I ran as quickly as I could through the bright blue hallway.  Up ahead I could see the path split.  I went left without thinking about it.  I had to move quickly as I was effectively on a constantly moving treadmill.  Except in this case falling off would hurt a lot.  

As I made another turn, this time through a path that felt like it was going backwards I sighed in relief as the movement of the ground also started turning in that direction.   Apparently I had gotten it right as Melanie would've just let me find out the hard way if I hadn't.  I looked up and saw her face looking down through a wall of clear plastic.

Life under Melanie was brutal.  There was no other way to describe it.  Gentle teacher she might be to her friends and family but I was some sort of pet or toy in her eyes and she was intent on training me to show off to her friends.  And unfortunately for me she fell firmly in the stick is better than the carrot school of thought.

Hence right now.  She had one of those ball mazes.  This one in an actual ball.  She'd cut two tiny holes in plastic surrounding it.  One at the entrance.  One at the exit.  Just big enough to fit me through.   Her goal was for me to be able to do the whole maze out of memory and quickly so she could show her friends how smart and well trained her little pet was.  

The thing being it all looked the same really.  It was far too easy to accidently make a wrong turn and she punished me every time I failed.  At least today she didn't have the ball in here with me.  Those were the worst.  Of course making a wrong turn would eventually lead to me falling down and being battered around as she continued moving the ball but at least I wouldn't also be dealing with the threat of a metal ball also ramming into me today.

As I made a right turn I figured I had to be nearing the end of the maze if I recalled correctly.  I then turned left down another path and then right.   And into a dead end.  I tried to turn around but it was too late.  Melanie had already seen I'd made a wrong turn and started spinning the ball faster so as I turned back the maze dipped and hall wall became a floor as I went tumbling down it.  

It then started twisting more as Melanie "guided" me through the maze by sending me tumbling through it.  Fortunately I had messed up close to the end and was only sent flying down a few paths and corners and thus hitting only a few walls before being deposited at the finish point.  The ball then flipped over completely and I fell a short distance to the plastic near the hole she had cut.  

I climbed out of the hole and fell a few feet into the palm of her left hand as she lifted the ball away and put it up onto a shelf.  "Close.  But not good enough.  You're going to have to do it while with the metal BB later.   It'll be more exciting for everyone that way."

It'd been almost two weeks since Melanie had found me.  I wasn't sure how to escape.  She was just as cautious as Samantha but where Sam sought to protect me, Melanie was making sure that I wouldn't escape.  If I wasn't in one of her training sessions I was kept in a jewlery box that I shared with at least a few pairs of earrings and one regular ring.

Melanie had a husband and two kids that she kept my existence secret from.  Which meant on some days I didn't see her at all.   Since she obviously intended to show me off to someone eventually my plan was to survive until she did so.  She clearly didn't realize I was Brenda's brother and hopefully once that was discovered this ordeal would end.

The problem of course being how long it would be until that happened.  Melanie's training was sporadic at best and to add to it all she clearly had plenty of ideas on what to do.  In addition to the labyrinth ball she'd also been trying to teach me to dive into a wine glass like a professional diver.  Except alcohol is terrible to leap into.  Then there was mountain climbing.  In this case a mountain of clothes which she made more interesting by shaking them around and occasionally grabbing something and tossing it into the air.  Or the terrarium.  The most horrifying of her little games.  Where I crossed from one side to the other while trying not to be noticed by a snake bigger than Godzilla.  I was actually probably too small to even get it's interest.  After all it ate things the size of mice but something that huge could snuff me out without even realizing it. 

One time Melanie had decided to make it more interesting.  Like all of her interesting ideas it involved making things far more dangerous.  In this case she decided to feed her snake while I was making the journey.  So down comes a mouse and suddenly I have two kaiju having a brief battle to the death while I'm running for my life.  And Melanie just gigggles about it all.  

While thinking about things I'd stopped paying attention to where Melanie was going.  I'd assumed she was going to return me to the jewelery box like she usually did.  Instead as I looked down I found myself staring at a clear prison with a drawing of a gun firing on the side of it.  Someone's sense of a humorous shot glass.  Melanie tilted her hand and I slid down it until I hit the bottom and then she lifted it up.

Not even looking at me I watched Melanie wander out of what  was apparently her kitchen.  The next 20 minutes were just me sitting at the bottom of my glass prison before I finally watched her return.  Except she wasn't alone.  Next to her was a shorter woman.  Probably in her early thirties with wavy red hair.  From the brown roots I figured she dyed it.  I guessed her to be 5' or so although as with most of the titans I now dealt with it was hard to be sure.  She was wearing a brown tank top that did little to hide her rather impressive chest.  

"So what is it you wanted to show me Mel?"  In response to the newcomers question Melanie just smiled widely and pointed at the shot glass. The red haired titan then advanced towards me and I fell to my knees as her fingers wrapped completely around my prison lifting me into the sky once more.  I could see her chest through the glass below me and looking up as the glass stopped moving I could see a giant brown eye staring at me, opening wider as she realized what she was looking at.

"Holy fucking shit!"