Carrying a stack of documents and folders, Valerie somewhat rushed through the hall of the office at which she was employed. She was not sure why she was in such a hurry; her deadline was the following Friday, well over a week away, and it was not like she had to write a thesis or anything. That said, the sooner she got her assigned project completed, the better.

It was not her first such assignment, nor would it be the last. In a way, she could be considered a sort of pro. If anyone needed help, she was the girl to call. ...Not that many people ever called for her help, but the door was always open. ...Not that her cubicle had a door- Her mind was getting off-track.

She kept a careful hold of her stack as she navigated through the corridor. In just two more turns, she would reach the huge cubicle space that held her own cube.

She made the first turn, and-

"Ah!" She found herself being sent flying backwards onto the carpeted floor, as her documents fell over around her.

"Oh crap!" said a familiar male voice. "I didn't even see you there, Valerie. You alright?"

Valerie looked up to the man that she had bumped into, only to find her heart aflutter when her eyes fell upon none other than Stevie. The handsome young Black man had his hand held out towards her, offering to help her back up.

"Y-yeah," she answered. "It's my fault, I should've watched where I was going." She took his hand in hers, and allowed him to pull her back onto her feet.

"Nah, I was kinda rushing as well," Stevie said. "You at least had these papers and stuff; I don't have an excuse."

"Don't worry about it, Stevie."

Stevie chuckled weakly. "Alright, if you say so... But let me help you pick all this stuff up." To which, he immediately assisted her in retrieving the dozens of sheets of paper and folders. "There's a lot of data and statistics on these sheets. You writing up a report?"

Valerie nodded. "Yeah. Mr. Wegrecki wants me to write up a report and analysis on our finances for the past fifteen years. It's not too hard, but it's a bit time-consuming. I wanna get it out of the way now before he starts breathing down my neck."

"I see. If you need any help, I'm there for you," Stevie offered as he placed several sheets neatly onto the growing stack in Valerie's grasp.

"Wow, you're still kinda new here, but you're already offering to help out us seasoned employees. I think you'll go far here!" Valerie smiled.

"Hah, maybe," Stevie replied as he gathered up the remaining documents and folders. "But for now, I just want to help out my colleagues and make their lives easier." He put the remaining sheets onto the stack that Valerie held. "There!"

"Thanks, Stevie," Valerie said as they both stood up. "I'll take you up on that offer some day, but for now, I have to go at this alone."

"I understand. Whatever gets you through it with the least amount of stress. But if you ever need me, Valerie, I'm all ears." He gave her a friendly smile, to which she returned in kind.

"I'll definitely keep that in mind Stevie," Valerie responded, her cheeks becoming warm with blush. "By the way, you can call me 'Val'."

"You sure?" Stevie confirmed, which she replied with a nod. "Alright, Val. I'll be seeing you around. There's somewhere I have to be."

"See ya," Valerie bid as Stevie rushed past her and headed down the hallway, back in the exact direction where she had come from.

She found her gaze still lingering onto the young man even after he had left her sight.

"What a man..." she swooned.

Even though she lost a few precious minutes, she felt that the exchange was worth it. In fact, any exchange with Stevie was worth it. He was such a friendly, thoughtful man who looked out for those around him; any woman would be lucky to have him, and perhaps one day, that woman would be Valerie herself.

Yes, one day, she would have him all to herself. She very much looked forward to that day, and even fantasized about it at night before falling asleep.

Sometimes, he was but a tiny slave, forced to kiss and lick all parts of her feet for hours on end, well after his tongue dried and his lips became sore. Sometimes, he would be a scurrying bug for her to step on, with her relishing every crunch of his bones as she ground his handsome yet fragile body into the floorboard. Sometimes, he was a tasty chocolate snack, which she would savor inside of her mouth as long as she could before swallowing him alive. Sometimes, he was a living sex toy, with which she made use of his tiny limbs to stimulate the most sensitive parts of her womanhood.

There were a handful of times where the two of them made passionate love together--enjoying the sensual feeling of their warm, tender flesh against one another as their worlds melded into one--and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

...She wondered what that was about.

Regardless, with Valerie's documents safely back in her hands, she resumed her original task, soon quickly heading into the wide office space and into her cubicle in particular. With the morning still young, she wanted to give herself as much time as she could to work on her assignment.


Vignette #5 - Predator

Even hours later, Valerie was still at the top of the world. Her finance project, which she spent the better part of the last two weeks on, turned out to be a rousing success. Her supervisor Mr. Wegrecki was quite impressed with how much detail she had put into it, even noting little things included that others may have overlooked, and the end results lined up perfectly with the organization's current standings.

She was very happy that that weight had been lifted off of her shoulder. After all, she even worked on it at home and on the weekends, totally ignoring her personal life in favor of getting everything together.

After such an endeavor, Valerie felt that she had to reward herself, and thus, she drove herself one county over to the Prism Glass, a bar popular with the locals in the area, especially for the younger crowd; indeed, the place was packed, even with the weather reports of thunderstorms moving into the area. It was not her first time visiting the establishment, though the last time she stepped foot into the place was nearly a year ago; she made sure to not stake out the same location too frequently, or else inquisitive eyes would surely notice.

Meanwhile, her own inquisitive eyes were already scoping out the place, looking for potential targets among the sea of patrons for her to woo and lure back to her place. There were many handsome men, most of whom had already been claimed by equally-beautiful women. There were a few not-so-attractive men who sat alone; one tried to motion Valerie to sit down and have a drink with her, but she declined as politely as she could.

As she pushed through several more people, eventually she came to an area with a number of tables, many of which had people seated at them, either as a group or seemingly for new meetings. However, one table in particular bore a man sitting alone, downing a drink while fidgeting with his smartphone. In many ways, this black-haired man was her type: Black, perhaps in his late 20s--maybe a few years older than she was--and handsome, and he also had a small mustache and a stubble of a beard upon his face.

It seemed that she had found her catch.

Valerie approached his table; it seemed as if he was incognizant to her presence, perhaps due to being used to so many people walking to-and-fro.

"Hey there," Valerie greeted. "How is a handsome guy like you sitting back here all alone?"

The man's attention shifted from his phone to Valerie's face, his own face wearing a slight surprise upon it. "People sense that I'm hiding a dark, terrible secret, and stay away," he joked with a smirk.

"Oh really? Then what does that say about me?"

"That you're attracted to danger?"

Valerie chuckled. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm also dangerous, and thus, a kindred spirit."

"Nice. Though I should let you-"

"My name's Valerie," she interrupted. "What's yours?"

"Lamar," he answered.

"That's a pretty nice name," Valerie said.

"You think so? I always thought it was just plain."

"No, I like it. I think it suits you." She pulled the chair in front of her out and sat down in it.

"Uh...Thanks, I guess. But before yo-"

"You come here often?" Valerie asked as she cut him off again.

Lamar sighed. "Often enough, though I don't really make it a habit."

"Yeah, this is my first time here in a long time. I live in Green Cape, so it's a ways away. But I like the atmosphere, even though the drinks are more pricy than what I'm used to."

"That's why I don't make it a habit," he bluntly said. "I can't afford to come here every week, at least not right now. Anyway-"

"You should drive around and find some new joints," Valerie interrupted again. "I try to visit a new club every week or two, so I can give you the lowdown on what's good."

"I'm fine," Lamar said. "I think I can manage that on my own; if I need some pointers, I have by buddies to go to."

"Well, alright then." Valerie noticed that Lamar was being a bit stand-offish. She wondered if he just did not want to be bothered; though if that were the case, why would he be in such a public place to begin with? "What are you drinking?"

"Coors," he replied.

"Neat! I'd like to get a glass myself."

"The bar's over there," he pointed his thumb behind him, towards the bar whereupon several patrons were already seated.

"Yeah, but I'd rather stay here with the handsome guy I met tonight. I'm interested in getting to know you a little better.."

"Well, I'm flattered, but that's really not a good idea," Lamar answered.

"Why not?" Valerie asked, rather curious as to why he was trying to drive her away.

"Because I-"

"So you've made a new friend, Lamar," spoke a female voice from Valerie's right. "And all it took was a trip to the ladies' room..."

Both she and Lamar turned towards the source of the voice: a dark-haired Asian woman, perhaps around the same age as Lamar, or maybe even a bit older. This woman's face looked a bit more mature than Valerie, and she seemed to have an air of professional sternness about her, especially with the black blazer and matching skirt she wore upon her lean frame.

"I really tried to tell her, sweetie," Lamar told the woman. "But she kept cutting me off."

Valerie turned to Lamar; despite this potentially being quite a disaster in the making for him, his demeanor was still pretty calm.

"So I guess you weren't alone after all..." Valerie muttered to him, her cheeks a bit red with embarrassment.

Lamar shook his head. "I was trying to let you know, so you wouldn't waste your time, but I guess you were really smitten with me."

"I'm sorry," Valerie apologized as she stood up from her seat, turning her attention to Lamar's girlfriend or wife or whatever their relation was; at this point, Valerie noticed that this woman was also taller than her, by at least three or four inches. She was not wearing heels, either.

"It's cool. I'm sure lots of guys here would be happy to get to know you," Lamar said.

"I hope so," Valerie said. "You have a good night, Lamar." And then, turning to his mate, "You too, Miss."

The woman simply nodded--her glare unyielding all the while--before taking the very seat that Valerie had been sitting in until then. Paying the couple no more mind, Valerie decided to move on.

That truly was humiliating, she thought. Though the signs were there, particularly with Lamar's own disinterest in her and his trying to shoo her away towards the end; perhaps she should have let him talk instead of cutting him off so many times. She could not fault him at all; this was all on her.

She was more often than not successful with the men she went to court, though there were times where her target would not be interested. Some of them informed her right away that they were involved with someone else and would not budge; some outright stated that they preferred the company of men; some just were not attracted to her for one reason or another. Being rejected just came with the territory, though it still stung when it occurred.

...Still, she wished that she was able to shrink Lamar and take him away with her. But there was no way she would expose herself like that; there were far too many people around, and showing off her powers may even cause some of them to put two-and-two together regarding the disappearances of young men in the five-county area over the past year.

Maybe he and his mate would break up in the future, providing her an opportunity to swoop in and claim her prey? ...An appealing thought, but not one to hold out for.

"...Oh well, on to the next guy!" Valerie declared to herself, before resuming her hunt.

~~~

Thunder rumbled in the distance while lightning constantly flashed in the massive dark cloud above, occasionally and briefly lighting up the night with its spectacular display. Though the rain had not yet arrived, Lamar knew that it'd only be a matter of time before it too would make its arrival; after all, the weather reports had warned of it all week.

With his car's now-almost full tank of gas, his main concern was getting himself and Joy home before the downpour started.

Sliding back into the driver's seat, Lamar passed a bag of pretzels to his girlfriend, who was lying back in the passenger seat while watching a video on her iPhone, her blazer having since been removed from her light blue blouse and tossed lazily onto the back seat.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Lamar said as he buckled in his seatbelt and started up the car; immediately after, the air conditioning system started up, as well as the radio's rock station. "I don't like how much lightning there is out here."

"What, afraid of a little bit of lightning?" Joy teased as she tore open the plastic bag.

"Lightning can strike from anywhere," Lamar responded as he pulled out of the gas station lot and drove onto the road. "I mean, I once read a story where some girl was sitting on a hill on a nice, sunny day, and she got hit with a bolt of lightning from a storm a few miles away."

"Really?" Joy did not sound convinced.

"Uh-huh."

"You're just being paranoid." Joy stuffed a handful of the bow-shaped pretzels into her mouth and started chomping down on them.

"You're one to talk about paranoia," Lamar responded. "When you thought that girl at the bar was going to steal me from you."

"Mmm!" Joy made a muffled, partially-agitated sound as she swallowed the mass in her mouth. "What did you expect me to think when I see this younger lady suddenly sitting with my boyfriend?"

"Do you have that little faith in me?"

"Well, of course I trust you, but... I dunno, something about her rubbed me the wrong way."

"Tell me about it. You wouldn't shut up about her for the next fifteen minutes!" Lamar snickered as he merged onto the freeway, picking up speed as he did so. As expected for it being so late at night--well past midnight, even--the freeway was almost completely vacant of other vehicles, except for a white car behind him that exited from the same ramp as he had.

"Did I really rant about her for that long?" Joy seemed genuinely surprised.

"To be honest, I kind of toned much of it out, but the cliff notes version was that we would have been banned from the bar if she hadn't've moved."

"Yeah, I did insinuate that, didn't I?" A rather impressive, multi-forked bolt of lightning flashed in the sky. "Wow, you saw that?"

"Yep. We should be home soon, and then it can rain all it wants."

"You're such a baby," Joy teased, right before chomping a piece of the pretzel she held in her hand.

"Is that right? Well, when we get home, I'll show you just how much of a baby I am."

"I'm sure you will," Joy responded. "And I'm sure you'll spend the first hour on my feet."

"Aw, you caught me," Lamar jested, maneuvering his car around another vehicle driving slower than he was; the white car behind him did the same. "But I just can't stay away from them. They're so beautiful-"

"I know," Joy cut in. "You tell me that all the time."

"I wish I could shrink myself and live between your toes forever."

"Yikes..." Joy was taken aback by his little fantasy. "What am I going to do with a tiny stowaway between my toes?"

"...I'd become big again to help with the important stuff. And to sex you up."

"I think I'd prefer a man who's big 100% of the time."

"What about 90%-"

"One hundred percent."

"Ninety-ni-"

"ONE. HUNDRED. PERCENT." Joy stressed.

Lamar sighed. "Well, it's not like it's possible to shrink anyway. I guess I'll just live it in fantasy."

"Some things are better off left there," Joy remarked as she ate some more of her snack.

Lamar kept driving down the freeway, curving as its road did. The cool interior was filled with the sound of the rock music on rotation on the radio as well as the sound of Joy munching on her pretzels. Occasionally, a bright flash of lightning lit up the sky, even overpowering the streetlights attached to the freeway divider. However, due to the music and the car windows being closed, the thunder was inaudible to them.

Occasionally, he would have to pass up another vehicle that was driving slower than he was. The white car behind him matched his every movement, which he found a bit strange but did not pay too much mind to.

The band Queen's famous song "We Are The Champions" started to play on the radio.

"Ugh, not this song again," Joy complained. "They play it way too much."

"Hey, this was my graduation song," Lamar commented.

"It was everyone's graduation song."

"It's a real fitting song, though."

"Not really. No one's the champion of the world right out of college. In fact, you're the world's bitch."

"...I can't even argue with that," Lamar said, just as his car came upon his exit. Putting on his right blinker, he exited the freeway and drove up the ramp and onto the service drive.

The white car behind him did the same.

"Oh-kay..." Lamar muttered as his eyes glanced at the rear view mirror.

"What?" Joy asked.

Lamar decided not to say anything about it; it could all be in his head. "Nothing."

Lamar made a right on the next turn, as did the car behind him. As nature's light show kept flashing in the sky, he drove six blocks down the road that he was presently on, before merging onto the left-hand lane and making a left turn onto the wide and divided boulevard that he had come upon. Once again, the white car copied his every move.

At this point, Lamar was becoming rather concerned. Was it truly possible that he was being followed? And if so, by whom?

The current road--Ulysses Road--had four lanes going both ways, with a stretch of grass separating both sides of the road. As of right now, there were few other cars on the road that he could see, so Lamar decided to try an experiment.

He put his left blinker on and--from his rightmost lane--slowly shifted all the way to the leftmost lane, and then after several seconds, triggered his right blinker and merged back to the rightmost lane.

The white car did the exact same thing.

That confirmed it in his mind: They were indeed being followed.

"What did you do that for?" Joy asked of his maneuver.

"I had to see something..." Lamar said, a hint of apprehension in his voice. "I think we're being followed."

"What!?" Joy became concerned, before turning around to look out the rear-view mirror of their pursuer.

"Yeah, they've been on our tail since the freeway," Lamar said; he was trying to remain calm, but one could easily tell that he was concerned, worried even. Especially someone as close to him as Joy was.

"Who is it?" Joy asked, worriedly watching the car tailing them.

"I don't know," Lamar answered, turning off the radio with one hand. "I didn't mess with anyone at the gas station or cut anyone off, either."

At the next intersection was the next turn that Lamar had to make on his way home, which led to the much narrower Bobrick Street. With his right blinker on, he slowed to the intersection--its traffic signal green for Ulysses Road--and then made his right turn onto Bobrick. The white car trailing them did the same, turning onto the street with them.

"They're still following us..." Joy noted.

"Dammit..." Lamar muttered.

Lamar kept driving, the air filled with the tense silence beyond the hum of the car's engine and the air conditioning. He came to a stop at a red traffic signal, and as he waited there, he tried to look through the pursuing car's windshield via his rear-view mirror to see any hint of the driver's identity. However, he could not make out their physical features due to the darkness, and before long, the traffic signal turned green, with both cars driving through the intersection.

Three streets later, another traffic light approached. This one had just turned yellow and was preparing to switch to red; normally, he would slow down, as even speeding he would not have made it before it turned red.

This time, he went for a risky move. He picked up speed, and shot through the intersection a second after it turned red, right before the other cars waiting at the intersecting street moved. Perhaps his assailant would not show the same reckless bravery?

Lamar kept his eyes on the rear-view mirror, and saw the white car also speed through the intersection, causing the other cars to immediately break before impact while blowing their horns at the pursuer.

"Ohh shit...!" Lamar uttered.

"Who the hell is this guy!?" Joy said, clearly worried. "Why is he so hellbent on following us?"

"I don't know, but I really don't want to lead them to the house," Lamar said.

"So, what are you going to do?" Joy asked.

Lamar exhaled heavily. His house was on a street that was only eight blocks away, and as he said, revealing to his stalker where he lived would have been bad news, especially down the line if they were successful in thwarting them that night. So, he figured that it was time for a bit of a detour.

He shifted over to the left lane and, at the next street, made a left turn onto the wider Vicker Drive, an industrial road full of processing and construction plants. Due to being the weekend and well into the night, all of the buildings were closed, their gates locked securely. With the lightning still flashing constantly, they gave a rather eerie vibe, not helped by the apprehension both he and Joy were feeling at the moment.

One of the plants' gates stood in front of a security booth, with its light still on. Perfect, Lamar thought; he could get to the guard inside and ask for assistance in dealing with this matter.

He slowed down to a crawl as he pulled off to the right curb, eventually stopping right in front of the gate. The white car did the same, slowing down and pulling off to the side right behind him and parked there, its bright headlights shining right into the interior of Lamar's car.

"Why are we stopping here?" Joy asked.

"I'm going to get that security guard to help us," Lamar said. "Whoever this person is, I doubt they'll try something stupid with the guard here."

Joy turned and looked towards the booth, leaning closer to the car window as she did so. Then, she turned back towards Lamar. "...No one's in there."

"Seriously?!" Lamar said, and upon taking a closer look, it seemed that his girlfriend was correct; the booth was empty. "Shit."

Both Lamar and Joy sat silently in their respective seats, no doubt pondering their next move. Outside, the sound of thunder echoes throughout the atmosphere outside, a sign that the storm that Lamar had been trying to beat had nearly caught up to them; if it were not for their stalker, they would had been in the safety of their home by then.

Then, they heard the sound of the door of their stalker's car shutting. Lamar immediately looked into his car window to get a look at who it was that had been chasing them: approaching his side of the car was a young, dark-haired Asian woman wearing a lavender knee-length dress under a brown jacket. This woman appeared to be very familiar to Lamar.

...In fact, Lamar almost immediately figured out who it was.

"Are you kidding me!?" Lamar exclaimed in exasperation once his mind worked out the identity of their stalker.

"W-what?!" Joy inquired.

"It's that girl from the bar!" He answered.

"WHAT!?" She too was stunned to learn of the white car's owner. "That girl who was sitting with you when-"

Joy was interrupted when their stalker--Valerie, he believed she said her name was--knocked on the driver's side car window, accompanied by a loud crash of thunder. Both Lamar and Joy glared at her as she peered inside of the car, wondering just what this mad woman was planning.

"Get the fuck away from us!!" Joy furiously shouted at her.

Valerie did not respond; even with the windows up, Joy had assuredly yelled loud enough for the stalker to hear it.

"I need to get to the bottom of this..." Lamar said, before pressing the button on the car door to bring the driver's side window down.

"Hey there," Valerie almost-innocently greeted as the window came down.

"Why are you following us?" Lamar said, his patience already run thin.

"I'm following you?" Valerie seemed to feign ignorance. "No, that's not true. I was only trying to get home before it started raining."

"That's a hell of a coincidence that you copied every single move I did on the road," Lamar responded, before a realization suddenly came to mind. "Wait, you said at the bar that you live in Green Cape. That's literally in the opposite direction from here!"

"Oh, oops," Valerie nonchalantly said, realizing her slip-up. "I did say that, didn't I?"

"So you ARE following us!" Lamar yelled.

"Hmm... Maybe." Valerie was being annoyingly coy about her actions.

"You lying bitch!!" Joy barked. "If you don't get away from us, I'm going to come out there and bash your head into the road!!" Joy was normally rather calm and reserved, but she did have her moments when her emotions got the best of her, and her frustrations over Valerie from earlier that night seemed to be spilling over.

"Wow, that's pretty violent," Valerie said in response. "How can you be with such a violent woman, Lamar?"

"Because she's willing to defend me from crazy people like you," Lamar said. "And don't say my name like we're friends and shit."

"But we will be friends, Lamar," Valerie said, in a somewhat menacing manner. "You're going to come with me, whether you want to or not."

"The hell I am!" Lamar angrily retorted.

"Don't be like that," Valerie said, before taking a few steps back from the car. Then, she took a look around at her surroundings, which made her ever more suspicious.

"What are you waiting for?!" Joy said to Lamar. "Let's get out of here!"

"R-right." Lamar prepared to shift his car back into drive.

However, there was a flash of light, one that briefly blinded both of them. Had lightning struck nearby? No, it could not have been, as such a close strike would have been accompanied with an extremely-loud crash of thunder. So, what was it?

Then, both he and Joy noticed it: the world outside of the car around them was growing. Joy started to scream as their environment continuously enlarged.

"What's happening!?" Joy shouted. "What's going on?!"

"I don't know!!" Lamar responded. "Everything's getting bigger!!"

This was a very worrisome situation, and neither of them had any ideas what was happening, or how it was happening. Unless... No, it couldn't be, Lamar thought.

His heart still racing, Lamar looked out of the driver's side window, towards their mad stalker who--like the rest of the world--grew ever taller over them. Valerie was watching his car--or perhaps Lamar himself--with the biggest satisfied smile upon her admittedly-cute face.

"She did it...!" Lamar concluded.

"You can't be serious!!" Joy responded, understandably skeptical of his claim.

"Yeah, she's smiling at us!" Lamar continued. "She's behind this- She's shrinking us!!"

Soon, the world's growth came to an end, a sign that whatever process Valerie used to reduce them had ceased its machinations. Now, the random blades of grass rose higher than they did, while the security booth as well as the fence rose into the heavens, it seemed. Valerie herself was like a skyscraper, an imposing one that instilled a sense of dread into the cores of Lamar and Joy.

Especially once her massive wedge sandals began to carry her closer to their car.

"Go, go!!" Joy frantically urged.

Lamar quickly shifted the car into drive and stomped onto the acceleration, causing his car to shoot off at a breakneck speed.

...However, they had not moved even a few inches before they found themselves being carried off of the ground. Both of them screamed in fear as, beyond the windshield, they were soon met with Valerie's billboard-like face as she held the car in her grasp.

Joy kept screaming as she now clutched tightly onto Lamar's body, which also trembled in fear as stared wide-eyed at the young woman who had captured them.

"Gotcha!" Valerie said with a sickeningly-triumphant smile. "Now, let's go home."

Then, her face disappeared as they were moved lower, into a leather containment of some sort, perhaps a purse or handbag, judging by various accessories around them visible via the headlights. Then, with a sound of a zipper, they were left trapped inside of this prison as it began to rock about.

"Oh my god... Oh my god... Oh my god..." Joy chanted repeatedly.

"This can't be happening..." Lamar lamented. "This can't be..."

"...Oh my god... Oh my... god... Ohh...." Joy then broke down and started weeping.

~~~

"I can't believe I pulled that off," Valerie proudly said to herself as she walked back to her car, having contained Lamar securely inside of her handbag.

She truly went above and beyond that night. She had failed to court anyone at Prism Glass after first meeting--and being chased away by--Lamar, and then left to try another club, where she was unbelievably unsuccessful as well. At that point, she figured that that night would not shine brightly upon her; perhaps all of her good karma for the day had been used up on her presentation at work.

However, by mere coincidence, while sitting in her car at a gas station she had refueled at, she caught sight of Lamar walking by and then pumping gas into his own car. After watching him for a minute or so, she decided to trail him and see what happened. She made a lot of risky maneuvers, including speeding through a red traffic light and potentially causing an accident that could have claimed her own life; she was glad that no cops were around to witness it, as she would have lost Lamar but gained a ticket or even a court date. That said, the whole episode had given her a rush, as if she was a predator out in the wild chasing its meal.

In the end, her reckless endeavor paid off, and she was able to capture her prey at last. All-in-all, it had been a tremendous day for her. However, it was a shame that she had also acquired some unwanted collateral along with Lamar; she would have to deal with it once she got home.

Opening her car door, Valerie slid inside and placed her handbag onto the passenger seat. Then, she started up her car, pulled off of the curb, and drove away from this creepy industrial area, just as the rain had finally caught up to her.

~~~

The sounds of the same rock station that they had been listening to before penetrated the handbag's leather walls. However, the actual interior of their car was silent, except for the sounds of Joy weeping as she kept hold of Lamar who in turn had his arms wrapped around her body; the upbeat music playing served as a harrowing contrast to their horrific predicament. He had since turned off the car, as he felt that keeping it on was pointless. Thus, he and Joy sat in the darkness, riding out whatever trip their manic captor was taking them on.

It seemed as if hours had passed, though a look on his smartphone showed that it had only been a bit less than half an hour since they had been thrown into their leathery prison. At least the phone was good for something at the moment, no matter how minor; both had tried to call for help, but neither of their phones were able to pick up a signal, likely due to their size.

"It'll be alright..." Lamar did his best to try to comfort joy, even as his own nerves were wrecked.

Joy did not say anything in response; perhaps she knew--and so did he--that there was a high probability that their lives would be ending that night. There was no telling just what was going through Valerie's mind, but going by her actions, there was no way her thoughts had any benefit to them.

After an arduous wait, the music along with the outside engine suddenly came to a stop, and they both felt worldly motion once more. Following the beeping sound from the much larger car signaling it being locked via remote control, they heard constant footsteps, broken by the a door opening and closing. Perhaps they had finally reached their ultimate destination: Valerie's home.

The zipping sound from above brought with it bright light that shined into the bag, though Lamar and Joy had no time to marvel before they were once again taken up and held in Valerie's giant hand at waist level. It appeared that she was sitting on a chair, inside of a massive but mostly-unimpressive kitchen. The curtains over the two windows were drawn, but he could hear the rain beating against the glass.

"Now, let's get you out of there," Valerie's voice boomed.

They watched as Valerie's hand came down upon the car and then took a firm grip of its roof. Then, it began to pull, and along with it was the sound of tearing steel and breaking glass. Joy screamed as the young woman effortlessly tore off the roof of the car--windshield and back window included--fully exposing them to Valerie's horrifying gaze.

"There," Valerie said as she tossed the roof elsewhere. "Now, to get you out of there."

Next, she reached in with her thumb and index finger, aiming at Lamar in particular. He yelled at her and threatened her to stay away, but she was not deterred. It grabbed hold of his body and pulled him--along with Joy still clutching onto him as tightly as she could--out of the car. Lamar wished that he and Joy had kept their seatbelts on, though logically it would not have done any good in this situation.

"Ugh, you had to come with him," Valerie said with a grimace as she addressed Joy. "You're just deadweight."

With her other hand, she pulled Joy away from Lamar. She frantically called out to him as he tried to reach out and grab her, but Valerie was too quick.

"You sit here, Lamar," Valerie told him as she placed him onto the table beside her bag, and then stood up to her feet. "I have to take out the trash."

"What are you going to do to her!?" Lamar shouted.

Valerie simply flashed him a smile, before turning her attention back to Joy, who kept screaming and calling Lamar's name. At that moment, a severe sense of dread filled his core.

"You said you were going to beat me into the road earlier," Valerie said to Joy. "Well, there's a change in plans. I'm the one who's going to be doing the beating."

"No, stop!!" Lamar yelled. "You better not hurt her!!"

Valerie said nothing. Instead, she simply released her grip of Joy, letting her fall the several stories-worth plunge to the polished wooden floor below, with Joy screaming all the while. Lamar winced as she finally struck the hard floor, expecting his girlfriend to not have survived the fall.

However, he was somewhat relieved to see that she was still alive, though it seemed that the fall did hurt her somewhat, as she laid on the floor, struggling to move.

"JOY!!!" Lamar called out to her.

"No, let me correct myself," Valerie said to his injured girlfriend. "I won't beat you, 'cuz that's too much work. I'm just gonna squish you like a bug under my shoe."

Even though he knew deep down that it would come to this, Lamar's heart sank as soon as Valerie said those words. "NO, WAIT!!!" He called as Valerie's right foot moved over Joy's sprawled-out body. She too started to scream as she was cloaked by its shadow.

"NO, PLEASE!!!" Joy pleaded as Valerie's foot lowered upon her. "STOP IT!!!"

"STOP, YOU CRAZY BITCH!!!" Lamar shouted. "DON'T KILL HER!!! STOP!!!"

Despite the constant shouting and pleading, Valerie was unphased, and soon Joy was completely invisible from the sight of Valerie's sandal. Lamar closed his watering eyes and turned away, but his ears did not lie: they carried to him the crunchy melody of Joy's body being violently compressed.

"Oh god..." Lamar lamented as he choked back tears, still keeping his sight averted as his ears kept relaying all the information he needed to hear, of the wet, sticky squelching companied with the sound of bones cracking and breaking.

Agonizing seconds passed, before the song of death came to an end, and Lamar slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at what had become of his beloved girlfriend, even if he had already known the full story. Indeed, he was met with the gruesome sight of Valerie's sandaled foot resting atop a pool of blood, which she slowly lifted, revealing the smashed and demolished body of what had been Joy, with red tendrils stretching from the floor to the bottom of her shoe before snapping apart.

"Nooo..." Lamar fell to his knees and fully gave himself to his sorrow. Joy--the love of his life, the woman whom he was planning to propose marriage to--had left the world, and in a manner more befitting of a lowly bug. Snuffed out by this maniacal young woman who wanted to claim him for herself.

For her part, Valerie simply turned her head to Lamar, and smiled. "Now we can be all alone."

"Just kill me now..." Lamar muttered, not bothering to wipe the deluge from his eyes. "I don't want to be with you. I want my Joy back..." If death could reunite him with Joy, he would gladly take it over being some obsessed murderer's plaything.

"Don't be like that, Lamar," Valerie said as she approached him, and then picked him up from the table, holding him in the palm of her hand as she brought him closer to her gigantic face. "I'll be a lot more than you can handle. You'll soon find that I'll be a better mistress than that stuffy bitch could ever be."

"You... evil..." Lamar uttered.

"Now, shall we get started, my sweet?" Valerie said with a grin, before carrying him out of the kitchen, leaving Joy's flattened corpse behind to rot on the floor all alone.



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