It had been a long night. A long, sleepless night filled with weeping and reflection of the events that unfolded mere hours ago. It seemed so surreal, so unbelievable, so much so that Charlotte was now convinced that it was all a horrible nightmare. After all, there was just no inconceivable way that Leon was a misogynist murderer with the supernatural power to shrink things. No, Leon was a kind, friendly coworker who would go the extra mile to help her whenever she needed it; a person that she greatly admired.

There was no way that this was her Leon.

She must have knocked her head on something before she left her apartment, and fell unconscious; and that this was all a dream.

...And yet, why won't she wake up?

"...Hey..."

Charlotte did not move, or even acknowledge the voice that was calling out to her.

"...Hey...!"

Charlotte soon found herself being shaken violently. She hasily turned to face the culprit: Kayla. Though it was too dark to see a thing, it was obvious that it was her.

"What?!" Charlotte answered in frustration. "What do you want?!"

"Damn, you don't have to yell at me!" Kayla snapped. "I was just seeing if you were awake."

"Even if I was, you would have woke me right up with that shaking!" Charlotte pulled herself away from Kayla's grasp. "Idiot!"

She heard Kayla sigh. "Whatever." Then, Charlotte heard Kayla's footsteps as she walked away from her.

Charlotte laid back down onto the cardboard floor again, so that she could once again be alone with her thoughts.

After a while, she heard what sounded like scratching against the box's walls, originating from where she assumed that Kayla had walked off to.

"What are you doing now?" Charlotte asked.

"This box is cardboard," Kayla answered. "Maybe I can dig myself out with my nails..."

"...That is a very stupid idea."

"Well, Miss Temper, I don't hear you coming up with any better ideas!"

"If you DO manage to get out, what do you think he's going to do to you when he finds you?"

After a few seconds the scratching noise stalled to a stop.

"Exactly," Charlotte said.

"Well, it's not like staying in here will guarantee us our lives!" Kayla exclaimed. "You know that he wants to kill us! He's probably fighting the urge right now! At least I have a small chance to escape this way!"

"And a big chance of getting stepped on."

"So you're just going to stay in here and do what he says, in order to stay alive?"

"What other choice do I have?" Charlotte sighed.

"Fuck that!" Kayla's voice became indignant. "I have a family! I have a life! I'm not going to stay in here and be treated like some piece of garbage!"

"Kayla..." Charlotte sat up. "Shut up."

"Don't tell me to shut up, bitch!"

"If you keep making so much noise, you'll make Leon mad! Then we'll see just how brave you really are!"

"Braver than you, Miss 'I'm-Happy-Staying-in-Here-With-a-Monster'!"

"At least I'm not stupid enough to throw myself out there in the open!"

"Are you calling me stupid?!"

"If the shoe fits...!"

"Bitch!"

Charlotte heard Kayla approach her in a hastened pace. At this point, Charlotte, stood up and braced herself.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?!" Kayla barked right in Charlotte's face. "I'll kick your ass!!"

"Try me!" Charlotte responded back in rage.

As soon as those words left her mouth, Charlotte felt a sharp sting on her left cheek, resulting from Kayla's firm palm slapping her. Immediately, Charlotte reached for Kayla's hair and began to pull tightly on it, as Kayla then did the same to her.

With both girls screaming, they pulled each other down onto the floor, and began to roll around while still holding onto each other's hair. After a few seconds, the rolling came to a stop, and Charlotte found herself sitting on top of Kayla. Wasting no time, she released Kayla's hair and began to punch her in the face. Kayla whimpered slightly as each punch made contact with her head. However, Kayla soon managed to pull Charlotte off of her and onto the floor.

Before Charlotte could move, Kayla moved on top of her and likewise started throwing punches at Charlotte's face. Her eyes, her forehead, her cheek, all of which fell victim to Kayla's assault. As Kayla withdrew her arm from her most recent punch, Charlotte grabbed onto it and bit into her flesh as hard as she could. Kayla let out a yelp, before she punched Charlotte in the cheek, which caused her to release Kayla's arm from her grasp.

Charlotte then punched Kayla in her chest, right in her stomach. She followed up with two more strikes before she managed to remove her from her body. From what Charlotte could tell, Kayla fell backwards and onto the floor. Charlotte immediately went after her, and once again unleashed a volley of punches onto her adversary. Kayla fought back, and struck her several times with her own attacks.

This fight continued for several minutes, before the both of them finally tired themselves out and laid onto the floor beside each other. They panted heavily, and Charlotte wiped off something moist and sticky from her face; she hoped that it was not blood.

After a few more minutes, Charlotte finally mustered the strength to stand and walk away from Kayla, and headed for one of the corners of the box, holding her arms out in front of her so that she could tell where she was going. Upon reaching her destination, she slouched down against it, and began to drift off.

Perhaps now she would awaken from this nightmare...

~~~

Charlotte awoke to the sound of her world being shaken. Was it an earthquake? Was she back at her apartment? After opening her eyes, she found herself still in the darkness, and whimpered. The shaking around her meant that this box prison was being moved.

"Shit!" Charlotte heard Kayla blurt out from within the darkness.

The rumbling came to a stop, as light began to shine in through the small airholes in the ceiling above. That very ceiling was soon pulled away, bathing the entire enclosure with the light of the world. A light that stung Charlotte's eyes, as she had been in complete darkness for so long.

As her eyes adjusted themselves to the light, she was able to take out a large male figure looming over her. A figure with light brown hair and green eyes, and a handsome face.

A figure that was none other than Leon.

"Good morning, ladies," he greeted. He then squinted his eyes as he looked at Charlotte, and then at Kayla. "Wow, you two are a mess. What happened?"

Charlotte looked down at her right hand, which had a red smear painted on it. No doubt from when she had wiped her face earlier. There were also spots of blood on her clothes. She glanced over at Kayla, and saw her pink shirt stained as well, along with red smears on her face.

"Don't tell me you two got into it?" Leon shook his head. "I already told you two to not do anything to upset each other, remember?"

"That was before you shrunk us!" Kayla yelled out. "Besides," she pointed at Charlotte, "she started it!"

Charlotte winced. "Bitch!"

"Stop it," Leon ordered. "You two are always bickering over stupid things. I know elementary school kids who are more mature than you two."

"Leon..." Charlotte called out to him in a distressed tone. "Why are you doing this to us? Do you really intend to keep us in here like rats?"

"Well, there are two other alternatives," Leon answered. "The first one is to let you go free, but then you'll just go blabbing about what happened here, like I said before. I can't have that. The second is for me to just kill you, and you don't want that, do you?"

Charlotte shuddered, and shook her head.

"Exactly," Leon said. "This way is beneficial to all of us."

"How is this beneficial to us?!" Kayla shouted. "My family is worried about me! I need to see them!"

"Not being able to see your family is the least of your worries, little girl," Leon said to Kayla. "I could smash you anytime I want to. ...But I'm being nice right now, so..."

Leon's closed fist reached down into the box, right at the center. Kayla quickly fled from his approaching hand, probably fearing that he was going to take her out of the box for more of his sick games. His hand opened, and as he pulled it back out, Charlotte and Kayla saw two sandwiches and two packets of Capri Sun set on the floor at the box's center, along with a few sheets of folded paper towel; all of which had been shrunken down in size.

"I can't have my two tiny guests dying of starvation, right?" Leon said, afterwards smiling at the two. "Now, I guess you two need some new clothes, too. After all, yours are dirty with blood and, in Char's case, my fluids. I'll see what I can find for you two."

Leon then stood upright, and then pushed the still-uncovered box back under his bed with his foot, though not as far underneath as Charlotte assumed that they were before, as there was still a pretty significant amount of light shining in. Then, she heard Leon's footsteps depart from his room, off to do whatever he had planned.

The two women looked at the food that had been placed into the box, before they approached and then fell upon it. Charlotte had not eaten in hours, and her stomach was growling like a lion. She grabbed a sandwich--ham and cheese to be exact--and a packet of Capri Sun, and began to indulge in the first meal of her imprisonment; perhaps of her new life. Kayla did the same.

They consumed their food in silence, with not a word to each other at all.

Was this truly a nightmare? Charlotte was not so sure anymore. With every passing minute, she was becoming ever more convinced that this was real.

~~~

Having stopped inside of a thrift store not far from his apartment, Leon grabbed a few sets of clothes from the women's side of the store, and packed them into his cart. The clothes looked like they would fit Charlotte and Kayla after he shrunk them down to their size. If they did not fit, then that would not be much of a problem for him, either.

He looked around. There were not too many people in the store at the time, especially not this early in the morning, and those people were off in other sections minding their own business. So luckily, he did not have to deal with people staring at a 20-something-year-old man piling women's clothes, and asking questions.

He made his way to the front desk, where the cashier stood: a young Asian woman with short black hair and a petite build. As he approached her, she looked at him, and then his cart, and then at him again with a curious look on her face.

"You're... buying these?" she asked.

"They're for my cousin," Leon answered as he placed the clothes onto the desk. "She made me come out here and buy her a few pieces of clothes."

"Yeah, but..." The cashier grabbed a slightly ragged orange and white striped T-shirt from the clothes that he pulled out. "You sure she wouldn't rather have you go somewhere more... high-class?"

"I don't have the money for that, what with bills and paying rent."

"...I guess..." She shrugged.

Leon watched as she rung up each of the merchandise that he had chosen, and then afterwards quoted him his balance.

"That'll be $13.52," she said.

Leon pulled out his wallet, and handed her a $10 and a $5 bill. "Keep the change."

"Whaa? Really? But I thought that you needed the money?"

"Hey, I'm not that poor."

"...Sorry," she apologised as she pressed a few buttons on the cash register.

"Don't worry about it, Mindi," Leon said, after taking a closer look at the nametag on her shirt.

She smiled at him as she handed him his receipt. "Not often such a nice-looking guy calls me by my first name here."

"Are you hitting on me?" Leon asked in a sly tone.

"N-no! It's just-" Mindi seemed flustered. "It's nice to hear a customer call me by my name."

"I see..."

"Well, um... You want a bag, right?"

"Yeah."

Mindi grabbed a large plastic bag from below the desk, and began to fold one of the clothes.

"You don't need to fold them," Leon said. "I'll take care of that later."

"Oh, what a relief..." Mindi then stuffed each of the clothes into the bag, before handing it to him. "Well then, have a nice day, and don't be a stranger around here." She smiled.

"Thanks," Leon replied. "I might be back soon."

She nodded, before Leon took the bag and headed for the store's entrance, and exited the store. Then, he walked to his car--parked near the entrance, right next to a handicap parking spot--and stepped into the car. He threw the bag into the back seat, and started up the ignition. At that point, he looked up in front of him, and noticed Mindi standing at the door inside of the store, and looking towards him.

Leon laughed. "That girl has fallen head-over-heels for me, and all it took was me calling her by her name. I don't blame her, though. Maybe I should come back, and swoop her up as well."

Indeed, she would make a nice addition to his collection. She would be Number Three of "Leon's Ladies"; she would have been Number Four had Charlotte and Kayla had not been so insubordinate. As bored as he had gotten with Jessica, he was starting to regret snuffing her out so soon. Perhaps the added company could have pulled her out of her unresponsiveness.

He shrugged. "What's done is done." He then pulled out of his parking space, drove out of the lot, and then onto the road and back towards his apartment.

~~~

Charlotte sat against one of the cardboard walls of her prison, having since finished her meal. The box was quiet; both her and Kayla had not spoken a word to each other at all. Charlotte found that remarkable, as Kayla seemed to have a habit of saying the wrong things at the worst times. Even yesterday, when Leon was toying with her.

Her hunger had been somewhat satiated for the time being, but now her body was giving her a different sensation.

She had to relieve herself.

Leon seemed to not have fitted the box with a halwfway decent way for any prisoners to use the bathroom; either it never crossed his mind, or he just did not care. Did he expect them to go in the corners, like they were truly rats or something? Not only that, but there would be no privacy, and the stench would soon become overwhelming once the waste started to build up. No doubt that there were already signs of such usage by the previous victim Jessica.

So, for the time being, she was holding it in. At least until it became unbearable.

"Fuck!" Kayla suddenly blurted out, which took Charlotte by surprise. "I gotta use the bathroom!"

"Why don't you go in one of the corners?" Charlotte suggested.

"What do I look like, some kind of hamster?! No way!!"

"You have to go really badly?"

"Yes!"

"Then you don't really have a choice, do you? Unless you want to pee on yourself."

"Of course not! But..." Kayla whimpered a bit, before she looked around, at Charlotte, and then stood up and slowly edged her way to the farthest corner from the two. Upon reaching it, she turned around and crouched down. At that point, Charlotte turned away and focused her attention elsewhere.

Today was Saturday. She thought about what she would usually be doing that day. Probably not awaken until after noon. Then, either watch TV, talk with her friends over the phone, or go out to the mall or movies. Speaking of her friends, she knew that once they tried to call her, but could not get a hold of her, they would know that something was up, and may even try to investigate. After all, she DID excitedly call them the day before to announce her "date" with Leon. Once they found out that she was missing, they would at least know where to start, or who to start with.

It was only a matter of time.

But had Leon anticipated that possibility? Did he already have a plan to evade the authorities? After all, he had not killed her, he merely shrunk her and placed her in a box. Sure, Charlotte would be considered missing by all, but no one would ever think that she had also been reduced to the size of a small doll.

Furthermore, if any of her friends happened get too close to the truth, Leon would probably shrink them as well.

Charlotte had no idea just how far Leon was willing to go to cover his tracks, to ensure that no one would discover his horrific secret.

She wondered why Leon turned out to be such a misogynist. She wondered what made him look down on the female half of the human race. He showed no signs of such ideals while at work--in fact, he seemed more willing to help not only her, but most of her other female coworkers. Finding out that he had such contempt for women, and that he was willing to kill them like bugs as well, was a shock to her psyche, especially after she had lusted after him for so long.

Suddenly, she heard something off in the distance, what sounded like a door being shut. Then, approaching giant footsteps.

Leon had returned.

She gulped and stood up, and looked nervously towards the top of the box, where she would catch glimpse of him at any second.

Indeed, she did not have to wait long, as she soon saw the giant standing over the box, holding in his left hand a large bag that looked to be filled with something; most likely the clothing that he said that he was buying for them.

"I'm back," he said as he kneeled down and pulled the box out from under his bed. "And I got you both a little something."

With his right hand, he turned its palm towards the bag, and then a blue flash eminated from it and bathed the bag with its light. In an instant, the light had disappeared and, after a few seconds, the bag began to reduce in size. Leon placed the bag in the middle of the box as it shrunk smaller and smaller until it stalled at the tiny women's current scale of size.

"Dig in there and pick out whatever you like," Leon said.

"Leon..." Charlotte called.

"Yes?"

"What are we supposed to do about going to the bathroom?"

Leon looked towards the corner where Kayla stood near. "Looks like Kayla has the right idea."

"But that's disgusting! All of that is going to build up and make a huge mess, and stink up the box, too."

"Jessica never complained about this. She just remained quiet for most of the time." Then, Leon smiled. "...But since I like you, Char, I'll make an exception. I'll put down some tissue for you to go on. How does that sound?"

"That sounds nice..." Charlotte answered.

Leon nodded. "Good. Oh, and you girls might be getting a new friend soon. It seems that that clerk at the store I went to has the hots for me already. I'm going to bring her over here and... well, test her a bit, before you all can have your little girl talks."

Charlotte gasped at this news. "Why, Leon?! Why are you doing this to us?! Why are you going after women?!"

Leon sighed. "I said last night: Women are below men, and this is the perfect way to show it; by making you so small that I could crush you with no effort at all. It's the way it should be; it's the way of nature. The strong overpower the weak, and men are strong while women are weak. You get it now?"

"That's bullshit!" Kayla chimed in. "We are not weak! We can be just as strong as you bastards! You're just using some superpower to make us small because you know that, deep down, we would wipe the floor with you!"

Leon stared at Kayla for a few seconds, before letting out a laugh. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that, little girl. If it helps you sleep at night be my guest. Just don't go acting like you're better than me. Or else I'll have to put my foot down on the subject. Literally."

"How long do you plan to keep this up?" Charlotte asked. "My friends know that I was seeing you last night, and once they find that they can't contact me, they'll know that something's up."

"That's easy," Leon answered. "I can easily hide you two, and the box. Plus, I can be a very persuasive. People believe me. After that's settled, I can do with you whatever I want."

"Leon..." Charlotte fell to her knees. "Why?"

"Anyway, I'll be back for you two later. I have some fun planned for us later."

"'Fun'?!" Kayla said. "What kind of fun?!"

"That's my secret. In the meantime, you can have at those clothes." With that being said, he stood back up, and then walked out of sight, and judging from the sound of his footsteps fading away, he had left the room as well.

Charlotte once again walked towards the center of the box, where his latest "offering" had been placed. She reached inside of the bag and pulled out the several articles of clothing that were inside. They all looked as if they had been worned before, like he had gone to a thrift store instead. Though she figured that he would not have wanted to spend much money on those he found to be insignificant anyway.

Kayla joined her as she looked through the clothes, and picked out what she liked best.

"What an arrogant son of a bitch," Kayla said. "I'd like to see how he reacts to me kicking him around and making him lick my feet, before I crush him like a bug. I would love that."

"...Yeah..." Charlotte agreed. "...But I wouldn't kill him. I'd probably just keep him as a little toy or something."

"...You are such a tool."

"Whatever, Kayla." Charlotte opted not to take her bait and escalate the insult into another fight.

Despite everything that Leon had done to her thus far, she could not bring herself to snuff out the life of any human, no matter how horrible they are. Especially not in a manner more fitting for a roach found on the kitchen floor. It seemed that she had not completely gotten over her infactuation with Leon. There was still a small hope that this nightmare would end soon, but that hope was almost completely diminished.

She had several unanswered questions cycling through her mind. For one, what happened in his life to make him so hateful towards women? Was it a bad experience with an exgirlfriend? Family issues? Or did he just spontaneous pick up these beliefs for little to no reason at all? In addition, just how did he gain the fabled ability to shrink whatever he wishes? Furthermore, what was the extent of this power? How long would it be before Leon bored of them as well, and killed them just like he did with Jessica the night before?

There was one thing that she was sure of, however: She was in for one hell of a ride.