system of a Rolling Stones’ concert and the loudspeakers were right next to her.
 
Laura and Stacy did not live together yet. They had often reflected about the stupidity of it since they spent most of their time together at either of their apartments. The proximity to their workplaces had made them stick to their former housing for longer than it would have been necessary. Still, ever since they started going out, they had woken up next to each other many more times than alone. And they had learned a lot about each other from those moments.
 
Laura could be the most tender person in the world. Usually, after a night of wild sex and a morning of cuddling, Laura would speak softly to her, tease her, show up with some breakfast in bed…
 
There was another Laura, though. Stacy was not up to her standards when it came to keeping the house tidy so, on several occasions when sleeping at Laura's, they had had some stupid fights. Laura would then boss her around, bark instructions, tell her what to do and how she expected things to be done. 
 
She was listening to the second Laura now. There was nothing inviting in her voice, nothing that suggested that she was eager to see her, to share with he the amazing things that had happened to her since they had last seen each other. She was telling her what to do. And, knowing her, she knew that she expected her to comply promptly.
 
Only she could not. Her legs were frozen, her body paralyzed. She was afraid. She was utterly afraid of the woman she loved. And the fear did not let her do anything.
 
Stacy did not know how long it had been by the time Laura’s voice thundered again. She easily recognized her impatience, another of the traits of Laura’s character she was well aware of.
 
“Stacy? Where the hell are you?”
 
Stacy dropped to her knees again, covering her ears with her hands. She started screaming when something she could not identify brushed her mind like a wet cloth brushing her skin. Laura's voice came shortly after. 
 
“Stacy! I know you are in there. Come on!”
 
Screams gave way to tears. Once more, she lost track of time. She was taken out of her shock by the world collapsing around her. By the time it stopped, there was no apartment. Only the floor she was kneeling on, a couple of pieces of furniture, some scattered debris and the clear blue sky, mostly filled by the massive face of her girlfriend turned into a goddess.
 
"I think it's time we move together," her thundering voice said with a trace of sarcasm.
 
 
 
 
Stacy’s home was in the area and Laura did not give a damn about whatever was in her path. The combination of both meant that Laura reached her destination soon enough. She found out that she was eager to meet her girlfriend, the only person remaining in the world she cared about.
 
The rest of humanity was now just an impersonal mass of individuals she aspired to rule, but none of them was of any particular importance to Laura. Stacy was. 
 
True, after everything that had happened, Stacy and she would not be equals anymore. In a strict sense, her girlfriend was as puny as anyone else in the world. But Laura cared about her, and this made all the difference.  
 
Laura longed to see Stacy, to talk to her, to let her know how amazing life had turned into her. Having been the only person in the world that had been privy to her secret dreams made Stacy the perfect person for that too. She also wanted to listen to her, to know how she felt about her change, to feel her warmth and to discuss the future. Of course, Stacy would not be the one ruling the world, but she would be the only one with real influence in Laura, which made her the second most powerful person on Earth. Stacy was smart, so she had certainly thought about this already, but Laura wanted to let her know, to confirm to her that anything she wanted she would do. 
 
She was so eager to finally have a conversation with her that the moment she reached her building, she wasted no time letting her know. It was not as if she would not have seen her coming, of course, but Laura felt like she should give her some instructions on the best possible way to meet.
 
"Stacy, I'm here for you. Come out. The roof is probably the best spot."
 
There was no response. No movement, no one trying to contact her, nothing. Laura waited. After all, Stacy would be as tiny as everyone she had met so far, and one thing she had to learn was that she constantly overestimated the ability of the tiny people to move fast. Enough time had passed without any signs of Stacy for her to start becoming impatient, though, so she addressed her again. She did not think, for a second, that Stacy would not have heard her, but there was nothing wrong in insisting. 
 
“Stacy? Where the hell are you?”
 
More time passed and still nothing. The idea that Stacy would not be home had not occurred to Laura before, but it was, of course, a possibility. She frowned, thinking on just how inconvenient it would be if that were the case. The first thing that occurred to her was that if Stacy was somewhere else, she might have to command the tiny people to find her, but she quickly realized that that was a terrible idea. Stacy was the only person she cared about, so letting the people know meant giving them leverage against her.   
 
Upset and impatient, Laura reached out with her mental muscle and sensed the six-story building, which barely could make it higher than her ankle. There were twenty-three people in it. Soon Laura had a good feeling about the profile and current feelings of all the tenants. Of course, the general feeling was fear, but she could even sense different flavors of it. She did not stop too long on that, though. Her mind was fully focused on something else. She had found Stacy.
 
“Stacy! I know you are in there. Come on!” she said.
 
It did not occur to Laura until then that Stacy might not be coming out because she could not. She might have got hurt. Or she might be too afraid to get out. Maybe neighbors had realized that she was her girlfriend and were threatening her. Laura did not think twice before taking a step back, flattening an entire low-rise block with her feet. She then knelt in a hurry and reached for the roof right over Stacy’s loft. Breaking it was piece of cake. Doing it in a way that would reduce the risk of hurting Stacy required some more focus.
 
She finished the job soon enough, in any case. Debris and dust cleared, and Laura exhaled in relief when she saw that her girlfriend was in good shape. She smiled at her, meeting her startled gaze. And then she realized something: she had just broken her apartment. 
 
Smiling sheepishly, she offered:
 
"I think it's time we move together."
 
Stacy stood up, but it was obvious that she was more startled than excited. Laura understood that seeing her in her current state certainly had some shocking effect. Having your apartment destroyed in the same process had probably not helped. Still, it bothered her a little that her girlfriend was not feeling a little more effusive at their reencounter.
 
"Not sure how much I did break the building," Laura said, sounding less warm than just a second before. "It would be probably a good idea if you climbed in my palm," she said, offering the massive surface of her right hand right next to the edge of the building.  
 
“I… I am fine” Stacy finally managed to say.
 
Laura frowned a bit more. This was not how it was supposed to happen. She was not looking for a tight hold since that was impossible for her now, but some enthusiasm would not have been out of place, would it?  
 
Feeling a bit mean about it, she just said:
 
"I don't think you understand the situation."
 
And then reached into the apartment, picking Stacy gently between her two fingertips. Stacy screamed, which made Laura feel a bit worse. But what had to be done had to be done. She did not keep her in her fingers for long. She knew it was scarier than just lying in her palm, so she transferred her there quickly. Stacy looked shocked when she looked up at her face.
 
"Hi… hi, Laura" she said after a long while of them staring at each other.
 
Well, it was not what she had expected, but it was progress, so she decided to take it positively and smile.
 
"Hi girlfriend."
 
The choice of words was not coincidental. Laura was telling Stacy that no matter what she had become, she was still her girlfriend. Stacy's lips curled into a smile then, and Laura felt a heavy weight lifting from her shoulders.
 
“Nice of you to drop by. I was not expecting you” Stacy said, her tone moving to her legendary sarcasm.
 
"Oh, come on, I'm pretty sure you've been glued to the TV all day long waiting for this moment to happen," Laura said, winking. 
 
Unexpectedly enough, Stacy swallowed hard before replying.
 
 
 
 
Sure, it was Laura, her girlfriend. And sure, she was still addressing her like her girlfriend. But then again, she had picked her up against her will, and now she was lying on her palm. Things were normal, and then they were not. 
 
It was curious, but the fact that Laura had picked her up had taken Stacy out of her trance. It had done nothing to ease her fear, but at least she was in control of her reactions. Seeing Laura and hearing to her first sentences, she quickly understood what the situation was about. Laura wanted to act like normal. And she expected Stacy to do so too.
 
She had to make an effort, but she knew what was expected of her. She managed to exchange a couple of sentences. Then Laura hinted playfully at the fact that she had been expecting for her and Stacy realized that she took a second too long to reply.
 
Laura frowned and said:
 
“Am I missing something?”
 
She knew that Laura. The one that lost her temper when things did not go her way. And she knew that, in her current condition, she had to prevent Laura from getting all the way there at all costs. It made no sense to try to fool her, though. Laura was smart, and she could read Stacy with ease. She was also a fair person, so she decided the direct approach.
 
“You mean… apart from the fact that you are a thousand feet tall and you just broke my apartment?” Stacy replied, sounding as serious as she meant.
 
Laura’s frown deepened, making Stacy afraid. Then, her giant girlfriend’s features relaxed.
 
“I… I understand this must be shocking for you” Laura finally said, her voice softer.
 
"How considerate of you to notice," Stacy said. It was safe now. Laura was away from the danger zone.
 
“We need to talk” Laura finally said.
 
Curiously enough, Stacy would have feared those words much more had Laura just been a head taller than her.
 
She nodded.
 
 
 
 
Once Laura understood that it had been foolish to think that she would just meet Stacy and engage in a couple conversation with her, she felt stupid for her behavior. Hard as it was, she tried to put herself into Stacy's shoes and think about how she would have reacted if her girlfriend had suddenly shown up, turned into a thousand-foot-tall goddess. 
 
Yeah, it was not the sort of thing that could be settled with a “Wow, cool, girl. Tell me, how has your day been, so far?”
 
Stacy was understandably shocked, and it was up to Laura to bring some sense into the situation.
 
“Where do you want to talk?” Stacy said.
 
Laura arched an eyebrow and said:
 
"This is as good a spot as any. I don't think your neighbors will mind."
 
With that, Laura just turned and let herself drop into her ass, letting it flatten the entire block where Stacy had lived.
 
"You sat on my apartment," Stacy said after some time, startled.
 
"Your apartment was gone," Laura said.
 
"If you wanted to make thing easier, killing my neighbors might not have helped," Stacy said.
 
"Let's see if I can make you see this my way," Laura said. After all, her act had been on purpose. "I was going to sit down, so someone's block was going to get flattened. It's what it is. I could have chosen the one next to yours, or another one down the road. And it could have been filled with perfectly nice people. We both know that most of your neighbors are assholes, though. So, tell me, would you rather have had me kill some random people or are you happier knowing that the homophobic bastard next door is now a stain in that ass he always stares at?"
 
Stacy remained silent for a while. She finally said:
 
"I see your point. It's still shocking to hear you talking about people's death with such levity."
 
The truth was that Laura had forced the conversation. She had the feeling that this was getting between them and she had always been a strong proponent of dealing with the elephant in the room.  
 
“I know. But we always knew it was going to be like this” Laura said.
 
Stacy took a while to reply. It was not a good sign.
 
"We… we role played a fantasy. Now, this is real. You just killed all my neighbors" she said.
 
“It’s impossible for me to be a thousand feet tall and not kill anyone. You know it. People are just too tiny, too fragile, too stupid…” Laura started saying.
 
Stacy remained silent once more. Laura did not like the look on her face. 
 
“I… I am one of those people” Stacy finally said.
 
Laura blushed, realizing her mistake. It turned out that the way she tried to fix it made it even worse.
 
“You are not. You are my girlfriend” Laura said.
 
Stacy did not hold off this time. She just yelled back.
 
"Is this how I am supposed to define myself, from now on? Based on my relationship with you? Look, here you have Stacy Beauvois. She is a worthless tiny human, but she is Laura Anderson's girlfriend."   
 
“You are the girlfriend of the most powerful creature on Earth. Many would feel proud about it” Laura replied, starting to feel upset.
 
“Oh yeah, what a couple. Laura, the most powerful woman on Earth and her bug-sized pet Stacy” she came back. She was getting so upset that she started to forget her fear.
 
Laura chuckled. It was not a nice sounding chuckle, though.
 
"Really? I mean… really? I have all my wishes come true, and you have a stupid jealousy attack?" Laura asked, raising her tone.
 
“Jealousy? You are delusional” Stacy replied.
 
“Really? Tell me, do you like me having turned into a goddess or not?” Laura asked.
 
Stacy moved her sight away.
 
"I knew it," Laura said. "We had talked about this a thousand times. I thought you understood me. But it turns out you were fooling me. You thought it was OK as long as it was the wild fantasy of a silly delusional girl. But now that I am a goddess you cannot stand it. All you care about is how pathetic you'll look next to me when you should be thanking the universe for being my girlfriend."   
 
“Really, why?” Stacy asked, defiant.
 
“Who in their right mind would not want to be with a goddess?” Laura asked, surprised.
 
"See, Laura? This is your problem. To you, the world just exists as a function of how you see yourself. You are a goddess so everyone and everything should adapt to that. And then you just cannot see that what the world sees is not a goddess but a monster." 
 
Laura frowned and barked:
 
“Who are you calling a monster?”
 
"You've killed tens of thousands of people Laura," Stacy said.
 
She knew it perfectly well, but hearing it from her felt like a stab in the back.
 
“I always knew being this size would have side effects” she snapped back.
 
“You killed people to have sex. You killed people for fun. I’ve seen it. The entire world has seen it” Stacy said, accusing.
 
“Stop!” Laura said, raising her fist.
 
Stacy let out a short yell. Everything froze.
 
“Are you going to kill me?” Stacy asked, accusing. What felt the worst to Laura was the fact that her tone suggested that she was prepared for it.
 
There were some very few long moments of silence. Laura finally said:
 
"I love you."
 
Stacy started sobbing.
 
"Laura, I'm scared like hell of you."
 
She reached out with her mind and saw that it was true. Then, the world shattered to pieces for her. Stacy, her love, the only person she cared about in the world… she was terrified of her.
 
All she could say was:
 
"Don't."
 
"You can't fix that," Stacy said.
 
Laura’s ego made a last attempt at controlling the situation.
 
“I can”
 
Then, she reached out with her mind and touched Stacy gently, sending her fear away.
 
Stacy was startled in her palm. Then, she freaked out.
 
“What did you do?”
 
"I told you I'm a goddess," Laura said, reaffirming herself.
 
“My feelings are mine!” Stacy protested.
 
"No. They're mine now," Laura said between clenched teeth, reaching out once more and sending Stacy into a state of ecstasy that she thought was close enough to love. She smirked when she saw her physical reaction to her touch.
 
She stopped when Stacy yelled. Frowning, she observed her little girlfriend.
 
"Laura, I love you."
 
"Of course you do," Laura said, sounding mean.
 
“But you don’t love me” Stacy then said.
 
The sentence hit her like a hammer. Stacy went on.
 
“You cannot love without respect. And you don’t respect me. Go on! Turn me into your zombie. I’d rather you kill me. But do not tell me you love me when you think I’m just another one of your toys!” Stacy snapped.
 
 
 
 
Laura remained idle for close to a minute. Stacy had never been so afraid in her entire life. She could not believe that the woman she loved was doing what Laura was doing. She knew that she could become a stain of blood in her palm or a mindless zealot any moment now. Laura's expression did not give her any clues about which was more likely.
 
Then, the most unexpected thing happened. Tears showed in Laura’s eyes. Her mouth opened and she just said:
 
"I'm sorry."
 
Stacy immediately started to cry.
 
"I'm sorry because I love you," Laura said after a long while. She had never been one for tears, so she was trying to recover from the shock as quickly as she could.
 
“I’ve lost you” Laura finally said.
 
“Why do you say that?” Stacy asked.
 
“You are terrified of me” Laura finally said.
 
“I am” Stacy admitted.
 
“Then, how can I expect to be with you?” Laura asked.
 
Stacy did not know how to react. Then, she found the answer in her heart.
 
"Make me stop fearing you," she said.
 
"I thought you did not want me to tamper with you," Laura said casually.
 
The ease with which she had assumed that she could mess with her mind scared Stacy, but she made her best to prevent it from showing.
 
“I don’t. There’s still the old-fashioned way. Act in a way that makes me stop fearing you” she said.
 
Laura frowned and said:
 
"Stacy, there's no way I will stop killing people."
 
Stacy had to work not to show her surprise once more at the casual way Laura was now talking about human casualties.
 
“I… I know… but could you… I mean… tune it down a bit?” she said.
 
Laura shrugged and said:
 
“Sure… I guess”
 
There was an uncomfortable silence. Then, Laura said:
 
"You are the most special person in the world for me. I would do anything for you."
 
Stacy had not expected it.
 
"I… I guess we can work from there."
 
Laura was obviously trying to think about what to say. She never got the chance. Stacy could hear some very loud whistling sounds just an instant everything ceased to be amongst the most painful burning feeling she had ever had. The last image in her retinas before the light flooded them was that of her girlfriend’s giant face showing surprise.
 
 
 
 
"You were expecting that," Laya asked.
 
"It had to happen, sooner or later," Quo said, making her equivalent gesture for a shrug.
 
“So, now what?” Laya asked.
 
"Now things will speed up," Quo said confidently.