Time passes at an indeterminate pace. I don't know if it's been hours or days. The only clue is the fact that I'm starving. I've gone past hungry and moved into the territory of gut-gnawing ravenous.
I don't know how many times she's opened the drawer... I may have dreamed some of them. My wet clothes vanished some time ago, so now I have nothing to wear. Sometimes, she just takes a pair of panties out and closes the drawer. One time, I saw her set a small, plastic lid filled with water down on the bottom of the drawer. It took me a while to find it in the dark, but once I did I drank my fill.
But she never brings food, and she never says a word.
I've slept five or six times, but I don't know for how long. My dreams are fragmented, disturbing things that seem to run together. There's one where I'm in my dollhouse, watching Louise walk away through the window. Or one where I'm lying on a plate while Naomi and Cheryl take turns slicing off pieces of me and chewing them. Or one where Suzy is my size, beckoning me to her, unaware that Kim's monstrous foot hovers above her.
Even when I'm awake, the nightmares plague me. It's so dark in here, my eyes might as well be shut. Unbidden, I see images of Naomi's foot crushing my poor car and of Cheryl, grinning like an evil bitch around her cigarette. I hear footsteps and giggles, and one time I swear I smelled my mother's perfume.
I keep moving back and forth between burning up and freezing. My head is all stuffed up, and I think I might have caught a cold from swimming in that nasty toilet water. I often find myself wrapping myself in the thin cotton of her undergarments for warmth, only to cast them off when the temperature becomes too unbearably hot.
I've already decided I'm going to beg her for mercy the next time she opens this drawer. I'll do anything she wants me to do, say anything she wants me to say.
God, I'm so hungry...
The drawer opens and I cry out weakly. I squint in the eye-searing light, gazing up at Kim's massive face. She sees me looking and grins. "Don't mind me," she giggles. "I just need some clean undies." She reaches down and grabs the underwear I'm lying on. She lifts up the edge of it, letting me roll down to the bottom of the drawer. I hit the wood with a thud and lie there, unmoving.
"Poor Ray," she coos, prodding me in the back with a fingertip. "Are you dying or something?"
I raise my head slowly, still squinting in the brightness. "Please," I say, my voice cracked and trembling. "Give me something to eat..."
"Oh, you poor baby," she says. "How stupid of me." She reaches down and gently scoops me into the palm of her hand. I'm naked and shivering, and the warmth of her hand feels so good. I look up into her massive, smiling face and I want so desperately to feel safe again. I wonder if I ever will...
"Just let me get dressed," she says, "and I'll go find you some food." She sets me in the floor at her feet, then stands up. She grabs the hem of her oversized sleep shirt and starts to raise it over her head. I quickly avert my eyes and turn around.
"Oh, don't be shy, silly," she says, prodding me playfully in the back with her big toe. In my weakened condition, it's still enough to knock me to my knees. "You're naked too, remember?"
I keep my back to her, ignoring her giggles. I hear the rustle of her clothes, the sound of her zipper. Then her bare foot passes over me as she steps to the door. She slips her feet into a pair of blue flip-flops, opens the door, and steps into the hallway.
"Better keep out of sight," she tells me, poking her head back into her room. "Mom might come in here and see you."
I slowly make my way to her bed, listening to the retreating slap-thump of Kim's rubber sandals as she makes her way to the kitchen. I duck past the dust ruffle and hide in the shadow under her bed. I see dirty clothes, stuffed animals, and an awful lot of dust bunnies under here. I poke around weakly, looking for something to cover myself.
I hear her footsteps returning, so I abandon my search and stumble back over to where the dust ruffle hangs down. From my vantage point, I can't see anything but her feet and ankles as she enters the room and shuts the door. I watch her sandaled feet approach, staring feverishly at each step she takes.
In a moment of crazy déjŕ vu, I remember watching Naomi's feet through the window of my dollhouse, being fascinated by the way her sandals dangled from her toes, then slapped the bottom of her foot every time she took a step. I also remember fantasizing about what it would be like to be pinned beneath that foot, or to squirm between those toes...
Of course, real life certainly failed to live up to those high standards.
"Ray," Kim calls softly from the center of the room. I come out from under the bed and approach her on trembling legs. My stomach makes a horrible, grumbling noise and I actually have to press my hands against it to ease the gnawing pain.
I look up and see that she's holding a handful of Oreos. My mouth waters at the sight of the cookies and my stomach lets out another ravenous moan.
She slides her foot out of her sandal and kneels down next to it. She sets a cookie on the rubber insole, then looks at me with a playful grin. "Come and get it," she calls.
Of course it's not going to be easy. I was an idiot to think otherwise. But I don't care. I climb up onto her shoe and stumble to the cookie. I fall on it, my shaky hands trying desperately to break off a chunk.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she says, standing up. "Is that too big for you to eat?" She raises her bare foot over me. I roll off of her flip-flop and onto the carpet as she brings her foot down on top of the cookie, crushing it. I watch with revulsion as she grasps pieces of the Oreo between her toes and grinds them into crumbs.
She giggles. "There you go, Ray," she says sweetly, her foot still resting on the sandal. "Eat up."
A month ago - hell, a week ago - I wouldn't have stooped to such a low level. But I'm actually trembling with hunger, and even the sight of the crushed cookie is making my mouth water. I climb up on her shoe and tentatively approach her foot. Her toes wiggle slowly, playfully as I get nearer.
I reach down and take a crumb from the rubber sole. Before I can get it to my mouth, Kim shakes the sandal with her foot and knocks me on my ass.
"No," she says, wiggling her toes again. "Eat the crumbs off my foot."
And God help me, I do. I choke back the bile in my throat as I pick a crumb from between her wriggling toes and gobble it down greedily. Then another, and another.
"Ew, I can't believe you're doing it," she giggles. She raises her foot to offer me the crumbs and bits of cream filling stuck to the bottom. Afterwards, she spreads her toes and insists that I lick them clean. And eager to plow through this nightmare as quickly as possible, I comply.
And when, at last, I'm done, Kim leaves me to eat in peace. I'm sure it's because she's tired of standing, more than out of any benevolence in her heart, but she kicks off her other sandal and steps over me to go sit on her bed. There, she munches on the remaining cookies and watches with some amusement as I devour the chunks of Oreo left on the insole of her shoe.
Nicole, it turns out, is at Paul's parents' house for a week. Apparently, she was getting freaked out about the covert search for me, and Naomi incorrectly assumed her odd behavior was simply concern over her missing brother.
Kim tells me all of this one day, in a very conversational tone, as I cling to her toe and dangle helplessly against the sole of her foot. She's sitting on her bed with her leg stretched out over the edge. The carpeted floor lies dangerously far below me, so I've got no choice but to hold on for dear life.
"It was pretty close," Kim tells me, as if sharing a confidence. "She was about to tell your parents everything, until I stopped her."
"How?" I ask in a strained voice. My arms are getting tired, as I've been in this position for about half an hour. "How did you stop her?"
Kim giggles and pinches her toes together, causing shooting pains in my aching arms. "I told her if she said a word, I'd kill you and flush you down the toilet and nobody would ever be able to prove a thing."
The terrifying thing is, I don't think she's bluffing.
"I can't wait until next month," Kim says as she crosses her leg and plucks me from the bottom of her foot. Relieved, I lower my trembling arms, wincing as the circulation returns like a million tiny needles. She sets me on her stomach and grins as I struggle to keep my balance.
"Heather will be back from Europe, and we can all go over to her parents' house and go swimming." She giggles, and her belly trembles beneath me. My equilibrium goes out the window and I fall flat on my face.
"I know you can't swim," she says, "so I guess you'll have to hold onto somebody."
"Who's Heather?" I ask, eager to change the direction of the conversation.
"She's a friend of mine and Nicole's," Kim tells me. "Well, I guess she's more my friend than Nicole's, because she's fourteen and I'm thirteen."
"I thought you were twelve," I say. I regret it immediately when Kim snatches me up. "If you're going to argue, you're going between the toes," she scolds. She spreads her toes and tucks me between them. By now, I'm so used to it I don't even struggle. If I can keep from upsetting her, I might get out of this without too much pinching. And if I can keep her talking, I won't have to fake an "organism."
"Anyway, I'm almost thirteen," Kim says. "And Nicole's only eleven, so Heather thinks she's a baby. But her parents are really rich, and she's like a freshman cheerleader at Stasheff High. I can't wait to show you to her!"
The knob on Kim's door rattles, startling Kim so much that she squeezes the air out of me. Panicking, she grabs me from between her toes and sets me on her nightstand. "Hide," she whispers fiercely as she runs to the door and opens it. I barely have time to conceal myself behind her clock radio before Cheryl walks into the room.
"What have I told you about locking this door?" she asks angrily in that raspy voice.
Kim shrugs. "Sorry."
"Did you take your pills today?"
"Yes," Kim answers with enough venom to kill a reptile. Of course, Cheryl is unfazed.
"Okay, then. Your daddy is coming by at 5:00 to take you to dinner, so get some nice clothes on."
Kim sighs. "Aw, Mom. He's just gonna take me to Sizzler or something. How come I have to dress up?"
"Because I want your daddy to see how good I take care of you," Cheryl says, walking over to the closet and pulling it open. She rummages through the hanging clothes before finally pulling out a gingham dress. "Here. Put this on."
Kim takes the dress from her and tosses it onto the bed. Cheryl turns to leave, then stops. She walks back over to Kim and kneels down to look her in the eye.
"Listen, sweetie," she says, gently grasping her daughter by the shoulders. "If your daddy asks if I'm seeing someone, and I know he will, you tell him I'm very happily involved with a doctor. No, wait... a lawyer."
Kim sighs. "Why do I have to lie to daddy?"
"It's not a lie, sweetie," Cheryl says. "I mean, I think Lee might be a lawyer."
"He's just some icky guy you brought home so he could have sex on you and give you organisms."
Cheryl lets out an exasperated sigh. "Don't be a little shit, okay? I'm just asking you to do one thing for me."
Kim glares at Cheryl. "Fine. I'll tell Daddy you're dating a doctor."
"A lawyer," Cheryl corrects her.
"Whatever."
Cheryl climbs unsteadily to her feet. It's late afternoon, and she's already half-drunk. "That's a good girl," she says, bending down to kiss Kim on the cheek. Kim pulls away and wipes it off.
"Hurry up," Cheryl tells Kim, walking out the door. "Your daddy will be here in less than an hour." She leaves, closing the door behind her.
Kim walks over to me and picks me up between her thumb and finger. "Maybe I should take you with me tonight," she says, grinning. "You can stay under the table and play on my feet while I eat."
I'm actually excited about the prospect. Not playing on her feet - God knows I've had enough of that to tide me over for the rest of my life. But maybe I'll be able to get away, to make contact with a sympathetic adult, who will contact Suzy for me...
"Nah, I'd better not," Kim says, carrying me to the drawer. "If Daddy saw you, he'd probably make me give you back."
My brief dreams of escape shattered, I resign myself to another tedious evening in the underwear drawer. Kim blows me a kiss as she slams the drawer shut, leaving me alone in the dark.
An hour? Two? I don't know how much time has passed when I hear Kim's door open. Has it been enough? I'm almost afraid to hide, because if it's Kim opening the drawer, I'll be punished. But if it's not...
I scramble as the footsteps approach the dresser, and once again burrow under the pile of socks. The drawer slides open and Cheryl peeks in, a frown on her monstrous face.
"Let's just see," she mutters as her massive hands rummage through the clothes in the drawer. She finally spots Kim's pill case and lifts it out of the drawer. I lie there, my heart pounding, praying harder than I've ever prayed that I won't be spotted.
Cheryl snaps the compartments open to check them, and lets out a long sigh. "You think you're fooling me, you little bitch?" she mutters. "I know you're doing something with those pills because you're sure as shit not taking them."
God, I can feel her eyes on me. Every muscle in my body is trembling and my breath is coming in short, frantic gasps. My heart is beating so loudly in my ears that I'm sure she can hear it. Any minute now, she's going to see me and...
The drawer slams shut, enveloping me in merciful darkness. Shaking violently, I climb out from under the socks and collapse on the pile of underwear, forcing myself to breathe normally. That was too close!
The drawer slides open again and I actually scream as I roll to the bottom of the drawer and scramble for my hiding place under the socks. I look up in terror and see Cheryl, still holding the pill case, staring right at me. She drops the case into the drawer and reaches towards me with agonizing slowness.
I actually whimper as she pulls rolls of socks from the pile one by one, her smile growing wider and wider as she exposes me. I huddle down into a tight little ball, burying my head in my hands, offering up all kinds of desperate, hopeless prayers. Cheryl grasps me around the waist with her finger and thumb, and slowly, torturously, lifts me from the drawer and holds me up to her face.
"Well, well, well," she says, with a smile that turns my blood to ice water. "Kim, you naughty little thing."
Out of the frying pan...
Oh, God.
Giantess World
Homunculus by Cayce