The slap would’ve rung throughout the house had Anne stood taller than her dismal smattering of inches. Luckily enough, the sound dispersed itself underneath the couch, failing to stir the two massive heels firmly planted in front of them. A mumbled apology trailed the echo of the blow as Anne’s companion rubbed the back of his head. Voyeur to the gruesome scene before him, he almost broke cover to sneak a touch of the giant woman seated above them, a mistake made by another tiny trapped underneath her heel. One hand weakly beat against the ponderous flesh as it slowly compressed their body into the hardwood floor. Oblivious to the diminutive lives beneath her, the giant woman flipped through page after page of her book. Easing back into the confines of the couch, she slid her feet forward crossing them into a more comfortable position. Cursing, Anne and her companion sprang forward to silence the trapped tiny before a full-throated scream burst forth as they watched their lower half turn into a red streak across the floor. Albeit soft, the cry impinged upon the woman’s reading, pulling her attention down towards the crimson streak and small group of two and a half tinies. A bemused smirk lit upon her face as she lowered herself to their level, deft fingers plucking one before it could return to obscurity underneath the couch.
“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!” Anne hissed, muffling the cacophony with a hand. Yet a new, louder noise of shifting weight drew her attention, light brown eyes locked with hers as the giant woman reached forward. Abandoning the half-dead tiny to its fate, she hollered to her companion to run just as a pair of massive digits gingerly plucked him from the floor.
“Does he belong to you?” Cassandra gently squeezed the little thing trapped between her fingers choking any sounds of protest as the air rushed from its lungs. They were always so annoying when they made noise, as if they were real people. The tiny before her vigorously shook her head no. Cassandra smiled, guilt by association or maybe throwing their partner away to escape.
“It’s unfortunate that other tiny drew you out. Was he with you too? Maybe your friend here wants to join him. Is that why he let me catch him?”
Anne seethed at the thought, partly because the giantess was right. Her companion had no qualms with revealing himself at every opportunity just for the slim chance that this time he would be cared for instead of crushed outright. In spite of seeing so many others perish in similar exercises of stupidity, he persisted. No longer.
Shouting so she could hear, Anne summed everything up in three simple words.
“I don’t care!”
She let them hang in the air, letting the giantess mull over each word before responding to the quizzical look she was given.
“I don’t care what you do to him. My life has been put at risk too many times because that one can’t restrain himself whenever someone ten times his size appears.”
“Like me?”
“Like you.” Anne sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration. “The other tiny you did…well…crush, probably had the same idea.”
“I see.”
Cassandra’s eyes flicked between the newly formed stain on her floor and the captured tiny now sheepishly grinning in her grip. “So, you’re sure you don’t care what happens to your friend because he could end in some pretty violent ways. Not to mention guilt weighing heavy on your heart as you mourn a dear friend with each step home.” Vigorous nodding followed from the trapped tiny.
“You can have him and in exchange, I’ll help you find more tinies like my ‘dear friend’ over there.”
Cassandra didn’t need even a moment to think the offer through. “Well the outcome would be the same regardless, and this sounds a lot more entertaining.”
“What was your original plan?”
“Crush him in the hand, you underfoot, then go back to my book,” she shrugged.
“I see.”
“Welp, might as well make a game out of this, add some amount of risk. Uhmm, you might want to turn around for this. Things are going to get… messy.”
“Wait what?”
“Turn around,” Cassandra growled.
With a shrug of her own Anne turned around, just missing the malicious grin spreading across Cassandra’s face. Tightening her grip around the still entrapped tiny, she outstretched his right arm with a free hand.
“She’s hired,” said Cassandra, swiftly crushing the fragile appendage between her fingers into a pulp. It took all of a second for the trauma to register as Anne’s former companion watched their once pristine arm become reduced to limply hanging viscera.
“She’s crushed”
A blood-curdling scream burst from them as their other harm followed the first. Cassandra winced as the high pitch drilled into her ears, forcing her to hold the writhing tiny at a distance while she finished her grim task.
“Shit, you might want to cover your ears! He’s only going to get louder from here!” Anne didn’t need to be told twice, already well ahead of Cassandra’s instruction.
“She’s hired,” the right leg went.
“She’s crushed,” then the left.
With the same care given to the other limbs that came before, Cassandra delicately placed her fingers on either side of the howling tiny’s head, muffling his incessant cries. A slight increase in pressure reduced his head into an unrecognizable mess of blood and bone.
“She’s hired. Ew….ugh,” Cassandra barely hid her revulsion at the broken mess clutched in her hand.
“Can I turn around now?” said Anne, uncovering her ears.
“Uhhh, hold on, one sec.” Cassandra glanced around the room, looking for some receptacle to dump the grizzly remains she held. With nothing in sight, she settled upon the next most reasonable alternative and stuffed it into her mouth, swiftly masticating everything into a pulp, before letting her new tiny charge face her. Out of some sense of civility Anne didn’t point out the small flecks of blood dotting Cassandra’s lips.
“You’re surprisingly courteous for a giant, ‘sparing’ me from seeing my companion get…. you know, broken.”
“You’re surprisingly generous for a tiny, freely giving him up to me.”
“And thus a beautiful friendship was born,” said Anne extending out her hand.
Cassandra smiled and did the same.