That night, Ann was too scared to fall asleep, even after she put Todd back into the shoe, so as the usual alarm went off, she was still wide awake.

When all the prisoners gathered in front of the door, Niel said he had an important announcement to make

He nodded to Rick and Al, and declared: “We all voted, and decided to skip lunch, in order to give all of today’s rations to Ann. We know all too well that it’s still not nearly enough, but we’ll try to help her in any way possible. After all, she basically hasn’t eaten anything for two whole days, so it’s only natural for us to make a few sacrifices for the well being of everyone”.

Most of the heads nodded in approval, but some were clearly annoyed.

Anyway, Ann was so moved that started to tear up. “Thank you so much, i really, really appreciate it. Seriously i don’t know how to thank you…” she repeated in tears.

“Aw come on Ann, we love you so stop making such a fuss over it and give us your hand” Rick said laughing at her.

So all the kids (with Todd was among them) and some of the adults started to unwrap the bars and put them on her awaiting palm.

Ann watched the tinies working, lost in thought. "There is no way i would ever be able to hurt them” she thought, a bit reassured.

Much sooner than she expected, the last bar was unwrapped and placed on her hand.  She muttered “thanks for the food” and downed it in one gulp. I

t was a bit more than usual, but still less than the equivalent of a cookie.

Still, she smiled and exclaimed “Woah, that hit the spot, i’m really full now! Thanks again!”

Dan walked up to Al and whispered to him “I tried to keep track of the bars. I probably didn’t count two or three, but they surely weren’t 60. My estimate would be about 50”.

Al didn’t respond, he just slowly nodded, grimly.

“We can’t go like this. You know it. They know it. SHE knows it” Dan insisted.

“I know it DAMN WELL“ Al growled “if nothing changes, we’ll have to take drastic solutions”

This time, it was Dan’s turn to nod “i just hope we’ll never reach that point”.

The rest of the day proceeded without incidents, with the kids trying to give Ann a shoulder massage, but only ending up tickling her, and all the tinies having a bath in the sink just before bed.

The next morning, they distributed the bars as before. Apparently, this time too only 50 were delivered, which reassured the ones who believed that number would only go down.

Ann tried as much as possible not to think about her situation, but her body had other things in mind.

No matter how much she tried to suppress it, every time a tiny got too near to her, or she smelled one, she would instinctively lick her lips or swallow her saliva.

She couldn’t help it, it was a natural reaction of her body trying to survive. 

Finally, the day came to an end. Ann, exhausted, fell asleep into a sweet, dreamless slumber

.

.

.

.

She woke up in the dark, feeling the need to go to the bathroom.

Ann slowly rose up, while suppressing a yawn, and swung her legs down the bed.

However, before she could react, her left foot connected with something before settling on the floor.

She froze. She couldn’t hear anything, but distinctly felt something under her bare foot, still warm. And wet.

Ann stopped breathing. “It can’t be, it cannot be, please tell me it’s not what i think it is” she prayed in her mind.

Then, trying to make as little sound as possible, she picked up what was she had crushed and quickly got into the bathroom, sealing the door behind her.

After turning on the light, her fears were answered. 

On the palm of her pale hand, there was a tiny mangled corpse, his fresh blood staining her white skin.

Ann fell on her knees, with the tiny still on her hand, and her eyes starting to water, as her mind tried to comprehend what just happened.

"He must have been going to the bathroom too. Or he just needed some fresh air. Then i stepped on him. But it was an accident, i couldn’t have known, i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i’m so, so sorry… “ she thought, drowning in despair, her tears coming down from her cheeks and landing on the little man.

Then she saw the corpse move and utter a low lament. It was alive! She wasn’t a murderer! For a fraction of second, she was overjoyed.

But as her mind rationalized it, she understood that if he wasn’t dead yet, he soon would be. There was no way he could survive, not without an equip of skilled surgeons and a good hospital. Knowing that, she kept sobbing softly.

After crying for a while, she started to think about what to do. He was one of the tinies who preferred to stay alone, and she never even saw him talking to anyone. 

Ann didn’t want anyone to know about this, or they would never see her as before. After all, nobody likes a murderer, even if it wasn’t on purpose.

Then, she needed to get rid of the evidence, one way or another. If she was lucky, nobody would even notice he was gone.

She scanned the room, until her eyes settled on the toilet. That’s it.

She got up and reached it, then she placed her hand directly above it and prepared to drop him in it.

In that moment, she started having second thoughts.

Now this was seriously murder. Not an accident like before, just straight up murder.

Should she wait for him to die on his own? No, the result would be the same after all. He was basically already dead. But, how would it feel to drown in cold water, in the pitch black pipes? She shivered at the thought.

Then, her stomach growled, which brought up a much more sinister idea.

After all, he would disappear in both ways. The only difference was that his body would either be wasted, or become nourishment for her.

“How can i even think about doing something like that? Since when have i become this cynical?” she thought, and started to cry again “What am i doing…”

But the more she thought about it, the more appealing the idea got. She felt her mouth salivating at the thought of food.

Then, taking big, slow breaths, she tried calming down. It wasn’t the time to be sentimental. She was starving, and there was edible matter, right onto her hand. These were facts.

Finally, she decided. She would eat him.

But how? She didn’t exactly like the idea of swallowing a living being whole.

Then, she needed to find a way to kill him first, possibly painlessly.

She slowly set him on the floor, and stood up. Even from that far, she knew he was staring at her, staring in her eyes. Right into her very soul.

She really felt uncomfortable under that unforgiving gaze, so she lifted her left foot, still stained of his own blood, upon his body, covering him from her sight.

As she lowered the foot on him, she still felt the pressure of his gaze. When her sole touched him and started to add pressure, she shook her head and removed the foot from him.

It didn’t feel right, she was treating him like an insect. 

Ann picked him up again, and examined him. She could crush his body into her fist, or pop his head between her fingers, or break his neck.

She shivered at the thought of so many ways she could kill him with. She looked at him, and he looked back. She looked down, as she couldn’t hold his gaze.

Ann felt like he couldn’t do it while he looked at her like that.

She could crush his head beneath her molars, or decapitate him with her incisors or simply chew him up… While crude, the first idea seemed the most painless. She raised him, hesitated a bit and placed him on her tongue.

It tasted like blood and a bit sour, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Then she closed her mouth and tried to put him in place with her tongue. After a few attempts, she spat him back onto her hand, panting and crying.

She really couldn’t bring herself to kill another person.

After a few minutes, she steeled herself and decided.

If she couldn’t kill him first, then he would die inside of her.

Ann raised the hand with the dying tiny man on it, looked at him in the eyes, and said:

“Now i’m going to eat you. I’m sorry this happened, but there is no other way if i want to survive” She paused, and concluded “Farewell”.

With that, she plucked his arm and raised him up in the air, opening her mouth.

All he could see under him was her cavernous maw, its slick surfaces shining in the dim light of the bathroom. Her pearly white teeth, that a few moments earlier almost crushed him to paste, were perfectly lined up to welcome him in.

The tongue, too, glistening in saliva, seemed eager to meet him. As she continued to lower him inside her mouth, he could feel her hot and humid breath upon his skin.

Then, she dropped him, and he fell on her sticky and soft tongue. Right after it, she closed her mouth, and heard something,

She stopped for a second, and heard him whimpering in her mouth, still moving a bit.

She started crying as well, thinking “i’ll make this quick”, and tilted her head back, using gravity to get him near to the back of her mouth.

Inside, he couldn’t see much but he could clearly see the abyss he was about to fall in.

He understood how futile his weak attempts were, and stopped struggling, instead crawling forward to meet his end inside of Ann.

She felt him move again. It was time.

She waited for a second, and finally swallowed the tiny man whole, banishing him inside of her.

She did it. She ate another human being. 

Ann felt the weak struggles of the tiny man as he got down her esophagus, and dropped into her stomach.

She could still taste him on her tongue, and the thought made her feel even hungrier. Then she sat on the toilet, and cried softly, feeling the tiny being inside of her living his last moments. 

Inside, the man just felt his last energies leaving him. He lost so much blood and the air in the stomach was so thick and rarefied that he felt light headed. He just wanted to sleep forever…

Ann felt that movement inside of her had stopped, and understood that it was done.

Now she really couldn’t go back. She felt the urge to go to bed, so that the next day she would wake up and think this was all a dream. But it wasn’t.

She silently cleaned the blood stains on her body, on her feet, on her teeth and on the floor, crawled into bed and cried herself to sleep