Galaxy Hair Dye

“Hey guys, it’s your goddess Glory, and it’s time for another a-ma-zing stream!” She gave the camera a cute grin. “We’re not going to be gaming today though. Instead, I’ve got a very special treat in store for you guys…!”

As her chat surged with comments, Glory reached beneath her desk and pulled out a box. “Ta-da! One brand new, state-of-the-art TitaniCo. ‘Hairversal’ Infuser! Woo!” Throwing aside the box, she held up what looked like a pair of pink hair straighteners. 

Chat reacted with a flood of excited comments. Who hadn’t heard of TitaniCo’s micro-verse tech?

Grinning, Glory picked up a hairclip. “Now, first things first, I’m going to separate my hair into some easily infused sections. Next, I’m gonna take the infuser, plug it into my Home Universe Kit aaand set it to generate a miniverse!” Click! “Here we go!” 

With a simple push of Glory’s finger, her patented Home Universe Kit spun another cosmos into existence. Due to the parameters she’d set, it fast-forwarded through the boring early stages of the universe all the way to a stelliferous era that, thanks to her settings, was as replete in Earth-like planets as it was stars. In seconds, her micro-verse had billions of planets and untold quadrillions of inhabitants. 

“Aaaand, we’re all ready. Let’s get started.” With a grin, Glory pulled one of her sections of hair taut, picked up the infuser, and clipped it into place. As the device started to hum, she tightened her grip on the handle and pulled the device slowly downward. She could feel the heat as it worked its magic on her follicles. 

Where the infuser passed, Glory’s hair changed from a plain brown to a shimmering purple starscape as the device sucked millions of cubic lightyears of spacetime out of the HUK and compressed them into a thin coating of dye.

As she reached the end of the lock, she returned back to the camera with a grin. “Wow!” she said, holding up the altered section so chat could see. “Isn’t it pretty? Look at all those stars! Just imagine how many people there must be living in this one lock of hair. I bet they didn’t expect to be part of my beauty routine when they woke up!” Laughing emotes filled the chatroom.

For the next hour or so, Glory repeated the process again and again, crushing billions of lightyears of spacetime into a thin coating on her hair. She couldn’t tell exactly what the people inside it would be thinking, but she hoped they all appreciated how good they made their goddess look. 

“Well,” she said at last, “what do you guys think?” With a big grin, she ran her fingers through her hair, inadvertently crushing thousands of inhabited planets in the process. “It looks good, right?”

“...It’s a shame I’m going to have to wash it off before class tomorrow.”

Galaxy Smoothie

Courtney approached the counter with a smirk. “Hi, I’d like one Spiral Smoothie, please. With extra planets. Thanks.”

“You got it,” said the cashier, grabbing an empty cup and lid. Placing the former under the tap of the Micro-Universe Generator, she punched in Courtney’s request with practiced speed. The machine started working with a whirr. 

Courtney watched as a thick gas filled the glass box atop the generator, little specks of light flickering amidst the cloud. As the attendant turned a dial on the side, the process sped up: the gas swirled like a smoothie in the juicer, spiraling around a point at the very center of the box. As it picked up speed, the lights in its depths grew brighter, till at last it shone like a giant, flattened bulb. 

Finally, the attendant turned the dial back, and the spiraling slowed to a more reasonable rate. All at once: the object in the box became recognizable: it was a galaxy, a tiny galaxy, full of inhabited planets.

Placing the empty cup under the machine’s nozzle, the attendant pulled a lever on its side. All at once, the galaxy in the box appeared to melt, flowing downward out of its case, through the innards of the machine, and trickling out of the tap on its side to fill Courtney’s cup. 

Releasing the lever, the attendant plopped a lip on the smoothie, stabbed a straw through it, and turned back to hand it to Courtney. “That’ll be $2.99,” she said with a smile. 

Courtney threw her three dollars and left without a word. 

*

Outside, she slipped into the shadows of an alley and raised the cup to her mouth with a grin. Pinching the straw, she wiggled it about, smirking at the way the liquid space swirled. She wondered if all these trillion of people knew what they were part of yet.

Guiding the straw to her lips, she resisted the urge to laugh. Well, if they didn’t yet, they’d find out soon enough… Sluuurp!

As the first mouthful of galaxy landed on her tongue, Courtney screwed up her eyes at the sheer sweetness of its taste. She could feel stars bursting against her in tiny, spiteful supernovae; feel the crunch of planets caught between her teeth. Every one a civilization as vast and complex as her own–every one home to a billion or more innocents. Their only sin was being smaller than her, and she loved it.

Swilling the liquid around her mouth, she savored it for a second before swallowing with a gulp. There was no point wasting too much time on them, of course. It wasn’t as if they mattered. 

Her second mouthful tasted just as good as the first, as did the third and fourth and so on in turn. As she drank, Courtney closed her eyes and tried to estimate just how many lives she was bringing to a swift and calamitous doom, how many countless trillions of innocents would meet their fate on her lips and teeth and in the acids of her stomach, all simply to satisfy her desire for a treat. Quadrillions, probably. The thought made her shiver. 

Finally, she finished it–her straw sucked up nothing but air. Swallowing the last mouthful with an emphatic gulp, Courtney released a sigh of delight and tossed the empty cup aside without a thought. Delicious. 

Galaxy Bubblegum

Smiling at the cartoon galaxy on the packet, Stephanie pulled out a piece of gum and plopped it between her lips. Chewing till it was nice and soft and smooth, she rolled the gum into a ball, forced it to the front of her mouth, and drew in a deep breath through her nose.

When she blew, light shone from her lips, a light so bright she had to close her eyes. 

By the time Stephanie opened them, the bubble of gum had reached the size of a ping pong ball and been filled by a maelstrom of dark, swirling gases. Drawing in another breath, she blew again.

The bubble grew, and little motes of light flared inside it like embers in the wind. The more she blew, the brighter they became, slowly eating up the gases to fuel their stellar furnaces. In seconds, the gum had grown to the size of a football, miniature stars filling it in their billions. As Stephanie blew again, they swirled in a spiral, forming a tiny galaxy in the confines of the bubble. 

For several seconds, Stephanie simply stood and watched as it turned. Inside the gum, time raced. Though she couldn’t see it, she knew for a fact that millions of little civilizations would have already formed and started spreading. In half a minute, her little bubble would be replete with tiny lives, like a petri dish full of microbes, only each a sapient being. 

With a smirk, Stephanie drew in another breath and blew. As the bubble stretched, she drew in a second breath and blew that into it too. The bubble quivered–the galaxy inside it wobbled on its axis. Stephanie smiled–one more should do it.

Raising her head, she drew in a deep, deep breath, filling her cheeks with air. Finally, with a glint in her eyes, she released it. 

POP!

As her little galaxy splattered her face, Stephanie burst into laughter. So many lives, all ended in an instant. So many hopes and dreams, all crushed, just like that. It was almost enough to make her cry. 

Sucking the gum back into her mouth, Stephanie smirked as she rolled it into a ball again. Never mind. She could always make some more.

Galaxy Toilet Water

Closing the bathroom door behind her, Courtney smiled and approached the toilet. Before she planted her butt on the porcelain, she leaned forward, glanced into the bowl, and smirked at what she found inside. Through the seat of her micro-verse toilet floated a fresh galaxy, its every planet filled with innocent, unprepared life. 

Still grinning, Courtney turned, dropped her skirt and panties, and planted her asscheeks on the seat. Leaning forward, she released the tension in her bladder with a sigh. A little hiss sounded as her urine struck the galaxy, slicing through the swirl of stars like a laser beam. 

*

Like the other trillion plus inhabitants of their stellar cluster, the people of Lryrian had no warning of what was to come. One moment, they were going about their lives as normal, the satisfied citizens of a peaceful, galactic republic–the next, their world was gone, vaporized by a stream of FTL urine. 

Theirs was one world among thousands. As the strength Courtney’s stream fluctuated, it swept forward and back, cutting through system after system. Stars died, extinguished or exploded. Planets and moons shattered, scattered like dirt in the face of a hose. On their surfaces and in orbits, trillions died in instants, blasted to oblivion by the sheer weight of the piss. 

And for those who’d survived, their suffering was only starting…

*

As her stream of piss finally ceased, Courtney sighed in relief and lay back. It felt good to empty her bladder on such worthless, pathetic beings. 

But as she went to wipe and leave, her stomach grumbled. Courtney laughed. Perhaps she had another little present for them. Tightening her eyes, she closed her eyes and strained and grunted till her anus puckered and extruded a giant log of shit. 

Splosh! It struck the galaxy below like a gigantic meteor, obliterating it instantly. Stars and planets alike vanished, swept out of existence by the sheer weight of her excrement. It was like kicking over a sand castle.

*

The inhabitants of Mirabelle–those few that remained–lay in the ruins of their civilisation. Their world was one of the more fortunate. Instead of striking them directly, the Object had merely popped their star like a pea and flung them aside, leaving them to freeze in the cold of the void. 

Hugging themselves for warmth amid the ruins of their society, the last survivors consoled themselves as the temperature dropped around them. 

At least, they thought, it can’t get any worse. 

From all around them came a titanic flushing sound.. 

*

Wiping herself off, Courtney tossed her used TP into the bowl and stood, pulling up her clothes. Looking down on the mess she’d made, she pushed the handle with a smirk. Slowly, the galaxy–and everything she’d dumped on it–turned, faster and faster, before finally flowing down the pipe and away to the sewers, where it and any of its surviving inhabitants would enjoy a delightful week of moldering in filth before they reached the treatment plant and were recycled out of their misery.

Finally, a fresh galaxy poured into the bowl. Courtney smiled. Perfection~.

Galaxy Contact Lenses

When Loretta turned her eyes, two whole galaxies moved with them. Two vast spirals of stars, snatched out of their own universes, flattened, and trapped on the surface of a young woman’s eyeballs.

As contact lenses. 

Loretta herself rarely thought of them. To her, they were nothing more than her latest submission to fashion, a vanity item she’d splurged on to keep herself looking trendy. Everyone was wearing microverse stuff nowadays. You had to be a real square not to carry a pocket universe on you somewhere. 

Her lenses, on the other hand, had very little choice but to think about her. Trapped in the frozen spacetime of their stolen realities, they could do little more than watch as Loretta went about her life. It was a fairer fate than the inhabitants of most microverses, who typically lasted for no more than a few days before their owners inevitably destroyed them, but it was hardly the most entertaining prospect. A crueler owner would at least interact with their apparel before annihilating it, playing the role of the teasing or vengeful god. Loretta had no interest in interacting with her contact lenses. As far as she was concerned, they were nothing more than plastic.

Trapped like insects in amber, they could only stare, eyes locked ahead, at the banal realities of Loretta’s life: her hands as she worked, the road ahead as she drove, the ceiling as they sat on the bedside cabinet while she slept. Their experience was a kaleidoscope of her life, with nothing to break it up.

Until…

The day began as normal. Loretta woke up, yawned, and rolled out of bed. Snatching up their case, she stumbled to the toilet, struggling to keep herself upright. 

In the bathroom, she placed them on the sink and reached for the taps. As the sound of running water filled the air, her contact lenses shivered–or wished they could at any rate. Being washed was the worst part of their new lives.

Taking one of them in her hands, Loretta held them up the tap. Only for a few seconds, but for its inhabitants it was an eternity of being sprayed in the face, unable even to pull away. 

Finally, Loretta wiped them off, slipped them back into their case, and reached for their partner, rinsing them and drying them with equal speed. As she went to put them in her eye, however…

“Fuck–!”

The countless trillions of souls inhabiting Loretta’s contact lens screamed as the waste bin flew up to meet them. 

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” cried Loretta. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I dropped them in the fucking trash. Urgh, there’s no way I’m rummaging in the tampons. Fuck it–whatever. I’ll just get a new pair.”

Tossing her other lens into the trash, she turned and marched away, leaving a trillion trillion souls to scream for her to save them.

Galaxy Stress Ball

With a final, explosive groan, Melanie picked up her homework and threw it at her bedroom wall. As sheet after sheet of calculus fluttered to the floor, she screwed up her eyes and tried to tear her hair out. “Urgh, this is so stressful! If only I had something to take my anger out on!” 

“Hey, sis!” said her little brother, “look what I just–”

Leaping over to the door, she kicked him in the shin and kneed him in the stomach for good measure. As he retreated, crying for their mother, the box he’d been holding fell to the ground. Melanie took a deep breath and frowned. “Hey, what’s this?”

In the box sat a ball full of stars. It reminded her of a film she’d seen once. 

Bending down, she snatched it up. “What a stupid design. I’m gonna crush it to pieces!” She tightened her grip, but rather than exploding in a shower of starry pieces, the ball instead went squeak. 

Melanie frowned, loosened her grip, and immediately tightened it again. Squeak! went the ball, deformed by her fingers. Star-speckled matter spilled between her knuckles; when she held it to her face, Melanie thought she saw it sparkling. 

For some reason, squeezing the mystery ball made her feel less stressed. Squeezing it in thought, she paced around the room. Finally, her feet returned her to the door, and she remembered the box the ball had come from. Stooping, she picked it up.

“Galaxy Stress Ball…? …Now made with real galaxy…?” Turning her eyes back back to the ball, Melanie gave it another squeeze. One of the little lights inside it flared. “Now featuring… untold trillions of innocent inhabitants?”

All at once, Melanie’s brow unknotted, her anger turned to real amusement. “No way! Is this actually full of real people?” Real people were just what she needed to take her anger out on!

Grinning madly, Melanie tightened her grip, making stars all over the speckled ball flare as they went supernova. She wondered how many lives each squeeze would extinguish. Billions? Trillions? More?

Licking her lips, she drew back and flung the ball at the wall like an expert pitcher. As it struck the plaster, there was a noticeable flash, followed by a second, slightly dimmer, as it hit the ground and bounced towards her. 

Raising her leg, Melanie brought her foot down in a stomp, making the ball glow until she released the pressure. Pulling back, she kicked it hard, causing it to ping from one corner of the room to the other. With each bounce, it flashed a little brighter. 

For the next half an hour, Melanie kicked and punched and stomped and smashed, relishing in the thought of the countless lives she was ending. With every crash of her body into the ball, a hundred stars would go supernova, wiping out a thousand or more worlds and trillions of lives with each space-rending explosion. It made her wet just thinking about it.

Finally, face slick with sweat, she fell back into her chair, slipped the ball between her thighs, and squeezed. 

Pop!

Blinking, Melanie looked down. She found the ball had gone dark, its every star extinguished. Even as she watched, it collapsed with a pathetic hiss. 

“Huh, I guess I wore it out. Oh well, I’ll just have to order my own! I wonder if you can buy them in bulk…”

Galaxy Couple's Hair Dye

Sakura sat in the shade of the train station, twiddling her thumbs and trying not to look nervous. Every now and then, she ran her fingers through her hair, absently destroying tens of thousands of populated planets. She didn’t spare them a thought. How could she, when he’d be here any second?

Just as she thought her heart would burst, Hiro stepped onto the platform, his tight swimmer’s figure packed into his suit, and his galaxy-dyed hair sparkling in the sun like her own. To her shock, Sakura found her heart could beat even faster. 

Seeing her, Hiro froze and visibly swallowed, raising a hand to scratch his head. A part of her wondered how many trillions this simple act had obliterated. 

Finally, he approached. “S-Sakura? I got your letter.”

She looked up, face red, and found herself sweating mercilessly. Her hair sucked up much of it, drowning thousands of worlds in oceans of salty water. “L-letter?” she said, nerves seizing control of her lips. “I-I don’t know what you–”

Hiro flinched. “O-oh. Oh,” he said, rubbing his hair again–it must be a nervous tic. “S-sorry, there must have been a mistake. M-my bad.” He turned to leave. 

As Sakura watched him go, heart pounding so hard it hurt, a little squeak escaped her lips. No. No. Why had she said that? Why had she said that?! With a silent scream, she seized her hair and rustled it madly, all but tearing out several locks. When her hands fell to her lap, several strands fluttered free, their hundreds of worlds half-crushed and the survivors screaming at the vicissitudes of fate. Caught by the wind, they floated on the breeze… and straight into a nearby bug zapper. Bzzt! 

Sakura leapt to her feet. “Hiro, wait!”

He turned back, eyes wide. 

“Hiro, wait! I didn’t mean it! I did put that letter in your locker–I was just too ashamed to say it!” She fell to her knees, sniveling, and used her hair to dry her nose. “I love you, Hiro!”

Hiro’s eyes wavered, wet with tears. “Oh, Sakura…” He rushed back and snatched her up, crushing her hair against her back as he pulled her into a bearhug. “I love you too!”

Giant tears flew from Sakura’s eyes. Kissing her on the forehead, he ran a soothing hand through her hair. Thousands of worlds burst, trillions of lives crushed by his fingers, but Hiro was in love, and wasn’t that all that mattered? 

“...Would you like to see a movie sometime?” he asked.

“Screw that!” cried Sakura. “Can’t you feel how fucking wet I am? Take me behind the station and fuck me, Hiro!” She grabbed his shirt collar. “Fuck me!” 

“Wow, okay!” Hiro laughed. “I’m glad I brought some condoms!”

He held up a strip of star-speckled squares.

Galaxy Ashtray

Sitting forward, Cathy rummaged in her jacket and pulled out a pack of smokes. Popping open the lid, she flicked one out, snatched it out of the air with her teeth, and–without a second of hesitation–lit it using the lighter that had appeared in her free hand. Grinning smugly, she sat back. She was too cool to ask how cool she looked. 

“Wow, you’re so cool!”  said her new best friend, Sarah, who needed no prompting to tell her. 

Cathy ran a hand through her spiky hair. “Thanks,” she said, taking a deep drag and releasing it as a thick plume. “Want one?”

Sarah swept away the plume of smoke with a cough. “Thanks, but I don’t really smoke tobacco.” 

Cathy shrugged. “Your loss.” Taking another drag, she looked around, trying not to look interested. “Nice place you’ve got,” she added, thinking the opposite. Peace signs and lava lamps and psychedelic posters littered Sarah’s house–it looked as if it had been designed by a committee of Woodstock attendees. 

Sarah adjusted her giant glasses. “Thanks! I’ve just redecorated. I’m really into the hippie aesthetic at the moment.” 

“You don’t say.”

“All the peace and love and harmony stuff just, like, totally vibes with me.” 

“Uh huh.” As Sarah wittered on about her love of not-war or whatever, Cathy’s eyes noticed something sparkling on the coffee table. Picking it up, she squinted. “Is this an… an ashtray? I thought you didn’t smoke.” 

Sarah looked a little embarrassed. “I don’t smoke tobacco. But, er, that’s just a collectible anyway–I don’t actually use it.”

Cathy frowned. “You just bought it for the peace sign?”

“Oh no no no! I’m not thattacky. It’s special. Try tapping some ash into it and listening closely.”

Cathy threw her a confused look, but she did as instructed. Holding the ashtray close to her face, she tapped her cigarette on the side and turned to better aim her ear at–

A thousand screams of intense pain wailed in her ear like the cries of the damned. Cursing, Cathy dropped the ashtray and all but spat out her cigarette. 

“Oops, careful,” said Sarah, snatching it out of the air. 

“What the hell was that?!” cried Catherine. 

“Oh,” said Sarah, blinking innocently. “It’s a Microverse Ashtray! Made of real microverse! I’ve been wanting to get one for months.”

Catherine tossed the butt of her cigarette aside and fumbled in her jacket for a new one. “...A microverse ashtray.”

“Yeah! You’ve never heard of them? Like I said, it’s made of real microverse, so whenever you use one…” Taking Cathy’s cigarette, she tapped some more of the ash into the tray, holding it up so Cathy could better hear it. A second scream, just as soul-rending as the first, emanated from the tray. She didn’t understand how it could possibly sound so realistic. 

A terrible thought occurred to her. “When you say it’s made out of a real microverse…? You mean those screams are…?”

Sarah laughed. “Of course! That’s the appeal, silly. All those trillions of souls trapped and at your mercy, just waiting for you to bury them in burning ash and leave them writhing in torment, a cruel god presiding over a world of infinitesimal insects, free to abuse them in whichever way you will. The strong should rule the weak, Catherine! They’re ants, burning in the light of our magnifying glass! They deserve to suffer for the sin of being smaller than us! Their lives mean nothing in the face of our bloodlust!”

Cathy stubbed out her cigarette and swallowed, pale-faced. “O-oh… I thought a hippie like you’d be against that sort of thing”.

“Oh no! I’m only into the aesthetic.”

Galaxy Trashcan

Stacy hummed as she made her way into the kitchen, a skip in her step and headphones in her ears. Slamming the door behind her, she marched across the tiles, spun once in tune with the beat of the music, snatched an apple out of the bowl on the counter, and brought it to her mouth, ready to take a–

“Ew!” Stacy spat. “Yuck!” Wiping her mouth, she held the apple closer to her face for inspection. Beneath the skin, it was as black and moldy as the soul of your writer, dear readers. Her expression twisted in disgust. 

Sighing, she spun around and made her way to the other end of the room, where a very familiar feature of the kitchen stood waiting. It looked like a normal waste bin, minus the starry pattern speckling its surface and the darkness that filled it.

Kneeling down beside it, Stacy raised the apple over the bin and–with a quizzical expression–dropped it. The rotten fruit vanished into the darkness. It made no sound.

With a shrug, Stacy stood, snatched another apple out of the bowl, and went on with her day. 

*

The inhabitants of Glidia Prime never saw the source of their destruction. For countless millennia, they’d toiled in the bright white light of the supermassive white hole that filled their sky like a second sun and moon. Their earliest generations had worshiped it, while their latest generations studied it as a source of constant scientific curiosity. All their theories suggested something could come through, but nothing save light had ever been observed to.

Nor would it. 

The day the Brilliance birthed its first child began like any other for the people of Glidia Prime. They woke up, used the bathroom, ate breakfast, hugged their families, and set off to work or school, or whatever other destination they had in mind. 

Then, at almost exactly 9 o’clock, they all died.

Glidia’s galaxy was unusually populous, with over one in ten stars occupied by developing civilizations. And the instant Stacy’s apple entered the bin, every single one of them ended, its worlds smeared into an infinitely-fine paste across the surface of the giant fruit as it sped on through space at just below lightspeed, annihilating everything within in its 100,000 lightyard wide path. 

*

Throwing herself back onto her back, Melanie opened wide, took a big bite, and–

“Uurgh!” She threw the rotten apple aside in disgust. “Fuck, they weren’t kidding about one spoiling the bunch. Ugh, whatever, I’ll just try a banana.”

Galaxy Dildo

“Welcome to the factory, everyone. Today we’ll be looking at how we make our famous, galaxy-brand sextoys!” The tour guide grinned as she led the group across the floor. 

“This is where the new galaxies are generated…” She pointed to a machine a little like a plasma ball, if the little arcs of electricity were focused inward, forming something between them instead of shooting out. Even as the tour group watched, something like a star exploded into being in the center and dissolved into a cloud of glittering stars, already swirling into galaxies. 

“Oooh.” “Wow.” “Oooh.” Someone snapped a photo. 

The tour guide led them along the line. “The newly-created galaxies then head to the Liquifier.” She pointed to a device resembling a kettle. “...Which heats them to an astounding 100 Celsius and reduces them to a smooth, viscous liquid, like caramel!”

From the side of the Liquifier emerged a pipe, through which a dark liquid full of lights, like sparkling ink, flowed sluggishly. It had the consistency of treacle. 

“Wow.” “Oooh.” “100Celsius!?”

“From here, the liquid pours into the mold, where the final product really takes its (heh) shape.” The tour group watched as the starry liquid poured into a thick metal box, which hissed and whirred and spat out gouts of steam. 

From the other end of the machine, a conveyor hauled out one giant, starry dildo after another. “Finally, from here, the products are sent to be boxed up and shipped out. Any questions?”

***

Chris sat in the center of the town square and watched, dripping sweat, as the world around him melted. 

It started with the buildings. Office blocks and groups of flats lost all their strength and, like ice in the face of the sun, began to drip. As they collapsed, the melting spread: trees and telephones collapsed, forming large puddles of molten wood, while the ground itself turned sticky as asphalt in a heatwave. 

Finally, it spread to them. Looking around him, Chris watched in horror as person after person slumped, their bodies losing all cohesion. One after another they dropped, striking the floor with resounding splats. The puddles of their forms spread out and seeped into the ground, and before he knew what was happening he was following them. 

Fluid as oil, Chris wailed in side as the ground drank him up, as the earth itself lost its solidity and followed him, as he and his entire world and–though he couldn’t know it–everything beyond it poured through the pipes like water and found themselves at last trapped in a gigantic cage, which tightened around them and squeezed them together. Chris screamed, sure he would be crushed, but the pressure simply grew stronger and stronger without the release of death.

Then, just like that, the entire world was moving. He moaned as they landed in a box, and everything went dark. It took some time for the light to return again. 

Trapped in invisible restraints, his body a tiny, tiny component of something hard and enormous, Chris could only stare as the pink abyss approached, wishing he still had the power to plead for mercy.