Jim had been expecting a quick death at the bottom of Fran’s foot.  He knew she’d said she was going to hurt him until he would love her, but he knew exactly what would happen were she to stomp on him.  He would immediately be flattened and would be nothing more than a small puddle of blood.  He would likely feel some extreme pain for a few seconds before everything went dark.  However, nothing happened.  No pain, no flattening, and no puddle.  He was just fine.  He looked up, curious as to what had happened.

He gasped as he saw what had happened above him.  Fran’s foot was still hovering above him, as it had been before, but it was behind help up by something.  He saw two hands just above him, one pushing up on the bottom of her foot and one clenched around her ankle.  Someone else was in the house and was trying to help him!  Looking up, his eyes ran past the long wrists and arms to see a familiar face, although a little bruised, looking at Fran while holding her foot back.  It was Abby!

Abby had broken down the door after several attempts and creating many bruises on her arm.  She’d made it to Fran’s bedroom just as she seemed like she was about to stomp Jim into oblivion.  She’d lunged over to her and caught her foot at the last second.  She was sweating and her face was red as she struggled to hold up Fran’s foot as it pushed down on it.  She was in a strange angle and the bruises and pain in her right arm made it a lot harder to push up on the foot.

Fran had immediately felt the pressure that was put on her foot as she had aimed to pound it down on Jim to make him feel the pain that he’d need as persuasion to love her.  Looking down, she almost fell over from the awkward pressure she’d felt.  She saw Abby, holding her foot up, looking up at her with an icy glare.  This made Fran’s rage all the worse.  Why was she intervening in her business?  How did she even get into her house?

“Abby!  What do you think you’re doing?!  Get out of here and let me handle this little love-betrayer!”

Abby still struggled as she felt Fran trying to put more pressure on her feet, still aiming to force it out of her grip and onto poor Jim.  She tried to push as hard as she could, but she could feel a stinging pain in her arm, a result of the bruising she’d endured when she knocked down the front door.  One of her eyes twitched it’s way shut as she tried her best to hold back Fran’s foot.

“N-No, Fran.  You can’t do this!  Jim didn’t betray you!  You have to let him go!”

Fran was not getting anything that Abby was telling her.  Why didn’t she understand?  Her heart was being torn asunder by everything, and Abby was trying to tell her that she was wrong?  How could she possibly do such a thing to her friend?  She stood for a moment, unable to understand why Abby was acting this way towards her. 

As Fran seemed to have been lost in thought, Abby turned her head, although straining, and looked over towards Jim.  Staring down at him, she began to whisper to him.  “Jim…listen to me…I don’t know how long I can keep her held like this.  You need to get in my pocket…I’ll take you someplace safe.”

Jim, frightened at this whole situation, listened carefully to Abby’s words.  She was the first person of the taller folks that he’d met.  When he had been with her, traveling around campus, she was always very gentle and kind with him.  He knew that if she’d come to rescue him or something, that he’d be safe with her.  He slowly began to push himself up, but immediately fell back down, pain piercing through his entire body.

His arms were shivering a little, but he could also hear Abby’s breathing getting heavier and heavier as she struggled to hold back the foot that towered over his tiny body.  Realizing that there was nothing else, he could do, he tried to force himself up again.  He immediately fell forward, onto his face, his legs screaming with pain as they hit the ground.  Realizing he wasn’t going to be able to walk or run to Abby, he reached his arms out and grabbed the carpet fibers, pulling himself across the floor.

As Fran was lost in thought, she peered down towards Abby and it looked like she was talking with him.  Her train of thought immediately ended when she heard him talking about taking him someplace safe and saw Jim crawling over towards Abby.  Her rage soared once again as she came to what she thought of as a realization.  ‘Abby…’ she thought to herself.  ‘Not only do you stop me from punishing him, but you’re trying to steal him from me too!’

“No, Abby!  You aren’t going to steal him from me, too!  I won’t let you!”

Fran used as must force as she could muster and broke the grip Abby had on her ankle, forcing her foot down and slamming it into Abby’s other hand as it hit the ground.  As it hit, Abby screamed as she her hand being forced into the ground.  Fran’s full weight had been put on that foot and she could feel one of her fingers cracking.  She reached up with her hand to try and pull Fran’s foot off, but the hand immediately quivered and fell as the girl started grinding her foot on her hand.

Jim, who had made a fair amount of progress, felt an enormous rush of wind as he heard the quake-like sound of Fran’s foot finally breaking free and hitting the ground.  He was sent tumbling across the floor as it hit.  He landed against the heel of Abby’s sandals and fell over to the ground.  He shook his head and looked up, seeing Abby’s hand being pinned to the ground.  A loud sound rang through his ears as Fran began to grind the girl’s hand into the floor and she screamed in pain.

“A-Abby!” he screamed, realizing that his tall friend was in pain.  He knew that Fran was hurting Abby.  He forced himself up and tried to hobble forward.  The pain immediately returned, but he caught himself on his way down.  He couldn’t stand the pain, but his friend was in trouble.  “I…I have to help her.  I can’t let her get hurt because of me!” 

As he hobbled his way further, he passed by what looked like a Needle Cushion laying on the ground.  Stopping next to it, he looked at all the needle handles sticking out of it and struck an idea.  Abby had hardly moved since she’d gotten hurt, so he may have been the only one in a position to get Fran off of her.   He hobbled to the cushion and grabbed the shortest needle he could.  He fell to the ground as he tried pulling it out, but kept pulling as it had fallen over with him.  Before long, it nudged and a huge needle, seemingly 4 feet long, popped out. 

Using the needle as support cane, Jim tried his best to get up to Abby’s hand and Fran’s foot as fast as he could.  The girl was still grinding on Abby’s hand, making her whimper and scream.  Jim felt awful about it and knew he had to do something.  He only hoped that he could help Abby and not get plastered in the process.

He came around behind Fran’s foot and stopped, gasping for breath.  He fell over as he’d used up a lot of strength just getting up there, bearing with the pain that was in his entire body.  Holding the needle in his hands, he stared at it and then back at Fran’s foot.  He didn’t want to hurt Fran, but he knew he had to.  If he didn’t Fran was likely to completely break Abby’s hand and who knows what else.

He forced himself up when he heard Abby whimpering again from the pain.  ‘Don’t worry, Abby,’ he thought.  ‘You helped me, and it’s my turn to help you.’  He picked up the needle and started hobbling towards Fran’s foot.  Waiting for it to stop, he grabbed the needle with both hands and forced it at the back of her ankle…