"You're going to WHAT?" Jul screamed at the girl standing at the door of his house as his wife, Mari, hugged him tight.
"Really" The girl spoke back, her projection glimmering a brief moment. She was short, much shorter than Jul, standing about 5'4'' and wearing a black dress that matched her brown hair. Her skin was milky white, and her bare feet were petite, matching her overall small frame. One foot was down, and the other was slightly arched up, her creamy sole lurched over an imaginary thing, as if over a delicate paper, ready to crumple it. "It's ok, it'll be over soon!" She chimed back.
"No. Don't. Look, you don't have to do this." Mari cried. "Please..."
"There there" The girl replied. "Everyone has to get crushed sooner or later, your day is just today!" She smiled warmly.
"But WHY? Why do you have to do this?" Jul yelled, stressing each word.
The girl pouted "It's on the schedule."
"The... The schedule?" Mari sniffled.
"Yea! You're scheduled to get pruned today, it's okay, it happens to everyone eventually. We need to maintain the population size." The girl brushed a strand of hair to the side of her face. "Do you have any questions?"
"QUESTIONS?" Jul was beyond rage. "It's because of YOU that our life is miserable!"
"Yea, I guess you could say that." The girl smiled. "But I mean, I'm just doing an experiment..."
"E-Experiment?" Mari questioned.
"Yea... You see, you tiny lil guys are just here for us to grow a little bit then smush. We're here to see the effects. That's why I'm here, how do you feel?"
"We're FURIOUS!" Jul stomped his foot, taking a step forward as his wife tried to hold him back.
"Denial?" The girl replied inquisitively. "I mean, you know for a fact that I'm not here, I'm up there." She pointed up. "See?" She gently moved her foot, pressing down with her big toe. The roof creaked as a massive force was suddenly applied to its shaky worksmanship. Meri screamed as Jul's anger reached a tipping point.
"That's it!" Jul, all 6 feet of him, ran towards the girl and tackled her. Instead of hitting her, he went right through and slammed through the door, falling over. The girl looked down at him.
"Hmm. You KNOW I'm not here and you attack anyways, interesting." She noted.
"SHUT UP" Jul yelled.
"It's ok little guy, keep being angry, it's your last few moments you can do whatever you want with them!"
"Please, is there anything we can do!?" Meri begged, getting on her knees in front of the hologram.
"Hmm... I don't think so." Mandy pouted again.
"PLEASE!" Meri begged.
"Sorry, rules are rules..." Mandy looked down at the girl, through her projection, she saw just how lifelike the tiny seemed. Through her vision, they were the same size, it was an intimate moment in an emotionally sterile process as the woman began to cry. "There there..." Mandy cooed. "It's ok, it's going to be over soon."
"NO!" Mari yelped through her tears.
"ENOUGH!" Jul had gotten up and started swinging, each fist went through nothing but air as they simply passed through the projection, and the girl paid him no mind.
"It's okay, I'll count down with you, okay?" Mandy tried to comfort the woman.
"3..." Mari scrambled to get up off the floor. "2..." She started making her way for the door. "1..." Swinging it open, she was met with a disheartening sight - nothing but the same pale skin that Mandy had. It was now perfectly clear why her projection had her foot angled to the side like that.
"Bye bye!" Mandy cheered. Mari and Jul's eyes both looked at the holographic foot as it gently began to press down. Their eyes followed the buckling walls, then the ceiling, and at their last moments - eachother.
Mandy only looked at the ceiling as through the crashing wood she saw a glimpse of a toe. Her toe. Coming down before the projection ended. Her vision immediately returned to her normal view of the entire village from her towering height. She looked down at her big and second toes, and wiggled them gently, grinding the remains of the house into nothingness. She turned, and with a skip she walked back out of the enclosure, smiling softly.