The impassive luster of a fisheye camera lens perused a panicked exodus with dispassionate focus. Its curved vision meandered across asphalt rivers jammed to the brim with automotive refuse. A menagerie of engines designed for haste and transition reluctantly glued bumper to bumper with the sticky grist of gridlock. The discordant symphony of their irritated voices bleating out drowned common decency in a carnivorous anxiety, devouring civil thoughts and leaving bleached, bare instinct. Bashed windows and suspicious red racing stripes speckled rough paintjobs. Concerned faces watched each other with guarded gazes through spiderwebs of glass. Greedily dragging the focus over, a reptilian reporter shouted into a desperately struggling microphone. The scratching hiss of maxed out speakers smothered the performance beneath a veil of incomprehensible static, while a struggling cameraman wobbled under the weight of five digits worth of equipment. Distant thunder rocked the ground and defocused everything with its jarring tremors. Impolite evacuees dashed through the filming area – knocking him onto his side. Liberated from that quivering grasp, the bored lens swiveled up and away to focus on something more interesting.

Stuck at an off-kilter angle, the thousand yard stare of that digital gaze caught the peek of something shuffling between buildings. A colossal cream toned pelt laced up and down with auburn stripes, brightly contrasted in flashes by the vivid violet of frayed cloth. A blistering blue gaze that pierced around the sharp edge of skyscrapers whose artificial aspirations shuddered at the nearness of this fearsome entity. Its every minor motion echoed by an on-screen shudder-shake. They deepened in intensity as that monstrous visage peered curiously down the narrow gap of an alleyway. That sharp cerulean gaze scraping along the earth with its fearsome touch until it settled upon that hindered highway. Mournful cries of entrapped vehicles pulled taut that slender snout. Flaring pink nostrils drank in the uncertainty and the fear of stifled car exhaust and sweating passengers. Glistening ivory jaws stretched across a predatory grin. Original course forgotten, those blue eyes steered toward this new curiosity.

The fumble-tustle-scrape of a plastic on concrete screeched in surprise as the cameraman retrieved his quarry. A flutter of filters slithered across the screen before the footage snapped back to the new sight on the scene; as that striped behemoth of a thylacine sauntered closer. Each quaking, shaking footfall sent a shiver shudder racing through the concrete spires around her. Their myriad glass eyes observing her passage with dread. A thousand reflections of golden hair waterfalls spilling over her shoulders with each stride as she drew nearer – larger in the camera’s view. The focus drifted down through a narrow slice of an alleyway; capturing a dangerous diagonal shot of her pink-padded paw swinging into view and casually compressing a van that had wrapped itself around a lamp post. An impact dazed passenger was half-out the door when manicured toes crumpled the roof with the subtle resistance of soda can. Their blearly expression hardly recognized the crushing calamity until a moment too late. An arm shot up to hopelessly forestall that descent and bent back at an unnatural angle before the rest of that terrified frame followed suit. The distance delayed thoomph that followed shook the camera. Verbally wincing, the view pulled away a moment as a retching gack consumed the audio.

Warily drifting back into focus, the view zoomed in onto the titaness’s face. Her bemused expression painted over with a sneer-splotch of irritation. Defiance by a chest height concrete complex of brick and mortar stalled her advance with its bulk. The narrow alleys on either side would not permit her to sidle through – and the hurdle before her could not be stepped over gracefully. Resting her arms on the top of the building a huff roared from her chops – sending a dusting of loose shingles flying off the roof. Though behind that azure gaze twirled machiavellian gears – swiveling and pivoting before arriving at a sinister destination – mirrored by the return of a sinister smirk. Stepping back a moment, arms the envy of power transformers shot forward – gripping the sides of that slothful brick boulder. A gritted muzzle heave of force rippled down her arms as she bent her body into the motion. For a moment the structure held. Rebar and concrete defied her. A solid foundation chuckled at her attempt. But the bricks lost their composure with a crackle-pop-burst. All along the base of the building explosions of mortar into dust plumes raced along, tracing the shape of each cinderblock. Suddenly the building teetered forward. Its dreadful shadow yawning before the space in front of it. The highway. A suave pan back out showed the dismantling building groan and creak and then suddenly burst along its front. Engineering undone as the mass lunged forward in a semi-solid chunk. Her fingers released the broken barrier – an expression of relief oozing across her features as the structure tumbled forward onto the highway. Walls became floors became ruins – in the process compacting cars into fiberglass steel carpeting. A roaring crackle devoured all sound as the honking chorus quieted – if only for the sudden absence of most of the orchestra.

Hand on hip, the thylacine admired her work before resuming her casual advance. Those manicured paws cut swaths through the misty fog of vaporized drywall and obliterated lives – casually crumpling surviving standouts with their passage. Surveying the destruction she placed her heel down on the sidewalk and arched a foot up. A bemused look painted her face as she compared her shadow-painting appendage to a stranded sport car before stamping down. The whole thing bent around the ball of her foot as she chuckled – a bassy rumble of amusement. Contented but a moment, she ground the crumpled quarry along the road, scattering a ballet of sparks every which way. Overburdened tires burst in a climatic crescendo – sending hub-caps into the audience with deadly force. Her toes curled around the wreckage – taking a bow at the havoc wrought cries for an encore. The act closed with the automotive dropping down to be ground out like a spent cigarette.

Savoring the applause, those blue eye scanned the crowd. Her expression was a mask of satisfaction and the trolley length of her striped tail swish-swooshed behind her blissfully. That rose-quartz nose sucked long inhale down – savoring the disaster dust and iron-twinge of dread in the air. Coppery and rich. Taut cloth on her front pulled tighter – woefully outstretched and frayed as it was – under the burden of her chest swelling breath. Holding it in for a moment she exhaled with relish – before looking down and scanning her audience for the next volunteer. Sapphire stare flickering from fleeing target to stationary rube, it came to rest directly on the camera. The very force of her attention making the cameraman jump as that tell-tale grin affirmed her decision.

The pap-slap of flat feet on concrete sounded as the view swiveled to the side to spy the tail of the reporter vanishing from sight. A bleeped expletive jarred the audio feed as the thunder-quake of a footstep drawing near rattled everything. Jostle-tumbling – flashes of buildings, lapine fingers and suddenly the ground swam on-screen. Huffing puffing scamper. Everything in a jumbled mess of color as the recorder swung side to side. Heaving, panting. An I-promise-to-work-out-more sprint bounced the camera around before it settled atop a set of shoulders – framing towering legs casually advancing behind. Never taller than her knees – each step swallowed up meters and meters the sprinter covered. The booming-thud throwing gravel and splintering shrubbery into organic shrapnel with each heavy, terrain flattening stride. Flashes of pink sole and cream toes retreated before swooshing closer like an oblong pendulum as a thunder-chuckle of mirth rolled down overhead.

Woody trees peeled back, surrendering to the rise of asphalt as heaving lungs winced their every motion into a diligent microphone. The titaness seemed to stop – dust settling around her heel. A stillness filled the air as an over the shoulder glance slowed the struggle forward. Relief did not come though – as another flurry of obnoxious bleats from censored content cut across the audio. The cause was the sharp stab of that knee and then a thigh into the view of that camera. A glittering grin and a skyline of stripes accompanied a cataclysmic kneeling. Those impossible limbs shifted – and an outstretched arm directed a palm towards the lens ; plunging the footage in abyssal twilight –

- as the arm shot overhead. Like a derailed train, it whooshed by – stripes flickering and roaring past. The camera lagged a moment before following the path cautiously. Ahead was the reporter – dead springing as that terrible shadow tumbled across the fleeing frame. That palm drifted just above, before a digit like a conductor’s baton swung up. It hovered a moment – surmising with great precision the exact moment when to come down. A padded digit descended – swallowing up that figure with a muffled shriek and flattening it gingerly. Fisheye lensing rushed up to that pinned figure, as tired, cautious steps brought the scene into better focus. Squirming, pleading, hissing for mercy – that pathetic mewling as shushed as a tremendous snout swooped down. Sapphire gaze tracing down the length of that muzzle, the titaness perused the scene before parting her chops. Her proposal was deafening – bone rattling tone that promptly suggested,


“I’m ready for my close up,”

---

An absolutely startling fan piece by none other than  KCLT for the on going #MacroMonday Series.

If you enjoy this sort of content, I encourage you to visit KCLT’s page and give him a watch.

If you want to see more #MacroMonday – you can start here at Part One

The character Evelyn Lacine is ©  Fauxlacine
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