Firstly, I must apologise because I didn’t make it to then end. However, I did read enough of it to get a handle on your writing style.
Firstly, there are some rules that ALWAYS have to be followed when writing. One of those is that the dialogue for each new speaker must start on a new line. Look in all the books you have and you will see that’s true.
So

"Ali, are you okay?" she asks, her voice filled with concern. "Yeah, I'm fine..." "Ali, no you're not. What's wrong? Tell me." she says. "Well, I guess I'm sick..." "How long have you been feeling like this?" "Well, I didn't feel like this before dinner..." "It's probably food poisoning, then. It'll probably continue for a few more days, if not more." "That's great news, thank you..."

Becomes

"Ali, are you okay?" she asks, her voice filled with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine..."
"Ali, no you're not. What's wrong? Tell me." she says.
"Well, I guess I'm sick..."
"How long have you been feeling like this?"
"Well, I didn't feel like this before dinner..."
"It's probably food poisoning, then. It'll probably continue for a few more days, if not more."
"That's great news, thank you..."

This is really important. If you don’t do it it will make your work very hard to read and no one will take it seriously. Also, periodically make it clear who says what. A quick ‘said Billy’ will be ignored by the reader as they will focus on the dialogue, though it will help to indicate who has spoken. When you have a lot of dialogue to read it’s easy to lose track.
Also, be careful of your use of ellipses (These things -…). It’s OK to use them in dialogue as they serve a purpose, but try to do so sparingly. My advice is to only use them in dialogue, keep them out of the rest of it.
In some places you over specify and go into a little too much background detail. This is a short story so you don’t want it do drag in any places. There was a little too much information at the beginning about who was in a relationship with whom which didn’t seem necessary. Also, she had no occasion to go into the Italian. Is hunger not a reason? Again, it was detail that didn’t move the plot forward.

Get rid of the %%s. There’s really no need for them, they just look silly. A line break is fine.

Sorry this is a little negative. I think you have the beginnings of a good story. I like the concept of melting people and you open it up with a nice hook. Though the hanging confused me. Are people’s feet ever tied together from the rope they’re being hanged with?