Three: History
It is often asked why do some people feel the need to commit a crime, while others can go there entire life without ever having an urge to break the law. The simple answer to this is desensitization. As A person gets more and more use to seeing something done without the consequence, they eventually get to the urge to break the law.
This has become more prevalent in today's society because of television, movies, books, and the media in general. Every day you see and hear about people doing things that are wrong and never see the part of the television show or movie where the person ends up spending their remaining days in jail. You don't see that time when they have to struggle to look their family in the eyes over what they have done.
Perhaps that is what we have here. It is easy to look at what Jamie has done thus far and call her evil, mean, unethical however; these acts may have very well started out innocently. A person doesn't wake up to become a monster. A person's conditioned to become one.
This all started at a very young age. Jamie's mother was a stripper; it wasn't what one would call honorable or proud work. However, it is what her mother did to provide for her two young daughters and that in and of itself is quite noble. As no one sets out to become a stripper, as a child you don't look up at your father and say daddy I want to give lap dances for a living.
Since Jamie and her sister Krystal's mother was gone at night, this meant there father was left to take care of them at night. Fathers take care of children quite often, however most fathers don't tuck their kids into bed without any clothes on. This went on for a couple of years and Jamie being young didn't know any better. She didn't know all fathers didn't play with their kids in bed. It wasn't until she asked a friend of hers about that she learned it was wrong.
That night when Jamie was being tucked in she told her father that what he was doing was wrong. That her friend's parents didn't do this. This led to Jamie's father backhanding her until she was defeated and then he would have her way with her. As she became older, Jamie still knew this was wrong however, she feared for her younger sister Krystal. She knew if she would resist or leave that it would only lead her down a path of devastation.
So Jamie endured, she remained hopeful that one day her mother would come in and whisk her away from this hellish nightmare. Those prayers ended one night when Jamie's mother never came home. She was happy at first as she knew her mother was getting hit just as much, if not more than as was she however, she didn't understand why her mother didn't at least take her and Krystal with her. It wasn't until the later the next afternoon that she discovered her mother hadn't left her at all. A drunk driver killed her.
Jamie was now a teenager when this happened and her sister Krystal just a couple years from being one as well. Both fully comprehended what had happened and understood the situation. When it came time for the funeral, Jamie wanted to say how remorseful it was, how tragic that something like this had to happen. However, she could merely look down at her mother's casket and say good for you.
The only positive aspect in her mother's death was the person who killed her was quite well off and the incident was settled with a handsome sum of money paid out to her father. While this was indeed a silver lining in that there life became much easier financially, and many of the struggles they had with bills were now gone. This also meant her father was home even more. Jamie was being taken advantage of on a more regular basis.
This all changed on the summer of her junior year of high school. Jamie had taken a job as what amounted to a janitor for a small science lab. After the lab crew was finished for the day Jamie would go in and wipe down the tables, empty the wastebaskets, etc. It wasn't a great job but Jamie viewed it as a godsend as it got her out of the house and away from her father.
As the summer went on, one of the younger scientists begun staying later, and later into the evening hours working on a project you all know quite well. It was a matter reduction unit. Its goal was to take non-organic matter and reduce it a miniscule state. Thus reducing the harm of toxic waste materials, garbage, the amount of land needed to grow food, amongst many other noble uses.
Jamie however, cared little about these uses as she just loved the feeling she got when she conversed with the young scientist. She felt for the first time in her life loved and cared for. However, what he felt was nothing more than camaraderie. Jamie had mistaken the feelings he gave as she was desperately searching for something or someone to cling too. Therefore, as she tried to move things along to the next level he merely gave her the letdown of a lifetime.
Luckily, she was use to being hurt, and having feelings unreturned. She had experienced this for a lifetime. As the young scientist completed his work, Jamie completed her plan. As she was going to be hurt no more. So when she asked to see a demonstration of his project the young man suspected nothing as this young girl had been watching this project from the beginning. He took it as nothing more than innocent curiosity.
Jamie watched the young man shrink the non-organic objects down to minute sizes right before her eyes. It was truly was a sight to behold as she literally saw a full sized office chair shrink down to something that looked to be out of a dolls house. She goaded the young scientist to explain how it could shrink only non-organic matter.
The next few weeks went by faster than ever before for Jamie. She buried herself in science books learning what she needed to manipulate the young scientists' device. She finally had her breakthrough and spent the next putting her plan into action. Jamie thought everyone had left for the day so she started modifying the machine so it would shrink organic matter.
As she finished the device the young scientist had came in to retrieve his forgotten notes. Jamie fired the device at him and much to his surprise he found himself shrinking down to what would seem like nothingness. In reality he was nothing but a few inches in height, however taking a six foot tall being and making him a couple of inches tall would appear to turn him into near nothingness.
The tiny man was shocked, confused but most of all upset. He ran towards the young janitor's shoe. He kicked, punched, and assaulted the woman's shoe. Jamie felt nothing as she merely nudged him with her shoe. This tiny move on her part sent him sliding across the floor. A smile crept across her face. She had really done it. Jamie knew in her hands she held freedom, she held the power to remove her father from not only his seat at the head of the household, but remove him from society as well.
Jamie, took the tiny scientist home with her. Even though she was well past her curfew and knew she was sure to get hit pretty good for her late arrival she found herself not worried for the first time. As Jamie knew, she just had to lay in wait. She ordered the scientist, her first miniature person to create the crown jewel of her operation. A simple yet effective method of tagging her tiny people, as she fully realized the danger in letting someone she had shrunk run off.
The tiny scientist didn't quite understand why she would want such a system. After seeing how her father treated her and his sister. The tiny man couldn't completely blame the young woman for the actions she took even if they were extreme and wrong. Even without understanding the true purpose behind his invention, the tiny man created a device to her specifications and orders.
Now you may be thinking how could he be so stupid. How could he create something without knowing or fully thinking things out. You must understand that it is the nature of science itself. Why was the atom bomb created even though it would devastate millions of families? A scientist simply creates. He or she feels challenged and driven to create things even though they may harm people as they don't think about the big picture. They just want to see if they can make it. The idea of making the impossible, possible is what drives science.
The young scientist spent months constructing exactly what she wanted. His small size meant his captor had to help with several sections however soon the tagging and mental adjustment system that you witnessed poor Matt had just go through had been created. Unfortunately, the young scientist was her first text subject.
The young scientist fully realized her intentions in that moment. He realized what a fool he had been. How young, naive and stupid he was, however even with that realization it was much too late. He was a slave to this young woman and he himself had made it possible.
A mere three weeks after Jamie had turned eighteen she used the device on her father. She claimed he disappeared and the police suspected nothing as thinking that a person was physically shrunk and then taken away is simply not an option that the police generally consider for the average missing person.
As a few more weeks drifted by Jamie became the legal guardian of her younger sister Krystal. The money from her mother's death shifted from her missing father's bank account to her own. Jamie spent the next few months extracting her revenge on her father. Years of torment and suffering that he had put her through, she got to return in full. As the days turned months, the revenge was getting more and more severe however, Jamie realized the thrill was gone. She still hated her father desperately as did her younger sister Krystal. However she no longer felt the need to punish him or torture him.
It was that evening that Jamie merely picked up her father and stared at him coldly. She could see the terror in the tiny man. He desperately begged for forgiveness from not only him but also her sister Krystal. Krystal merely turned her attention towards the television not even paying heed to her now tiny fathers pleading. Jamie carried him up the stairs and closed her bedroom door her father expected the worst. What he got something completely different. She merely released her grip and let the man she no longer considered human let alone her father fall into messy abyss that was her bedroom floor.
He looked up at his daughter terrified of what she was going to do. Thoughts of being crushed like a bug crossed his mind. After surviving these months of torture to only be squashed like a bug, how pathetic he thought. Instead of crushing him to death like he suspected Jamie merely walked out of the room. The first few times when his daughter returned, he quaked in fear as she walked about the room. He was afraid of what she might do. However as a time went on he realized that he was a part of a far worse punishment. He was being left in his own home and no longer tortured as he was now completely ignored, forced to live off the land. His only worry now was just making sure he avoided his children's footfalls.
So as you can see, these actions while they are wrong are not the actions of an evil person, just a person who has only known a very simple concept, strong rule the weak. Jamie's father was stronger than her so he could abuse her, please himself with her. However in the end the upper hand was hers. Those ideals are very nearly human nature, the stronger rule over the weak. You can't completely blame someone who is merely following the ideals, norms, and values that they have experienced throughout their life.
While it is hard to blame a person who has had these experiences, you still cannot justify the actions they have taken. Especially if you're from one of the families who have been effected. The misery someone else has felt could never excuse or make up for the loss of a husband, son, daughter, child, etc.
Now if you look at her actions on a larger scope of things is what she is doing really worse then what the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Persians, etc. all did. They ruled over the weak, turned conquered civilizations into slaves. They forced other countries to swear allegiance. Is that not what is happening here? How can the actions of Jamie be thought of any different historically.
However, whether you look at her actions as excused or inexcusable what she has crafted here is nothing short of amazing. Matt is going to find out along his journey towards enlightenment if he views his masters as devils or gods.