Chapter 31:

(Posted: May 25)

The mansion was silent. Harrison and Jessica both strained to listen for any telling footsteps thumping down the halls, but they heard nothing. Versa must be gone, they reckoned. Even Kat's earth-shaking footfalls outside had stopped some time ago. It was as if they were the last two people left in this world.

Harrison did his best to keep up with Jessica's longer strides while she moved at a patient pace, allowing him stay relatively close. As their little feet scurried down the hallways of the cavernous manor, both travelers felt nervous yet relaxed by the silence. Their conversation ebbed and flowed; they never feared they would be somehow overheard. Only the quiet walls of Dos Palos listened to them now.

Walking alongside the walls of the mansion's stately corridors, they passed a towering wall-length mirror. From his diminutive stature, Harrison could barely see over the thin frame, but when he looked into the mirror his own tired face looked back. It was the first time in a very long time he had seen his reflection in the sim. He paused to stare at himself.

“Wow,” he whispered out loud.

Jessica turned to look back at him, then noticed her own reflection. Taking a step over to him, she stood behind Harrison and put a hand on his head. Gazing at their reflection together, she couldn't help but think they looked like a mother and child. Being able to see themselves in totality struck each of them as bizarre. VERSA truly was a strange world.

“Do you remember the first time we were in the sim together?” Harrison asked her, looking up in her direction.

“Yeah, I stepped on Kevin,” she replied, unsure where he was going.

“After that, when you first shrunk down, and me and Rich came over to help you up. He was dressed in that ridiculous safari costume. I remember the look in your eyes, it was like, some kind of wonderment.”

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked, I guess,” she agreed. “Why are you thinking about that now?”

“I don't know,” admitted Harrison. “But this mirror just had me thinking about things... the funny thing about it, everything appears the same in it until you realize it's all been reversed. It's not the same. But yet.. it's all there, it's all real. Well, at least as real as what's on the other side.”

Jessica looked at him in skeptical confusion. “What's on the other side?”

“Us,” he coolly replied.

“You feeling ok Harrison?” she teased him.

“I guess now that we're finally leaving VERSA, I'm just thinking about how amazing it's all been. It's just seemed so damn... real. But it's not. It's like we're living in a post-reality world. This whole thing has literally all been in our heads.”

“It still happened though,” Jessica assured him impatiently. “Come on you philosopher, let's keep going. We're not out of the woods yet.”

Jessica began walking down the corridor while Harrison lingered another moment. Finally at peace, he ran off after her.

A few minutes later, the pair stepped into the grand foyer at the front of the mansion. The impressive staircase to the second floor of the house dominated the room and towered over Harrison and Jessica. As they slowly crept up to the base of the first step, Harrison immediately knew he would never make it up it, much less all the way to the top of the staircase.

A chilly breeze blew across them, and they turned to see the great wooden front door of the manor left eerily ajar. Versa had departed some time ago to confront Kat outside, and now both had disappeared. Only the unlatched door served as a reminder of Versa's reign of terror inside an otherwise still house.

Jessica looked down at Harrison; they were both a little confused. She shrugged her shoulders. “I wonder where she went off to?” she said aloud.

“I wonder what happened to Kat,” Harrison added. “She must have been gigantic!”

“Versa probably shrunk her,” Jessica offered pessimistically.

Harrison didn't reply at first, hoping she was wrong. If Versa had dealt with Kat already, why hadn't she come back for them? The mystery of what Versa and Kat were up to troubled Harrison, but he didn't have time to stay in one place and wonder what was going on. He needed to escape.

He turned to look at the impossible staircase. The first step, magnificently carpeted in a crimson hue, towered above him.

“Jessica, I don't think I can make it up this staircase,” he admitted. Walking toward it, he reached the base of the first step and reached out to touch it. The carpeted wall felt firm and scratchy, and in theory he might be able to climb it. But it was a long way to the top of the step, and beyond that, there were dozens more. If he could do it, he would need an entire day. He turned back to look at Jessica.

She strode up behind him. Even at her size the staircase was daunting, and for her to pull herself up every step would also likely take hours. Harrison could see her face contorted in thought; she was likely also wondering how she would tackle the ascent.

“This is going to be a bitch,” she muttered softly, stroking the carpeted step. She looked down past her bra-covered breasts at Harrison. “If you can't do it, I can go up and get you a piece of an apple and bring it back down.”

“How the hell are you going to get up there though?” argued Harrison. “It'll take you forever to get up every step!”

“Yeah, it probably will,” she agreed reluctantly.

Harrison felt crushed by the impossibility of the journey in front of them. He felt angry. He felt depressed. It felt like they had be doomed to spend eternity in VERSA-B, all because they couldn't get up a giant staircase. As he sulked, Jessica walked over to the end of the step.

“Look,” she called to him. He saw her pointing high into the sky above them at the massive wooden banister flanking the staircase. Held up by an array of beautifully carved wooden balusters, he couldn't understand why Jessica cared so much about it. Surely she didn't want to climb that?

“Ok, what am I looking at?” he finally asked her. “It's a fucking banister.”

“Yeah, duh. Look what it connects to though,” she scolded him.

Confused and frustrated, Harrison began walking toward her, keeping his gaze elevated. “What, I see all the spindles it's connected to?”

“Look down here silly,” Jessica finally instructed him.

He looked down at the side rail the entire banister was mounted to. A big wooden slab ran up the entire length of the staircase at roughly a forty-five degree angle, with the bulky balusters protruding out of it. But despite the obstacles, it was smooth, all the way up. And the he realized what Jessica was about to propose; not to climb the stairs, but instead to walk up the large wooden ramp next to them.

“You want to walk up the side?” he asked her.

“Exactly,” she excitedly replied.

“Wow.”

“Yeah, it's steep and far, but we could catch out breath at each of the spindles. Might take a good twenty or thirty minutes, or maybe an hour if you're slow, but it's the best way to get up.”

Now looking up the steep side-rail that followed the staircase up to the second floor, it occurred to Harrison that it was twice as big to him than Jessica. He let out a sigh.

“Look, I can try,” he professed, “but it's going to take me a while. I don't want to hold you back. You should go up as fast as you can.”

“If I beat you up, I can always try to bring you back a piece of the out-key,” offered Jessica. “Assuming I can find them.”

“Fair enough to me.”

Jessica smiled at him and rubbed his head affectionately. “Ok, let's do this then!”

“Don't wait up for me,” he reminded her.

Holding his chin in one of her large hands, she peered into his eyes. She had the countenance of an angel. “Hey, we're getting out of here, together. Remember that.”

He couldn't help but coyly smile back at her. And before he could say anything, Jessica leaned down and planted a tender kiss on his lips.

Fifteen minutes later, Jessica was indeed much farther ahead than Harrison. At first she had boosted him up to reach the base of rail, then climbed up herself using the carved grooves in the side as handholds. The angle up was steep and Harrison had to crawl on all fours to proceed upwards. Jessica, still with her boots on, was able to stay upright as she moved. At her larger size she also occasionally grabbed the balusters to pull herself forward. While Harrison lagged, Jessica made steady progress upward.

To one side were the carpeted stairs and to the other a cliff, but the rail was pretty wide for Harrison and he didn't exactly fear falling off the side. A few times his naked body slipped a bit on the finished wood, but when this happened he luckily only slid backward.

Far ahead of him, he could see Jessica steadily climbing upward. She wasn't slowing down or looking back at him, but instead climbing like a woman determined to get to the top. He fully expected her to reach the top, find the right room, tear out a piece of an apple, then bring it back to him still stuck on the staircase. He wasn't ever going to get to the top.

Crawling up to the next baluster, Harrison sat down, propping his back against the large wooden spindle. He couldn't really see Jessica from his resting spot, all he could see was the next baluster in front of him. But it provided him respite, and he caught his breath.

As he slowly resigned himself to defeat, his mind began to wander. Once they got out of the sim, he imagined the lab-- the real lab-- would probably be in chaos. He was sure if Rich had made it to the other side alive he would have escaped and called the police or the army or some combination of the two. There would be arrests and indictments and all sorts of hell when the media found out Leo Starr was dead. And Claire Starr too, he had to remind himself. His life would certainly take an interesting turn. He might even become a celebrity.

But Harrison didn't want the madness of being involved in the likely investigation of Suncorp and VERSA. He just wanted to go back to Washington D.C., back to his job at the Department of Energy. But most of all, he wanted to see Jessica, in the real world. Even just to sit down and have a drink with her. And talk. He couldn't imagine losing her after everything they had been through together.

Like a clap of thunder, a loud rusty groan pieced his reverie and reverberated through the foyer. Before Harrison realized it was the front door of the mansion opening, he knew in his gut something ominous was sweeping into the house. He turned his head to look out around the baluster behind him.

She strutted into the mansion with the confidence of a wildfire. Still beautifully naked, Harrison couldn't help but gawk at her plump breasts and creamy white skin. Her scowl betrayed her unhappiness and only added to the dread welling in Harrison's heart. Versa had returned. At the worst possible moment.

Before he could be seen, Harrison ducked back behind the baluster. He was small and doubted she could have seen him. But he reminded himself she wasn't a real person. Maybe a computer program could make out the tiniest of movements? He felt his heart thumping like a bass drum inside his chest.

Harrison's mind churned in fear as he pondered the meaning of her presence. After all this time, had she killed Kat? He certainly couldn't feel any gigantic steps rattling the house anymore. Why was she back? His gut knotted when he considered that the only sensible reason Versa had returned to the mansion was to secure him and Jessica.

Time slowed down as he listened to each of her movements in horror. He expected her to head to the lounge where she had left them, but instead she paused as she entered the house. Surely she would try finding them. Harrison knew he couldn't be killed and de-simmed to his death, but Jessica could be. And plus, as he was personally aware, there were worse things in VERSA-B than death.

He didn't hear more footsteps. She was still standing nearby. He didn't dare look. What the hell was she doing? Just standing and thinking? Computers don't need to do that. Something was wrong. Harrison felt violently sick inside his stomach as he pulled his knees close to his chest. Ironically, he now wished he was even smaller.

When Versa stepped forward, her bare foot made a very quiet crunching sound on the soft carpet. Being on the staircase, he couldn't feel the ground shake, but when she placed her foot onto the first step, his body shook, not just from the impact but from fear. He contemplated jumping off the side of the staircase all the way down to the floor below, but he couldn't risk being seen.

Taking a few more deliberately slow steps, Versa reached Harrison's level on the staircase. He stared out at the bare ankle next to him. Craning his head up, he beheld the entirely of her monstrously large body. Her legs towered like skyscrapers, eventually coming together to form her lovely ass. Beyond that he could see her back, covered in a curtain of black hair. And finally above that, he could see her head. She was looking down at the staircase below her. But not at him.

“I thought that was you Jessica,” she teased, her sultry voice dripping with satisfaction.

Paralyzed with shock, Harrison could do nothing but watch Versa thunder up the staircase to where he had last spotted Jessica. Watching her reach down and pluck up Jessica's tiny protesting body, Harrison was racked with helpless misery.

“Hello Jessica,” he heard her say, “you've been on the move since I left! Good thing I found you.”

Though he couldn't make out Jessica's words from this distance, he could hear her shrieking. She seemed scared and furious, but she was helpless in the giantess's grip.

Versa stood back up to her full height. “Where's Harrison?” she asked Jessica.

Oh fuck.

Harrison's mind immediately wondered if Jessica would give him up. No, he thought, she wouldn't do that. She would protect him. At least for now. But what if Versa pushed her...

“You won't tell me?” Versa's voice boomed over him. Relief washed through Harrison. The one-way conversation continued: “Well, you'll tell me eventually. But we need to talk first.”

Still frozen in his pathetic hiding spot, Harrison watched Versa descend the staircase. Though he couldn't see Jessica in her hand, he knew she was there. With a few more footsteps, Versa reached the ground floor and walked off toward the lounge. The sound of her faded, and Harrison found himself surrounded by silence again. But this time Jessica was gone, and he was alone on the staircase.

His first thought was to keep scaling the staircase like a madman and hope he could reach the top. But then what? He couldn't abandon Jessica after her promise to him. And what if she did eventually tell Versa where to find him? Immediately it became apparent that he needed to move. Fast. Every second he remained on the staircase plunged him into further danger.

The choice was simple. Despite being broken up by the balusters along its length, the side rail of the staircase was plenty wide enough on either side of them to slant unobstructed down to the floor. His body now coursing with adrenaline, Harrison scooted out of his hiding spot and prepared to ride the side rail down like the giant wooden slide it was.

Releasing his hands and tilting his legs back toward his chest, gravity took over and pulled him downward. The wood was very smooth and somewhat lacquered and luckily didn't burn his naked back much as he accelerated toward the bottom of the staircase. Under different circumstances, Harrison would have enjoyed the thrill of the plunge.

By the time he reached the bottom, Harrison had reached an impressive speed. The side rail leveled out and he zoomed past the last towering baluster. The wood beneath him finally disappeared and Harrison tumbled through the air before gently impacting the carpet at the bottom of the staircase. Once again, his small mass and the carpeted floor combined for a relatively soft landing. Well, at least nothing was broken, he thought. Not like it would have mattered in the long run with his indestructibility, anyways.

It crossed his mind to flee back to the room he and Jessica had previously taken refuge in. That hiding spot behind the bookcase was unassailable. But then what, he would just hide forever? No. He needed to find where Versa had taken Jessica and make sure she was ok. Before he had made up his mind, his tiny feet were already taking him back toward the lounge.

Harrison had been crushed, beaten up, used, abused, and generally defiled since he had reached the mansion a few hours ago. His body ached, his mind was exhausted, and his stomach grumbled with hunger. But as he ran back toward Versa, he discovered the fear bottled up inside of him was receding. He couldn't tell if it was being replaced with anger or desperation, but soon he was consumed by the idea of revenge. Suddenly he wasn't two inches tall anymore, at least, not in his mind. There was a score to settle with Versa. He wanted to slay her and make this all go away.

It didn't take more than a few minutes before he reached the looming threshold to the lounge. The one step down into the room presented a sizable drop, but Harrison didn't jump yet. Gazing into the cavernous room, on the far side of it he could see the giant naked form of Versa sitting on a couch, talking to little Jessica in her palm.

Though he had expected her to have a surly demeanor, Versa seemed subdued, almost calm. Certainly not the gloating computer program he had grown accustomed to. He paused to watch her speak to Jessica, but she had just finished saying something. Harrison gathered from the silence that Jessica must have been talking now, but he obviously couldn't hear whatever angry or desperate words she was using to bargain with the AI.

From his perspective, Jessica didn't look like she was being tortured, but who knew what may have happened to her before he had glimpsed her predicament. From what he could see she wasn't squirming in Versa's hand, probably because she knew there was nowhere to run. The thought that Jessica, the tenacious fighter, had resigned herself to Versa's control made him shudder.

Harrison almost struck up the courage to finally jump down the step, but caught himself before he leaped. He remembered how he had been trapped in the room for so long before Jessica had helped him out. If he jumped back in, he would only be confining himself again.

Standing at the precipice, debating his next course of action, Harrison momentarily tuned out Versa and Jessica's distant confrontation. When Versa shifted her body and brought her other hand up to Jessica, he glanced back up at them to see what was happening.

“Goodbye Jessica,” Versa calmly stated, without a trace of emotion.

Suddenly Versa pinched the top of Jessica's body. From Harrison's far away perspective, it almost looked like she was gripping Jessica's head. And then Versa squeezed, and Harrison watched her snap Jessica's head completely off her body. In a swift motion, the nude giantess dumped Jessica's headless body out of her palm.

He blurted out a painfully blended scream and gasp, as if a fastball had just been pitched into his stomach. Closing his eyes and turning away in horror, he tried convincing himself what he had just witnessed was not real.

Now truly alone, Harrison staggered back in shock, fighting the involuntary urge to throw up his empty stomach. His mind, paralyzed and unraveled, felt like it had been tossed into a cotton candy machine.

Jessica was dead. Harrison's head filled with visions of the lab where her brain was currently hemorrhaging in the waterchair. And as if the moment couldn't get any worse, he opened his eyes to meet Versa's stare. Seated regally naked across the room, her face lit up in surprise as she spotted his tiny body watching her from the entryway. A pleased smile cut across her wicked face. Calmly, she stood and proceeded to cross the room toward him.

Harrison couldn't maintain a coherent thought but he nevertheless summoned the effort the scramble away from her. His legs felt like clumsy iron bars as tried staggering away from the cruel giantess approaching him. Each of her ponderous steps reverberated maddeningly in his skull. He had no chance of escaping her, but he would pathetically try to. Blithely, he started to run away, but to where he had no clue.

Finally trapped, with all his cards played and nothing to show for it, Harrison dreadfully realized that his reckoning was finally upon him.