“I’m busy this afternoon, but can you please promise you won’t start without me?”

“Awww but it’s so fun. I don’t know if I can resist… What counts as starting?”

“Don’t be that way! Draw or write, or you can walk the city streets and imagine it! Just don’t grow.”

“So walk around, but just don’t grow in the city?”

“Yeah, don’t grow in the city. Just be good for a few hours, then I can join you after and we can play. Promise?”

“Okay, I Promise…”

…

The squeaks of sneakers filled the entrance of the Russell building, echoing off the hard marble surfaces of the building’s lobby. As Katie strode across the room, the sounds of her footwear contrasted against the smart clicks of business class oxfords and heels. She had entered the lobby with confidence, despite her casual attire being somewhat out of place. After all, this office building housed several high status corporations with similarly lofty workplace dress standards to match. The highrise also housed several floors of luxury apartments, though many of those who called this building their home used the separate residential entrance around the corner. She smirked at the thought of all those people. But her plans meant this lobby would do just fine.

Strolling past the attendants’ desk, the petite woman barely attracted a second glance, despite appearing to be searching for something. Katie’s gaze swept the lobby, appearing to estimate some distance, before her eyes lit up. Almost skipping over, she lined herself up next to an exterior wall. With her tongue poking out slightly from her lips, she craned her neck up towards the ceiling. Then back down at her hand, extending her thumb and index finger a few inches apart. 

A broad smile lit up Katie‘s face. It was convenient that she kept such a low profile since anyone observing her enchantment of her own fingers would be confused by such a display. She didn’t want that much attention, not just yet. And if they knew what she was thinking they would have begun running away as fast as they could. 

Breaking from her solitary reverie, she stepped towards the interior while counting paces. With a curt nod of satisfaction, she kneeled to the floor, removing her right shoe to slip off the cotton sock. Holding the balled up fabric, she shoved her bare foot back into the empty shoe and re-tied it. After placing the crumpled garment on the floor, Katie stood up and started making her way back to the front doors. 

Just before she exited, she turned around one last time, her eyes sweeping over the lobby walls and ceiling, grinning at some joke unknown to all but her, and then left. 

…

It was a beautiful early summer day and the afternoon sun shone down brightly on the city. Without a cloud in the sky, the light warmed the rooftops of many buildings, the promise of the coming warm months made the public energized to explore the city. So it wasn’t surprising that the observation deck of the Chadwick Tower was crowded with tourists. 

As Katie emerged from the elevator, her eyes still sparkled with the same mischief from her previous office stop. This time was easier, she simply walked toward the center of the main observation deck, kneeling again as if to stop and tie her shoe. She untied her laces, quickly removed her sneaker and sock, leaving the latter bunched up on the ground. 

She contemplated. Should she leave her sock again or the shoe this time? It ultimately didn’t matter. This was just a game. A small diversion, meant to entertain her while also keeping her promise. Technically. 

She considered her walking path back to the station, and the train ride out of town. Something about it being a gross proposition, walking through the dirty subway with only a sock. That thought was pretty rich considering how filthy she expected her soles to be by the end of the afternoon. But it was different, normal grime doesn’t compare to the detritus in which she loved to revel. So she decided to leave her other sock as a gift here too.

After quickly lacing up her sneaker she was eager to move onto the next stage of her plan, though she did enjoy the discipline in savoring her little games. And these fuckers ought to be thanking her. Well, perhaps thanking her friend, whose promise was keeping her from just letting loose here and now. Katie liked to think she had discipline but mostly she just loved letting go of all inhibitions. 

Later, she mused.

Katie beelined it back to the elevator. almost vibrating with pent up energy. She slipped into the empty elevator car, pressing the button to return to the lobby and repeatedly stabbing the one to close the door. 

While she waited she flicked her gaze back to watch the tourists, leering at them with a greedy hunger, but none noticed. 

Then the door slid closed. 

…

The train ride was uneventful, besides the usual beaming up at buildings, taking in all the wonderful facets and angles, all the fantastic details that, in only a short while, would be reduced to such delicate little intricacies. And after that, perhaps reduced to something much much smaller. 

Katie dared anyone to mess with her, just so she would have an excuse to get started early. She guessed that she could find an excuse that would justify her actions to her friend. She didn’t think it would take much to convince him, and in fact, she would say he found her to be extraordinarily persuasive. 

But the ride was pleasant, and with it being midday, outside the prime commuting hours, the trains were uncrowded and calm.

…

Katie bounced as she waited for the train to come to a halt. She had reached her planned stop, which she had selected carefully based on the bounds of municipalities. She had been waiting for so long, and was beyond ready to follow through on her plan. When the door hissed open she practically sprinted across the terminal, bounding up stairs to a platform that gave a perfectly framed vista of the central district of the city. 

She was finally set. No more preamble.

With a lurch, Katie summoned it, that feeling, that churning knot of heat deep in her core, bubbling in pressure until suddenly, that warmth was sent rushing to the rest of her body. Immediately the platform on which she stood cracked from the increase in mass. The pleasureable jolt was so intense she involuntarily leaned forward, gripping the steel railing in front of her. As the delicious sensation bounced throughout her body, she couldn’t help but let a burst of laughter escape her lips. Then the sensation persisted, with the giggle slowing until it became a deeper sultry groan.

She felt the tingling extending outward to her extremities, the fabric of her clothes stretching out with her. She flexed her fingers, already increased in size and strength to mangle the railing held within her grip, and as she expanded in height she pulled it out of the platform with as much effort as plucking a flower from a garden. She wriggled her toes inside her shoes as they too were flooded with warmth, the sneaker soles grinding against the ground as the rubber slid across the buckling concrete. 

Under her feet, the platform cracked as Katie soared upward. Its steel struts whined, unable to continue accommodating her rapidly swelling mass, dipping slightly before giving up altogether. No matter, she guessed she was already at least three or four stories tall. The structure failure was just a subtle drop in altitude as her shoes hit firmer ground, and Katie was focused on the pleasure of her growth. She quickly soared past the twenty feet of height the broken platform had afforded her anyway.

As her sneaker clad shoes expanded outward, they ground up other parts of the platform, roughly shunting the railing and fencing, their flimsy materials bending like soft taffy. Looking down she gleefully watched the cracks radiating away from her expanding feet. The ground struggled to accommodate her increasing weight, and the toe of one of her shoes slammed into the very same train she had traveled to reach this place just a few minutes ago. 

She was fairly certain the operator was still aboard, and giggled at the thought of her foot sweeping over and mangling him and other trapped individuals. As she expanded she nudged the train with the toe of her right shoe, rolling the car off its tracks onto its side. She lifted her foot, battering the disabled train car playfully a few times, imagining anyone inside tossed like rag dolls from wall to wall by her play. Well, floor to ceiling in this case.

She then carefully rested her sole atop its side. Doing some quick calculations she guessed she’d already passed a hundred feet. Still much smaller than she preferred, but hey, she always made her own fun.

Katie pressed the thick rubber gently enough to squeeze the trapped vehicle’s metal chassis. The vehicle answered with a cacophony of squeals, but she was even more delighted to hear the handful of people still aboard who chimed with shrill screaming of their own. Peeking past the end of her sneaker, Katie could just barely make out the collection of tiny people cowering under her shoe. She flexed and scrunched her toes inside, drumming them against the train via the insole. She hoped the thunderous sounds bounced throughout the inside of the car, filling her captured victims with even more heart-pounding terror. So she continued, enjoying the feeling and unmuffled pounding of her sockless toes. 

Oh yeah, her socks!

She was almost completely distracted by the hijinks in front of her, but for as much fun as it was savoring growth, she wanted to indulge in her little game. As she spun around to look back toward the city, the giantess’s foot pressed down firmly, twisting the train carriage along with its dozen or so occupants.

So focused was her attention, she didn’t even notice the screaming followed by crumpling steel and delicate little crunches. As her growth accelerated, she knelt, crushing a few surrounding apartment buildings and shops with her knees.  

Flicking her gaze to the horizon, Katie’s eyes hunted until they found the landmarks she had visited earlier. 

…

Returning from lunch, Brad waited for an elevator. Bored of scrolling through endless chatter, he lowered his phone and let his eyes wander as the elevator’s indicator slowly ticked down. He noticed a lone gray and white striped cotton sock resting on the floor against the lobby wall. Walking over, he leaned down to investigate, but then jumped back with alarm. 

The sock was growing.

Swelling before his eyes, the fabric spread across the marble floor, the rush of woven threads sweeping his legs backwards, knocking him off balance. With a yelp, he fell flat on his face atop the lengthening fibers. The balled up material continued its rapid expansion as if he wasn’t even there.

The widening perimeter of fabric grew, spreading across the floor, sweeping up furniture and other startled and confused people until it collided with the room’s marble walls. Deflected abruptly, the mesh of woven fibers billowed upwards before folding back onto itself, forming pools of fabric as it filled the space. No longer able to spread, the puddle of cloth began to rise, the gaps in the weave now large enough to entangle limbs as people clambered over it to attempt escape. Even those swept and carried to the exits found their luck had run out, as the growing mesh formed a thick net around the doorways, tantalizingly out of reach. 

Amongst the din of startled screams and crashing furniture, the sounds of terror began to carry a strange quality as the hard marble surfaces were blanketed by the stretchy mesh of the sock.

Now large enough to fill the interior of the lobby, Brad felt the hard surface of the ceiling as the material continued to swell underneath him, the fibers pressing against each other, its spongy properties diminishing as its volume became more compressing within the once-airy room.

Amidst the screaming, Brad could hear sounds of windows shattering, his discomfort growing as the pressure against the boundaries of the room steadily increased. He started to panic as the constricting sock made it more difficult to breathe, being able to manage only quick sips of air as the ceiling pressed against his back. And even the air he managed to take in was full of a musky aroma, even the faint odor of a barely worn sock was magnified as it expanded still.  

Worse still the tugging at his limbs, once merely held in awkward positions, continued to increase as the space diminished, and Brad began to moan in pain as he started to feel his bones being pulled into unnatural angles.

The pressure was unrelenting. Brad cried out involuntarily, his muffled shriek consuming the last bit of air still within his lungs as he felt his wrist snapping backwards, only to be shortly followed by his knee twisting. Despite the agony he felt the building rumble, the walls and support columns groaning, the pressure great enough that even the building itself could not resist the expanding garment. 

His face darkening into splotchy crimson, Brad felt one final shuddering squeeze, his insides blurting out like a tube of toothpaste as he was pressed into the floor above. Pausing for nothing, even as it soaked up his liquid remains, the material pushed on ever still. It swept along and cracked the support column, shifting the building, each floor above feeling a lurch as the fabric of the sock burst through the lobby walls.

…

With eyes ablaze, the enormous woman watched as the patterned fabric of her sock blew out two of the walls of the ground floor of the skyscraper she was standing inside just a few hours earlier. She had grown so large that the distance from where she sat to where her attention was focused had dwindled to a mere room’s width away by her vast scale. Katie loved the idea of watching from a scenic point of view, but now she wanted detail, so she scooched forward on her knees to get a more intimate vantage. The feeling of crumbling stone, of cracking timber and straining steel beneath her shins and knees was intoxicating. Even her laziest movements were utterly devastating to the specks that fled her advance. 

She had specifically chosen to wear a pair with light colored patterns, and was delighted to see it speckled with little red splotches, in addition to the dusty rubble of masonry. Katie loved this silly charade, normally she was much more direct with her play. But a promise is a promise. She assumed shaky video of her had already hit social media, and even the news, so she saw it as encouragement for her friend to join her all the more quickly.

Swelling ever larger, she couldn’t help but chuckle as she saw the upper floors of the sixty story building wobble, shifting precariously due to the traumatic damage eating away at the foundations. Katie was no stranger to growing to fantastic sizes in heavily populated areas, but she had to admit it was exhilarating witnessing her own power, so abundant that it flowed into the mundane objects she owned, and marveled that even they inherited her deadly whims.

Her eyes drifted to the other building. Her face darkened, brows narrowing and grin soured into a frown. It seemed as though her possessions inherited her stubbornness as well. 

…

Rachel stood at the ledge with her husband Tom, enchanted by the bright sunny day. Despite not usually enjoying the more touristy spots, Rachel had convinced Tom to agree to visit this one. They leaned against the railing on the upper deck of the Chadwick, one of the city’s most recognizable destinations. Rachel enjoyed the view while Tom made a point to look toward the horizon, to quell the pangs of vertigo.

As they pointed out other cultural landmarks in the city, they heard a commotion behind them. Rachel whirled to spot a group of people huddled around something obscured from her view. Noises of confusion turned into something more sinister, and then to panicking screams as people turned and fled.

“What the hell…” Tom mumbled, confused as the crowd parted to reveal their source of terror. 

Some kind of deflated hot air balloon had somehow landed on the roof. That didn’t make sense. With their lofty view, they definitely would have seen something like that approaching. There was no gondola to be found under the gray and white shaggy fibers, which didn’t look like they could even hold air. And it moved and undulated in an unsettling way. It was clear it wasn’t billowing in any breeze. 

Then it dawned on them. The strange object was expanding, sweeping people away from its center, towards the perimeter of the deck. Rachel looked past the expanding fabric, towards the other side of the platform. A group of people were clustered around the elevator landing frantically calling a car. 

“We need to get out of here,” Rachel said as she tugged Tom’s shirt. “Let’s make a run for it, we have to run for it before that thing gets even bigger.”

The object continued to grow and had already collided with one of the deck’s four sides of railing.  As it pushed up against one rail, the growth propelled the main mass toward the opposite side, the gap of free space separating them narrowing quickly. A stream of nervous tourists filed through the passage to the side with the elevators. It was easy to see that if it continued its expansion, the entire deck would be enveloped by the wad of fabric. 

But Tom was staring in the opposite direction, his gaze focused on what many other people saw, such that the panic on the deck was ignored. An impossibly enormous woman stood in the distance. Judging by the apartment blocks clustered around her knees, she must’ve been at least 400 feet tall. Her black t-shirt fluttered slightly in the free moving air that soared above rooftops, and her jeans were already spattered with dust and debris.

Despite being a couple miles away it was clear that she was steadily growing larger. She peered down at her feet, dabbing at something with a canvas sneaker, grinning as she twisted her foot. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing… and was enjoying it. Whatever once stood under her colossal feet was occluded by a plume of dust, but once it cleared it’d still likely be impossible to recognize. As the woman continued to grow, she knelt down, her knees crushing yet more rows of buildings. And worst of all, she was now staring right at them with an ominous grin. 

Rachel’s continued tugging snapped Tom out of it. She pulled him along as they rushed towards the only means of escape. They stumbled into the narrow path, but it was too late. The fabric pushed toward the railing, snagging Rachel’s foot, as well as catching a dozen or so other people in front of her.

The mass of cloth was more than enough to twist her leg into the gap between the metal and deck, folding her ankle with a sickening snap. Rachel let out a yelp of pain as her stride faltered. The metal railing squealed, its support posts groaning with protest as the fabric’s weight pushed them past their limit. Tom held her hand, grasping the upper bar of railing, as he tried to pull her back towards him. 

It happened faster than he expected. The mass of fibers rolled over the bars, pushing the posts down like a set of levers, shredding the bolts as the entire railing folded over onto itself. Rachel was one of many caught on the metal grating, and her shrieks in agony joined the chorus of panicking cries as her leg was bent further. As the railing was torn loose, he watched, in slow motion, as his wife tumbled over the ledge.

…

Katie noticed that her other sock, expanding at the same rate as herself as well as its twin, had become caught against a wall at the edge of the roof. Although she was glad to see the garment sweeping a score of tourists over the side, it looked like it was about to tumble down along with them. As much as she enjoyed watching dozens of people plummet hundreds of feet off a comparatively small building, she felt it spoiled the fun little scene she had left for all those people.

She leaned forward to readjust the sock’s position when she heard a delightful cracking in the direction of the first tower. The spongy fabric had at last weakened the remaining supports, sending the building teetering slowly to its side. Enveloped in shadow, tiny people in the streets ran to escape the downfall of the doomed structure, but they were so small and the building was so big. The skyscraper listed languidly, almost protesting against the obvious inevitability, until it finally leaned past that critical threshold, and crashed spectacularly into a neighboring hotel across the street. 

She beamed as she drank the carnage, savoring the sights and sounds she loved so dearly. 

Suddenly unencumbered by the burden of weight, her sock bounced back in triumph, almost proud at having hoisted up an entire building and tossing it aside. It might as well have been gloating, kicking up even more dust and debris, sending them raining down on the crowds fleeing the collapsing structures. 

Unbeknownst to her, the other sock, having whipped aside more screaming crowds from the highrise’s roof, held many more as prisoners. After scraping off the elevator landing and stairwell exit structures, anyone left remaining was stranded on the observation deck. The tiny captives watched helplessly as the still-growing sock reached the point of no return, finally sliding off, snagging people caught within the gigantic fibers of the garment’s weave. A substantial number of them were doomed to be either pulled, shrieking as their bodies were swept over the ledge to plummet hundreds of feet downward, or simply snapping off the ensnared limbs the fabric pulling their delicate bodies apart to stain a deep red all over the fibers.

Katie very much enjoyed her current size, so she ceased her growth, settling into a height of something like a mile tall. Just kneeling atop multiple neighborhoods, she felt huge—and she wasn’t even standing! And to all the mite-sized people below her, she was incomprehensibly gigantic.

The giant woman shifted her attention again back towards the rooftop, observing that the sock had already fallen. She didn’t without even getting to see it herself. She tutted. Oh well, she’d have to just catch the videos of it online later. 

“Damn, I thought my little gift would’ve been enough to take that building down,” she boomed, her powerful voice echoing through the canyon of buildings.

 “Lucky for you I’m feeling generous.” 

Reaching down to her foot the giantess unlaced her shoe, lifting her enormous foot out and letting it slide out through a row of apartments, instantly obliterating them. Rising up on her other leg she let her bare foot fall flat on another several homes and shops, snapping beams and reinforced concrete like they were made of card stock. She hoped they had been completely packed with terrified little people.

Caught up in the sensations, she flexed her toes, sighing as she enjoyed her bare foot’s sensitivity, raising vast piles of stone and wood and steel between them. Indeed she could make out tiny individuals caught up in the mounds as well, and with a smirk she clenched, until their little bodies popped, painting minute specks of scarlet on her immense toes. 

Lifting the sneaker delicately over the damaged, but still intact skyscraper, eclipsing the afternoon light of it along with several neighboring buildings. It was like trying to balance a sneaker on a sand castle. 

“I don’t think my first gift was appreciated much, so I think you deserve another,” she drawled. 

As she set the shoe on atop the building, she leaned her head down, tilting sideways to see the tread patterns that ran along the underside of its rubber sole. The top floor was already partially collapsed due to a bit of tread that had dug into the support struts of the upper level. And down in the canyon between buildings, under the shadow of her shoe, she could see the streets teaming with speck sized people. On impulse she poked at them with her colossal fingertip, giggling as a few dozen people were reduced to a dark red stain. Bringing her finger to her lips, she poked at it with her tongue, lapping up the mess.

She focused again on the shoe in her hand. With a grin, she released her grip, eyes flashing as the building hung intact for just a moment, the entire shoe hanging precariously balanced on a tiny building. There was a slow teetering, until the sneaker angled a bit too far to one side, putting too much weight on that section of the building’s supports. Buckling under such intense pressures, the building collapsed, the glass facades and steel beams blowing out, floor by floor. Nearby buildings were caught up too, the overhanging sole snagging parts of the roofs, dragging them downwards. It was a horrific avalanche of concrete and steel to the people in the streets.

She let out a harsh laugh. She hoped the little fucks enjoyed her consideration. And she didn’t want the first building—or what was left of it— to feel neglected. And she definitely didn’t want anyone to think she was playing favorites. What about the other shoe?

Reaching behind she slipped off the other sneaker, her eyes never leaving the city in front of her. Katie again raised her footwear over the city, enjoying the panicked activity that intensified as the shadow slid over the scurrying crowds. She paused above that first collapsed building, observing the thick dust and rubble piled on top of her filthy sock, its ropey fibers strewn with shattered bricks and glass. Along with tiny wriggling people and crimson smudges. 

Katie held the sneaker and smirked, frozen for what seemed like an eternity. From up here, she could barely hear them. The minuscule crowd’s pathetic wailing. Though she loved to draw out their suffering, she always lusted for ever more carnage. 

Her massive fingers slackened, letting the oversized shoe hang for a moment before it began accelerating downward. There was a brief silence, as if the entire city held its breath, waiting for it to drop. 

She hoped they enjoyed her stupid pun.

Her aim was for the canvas shoe to fall over a single collapsed tower, but the sneaker was so huge it covered several city blocks from toe to heel. The buildings that weren’t simply crushed like the other shoe’s victims were sheared in half by the falling rubber sole. Even if they weren’t completely demolished, losing half their structural supports resulted in catastrophic collapse nonetheless. As the shoe came to rest, it settled squarely atop the rubble of the first building and sock.

She let out a laugh as another cloud of dust billowed out from the epicenter like a shockwave. All this catastrophe just from a few items of footwear. Looking down again at her knees brought more delight. While her legs had taken out the train station and surrounding suburban neighborhoods, there was still so much destruction and she had barely done anything direct yet. 

And after all, she remained still outside the city. 

Katie looked at the sun as it started its descent towards the horizon. The thought echoed through her head: she’s barely done anything direct yet. She had already gone this far. Why not just say fuck it?

…

Peering down at her feet, Katie wriggled her toes, enjoying the sensation of tiny things crumbling against her bare skin. She leered hungrily at the remaining cluster of buildings in the city core and stood up, tugging down her jeans and exposing her legs. She wanted to feel them break against her. 

Katie pushed her right foot down on the coiled denim around her left ankle, utterly grinding everything that had been caught underneath the dark blue fabric. After lifting her left foot out, she stomped it back down behind her, holding her arms out to keep balance. She looked down and was delighted to find her foot now stood in the remains of a hospital and several blocks of shops. Lifting her right foot she began to shake the inside-out pair of jeans off. As the garment’s leg cuff hung around her ankle, she kicked wildly, whipping the fabric around, the denim snagging at the buildings nestled by her feet. With each movement, the fabric dug into the concrete and asphalt of streets, gouging out deep trenches and vaulting them hundreds of feet into the air. Finally the jeans came loose, sending them in a high arc into a neighboring suburb, rolling over the landscape like a denim tidal wave.

By this point several news helicopters were swarming overhead, some brazenly low considering how fast she could move. She had let them watch, she tingled at the knowledge that the spectacle or her play was broadcast far and wide. But she had another idea. 

Katie crossed her arms, grasping at the bottom of her shirt, tugging it over her head. With a finger hooked in the bottom, she swung it around her index finger, chuckling at the turbulence she generated, watching as the choppers struggled in its wake. Most of them recovered, but one was too low. With little altitude to recover it wobbled and slammed into a building exploding in flame, the charred chassis bouncing off and smacking into the pavement out front.

With a wink, she pouted her lips, blowing a kiss towards the surviving helicopters. With another whirl she flung her black shirt. Again, some were able to dodge, but several of the helicopters’ rotors became snagged on the huge garment. Their chasses jerked wildly, tails snapping against the endless fabric that enveloped the pitiful thing as it dropped towards the landscape. She saw tiny pricks of light through the weave as the shirt impacted, causing a warm grin to spread over her face. 

She reached behind her back, unclasping her bra. Time for the real fun to get started.

“Ahem” rang out a deep voice, rolling across the broken cityscape like thunder.

Turning around, she smirked at her lover, standing just as huge as her. She glanced down, following his fiery footprints backwards, noticing how quickly they diminished in size. He must’ve grown so fast, to be able to sneak up on her like that.

“You made a promise…”

“I kept my word. No growing in the city! I took a train!”

He smirked. “I’ll let it slide, just this once. You’ll have to catch me up.”

End