There once was a gentle giantess.
So gentle that she settled in their city.
So mellow that everyone loved her at first sight.
So considerate that she set her giant house in the middle of it.
She walked out and flattened the mayor who came up to greet her with the notables. When her foot didn’t seem to want to move, they came to truly realize that she was here to stay. And when it twisted and ground intently, gruesomely turning him to paste, they loved her even more.
Everyone gathered and made a banquet on the city’s main place. A large enough and lovingly crafted table was built, fitting to her needs and covered in every possible meal, all in gargantuan proportions. She swiftly appeared on the horizon, carelessly walking on their houses, crushing their cars, happily hungry, and sat next to the table with polite thanks. One by one they were caught, delicately tossed in her greedy mouth and chewed. With cheers of joy and loud applause, the citizens rushed toward her seeking hands and jumped inside her welcoming fists. Blood dripped from her lips in happy drops, tainting the white tablecloth with their guts. The ones hugging at her curled toes, she flattened like she did the mayor; the ones yelling for their turn, she simply popped under her slowly flailing legs. Once each and every attendee had been thoroughly crushed, the gentle giantess stood with satisfaction and smirked at the table, all its dishes left untouched. She lifted her heel and softly stepped on it, erasing all traces of their hard work. The city had never seen such gentleness, such grand generosity.
The word of her coming and this memorable banquet quickly spread through town, and the day after, the city had already elected her its first citizen. The next morning, countless little men and women took their day off and came knocking on her door.
“What do you want, wretched bugs?” she coldly said.
To which they cheerfully replied that they wanted to play with her, just like she had with the ones at the banquet. The gentle giantess crouched, softly pinched one of them between her thumb and forefinger and popped her like a grape over the restless crowd.
“Like this?”
Oh! Did anyone ever see such enthusiasm and love expressed at once!
No sooner did the remains of the woman splatter on their heads, than an ecstatic clamor of joy raised from the mob, cheering and singing in praise, begging for more. In one disdainful gesture of largesse, the giantess raised her hand and slammed it with a force so strong, that the squishing sound of hundreds bodies crushed together could be heard till the outskirts of the city. Little did remain of the crowd from this affectionate meeting between a careless hand and its worshippers. Those affected by the sheer blast, some groaning in pain, pinned to the facade of surrounding buildings, some missing parts on the concrete, curled up and coughing, slowly regained consciousness and looked up to admire their benefactor. To their delight, they saw her spit on the corpses of entire families she had erased and grant them encouraging words out of gorgeous and frowning lips.
“Pathetic.”
On this word, she unceremoniously closed the door of her statuesque house and left them to die.
Days, months and a year passed, filled with joy and more compassionate acts on her part. Every time they came for a visit, she welcomed them with more bloodshed and refined humanities. Every time she went for a stroll in their streets, lives were wiped and pleasantly smeared on their walls and sidewalks. On her command, they’d made a fun game out of pretending to scream and run frantically as soon as her ear-popping footsteps announced her caring presence. She only enjoyed it more, crashing her immense body on buildings, contemptuously stepping on every single thing, alive or not, they might have held dear. The entire city lived under a permanent and motherly threat, resounded and meditated on her advice:
“Crushing your wife was disgusting. You’ve no taste”
“You boring scum, say hello to my teeth”
“Here’s your reward: lick your daughter’s remains”
“Enjoy some pain, it’s free”
“Die, worms”
“Die, bugs”
“Die, suckers”
“Die”
“Die”
Until one day, a shy little woman managed to slip under the vast sheets of her bed and whispered these words to her ear:
“Oh great giantess, me and this whole city love you more than anything in the world. You’ve slaughtered my family, my dog and my goldfish and i thank you for it. Blessed be your goods. What i want to say is… there’s something i miss, that only you can bring to this world in your glorious charity”
Sadly, the gentle giantess heard these words and found herself curious enough to not crush the little beggar right away. Speak, she said, and the little woman resumed on her fated request.
“Thank you oh thank you!! It’s hard to express since you’ve been so kind to us all, so sincere and constant… i’d like you to be… cruel. Just for once.”
The gentle giantess frowned and replied that she could never do such a thing: she wouldn’t be capable of such heinous thing… but the little woman insisted.
“Please, oh please gentle giantess… be cruel to us. Do us harm and revel in our distress! It’s not only me, but the whole city who wishes for you to be shown the severe side of their most beloved citizen”
In her half sleep, the gentle giantess raised an eyebrow and inquired if being cruel would truly please them, if more kindness could ever be brought upon them by acting harshly. With a trembling voice filled with hope, the little woman almost screamed with joy:
“Yes! Yes! be severe!”
“Fine. I’ll think about it. Now die, it’s late.”
Thus, the gentle giantess squished the woman and quickly fell into perplexed dreams.
The next morning, the whole city experienced the worst cruelty the gentle giantess had been capable of and wept for the first time in a year:
She had left.