Two hours later, Melissa walked into her closet. After shoving her hanged clothes aside, she peered into the top glass-cage, the cage in which she had dropped Thomas inside. It was empty.

She gasped, and placed both of her hands on the glass. "What the hell?! Again?!"

She frantically searched around the floor, and through the clothes as well. He was nowhere to be found. It was as if he had vanished without a trace.

"How does this keep happening?" she asked to herself. "There aren't any holes in this cage. I check every day. ...That's it... I should have did this a long time ago, but I'm moving it."

She turned to the other cages below. After asking them questions, and becoming enraged, she grabbed four of the tiny victims inside, and carried them out of the closet.

Thomas had finally reached the top of the rope-like string that was dropped in front of him minutes before. He used the last of his upper body strength to pull himself up to the floor before.

Breathing heavily, he fell to his back to rest a little. However, a bright light shone right in his face. He brought up his arm to shield his face.

"Don't stop now," a male voice said from behind the light. "Follow me."

Thomas sighed and struggled back to his feet as the light drifted away from his face. What that a flashliht this enigmatic man was holding? How did he come across that? More importantly, who was this man? Did he truly have his best interests at heart? Such questions raced through his mind as he followed the man through the darkness.

"Is that... a flashlight?" Thomas asked.

"Yep," the man replied. "It gets pretty dark in here, so these things are pretty handy."

"I see..."

As the two walked, they came across an opening in the wall on their left side. The man walked past the hole, which, thanks to the light that shone in, allowed Thomas to at least see the backside of the man: a tathered jean jacket, and his blond hair tied in a short ponytail. He must have been trapped here for a while.

The man walked out of the light, and Thomas walked into it. He glanced into the hole, which, to him, seemed more like a window. Through it was Melissa's room, though she was not in at the moment.

"So," Thomas said as he stepped out of the hole's light, "are you gonna get me out of here?"

The man did not answer.

"...Well?"

The man sighed. "That's... not on the cards at the moment."

"Wait, what?" Thomas could not believe what he heard. "I don't get it. If you're not going to get me out of here, then why'd you rescue me?"

The man stopped walking and turned around to face him. "Did you want to wait in there, waiting for Melissa to pull you out, torture you in unimaginably painful ways, and then kill you?"

"Umm..." Thomas scratched the back of his head. Why was this man so flusted so suddenly? Not to mention that, between the darkness and the blinding light that once again shone in his face, Thomas could not make out the man's face, or his current expression at all.

"I rescued you because we could use you."

"'We'?"

"Yes. There a colony of us in here." The man started to walk again. "Anyway, we could use as many people as we can get, and your endurance against Melissa impressed us. ...Most of us, anyway."

"Well, I tried my best. I honestly thought that she was going to kill me."

"Yeah... Most new people think that... and half the time, she does kill her victims. But she left you alive. That means that she... likes you."

"What?!" Thomas' eyes widened. She liked him? Even after all that she put him through?

"People like you... people like us... she wants to keep us alive as long as she can. We're her... prizes."

"...What about those other people? In those other cages?"

"She doesn't really care about them. They're just appetizers to whet her hunger for blood. ...That said, everyone she shrinks partakes in what she calls 'Bugman Games'."

"...'Bugman Games'?" Thomas repeated. "That sounds..."

"Yeah, I know. The name is kind of stupid, but it's basically what it says. We're small as bugs, and we play her cruel ordeals."

Thomas could not believe what he was hearing. The cute, intelligent, and seemingly kind girl that he had desired to date, and perhaps even get serious with, ended up being a cruel sadist, who literally held the lives of many poor souls in her hands.

"We're here," the man said as he turned off his flashlight.

Thomas ran up to him, and was amazed at what he saw. Before him was what looked like a campsite, though with tents made of what looked like discarded paper. More flashlights hung from a board overhead, giving some much-needed light to the area. The people there turned their attention to the two. Thomas looked around at them. Despite his blurred vision due to the loss of his glasses, he could make out about 15 to 20 people here in this colony, some of whom looked vaguely familiar.

With what he was now seeing, what he deduced earlier was confirmed: Melissa WAS responsible for the strange disappearances that plagued the region in the past months.

The man began to walk into the colony, and Thomas followed. With so many eyes watching him, Thomas became nervous. Much like when he had to give improptu speeches in front of his class, or when he had to present his research to them.

"By the way," the man said, stopping under a hanging flashlight and turning around to face Thomas, "my name is Shawn Crawford."

For the first time, Thomas could get a more clearer look at Shawn's face. He looked to be in his early 20s, though his facial hair seemed to be growing back.

"I'm Thomas Kirkland," Thomas said. "Pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure's mine." Shawn smiled at him, which, for a second, took Thomas by surprise.

As the two walked deeper into the campsite, Thomas looked around at the faces watching him enter the colony. He could have sworn that he had seen a few women among the people here. He also noticed that the people here seemed to be no older than 24.

"Umm..." Thomas said. "I lost my glasses, so I'm not sure, but did I see some women here?"

"Glasses, huh?" Shawn said. "I don't need mines anymore, so I could lend you them. Though I doubt that they'd match your perscription."

"Thanks. That sounds good."

"As for the girls," Shawn continued, "There were times where she asked one of her female 'friends' to help with her homework. If they so happened to dig through her drawer and find the Shrink Ray, well, then you can probably guess what happens next."

Thomas was silent.

"Though she prefers guys. She'd easily go after girls if they provoke her, but she prefers to use her charm to lure unsuspecting men into her room, and the rest... is history."

"So, is that how she got you?"

"Not exactly." Shawn stopped walking. "I'm actually gay. I was a part of the Homework crowd, but since I'm a guy, she pulled the Ray out on me."

"I see..." This revelation took Thomas by surprise.

Shawn started to walk again. "Her 'tactics' don't apply to the people in the closet. She just shrinks down any homeless person she finds, regardless of sex. They're practically just cannon fodder, if you will."

"What do you mean?"

"I believe that she knows that we're still around, though I know that she doesn't know where, so she kills off the Homeless, as we call them, to send us some kind of warning."

"...Doesn't she ever run out?"

"Of course not. I just said that she shrinks down any homeless person she finds, and you should know that, in this town, there are homeless people all over. She has a nearly endless supply."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true..."

As they continued to walk, a voice to their right called to Thomas. "Hey! Hey, you!"

Thomas and Shawn looked towards the source. It was a man, sitting against the paper wall of his tent. He had reddish-brown hair, and was shirtless. Thomas was also taken aback by the fact that there was a large piece of tissue where his left arm was supposed to be.

"Come here! I wanna talk to you!"

Shawn let out a chuckle. "Oh, man... It's him. This oughta be good."

"What do you mean?" Thomas asked.

"Go and see."

The two then walked towards him. The man seemed to have a smile on his face, though it looked somewhat like a jealous one.

"You're one lucky son of a bitch!" The man said as the two stopped in front of him.

"What?!" Thomas exclaimed in shock. "What are you talking about?!"

"Listen," the man said. "You can call me Dawson. She got me here through the 'Net."

"The Internet? Was it an online dating site or something?"

"No." Dawson shook his head. "It was through a GTS forum."

"'GTS'? What's that?"

"An abbreviation for 'Giantess'."

"You mean like giant women?"

"Yep." Dawson chuckled. "Anyway, I loved to roleplay there. I'd pretend to be 1 inch tall, maybe less than that.I managed to RP with several women while I was there, too. There were several scenarios, but in the end, I'd end up dead under their hot and sexy feet."

"Uh, okay..." Thomas was a bit disturbed at the last sentence. This guy had an obvious foot fetish.

Shawn noticed Thomas' reaction, and let out a short laugh.

"So," Dawson continued, "soon, she ended up joining the forum, and we shared many fun sessions together."

"You mean Melissa, right?"

"Yep. Anyway, at one point, she said that we should meet in person. I agreed, and it helped that we both lived in So-Cal, too. So we made arrangements for a meeting place, which was at a coffee shop; not too far from here, actually. I had to drive a long way from where I was, but I didn't mind. When we met, we just clicked right there. My God, was she beautiful! Her silky black hair, her chocolate skin, her boobs, and, best of all, her feet. She wore these cute flip-flops that showed off her magnificent feet, and her toes. Ohh!!" Dawson had lost himself in his story. "I melt just thinking about them wiggling like that. I wanted so badly to suck them-"

"Umm... Can we move on?" Thomas said, becoming annoyed by Dawson's fetish.

Dawson let out a short laugh and calmed himself. "Yeah, alright. Anyway, after our meeting, she asked if I wanted to come to her place. I should have known right there that something was wrong. After all, how many girls take a guy that they met on the Internet back to their house after meeting them in real life less than a hour ago? But she said that we'd roleplay, and she had a special 'tool' that would make the experience more realistic. I just couldn't resist that! After all, I was lost in her looks, and her fee- lower assets."

Thomas rolled his eyes. He had never seen anyone so obsessed with feet his entire life. He almost wanted to believe that the stereotypes of foot fetishists he'd seen on several TV shows were true.

"So, we came to her room, and soon after, the shit hit the fan..."

~~~

I came to while I was laying on the floor. The room I was in, Melissa's bedroom, had grown huge! The bed, the desk, the cabinets, everything! I stood to my feet and noticed Melissa looking at me from across the room, who was also gigantic. I was awestruck. I couldn't believe that my deepest fantasy, one that I had long since deemed impossible to fulfill, had come true right before me.

She then smiled at me. "So, what do you think? Perfect for roleplaying, right?"

"Hell yes!" I then made a mad dash for her feet. Once I reached them, I fell to my knees in astonishment. Seeing feet up close like that was much more exciting than watching videos on the Internet.

"This is... just... I think I'm going to cry, because you're so beautiful!" I said.

"Why, thank you!" Melissa responded.

"And I just want to kiss your toes! Every one of them! They're all so hot and juicy!" I was becoming excited... in more ways than one.

"I bet," she said as she slipped her right foot out of its flip-flop and pointed its sole in my face. "I bet that you want to be under my foot, right?"

"Of course! It's my dream! ...Oh, but as long as you don't kill me. Though I wouldn't mind dying like that, I'd like to enjoy this over and over again!"

Melissa laughed. "You're too cute!" She slipped her foot back into its sandal. "Too bad I have other plans."

"What do you mean?" I was a bit disappointed when she put her foot away. Little did I know that that would be the least of my worries.

She croutched down and picked me up with her right hand. Then she stood back up, holding me at her chest and looking down at me. Her smile was gone. ...Well, not exactly, but she seemed to have a more wicked and cruel expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, little Dawson," she said, "but I'm afraid that you won't be leaving here. Ever. Not alive, at least."

With that, she began to squeeze my body. Man... I had been in all sorts of pain before, but this took the cake. With my body crushed by a ton of force, I started to scream. Loud. And do you know what she did? She laughed! The bitch laughed at my suffering! She was relishing this!

"I know the perfect way to torture you," she said as she flicked me in the face with her left index finger. "By not using my feet!"

I could feel blood coming from my nose. I think she broke it. It certainly felt like the bones in my face had been shattered. All the while, she was still squeezing me, so I had to endure both the pressure she was putting on my body, AND the pain on my face!

Then, as quickly as it started, it was over. She stopped squeezing me. But that was just the first part. She then walked to her bed, and dropped me onto it. I fell face-down onto the cushion, but immediately tried to crawl away. That was stopped pretty quickly, as I felt something heavy drop on my legs. I looked back, and I saw her ass. She was sitting on me!

"Sit tight, okay?" she said as she looked back at me. "I want to read this article. I've been putting it off for a while."

She reached over to her desk and grabbed this fashion magazine. I couldn't see anything from where I was, but I assumed that she was reading like she said, or at least faking it, as I heard the pages flip a bit too rapidly. Unless she was a fast reader, but still...

All the while, I was struggling to free myself. I actually think that she enjoyed feeling me squirm like that. Though every time I even slightly pulled my legs further out, she would increase the pressure on them. In fact, I think they were becoming numb.

Finally, I yelled at her. "Why?! Why are youdoing this to me?!"

She turned her head around again. "Just for the hell of it."

She then lifted her ass slightly, and dropped it back down on my legs, this time with more force than the last one. Of course, I screamed. Thank god for that cushion, or I believe that my legs would have been a crushed, mangled mess. Well, more than it was at that point, at least.

Finally, after 10 minutes I think, though it seemed longer, she stood up. My legs were free, but they were a mess. I couldn't move them at all at the time. She dropped the magazine on the bed beside me, and picked me up. She then carried me to her desk, and dropped me onto it, face-down again. I didn't even try to crawl away that time, though I didn't even have time to attempt it. I saw a shadow appear around me, and then felt my body being pinned against the desk. It was her palm.

"Let me go!!" I pleaded. "Please!!"

Well, she didn't answer with words, but she answered with force. She began to push down on me even harder. I swear, I could feel my bones cracking. Once again, I started to scream, and at that point I heard her laugh again.

"Oh? Is that too much for you? Here, let me help you."

Then, I felt a sharp pain on my backside. She had slammed her palm onto my body. Man! That shit really hurt, being smacked between her hand and the hard desk. I was lucky that I wasn't splattered that instant, but I guess she held back some of her strength. Though I did end up coughing up some blood.

"Dammit," she said as I felt her hand withdraw, "right on my desk, too. Can't you control your vomit?"

I didn't move or answer. At that point, I just gave up and decided to play dead. Like that last blow had crushed the last ounce of life out of me. I figured that she would grow bored with a corpse and just... finish me off.

But things didn't go like I'd hoped.

"Oh, stop playing possum," she said. "I know you're not dead."

Inside, I cursed myself, but I still didn't move. Maybe if I tried hard enough...

After a few minutes, Melissa finally said, "So, you wanna play like that, huh?"

My eyes were shut, but I felt her hand wrap around me, and I heard her footsteps. She was taking me somewhere, but I had no idea where.

Soon, she has stopped moving. Then, I felt my left arm being squeezed between what felt like her index finger and thumb. I tried my hardest to not flinch at this.

"Would you respond if I did this?"

As soon as she said that, things went from bad to worse. She pulled on my arm, and with the force she had over my small body, ended up pulling it right from my body. Oh, yes, I responded. With the loudest scream ever. I finally opened my eyes. It looked as if I was in the bathroom. I looked below me, and could see the blood from where my arm once was pouring into a sink below.

Melissa laughed manically. "I forgot how fragile you 'Bugmen' can be."

What did she mean by that? Did she do this to other people before me? She must have, no doubt about it. Either way, I didn't care. With my arm gone, I just wanted to die. The pain was too unbearable. I was almost crying, though, being the man that I was, I held back the tears. Though I was still screaming.

"Be quiet." She then pulled off my shirt. I'm not sure why, but she started to treat the wound that she had given me. Though I saw her drop my arm into the sink, and let the water carry it away with it. The bitch.

She then placed me on the edge of the sink, and walked away from me. She soon returned, with some alcohol and tissue. She laced the tissue with some of the alcohol, and pat it onto my wound. That crap stung like hell. Yeah, I know that it's supposed to do that, but when you have a wound as big as mines was, it really stung.

She then grabbed tissue after tissue, wiping some of the ever-flowing blood from it. It seemed like an hour before the blood flow even seemed to stall. She sighed and grabbed one last piece of tissue, placed it on the wound, and then got some tape or whatever and wrapped at around my chest, pulling the tissue tighter onto the wound. What was this, a cast or something? It was a pretty bad one, though, but I don't think she cared.

Then, she carried me out of the bathroom, and back into her bedroom. She then went inside of her closet, and placed me inside of the uppermost cage.

"Don't go anywhere," she said, smiling at me. "I'll be back soon. I just have to clean up the mess you made."

With that, she walked out of the closet, closing the door behind her.

~~~

"At that point," Dawson said, "I laid there for 15 or so minutes before they came for me." Dawson placed his right arm across his chest and held onto his cast. "Of course, I couldn't climb the string with only one arm, so they had to pull me up while I held on with all of the strength that I had left. ...And I've been here for the past 2 or so months."

Dawson then pointed his index finger at Thomas. "You're still a lucky bastard."

"Okay, how exactly am I lucky?!" Thomas asked, now annoyed.

"Geez, man." Shawn dropped his face into his right palm. "You haven't figured it out? It's not that hard if you think about it."

Thomas thought for a moment, before giving his answer. "Because she used her feet on me?"

"BINGO!!" Dawson gave him a thumb-up gesture. "You got the royal treatment, while I got screwed!"

"That was anything but royal..." Thomas lamented.

"Anyway, what say you and I be friends?" Dawson suggested.

"Sure. Nice meeting you, Dawson."

"No prob... Thomas, was it?"

"Yep."

Dawson chuckled a little. "I hope Bruce likes you."

"...Who's Bruce?" Thomas asked.

"Our leader," Shawn answered. "Or rather, our self-proclaimed leader. But he's the strongest out of all of us here."

"He's also the guy who's keeping us in here," Dawson added. "He's been saying for a while that the time isn't right for our grand escape."

"Well, I kind of see where he's going with that," Shawn said. "Even if we successfully escaped from here, we'd still have to deal with the people of this city. We'd be sitting ducks, trampled under the unsuspecting feet of those people."

"If I were to die that way, I'd want it to be by a cute girl in sandals or flip-flops..." Dawson was losing himself again.

"Not again..." Thomas sighed.

As the three were talking, Thomas heard footsteps approaching the group. He turned, and saw a young woman coming from the darkness. She looked to be Hispanic, with semi-long dark brown hair and tan skin. She also seemed to have a vertical scar on the left side of her face, one that went through her eye.

"I saw her eat someone before," she said in a thick Mexican accent.

"What?!" Thomas was stunned. "She actually eats people?!"

"...She only did it once, though. Oh, and I'm Gloria." She grabbed Thomas' right hand and shook it.

"...I'm Thomas." Thomas pulled his hand from her grip. This woman seemed even more enigmatic than Shawn was at first. "Why would she eat someone?"

"I don't know, but it happened a few weeks ago," Gloria said. "I was watching from a hole high up near the ceiling of the bathroom. She has stripped a female Homeless of her clothes, and rinsed her body off through the faucet. Then... she swallowed her."

"What the..." Thomas dropped his mouth is disbelief. "She's a cannibal, too?"

"Well, not exactly," Gloria continued. "Not more than 5 minutes later, she rushed back into the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. I heard her say that she's never doing that again, and then flushed the toilet. My hole is directly above the toilet, so I could make out the partially digested remains of that woman as she spun down the toilet."

"Unbelievable..."

"Yes, I know." She then turned around and began to walk away. "It was nice meeting you, Thomas. I'll tell you some more stories of our evil goddess later." With that, she disappeared into the darkness.

"Well, that was weird," Thomas said as he turned back to Shawn and Dawson.

"Gloria is a bit of a loner," Shawn said. "That hole she mentioned? She spends most of her time there, and only really comes here to get food. When we have any, that is."

"Why?"

"I don't know. You can ask her yourself the next time you see her. Though don't count on her telling you."

~~~

Thomas sat in one of the paper tents, one that had been set up a while ago, but never used. His eyes were straining from the glasses that Shawn had given him. They definately weren't the same perscription as his, but at least he could see better now.

He laid down onto his cot, a make-shift bed made from shredded cloth and discarded cotton and dust. His body was still aching from his earlier ordeal. It wasn't as comfortable as his bed back home, but it would have to do.

Home. Would he ever see his house again? His family? Would he ever be able to indulge in his favorite hobbies again? Such question raced through his mind.

He also thought about the people he had met here in these walls: Shawn, Dawson, and Gloria. Despite their quirks, they seemed like nice people. They had pretty much accepted him, and he knew that he could go to them if he ever needed anything.

Thomas folded his arms behind his head, and closed his eyes.

~~~

The Homeless were going through their usual routines in the cages, which included sitting around, talking, sleeping, and even crying for freedom. They were interrupted when they heard the closet door open, and saw the clothes move aside. They looked in horror up at Melissa as she moved further into the closet.

Melissa looked into the top cage, and gasped, placing both hands on it in shock. "What the hell?! Again?!" She frantically looked around on the floor, through the clothes, and even among the Homeless. The captive that she was searching for was gone.

"How does this keep happening? There aren't any holes in this cage. I check every day. ...That's it... I should have did this a long time ago, but I'm moving it."

She then turned to the Homeless. They flinched as they saw her frustrated face. "Do you roaches know where he went?"

"Where who went?" A male defiantly said.

"You know damn well who!!" She snapped. "Where is he?!"

"We don't know!" Another male said. While they knew that he had been rescued, they didn't want to tell Melissa that. It was their way of getting revenge, though they knew that they would be paying for it very soon.

"That's it." Now enraged, Melissa grabbed four captives from the nearest cage, a female and three males. She then carried them out of the closet.

The Homeless watched the door close behind her, shaking in fear.

A female came out from hiding, and looked around. "...Where's Barry?"

~~~

"Hey, Thomas! Wake up!"

Thomas opened his eyes and saw Shawn standing in front of him.

"C'mon. She's at it again."

"What? How long was I out?"

"An hour, I guess. Now, let's go!" Shawn said in a hurried manner. "Melissa's back, and she's about to kill some of the Homeless!"

"What?!" Thomas stood to his feet and followed Shawn out of the tent. Several of the Refugees, as they call themselves, were rushing towards the hole that Thomas and Shawn passed on their way to the colony. The two then followed them towards the hole overlooking Melissa's room.

Melissa's twisted Bugman Games were about to begin.