Chapter Nine
By
Invisible Ink
The air was hot and stuffy inside of Katherine’s shoe. I wasn’t even sure if it was fresh air coming in or if I was just reusing the same stale air. However, I suspected that her sock; that held me trapped in her sneaker of all places was filtering any air I was getting.
The booming voice of my daughter and her friend Chelsea could be heard however, I couldn’t quite make them out well enough to understand more than a few words in any given sentence. My world had gone from one of bright lights and sounds to nothing but absolute darkness no matter where I look. The only sounds I got were the voice of my daughter and fainter sound of Chelsea. However, the television was the overarching sound that dominated all.
The sounds of the Hills were torturous enough before my accident. The fact that I was now being forced to listening to the lives of a bunch of rich girls meandering on without the ability to change the channel or leave the room made this hellish imprisonment all the worse.
I spent what felt like an hour just yelling and screaming, demanding that I be released. A part of me knew it was useless though. I didn’t want to admit that my little girl had done to this to me. I know she’s not much of a little girl anymore. She’s practically an adult, but I guess she will always be a child to me.
I couldn’t tell how much time had gone by but it felt like forever before I felt the shoe move. I was thrown from left to right as I struggled to maintain my balance however I could find nothing but that disgusting sock to hold onto for any kind of support. I tried to hold out as long as I could, however the beating that I was taking won out before too long and I grabbed a hold of the sock with a death grip as I heard her thunderous footsteps as she ascended the stairs. I could hear Samantha’s voice in my head saying Katherine, don’t walk like around like an Ox. I would have given up anything to hear that out of her at this moment.
The sock, which had held me in this prison for so long, finally was plucked out of the shoe. I ran towards the mouth of the shoe to get some fresh air. However, the hand of my daughter Katherine met me just as I reached the mouth of the shoe and I was found myself being lifted upwards, I realized that I was literally, as they say in the belly of the beast. As I was all the way in Katherine’s room.
She dropped me roughly onto her dresser. I rolled over onto my back in a bit of pain but considering what I had gone through it was minimal. Katherine’s eyes looked cold while Chelsea’s had an almost cheerful expression on her face. As I sat up and looked behind me, I could see Katherine’s old hamster cage set up. It didn’t quite register with me at first what all this meant until I saw Samantha inside the cage. Katherine had used some leather scraps from her jewelry making kit and tied them Samantha’s wrists together. She then took another second leather strap and raised her arms above her head and tethering her to the top of the cage.
Another piece of leather tied Samantha’s ankles together in such a way that all her toes were supporting the weight of her body as Katherine had worked out the distance perfectly so that Samantha was standing on her tiptoes.
I ran towards the cage calling Samantha’s name. My ankle no longer hurt, and my bottom felt fine, it was as if I was miraculously healed. The only thing I could think of was Samantha. I tried to push my way through the bars but the ironic part now was that I was just too big. I had spent all this time wanting this nightmare to be over. I would give almost anything for this to be over, but now, now I would trade it all to be just a few inches smaller, to squeeze through these bars.
“What’s the meaning of this young lady; get her down, this instant!” I ordered, as I rattled the bars a bit before trying in vain to bend them. I was fuming, I had never felt so angry, so upset, so hurt, all at once. I lastly dropped to my knees reaching my arm out. Hoping somehow even to just touch her, just to be able to console her.
“How could you do this, she’s your mother Katherine.” I yelled back at her, blinded by my rage. In that moment, I didn’t care what happened to me. I would have gladly traded places with Samantha. It wouldn’t even be something I’d have to think over. And yet, I’m powerless to do anything. I have felt helpless many times over the course of the past day, but no more so then I did at that moment. I couldn’t do anything but plead for mercy. Katherine sat down in her desk chair lounging back as she stared at us. I wasn’t sure if she was looking at me, her mother or both of us.
“Katherine, people will look for us. When we stop showing up to work and stop calling our friends people will wonder. You can’t just wipe us off the face of the earth.” I shout back hoping to appeal to the logical side of Katherine as I know she couldn’t possibly have thought this far ahead. She barely planned anything long term. I knew I had her here. She would surely have to bring us in for help, some kind of medical center or testing site to try to figure out what happened to us.
“You see DAD; this is where you’re wrong.” I groaned knowing I wasn’t going to like this. This was my trump card, and whenever Katherine emphasizes dad like that it means she thinks that she is right. I look back at Samantha who has the same puzzled look that I do. As Katherine couldn’t have planned this, she was clearly shocked when she first saw us.
“Let me show you why I will get away with this.” Katherine says as she grabs her laptop. It only takes her a couple seconds before her gaze rises off the computer and land squarely back on Samantha and I.
“Why is the internet not working?” Katherine snaps angrily as her eyes bores down on us. My mind is reeling as I try to come up with some reason in which this won’t end badly. When I had set up the new wireless network I had no way of knowing what was going happen.
“Were you going to ground me Greg for coming home late? No more internet perhaps? You weren’t going to even give me the chance to explain were you?” Katherine angrily spouts as her eyes begin to narrow in on me while not even giving me the respect of calling me her father.
“No, no of course not honey. I was just setting up a new wireless network to keep the neighbors off our internet and I hadn’t gotten to your computer yet.” I quite proudly state at what I think is a quite convincing lie which brings me back to when I was a teenager and lying to my parents to get out of things. Oh god, is this what my life has come too? Lying to my teenage daughter to avoid being punished by her?
“How were Mister and Misses Hutchins getting on our WIRED internet connection dad?” Katherine says while cocking her eyebrow and a smirk spreading across her face. I being to back pedal but before I can even get into covering my tracks I’m cut off.
“I think you had decided to take away my internet for coming home past curfew, weren’t you? I think I will show you the same courtesy that you were showing me. Guilty till proven innocent before the judge who oh look, is ME NOW.” laughs Katherine who leans back in her chair before standing up.
“Samantha, for your transgressions against me you can just stay there.” Coldly states Katherine as the corners of her mouth show a slight smirk. I fear for Samantha as Katherine lowers face so that she is even with the bars of the cage. I don’t know if it was because I was so focused on her face, or if Katherine was just that fast but her hand appeared beside like it came out of thin air. I had no chance to react as her finger coiled back and with the force a Mike Tyson punch in all his glory her index finger exploded against my body. The air didn’t lurch, or run out of me, it careened out of me like a missile shot from a plane. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as I fell over onto my back.
“GREG, Baby” Samantha screamed horrifically as I fell. My head slammed roughly against the desk. I could barely hear Samantha’s voice now.
“Shut your mouth, mom. You shut it” Katherine yelled before a growling like sound erupted from her. I could only watch as I rolled in pain trying to maintain consciousness as a thick wad of spit slammed against Samantha’s face. The force was enough to knock her back but leather straps held her in place. Katherine’s eyes were focused solely on Samantha as the thick wad of spit slid down her face.
As the spit oozed down she struggled to breathe. The thick wad of spit had so completely engulfed her face that it was covering her mouth and nose as if it were a sheet. Small bubbles would form as Samantha tried to blow through the thick slimy saliva that coated her face. She relentlessly assaulted the leather strap which held her wrists together as she knew if she could just free one hand this thick wad of spit could be wiped from her face. At the very least wiped enough to allow air through. However the bonds were much too tight. Samantha blew against the wad of spit as it slid down her nude body, the spit now slid over her bare breasts.
The saliva had finally thinned enough to where when Samantha blew with all her might against the wall of saliva a bubble formed that finally popped creating enough of a gap where she could suck in some air. However, the small hole in the wall of saliva was there for a but a second or two at the most before more saliva had slid over it resealing the hole.
“That’s right fight for your life, struggle against your bonds, and use the bubbles in my saliva for air MOM. As you struggle not to drown on my spit I want you to think about all the times you grounded me, how you supported dad as he forced me to comply with your totalitarian rules.” Katherine said as she spat on her mother once again before her turning her attention back towards me.
“Please, Katherine stop this.” I plead not sure what else to do. I can’t save my wife and there is no one around who is big enough who will draw any kind of respect from Katherine.
“Maybe you should worry about yourself Greg. Remember how you made me mow the lawn this week. It was like a hundred degrees but if I wanted to go out with my friends last night I just had to mow that lawn. Well the Jensen’s dog got into our yard again and I unknowingly I stepped on a pile of dog shit. I hosed off my shoes but water just can’t quite do the job sometimes.” Laughs Katherine as her fingers curl around me. The cool flesh of my daughters hand feels amazing against my battered body. I can feel my body temperature drop a bit. Unlike the shoe she had me trapped in, her hand smells like bliss from the tropical scented lotion she uses.
Katherine drops me the middle of the floor. I look at the open door but it might as well be a hundred miles away and even if I could run and escape I couldn’t just leave Samantha. She would be punished severely if I did such a thing.
The ground begun to shake as Katherine’s feet slapped against the floor as she returned with some white and pink reebok sneakers. She dropped one down right beside me. I gulped a bit as I remembered being trapped inside a similar sized shoe not very long ago. Grass stains cover the sides of the shoe as Katherine kicks it over with her toe.
“See that shit trapped between the treads of my shoe. You’re going to clean all that crap and whatever else is caught up in there and not speck of it better hit my floor. You do know how that drives Mother up the wall and I’d hate to have to punish you for breaking your own rules.” Sarcastically quips Katherine as she lords my own rule over me.
“How am I supposed to clean this out without getting anything on the floor? I’m going to need something to put it on.” I shout up to her in frustration as I look at the massive underside of this shoe. This could take hours.
“You managed to set up a wireless network by yourself, I’m sure you can figure out this little conundrum” Katherine says with a laugh as she kneels down grabbing the pink lace that unties itself as she pulls it towards me. She takes her free hand knocks me against the shoelace, and then wrapped it around my waist like a belt a few times before knotting it. I tug against the knot futilely but the shoelace covers a good portion of my waist and chest. The knot is so taught I could never hope to get it undone.
“I expect you done when I get back. I have a little business to take care of.” Katherine says as she walks into her closet and comes out wearing some designer jeans and name brand shirt. She pulls her hair back into small ponytail before grabbing her purse and disappearing. I look at the underside of the shoe in disdain. She can’t possibly mean for me to quite literally eat that crap. I look up at Samantha as I walk towards the shoe knowing I have little choice at the moment.