Chapter 14

By

Invisible Ink

                Talia’s foot was pressed into her shoe . I could feel the air grow hot and musty, like that of a bog as her foot surged further and further into her shoe.  I cried out in pain as the rancid cotton from her putrid sock slid into my mouth gagging me. My body sunk into her shoes insole, burying me in another layer of rank sweaty fibers as her foot settled in her shoe.

                “TALIA!!” I cried out, but my voice was completely muffled as tears slid down my face. This was preposterous, I thought, as Talia slid her other foot into her shoe. I was really going to end up trapped beneath the foot of my daughter’s girlfriend. The simple thought was so repulsive, that if it weren’t for the fact that I was living this hell, I would have shuddered in disbelief.  

                The foot of Talia settled on the ground allowing the ripe flesh of her foot to settle all around me. I pulled at the fabric fibers of her sock hoping to some drag myself to freedom, but I had been made completely immobilized by her foot. The more I struggled, the worse it seemed to get, as my squirming pushed more of the cotton sock into my mouth as I struggled for salvation.

                “You know Mrs. Hendricks, you should feel lucky that I have always liked to wear my shoes a little small. You don’t have to worry about sliding around.” Talia said to torment me as her foot lifted off the ground and entered the world outside of my home.

                As her foot lifted higher and higher off the ground, I could feel the rotten cotton sock fibers being forced further and further into my mouth. The fibers of the sock were so thick because of my reduced size that the fibers were enough to fill my mouth completely. My tongue shuddered, and tried to repel the grime laden cotton strands that filled my mouth, however the weight of Talia and her tight fitting sneaker meant space was at a premium, and there was nowhere for the cotton to go.   

                I mentally begged and pleaded for this hell to end, however salvation never came. As the rancid cotton slid against my tongue, I could feel the sweat, and dirt that the sock had accumulated in servitude to Talia being ripped from its cotton host and transfered to my tongue.

                My tongue tried to pull further into my mouth, but it had nowhere to go as her sock was everywhere. My taste buds were crying out for mercy as the taste of old sweat, and dirt was rampant throughout my mouth.  I could taste nothing, but the dirt, and perspiration of Talia’s foot, which was now at its apex of ascent.

                “I can’t last any longer. Get me out of here. Get me out of here.” I cried as my limbs tried to flail. I was having the onset of a panic attack as Talia’s foot started to pick up speed as gravity forced her foot back down towards the earth.  Only this time, I wouldn’t have the clothing of Katherine’s messy room or the high shag carpeting of the living room to lessen the impact of her foot.

                As Talia’s descended I could feel myself ever so slightly rock against the underside of her foot. As I rocked against the filthy underbelly of her sock, I could feel the dirt the sock had amassed release as my body passed over it rubbing away the dried perspiration that had held it to her sock. I could feel the dirt and grime crawl over onto my body as if each piece of dirt, bacteria, and sweat were ant. My clean white skin was quickly becoming dark and grimy as if I had been working in a mine.

                The impending wait of the first footfall against the concrete floor was driving me batty. My mind continued to tell me to get out. All I could hear inside my head was get out, get out, get out.  My limbs which were still subdued by her weight pressed against the underside of her foot with all the strength they could muster. I tried to brace myself, as I knew the impact couldn’t be much further off.

                My lungs were burning as I held onto the last bits of fresh of air that I managed to pull in before being shoved into Talia’s converse sneakers. However, no longer could that air sustain me. I finally exhaled, releasing the co2 which had built up inside my lungs.  I had no other choice at this point. I inhaled a new batch of air to replace the co2 enriched air that had previously encased my lungs.

 My body instantly knew this wasn’t the clean, fresh, pure air that it had grown accustomed too. No, this new air was hot and muggy. It felt heavier as it entered my lungs. My lungs seemed to feel revolted knowing that this air had gone through a new process prior to reaching my lungs. As this air had been filtered first but Talia’s worn sneaker and then heated by her warm foot, and then filtered again by her foul sock before entering my lungs. My body now knew that while beer benefited from being twice filtered, air does not.

I knew the panic attack my body was undergoing was going to be the death of me. As degrading as all of this was, this couldn’t be my end of me. My entire worth as a person couldn’t just be to explode across the bottom of this girl’s foot. If she knew the truth, if she hadn’t been infected with my daughters vindictive lies, maybe she would think different. Maybe this situation would be different. Instead though, she was fully infected with Katherine virus and I knew not the cure.

Seeing no other choice I forced my breathing to slow. I took long deep breaths of the rank air which filled every crevice of this sneaker. The hot putrid air burned against my lungs like an acid. My scream was silent, but deadening in my mind. My eyes burst wide open, as my body was no longer able to spend the energy to keep them closed.

“Any second now, the impact is gonna come, any second. I have to get out. I have to get out.” My mind continued to say in a panic as my eyes scanned from left to right in void of black that was before me. Crusty dirt fell into my eyes as they scanned about this hellish fortress. This caused tears to form in the corner of my eyes. The small bits of water puddling more and more until droplets tried to slide down my face only to be whisked up into Talia’s sock as if it were some form of osmosis.

While my tears drenched her sock this created a new problem. The tears moistened the once dry sock around my eyes causing the dried sweat to be reborn, and fall into my eyes. As the droplets of sweat pelted against my eyes, they would blink before a burning sensation washed over them, eroding my vision in this dank dark world.

I could feel Talia’s foot picking up more, and more speed as the gravity weighed mightily against her foot.  My body relaxed slightly no longer able to hold onto its tensed state. As my muscles relaxed, my deep breathing begun to satiate my panic attack, which left my mind to wonder if I would survive this. As there was no give in her shoe, there nowhere for the force of the impact to dissipate too. When her foot hit the concrete floor my body will feel the full brunt of the force of her footfall as it’s pressed deeply into this horribly worn insole.

This brought about a new fear, a fear of my own mortality. Fortunately, just as this fear entered into head my head, I heard the sickening, deadening thud of the rubber sole of her shoe slamming against the hard unforgiving concrete. It sounded like an explosion going off, and I was caught in the middle. The weight of her foot bore down on me tenfold at first, then as her foot settled, and the weight of her entire body transferred onto this foot, I could feel the pressure increase by 10 more, then a hundred, and lastly it seemed to be a thousand times more weight pressing against me.

The odorous cotton fibers were pressed into the back of my throat, while also being shoved into my nostrils. I tried to blow air through my nose to force the fibers out, but the force seemed to just stop cold as it hit a dirty fiber wall. This had the unpleasant effect of allowing more of Talia’s filth onto my body, and now my nose could no longer deny the horror the rest of my body already knew.

The powerfully rank cotton fibers were emanating sweat laden perfume in full force, and my nose was a part of the process. Every moment now of my existence was no filled with the powerful odor of Talia’s sock. It was everywhere; it seemed to encompass my world, which had turned from a very large realm to one that now matched my stature.

This will all be over soon, I thought as her weight continued to press down against me. I knew surely I would die any minute. As surely in the next second my body would just explode like a grape across the underside of her foot; nothing more than a tiny red stain absorbed by this crusty decaying sock. All the foul particles my body cleansed from it would soon be released back up into its being along with now me.

“This is it” I mentally screamed. My end was here. My suffering would finally come to a conclusion. As much as I hated to leave Greg. I felt as if I was betraying him; but I needed this, I deserved this. This freedom would be my reward for all that I have endured. This pain, this prison, this world I now find myself trapped in is inhuman, but that no longer mattered. My reward, my salvation is finally here.

“I love you Greg.” My mind radiated wanting that to be my final thought, but then…nothing. “Nooooo” raced through my mind, not in a last ditch effort to fight to live longer, or some inner realization of more self-worth to fight on through this moment. But, the recognition that the intense pressure I felt was evaporating like water from a puddle.

The weight was then nearly gone as I felt myself ascend back up into the sky, while being pressed against the underside of Talia’s foot. My body pressed further down into her insole, which if I could have turned my head far enough left or right I would have seen rise above me. 

“I can’t survive this. No more.” My mind screamed out as the realization that was just one step. That one half second in time it took her to rise her foot off rug in front of my door and step onto my door mat outside.

“Please stop!!”I wanted to yell to her. I wanted to beg to her. I wanted to throw myself at her mercy. Surely she had to have driven here as Katherine has no car. It could be a few hundred steps for too reach her car. She would have to walk along the pathway beside the house which connects to driveway. Then all the way down the driveway, to the front boulevard where she probably parked her car.

I knew now what my ninth circle of hell is and this is surely it. Step after torturous step I was forced to endure each no different from the very first. Each and every step felt as if it encompasses days if not weeks. The idea of each step just being a second in time seems like an unfeasibility of the greatest sort.

I desperately wished for someone, anyone to save me from this, to stop this madness. However, no one knew what I was enduring. As far as anyone else knew this young woman was just walking out of my home, and to her car. It was no different than anyone else. They couldn’t hear my mental anguish. They could not bear witness to the pain I was enduring. They knew not the horrors my daughter, her friend and her lover had committed against me and my husband.

“God, help me please! I do not ask for your help for myself, but for Greg. Save him please.” I thought as Talia’s foot slammed against the driveway pressing me further into hell for the umpteenth time.