Group Therapy (Patreon)

This amazing idea came from one of you, and I couldn't resist embracing it. I love hearing your thoughts and fantasies, sometimes they can be tremendously inspiring. Enjoy!

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I’d watched the news clips dozens of times by now. I don’t know what I wanted from the videos, if I thought it was helping me process or giving me the chance to work through my emotions. I just couldn’t stop coming back to them. At some point, almost every day, I clicked the links and fell into that hole, sometimes for hours.

At first I just wanted to know exactly how it happened. I knew where they’d found the car, utterly flattened and compressed deep into the street, the liquefied remnants of my family spread out around it. It took a week of watching the clips over and over, using some landmarks, laying out maps and measurements, but I was certain I’d found the exact moment.

“It wasn’t even intentional,” I told the circle of people at the survivor’s group. It was my first time here; my therapist strongly encouraged me to come, to try and work through the trauma and grief with others who had shared experiences.

“During the last rampage, after the Defenders finally showed up, one of Sunspot’s fire blasts hit her in the chest and she stumbled backwards. My wife and kids were two streets over at the time, trapped in traffic and just trying to get out of the city. Her boot heel crushed them instantly.”

There were some mumbles and nods from the group. I told them about my video research, how I’d tried so hard to find some film that showed it happening, that at least had the sound, but other buildings blocked the view and helicopter blades or screams made it impossible to hear much else.

The man two seats left was about my age, and he spoke up after I was done. “I wonder if it’s almost better that you never saw. For some reason, she picked my house and just ripped it apart, and all of a sudden my wife and I were staring up at her from our couch while she crouched over us, just grinning this crazy grin.”

I swallowed a little and tried to process that, imagining locking eyes with that five hundred foot tall woman. Most of the videos were recorded from a distance, but a few shaky cell phone recordings from close up were out there, too. I shuddered and tried to clear my head while he continued.

“She said I was lucky to be with someone so pretty. I didn’t know what to say, I mean, what could I possibly say? Then she asked if I was going to miss her, and I remember every single second after that.”

He wasn’t looking at anyone in particular, just kind of staring ahead while he continued. “It’s been a month but I can still smell the leather of her long fingerless gloves. I can still see the exact shade of her black lipstick, and I can still feel Mary’s hand being torn away from mine, her shrieks and screams as I lost my grip, as that evil bitch just plucked her away.”

He rolled his head back and looked at the ceiling. “I don’t think I’ve slept through a night since. Two or three times, every night, I wake up seeing it all again. Mary pinched between her giant fingers, thrashing and kicking for all she’s worth. Colossa parting her lips just enough to push her past them with her fingertip, and then staring me down, smiling… fucking smirking at me while she starts to chew.”

“The trauma will stick with you.” The counselor made a point of not speaking up too often, but when someone struggled she would step in. “It’s important to the healing process to share the stories of these events, but it can also be helpful to share the person that we’ve lost, too. I’d like you to think about something you love about Mary, and when we come back around, if you’re comfortable, you can share that with us.”

An older woman was next to speak. “I was there to see my grandsons, too. I wish for all the world I hadn’t been. All the parents are struggling terribly, my next door neighbor was in the hospital last week after she took all these pills…”

“What happened, though?” The woman to my right was going to be the last to speak. I’d gone first since it was my first time. She was leaning forward, chin in her hands and elbows on her knees, listening intently to every word.

“She came out of nowhere. I don’t know if she was following them, or if she just knew where the bus stop was, but they were all on board and ready to head to school when her huge black boot dropped down. The roof crumpled enough that the door must have stuck, and the emergency exits take time…”

She glanced over at the last man who talked. “She looked at me, too. Stared at all of us while she took her time stepping down. She just… flattened all twenty of them, and she laughed at us while she twisted the bus into the pavement, then left without even saying a word.”

She pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes for a moment, then ran her fingers through her long grey hair. “Why? Why would someone do these things? How are they like this?”

“Obviously she gets off on it.” The woman to my right spoke up again. She was so casual, almost callous the way she spoke. Something about it made me cringe. “You’ve seen her face, right? It definitely turns her on to make you suffer.”

“Horrible,” the older woman sunk in her seat and shook her head. “It’s just too horrible…”

“Didn’t you suffer, too?” I couldn’t resist calling her out. I knew I wasn’t the only one she was making uncomfortable. “Why are you here?”

The counselor started to chide me about directly addressing others, but the woman waved her off. “That’s okay, it’s no big deal. I worked at Riverside Mall last Christmas. I was on my way in when she showed up, and I watched from the parking lot.”

Her speech slowed down, gradually taking on this dreamy quality as she continued, her eyes drifting shut while she spoke. “She smashed in all the exits, one by one, and just stood there looking down through that big glass ceiling, watching all the people scurry around like ants at her feet.”

She swallowed, and let a long breath escape her before opening her eyes. “One slow, deliberate step after another, she crushed every single inch of the mall flat under her boots. I can still hear her echoing little moans and sighs with all crunches and screams under her heel. Like, almost a thousand people, including almost everyone I worked with. Not a single survivor. Just a bunch of gooey smears under her feet.”

The room was quiet for a long moment after that. Eventually the man who’d lost his wife broke the silence. “You don’t seem too broken up about all that.”

She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, taking a deep breath before she said anything. “I kind of hated that place anyhow. They’re going to transfer me to a new store in the suburbs, but I have to do at least three sessions before HR lets me come back to work.”

“A thousand people are dead and you just shrug?” His fists were clenched as he leaned forward. I shifted away from him in my seat, just as a reflex.

“It’s happened before and it’s going to happen again. I told you, you’re like ants to her. Just gotta stay out of her way and try not to get stepped on.”

He was furious, and she clearly didn’t care. The counselor tried to step in before he exploded. “Look, there are many ways that we all process shock, trauma, and grief. We aren’t here to judge one another’s attitudes or coping mechanisms. Everyone here’s been through unbelievable disasters, but by getting these thoughts and feelings out into the open, we can start to work through them, okay?”

There was an uneasy calm for another moment before the counselor turned to the college kid sitting next to her. “Zack, are you ready to share your experience?”

The college kid one seat over from the counselor hadn’t looked up from the floor until now, and that only lasted a moment before his eyes dropped down. “She killed my parents.”

Another silence took over the room until the counselor started to offer her condolences, and she was almost interrupted by the woman to my right. “Yeah, but what happened? That’s why we’re all here, right? To share our stories?”

“Erica, it’s not appropriate to directly address each other here.” The counselor looked a little exasperated. I think we all were getting that way. “We’re here to talk about ourselves, not one another. If Zack is willing to share, he will.”

“She picked up our car.” He was still looking at the floor, and his voice was low and even while he slowly started to tell his story.

“I’d never heard my parents like that, just all the screaming while she just ripped the doors off with her finger and then shook the car until we all fell out on top of some tall building. My dad found the roof access door but it was locked, and I just sat there watching our Ford Explorer get crumpled up like a ball of foil in her fist.”

He shook his head a little and scratched at his forehead during the pause. “There wasn’t anywhere for us to hide. She tossed our car over her shoulder and plucked up Mom and Dad, one in each hand, pinched between her fingertips. She gave me ten seconds to pick which one of them she was going to crush, or she’d smash them both.”

“Jesus.” I couldn’t keep it in. I thought I’d wanted to be there, but the things these people had been through were unimaginable. Was I the lucky one? She’d killed them by accident, collateral damage, but at least they hadn’t suffered. Nothing like this.

“She made me pick, and then she killed them both anyway.”

“Who’d you pick, though?” Erica was literally on the edge of her seat. Nobody had been looking at her, not in the middle of such a wrenching story.

“My mom. So the last thing my dad ever got to see was his own son choosing for him to die.” There were tears in his eyes. He was starting to shake.

“And how did they die? Did she smash them both, or did she keep her promise?” There was an intensity and eagerness in her questions that made my skin crawl. Something was definitely wrong with this girl.

“Dad got smeared between her fingers. She did it slowly, and made me and Mom watch. I was running towards her as she started to reach out to put Mom back on the building, but before she got to the edge, she just dropped her. I watched her fall, all two hundred feet. I saw her hit…”

“What the hell’s your problem?” The man who’d lost his wife popped up out of his chair. He got louder as he went on. “You’re sick, lady. You’re fucking sick, and I want you gone.”

“Everyone, please!” The counselor stood up as well, doing her best to call for calm. “Let’s all take a minute, maybe we should have a five minute break.”

Erica stood up, too. Slowly, sighing as she rose and then rolling her eyes. The man continued to berate her, up until the moment she raised her hand and snapped her fingers. With a flash of light, he was gone, and the room was abruptly silent. She walked across the room to where he’d stood, as calm and casual as could be, and I barely had the chance to catch a glimpse of his suddenly inch-tall form before she covered him with her worn out ballet flat, utterly crushing him with a slow, firm, businesslike twist of her toes.

The rest of us barely had time to shriek or run or react. She cast her eyes around the room, shrinking us all one by one. Snap. Snap. Snap. I saw each flash, and then her eyes fell on me.

I knew what was coming, and staring back at her, there was just nothing in her eyes. If anything, she was mildly annoyed, annoyed that she was about to shrink me, to take away my entire life with a snap of her fingers. The light was blinding, and my entire body felt frozen, chilled all the way through.

If I hadn’t seen what had happened to the others I would have been baffled, laying on my back on the cold, smooth surface of the folding chair I’d been sitting on. Their voices were deafening, but I could still make out the words as I laid there, shivering and stunned.

“This isn’t going to work.” The counselor stood, arms folded across her chest as she watched Colossa examine the underside of her shoe, then stomp down on the tiny grandmother, dragging her foot back and leaving behind a tiny smear.

“I think it was a good start.” She sighed a little as the college kid took off running. It was easy for her to just knock him over with the side of her foot, and she took her time teasing him, hovering her toes over his tiny body while she talked.

“You don’t know how much work it is to set these up! And even beyond all of that, every time I step out of line for you it puts us both at risk. You have to be able to keep yourself under control.”

She slapped her shoe down, then pivoted on her heel to get a look at the half-broken, writhing thing she’d stepped on. With a little snort and a smirk she stepped down harder, letting out a long breath as she finished him off.

“It’s just so fucking hot, watching them tremble and cry. Hearing them talk about me like that, knowing what I’ve done to them. Half the time I don’t even remember them, but all that agony…”

I could clearly hear her sole peeling away from the carpet as she stepped towards the counselor, grinning as she took the smaller woman’s head in her hands. How hadn’t I seen it before? I’d scrutinized Colossa from every angle, but even when she sat right in front of me, I just couldn’t imagine her as a normal woman walking among us. Take away all the black leather, the cape and mask, and she was still just as powerful, ruthless and cruel. It took seeing her from all the way down here, watching the pleasure radiating from her as she ended lives underfoot, to see her for who she was.

“I haven’t even touched them, and I still dominate their entire lives, fill every one of their sad little thoughts. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Besides, you’re the one who fucked up and used my real name.”

“Oh god, Erica, I’m so sorry.” The counselor’s eyes drifted shut. I could see her quivering in Colossa’s hands.

She seemed on the verge of laughter as she continued, tilting the woman’s face back so that she was forced to stare into her eyes. “So, now that you know that all of this is your fault, don’t you feel silly for running your mouth so much?”

She whimpered a little while she nodded, biting her lower lip while she trembled.

“Don’t you think you should be using that little mouth of yours for something more productive?”

She was already sinking down while she nodded again, letting out a shaky breath as her face slipped out of Colossa’s grasp.

“That’s right. Get down there and lick my shoes clean, little girl.” 

They’d done this before. There was ritual to their movements. My insides lurched at the thought, at the revolting passion in the woman’s eyes as she slumped to the floor and curled up at Colossa… at Erica’s feet, moaning “Yes, Goddess,” while she softly kissed her shoe and stared in awe at it rising above her face.

I don’t know why I just laid there watching the two of them. I could have gotten up, tried to hide. Maybe the change wasn’t permanent. Maybe I could have reached someone, told them about Erica, helped track her down. I could have saved countless lives. Instead I just stared while she played with the woman underfoot, dragging her shoes across her tongue, stepping down on her face and laughing while her plaything twitched and squirmed. Getting up didn’t even occur to me until they paused, Colossa straddling the counselor’s hips while the woman gasped and tried to catch her breath.

“You know there’s one more left, right?” The counselor’s glassy eyes picked me out on my chair. “Should I bring it home for later?”

“I don’t think so.” She turned towards me, and before I could even get to my feet it was already too late. I’d wasted my only chance.

“One of us has to go back to the office and delete all these clients, their insurance records and all that.” I swear I felt the chair rattle and bounce with each of her steps, but it could have been imagined. I’d watched the videos so many times, the sounds of her titanic footfalls were burned into my brain.

She stood over me, completely filling my view. The fluorescent lights overhead shone through her messy hair, nothing like the smooth, inky blackness I’d watched over and over in the clips. Did Colossa wear a wig? The corner of her mouth curled to smirk as she stared down at me, and then she turned around.

“You know what’ll happen if I walk in there. I’d have to shrink that cute little receptionist of yours so I could steal her chair.”

I stumbled, slipping on the stainless steel while the curves of her frayed skinny jeans crashed down towards me, blocking out the light, overwhelming everything. I didn’t know if I was even screaming, there was just pressure and heat, smashing down on me, crushing the air from my lungs. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, but I could still hear her.

“You know how I get when I sit on people. I’d get distracted, just sliding back and forth on the edge of the chair, knowing she’s under me, knowing she’s suffering…”

The pressure wasn’t enough to break me, not instantly at least. She started to shift, slowly grinding down on me. The denim tore my flesh. Things started to snap and crunch, and I could feel her little moan vibrating through me while her hips slid back. 

“Someone would probably see me, and then I’d have to do the same thing to everyone there. Is that what you want?”

I heard the counselor’s own moans at the thought, so close, so loud, like she’d crawled between Colossa’s legs while my body broke beneath her. They both laughed as she pushed harder the next time, pulverizing my legs and shattering my hips, and I knew it was only seconds before I’d be nothing but a tiny smear on her jeans.