Elia by DannTheMuse

The memory was still fresh in Daniel’s mind; he could smell it as if it was a freshly baked cherry pie sitting on his grandmother's window; just waiting to be enjoyed with a glass of milk.

He and Elia had dated for a brief period. Dan had been eyeing her for years; ever since they first met, she was his best friend’s girlfriend. Elia was a stunning specimen of a woman, she was tall around 5 '10, with an athletic build, soft white skin and curly blond hair. Not dirty blond or strawberry blond, pure white blond like the fine spider’s silk. Her skin was warm and her smile could take the breath out of even the hardest man.

She had been dating Matt when they first laid eyes on one another; Dan was smitten by Elia’s charisma and beauty while Elia was attracted to Dan’s natural charm and sarcastic wit. The two easily became close friends, so it was no surprise that when Elia and Matt were a couple despite Matt’s protests, Dan moved in for the kill.

Unfortunately, not every story gets a fairy tale ending and for Dan and Elia this was most definitely the case. Dan wanted to move quickly; he wanted her for his wife, while Elia was in no hurry to tie herself down.

So she left.

Without as much as an explanation she was gone. Dan tried to locate her; he called all of her friends and phoned everyone he thought might know where she was. She never answered his emails or replied to his messages. Disheartened, Dan eventually moved on.

During a conversation with a close friend of hers nearly three years later, Dan described his time with Elia as heavenly. They laughed together, cried together, shared secrets together. She was his angel, his Aphrodite the best adventure he’d ever had. Life with Elia was far more spontaneous and unpredictable than Dan ever knew beforehand. Nothing was planned, everything felt reckless and irresponsible, together they truly were the best, most amazing destructive couple for one another there could ever be. But Dan didn’t have the foresight to see it that way; one never did when their hormones took command over their better judgment.
Natalie explained that Elia was in conflict, she wanted so much more out of life than she felt she was getting and that her disappearance hadn’t been Dan’s fault, he had been nothing more than a casualty. A relationship was something she was afraid of, it was something that would tie her down. Elia wanted to enjoy life; she wanted to see the world and didn’t believe she could do that if she had someone else to worry about, someone to grow attached to whose needs and desires she would have to take into consideration.


But the sands of time trickled on and soon Dan was forced to do as all must do, accept what had happened and move on. Dan was going steady with a wonderful woman with whom he was very much in love with. She was his world now; they had everything he had with Elia and more. It was as if their souls were connected.

Dan felt no regret about the decisions he had made in the past, but there was still something in the back of his mind; part of him that needed closure. You see, Elia had never explained anything to Dan and other than what he had been told by Natalie, he was completely clueless as to why she left. The last time they had spoken was nearly four years ago and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction, but still in the back of his mind lay the tiny connecting threads to his past, refusing to let him forget, refusing to give him peace.

Dan had everything he could ever want; a good job, a beautiful girlfriend who would soon be his wife, food on the table and a roof over his head. Why then was he so intent on meeting with Elia, why was he so unwilling to let her go?

Dan decided that in order to get on with his life he needed closure. If he really wanted to be happy with his life and move on he had to speak to Elia. She would be his closure, the book end to the previous chapter and the doorway to a brand new beginning. Dan had to have closure and against Natalie’s advice Dan decided to seek out Elia and corner her.


“I love you, ok? You know that. I’ll see you when I get back.” Dan ran his fingers through her light brown hair and looked deeply into her baby blue eyes. Kari smiled and hugged him tightly, the hug of true love the sort hug you give someone that you don’t ever want to let go of. And Dan hugged her back, he really did love her.

“I’ll see you later then.” Kari said brushing Dan’s unkempt scraggly brown curls from obstructing his eyes.
It took Dan the better part of two months to track Elia down; she was living in a small town north of where they both grew up. He explained to his Kari that he was going to visit an old friend, hopped in his car and drove off to confront his past.

The drive was quiet, the radio played song after song but Dan’s attention was elsewhere. What would Elia say when she saw him? What would she do? What would her explanation be? She had caused him so much pain, so much hurt. He wanted to corner her and ask her exactly what caused her to act like she had.

Dan’s green Dodge Neon came to a stop at the address he had hastily written down. He had decided to confront her in a public place, according to the private investigator he had hired. She worked at a Local Movie Store.

A public place was safer; he would meet her and ask her out for coffee perhaps. There he would catch up with her, they would talk and then he would run his questions by her.

Dan stepped out of his car and placed two quarters in the parking meter. He made his way towards the movie store. ‘Busters BlockBuster’ was the name of the rental store, the sign was bright pink and red and there were lights along the side. Dan looked at the various posters and signs before pressing his hand to the door and entering the movie store.

It was relatively empty and quiet. Save for the small chime made by the opening door. Dan looked to the empty counter. A voice spoke from what seemed like a different room.

“I’ll be right there!”

The voice was ghostly familiar, for a second it almost seemed like he’d gone back in time to years long gone. It was her voice alright; it had not changed a bit.

Dan moved along the side wall looking at all the different movie titles. Waiting for Elia to come out, he was minding his own business when he noticed out of the corner of his eyes a bright flash. He looked over to the front window in time to see a blinking green light rushing towards him. Dan had only time to cover his face with his hand before the light completely overcame him.


“Nobody here, that’s strange? “ The same familiar voice broke Dan from his coma-like state only now loud and alien with a deep echoing resonance. The voice made his ears scream with pain and his head throb.

Slowly Dan stood and rubbed his eyes. How long had he been out for was a mystery to him.

“Hello?”Her booming voice spoke once more. Dan covered his ears and looked around frantically for the source and as he did began to notice his surroundings.

Above him sat monolithic shelves each holding apartment building sized tombs; large flat rectangles the size of smaller buildings that stretched into the sky far beyond his line of sight. Around him a labyrinth of bumpy giant fibbers stretching forth like an endless expanse leading to countless other monolithic shelves each big enough to hold entire cities. There was no way he was still in the Movie store, or at least he thought.

“Hello, is anybody there?” Dan screamed out as he began to look around for someone, anyone. “Excuse me, I need help, I’m not sure what happened or where I am.”


“Swear I heard the door chime.” This time the gargantuan voice rang out in tandem with an earthquake so intense it fell Dan to his knees. His eyes hunted until they found the source of the voice and when they did his mouth fell agape, his eyes nearly falling out of their sockets.

Before him stood a complete unfathomable titan of a being, a being whose size was so difficult for Dan to comprehend that even looking directly at it didn’t offer any immediate answer as to what he was looking at. It took Dan far too long to begin to take it in, giving the terrifying creature more than enough time to close the gap between them easily.

It was a human being or at least it had the vague basic outline of one, only many miles taller and wider than any human being had a right to be! A being whose size was so incomprehensible, so large and intense, it could not be put into words.

Dan stood in sheer terror at the sight before him. The being wore black shoes with pink soles and pink laces. Black jeans covered the mammoth expanse of the beings legs and stretched up miles until being cut off by a black and pink striped sweatshirt. The colossal arms of what he now saw as a woman moved as she walked in his general direction. It was awe inspiring to see how quickly something so large could move. Her fingers alone looked to be the size of redwoods, her hands like a stadium field. Dan strained his eyes and looked up; she had long curly blond hair and pale white skin, but everything else was a distant blur.

“Elia?” Dan mouthed in utter shock. He didn’t know how he knew it was her, he just did, with absolute certainty, this was Elia.


“Eh, oh well.” She spoke once more as the enormous black shoes stopped in front of Dan sending an impact tremor that took him off his feet once more.

Dan felt dwarfed by the shoes of this goddess, his mind refused to believe what his eyes were seeing. Just a moment ago he was normal and everything was fine, now suddenly he sees a green light and he is looking at everything through the eyes of a gnat!

“Elia, hey um…Elia, can you hear me? Elia, look down here!” Dan whispered softly and then began to scream. Knowing there was little chance he would be heard, he began to wave his arms above his head and jump up and down. He had to get her help, he didn’t stand much of a chance at this size and would require human assistance if there was any hope at all of survival. There had to be a doctor somewhere who could help him, but to find out he first had to get to one.

“Elia, help me!” Dan screamed but the goddess above just stood there with her hands on her hips and let out a sigh. It was clear now she had no clue he was there.

“Meh.” Elia looked about the store idly for a moment before looking down. She admired her shoes for a moment but soon noticed a scuff mark on the black suede shoe. “Should have sprung for the repellent spray.” She quipped as she knelt down to quickly rub the mark off.

That is when she noticed something moving.

Dan was overjoyed, she was bending down! He could get her help now! “Yes, yes Elia it’s me I’m here, I need your help! I’ve somehow shrunk I guess and…”

“Phhht” Elia looked at the tiny creature with a calm bored look and blew a tiny puff of smoke in its direction. She just stared at it for a while before reaching out with a long glossy manicured finger; her fingertip hovering over Dan for a second before tapping down on the ground next to him.

“Gah, hey knock it off Elia!” Dan screamed as she pounded the ground with her colossal finger. But more so, Dan focused on Elia’s beautiful face as it finally came into view. Four years later and she was just as stunning as he had remembered her to be. So radiant, so breathtaking, a perfect window to the past untouched by time. He missed her now, wanted to talk to her, wanted to be near her. Just a chance, one chance to talk was all he needed. Once more blinded by his hormones Dan didn’t realize the true danger he was actually in.

“Not a very smart bug eh, you’re supposed to run.” Elia’s gargantuan form arose back into the heavens; her arms once more fell to her hips.

“Oh god….” Dan whispered, now it hit him, now he was starting to let it sink in. He had shrunk, so small in fact that she didn’t recognize him as Dan or even as a human being, he was an insect! “Wait…no…Elia stop for a minute and think!” Dan backed up a few steps, cupping his hands over his mouth in hopes of projecting his voice further.

“Really need to get this place sprayed…bad enough nobody rents movies anymore but ants too.” Elia said flatly as she watched the tiny spec slowly amble around. “Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to take care of you too, Ant-y.”

Dan turned to run the moment he realized what was about to take place. Tears streaked from his eyes, his desperate shouts for mercy had been ignored, and his pleading for her to notice what he was failed. His mind raced back home, to his fiancé Kari sitting at home planning their wedding; her stuff in boxes waiting for him to come and move them to their new house where they would live together. She would never know what happened; she would never understand why he left.


Elia raised her pink soled black shoe over the insect as it attempted to scurry away. There was no look of joy or pleasure, no anger or disgust. This was just a little insect, it didn’t deserve that much of a reaction, this was just business. “Stay still will ya.”

By the time Dan looked back, he could only see the pink soul of her shoe blotting out her emotionless face.

“No, wait Elia stop!” Dan screamed “Not like this, please not like this.”

He ran as fast as he could. A rush of wind from behind caught him as Eli’s foot slammed onto the ground just millimeters from him, so close could feel the rubbery soul of her shoe at the point where her toe section curled up slightly, just enough to buy him one more chance.

The wind gust caused Dan to fly forward a few feet, landing him on his stomach with just enough time to turn around to witness her shoe rise above him once more.

“Lame, seriously how did I miss?” Her voice echoed in his head as her sole blotched out bright neon lights of the movie rental store and her face. The last thing that went through his head, save for the sole of her shoe, was thoughts of his life, the life he had left behind in order to chase this stupid idea. If he had just left well enough alone, if he had just learnt to be happy with what he had.

“I’m sorry Kari.” Dan whispered as he felt every bone in his body snap easily under the tremendous weight of Elia’s shoe, ending him, giving him closure at last…if not in the way he had wanted.

Elia brought her foot down on the insect, by the time her foot was firmly planted on the floor she had forgotten all about the bug, her attention was now on more important things. After all, it was only an insect.

Epilogue

Elia stood leaning against the movie store counter reading her newspaper silently, today had been a slow day and so she decided to amuse herself by keeping up with local events. Her eyes browsed around the page idly until she fell upon one article in particular.

'Cold Fusion experiment placed on hold after freak explosion causes team of Scientists to shrink. Exposure to atomic radiation is to blame. Three of seven have been located; officials are still searching for the rest. Residents complained after seeing a strange green haze. Officials say there is little cause for concern and the strange occurrence is not believed to have affected anyone outside the lab."

Elia shrugged as she continued to read on, her eyes moving onto another article.

'Police end five day search for Missing Toronto man Daniel Smith leaving family and fiancée Kari Huthers desperate for answers. Chief Detective Delilah Hunter says foul play is not suspected. Police are not revealing any new information at this time.'

Elia thought for a moment as she re-read the name. "Dan Smith...that sounds familiar...."

Before Elia could think further on the subject the chime of the door rang and she quickly slipped her newspaper under the desk. Little did she know that the two articles she had read were connected. Perhaps there was a chance she could have put two and two together. Perhaps somewhere inside her mind lay the dormant thought reminding her of the strange bug she had seen days before. But it was less than a passing thought, no more than a tickle in her mind washed away by the simple chime of a bell.

Dan's death would not be remembered, his existence snuffed out by the foot of a beautiful young ghost from his past, his corpse wedged between the treads of Elia's pink sole.

Elia took a step, unknowingly on the corpse of her crushed victim, she had caused him so much pain in life and even in death he was doomed to suffer under her. A humiliating end and the worst part was, she didn't even know it.