The accident on Frank's farm had left him growing bigger since this morning...a LOT bigger.
It was still getting faster: he could feel himself growing more, and more, and MORE every minute. It was energizing, electrifying...it was a head rush.
His feet were as big as cars...but now they were as big as the little houses he was tramping past...and soon as big as entire lakes and blocks. He didn't want to hurt anyone...but he also wasn't caring as much as he used to.
The same way that he might have avoided stepping on ants if he saw just a few.
But then, if they're everywhere? Well... he couldn't really be bothered then, could he?
I'll get to the water. I'll probably wreck less that way. If my feet get as big as the whole fucking county...I'm not going to worry about it anymore. Giant's gonna crush what a giant's gonna crush, I guess.
âTHOUGHT IâD NEVER AMOUNT TO MUCH, DID YOU GUYS?!?â
The harbor went quiet in pieces.
First the gulls lifted from the marina roof, shrieking as they wheeled inland. Then the masts began ticking against one another, a nervous little music no one noticed until every conversation along the promenade stopped. Coffee cups sat halfway to mouths. A jogger slowed, one earbud dangling. On the beach, a child pointed toward the breakwater.
Something huge was moving behind the haze.
The water rose before him in long white folds. Not waves exactlyâdisplacement. The bay pushed away from his thighs as he came forward, slow and deliberate, the skyline reflected in the wet shine of his body. His head cleared the morning mist. Then his shoulders. Then the massive sweep of his chest, arms hanging heavy at his sides, fists opening and closing as if he were trying to remember not to grab anything.
A police cruiser skidded to a stop by the seawall. The officer stepped out, looked up, and forgot to shut the door.
The giant stopped offshore.
For a moment he only stared at the city.
His face changed as he looked over it. Not wonder. Recognition. His eyes moved from the school on the bluff, to the old industrial block, to the glass towers downtown. His jaw tightened. The muscles in his forearms bunched and relaxed.
Then he laughed once, hard enough to send ripples across the marina.
âTHOUGHT IâD NEVER AMOUNT TO MUCH, DID YOU GUYS?!?â
The words slammed into the waterfront. Shop windows buzzed. A hanging sign tore loose from one chain and swung violently over the sidewalk. People ducked though nothing had fallen near them.
He stepped closer.
The beach vanished under a surge of water. Chairs tumbled. Umbrellas folded and went skidding across the sand. He didnât look down at them. His eyes stayed fixed on the city, bright and furious.
He raised one arm.
Slowly.
The bicep rose over the hotel district, swelling into the sky, bigger than the tallest buildings along the shore. He turned it, admiring the peak, and his grin came back sharp enough that people felt it before they understood it.
âHOW IS THIS FOR AMOUNTING TO SOMETHING!â
A woman on a restaurant balcony dropped her phone. It bounced off the rail and disappeared three stories down. She didnât move to follow it. She was staring at his face.
He saw her.
His grin flickered.
âYEAH,â he said, quieter now, but the word still rolled down the street. âI REMEMBER THAT LOOK.â
He leaned forward.
The first three floors of the nearest hotel fell into shadow. People behind the glass stumbled backward, faces small and white in the windows. His hand came upânot touching the building, not quiteâbut close enough that every pane reflected one huge finger hovering beside it.
âYOU ALL HAD THAT LOOK.â
His finger curled.
The glass groaned.
On the boulevard, police were shouting into radios. Someone yelled for people to move back. Nobody moved fast enough. The crowd had split, half fleeing inland, half frozen in the impossible magnetism of him.
The giantâs eyes tracked over them like he was reading names.
âNOT ENOUGH DISCIPLINE,â he said. âNOT ENOUGH TALENT. NOT ENOUGH DRIVE.â
His hand dropped to the water. The impact threw spray higher than the seawall.
âNOT ENOUGH.â
He took another breath. His chest expanded, slow and enormous. A row of car alarms started screaming.
For one sick second, everyone thought he was going to reach into the city.
He wanted to. That much was clear. His fingers flexed toward the waterfront towers. His shoulders rolled forward. His weight shifted, and the bay floor seemed to answer under him. The nearest buildings looked suddenly breakableânot because he had broken them, but because he had finally noticed that he could.
He lowered himself slightly, bracing one hand against his thigh. The motion brought his face closer to the boardwalk. Close enough for people to see the wet shine in his beard, the lines around his eyes, the anger sitting under the smile.
âI COULD PUT MY HAND THROUGH EVERY OFFICE THAT EVER TURNED ME AWAY.â
His gaze shifted toward downtown.
âI COULD PICK UP THE BUILDING WHERE MR. ALDEN TOLD ME I WAS A WASTE OF PAYROLL.â
A few blocks inland, behind dark glass, an old man in a suit stepped away from a conference-room window.
The giant saw the movement. His smile widened.
âI COULD.â
His fingers closed again, knuckles creaking.
Then he pointed at the skyline instead.
âBut then youâd all make that the story.â
The sirens kept screaming.
He straightened, taller than the fear, taller than the cityâs old opinion of him. The shadow of his torso slid inland, swallowing the marina, the boardwalk, the first lanes of traffic.
âYOUâD SAY I WAS ANGRY. YOUâD SAY I WAS DANGEROUS. YOUâD SAY I PROVED YOU RIGHT.â
He laughed, but there was no humor in it now.
âNO.â
He flexed again, harder this time. His arms rose like monuments. His chest tightened, massive and undeniable. The skyline sat beneath him, intact and trembling.
âYOUâRE GOING TO LOOK AT ME. THATâS ALL.â
A helicopter swept in low over the bay, then veered sharply away when he turned his head toward it.
âYOUâRE GOING TO LOOK,â he said, voice deepening, âAND YOUâRE GOING TO REMEMBER EVERY TIME YOU MADE ME FEEL SMALL.â
He held the pose until people began crying without knowing why. Until the city had no choice but to take in the impossible shape of him: furious, triumphant, restrained only because he wanted the victory cleaner than destruction.
Then he lowered his arms.
The water settled around his legs.
His eyes moved once more across the shoreline, searching, finding, dismissing.
âNOW,â he said, quiet enough to feel worse than the shouting, âWHO WANTS TO SAY IT TO MY FACE?â
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