I left the coffee shop without incident and stood against the building finishing my cup. It was a warm sunny day and there was a gentle breeze blowing. The city streets were busy with hundreds of people rushing to here and there. Shoppers, high powered business people, bums, your average Joe. All going somewhere and nowhere.
And I'm a God now, I smirked. Laughing slightly, I tossed my empty cup into the trash next to me and put my hands into my hoodie, walking. Watching. Observing.
After a while, I hit a bus stop where two teenaged girls were sitting chatting eagerly with each other. They eyed my scruffy face and raised hood in suspician, then went back to their teen girl chatter. So and so was with so and so, did you hear? Oh my God, no way! They totally hooked up!
I chuckled slightly, and let them be. Do you know what I could do to you? Of course not. You couldn't even imagine anything outside of your little teenage girl world. Years from now all of this will be meaningless.
The itch to use the ring was growing by the second. As the bus arrived I boarded, tossing the driver my five bucks in change, and took a seat at the back. The two teens got on behind me, but I ignored them. I was looking for more interesting subjects to experiment with.
I found something I liked.
A nice looking arab girl sat on the seat across from me. About my age, brown skinned, very fine and attractive lines to her face. She wore a pink turtleneck, blue jeans, and a hijab. She wore ornate gold bracelets. Striking brown eyes with long lashes. College girl, possibly? Who knew. She was lean and fit, with protruding breasts and a nice figure. She caught me staring and blinked her long lashes once or twice, raising her thin eyebrows in alarm and looking away with a concerned expression. She stared straight ahead and purposely refused to make eye contact, although I made it obvious I was staring at her.
When the bus stopped, she got up quickly with a bag that had been sitting beside her and followed the line out the door. I chuckled slightly, eager, and waited until everybody was off before I rose.
The pink turtleneck was easy to find in a crowd, and I saw her leave the bus station and head for a train platform by herself, clutching her bag nervously. Halfway across the platform she turned back and gasped as she saw me following her. She headed for some stairs beside a pillar, panicking, and clopped up in her runners.
I followed her casually, and found myself at the top staring at a pedestrian walkway. It was one of those ones that had steel cage over top of it, and it was some fifty feet to cross. The poor girl paused some ten feet away as I reached the top and shivered meekly, clutching her bag.
"I-I don't want any trouble!" She called, voice lightly accented but in excellent English. She bowed submissively and seemed to shrink into herself, slouching down slightly. "Please!"
"Well, I don't want any either." I shrugged.
"Why are you following me? I saw you eyeballing me!" She pointed accusingly. "What do you want?" Her fear was turning to self-protective anger.
"I was just going this way." I lied.
"No! You are following me!" She pointed again, face contorting into annoyance, and began to back away. "Please, just leave me alone!"
"Okay!" I raised my hands in the universal gesture of backing off, and stood quietly, watching her.
"Stop staring at me!" She pointed harder, grimacing. "Go away! You're creepy!"
"Yeah, that's fair." I smiled, laughing and leaning against the guardrail. This seemed to unnerve her further and she gulped loudly, licking her lips.
"I-I don't have any money!" She spat.
I stared at her bracelets and she followed my gaze, looking down and cringing. "Fine! Fine!" She cried, removing her bracelets and throwing them in front of me with a clatter. "You want something, here! Now, please!" She was almost crying in desperation. "Please just let me go!"
"It's okay." I said softly. I walked in and picked up her bracelets. I collected them and held them out, nodding. " These are yours. I'm just looking for a friend."
The girl blinked in utter exasperation and her face screwed up into confusion. "A friend?!" She said in exhausted disbelief. "Are you mad?! Do you stalk potential friends? Is that what you do?"
"I guess so." I shrugged. "Just take your things back."
"No way!" She shook her head, clutching her bag and backing up. "Uh-uh! I'm not falling for that! I'm not stupid!"
I smiled warmly and nodded. "Well, I guess I could just make you."
"What?" The girl's dark face seemed to pale slightly. She stopped in midstep and gulped. "No, wait..."
"I wish you'd walk up and take your bracelets." I said out loud, enough that she could hear.
She stared at me in confusion and suddenly gasped as she began jerkily stepping forward. "Whoa! What the heck?" She seemed to fight her own movements and broke into a terrified sweat as she flailed and tried to resist her own legs moving. It was a strange sight. "No! No! No!" She cried, coming closer and closer until we were face to face. The wish completed, she screamed and broke into a run across the bridge, dropping her bag in terror.
"No, no, I wish you'd come back!" I laughed.
The girl stopped all at once near the other side of the bridge and reeled around against her will. Again, she fought and resisted every single muscle movement, awkwardly pulling against her legs, teeth bared, struggling with an intensity born of absolute terror. "No!" She cried, breaking into tears. "What is this?! What are you doing to me?!" Halfway back to me, she began pleading softly and bawling. "Please, stop, sir! Please! Let me go!"
"I just want you to take your stuff back. I wish for you to come stand in front of me and stay put." I shrugged again, grinning as she helplessly approached me, whimpering. Locked in my wish, she couldn't move away. She just stood and stared into my eyes with tears in hers, face scrunched up and horrified. She literally couldn't move until I told her to, standing and swaying in perfect physical obedience.
"I wish you'd hold out your hands." I commanded. The girl's eyes widened in fresh horror as she involuntarily raised her palms up and waited.
"Good." I stared at her terrified and agonized face. I held out my hand with her bracelets and dropped them into her palm gently. "Here you go. I wish you'd take these." She closed her hands and stiffly held her bracelets in her fingers. Her breathing had become heavy and sweat was falling across her smooth brown face.
"Please..." She whimpered, trying to move, trying to run, trying to do anything. Her body was locked in place, unable to do anything. Experimentally, I walked backward and smiled in amazement as she cried and was forced to follow my last order, standing in front of me as I had wished.
I turned around, walked farther down the walkway, and giggled as she followed me again, still holding her hands outstretched and totally helpless.
"No!" She whimpered, on the verge of completely breaking down. "No, please! I don't know how you're doing this, but please, let me go! I don't want to do this! Please!"
Feeling absolute power at my command, I smirked at her playfully. "I wish you'd be able to move on your own again."
She gasped, feeling the release, and stumbled backward, hitting the cement with a rough thud and staring up at me in absolute terror. "O-Okay!" She raised her trembling hands. "I won't tell anybody! Please, I swear! I swear! Just let me go!"
"No... wait..." I whispered softly, staring into her terrified dark eyes. A wicked idea hit me and I grinned deviously. "I want you to come with me. I want to keep playing with you."
"W-What?" She cried, gasping. She scooted backwards on her ass and hit the walkway. "No, please! Leave me be! Please!"
"No, no..." I whispered softly, quickly looking around to see if anybody else was watching. They weren't. I stared back at the heavily breathing sweating terrified mess that was this poor innocent muslim student, and I shrugged. "I wish for you to shrink to the size of a bug."
"What?!" She cried in terror, gasping out loud as sure enough she began to shrink in size. All of her, quickly and evenly, clothes and all. She let out a final gutteral scream that raised in pitch and grew quieter as she stared at the world growing massive around her. Finally, the screaming reduced to a final pathetic whimper and trailed off as she seemed to vanish from view. Carefully, I kneeled down and found a tiny spec in a distinctive pink turtleneck. I watched the spec start running away from me. I could just make out a female shape in my vision, a tiny human nothing reduced to the size of an ant before my eyes.
Carefully, I put my hand down in front of the fleeing dot and laughed as it stopped dead in its tracks. I watched to tiny arms raise to cover a tiny mouth in horror. I couldn't make out her expression. She fell to her knees and sat trembling. Carefully, I picked up the ant sized woman in my other hand, grasping her between the very tips of my thumb and index finger. I watched her scream and struggle, kicking and flailing violently. I couldn't even hear her at this size! I raised her to my ear and heard only the faintest of high pitched squeaks. I dropped her into my other hand and slowly stood up. She stood in the middle of my palm, vast to her, and stared up at me. I raised her to my eye level and saw a helpless, tiny, petrified woman. She was sobbing. Her face was locked into devastated anguish. She began to plead and beg, I could see her arms flailing, but I couldn't hear a word.
I laughed maniacally and watched her fall to her knees and crawl forward, hands held together in prayer, pleading with me. Begging. She fell forward in defeat and I could feel tiny droplets of water fall on the skin of my hand. Oh, this was so much fun!
I walked over to the her bag, picking it up while still holding the tiny bug sized arab girl in an outstretched palm, and peeked inside. School books, texts. I laughed and tossed them over the bridge. She wouldn't be needing those.
"I wish you were in a little jar." I whispered to my hand, and jumped slightly as a tiny glass jar with a cork stopper appeared around the girl, tipping over in my hand. I carefully pocketed it and laughed as I walked home.