“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE??” Tony shouted while standing in the living room, his face beet red. He turned back and stared at the officers who’d followed him inside the one-story house. An awkward silence pursued until he turned his head and stared at the clothes lying all over the place. Tony kicked a shoe lying next to a pair of crumbled khaki pants so hard it hit the opposite wall, right next to a sooty mark.

“Umm, you’d better not do that, sir…” The officer who’d been driving Tony around that day said timidly, “You wouldn’t want to tamper with a possible crime scene.”

Tony glared at him, looking as if he was about to explode, but he managed to regain his control at the last moment. The officer was right. Tony looked around the living room again. It seemed that this time there were three sets of clothing lying on the ground, and there was no sign of the father. Even worse, they had noticed three pistols as well, all lying close to the clothes. And it smells like something is burning, he thought, looking at the black mark on the wall near the entrance.

“Sir, there’s another set of clothes in one of the bedrooms.” An officer shouted from a corner.

Four more missing persons? Tony thought, collapsing on the sofa in the living room. He knew he wouldn’t get any sleep that night, or the nights after that.

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Bob had spent the past hour and a half staring at Aura’s bed room. He had managed to use the bed sheets to pull himself up on her bed, and was now sitting there, waiting for Aura to come and decide whatever punishment she had in mind for him.

What if she shoves me up her butt? Bob thought, shivering. Of all the possible punishments he had managed to imagine in the past hour and a half, this one was the worst. “Except, maybe being eaten alive?” He said to himself in a low voice, “God dammit!”

He looked  around the small room again. The walls were grey, and a bed and a small nightstand right next to it were all the furniture in the room. Some of Aura’s clothes were lying on the foot of the bed. Bob stood up and approached the edge of the bed to take a look at the floor down there, the drop looked high and soon he felt his head spinning.

The height of a damn bed! He'd thought he would get used to his new size by now, but he found himself being amazed again and again during his exploration around the basement. Everything looked gigantic compared to him, even the small colony of ants he’d found under a book shelf in the small study. He had to keep his distance to avoid any possible dangers from the ants, which shattered whatever was left of his pride as a man instantly. His eye caught the crumbled pair of blue socks with teddy bear designs on them on the floor next to the foot of the bed.

“Pride.” He groaned, scoffing at the thought. “This is a matter of survival now, simple as that.” He convinced himself. He wanted to live, he wanted to get back to his original size, sure, but even more than that, he wanted to live, and any punishment coming from the giant girl could mean death for someone in his size. He walked toward the head of the bed, putting his feet shoulder width apart to maintain his balance on the soft, uneven surface of the mattress. He paused after taking a couple of steps, and looked at the nightstand. He could see small jars of paint on top of it. Nail polish! He concluded, resuming to walk  toward the head of the bed. He climbed on the pillow, and from there climbed on the short wooden bed head. Standing up, he held his arms up horizontally to maintain his balance, and walked slowly toward the night stand. Luckily, there was no space between the bed and the nightstand, and he jumped from the top of the head of the bed onto the top of nightstand with ease. He could now see the items on the nightstand closely.

Let’s see, grey, crimson and black? Hmm… Bob walked around each bottle, thinking which one was Aura’s favorite.

The crimson one is two third empty, Bob thought to himself, scratching his chin, almost the same as the black one…

Bob stopped there, wondering what to do. “Ah, screw it!” he said to the bottles, walking toward the crimson one to see if he could lift it. He concluded that black was too dark, and he hoped that the glossy crimson color would get Aura in a good mood, and make it easier for her to be merciful.

------------------------

Two patrol cars were already parked in front of the step father’s house by the time Jimmy and Martin arrived, and they were forced to spend the entire evening in the car several blocks away. The team’s van was still parked in front of the house, but Martin was relieved when he made sure that no arrests had been made. Only a forensic team had gone inside, and they were taking their time.

The standard procedure dictated that the team must contact their supervisor immediately after the mission regardless of their success or failure, but they had not, and that was the reason Martin had lingered so long in the neighborhood. Martin knew it was against protocol to contact his team, and he couldn’t help wonder what had happened to his men.

Finally, the cops started coming out of the house. Through his binoculars, Martin saw two patrolmen sealing off the entrance with police tape. “Finally!” Martin said, lowering his binoculars, “drive around the block to make sure there are no cops posted around the house. Then we’ll move in to check it out.”

“Got it.” Jimmy said, starting the ignition. The engine roared, and the car moved smoothly along the street. It was getting dark, and the street lights were coming on one after another.

Five minutes later, Jimmy parked the car about 20 feet from the house. Martin got off, so did Jimmy, and they walked down the sidewalk toward the house. The steps leading to the porch were sealed by a yellow tape. Martin and Jimmy vaulted over onto the porch and approached the front door, which cwas losed and was also covered by the yellow tape.  At a closer inspection, Martin found out that the door’s lock was broken. It was his men’s work, no doubt. He pushed the door with his left hand, his right hand on the holster on his belt. The door creaked and turned on its hinges, making the dark living room visible. Jimmy put his hand on a line of tape, which was laid across the middle of the doorway, and held it down to create a space large enough for Martin. He bent his back and squeezed through, his hand still on the holster. Jimmy followed him inside.

Martin took out his flash light and held it with his left hand. The first thing he noticed was a faint smell of gunpowder. Jimmy noticed the same.

“Did they fire their weapons in here?” Asked Jimmy, checking the walls with his flashlight for bullet holes.

“No.” Martin said coarsely, “A couple of shots won’t leave such a strong smell after so long.” Martin walked toward the wall just after the entrance. “Besides,” he continued, fixing his light on a sooty mark on the wall. “That is not done by a gun. Something has exploded here on the wall”

“A grenade?” Jimmy asked, wondering.

“No, there’s no shrapnel mark.” Martin replied, moving on toward the living room. “It was attached to the wall… a booby trap.”

“A booby trap!” Jimmy repeated stupidly. He couldn’t believe his ears.

“Another one there” Martin said, pointing with his flash light on the opposite wall, next to the back door. “But no blood. And the cops carried no body bags outside either.”

“So, our guys just vanished?” Jimmy asked, checking one of the rooms.

“Another mark in this room.” Martin said, ignoring Jimmy’s last question.

They checked the kitchen and the bathroom, and Jimmy took a look at the backyard through the back door. Martin signaled Jimmy, and they went out the house just the way they’d broken in it.

Back in the car, Jimmy couldn’t help but ask again. “What do you think happened to our guys, boss?”

“Well, they were not arrested.” Martin said, looking out the window as the car moved toward the now empty safe house. “And I don’t think they were hurt in the raid either. No blood, no bodies…”

Martin closed his eyes and rubbed them with his gloved hand, thinking. This is ridicules, the cops must have arrived only minutes later than them. Not nearly enough time to hide four bodies and clean the room of any blood. What the hell happened then?

He opened his eyes again, and glanced at his motionless phone.

“I’d better contact the company.” He finally said, “I’m starting to think this job isn’t as simple as we thought it would be.”

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Aura parked her car and got out. She had to walk the rest of the way despite the exhaustion. As she walked toward her auntie’s house, she reveled in all that had happened within the past 8 hours or so. She had almost got killed by four big men, almost got arrested by the cops with 3 mini-men in her purse, not to mention the crushed body in her hand (which she had dumped in a dumpster next to a ladies salon), and had to see that disgusting therapist who always thought he was such a cool friend of the teenagers at the school.

“What a day.” She whispered, as she reached the old dusty house. She looked at the boarded windows as she walked around it. I still miss Aunt Margie. She thought, dragging her tired feet on the grass. She continued to walk until she entered the edge of the forest behind the house. Several meters farther than where the first tree had grown, she knelt down and fiddled with a rusty pad lock on a hatch. She finally managed to get it open, and a dim light rushed out as she raised the moss covered old hatch. She then stepped inside the narrow concrete corridor, taking the lock with her. She closed and locked the entrance behind her, and stepped toward the door at the end of the corridor that led to the old shelter her paranoid grandfather had built during the cold war under his house.

Her soft footsteps echoed in the empty hallway as she walked in the short, empty corridor. She then proceeded to open the door at the end, which creaked and turned on its rusty hinges. She closed the door and descended the 5 steps into the shelter. I wonder if Bob has decided to give up. She suddenly remembered.

“Bob, are you going to surrender?” She said loudly. There was no answer.

Damn it, Bob. I was beginning to like you. She thought, as she put her purse on the sofa. It was still zipped close. She dragged her feet across the room and into her bedroom to take out her clothes, feeling a desperate need of a hot shower after what she’d gone through that day. She decided to try one last time when she was in the bed room. “Bob, this is your last cha….” Her eye caught glimpse of something on her bed. It was a small piece of paper. She picked it up and collapsed on the bed to read it: I surrender. Promise you won’t kill me if I come out.

The words were written in an awful handwriting, as if the writer had parkinson’s disease. She read the small note again, this time more curiously. Is it written in nail polish? She wondered.

“Okay Bob,” she shouted while still sitting on the bed, “I promise I will not kill you. I will punish you for your insolence like I said! But no killing! Promise….”

She then kept silent, listening for a reply. There was nothing. She was about to stand up to look for Bob when she noticed a faint sound from under the bed. She bent down just in time to see Bob appear from under the bed, right between her feet. He was breathing heavily while dragging a bottle of deep red nail polish on the carpet.

“Oh, there you are!” Aura said, more happily than she had intended. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously, still bent down to watch Bob’s effort.

“I… I wish… to apologize…” Bob managed to say between his heavy breaths. The half empty nail polish bottle was by far heavier than what he had expected, and all his muscles were aching despite the fact that he’d saved himself much effort by simply dropping the bottle from the dresser on the bed, and from there on the socks crumbled at the foot of the bed. But dragging the bottle from there to the middle of the bed had exhausted him. His hunger hadn’t helped either.

“I wish to apologize for my escape.” Bob said again, this time louder. “I want to make it up to you. If you would please take off your shoes?”

At first, Aura's tired brain failed to comprehend what he meant to do, but then she realized. “Oh, that’s nice of you!” She said, feeling relieved for the first time that day. She reached for her TOMS and took them off. She then threw them next to her socks and spread and wiggled her toes to let air between them.

Bob was now opening the bottle. He put his feet on either side of the glass and then used his arms and waist to open the cap. Aura was watching him from above. He looks cute, struggling with a nail polish bottle like that, she thought. Bob finally managed to open the bottle and now he was holding the cap and the brush by both hands. He raised the cap above his head and walked to Aura’s left foot on his right. He then lowered the brush, using all his upper body muscles to hold it steady, the vrush it came in contact with Aura’s big toe’s nail. The brush left a large crimson mark. Bob raised the brush again, and this time started from the top of her nail, and slid it all the way down, but then he failed to stop the brush, and the brush continued to slide and painted the tip of Aura’s big toe.

“Damn it!” Bob groaned, looking up nervously to see if the giantess had noticed.

She had.

“It’s okay.” Aura said, taking out a tissue from her pocket. “Wipe it clean with this before it dries out” She then let go of the tissue. It glided down and landed right on top of Bob, covering him. Still nervous, he struggled to take it off his head and get out from beanaeth it, and while doing so he put his foot on the edge of the tissue. He suddenly got hold of the tissue, and pulled at it with force. He felt his foot losing support, and he fell down, the tissue  still covering him.

Aura giggled. “You don’t have to be so nervous.” She said on an impulse, regretting it instantly. I shouldn’t be so easy on him after what he’s done. She reprimended herself.

Bob finally got out from beneath the tissue and tore a piece from it. He then proceeded to wipe the red mark clean from Aura’s big toe. He then picked up the brush and walked toward the bottle to dip it in again.

Looks like this is going to take some time. Aura thought, covering a yawn. She put her pillow behind her, leaning it against the wall. She took another look down between her feet. Bob had almost finished her big toe. “9 more to go.” She told him, trying to keep her voice flat. She then leaned back, resting her back and her head on the pillow. Both her feet were still on the ground, and she could occasionally feel the brush against on her toes. She stared at the grey ceiling for some time and before she knew it, she’d fallen asleep.