The man cried out in anguish as he felt the immense heat applied to his leg. Though it only lasted a few seconds, it felt like an eternity. The result left his skin dark red and blistered all over. Unable to stand, he could only attempt to crawl. But even the slightest movement made him scream in pain. He prayed for an end to his agonizing nightmare, questioning what he had done to deserve such ruthless abuse.

Using his arms, the injured man dragged himself forward on the cold, solid ground, desperately trying to elude the menacing torch looming over him. It was wishful thinking, for he had no chance to escape with two immense walls of flesh surrounding him. The two pale mountains converged into black shorts, with the apathetic face of the young woman responsible for his affliction peering above, beyond a white sweatshirt.

The uncaring 19-year-old was Zuri, who was spending the evening alone because all her friends were too busy to hang out with her. Despite her various efforts to find ways to entertain herself, she was still overcome with boredom. Amidst her lonely night, she sat on the floor of her garage, taking a smoke break.

On the ground, between her slender legs, lay a tiny man she had been tormenting. The pitiful male withered in pain from his burnt limb, caused merely by her cigarette, as he attempted to crawl across the floor with his arms. Surrounded by her massive thighs, with nowhere to flee or hide, his fate was unavoidable. He was nothing more than her toy to be abused and played with.

With a blank expression, Zuri placed the end of the nearly extinguished cigarette directly on his arm, which, like his leg, quickly turned dark red. Only this time, she used much more force in her attempt to put out the blaze. The man screamed bloody hell as the fire burned through the layers of his skin, though his wailing cries were nothing more than annoying squeaks to the giant goddess that was Zuri.

“Ugh. Shut up already.” Zuri said, exasperated, as the man continued to scream in agony. When her patience ran out, she grabbed him by his burnt leg and flung him to the other end of the garage, not knowing or caring what would happen to him. As she sighed in boredom, she flicked away her cigarette, which, like the man, was nothing but a piece of disposable rubbish to her.

With nothing else to do in the garage, she decided to head back inside. She stood up, brushing the dirt and dust from the concrete floor off her shorts and legs as she rose. She walked into the adjoining kitchen, carrying her phone and a peculiar red plastic cup, which she eventually placed on the small round table in the middle of the room. In the mood for another beer, she went to the refrigerator to grab a cold one.

When Zuri returned holding a fresh can of beer, she took a seat. Wasting no time, she set the chilly beverage down and turned the plastic cup over, dumping the contents onto the table. Four different men landed with a thud on the hard wooden surface. Each looked on with fear at the imposing goddess before them as they cautiously rose to their feet.

“Come on, do something! Entertain me!” Zuri demanded of the tiny men who stood in place, trembling with nervousness. The cold, predatory look in her eyes made them realize just how threatening she was. One man ultimately decided to make a break to the other end of the table, desperate to escape whatever cruel fate she undoubtedly had planned for him.

“Ugh. Idiot.” She sighed at his pathetic attempt at escape, recognizing his foolishness rather than his bravery. With her arm barely outstretched, she plucked him up and, without hesitation, dropped him into her mouth. One quick gulp was all it took to send the squirming morsel down her throat into the ominous void of her stomach. The others looked on, shaking intensely, as she sipped her beer to wash down the taste. With a clear throat, she turned her attention to address them.

“Now, anyone else want to try that?” She asked, the prominent smell of her alcoholic breath wafting over each man as they all stood obediently silent. “Good. Now like I said, entertain me!”

Again, her demand was met with no response. Two men stood utterly still, trying not to upset her like the previous man had, while the other was nearly hysterical. Unlike the two calm men, typical young adult food-stock males of average build, the emotional man was young, perhaps a teenager, with a smallish frame. Though he tried to keep his composure, the horrifying image of his fellow male being swallowed alive was seared into his mind. Hiding his tears, he stared up at the annoyed goddess.

“Ugh.” Zuri whined after a few seconds of silence. Her eyes darted around the kitchen, thinking of ways to entertain herself, until something came to mind. She stood up, leaving the men to themselves, and walked to one of her cupboards in search of a particular item.

“There!” She exclaimed in excitement when she found what she was looking for. Toothpicks. She remembered the idea from one of her summer hangouts with her friends. They had organized a fighting tournament where they pitted a group of men against each other, giving them only a toothpick to use as a weapon.

To Zuri, a toothpick was insignificant. If she accidentally got poked with one, she might bleed a little. But it was just a minor inconvenience. To men, however, it was a lethal weapon. It was enough to puncture through the body and, depending on which organ was struck, it could be fatal.

After grabbing three toothpicks, she returned to her seat at the table, where the three men had not moved from their original spot, fearful of what they had seen happen to the other man from earlier who had tried to escape. Their uneasiness grew as they studied the sinister grin that crossed her face, foretelling a grim future ahead.

“Okay, so here’s the deal. We’re gonna play a game. Survivor.” She explained excitedly. “You’ll each have to fight each other to the death, and whoever is the last alive, wins a prize. Let’s see, how about, if you survive, I’ll set you free? Good deal, right?” It was a lie. She had no intention of setting any of them free, but she had to give them some incentive to fight.

“To make things fair, you’ll each be given a toothpick as a weapon. Oh, and if you fall off the table, you lose.” She instructed as she placed a toothpick before each of them. “Now, you’ll begin when I say go.”

Understanding the task at hand, each man prepared himself and picked up the long, pointed object before him. The youngest male struggled, his arms barely able to lift the four-inch toothpick more than twice his size, while the other two readied their weapons.

“Annnnndddd go!” Zuri yelled, her piercing voice nearly drowning out their hearing. Instantly, one of the older males bolted toward the other, leaving the young male alone. With a quick thrust, his target had little time to react, unable to defend against the sharp weapon that pierced his abdomen. The toothpick the other man was holding fell to the table as his body went limp.

“Ooooh good one!” Zuri praised before reaching down to grab the wounded man. The surviving man, still clutching the other end of the toothpick pierced through his comrade, let go immediately as her giant finger approached.

After grabbing the toothpick, she raised it to her face as she observed the bloody carcass. The slight twitching indicated the man may have still been alive, but she knew that even if he was, he wouldn’t survive much longer anyway. She placed the toothpick in her mouth and slurped down the warm body before licking up the remaining blood, giving her tongue a tingling sensation. Like the previous man, he was sent to the dark depths of her stomach, soon joined by more alcohol as she washed his taste with her beer.

Meanwhile, the other man looked on, realizing he could have easily met the same fate. Noticing that his previous target had dropped his weapon when stabbed, he quickly grabbed it before shifting his focus to the younger male still alive. Before he could be considered the victor, one obstacle remained.

The older man took his time walking to the younger one, who was shaking, his scrawny arms seemingly incapable of swinging the long toothpick. The older one knew it would be an easy kill. Once he was close to him, he raised his weapon. Before he could lunge at the young male, however, a large object crashed in front of him.

“Okayyyy, that’s enough.” Zuri teased as she placed the red plastic cup over the weaker man, protecting him from the older, stronger one. She knew he wouldn’t even have put up a fight. It would have been boring, so she had a better idea. “We all know you would have won, so I’ll just save you the trouble.”

Zuri rose from her seat as she lifted the tiny man with her fingers and placed him on the kitchen floor, several feet from the table.

“A deal’s a deal. You’re free to go.” She said. The tiny man at her feet stood still, unable to comprehend what was happening. As he looked around the vast room he was in, it was not quite the freedom he had in mind.

“Well? You better go before I change my mind.” Zuri teased, causing the man to snap back to reality. He immediately bolted in the opposite direction, away from Zuri, in a run for his life. A sense of happiness brought a smile to his face as he realized he was finally free from the cruelty he had faced all his life.

As far as Zuri was concerned, the man looked like any other bug crawling around on the kitchen floor. It took him several seconds just to run across one tile. She let him get a few feet in front of her before letting out a devilish smile on her face.

“Mmmm, I changed my mind.” Zuri smirked as she stepped with her right foot toward the fleeing man. She slammed her foot down, ending his life instantly.

“Plop!” She giggled as she twisted her foot, ensuring the man was completely pulverized. To clean up the mess, she walked over to the counter to grab some paper towels.

She lifted her foot, revealing her filthy bare sole, littered with dirt from the garage floor, and the bloody remains of the pathetic man on the ball of her foot. Using a damp paper towel, she wiped her foot clean and scrubbed off the blood on the kitchen floor. When she returned to the lone man at the table, still under the plastic cup, she slid the cup closer to her and lifted it up, revealing the still-cowering man.

“God, you’re pathetic. By the way, I saved your life, you know.” She mocked as he slowly looked up at her, his eyes filled with immense fear. Zuri stared at him for a bit before leaning closer across the table. She pursed her lips and let out a stream of spit that fell right on top of him, knocking him down. He wriggled in response, trying to free himself from the sticky, disgusting liquid.

Giggling at the sight, Zuri pondered what to do with him. At first, she wanted to eat him, but maybe it wasn't the best taste to eat him covered in spit. A glance at the time on the nearby microwave revealed it was almost midnight. Maybe the little guy would be fun in bed, she thought.

Eagerly, she grabbed the sticky man and walked over to the sink. At the turn of a handle, water poured from the faucet. She ran her finger underneath the water to ensure it was at a decent temperature. While it was always entertaining to torture men under freezing or near boiling water, she had better plans for this one. More, ‘playful’, plans.

The man was spared for the time being, but his night was only getting started. Zuri had a lot more in store for him…