Pete and Callum stared wide eyed and mouths agape as Faith simply ground her sneaker back and forth, no doubt making a grisly mess in the center of the model street.

Ellie let out a nervous laugh while the bubbly blonde girl lifted up her foot and exposed its bloody sole to the two boys. “Can you believe that little dude had all this inside him? Blech,” Faith stuck out her tongue in disgust before stepping over the nearest row house and wiping her sole clean on the nearby grass.

Standing up slowly, Ellie glanced around while half-expecting sirens to start blaring from whichever direction the actual village of Traverston was. When the only sound was Faith's girlish giggle as she skipped back onto the model street, Ellie looked up and searched for cameras.

If Lili-Traverston was what she thought it was, there should have been some way for the shrinkees to call for help or for normal people to notice that they were in danger. If not from people than from wild animals or the like. The sparking wire at her foot caught her attention and another laugh bubbled up from her stomach.

“Oh, right,” she smirked, dragging the rubber sole of her boot atop the live wire until it was yanked from the junction box with a faint pop. She shrugged and offered a quiet, “Oh no,” as another nervous laugh escaped her.

Swinging over the fence, she walked across the outer fields of the model village back toward where the boys still stood in utter shock. The sight of Ellie calmly and confidently striding towards him seemed to snap Pete out of it, and he let out a flabbergasted, “Ellie, what are you doing?!”

She rolled her eyes, “Don't worry about it, there's no cameras and I tripped over the power line.” Leaning over the fence, Ellie gave him a quick peck on the lips, “We're not going to get in trouble.”

Faith had bounced back toward them and tugged on Callum's hand to get him to cross over, “Get in trouble for what?”

Callum's eyes widened and he pulled his hands from Faith's grasp to run them through his dark floppy hair. “For the murder!” He cried out, his voice cracking with terror.

Faith laughed, “What?”

Pete blinked and Ellie couldn't help but smile as she watched his familiar 'oh God, they can't be that dumb' look play across his pale freckled face, “Jesus Christ, the man that you just killed!”

The blonde girl cocked her head and her button nose wriggled in concentration. Then she started to laugh, the sound ringing across the model village as she nearly doubled over. “Oh, I get it,” she wiped a tear from her eye as she nodded along, “Right, right, I just murdered that shrinkee. That's...” Rather than finish the thought she simply sighed and shook her head, her chest still shaking with laughter.

“Babe,” Callum reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder, “This might be a protected village. You know, a place where people who shrink can live safely, separately from everyone else.”

Faith blinked, her long lashes fluttering as she tried to process what was being said, “What, like, they're people?”

Pete stammered and Callum reeled back while Ellie couldn't help but laugh.

“Do they not have them in America?!” Callum suddenly asked, the panic clear in his voice.

“Why would...” Faith huffed, “They're shrinkees!”

Pete waved his arms frantically at the American girl and looked at Ellie as if to say 'A little help.'

Ellie sighed, which only made Faith huff again, “It was a system set up right after people started to shrink in the 90s or early aughts. According to my Dad, it was a big deal at the time. Local councils could apply to host one and they got grants to build the places, hire guards and nurses.”

Faith swept her arms around, “So, if this is one of these stupid shrinkee villages where are the guards and nurses and whatever.”

Ellie smirked at Pete, who immediately groaned, “Well, you see, the NHS budget has been slashed repeatedly over the past twenty years because of at best misguided policies-”

“Ellie, c'mon, do we really have time for this!”

Ellie shrugged, “She wanted to know.”

Before Pete could protest again, Faith piped up, “So, what? They just don't have the money for it?”

“Yeah, basically,” Ellie said, scuffing her boot against the grass, “And besides we don't actually know if this is a protected village or just some cutesy little local project.”

“Oi, big 'un!”

The annoyed voice that echoed up from below was comically high pitched and a little shriek of fear followed it as Faith turned around to look for the source of the noise. Ellie simply glanced down, letting her pale blue eyes rest on the shrunken man standing in the middle of the road.

The way his little barrel chest heaved from jogging up to them and his bald head seemed to redden with anger, Ellie figured he had once cut an imposing figure. Now though, dressed in some kind of homespun clothes, with his waist roughly even with the toe of her boot, he looked downright silly. He shook his little fist up at her, which only made Faith laugh in surprise while Ellie smirked.

“You're going to pay for the damages that you've caused! The whole village has lost power!” He then pointed a tiny little finger at Faith, “And you'll be in a jail cell by the end of the day you arrogant little cunt!”

The girl gasped in surprise, like she always did when she heard someone say cunt.

“We're very sorry, sir,” the words came out of Callum in a rush. He squatted down to look through the fence though he still loomed over the shrunken man. “My girlfriend is from America and she didn't know.”

“Ignorance of the law is no protection from the law!” The little man howled, shaking his little fists as he jumped up and down. He then pointed at Ellie, “And this one certainly knew what she was doing!”

“It was an accident,” Ellie replied dryly, “If anything, I could have been much more grievously injured tripping over an unmarked power line.”

The little man stalked right up to the toe of her boot and banged his fist against it, not even making a dent in the sturdy black leather. “Oh, you probably think you're pretty clever, don't you? Well, we'll see how clever you are when the police get here!”

“So you've called the police then?” Ellie leaned forward, leaving the tiny man to stand in her shadow as she an arched an eyebrow.

“Uh, well...”

She wiggled her toes within her boot and the sound of creaking leather made him jump backward.

The little man looked at Callum, his eyes wide with terror, “Do the right thing, boy! Call the police!”

Ellie laughed as she plowed her boot into his chubby little frame and he went tumbling back down the road toward the model village. She scrunched her toes in excitement and kept her hands in her coat pockets while she walked forward. She watched the little man shake with each of her steps, his body wriggling in fear as he looked up and up till he could just barely make out her face.

She brought the thick rubber tread of her boot down onto his legs first, and leaned forward so he could see the smile on her face. “Yeah, no one's calling the police,” she growled as his little legs crunched.

His face turned a bright red while he wheezed and sputtered in pain, his little fists drumming against the ground. His eyes then widened in terror but it wasn't until Faith was standing next to her that Ellie realized he must have felt her approach.

The blonde crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled at him, “Make him apologize for calling me the c-word!”

Ellie laughed and lifted her boot enough so the shrunken man could see his own ground up legs beneath her tread. His little scream was completely overwhelmed by her own voice though, “You heard her. Apologize.”

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” He wailed.

Ellie watched her boot eclipse the sobbing little man and she let it gently settle atop him. She hoped she hadn't overshot his head, so he could feel his own blood dripping over his face while she said, “Not good enough.”

With the faintest push, she smashed through his body with another wet crunch that echoed across the model village.