I walked over to the Rose house, my sneakers crunching on the gravel. I headed straight for the backyard, where the massive oak bed sat like a wooden fortress. Amelia was sitting there, her back against the headboard, staring up at the clouds with those brilliant sapphire eyes. She looked like a Greek goddess who had accidentally wandered into a suburban cul-de-sac.
“Hi,” I called out, my voice sounding small in the vast open space of the yard.
She looked down, a smile breaking across her face that made the whole day feel brighter. “Hi, Richard.”
“Since the monsters are taking a vacation, I thought maybe we should too. Would you like to hang out for the whole day? Like how we used to?”
“I would love that,” she said, her voice a warm, vibrating hum. “What should we do first?”
“How about we go hiking?” I suggested. “It’s like our old park trips, but we don't need the bikes. Just us and the woods.”
“Deal,” she chirped. “But since your legs are much shorter than mine now, I’m carrying you until we get to the deep forest. Hop on.”
I stepped into her palm. Her skin felt like soft, warm velvet, but the muscles beneath—honed by the DGX transformation—were as solid as granite. She lifted me up, the world falling away beneath me as I rose 50 feet into the air. She tucked me against her shoulder, and we set off. Each of her strides covered half a block, her sneakers hitting the pavement with a rhythmic thud-thud that I could feel in my own chest.
As we entered the treeline of the Arizona forest, the familiar scent of pine and damp volcanic earth enveloped us. We started talking, falling back into the easy rhythm of our friendship. I looked down at the rocks near the creek where she had spent those first few lonely nights. I could still see the faint outlines in the stone where she had carved her history assignments using a sharpened branch.
“I remember when you lived here,” I said softly.
She nodded, her immense head moving slowly. “I remember the waterfall. It helped me sleep when the world felt too big... or when I felt too big for the world. But Richard, there’s something deeper in the woods I never showed you. I found it while you were at school.”
We headed deeper into the ancient part of the forest, where the trees were thick and the sunlight only hit the ground in golden needles. Eventually, we broke through a thicket of ferns into a hidden grotto that looked like it belonged in a high-fantasy movie.
It was a vision of true nature. A massive waterfall thundered down a jagged rock face, crashing into a lake that defied logic. The bottom of the lake was carpeted in rare, glowing blue crystals. They pulsed with a soft, bioluminescent light, turning the entire body of water into a pool of liquid sapphire. An ancient stone bridge, thick with emerald moss, arched over the base of the falls like a giant’s spine.
“Hang on tight,” Amelia warned. I gripped the collar of her black shirt. The fabric was heavy and warm, smelling like her favorite vanilla shampoo. I felt the powerful heave of her shoulders as she began to scale the rock face beside the falls. She didn't use ropes or gear; she simply dug her fingers into the stone, her 50-foot strength making the vertical climb look as easy as walking up a flight of stairs.
The mist from the waterfall sprayed my face, cool and refreshing, as we rose higher and higher. When we finally reached the flat plateau at the summit, she set me down on a smooth shelf of granite.
“Look,” she whispered.
The view was an amazing masterpiece. From this height, the entire town was laid out like a miniature toy set. I could see the tiny grid of streets, the flickering lights of the Vanguard Pharmacy, and the distant roof of my own garage. But the sky was the real show.
The sun was beginning its final descent. The sky was a complex gradient: a deep, bruised purple at the very top, bleeding into a pale lavender, then a fiery, electric orange, and finally a shimmering lemon-yellow where the sun touched the horizon. The clouds were dark indigo on top and hot pink on the bottom, looking like heaps of cotton candy set on fire. The giant pines below were silhouetted against the glow, their needles looking like fine black lace.
We stood there in silence for a long time, the only sound the distant roar of the water and the wind whistling through the pines.
“Pretty, right?” Amelia asked, her voice barely a whisper, yet it filled the air around me.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I said, and I meant it. In that moment, the threat of the Roberts family felt miles away. She wasn't a giant hero or a target; she was just Amelia. My brown eyes met her bright blue ones, and for a second, the scale didn't matter.
“Thanks for showing me this,” I added.
She looked at me, the sunset reflecting in her sapphire eyes. “Thanks for not being afraid to climb up here with me.”
As the last sliver of the sun vanished, turning the sky to a deep, velvety black, Amelia told me to brace myself. She didn't want to climb back down; she wanted to fly. She gathered me up against her chest, her arms forming a protective cage of warmth, and she leapt.
For a second, we were weightless, suspended between the stars and the earth. Then, gravity took hold. We hit the ground with a solid thud that echoed through the valley. The impact was so massive that several dead pine trees nearby simply gave up and collapsed, their trunks snapping like toothpicks. The ground groaned under our weight, but Amelia’s legs absorbed the shock perfectly.
She walked us back through the dark woods, her internal compass guiding her straight to our neighborhood. When we reached my porch, she knelt down, the movement as graceful as a cat, and set me back on the wooden steps.
“Goodnight, Richard,” she said, her voice a gentle rumble that vibrated through the floorboards.
“Goodnight, Amelia. This was the best date—giant or otherwise—I’ve ever been on.”
She smiled, a flash of white teeth in the moonlight, and turned to head back to her oak bed at the Rose estate. I watched her go, knowing that the peace wouldn't last. Friday was coming. The full moon was coming. And I had a feeling the "Shadow" was watching us from the dark, waiting for his moment to strike with the "Big One."