He embraced his wife, as she muffled her cries in his chest. He glanced at their two boys on their side. They're sitting, heads bowed low. He tapped their shoulders and eventually hugged them as well.
"She's safe, she's safe. Hanna will come back soon, okay? She's a big girl now," he said.
"We should've stopped her!" his wife said, "we should've stopped her, right? Who knows what the devil is out there??"
"Shhhh, don't think too much about that. Hanna knows what she's doing-"
"She's OUT THERE! AND WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! WE CAN'T EVEN GET DOWN FROM THIS TABLE! WHAT DO WE DO?"
He put his hands on her cheeks and stared at her, "listen, how did Hanna get enrolled in college?"
His wife frowned.
"She did it all by herself," he said, smiling at the memory, "we were shocked, but we should be glad."
He stroked her cheeks and continued, "Hanna wants, and can be independent. She's now our big girl, Martha."
Martha smiled and embraced him, "how can we parent like this?" she said and started to sob again.
"Shhh... unfortunately, we will all be dependent to her now."
She sobbed louder, "how??? How can we be good parents to her? How can I redeem myself as her mom?"
"But Martha," he said, "we already did. We've been good parents, that's why she can be independent now. For now on, all we have to do is to trust her, okay? Trust her."
Martha stopped sobbing and resumed hugging, "she grew up so fast!"
"I know."
***
Simon looked around the broken house. Soaked from the rain and his own sweat. His feet were dripping with thick, mostly cat-girl blood. It's a mess of crushed bodies here. Not especially bloody, as shrunken creatures tend to have an incredibly thick blood. It doesn't only make the crushing cleaner, but also more satisfying with their jelly-like pop.
He looked around. The rain was already subsiding, and the surroundings outside were becoming visible.
Concrete fence, beyond it, trees. There's nothing else to see. No life.
Except a shadow from a distance.
In this planet, only a single creature is as tall as that.
Simon's heart began to race. He felt guilt. Shame. Disgust for what he just did here. His eyes began to water. He felt longing. Weakness. Relief, as if he's an orphan longing for a mother's hug - longing for Hanna.
He started running, not realizing how hot it's getting outside. The sky was starting to be dominated by the classic blue hue. It's as if hell was getting nearer to it's end as he got closer to...
"HANNA!!!"
He doesn't see any shadow now, but he's rushing to its apparent direction: the great black smoke.
"DON'T GO THERE HANNA! I'M HERE! I'M HERE NOW!!!"
He reached the exit of the neighborhood, where the shadow apparently ran. He looked around. There's no sign of life.
"HANNA! HANNA!"
Nothing.
He bent down. It's probably a hallucination. He's probably stressed, because of all the things that have happened lately.
He strolled to the forest, to the very spot where he and Hanna would spend some afternoons.
What did I do that? He thought.
"Why did I do that, Hanna?" he said.
Because you're desperate Hanna's voice answered in his mind. A human voice inside an alien mind.
"Yeah," he whispered.
And also weak. As well as selfish, and...
He started to breathe deeply, falling to his knees.
Hanna... probably...
"Liar."
That voice was not only realistic, but also full of...
Hate. Hanna hates me.
"You traitor!"
The voice continued, and it...
Laughed.
"Didn't I tell you how easy it is to hide here? That gunman????"
The voice. It's louder now. It's more realistic. It's more solid!
It's Hanna.
A shadow engulfed Simon, who was standing on all fours.
Hanna's mere shadow sent smiles on his face, tears on his eyes, and weakness in his knees.
"HANN-"
The sky fell on him, crushing him into the barren soil.
"Liar!" Hanna said, lifting her slipper-clad foot and stepping on him again.
"Traitor!" Crush!
"You lied!" Crush!
"You lied to me!" Crush!
Simon's was now covered in mud, unable to move, he can't feel his arms and legs.
Crush!
He tried to speak, but he ended up eating dirt or-
Crush!
"You said you won't do that!!!"
Hanna started to cry. The next crush became more like a tap.
She squatted above him, who is still unable to move.
"Hannnnn-"
Hanna sniffed as a response.
She rolled him and made him lie on his back. At the sight of a beautiful Hanna, Simon's face lit up with a smile despite his pain.
"Hanna," he whispered.
"You lied to me."
"You... you..." he coughed for a bit, "you... left me."
It was met with a stunned silence. Then Hanna broke down into ugly tears.
Simon only watched her until she subsided.
"It is okay. I deserve all these. I'm a failure," he said.
Hanna responded with sniffs.
"I shrunk every intelligent being on your planet. Except..."
"Me," Hanna said, "but why?"
Simon merely smiled, as if it answered everything.
"I really like you, human. You changed me, despite all the things... I love you."
Silence. Even Hanna's sniffs stopped.
"You know how did you not shrink?"
Silence.
"During that night, I put my emergency bead in your..."
Hanna frowned.
"... in your... in your reproductive organ."
"What?" Hanna's frown deepen.
"Remember that night? It was an experience I never had before. I'll treasure it forever."
Hanna's cheeks burned red, "emergency what?"
"Oh, emergency beads... and..." Simon's expression darken.
"What is it Simon? What is in my vagina?"
"It makes someone immune to shrinking. That is the emergency bead that I brought. Unlike... unlike my comrades."
Simon looked down, "they brought... explosives."
The frown never left Hanna's place as she listened, trying to make sense of it all.
"The empire used the cat-girls for pursuit, and caught them all. And... you know, they got stuffed in cat-girls' butts. Death is surely their fate, but as the time go..."
He sighed, "they blew up themselves. All of them, taking those cat-girls and their big butts with them."
The frown in Hanna's face was replaced with a shocked face.
"It all happened right after I crashed here. They quickly found the unmapped wormhole to this planet because they're only looking for one creature now: me."
"They... committed kamikaze?"
Simon frowned, trying to remember what the word means, "yeah. You know what all of that implies, Hanna?"
Hanna merely frowned.
"It means that they do not fully believe in our plan. That they know it will fail, so they brought the most barbaric emergency bead of all: explosives! A losing warrior's last weapon! They did not believe in the plan as fully as I did!"
Hanna listened. It didn't fully make sense, but she couldn't understand a bit, "so they found you. And the explosions, the fire... it's them?"
"Yes. The rain too. They can't destroy your planet or star system, as it is against the galactic law. All they can do is to control the weather."
"So... that's the spaceship."
"What?"
Hanna was gazing at the smoke, Simon looked and saw the cat-girls' vehicle.
"Destroyed," Simon muttered, "just like mine."
Hanna gave him a sad look.
"It can withstand planetary impact," he continued, "but of course the humans... destroyed it already. I have no hope, Hanna."
He fished out what appears to be a dark purple ring.
"That's my shrinking device. It might be useful later. It can shrink any intelligent being in one... one Galactic radius. It can shrink any intelligent creature taller than me."
He handed it to Hanna, and he turned around and started walking away.
"It's been a big pleasure encountering you, human. If another batch of them came, lead them here. I will -"
He was grabbed and lifted to Hanna's huge, beautiful face.
"You're not going anywhere."
"What? No, halt, Hanna!"
"You wanna know a secret?" Hanna said, smiling.
"What?"
"I agree with you. Not on killing everyone, but on creating a universe where everyone is equal."
"Which means that you want to do it yourself? You, who made me stop it?"
"No. It means that I don't want to kill you. You'll also be useful to me in the long run," she looked at the ring be gave her.
Simon smiled.
"But remember this: you're not my friend, you're my prisoner."
But the smile never left Simon, he laid his head on Hanna's hand, "hugging" it.
Hanna stood up, Simon in hand, "Come on."
"You want to know a secret too, Hanna?"
"What is it?"
"Shrinking everyone, not killing everyone, was my plan from the beginning."
Hanna stopped walking at this.
"You want to know another secret?"
"Okay?"
Simon began narrating his horrible experience with the woman who found him in the park. Like humans, creatures like Simon apparently like venting to someone they trust too.
***
The door opened.
Everyone in the shrunken family stiffened and snapped to the direction of the door.
Hanna entered, pale and solemn, like a ghost. As she approached them, Hanna's dad couldn't help but feel... so small. His young daughter's shadow covered them all as she go, her strides and movements were breathtakingly huge. He, his wife, his two other kids... are nothing. Nothing compared to his 18 year old daughter.
She reached the table and greeted them with a sullen voice.
"Thank goodness you're safe!" his wife said.
Hanna was holding something in her hand, and she's hiding it. That made his heart beat in boom-booms.
Her face, the same pretty face he treasured so much, now the size of a billboard, stayed rigid and serious.
She lifted the thing in her hand. It's a... person?
"Mom, dad... this is Simon. And..."
It wasn't a threat, well, not exactly. Not only is he much bigger than them, but he is also...
"You boyfriend?" her dad said, surprised at how dry his voice was.
"What? No!" she said, although she clearly blushed.
Bitter tears took over dad, his little girl... oh, his little girl!
"He's nnno- not my boyfriend. He's... He's the alien."
Everyone was shocked. Even their two boys lifted their heads up.
"WHAT?"
"The alien?" his son Erin muttered, his voice also dry.
"So it's you!" his wife said, "the reason behind all these!"
Dad also realized, and quickly boiled with rage.
"No-" Hanna said, "I mean... yeah but..."
"MY DAUGHTER SHOULD HAVE STEPPED ON YOU LIKE A BUG!" her dad yelled, "YOU MONSTER!"
The alien - the monster - was in clear view now. It's a curly young man, perhaps just as old as Hanna herself. And he looks... beaten. And sad. And human.
Everybody started talking at once, yelling threats and obscenities towards this "Simon" creature.
"STOP!"
Hanna's frustration - Hanna's command - silenced them all.
"You don't understand... but... nevermind! Let's say that what happened happened, and... say that he can help us."
Silence.
Dad wanted to speak, but...
Oh, come on! Are you scared of your own daughter? You might be a bug compared to her, but you're still her father!
"After all he did?" he said, his voice dry yet full. Solid.
"It's complicated, dad. I wouldn't bring him here if he's... dangerous!"
Silly kid logic. But dad couldn't, wouldn't make a comeback.
"Can he help us?"
Hanna turned to her mom, "I... think so, mom."
"Can he turn us back to normal?" she said.
"Yeah," Erin said, "can we go back to normal, sis?"
Hanna merely looked down. A classic no.
Her dad felt weak at the news, the thought of being this small forever dreads him in ways unimaginable. He fell on his knees.
"I will take care of you guys," Hanna said, but his mind tried to ignore it, "I promise!"
Trust her, he heard his own voice. His wife's voice replied, she grew up so fast. He responded, I know.
Giantess World
