Becky couldn’t say why she chose to look down at that precise moment.

With her headphones trailing from her ears she hadn’t heard the scream, nor did she feel the tiny human’s legs pop as they were crushed beneath her careless footfall.

She lifted her foot instinctively, a shadow falling across the two creatures as a frown of irritation danced across her brows. Again she couldn’t say why she didn’t immediately stomp them into the floorboards. Her small foot, clad in the black flats she’d been wearing all shift, filled the sky above them; obscuring them from view.

Becky was alone in the cafe, just about to close for the night.

The two Shrinkies were so small; their bloodstains would have been barely noticed and easily cleaned away in the morning. Instead she paused, and lowered her foot back onto the ground. The one furthest from her stumbled as he tried to make sense of the giant being above him.

The other lay still, his lower half a compressed ruin of blood and gore.

She dropped from the heavens like a storm cloud, resting on her heels so as to get a better look at them. The movement was too much for the uninjured one and caused him to topple backwards, buffeted by shock and fear. She chuckled as she watched him frantically recover, barely catching his breath as he ran to nurse his injured kin.

Her brilliant blue eyes, wide with fascination, followed him.

The broken one was screaming, his mouth flapping wildly like a landed fish, the noise muted beneath the tinny sound of music in her ears. The other one was trying to calm him, his arms wrapped protectively around his friend’s upper torso. Despite the presence of the watching giantess, he tried desperately to drag him to safety.

His destination was a small gap in the base of the bar, barely wide enough for her to wriggle her little finger into. She smirked, well at least they now knew where they were hiding. She slipped her headphones from her ears and addressed them.

‘So that’s where you guys are hiding, huh?’ She asked in a matter of fact tone before chuckling to herself, ‘You sneaky little fuckers.’

Becky reached out a lazy finger and hovered it next to the toiling Shrinky. Her fingernail alone was half as tall as he was; a fact that was not lost on him as it loomed above his head. With a casual flick she ploughed her digit into him, tearing him from his companion and sending him sprawling across the tile. His small form rolled with agony, blood splattering across his hands as it dripped from his busted lips.

‘Oops’ she smirked, ‘guess I don’t know my own strength. Although, it looks like one of you already knows that.’

The crippled man was mad with pain, barely aware of the towering goddess that addressed him. His fingers scrabbled uselessly at the remains of his hips, his head rocking from side to side with denial. Becky watched him with a blank, almost bored expression empty of any compassion for the suffering wretch.

‘Wow little guy, you’re super messed up aren’t you?’ She asked, having no interest in a reply, ‘Well I guess it is only fair that I put you out of your misery.’

Becky’s hand moved towards him, her thumb moving into position to snuff him out.

‘No, please!’

The voice was little more than a squeak; the gross chirping of an insect, Becky thought. Beneath the ball of her thumb, the mutilated man croaked with pain. Her eyes flicked to his companion, the source of the plea. Her eyebrow rose, ‘What?’

The man was terrified, visibly trembling. ‘Please,’ he repeated, ‘don’t, don’t kill him.’

Becky’s thumb remained poised to crush the injured Shrinky. Her pretty face fluttered into  a confused pout, ‘Why?’

The absurdity of the question struck him like a physical blow. His lip, blood still swelling upon it, quivered. His eyes roved across her, his mind recoiling at her inhumanity, ‘He’s, he’s my brother.’

‘So?’ Her hand began to move towards him, ‘Actually, come here.’ The man turned instinctively, his small legs throwing him across the tiles. She caught him easily.

He squeaked as her thumb and forefinger compressed him, lifting him into the air. She rose as he was pulled towards her, the force of the movement almost breaking him within her grip. Becky brought him to her face, her eyes scrutinising his fragile form. He gasped desperately, her grasp upon him squeezing his chest, restricting his breathing.

‘Say that again,’ she commanded, her voice ice.

‘He’s, he’s my brother,’ the Shrinky pleaded, wincing in her grip. ‘Please, don’t hurt him.’

Becky laughed, throwing a look down at the man by her foot. He was tiny compared to her, a speck of flesh and rags beside a splash of crimson.

‘Too late for that! He should have watched where he was going. Look at him.’ She tilted her hand to offer her captive a better view, ‘He’s almost dead already. It’d be cruel to let him suffer a slow death. I’m surprised, I thought you’d be begging me to end it quickly for him.’

‘No it’s, he, we can help him,’ the man babbled, desperately trying to bargain. ‘His wife is a healer, it’s just his legs, she can save him.’

‘He has a wife?’ Becky asked, her expression one of surprised amusement, ‘You things get married now?’

The man ignore the slight, grasping at tendrils of hope, ‘Yes, he has a family, children. Please let me go, let me get him to them. Please.’

Becky chuckled, ‘Children? And you? Do you have your own family, friends? Is that who is hiding under our bar? She raised her voice as she spoke the last few words, ensuring any eavesdroppers could hear.

The man nodded.

Her laughter shook him. From his view point it was as though the sky itself opened to swallow him, the thunderous sound rolling from the vast pink expanse her open mouth.

‘Not anymore you don’t,’ she giggled, wiping away tear of amusement with her free hand. ‘Holly is coming in early tomorrow. She volunteered when Nikki thought she saw some of you little fucks downstairs. She guessed you’d be underneath somewhere, everyone knows you things thrive in dirt.

Holly always finds you when you come scavenging for crumbs. No doubt she would have found them eventually but at least now she won’t have to waste time looking. I’ll make sure to leave her a note.’

Her captive paled, his eyes wide with horror, ‘You, you wouldn’t.’

The amused smile didn’t leave the giantess’ face, ‘Of course I would. It wouldn’t be fair of me to let my girl spend her entire morning scrabbling around on her hands and knees when you’ve just told me exactly where she needs to look. I’m not an asshole.’

‘What will you do with them? You’ll let them go right, just let them leave?’ From the look on his face it was clear he already knew the answer, his mind struck dumb, refusing to accept what was unfolding.

‘Yeah right,’ Becky scoffed, sarcasm dripping lazily from her words, ‘have you met Holly? You’re lucky we swapped shifts; you’d already be a little red stain on the sole of her shoe if she was here right now. At least she’ll get rid of them quickly. She might fuck with a couple depending on how many of you are hiding under there but mostly she just thinks you’re gross. She’ll just squash them and be done with it.’

The little man shook his head, words failing him as his loved ones were condemned to death.

‘Still,’ Becky continued, relishing in the horror that gripped her prey tighter than she ever could, ‘at least they’ll be dead before Nikki gets in. She really has it out for you lot, says you’re worse than bugs. She boiled two of you last week, just dropped them right into the coffee maker after close. Don’t get me wrong, she only does that to the first few; just to pacify the rest whenever we get a group come through. It lets them know who is in charge.’

Between her fingertips the little man began to beg, the word ‘please’ flitting from his lips in a mantra, his voice hushed with disbelief.

‘Yeah, though I think she’s going to start keeping some of you. It was her idea to market this place to the hipsters. You know, eco-friendly, sustainable vegan, pro-Shrinky rights, and all that shit. She might fucking hate you but that crap is good for business in a college town, the students love it. She was talking about getting a tank or something, making an area with a little house and stuff that we can display in the shop.’

Becky was rambling now, enjoying the reaction her words were having on her captive.

‘What do you think? That would be kind of cool huh? As long as we kill enough of you to send a message, to keep you docile and to put on a good show for the customers, it should work huh? Plus whenever new groups turn up we can get rid of most of the old ones and say they were rehomed or whatever. I’m sure as soon as the word gets out that we are helping Shrinkies we’ll have enough of you dumb little fucks turning up to keep the display going.’

Her eyes had never left him as she spoke but now his head slumped forwards, unable to look upon the smiling face of the monster that held him. ‘You can’t,’ he began, his voice smaller than he was and hung heavy with misery.

‘You really should stop saying that little guy, it's pretty obvious that we can!’ Becky beamed, shaking him as though he were a broken watch. ‘In fact, you know what? I’ll take you home with me tonight and you can be the first one in the tank once it arrives. You can tell the new ones we find just how things work. How nice of me is that? I’m going to let you live and everything. Still, I haven’t forgotten about your bone head brother down there. Want me to put you back on the floor so you can say goodbye?’

She didn’t wait for an answer, bending double as she lowered him onto the floor. ‘Sure you do! Stand back though; I wouldn’t want to accidentally squash our newest attraction when I crush your bro.’

At around ten feet on his scale she released him, sending him crashing painfully onto the cold tiles. The goddess stood over them, her hands on the hips of her tight black skirt. Her pink lips were pulled into a smirk. Her platinum hair, cut into a short, punk style; looked like a bank of clouds above her distant, impish face. Beneath a messy fringe, her eyes shone like frozen sapphires amid the dark shadow of her eyes.

He could feel her foot behind him, a leather clad wall between him and his doomed family. The idea of running flickered through his mind for a second, banished by the realisation that she could turn him to paste with the slightest gesture. He stood still, his body as cold and grey as lead.

Before him, not 10 inches away, his brother lay dying. Fading in and out of consciousness, mad and exhausted by blood loss, he turned pale and empty eyes towards him. Her shadow already surrounded him.

The defeated man could only watch, the tremors of her movement shaking his bones, as her foot lifted above his younger brother. His tears fell freely as her shoe began to lower.

‘Say goodbye,’ she mocked, giving a faux cute wave as her heel settled upon the floor.

It was not quick.

His brother regained a sliver of consciousness as her vast grey sole began to descend upon him. A weak scream escaped his throat, the sound pausing only as he begged for help. His arms starched weakly at the tiles as he tried to pull his ruined body out from beneath her.

The shrunken man dropped to his knees, his hands clasped about his head as the ceiling of scuffed rubber caught his brother and began to compress him. The sounds of bones snapping cracked like gunshots over the wet squelches of liquefying flesh. His brother’s head turned towards him, his empty stare boring into him as she continued to push her weight down upon her victim.

The pop of his skull was unlike anything the tiny man had ever heard, a sound that would haunt him forever. Within a matter of seconds it was all over, his cruel goddess lifting her heel to grind the rest of his brother’s remains into the floor tile.

Fat tears fell from his eyes, pooling through his fingers to splatter amongst the last few droplets of blood that slid from his slack mouth. ‘There,’ Becky grinned, ‘all done. Trust me; it was the best thing for him. She reached down with a dancer’s grace and plucked her surviving captive unceremoniously from the floor.

‘Now,’ she said casually, unbuttoning a thin pocket on the breast of her black top, ‘I’ve got to close up and make sure I leave Holly’s note somewhere she’ll see it. Sit tight little guy, we can pick this up when we get back to my place.’

She opened her grasp, letting the stunned human fall in silence down into the darkness of her pocket. He rolled as he hit the fabric wall, sliding down the curved incline of her breast. Though he landed by her nipple, he was too small for her to feel through the fabric of both her shirt and her bra. A shame, she thought.

Becky fastened the button and cast a half glance down at the red splotch on the floor. Balancing on one leg, her hand resting on the bar top, she inspected the sole of her shoe. A matching smear clung to the ball of her foot, completely unrecognisable as the remains of a human, an unpleasant stain upon a field of grey.

She shrugged; at least she had someone to deal with that now. She’d just have to make sure she wasn’t too rough with him before setting him to work. Sliding her headphones back into her ears she finished cashing up the till and hastily scribbled a note.

Becky treaded carefully, one eye upon the floor. She didn’t want to have another accident.