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Thomas could not believe the situation he was in. Barely 5 minutes ago, Thomas stood a well 4 inches taller than Melissa. Now, due to unforseen circumstances that he never thought were possible in real life, he barely reached her ankles.

To think that he came over here, expecting a date out of her. As he started to become terrified of the giantess that stood over him, he realized that she seemed to have other plans in mind.

"W-what do you mean?" Thomas said in a nervous tone, while backing away from her. "Quit joking around. Unshrink me."

"I'm not joking," Melissa said as she pressed a button on the Shrink Ray, which powered it off, before placing it on her bed. "You're not going anywhere. You're mine, little man."

"But what about our date?"

Melissa laughed. "Date?! With you?! Puh-LEEEEZE!! It was all a trap, and you fell right for it."

Thomas got a very disappointed and horrified look on his face as his arms hung limp. He could not believe that not only had he struck out again, but this time, he had been tricked into coming into her room where she shrunk him. If he had only left her alone on Wednesday, he would not be in this predicament. Hell, he could have tried run out of the room when she brought out the Shrink Ray.

"Melissa, please," Thomas begged.

She shook her head. "No."

Thomas backed away from her again. "Melissa-"

"Shut it." Her tone became curt. "Before I make you a stain on the floor."

Thomas' mouth dropped in horror. "What?! You wouldn't..."

He cut his sentence short as he saw Melissa raise her foot above him. His heart sank as he stared into the black sole of her flip-flop sandal.

"I wouldn't what, now?" Melissa said.

Her foot then began to drop down on him. Wasting no time at all, Thomas turned around and ran as fast as he could out of the growing shadow around him. Luckily, he managed to avoid being flattened, but he did so narrowly, as her foot slammed down right behind him. The force of her foot hitting the floor brushed up a gust of air that blew Thomas a few feet away (his scale) and knocked him face-down on the floor. He staggered to his feet and turned around, and looked into the face of the giant woman. She was looking back down on him, with a smile on her face. Except it was not a sweet, sincere smile he had known her for. No, it was a much more sadistic and malicious one. One that shot daggers into his heart.

"Y-you just tried to kill me!!" Thomas exclaimed.

"Of course I did," Melissa calmly said.

"You can't do that!!"

"The hell I can't."

"What?!"

Melissa stepped closer to Thomas. "Right now, you're not in any position to protest. You know why?"

Thomas stared at her in sheer horror as she stopped right in front of him.

She smirked. "It's because you ARE a bug. A pest. And what do people do when they see pests in their house? Simple. They kill them."

"But... That's crazy... I'm not a bug. I'm a human."

Melissa scoffed at this notion.

"Besides, I can't be a pest if you brought me here."

Thomas soon realized that making that statement was a grave mistake, as, before he could react, Melissa kicked him, sending him to slide across the floor and impact the wall behind him. The combination of such a big kick to his tiny chest and the force at which he hit the wall caused him to cough up blood. Even more, during his sliding, his glasses flew off of his face, and laid on the floor well out of his reach.

Despite the pain he was in, he tried to pick himself up from the floor and try his best to flee. However, before he could even move, he found himself pinned against the wall by the front of Melissa's right foot.

"Ugh..." Thomas struggled to free himself, but she was just too strong. "Please..."

"Let me correct myself," Melissa said. "You're not completely a bug, but you're nowhere near a human, either. You're a bug with emotions. ...I love seeing the faces of each of you 'Bugmen' as you realize how hopeless things are for you. Right before I crush the life out of them. You can't get that from ordinary bugs."

"W-what?" Suddenly, he remembered the red splatter on the stairs. He knew that it was not nail polish as she said it was, and that it was blood. He assumed that she merely cut herself. However, to think that it was the remains of another unfortunate soul who crossed paths with Melissa...

Then, he put two and two together. The strange disappearances that the news had been talking about for several months... The dwindling number of homeless people on the streets... This woman... Melissa... She was the one behind it all! If only he'd known sooner...

Suddenly, she pressed her foot against him. The force caused Thomas to once again cough up blood. Some of the blood landed on her big and second toes.

Melissa smirked. "Oh? Is that too much for you?"

She giggled as she removed her foot away from Thomas' body. He fell to his hands and knees, and started to breathe heavily. He looked towards Melissa, though as he shifted his head in the direction, he saw the shine of his glasses, on the floor behind Melissa. However, they were soon unknowingly crushed underneath her foot as she stepped back a little.

"Come here," Melissa ordered. "Come, or I'll kill you right there."

Thomas struggled to his feet and staggered towards the sadistic giantess.

"You see this mess you made?" She pointed towards the blood that had been splattered by Thomas on her right foot. "You're going to clean this up." She smiled. "And guess how you're going to do it?"

Thomas stared at her.

She slipped her right foot from its sandal, and then stepped it down right in front of Thomas.

"Lick. Lick it off."

As Thomas stared at the blood of her giant foot, he was horrified over the thought of him doing such a degrading task. Unfortunately, he knew he had no choice, as if he refused, she would kill him with no remorse. He reluctantly bend down onto the blood on her big toe and began to lick up his own blood.

"C'mon, you can do better than that," Melissa taunted. "You ARE hungry, aren't you?"

It took 10, maybe even 15 minutes for him to cleanse the blood from her two toes. Afterwards, he fell back onto the floor, looking up at Melissa. In all of his life, he was never more afraid than he was at this very moment.

Melissa drew back her foot, and placed her hands on her waist, shaking her head in disappointment as she looked down at her right foot.

"Sad..." she said. "You didn't even get all of the blood. There's some underneath my toes too, stupid."

Thomas shuddered.

"But I'll let it slide for now." She reached over to her desk and pulled out a sheet of tissue from a small cardboard box. With it, she wiped off the remaining blood and the thin film of saliva that Thomas also left on her toes. Afterwards, she threw the tissue into a nearby trash bin.

Then, she stepped in front of him and knelt down.

"You have no idea how fun this is," she said in a calm yet cold tone. "I really love my dad for sending me the Shrink Ray. ...He gave me the ultimate playtoy. You have no idea... You don't know how fun this is... Shrinking people... hearing their screams of agony as I crush the life out of them... their bones cracking underneath me... It's like some kind of drug I can't explain."

"But..." Thomas said. "Why?"

Melissa stood back upright. Thomas prepared to stand up himself. However, Melissa pressed the big toe of her right foot onto his body, pushing him back onto the floor.

Thomas tried to push up on her toe, but it was just too big and heavy for him to do anything. That did not stop him from flailing his arms frantically.

"Like a fly in a spider web," Melissa said with a smirk. "It would take me no effort at all to pop you like a grape."

"Melissa-"

"No, shut up. Or I'll-"

Suddenly, a rap song started to play. Melissa sighed and dug into her pant pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She looked at the Caller ID display and sighed, before flipping it open and bringing to her ear.

"Hello? ...Hey, Lauren!" She removed her foot from his body. "...Oh, just here with my date. ...Uh-huh, he's a really nice guy."

Thomas watched as she walked towards her window. There, she looked out of the window as she talked to whoever was on the other side of the line. Thomas knew that this was his chance. He quickly got to his feet and made a dash for the door. It may have been closed, but he figured that he could squeeze himself underneath it. Though it would be quite a task getting out of the house itself, Thomas knew that it would be a risk worth taking if it meant that he could escape from this mad woman.

Unfortunately, he barely made it to the door at all, as he found himself snatched up from the floor.

~~~

Melissa looked down at the tiny man that she caught with her right foot. He was struggling between the big and second toes.

Did he truly think he could escape her domain? It was clear that he still did not know who he was dealing with.

"Hey, let me call you back later," Melissa said into the phone. "He's ready to go to the mall now."

"Ohh!!" said Lauren in an excited tone. "Let me know how things go! If he's a good one or not!"

"Oh, yes. I can tell. He is a good one. One that I'm going to try to keep around for a long time." She laughed. "Anyway, I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Gurl!"

Melissa flipped the phone closed and, to make sure that there would not be anymore interruptions, turned it off before placing it back into her pants pocket. Then, she focused her attention back onto Thomas.

"Well, little man. I didn't think you had the balls to try to escape like that. Unfortunately, that's grounds for punishment."

As soon as she said that, she began to clench her toes together.

~~~

Thomas screamed in pain as her big and second toes closed onto his body and squeezed on him. He felt as if his insides were being squeezed out of his body. This was the worst pain that he had ever experienced in his life.

"Please stop!!" Thomas pleaded between screams.

After a long 10 more seconds of this ordeal, Melissa finally released his now limp body back onto the floor. He did nothing but lay there, staring up to the distant ceiling, which was blurred. Was it because it was so far away? Or was it because of the loss of his glasses? Or maybe it was because he could feel them tearing up. Was he about to cry? He had not cried in a long time, not since his grandmother's funeral 8 years before. Now, here he was, crying not over the passing of a loved one, but over the searing pain of his body as well as the fear that he was to be killed at any moment.

Why now? Why did fate decide to bring his life to an end now? He had so much to live for. Unfulfilled ambitions. His own recreational activities. His friends. His family. Even worse, he would join the many others before him who disappeared without a trace, and his fate would never be found out; therefore his family and friends would never have peace-of-mind.

He closed his eyes and let the tears flow down the sides of his face.

"Look at how pathetic and helpless you are," Melissa said. "Maybe I should just kill you now. Yeah, that's what I'll do..."

Thomas opened his eyes, and saw the bare sole of her right foot descending onto him. He screamed as it rested on to of his body. He found himself struggling underneath the ball of her foot. His face was buried into the flesh of her sole. He tried to scream, but soon tasted her flesh as he opened his mouth. It was truly hell.

Soon, her foot lifted off of his body, and she brought it back to join her other leg. Thomas sat up, breathing heavily and wiping the tears from his face.

"I changed my mind," Melissa said before slipping her right foot back into its flip-flop. "I don't actually want to kill you off so quickly. No... I want to keep you alive for as long as I can. No fun breaking your toys as soon as you get them, right?"

Thomas stared at her as he stood. He was still terrified, but now that feeling was joined by another: hatred.

"You want something to eat?" she asked, giving him a sincere smile, not unlike one she gave him on Wednesday and when he first arrived here.

Thomas could not help but wonder if this was just another trick. He knew that it was, but his stomach growled loudly. It had apparently made its own choice. And yet... "Even if I said yes, you wouldn't give me anything to eat," he said.

"Oh?" Melissa walked to her desk and grabbed a bag of barbeque potato chips from it. She opened it, pulled out a single chip, broke off a small piece, and tossed it near Thomas.

"Eat up," she said with a smile.

Thomas stared reluctantly at the chip in front of him. He did not know what to think, so he did not. He walked towards the chip, grabbed it in both hands, and started to munch on it, all the while keeping his eyes on the watching Melissa. Not a fitting breakfast at all, but what else could he do. He was lucky to get even what she had given him. After finishing up the chip, he was overcome by another sensation: thirst. Understandably so, as the chip was particularly salty.

"Could I..." He said. "Could I get something to drink?"

Melissa walked closer to him. "A drink?"

Thomas nodded.

"Here." She then spat onto the floor beside him.

He was disgusted at what she just did. He stared at the saliva. The thought of actually pulling this filth into his mouth nearly made him vomit. It was worse than him having to lick the blood from her toes. Unfortunately, he had no other choice. He gulped, and reached into the slimy mass, and then pulled out some of it. He then brought it into his mouth, and tried his best to keep the lukewarm liquid down his throat.

"Ewww!!!" Melissa exclaimed. "I can't believe you did that!!"

She then walked to her desk and then pulled out a small bottle of iced tea.

"If you had just refused, I would have been more than happy to give you some of this. But I guess you like my spit better, so I'll keep this to myself."

She then twisted the top off of the bottle and began to chug the contents inside. Thomas was still thirsty, so this sight infuriated him. Even worse, once she was done, she let out a satisfying "Ahh!", as if to taunt him even more.

"You bitch..." Thomas muttered under his breath. Before this moment, he has never called any woman a bitch, partly thanks to his home-training on part of his mother. He intended it to stay that way, but then today happened. He was lucky that Melissa did not hear this, or she would have subjected him to worse punishment and torture than before.

"I'm hungry myself, now," Melissa said. "I only had a breakfast bar, and it didn't help at all." She walked closer to Thomas and knelt down. "That means that I'm done with you for now. Time to put you away."

He flinched as her hands wrapped around him and lifted him off of the floor. She stood upright and then began to carry him in one hand through the room, before reaching the closet door. With her free hand, she opened the door and walked inside.

There was a rack of clothes not too far from the entrance. She shoved the rack aside, revealing more of the closet: a dimly lit lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and four glass cages. Three of them had quite a few people in them. Thomas could barely make them out as people at all though, because of the light and his blurred vision.

She walked to a cage that sat on a chest against the farthest wall. There, she placed him inside. This cage was empty. He was the only life inside of it.

Melissa smiled at him. "Now behave, and I might give you some decent food."

She then turned around and walked away from the cage. She moved the racks of clothing back into place. Afterwards, Thomas could hear the closet door close.

Thomas looked around. The cage he was in had no covering, though since it was so high up, it did not need one. Escape was already impossible for any prisoners inside.

He gave a deep and depressed sigh as he sat onto the glass floor.

This was it. The end of the line. There was no chance of escape. He was stuck here forever, or at least until Melissa decided to put him out of his misery. ...He would rather be dead.

He laid down and began to weep. Though at the very least he would be able to rest his aching body.

"Hey, you!"

Thomas quickly rose and looked around, searching for the source of the voice.

"I'm up here! Above you!"

Thomas turned his head upward.

"If you want to live, climb up!"

Suddenly, a white rope-like fabric fell down from high above into the cage. It was obviously a string, but to him, it was a rope. He stood and started upward for a few more seconds. He did not know what to expect on the other end, but it was better then living in here. He tightly gripped the string and started to climb it as fast as he could, completely ignoring the pain of his body. This must be what an Adrenaline Rush feels like.

~~~

In one of the other cages, the prisoners inside had heard the voice from the ceiling. They started to talk amongst themselves about it, though in contempt.

"Just as you said, they got him."

"Those rats! They take the good and young ones, but leave us down here to suffer!"

"Yeah! Why can't they rescue all of us?!"

"Stupid. Think about it. We're Homeless. Those people don't want to associate with us."

"But that was when we were on the streets. Now, we're all trapped here. We should be looking out for each other, but they ignore us."

"Damn, you're naive. That's how the world works. They look after their own. We need to do the same."