Ash had been looking forward to Emma and the other's coming over all day, she'd made sure there were plenty of snacks to go around, charged the batteries in the xbox controllers, got some drinks in which she figured everyone could enjoy and she'd tidied the place up as best she could, but then something began to feel wrong. She snacked nervously on some of the things she had set out in bowls on the table, worrying about the sudden ache she felt all over her body, and she could swear the clothes she had put on that morning felt a lot looser. The ache intensified to a pounding in her head, like someone was playing some rubbish drum&bass song at full volume right into her brain as her vision began to swim.
Her stomach cramped up and she dropped to her knees, but even that felt strange, like she seemed to fall for a long time before actually hitting the ground. When her head stopped spinning and the buzzing lessened enough to not make her feel sick, she opened her eyes. Everything seemed wrong, she was definitely laid on something soft, but she was under some kind of heavy blanket. Darkness was all around her except for a faint glow of light a little further ahead, it was like she was laid under the blankets of a huge bed.
"whats going on?" Ash thought to herself, her head still slightly thumping "Did I pass out? Am I in some hospital bed?"
She wondered if her friends had found her on the floor and called an ambulance, perhaps she had unconsciously wriggled under the blankets to get away from the light that hurt her eyes when she was feeling dizzy at home.
She decided it was best to try and find someone who could tell her what had happened. It was stiflingly hot under her huge heavy blanket and as she began to crawl towards the light at the top she realised how worryingly heavy and large this blanket was. It felt like she was crawling along for around 10 to 15 seconds, the light seemed to be further away then she had imagined when she first opened her eyes. Her heart began to pound again and her breathing became heavier as she increased her pace, causing her to notice the smell of a hot, slightly sweaty body all around her.
As she got to the source of light at the top of the blanket Ash pushed the thick, heavy edge up and cringed again. The light hurt her eyes and for a second that pounding sound returned to her brain causing her to need to find some stability as her hand supporting the blanket clenched tightly around the fabric, the heavy and chorded material only giving a slight bend in her grip. The pain died down quite quickly and her vision began to cut through the haze of light pouring down on her. She blinked and squinted, looking about her, but what she saw made her wonder whether she had actually woken up at all, or if in fact she was still lying unconsciously dreaming somewhere.
The sight that greeted her was simply immeasurable. Her jaw hung open as she simply stared, dumbstruck, her head slowly sweeping around as she took in the enormous room she was in. Before her stretched a huge, soft, fabric canvas the same colour as the t-shirt she had been wearing and as she continued to view the sights around her she fell into a deeper and deeper cold dread. The titanic room was an exact copy of her dining room, and hundreds of meters away it lead through an opening bigger than any aircraft hanger she had ever seen into another room decorated to be like her living room.
As Ashley continued to spin around on the spot she realised the heavy blanket she had crawled out from under was in fact her own jeans, complete with the waistband of her panties just visible in the dark of the fabric cave. A shudder of all too real fear swept through Ash's body as she realised for the first time how exposed and naked she was. She brought her arms up around herself to cover her chest and to rub at her upper arms to build up a little more body heat. Her eyes continued to gaze about, noticing she was just under the edge of her dining table, the vast wooden posts rising like giant redwood trees into the air, supporting a secondary wooden sky a little way below the white ceiling that hung miles above.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Emma, Leanne and Chrissy walked down the street they chatted away to each other about what they thought the evening was going to be like, Leanne made a few remarks about hoping the evening wasn't going to turn into computer games and pokemon before laughing off Emma's disapproving stare.
"Ash may not be into the same stuff we are but she knows that, she wouldn't make us do stuff we wouldn't all enjoy." Emma chided, as though she had already prepared her statement in anticipation of something being said about Ashley's taste in entertainment.
"I know, I know." Was all Leanne had to say for herself as she rolled her eyes at being scolded
The group continued to chat and laugh until they arrived at the house they had been looking for. They approached the door and rang the bell, standing in silence for a few moments expecting someone to come to let them in. about a minute went by and Emma rang the bell again, and again they waited.
"She's probably got her head buried between those gaming headphones of hers, I bet she's doing some quest on Warcraft and forgotten we're coming." Leanne said as though to cement her point of Ash being a bit of a geek to her.
Chrissy offered a guilty sounding giggle at Leanne's statement and even Emma couldn't help but grin as she playfully swatted Leanne's shoulder with the back of her hand.
"Don't be mean!" She said half stifling her own amusement "Its fine, I know where her spare key is, she doesn't mind me letting myself in."
Emma stepped away from the door and leaned down behind a short bush, rummaging around for a second before pulling out a key and presenting it to her friends like some lost treasure before she let them all into the house. As they all entered the hallway Emma called out to their friend but got no reply, they started shrugging off handbags and coats as they made their way into the rest of the house and again Emma called out but again they got no reply
"Must have gone to get something from the shop." Suggested Emma "She wont mind if we make ourselves at home while we wait for her."
The girls walked over to the table and Leanne eyed the snacks and dips that had been laid out, Emma and Chrissy each approached a chair to hang their jackets over their backs, then Emma tucked the toes of her converse down the back of the other foot and slipped the shoe off, kicking it under the table before she tucked her toes over the heel of the remaining shoe, slipping it off and letting it hang balanced on her toes for a second before kicking that one under as well.
"Oh, good idea, my feet are killing me." Said Leanne as she slipped her feet out of her four inch heels
"Well you insist on wearing heels everywhere, what do you expect?" Chrissy chimed in as she too slipped her bare feet from her sandals.
"Well excuse me for bringing a little class to the group." Leanne said with a smirk, her eyes flicking down to Chrissy's bare feet, slightly dirty from having been walking about outside in her sandals for the better part of the day, Chrissy simply stuck her tongue out at Leanne's comment and grinned.
"May as well put your shoes under the table out of the way, looks like ash has gone to some effort to make the place look tidy for us." Said Emma gesturing briefly, not wanting to undo her friends hard work by leaving shoes lying about in the middle of the floor.
Leanne kicked lightly at the loose set of clothing lying on the floor by the table for a moment with a slight scoff "Doesn't look like she went to a great effort..." she said.
"Maybe she's in the shower then?" Replied Chrissy taking a step forward to see over the table at the clothes Leanne was shifting about
"Well she wont mind us helping ourselves to drinks and things while she is getting ready, shall we see what she has in the fridge?" Suggested Emma as she made her way past the table and into the kitchen, the other girl's following her through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ashley heard what sounded like muted chatter coming from somewhere, and then a loud ringing sound shook the air causing her to clutch her hands to her ears and shut her eyes tight. For a second she wondered if it was just the pain in her head ringing but then as she got her head straight the ring came a second time, thankfully this time it didn't seem as frighteningly loud. It was the doorbell! It was Emma and the others. Ash's heart began to pound in her chest... what should she do? Should she wait here and be discovered, or hide? She knew she couldn't hide forever but perhaps it would be best to wait it out for a while until she could get Emma alone.
The sound of the door opening echoed from down the hall, Ash froze for second and then instinct made her decision for her, she ran. Heading for the safety of the forest of table and chair legs she ran as best she could through the thick heavy carpet pile until she tucked herself behind one of the chair legs, panting hard. What should have been a single step at her normal height had taken her around 30 to 40 seconds to run and fight her way through the dense carpet. In the mean time her friends had made their way into the dining room behind her, the heavy thuds of their footsteps beginning to rumble through the floor as they got closer and closer.
Ashley peeked around the corner of the chair leg, the simple width of the leg was enough to completely shield her minuscule body from being seen as she saw three pairs of stomping feet moving into the room. The echo of footfalls hummed through the air around her as she struggled to keep her footing, the floor shook and rumbled threatening to throw her tiny form off balance as the crushing footsteps continued to pound the floor so close to her. The feet moved quicker than she could keep up with, flying past her vision with a rush of air each time they moved close to her before a deep boom reverberated through the ground once more as it stepped back down onto the ground.
Ashley shivered realising how quickly she would be crushed to jam if she were caught underfoot of one of those titanic shoes as they moved about all around her. A pair of sandals appeared to her left as she looked out from her hiding spot, the normally quiet slap of the sole hitting the bottom of the heel sounded like a whip cracking the air as Ashley struggled to pull her gaze away from the dirt-stained insole, slapping over and over against the vast soles as the feet shuffled and moved, stomping around near her almost like they were teasing her, the slightly grubby toes constantly flexing and gripping at the front of the sandal, ready to leap forward any second to snatch her up and crush her under them.
She began to run to the other end of the table, noticing a pair of heels approach as the weight coming down onto the thin points exaggerated the force applied to the floor making the bone shaking booming noises sound as though they were right next to her, once again giving her images of being caught beneath the horrific points, each one looked big enough to completely destroy her head in a single step if she found herself caught under it. A few tears stung at her eyes as she truly registered how pathetic she had become, reduced to running scared and naked beneath her own table to avoid being stepped on by a pair of dirty, sandalled feet.
In her own mind Ashley registered that she recognised the slightly battered pair of converse stomping about at the other end of the table, she knew those feet belonged to her best friend and subconsciously headed towards them, despite seeing them swinging by at terrifying speeds, hearing the rhythmic thumping and heavy scrapes of them crashing into the floor, she still ran towards her friends feet. The noise of the voices above seemed like a wave of sound and noise and Ashley was too scared to really focus on them, instead she simply kept running as her friend hooked the toes of one converse over the other's heel and slipped her foot free from its shoe.
Still running head on towards the end of the table, through the forest of wooden pillars and under the seats of her own chairs, she had nearly made it to her goal, it had taken her almost a full minute to make it from one end to the other but she suddenly came to a halt when she realised what Emma was doing. The foot which had slipped from its shoe had lifted, dangling the converse on the edge of its sock-covered toes and then with a quick flick had pulled back and catapulted the shoe under the table. Ashley screamed as the enormous converse flew through the air towards her, a thunderous boom erupting as the heel of it hit the floor and the shoe tumbled towards her.
She couldn't help but scream, even once she had crouched down, wrapping her arms around her head to make herself into a small ball she still screamed, it was the only reaction she could muster to what sounded like a large truck crashing down the carpet towards her, getting closer and closer until finally with one last bang that seemed to happen all around her, she was in pitch darkness. Everything was still and quiet for a moment, the sounds of chatter were muted and seemed far away, Ashley wondered if she was dying, but then realised she was still curled up in her protective ball and there was warm air all around her.
Warm, sweaty air.
Opening her eyes the tiny girl looked around her, a faint light seeped into her prison from the base of the walls and as her eyes adjusted she could make out the chequered pattern of the spongy looking roof above her, marked with a huge "UK 5". She tried not to breath as hard as her body demanded she needed to, every lungful of air she pulled in meant she could taste the heat, moisture and musky scent of feet and sweat all around her. The humid air was unbearable, sticking to her skin and making it feel damp and itchy as her mind swam with a confusion of sensory inputs. She had survived, but right now her best friends converse had become her entire world.
Ash barely had time to think straight when she heard another loud crash that vibrated the floor beneath her, a series of rolling thuds coming towards her again as she recognised that her friend had kicked off her other shoe. In a panic Ashley moved to the edge of the musty cave and tried to push on the thick heavy material in an effort to tip the shoe off of her. Her hands pushed against the canvass but the wall simply bulged out, the insole roof above her dropping down slightly to rest against the top of her head. The small girl raised her hands to stop it lowering further in case it might pin her beneath it, her hands and fingers sunk into the damp spongy insole as a tepid, thick liquid ran down her arms and over her body. She once again began to to sob, her tears mixing with the already salty sweat now soaking into her.
The rumbling got closer and again got louder and louder as Ashley dropped to her knees, leaning against the warm canvass wall and huddling into a ball. She sobbed, expecting at any moment to be crushed by that dirt-stained chequered insole looming barely 3ft above her, to become just another greasy stain in her friends shoe. More thundering noises came now, this time from the direction she knew Leanne had been stood, she realised it must have been those tall heels coming to join in the fun of crushing her roach-sized body, then everything was flipped and thrown about once more.
The shoe she had been trapped in, which had forced to breath in the hot stale air as she cried, suddenly flipped and rolled away from her as another shoe crashed into it. The impact was like being caught in a multi-car pile up as converse and heels collided, the spike of one of the heels crashing down just inches from Ashley's tiny body almost impaling her stomach onto its blunt shaft. Finally however everything went mercifully still again. Ash hadn't moved. She had been too terrified, unable to focus on anything that had happened around her as Leanne's heels had knocked into Emma's converse and freed her from the dark cave.
For a moment she wiped the tears from her eyes, the light hurting them as they adjusted to it once more, she dared to look around herself, seeing she lay huddled within a pile of discarded shoes. Her former prison lay on its side next to her, the opening almost inviting her to climb back in to the dark, safe confines while on the other side lay the large tan-coloured leather insole of a huge black high-heel shoe, a well used and half crushed grimey gel insert lying partially ejected from the enclosed toe section.
Ashley cried once more. A mixture of terror, relief and humiliation as she was once again surrounded by the thick musky air of her friends feet, and the heat which radiated from Leanne's damp insole.