Officer Donnelly sat back in his police cruiser, visibly frustrated. Another three missing, this time at a day-care. No evidence of the disappearance, no evidence of struggle, no nothing. Just like the other disappearances. The problem was the lack of evidence and the lack of motive: who would even want these people to disappear? The only link seemed to be the Kayla girl, but still no evidence of any way she could have done this, plus she seemed like a normal mom. His boss had suggested bringing the FBI in to help, but he had insisted on keeping this local. “Where did these people go and why?” He spoke to himself as he started the engine of his car, “I have to solve this if it’s the last thing I do.”
3 ½ years later
As Kayla looked in the review mirror she couldn’t help but think: Damn, Sophia grew up fast. Her 6 year old sat snug in her car seat, staring down at her iPad as she played intently. She had just started elementary school the year before and had been struggling. The experience had been increasingly frustrating for Kayla as everyone seemed to share their two cents on what to do. She had been reading Facebook when she realized what it was: That damned iPad. She went on to read all sorts of articles that supported her feelings and the comment sections of them only added to her conviction. By the end of a two hour stretch Kayle knew that her daughter was being deprived of real human interaction when she played with the ipad.
At first she presumed that the best way to move forward was to take it away, but when she did Sophia bawled endlessly, which she couldn’t stand. As she looked for a place to hide it from Sophia, she opened a drawer and saw a dusty old device. Kayla picked it up and had an idea.
She pulled her SUV over on a dusty road next to a large sign. “Welcome to Anchorteeth!” it proclaimed. Kayla pulled out the device and began driving offroad through the short grass doing her best to hold down the calibration button as long as she could. After 15 short minutes, she felt ready. With a smile she punched in a reasonable height:
>> 5 FEET
The device sputtered for a moment, then a light brighter than anything Kayla had ever seen before showered over the grassland and then, silence. Kayla looked in awe at the plot of dirt before her. She stepped down into it and walked across towards the middle of the massive square plot in the grassland. As she approached the center, she found what she was looking for. The town of Anchorteeth, population 86, lay before her the size of a sandbox. If she couldn’t take away the iPad, perhaps she could give Sophia something more interesting to play with that actually promotes human interaction. She carefully picked up the town and loaded it into a box she had prepared for this occasion. Gravel shot up as she floored it for the long drive home.
Jamie was preparing for a nap when she felt everything shift around her. She had presumed it was simply an earthquake, not uncommon in Anchorteeth. Still, something felt different. Despite still being in her room, she felt like she was in a different place entirely somehow. Walking to her living room, she picked up some of the items that had fallen over. As she did, a second earthquake, this one much more massive tossed her around violently. Jamie dived under her couch and curled up into a ball. In an instant, everything went dark.
After more than hour Jamie emerged to find that her home was entirely in darkness. She lit a candle and stumbled through her ruined home, items smashed about. She could still feel a distinct and consistent rumbling filling her entire home as the earth shook. Jamie stepped outside and found an even more bizarre sight before her: the entire town was in darkness. Many of the neighbors – all of whom Jamie knew in such a small town – meandered about in the dark using candles or phones to light the way. Everyone seemed just about as confused as Jamie was. Once again the rumbling increased, tossing the townspeople around as if a massive earthquake had once again struck. Jamie attempted to call 911 but for some reason her cell failed again and again as she was battered. Finally, for the first time in almost 2 hours, the rumbling ceased. Jamie took a deep breath and stood up again, once again in darkness as she had lost her candle.
In an instant a blinding light enveloped the city, as if multiple suns beamed down from above. The sky was a bright shade of artificial pink that shined down upon the entire town. For the first time Jamie could look around as her eyes adjusted to the light. There was a massive wall at the edges of the town on all sides, there were also distant walls with…posters? What? In her confusion Jamie finally noticed two giantesses staring down at her and the rest of the town. Compared to them, Jamie guessed that they were half a centimeter or less tall. One was much taller than the other, but both looked down at them eagerly.
Kayla lifted the box off of the small town before her and showed Sophia. To her delight her kindergartener seemed intrigued, and who could blame her, she was the only one in the world who got to play with a whole town.
“Sweetie this is all yours to play with! Does that sound fun”
“Yes mommy! Can I play?” Sophia asked eagerly
“Hmm hmm!” Kayla affirmed, she smiled as she left Sophia to her devices.
Sophia gazed over the town, one finger in her mouth as she decided where to begin. One of the many little toys caught her eye, and she began.
Jamie looked up as the now singular figure above her. It appeared to be a young child wearing a t shirt and overalls, staring over the entire town. Her shadow cast itself over Jamie as many townspeople around her began to run around and hide. Jamie was terrified as the giantess’s knee bent and her foot, the size of a house, lifted over the town. It decended quickly, obliterating a large patch of grass. Jamie began to realize their predicament: This was her play area – they were toys.
Sophia stepped in happily, wriggling her toes as she would in her sandbox. She was infinitely curious about these toys, they seemed a lot more fun than her blocks. She took another step towards the center of her play area. She felt a sharp pop under her bare foot, but ignored it as she descended on the buildings she wanted to play with.
Jamie watched the foot come down upon one of her neighbors, he screamed a blood curdling cry as he realized his position. She could see the dirt covered foot hover over him and descend quickly. Jamie made eye contact with the poor man right before it flattened him onto the concrete with a deafening Pop. The giantess above didn’t seem to notice or care about what she had just done, she only continued forward. Strands of blood and gore bridged from the concrete onto a small patch on the bottom of the 6 year old’s foot. Once again, the girls knees bent and the townspeople watched as she squatted down right outside of their town. Her massive curious eyes gazed over the town as she wriggled her toes in excitement.
Like a crane, Sophia’s fingers dangled over a woman she found in the center of the town, the giant finger pads plucked her up in an instant. The woman screamed as she dangled in the air, suspended by a painful pressure caused by the two digits. Sophia looked upon her as she dangled and giggled happily, she noticed that when she squeezed the toy harder it made more noise, so she pressed harder and harder enjoying the sounds. Jamie could only watch as the woman went from begging, to yelling, to screaming, to a horrific gurgling noise that lasted until the giant child’s fingers met one another with a sharp pop. When they separated, her fingers had a great deal of blood and the woman was no more.
Sophia was only beginning as she extended her palm right into the small crowd of terrified residents in her ‘playpen’. Despite attempting to run a handful of people were immediately and brutally crushed under her pudgy hand. The sound echoed across the town and across Sophia’s room, with a giant patch of blood and bone remaining on the ground where they once stood. Sophia was delighted, dragging her fingers around the remains eventually painting a smiling face in the concrete with the remaining residents gazing upward, still horrified.
Jamie couldn’t make herself move. She was in a state of absolute horror as the giant child played around with what was just this morning half a dozen people. She could see one man injured on the ground near the girl’s ‘art’. He yelled and moaned in pain, Jamie knew it wouldn’t be long until he was noticed. As if the girl could read her mind her giant blue eyes locked onto the man. Just like before, her fingers descended quickly, plucking him up like a cheerio. Predictably, he screamed as he was violently hoisted into the sky. He ended up lying on her outstretched palm, writhing in pain. Just when he thought she would see him humanity and show him mercy, her other hand descended, finger bent against her thumb. On the ground, Jamie knew what came next but couldn’t force herself to stop looking skyward. In a microsecond her finger released, flicking the small man with the force of a freight train. In an instant the man was a fine mist of blood, most of his body flying off beyond the edge of her play area.
The next hour was a series of hiding attempts by residents, with the giant kindergartener taking pleasure in hunting down and eradicating her toys. By the end of the hour homes had been crushed under her feet and blood stained the ground and her soft hands as she enjoyed her toys. Jamie had hid well under some of the rubble, she knew she was one of the last in this town. For a moment, the screams stopped and she held her breath as she had several times in the past hour. In an instant a massive foot crushed the debris next to her, the explosion of wood and air threw her from her hiding place. As she got up to her hands and knees, Jamie looked up and saw the skyscraper sized girl staring right down at her. The blood stained her overalls seemed little more than paint to the girl as she smiled downward.
Jamie didn’t run – she knew there was no point. She’d seem too many die trying. She hoped that at least it would be a quick death under the girl’s foot or in her hand and not a particularly painful one. The pudgy hand reached down, the fingers coated in dry and wet blood of the other residents. Jamie found herself plucked and laying on a palm where many of the other residents had recently found themselves. Any moment she prepared for the fingers to wrap around her and obliterate her – but that didn’t happen. Instead she only got closer to the massive face of her tormenter. In just a moment she was right in front of Sophia, the child’s thick breath washing over her smelling of her snacks earlier that day.
For the briefest of moments, Jamie wondered if the girl had realized what she had in her hand, that she was a real human and that she needed help. That wonder was dashed as the girl barked “I’m hungry toy!” at her and suddenly moved her hand at her mouth. Jamie was tossed violently onto the girl’s tongue where she was tossed violently from side to side. At one point she fell into an area behind some of the girl’s baby molars, where she attempted to hide. The prodding tongue found her in an instant, jabbing violently at her and covering her in dense saliva. It slid her right out and positioned her awkwardly under her teeth. They came down precisely, obliterating Jamie’s legs and filling the confined area with her blood. Jamies last moments were spent hearing a deep voice declare “YUMMY” as the rest of her body was washed down the throat to be digested and added to Sophia.
The city’s carnage was complete, completely desolated and gone. Kayla returned with pride, she had gotten Sophia off the iPad of course. She happily tossed the remains in the garbage and hugged her daughter with pride. Upon seeing a drop of blood emerge alongside her daughters drool, Kayla announced:
“I think someone made a mess! Let’s go take a bath”
And moments later the last of Anchorteeth was washed away.