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Thomas and Shawn arrived at what had been dubbed "Melissa's Hole." Many of the other Refugees were already crowding the hole, which, to them, was the side of a small window. They were vying for a good position so that they could get a better look at the events that were about to unfold outside.

"Why are they getting so excited over this?" Thomas asked. "I wouldn't think that you all would want to see Melissa kill those people."

Shawn folded his arms. "Obviously, there's no TV or radio here. So this is our 'entertainment,' if you could call it that."

"Were you all watching when it was me?"

"Yep. Bruce tells up to watch as many of those games as possible, because it would remind us of what would happen if she caught us. That is, if we disobeyed him and went out there without his permission."

"Ahh..."

Thomas watched as Shawn walked closer to the hole, taking a spot next to Dawson. Shawn looked behind him, and motioned for him to come closer. Thomas was reluctant to do so.

Dawson turned to face him. "Scared that she might see us? Don't worry... This hole is high near the ceiling. So, unless she looks REALLY hard, she can't see us."

"You sure?" Thomas asked.

"Positive."

Thomas gulped, and walked to join the two men, as well as the other Refugees.

Melissa stood in the center of her bedroom. On the floor in front of her were three of the homeless people, two men and a woman. She held a third man in her right hand. The tiny people on the floor shook in fear as they looked up at the giantess.

"Alright," Melissa said. "You all didn't answer my question, and now you're going to pay. Your goal? Survive."

"But," said the woman who was foolish enough to speak. "No one ever survives..."

"Well, maybe this time will be different," Melissa said. "Of course, I doubt it heavily!"

"You can just kill me now!!" yelled the man in her hand. "Anything to get out of this bullshit you call 'games'!"

Melissa brought him in front of her face and looked at him with a scowl on her face. "What was that?!"

"You heard me!" The man remained defiant. "I never repeat myself! Not to an ugly nigger bitch like you!"

This last remark sent Melissa over the edge, as she then brought the index finger and thumb of her other hand over his head and squeezed on his head, crushing it like a grape with no effort at all. She then dropped his decapitated body onto the floor and stamped on it with her foot.

She sighed as she turned to the remaining three people. "If you're going to call me a racial slur, at least use the right one. I'm not Black. I'm Dominican."

The three seemed to become more horrified.

"Well, I'll give you three a minute to talk over your 'strategy' to live." Melissa made a quotation marks gesture with her hands as she said the word "strategy."

~~~

All three of the Homeless standing before this giant woman were terrified. They had just witnessed the death of their comrade before their eyes.

The woman turned to a man with a long grey beard and hair. "What do we do now?!"

"Nothing," the man responded. "There's nothing we can do, because she's just going to kill us. We just have to endure what she does to us until Death takes ahold of us in his arm."

The other two people stared at him.

"Anything's better than what we've been through here."

"Well, you're right, Barry," the other man spoke up. "I'd rather be dead, too. I guess it's nice that she's giving us that opportunity."

The woman shuddered at the man's remark.

Barry laughed. "So, we're all a pack of suicidal nutjobs! Man... If I wasn't scammed out of my home and fortune, I could have given this world hell! But that doesn't matter anymore. Now it's time to accept our fate!"

"Barry..." the woman said. "Are you sure about this?"

Barry smiled. "Yeah. We'll be free from this soon, Linda."

Linda gulped, and looked at him nervously.

"Okay!! Time's up!!" The voice of the gigantic woman boomed over them.

The three turned towards the woman as she walked towards them.

"Did you come up with some kind of plan?" she asked as she stopped in front of them. "Something to save your lives, or at least stall the enivitable?"

Barry stepped forward. "We don't have a plan! Just kill us and get it over with!"

The giant woman got a look of surprise on her face. "Oh? So you're just giving up?"

"Yes!!"

The woman laughed. "Fine! That'll make this easier for me."

Barry glared into the face of the giant woman, his fiery eyes locked with her's.

"I'll try to make this painless, but no promises, alright?" the woman smiled.

"Just do it!" Barry yelled. "What are you waiting for-"

The air in Barry's gut quickly escaped him as the giant woman's foot collided with his body and sent him flying across the room. He crashed into the wall behind him and fell to the floor, clutching his chest in pain.

Linda covered her mouth with her hands as she became more worried about the situation. The man besides her merely gritted his teeth in anger.

The giant woman waved her finger at the fallen man in a mocking tone. "That's for yelling at me like that. Just for that, I changed my mind. I'm going to make your's a slow and painful death."

She then turned back towards the two tiny people below her. "Now, which of you will go first?"

~~~

The Refugees were all quiet. They were looking closely at the events outside, at Melissa as she decided on which of the two tiny people to kill first.

"That other guy," Thomas said as he turned towards Shawn beside him. "The one that was kicked... Any idea on what kind of torture she's going to put him through?"

"Nope," Shawn responded. "She does something different every time. Either way... I kind of feel sorry for him."

An obnoxious laugh sounded from one of the Refugees to Thomas' left. He turned and saw the person responsible: a young man with what looked like green hair, though he could also see the black roots growing out of his head.

"They're the Homeless!" he said. "No one with half a brain gives a flying fuck about them! You don't have to feel sorry for them!"

"But isn't that kind of cruel?" Thomas asked.

This question caused several of the Refugees to turn their attention towards him. They did not see none too happy at what he had just said.

"I mean..." Thomas nervously continued. "They're still humans, right? Just like us?"

"You did NOT just compare us to them!" said the green-haired man in contempt.

"Maybe we should throw him out there," a male commented.

"Hell yeah!" agreed another.

"I don't think we need him, anyway!"

Now daunted at the hostility towards him, Thomas tried to back away from the group.

"¡Callate!" said a somewhat familiar voice with the Mexican accent.

Thomas looked behind him, and saw Gloria approaching the area. With the light from the hole, Thomas could see that she was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, a black mini-skirt held up with a white belt, black fingerless gloves, black boots, and a golden necklace with a crucifix on it.

"Listen," Gloria said. "Leave him alone. He's new, so he's not as well versed on our ways."

"Bah! Whatever!" said the green-haired man before turning back towards the hole.

"Hey." Gloria addressed Thomas. "Be careful of what you say here. You could get crucified."

"Thanks..." Thomas humbly said.

"Late as usual," Shawn said.

"...Eh." Gloria made her way between Thomas and Shawn and looked through the hole and into the room outside.

~~~

"You." The giant woman pointed towards the man besides Linda. "You're gonna go first."

Linda looked towards the man, who lowered his head and closed his eyes. He was standing the best he could through his shaking. Was this man truly ready to die?

Linda began to back away from the man. She wanted to seperate herself as far away from him as she could.

"Don't go too far, little woman," said the giantess, who was looking towards her. "I'll get you next."

Linda shrieked and began to run away.

"You baby." The giantess said.

Linda ran towards the woman's gigantic bed. As she ran, she looked towards the giantess, just in time to see the giant woman drop her foot onto the man. Linda gasped as she witnessed the woman twist her foot on what was once her companion, no doubt grinding and grounding his body into a fine pulp. Finally, the woman slid her foot back, smearing any remains of him along the floor.

The woman then lifted her foot and turned her sole towards her. She seemed to be examining any remains that were on the bottom of her sandal.

"That's two down," she said.

The woman then looked towards Linda. She screamed and tried to increase her running speed towards the bed. However, she heard loud footsteps that seemed to draw closer, and felt the floor rumble beneath her feet with each step. She once again glanced behind her, and saw the woman standing right behind her. Linda screamed as the giantess reached down and grabbed her off of the floor. She was brought up to the woman's face, which how looked horrifyingly huge to her.

"I told you not to run away," the giantess said. "You're pretty disobedient."

"Please!!" Linda pleaded. "Don't kill me!! Kill him instead!!" She pointed towards Barry. "Barry's the one who really wanted to die, not me!"

"Barry, huh?" Melissa said.

"Yes!" Linda brought her hands together and interlocked her fingers. "Please!! Spare me!! Have mercy!!"

"So you want me to kill Barry instead of you, and send you back in the closet with your friends? Interesting..."

~~~

"Did I just hear that right?" Dawson said. "Did she just sell out her friend?!"

"Ha!" The green-haired man laughed. "I told you that they were worthless!"

Gloria shook her head. "That kind of behavior isn't exclusive to the Homeless. Hell, I bet that some of you would sell us out if you were in the same situation."

Thomas was shocked for another reason. "Wait... Did Melissa just say 'Barry'?"

"Yeah, she did," Dawson answered. "Why?"

"If it's the same guy I'm thinking about, then it explains some things..."

"Like?"

"Wait..." Thomas noticed that Melissa started to walk back towards the center of the room. "She's doing something."

~~~

Melissa carried the tiny woman in her hand to the center of the bedroom. She was perplexed over what she just heard, that this woman would go as far as to sell out her own companion. While she did not particularly care for these people, what the woman did disgusted her.

"You're pathetic," Melissa said, before releasing the woman from her grip and letting her fall to the floor below.

The woman fell on her back, and seemed to be badly hurt from the fall. Yet, she still tried to get away. Melissa would not allow it. She walked towards the woman, and stepped onto her lower body, crushing her pelvis and legs underfoot. She heard the woman's screams of agony as she stepped off of her body.

"I changed my mind about you too," Melissa said as she looked behind her, towards the woman on the floor. "I think I'll give you a painful death, too."

She then continued towards the wall, where the man she had kicked earlier was still laying, still holding his chest. The man that was called "Barry." Not that it would matter soon. She knelt down and picked him off of the floor and then turned around and made her way towards the door.

She walked towards the incapacitated woman. She saw her cover her face in fear, as she believed that she was going to crush the rest of her body and end her life. However, Melissa merely stepped over her. She still had a few ideas left for the woman.

Before she walked out of the bedroom, she suddenlt had a realization. She slipped her feet out of her flip-flop sandals and then left the room. She did not want to stain the carpets downstairs with the blood of these pests.

~~~

As Melissa walked out of the room, a sigh of disappointment was let out by the Refugees.

"Aw, man! Now we're not going to see how she kills that guy!"

"Thomas," Dawson called. "Now tell me about this Barry guy."

"He was a guy I saw several times out there," Thomas said. "After the third or so time, he introduced himself as 'Barry.' I didn't ask for it, but he told me anyway."

"And you actually remembered his name?" Dawson asked. "Most people would forget it."

"Well, like I said, I saw him many times during my commute to work. He would ask me for money, and they try to tell me how I can get rich. He did not seem to be short on 'get rich quick schemes'."

"Shouldn't he have been using those 'schemes' for himself?" Gloria asked. "Maybe then he wouldn't have been so homeless."

"Yeah. No kidding, right?" Thomas chuckled. "Anyway, other than that, he's a nice guy. He disappeared for a while, so I assumed that he moved to another spot. But to think that he was here of all places..."

~~~

Melissa stepped into the kitchen, and onto the cold tiles that felt relaxing to her bare feet. She walked towards the stove, which upon it was a pot of boiling water that she had prepared before. She turned the dial on the front of the stove, intensifying the flame underneath the pot.

"You're filthy," Melissa said towards the tiny man in her hand. "It's time for your bath, Barry."

She then dropped Barry into the boiling water. He started to scream in agony as the water began to scald his skin.

"Don't forget to wash behind your ears." Melissa smiled. "You dirty, dirty man."

She then turned around and walked out of the kitchen. She then made her way for the stairs and then climbed them onto the second floor.

From there, she walked into the bathroom, and knelt down at a small stand in the corner of the bathroom. She pulled out a small box and opened it, revealing sewing supplies; yarn, strings, and needles. She picked out two needles, before closing the box and leaving the bathroom.

From there, she made her way back into her bedroom. She looked onto the floor, and saw the disabled woman on the floor. As she looked closely, Melissa could see that she was still breathing.

Melissa knelt down over the woman, and reached down to stretch her arms out to her sides. After turning the palms upward, she took one of the needles and pushed it into her right hand. The woman screamed as the sharp needle penetrated through her skin, and pierced into the floor. She then took the other needle and did the same with her left hand.

Melissa giggled. "You look like a female Jesus!" She then stood upright. "Now, don't go anywhere. I'll be right back." She smiled at the woman, before leaving the room.

~~~

After witnessing the latest events, Thomas had decided that he had seen enough. He turned away from the hole and began to walk away from it.

"Thomas," Shawn called. "Where are you going?"

"I can't watch this anymore," Thomas responded. "This is horrible and sick. I'm going back to my tent."

"Are you sure?" Dawson asked.

"Yes." Thomas was adamant on his decision.

Shawn sighed. "Fine."

Thomas continued to walk away, before he was interrupted again.

"I'm coming with you," Gloria said.

Thomas' eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"

Gloria turned towards Shawn and Dawson. "What about you two?"

Shawn and Dawson glanced towards each other.

"I want to see how this woman dies," Dawson answered.

"You just want to see if she gets stepped on," Gloria remarked.

"...Maybe," Dawson slyly replied.

"I'm staying, too," Shawn said.

"Suit yourselves."

Gloria then followed Thomas as he walked further away from the hole, and made his way for his tent back at the campsite. He looked behind him once more and saw the other Refugees still peering expectantly out of the hole. He could not believe that they were so eager to see such a gruesome display.

Just what had he gotten himself involved in?

~~~

Melissa walked back into the kitchen and made her way to the stove. She turned the knob on the stove to the right, causing the fire to die down and eventually stop. As the boiling was brought to a halt, she peered into the pot of boiling water, and saw Barry's lifeless body floating on its surface.

She opened a nearby drawer and pulled out some clamps. With those in hand, she plucked Barry's corpse out of the water, and then walked to the trash bin. Once there, she stepped on the lever at the bottom, causing the lid to open. She then dropped Barry into the bin and then stepped off of the lever, closing the lid.

She placed the clamps onto the counter, before grabbing the pot of the still hot water by its handle and carrying it out of the kitchen.

Within a minute, she was walking back into her room. As she did so, she slipped her feet back into her flip-flops, and the headed towards the woman she had literally pinned into the floor. She seemed to be trying to free herself, though her efforts were in vain.

"I'm back!" Melissa greeted as she knelt down over the woman.

The woman looked towards the pot that Melissa was holding. "...W-what's that?"

Melissa smiled. "Your drink."

"What kind of drink...?"

Melissa answered by slightly tipping the pot to its side, which caused some of the scalding hot water to pour over onto the torso of the woman. She screamed as the water fell onto her. No doubt that, due to the combination of the hot water and her size, her skin cells were being cooked underneath the clothes she was wearing.

"Oops," Melissa said, shaking her head in feigned disappointment. "I missed your face."

"NOOOOO!!!!" The woman screamed. "PLEASE DON'T!!"

Melissa grinned. "Open wide!"

She then tipped the pot completely to its side, pouring the entire contents onto the body of the tiny woman. The screaming of the woman soon stopped as the water settled on her. The hot water had apparently made its way inside of her mouth, which probably completely cooked the insides of her mouth, as well as her throat. Not to mention that now her entire body was burned, so much so that she stopped moving completely.

"Enjoy that?" Melissa asked as she placed the pot on the floor to her side.

No response. Either this woman was dead, or was just outside death's door. Melissa shrugged and started to blow on the woman's body, trying to cool down the water. After a few minutes, after she figured that the water was not as hot as it was before, she stretched out her thumb towards the body and crushed the woman's head underneath it.

She stood upright and looked around the room. There was blood in three different places, in each of the spots that she had killed three of the tiny people. Not to mention the water that she had poured onto the floor.

"I hate this part," she said as she shook her head. "Having to clean up the mess they made."

~~~

With the latest display of Melissa's power over, the Refugees started to walk away from the hole.

"I think I get what Thomas was getting at," Dawson said as he and Shawn were walking back to the campsite. "That WAS pretty brutal."

"Yeah," Shawn agreed. "But it's one of the rules Bruce made, that we need to watch her 'games' to have a better understanding of what we're up against."

Dawson sighed. "Poor kid. He's new, so he doesn't quite understand how things work here."

"I guess I'll have to tell him the rules that Bruce made for us. Maybe even try to calm his nerves a little."

Dawson nodded. "Though I am disappointed."

Shawn glanced towards Dawson. "Why's that?"

"It would have made more sense for Melissa to step on the woman. At least her feet were protected."

Shawn chuckled. "Have you ever seen a shrink for that?"

"Why should I? I got my fetishes under tight control."

"Really..."

~~~

Thomas sat on the cot inside of his tent. Gloria stood across from him, against the paper wall with her arms folded.

"This is just too much," Thomas said in a melancholic tone. "I thought that I could get this one to work. That Melissa and I would get married, have kids, and grow old together."

Gloria did not respond. She merely stared at him.

"Now, here I am, hiding in her walls. I can't step out, because she'll kill me, or at least leave me wishing for it. I'm surrounded by people who only care about themselves, and get a kick out of seeing Melissa kill people. No one seems to know when we're supposed to leave. And worst yet, I may never see my family and friends again." Thomas dropped his face into his palms. "This... fuckin'... sucks!!"

"If you want to get out so badly," Gloria said, "talk to our 'leader'. Bruce could put you on a food scavenger team, and you could, like, leave when no one's looking. Though the position has been filled already..."

"Yeah, but even if I were able to do all of that, and even if I got out of the house, I'll still be small. The people of this town have no idea of what's going on in this house, so they won't exactly be looking for shrunken people. No, they'll be walking with their head up high, not caring what or who they step on."

Gloria smirked. "I bet the foot perv out there would love that, though."

"But you are right about one thing." Thomas rose his head. "I think I WILL have a talk with this Bruce guy. Where is he?"

"In the Lower Levels," Gloria responded.

"'Lower Levels'?"

"According to Bruce, it's really dangerous down there, so he tells us to stay away from there. Up here, we've taken several precautions to keep real pests such as mice and bugs out of our domain. But down there, it's a different story."

"I see... When will he be back up here?"

Gloria shrugged her shoulders.

"Great..." Thomas laid down onto the cot, and looked towards the coned ceiling of the tent.

~~~

An hour had passed. In that time, Melissa had cleaned up the blood and other remains of those hapless people. It was as if the gruesome event had never taken place.

She walked into the closet and made her way for the class cages in the back.

"Well," she began to address the dozens of people inside. "Sorry to inform you all, but your reps lost. Again."

The tiny people merely stared back at her.

"As punishment, I'm reducing your food supply. If you all get too hungry, I'm sure you could just cannabalize someone!"

She laughed as she turned around and walked out of the closet, closing the door behind her.

In a way, she felt a deep satisfaction over what had transpired that day.