The week went by rather uneventfully, as it was now just after noon on Thursday. The doorbell rang, and Claudia, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen, dried her hands and rushed to the front door. She peeked through the door's peephole, before opening the door. Standing outside was none other than her ex-husband, Edgar, a dark-skinned man in his early 50's with more grey hair than she remembered on his head, beard and mustache. He wore a long dark grey coat and carried a black suitcase. His face was painted with a warm, yet serious, smile.

"Edgar!" Claudia said in a slighty surprised tone.

"Hello, Claudia," Edgar greeted. "Sorry it took so long, but I didn't get your message until yesterday. I took a private jet and got here as fast as I could."

"Edgar, thank you... Come in."

Claudia led Edgar into the house, and then closed the door behind her.

"...How have you been?" Edgar asked. "I mean... Since you got free from Melissa?"

"I'm still trying to get my life back in order," Claudia replied. "I had to call my friends and family and tell them that I'm okay. Some visited, so I had to make sure that Melissa was out of sight."

"Out of sight? What do you mean by that? Where is she, anyway? Work?"

Claudia shook her head. "Two of the people she tortured managed to shrink her, and from there... We were free."

Edgar stared at her. The look on his face made it seem as if she had done a serious wrong against him.

"Where is she, now?" he finally asked.

"She's in the kitchen."

"Ah. Alright, then." Edgar walked past Claudia, and into the living room. Claudia followed him through the living room as he made his way into the kitchen.

The two walked to the kitchen table, where, right in the middle, sat a glass jar upon its surface. Inside was Melissa, who had her back turned against the two as she sat against the glass wall.

Edgar approached the jar, and tapped on it three times. Melissa turned around, and, even from where she was standing Claudia could tell that Melissa was at first surprised, but then happy to finally see her father.

"Hello, Little Princess," Edgar said with the strongest tone of affection on his voice. "I guess now I can call you that now, can't I?"

Melissa said something, though Claudia could not completely hear what it was. Though whatever it was evoked a chuckle from Edgar.

"Do you want me to get the Shrink Ray?" Claudia asked.

Edgar turned around. "Yes."

"Okay."

Claudia turned around and made her way out of the kitchen. Before she left, she looked back towards Edgar and Melissa, who were exchanging warm words with one another.

Having walked upstairs to the second floor, Claudia made her way into Rebecca's room. Rebecca laid on her bed while reading a book and with the headphones attached to her iPod over her ears. Ever since the ordeal with Melissa, she had been doing a lot of reading, and that continued on even after she was freed; so much so that she did not even try to reconnect with her friends, nor did she exchange a too many words with the family that came to visit. It seemed that the whole ordeal had left her a bit antisocial.

Rebecca looked towards the doorway as Claudia entered the room, and removed the headphones from her ears.

"What's up?" Rebecca asked.

"Edgar is here," Claudia responded.

"Oh," Rebecca said in a somewhat disappointed tone. "...So I guess he wants the Shrink Ray."

"Yes. Where is it?"

Rebecca placed her opened book onto the bed, face down so that she did not lose her page, and stepped off onto the floor. From there, she got down on all fours and crawled halfway under her bed. Seconds later, she pulled herself back out, but with a closed shoebox in her hands. She stood back up to her feet, and then handed the box to Claudia.

"...So, Melissa's going to be big again?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes, of course," Claudia replied.

"...That's too bad."

"And why is that?!"

"Because... I don't like Melissa."

Claudia gasped. "How could you not like her?! She's your sister!"

Rebecca sat on her bed. "She was, but she messed it up. If she didn't go batshit insane with that thing, we would still be the loving sisters and daughters that you'd love to have."

"No, Rebecca! We're a family, no matter what! We're going to get past this!"

"...Wow... You're delusional." Rebecca laid back on her bed and picked up her book. "Is that all you need me for?"

"Aren't you going to come down and greet Edgar?"

"Why? He's not my father." With that, Rebecca shifted her headphoned back onto her ears, and focused back onto her book. "And close the door when you leave."

Claudia sighed. She found it quite hard to bare the fact that Rebecca was no longer the same teenager that she was before she was shrunken by Melissa. In fact, since then, she did not even see her crack even the tinest of smiles since. However, deep down, she did not want to give up hope that, one day, she would have her old daughter back. Both of her daughters, actually.

Claudia turned around, and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her as per Rebecca's request. From there, she made her way back downstairs, and was soon back in the kitchen, where Edgar and Melissa seemed to be talking. The jar was tipped to its side, and Melissa was now standing on the table's surface. Both of them looked towards her as she approached the two of them.

"You're back," Edgar said. "...Say, I haven't seen Rebecca yet. Where is she?"

"She's sleeping," Claudia lied. "I didn't want to wake her."

"Oh." Edgar looked at the box she had in her hands. "So, the Shrink Ray's in there?"

Claudia nodded, and then held out the box towards Edgar. "Here."

Edgar reached out with both hands and took the box from her hands. He then placed it on the table, and opened it. He then marveled at the device that was inside.

"...Ahh... Model F-398." He turned his head back towards Claudia. "This one is outdated, you know. We've made many advances to the Shrink Ray." He looked back towards the box. "Now, you can control just how small you want the object... or person. There's also a switch that affects how... well... resilient you want to make the object. It's especially useful for living subjects, as they can not easily be crushed to death by accident. But if you want to do that-"

"Edgar!" Claudia suddenly interrupted.

Edgar chuckled. "Sorry. Sometimes I can lose myself."

He took out the Shrink Ray from the box, and powered it on. Then, he backed away from the table, pulling Claudia back with him, until he stood about three feet away from it.

"Okay, Princess," Edgar said. "Ready? ...Though I think you better sit down."

Melissa did as he said, and sat herself down on the table's surface. Then, Edgar pulled the trigger on the Shrink Ray, firing a beam of ions that bathed her in a blue light. Within seconds, she rapidly regained her size, until she finished growing at her original height of 5' 7".

As soon as Edgar powered off the Shrink Ray, Melissa immediately lept from the tabletop, and rushed towards Edgar. Then, she wrapped her arms around him, and embraced him in a warm hug.

"Dad..." Melissa said in a heartwarming tone of fondness that Claudia had not heard in months, before kissing him on the cheek.

Edgar wrapped his arms around her as well. "You still like to try to give monster hugs, huh? You haven't changed much! Ha!"

As Claudia watched the two of them embrace each other, just then she was certain that, even if it did recover, her relationship with Melissa would not be nowhere near as strong as the bond that she had with her father.

Melissa released Edgar from her grip, and pulled away from him. While doing so, she briefly locked eyes with Claudia, but she quickly averted them. Seeing Melissa so adverse to making eye contact with her own mother saddened her inside.

"Well, I'll just put this thing away now," Edgar said.

He walked to the table, and picked up his suitcase that sat on the floor, then placed it onto the table. He unlocked it, and then opened it. Inside were two square-shaped slots inside, one of which had a box tucked inside of it. Edgar pulled the covering off of the box, and placed the Shrink Ray inside of it. Then, he closed the suitcase, and locked it.

"Melissa," Claudia said. "How are you feeling?"

Not answering Claudia's question, Melissa instead chose to turn away from her. Claudia wimpered a little. Seeing Melissa like this broke her heart.

"Melissa," Edgar said. "Why don't we go out back to talk about things?"

"Okay," Melissa responded.

"Good." Edgar turned towards Claudia. "I don't want to sound like a mooch, but you think I could get a little something to eat? The plane ride here wasn't exactly small..."

"Sure," Claudia responded.

Edgar smiled. "Thanks."

With that, both Edgar and Melissa headed through the kitchen, and then made their way out into the backyard.

Claudia sighed and turned towards the suitcase that sat on the kitchen tabletop. The Shrink Ray, the device that caused all of the trouble and shredded lives, was finally safely locked away for good. Or, at least, so she hoped.

But, of course, there was still one last small matter to attend to.

~~~

After entering into the backward, Edgar walked a bit further into it, eventually stopping underneath the shade from the several tall trees above. Melissa followed closely behind him.

Seeing his daughter as small as she was just minutes before was quite a shock to him. However, under the circumstances, he knew that the girl, as Melissa called her, who did that to her had no choice but to shrink her. He was just very thankful that Melissa hadn't been killed.

Despite his feelings for his daughter, and being happy to see her restored, there were still some issues that had to be addressed.

He turned around to face Melissa, now having a stern look on his face. "Okay, Melissa," he said. "Tell me what happened."

Melissa was silent for a few seconds, before she answered with, "To tell the truth, I don't know."

"Yes you do. How soon after I sent over the Shrink Ray did you decide to get it in your mind to go around shrinking people?"

Melissa sighed. "...You know about the guy who broke into our house early this year, right?"

"Yes. You were the one who killed him. ...It was for things like that why I sent the ray over here in the first place."

"Yeah, well... A week before that, late at night, I took the Shrink Ray out with me. I found some homeless bums in a dark alley, and, well, shrunk them."

"...You're kidding." Edgar could not believe what he just heard. "You did it out in public? You DO realize that the Shrink Ray is top secret. Not even the U.S. govenment knows about its existence yet. Furthermore, YOU could have been put in serious danger!"

"Yeah, I know. But I thought the government funded your lab."

"...The Shrink Ray was a secret, privately funded project."

"Oh."

"...What did you do then?"

"...I squashed them."

Edgar placed his palm on his forehead. "Oh, Melissa..."

"I mean- They're homeless people! No one cares about them enough to notice that two or three are missing! Besides, I made sure to smear their remains enough so they didn't look any different than from dirt. I don't think anyone else saw me."

"That's not the point. I don't want people knowing about what we made in the labs. It's bad enough that those people that you kept imprisoned know about it."

"...I don't think you have to worry about them telling anybody. Mom said that they came up with a different story about what happened to them."

"Hm..." Edgar felt a slight relief knowing that the people who were freed had opted to not tell the world about his invention, though he still would rather have them not know about the Shrink Ray at all. He almost wished that Melissa did kill them. "...What did you do after you killed the bums?"

"I went home. I didn't use the Shrink Ray again until the break-in."

"I see. ...Did you enjoy it?"

"What, killing the robber?"

Edgar nodded. "And the bums."

"Well, yeah," Melissa replied. "And it's funny. I never thought that I would be the type of person who would get off on killing people, or someone who would kill period, but... You know how I loved to step on bugs?"

Edgar faked a shudder. "Don't remind me. I remember how I would hate seeing bug guts on the kitchen floor, because you brought in some bugs from outside. Back then, you didn't clean up after yourself, so we told you to do it outside."

"Well, it was the same... Except they were people. They could actually react to what was going on. They could actually beg for their lives. Hell, they could even do anything I said if they thought that I'd let them live if they did. But finally placing my foot on their body, and putting all of my weight onto them, and feeling them pop underneath was just... Awesome."

Edgar raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. I just got addicted."

"So, what made you shrink Claudia and Rebecca?"

Melissa folded her arms and looked upward, towards the green leaves of the tree above. She was silent for several seconds.

"Do you hate them?"

Melissa still did not answer him.

"...Are you thinking about your answer, or do you not want to answer?"

"A little of both, actually," Melissa responded.

"Mm."

Melissa looked towards Edgar again. "I... I just got tired of looking at them, you know?"

"Why? Is it because of what she did to me?"

Melissa slowly nodded.

"Princess... That was 17 years ago. I've long since gotten over it. Of course, our marriage didn't last, but I still have love for your mother, and Rebecca as well."

"Well, I don't."

"...I can understand your mother, but why Rebecca? She did nothing wrong."

"The fact that she even exists is wrong."

"Melissa, shame on you," Edgar scolded. "Both of them are your family, and you should not even have these feelings. Like it or not, they share their blood with you."

"...I don't care, Dad."

"Melissa." Edgar placed both of his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not asking you to like them, but please... I don't want my daughter carrying so much hate around. Think of the anguish that you're causing your mother."

"Dad... You don't-"

"I don't what?!" Edgar interrupted. "I told you already... What's done is done. There's no point in dwelling on the past. You just gotta... move on." He tightened his grip on Melissa's shoulders. "Please, Princess. For me?"

Melissa stared him in the eyes for several seconds, before letting out a sigh. "I'll try. I'm not going to promise anything, though."

Edgar sighed. "I guess that's the best I can get from you, huh?"

Melissa nodded. "I can't just let go of the way I feel that easily."

"Fine." Edgar pulled his hands away from her shoulders.

"Sorry," Melissa apologised.

"...It's alright. I guess not everyone can let go of their grudges that easily." Edgar began to walk back towards the house, but stopped a few steps later. "Princess?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"...How would you feel if I asked you to come work with me in the lab?"

"Wh-what?!" Melissa sounded surprised, though since his back was turned against her, he could not see the look on her face.

"It's a bit premature, but I hold a high position there. I could pull some strings."

"Dad... You would let me work with you?"

"Of course."

"I would love to work with you!" Melissa said excitedly. "It's been my dream since I was a kid!"

"Great." Edgar smiled, though he knew that she could not see it from where she stood.

"Ooh but... damn..." Melissa's excitement seemed to fade as fast as it came. "Lauren is deadset on me helping her with her fashion career when we move to New York."

"You and Lauren are planning to move to New York?"

"Yeah. In fact, not too long after we graduate."

"I see... What do you really want to do?"

"I want to work with you."

"Then that's all there is to it. You're going to have to tell her that. ...When the time comes, that is. Worst case scenario, I may not be able to get you in for years. In the meantime, you work with Lauren, and I'll train you whenever I get the chance. I don't want you going in knowing nothing."

"Okay, Dad."

"Good. Now, let's go back inside. I'm starving, and I'm sure that you want to rest on your own soft bed now."

He and Melissa walked back towards the house, and eventually made their way inside. All the while, he thought about the prospects of having her work with him in the labratories. Sure, he loved her more than anything on the planet, but what he did not tell her was that he did not plan to actually have her in the lab with him. Instead, she would handle his paperwork and documents. He did not want to risk exposing her to much more dangerous inventions than the Shrink Ray, such as the currently discontinued Portal Generator or the still-in-development Growth Ray, both of which are still very faulty. However, given how much she wanted to be with him, he figured that she would be willing to accept the drawbacks.

They walked into the kitchen, where Claudia was wiping off the stove with a rag. The microwave was on, and being cooked inside was a plate of food. Edgar stopped at the kitchen table, while Melissa continued onward through the kitchen.

"I'm going in my room," Melissa said.

"...Okay, dear," Claudia replied.

Edgar pulled out the nearest chair from under the table as Melissa disappeared from sight, and sat down in it. "So, what am I having?"

"Leftovers," Claudia replied. "Roast beef, corn, and mashed potatoes."

"Ah. But you always made the most delicious of meals. No microwave could take that away."

Claudia laughed a little. "Oh Edgar. ...By the way, there's something else."

"What is it?" Edgar asked.

"There's this man... Melissa brought him in, and I kinda had a thing with him while I was in the dollhouse. Turns out, he was using me, and I shrunk him back down. ...I want you to get him out of here for me."

"Hmm... I suppose that he'd make a good test subject at his size."

"Test subject? I wouldn't go that far. I was just hoping that you would... get him away from here."

"Well, since he used you, he deserves to be punished, right?"

"But still... Even after what he did..."

"Anyway, where is he?"

"Upstairs in the master bedroom."

"Alrighty, then." Edgar stood up from his chair.

"Where are you going?" Claudia asked.

"I want to see this S.O.B. myself." He then walked away from the table and made his way through the kitchen. Claudia soon followed closely behind him.

The two eventually arrived upstairs to the second floor. To the far right, at the end of the hallway, was Melissa's room, though the door was closed. To the opposite side was the master bedroom, its door halfway open. Edgar and Claudia headed towards the bedroom, and soon were inside of it.

Claudia looked towards her nightstand. There was a glass jar sitting on it. As she approached it, she let out a gasp and covered her mouth with her hand.

"What is it?" Edgar asked.

"He gone!" Claudia frantically said. "Bruce is gone!"

"What?"

"He was in the jar, but now it's empty! He's gone!"

Edgar stared at the jar for a few seconds. He had already figured out what happened to this man, and, with the look of concern on Claudia's face as she was now looking at him, he could only assume that she knew as well.

"Melissa," Edgar said.

~~~

With Bruce in hand, Melissa stepped into her room, and closed and locked the door behind her. The last few days have been hell for her, what with her being confined to that glass jar that Sayuko had placed her in. Being as small as she was was not an experience that she would ever want to live through again.

She still could not believe that she had been "defeated" by Sayuko and Thomas, and just thinking about how she was humiliated that day kept her in a sour mood all week. Luckily, her father managed to cheer her up, but talking to him about how she enjoyed killing the people she shrunk reignited her passions.

And now that she was free from her glass prison, she just had to indulge in her gruesome hobby, if only for one last time.

She sat down on her bed, and looked at the tiny man in her right hand.

"Okay, you," Melissa said. "You're the last of my Bugmen. Last time, I let you get away, and you ended up messing with my whore of a mom. But not this time! Oh no!"

"You're going to kill me?" Bruce asked. "You can't do that! What would your mom think?!"

"Dumbass... Do you even remember what happened on Sunday? My mom doesn't care about you anymore. In fact, the Shrink Ray has been locked up by Dad, and even if it wasn't, no one is dumb enough to make you big anywhere around here. You wouldn't be becoming big again anytime soon!"

Bruce began to flail his legs about. "Let me go! Let me go, you giant bitch!"

"Fine." Melissa released Bruce from her hand, and let him fall to the floor.

Surprisingly, he landed on his feet, though he stalled in spot, presumably to collect his bearings. However, mere seconds later, he started to run away from her. Melissa found it amusing that he thought that he could get away from her at this stage. This time, she would not make the same mistake.

She slipped her right foot out of its flip-flop, and then moved it over the fleeing man, before stepping down on him, not with enough force to kill him, but enough to hold him in place on the floor. She felt the man struggling underneath the sole of her foot, and relished in that ticklish sensation.

"I could pop you like a grape right now, if I wanted to," Melissa said.

Just then, she was taken by surprise by the sound of the locked doorknob being attempted to turn to no avail, before three loud knocks were heard from her door.

"Melissa!" shouted her father Edgar from the other side. "What are you doing?!"

Melissa did not answer.

"Open this door! Right now!"

Melissa stood up, careful not to shift too much weight onto Bruce below her, and turned towards the closed door. "I need to do this, Dad! This guy used Mom, and now he's going to pay!"

"Melissa!"

Turning her attention back to Bruce, Melissa removed her foot from him, and placed it down on the floor beside him. The man was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath. Being trapped underneath someone's foot was not anything pleasant, and she could now actually speak from experience after what happened Sunday.

Not giving him any time to completely recover, Melissa brought her big toe onto Bruce and firmly pressed it onto his lower body. The man screamed and defiantly yelled at her, and even tried to push her toe off of him. Of course, there was no way he would be able to do such a thing.

"Let me go!" Bruce ordered. "I mean it!!"

"Yeah? And what are you going to do about it?" Melissa retorted. "Punch me? C'mon... Punch me. I know you can. Where's that big, strong man you used to be?"

Bruce growled, and Melissa was surprised that he actually started to punch at her toe. Unfortunately for him, she barely felt his blows. However, she imagined that to him, it was like punching a wall.

After he let loose a few more punches, she once again removed her foot from his body. However, before he could react, she then swiped her foot along the floor, and wound up kicking him off to her side.

As soon as Bruce stopped sliding along the wooden floor, he stood up and started to run towards the closed door. Melissa simply walked to where he was, and slammed her right foot down in his path. Bruce stopped dead in his tracks, as Melissa brought over her other leg to join its partner, before turning around to face the tiny man. He tried to simply run around her foot, but, with her left foot, she kicked him in the chest, and sent him flying back into the center of the room.

Bruce landed on the floor, clutching his chest in pain, as Melissa approached him once again. As her shadow covered him, he looked upward towards her face. For the first time in a long while, she could see the fear that was now plastered on his face. This man was finally staring death in the face... and it took the form of a gigantic woman.

"Please..." Bruce begged as he stood to his feet. "Don't kill me! I'll do anything!"

"...Anything?" Melissa repeated.

"Yes!"

Melissa laughed. "Kiss my foot." She pointed towards her bare right foot. "After all, you are just a lowly insect."

With seemingly no hesitation, Bruce rushed to her right foot, and began to press his lips against her flesh. She watched as he frantically planted kissed all over her foot, as if doing this would actually change her mind. She loved how desperate he became, the once high and mighty Bruce now reduced to doing such a demeaning task.

After a minute, once he had moved in front of her right foot, she lifted her foot, and then once again pushed him onto the floor as she placed it on top of his body. She immediately removed her foot off of him, and as soon as she did, Bruce attempted to stand up again. She shook her head, and broght her foot down onto him again.

"No, you little shit," she said. "Stay down."

She again removed her foot from Bruce's body, and as she had ordered, he stayed put on the floor. All he could do was glare at her as she pondered her next move. Actually, she already knew what that move was.

She lifted her left foot, still wearing its flip-flop slipper, and brought it down onto his right arm. He screamed in pain as she twisted her foot on his now destroyed arm, demolishing it even further. She then pulled back her foot, revealing the flattened, bloody mess left behind. Bruce looked over to what was once his arm, and his screaming intensified.

"Oops, how clumsy of me," Melissa taunted. "I need to watch where I step. Though you look like that one guy now, don't you?" She laughed.

"Y-you bitch!!" Bruce yelled out. "You are going to kill me anyway!!"

"Duh! I never said that I wouldn't kill you if you kissed my foot, did I?!"

Bruce let out a cry of frustration. It seemed that he had just realized how hopeless this situation was for him. There was no way out of this for him. No way out alive, that is.

Melissa then brought her left foot down onto his legs, and then flattened them underneath her sandal. She slid her foot back, smearing the blood and shredded flesh along with it.

"Ah, damn," she said. "There I go again. I guess I took both of your legs this time."

At this point, she believed that the pitch of Bruce's screaming had reached its peak. In fact, she started to find it somewhat annoying. That meant that it was finally time to put an end to this, before he blacked out from blood loss.

"Well, Brucie," she said. "It's time that I put my foot down." She lifted her bare right foot over him. With a wave, she said the last words that he would ever hear: "Good-bye, you little son-of-a-bitch."

Melissa then stepped down on him for the final time. This times, she slowly applied weight to the ball of her foot, where Bruce was, ensuring that she delayed his actual death for as long as she could, both to torture him even further in his final seconds and so that she could enjoy the feel of his bones and body breaking underneath her. Though, in mere seconds, her foot was set flat on the floor, and Bruce was equally flattened underneath. She twisted her foot, grinding his body even further into a mess of unrecognizable blood, gore, and shredded clothes.

She sighed deeply, and closed her eyes as she rested her foot in that spot for a few more seconds. In her mind, she relived not only that moment, but the dozens of other times that she snuffed out a tiny life in a similar manner. As it stood now, that was all she could do from this point on.

The last of her "Bugmen" had finally been extinguished.

She was brought back to reality by the knocks on her door. Her parents had been trying to get inside during this whole session, but she had tuned them out. There was no way that even her father would interrupt her.

She removed her foot from the spot, and examined the bloody mess left behind. Nothing about Bruce was recognizable from the splatter below.

She then walked towards her bed, and slipped her right foot back into flip-flop, before making her way to her bedroom door. Once there, she unlocked it, and then opened it. On the other side were both her parents, as well as Rebecca, who had apparently heard all of the commotion.

Claudia looked into her room, and saw the blood splatter on the floor. She gasped in horror and covered her mouth with her hands. Edgar simply shook his head in disappointment.

"...I'm sorry, Dad," Melissa said. "But I had to do it. Just one last time."

Edgar sighed. "...Melissa..."

"How did you even become like this...?" Claudia asked, before placing her hand on her forehead and shaking her head. "Ohhhh...."

Melissa simply stared at her mother, before walking past all three of them. "I'm going back outside for a few. I'll clean up the mess myself, so don't bother it."

As she made her way downstairs, and into the kitchen, Melissa thought about what her father had asked of her when they were outside earlier. That she should try to mend things with her mother and sister, so that she would alleviate the pain that her mother's been through over the past several months.

Unfortunately, there was no chance of that happening. Ever.