Amanda sighed and looked over her schedule for the rest of the week.  The 23 year old wedding planner was absolutely wiped after another 3 day wedding marathon, and tomorrow she’d begin the cycle again.  At least she’d been fortunate enough to gain some souvenirs after this last weekend though.  Looking forward to a day of rest and relaxation, she wiggled her toes to try and quell the tickling she felt between them.  If anyone in the busy coffee shop had been paying attention, they probably would have thought it odd as she cooed down “try and relax girls, you’ve got a busy day ahead of you”.  Tossing her brown hair over her shoulder, she stood, and started making her way back to her apartment.

-- The Previous Day --

    The music was loud, the drinks kept coming, and everyone was having a great time.  “This wedding really went off without a hitch” shouted Jessica, over the sound of the music.  “I know, and everyone looks absolutely beautiful” her friend Julie responded.  The blonde and brunette were attending the wedding of another college friend, and were taking stock of everyone who’d managed to last until the end of the reception.  “Lauren totally lost it, but it seems like everyone else is keeping it together” Jessica said, as she looked around at the rest of their friends, almost entirely sorority sisters who had stayed to say goodbye to the bride.  “How long do we actually have this space?  Now that Erica has left, we should really hit up a bar or something.  I think the wedding planner said we had to be out of here by 11, and it’s already 11-“.  Suddenly, there was a flash, and darkness.

The music was loud, the drinks kept coming, and everyone was having a great time.  “This wedding really went off without a hitch” shouted Jessica, over the sound of the music.  “I know, and everyone looks absolutely beautiful” her friend Julie responded.  The blonde and brunette were attending the wedding of another college friend, and were taking stock of everyone who’d managed to last until the end of the reception.  “Lauren totally lost it, but it seems like everyone else is keeping it together” Jessica said, as she looked around at the rest of their friends, almost entirely sorority sisters who had stayed to say goodbye to the bride.  “How long do we actually have this space?  Now that Erica has left, we should really hit up a bar or something.  I think the wedding planner said we had to be out of here by 11, and it’s already 11-“.  Suddenly, there was a flash, and darkness.

    Amanda put the device back in her bag.  Her boss, Jennifer, had invented it as a way to cut costs and deliver more value to their clients.  A few quick settings dialed in, the push of a button, and “flash”, and all the “refuse” was shrunk was shrunk to a minuscule size!  She smiled to herself as she remembered Jennifer’s first demonstration of how to use the device to her at a wedding when she’d still been just an assistant.  That had certainly been a night to remember…

The earth rumbled as the bride awoke in a pool of sticky wine.  The last thing she remembered was chatting with her friends, shooing away Jennifer as the woman kept insisting that the party was over, and she had to leave now.  It was her wedding!  As she watched the tall blonde saunter over to the edge of the room, beige flip-flop style sandals slapping against her soles, she was again infuriated by her lack of professionalism.  How dare she be so informal at MY wedding, there’s no tip coming for her!  As one of her friends drunkenly tried to pass her more wine, she noticed Jennifer demonstrating some kind of device to the assistant.  Then, a flash, and waking up here.

There was another incredibly loud, thundering boom and the bride was shocked out of her reverie.  Turning around, she began to try and get her bearings.  Suddenly, a beige wall, ten stories tall and miles wide, slammed down about fifty feet in front of her.  As she looked up, she noticed some enormous, peach colored pillars on top.  Were they moving?!   Suddenly, a titanic voice boomed out, deafening and all around her.

“See, this is the fun part of the job” the voice thundered.  “Our tiny bride is down there.”  The bride looked directly up into the sky, and opened her mouth in a wordless scream.  Above her, larger than anything she’d ever seen, was the enormous face of her wedding planner, Jennifer, smiling down at her.  “So, what do we do with them?” thundered another voice.  That must be the assistant, the bride thought, screaming aloud now but still retaining some of her faculties.  “Well, she complained about my shoes 5 times tonight, so I guess I’d better take them off” the goddess sized blonde responded.  Suddenly, the bride recognized the beige wall in front of her.  She saw the pink pillars retract as, with a tremendous scraping noise, Jennifer removed her foot from her sandal. 

The sky changed from the face of an enormous blonde to the sole of her enormous foot, and as the foot lowered the bride found herself underneath the ball, as it hovered a few hundred feet overhead.  She was dumbfounded as her new sky flexed and wrinkled as the titanic wedding planner scrunched her toes, noticing for the first time the red polish decorating each one.  “One more thing, make sure they’ve fully paid up before you “play” with them” thundered the blonde again.  “It’s a real bitch to get the money from collections”.  With this, the enormous big toe centered itself over her and began to descend.  Screaming through her tears, watching the skyscraper sized digit get larger as it got closer, the bride threw up her hands in a meaningless gesture, then blackness.  Crunch.

“Awww, that one didn’t even try to run.  Poor thing.” said Jennifer, as she turned over her foot so Amanda could inspect the bottom.  She could just make out the tiny bride, crushed and adhered to the pad of Jennifer’s toe, remnants of her white dress visible among the red smears.  She shivered, and resolved to always stay on her boss’s good side, lest she suffer the same pitiful fate.  “Slip off your shoes, and let’s get the rest.  We only have 10 more minutes on the clock, and I want to watch Grey’s Anatomy tonight.” “Why the shoes?” Amanda asked, a bit puzzled.  “Gotta make sure they squish, don’t want any getting stuck in the treads of your shoe and escaping” Jennifer responded with a wink.

That had been 6 months prior, and now Amanda was no longer an assistant.  Business continued to boom, and over the past few months she’d had at least one or two decent “cleanups” to carry out.  Nothing like last night though.  When she’d activated the device, there’d still been at least two dozen women on the dance floor.  Jennifer wasn’t around, and ensuring that everyone else was well and truly gone, she walked over to where most of the girls had been standing.  Spotting the little specks, all clustered on a spot no larger than a quarter, with another group about a foot away, she removed a tiny box from her purse and set it on the ground next to them. 

Jessica and Julie had finally realized what had happened, though they couldn’t believe it.  As a titanic woman they recognized as… the wedding planner squatted down to look at them, they were almost deafened as she began to speak.  “According to the Jennifer Weddings LLC Terms & Conditions, which state in Paragraph IV, Subsection C, ‘All non-venue owned material will become Jennifer Weddings LLC property if left in the venue after end-of-day’, you now belong to me” she boomed down with a small grin.  “Please enter the structure I’ve provided so I can take you home” she continued, pointing towards the clear box that they now recognized as once holding Tic-Tacs.  As the majority of the women began to scream and panic, once again the voice boomed out “please observe the consequences of pulling out of the contract”.  Her enormous white sandal suddenly lifted, and hovered over a spot about a kilometer away.  Jessica, Julie, and everyone else in the group could just make out the tiny screams and pleas of their distant friends as they watched the sandal stomp them out, toes scrunching as Amanda pressed it into the ground.  Amanda then hovered it over them as the 20 or so tiny girls scurried over to the box and began climbing in. 

Small enough that even on it’s side they had trouble scrambling over the millimeter tall lip of the opening, the cover slammed shut.   Enormous fingertips gripped the sides of the container as Amanda raised it to her eye, pink nails shining.   As the titanic brunette peered in to all the panicking women, they all gazed out at a hazel eye that was wider than all of them stretched side to side.  They then found themselves moving again, moving down, until suddenly they were plunged into darkness.  “Her purse” Julie shouted.  “She put us in her purse!”.  The women all quieted down a bit and held together, so the jostling would be less traumatic.  The conversations of the titanic being were too muffled to hear, and they endured the darkness until suddenly they were once again thrust into the light.

The world blurred by and the cover of the box opened once again, and as the box turned the girls slid towards the opening.  After watching 3 of her friends fall through the hole, Jessica caught herself on the edge, making out what appeared to be someone’s massive palm.  As the top closed, one of the other women screamed “oh my God, it’s Erica!”.  Indeed, through the clear plastic the titanic visage of the newly married blonde was apparent.  “Wait, why is Amanda talking to her?” said another, “and why is she smiling”?  As the women were once again plunged into darkness, a different scene unfolded for the three who had fallen through the opening.

Amanda shook two or three tinies into Erica’s hand.  A wedding gift of sorts, they’d met up for coffee to settle final payments, when Erica asked how “cleanup” had gone.  Smiling, Amanda told her that, unfortunately, a few of her friends hadn’t managed to leave in time.  Longtime friends with Amanda, Erica smiled back, and extended her hand, as she’d been hoping this would be the case.  After two or three of her tiny friends were tapped into her palm, Amanda said her goodbyes, and left.  Smiling down at her tiny, panicking friends scurrying across her palm, she suddenly realized she had no way to transport them.  Her dress didn’t even have pockets!  An idea flashed into her mind, and she removed her right shoe…

Lauren, Hannah, and Sarah had found themselves dumped on the palm of their newly married friend.  Maybe she didn’t know it was them!  As they jumped and shouted to get her attention, Erica’s voice was suddenly all around them. “Is that Lauren down there?  Hannah?  Sarah?” said Erica, her eye filling the sky above them, just feet away even on their tiny scale.  “Wow, so glad to see you guys!  Hope you had a nice time yesterday.  You know what they say though, marriages are all about new beginnings, and I’m really taking that to heart”.  Confused, the three tiny women glanced at each other, as they were lowered below the table, and the hand tipped slightly.  As the rolled a couple hundred feet to the ground, they recognized a musty, sweaty smell in the air.  Some kind of tall brown pillar was sticking out of the ground about a hundred feet away, that continued up until it split into two tremendous cables… “We’re on her shoe!” screamed Sarah.  “Her shoe, we’re on her shoe” she continued as the three turned to see the sole of Erica’s foot headed right for them.  Just as the other two began to scream, all three were cut off with a squish.

Erica scrunched her foot into her flip flop, wondering if any of her friends had made it.  She removed her foot from her shoe and put it in her lap, examining the sole of her foot for the three little smears she expected.  Finding two, she raised her foot closer to her face. 

As Erica’s foot descended, Sarah found herself surrounded on all sides by pressure and flesh, heat, sweat.   Two beginnings of a scream, a shriek, and the most horrible crunching noise imaginable.  Suddenly, she felt herself moving, and flying through the air, almost passing out, but maintaining her consciousness.  She was in the light again, and on some kind of warm, undulating surface.  Looking up, she saw Erica’s familiar face, scanning what Sarah now recognized as the sole of her foot.  Suddenly, their eyes met.  Erica let out a titanic giggle, and exclaimed “Sarah, you made it!”.  “Man, that was exciting.  You’ve been getting a lot of exercise today, haven’t you?  As an marathoner, you understand the need for protein for recovery.  Well, I was on my feet ALL DAY yesterday, and I could use a bit of protein now.  Thanks Sarah”.  Horrified, Sarah watched as her “friend” extended her tongue, now turning to run as Erica lowered her head towards her foot.  She could hear a slithering, sliding noise behind her and then all went black.

Erica smiled as she licked the ball of her foot, just below her second toe.  She felt something as she swallowed, and liked to imagine it was Sarah, though she was way too small for her to actually feel.  Smiling, and newly married, she exited the coffee shop, ready to start her new life.

Leaving the beaming bride behind to play with her new toys, Amanda gave the Tic Tac box a brief shake over her right sandal before beginning the long walk back to her office. “I want to feel licking!” she exclaimed downwards as the tiny women tumbled between her toes. “If you do a good job, I'll let you go when I get back to my desk!” Pausing briefly to register the tiny flutters that must have been licks, Amanda started walking. Almost immediately she felt a tiny body burst under her big toe, and another under the ball of her foot on the second step, and smiled. Raising the box to eye level before putting it away, she realized she had about 5 tinies left. Perfect.

For the tiny women who'd been cast down onto the sandal, well, living hell didn't come close to describing it. Bouncing off Amanda's warm, sweaty toes, their fall had been cushioned by the soft leather insole. Finding themselves between the titanic toes, the tiny women began to shriek in fear. As soon as she heard “I want to feel licking!” Katie ran over to the sweaty, slightly odorous skin of the nearest toe and pressed her body into it, licking for all she was worth. Able to see the cruise ship sized foot before she'd been shaken onto it, she hazarded that the house sized flesh had to be her second toe. Listening to the tiny screams of one of her friends, Katie realized that she'd been ignoring Amanda's massive voice, and suddenly the ground moved underneath her. Amanda must be walking! Shrieking, she clutched tightly to the flesh of the toe as the sandal boomed back to the ground. Maybe she'd make it through this? Then, as the foot lifted for a second step, Katie felt herself squeezed between the toes as they scrunched to push off the ground. Losing her handhold, she tumbled backwards under the foot, her last sight the wrinkled sole of the wedding planner's foot as it crushed the life out of her.

Completing the four block walk back to the building she shared with Cristen, Amanda paused outside the door and gazed down at her white painted toes. They could really do with a touchup she thought, as she removed her foot from the sandal to gaze at the bottom. One, two, three,... Amanda counted the little bodies stuck to her foot. She giggled, counting 2 that had tumbled all the way back to her heel, completely pulverized. 3 were stuck to her arch, 3 to the ball, 1 stuck to the bottom of her big toe, and one stuck under her 3rd. Doing some quick math in her head (she always hated math, but she could count), she realized that one was unaccounted for. Sitting on the small bench outside the office, Amanda panicked a bit when she realized that one might be missing. She sighed with relief as she found the last tiny girl, one of the blondes, pitifully wiggling between her 3rd and 4th toe. “Awwww...” she cooed down, “you almost made it!” scrunching her toes, and eliciting almost inaudible (and likely pained) shrieks from the tiny thing.

Emma was in more pain than she'd ever been. Her left leg dangled uselessly, and it hurt to breathe. Must have broken a rib or two. She was also unable to move, adhered to the side of the titanic wedding planners toe by her pungent sweat. All of a sudden, she found her world flipped upside down, as the foot she was stuck to flipped over. Finally able to see as the toes spread, she espied Amanda's titanic visage examining something, giggling occasionally. She had just realized that she was looking at the smeared bodies of her friends when suddenly the humongous blue eyes met her own. “Awww... you almost made it!” Amanda's voice thundered down. Emma screamed as she was pressed on all sides by toe flesh as the wedding planner playfully scrunched her toes. Light and air returned, and Emma panted while looking up at her goddess, filled with terror. “I'd let you go, but you look a bit... damaged. I don't think you're gonna make it. Sorry hun.” Emma screamed again as with a small (well, titanic to her) grin Amanda scrunched her toes again, but instead of releasing as she had before, the pressure increased until all Emma felt was pain, and then nothing.

Amanda smiled as the almost inaudible squealing was first muffled by her pretty little toes, then stopped, then she registered the small little burst of the body. Wiping all of the little bodies from her foot with a tissue, she thought about just what those tiny things had gone through in their last moments, and shivered. Opening the door to the building, she realized with a burst of dread she'd forgotten to disab... when with a flash, everything went dark.

“God. Dammit.” Jennifer's titanic voice rang out. Tears streaming down her face, Amanda gazed up as the titanic toes of her boss thumped on tan flip-flops in front of her. Forgetful, she had once again forgetten to disable the office security system before entering the building. 20 minutes later, the door had opened again, and the slapping of Jennifer's enormous feet in her flip-flops filled her with dread. Last time, Jennifer had made her worship her under her desk for a week! “This is like the 8th time this has happened you ditz. I think this is the last time.” Cold dread washed over Amanda as, with a tremendous scraping noise, the sky was replaced with the sole of her enormous boss. “Wait, no, I brought some back for you! Please, Jennifer!” she screamed. With this, the enormous big toe centered itself over her and began to descend. Screaming through her tears, watching the skyscraper sized digit get larger as it got closer, the wedding planner dropped the Tic Tac box she'd been holding and threw up her hands in a meaningless gesture, then blackness. Crunch.

The now infinitesimal women in the tic tac box had watched helplessly as the titanic wedding planned was crushed under the foot of her even larger boss. At their size, the event had been almost... incomprehensible, though they thought they'd recognized a city sized big toe pressing down upon the now bug-sized brunette. Spared between the giant toes, somehow, they'd finally gotten to their feet as the mountain thundered away. The 5 began crying as they realized that this was it, the end, destined to wander an endless expanse until they starved, or eaten by a bug, or perhaps squished under a sole the size of a state.

Jennifer turned her foot over to see the bottom. “Poor thing” she muttered, as she scrunched her foot, the smeared body of her assistant stuck to the bottom. “Well, she finally got to experience the fun part of the job first hand!” Smiling, Jennifer turned to walk back to her desk to post a new Help Wanted ad on the company website, already excited to break in a new assistant.