Michael was placed on the bed and Lora and Lucy left the room. Michael knew that he got only five minutes to get from the bed and get in a safe position to operate from. He ran to the edge of the bed and saw that the blanket was hanging nearly to the ground. At normal size Michael was good in climbing. He took his chance and slid down the blanket. He separated a fibre from it and abseiled himself to the ground. It worked better than he imagined and it took only two minutes.
He made for the cupboard next to the door which seemed like a good place to hide. The distance to the cupboard seemed like half a mile to him but it proved less. After exactly three minutes he reached it and hid under it.
Lora and Lucy entered the room on time and looked for Michael on the bed. “Seems like he made it Lulu the question is where is he hiding now”. “We better find him before that insect makes it to the living room”. Michael took his chance while Lucy and Lora searched for him on the bed and under it. They didn’t anticipate that he made it from the bed that fast. He slipped through the door and was now in the corridor. He knew that he had an advantage now but didn’t slow down when he made for the stairs.
“Lora dear you should maybe check the corridor and the stairs just in case he already made it out. I will continue searching here”. That was unfair he was playing one versus two. He quickly hided under a commode standing on the right side of the corridor and near to the stairs and Lora walked out of the room checking the floor. She walked past him to the stairs. When she walked down the stairs in direction of the living room Michael ran to the stairs too. The steps were small in height which was to his advantage. To him it looked like a ten feet drop that would be dangerous if the stairs wouldn’t have been carpeted too. And the carpet was a perfect surface to climb from one step to the next.
Lora seemed to have reached the end of the stairs and Michael was climbing down very fast. After ten minutes he had already made five of twenty steps total. But then he heard Lora coming back up again. He had nowhere to hide so he pressed himself against the carpet, which had a dirty white colour, hoping she wouldn’t see him. Lora entered his vision coming towards him fast. Her eyes were checking the steps and Michael held his breath. Lora’s foot connected with the step right in front of him.
After that event with Chloé the last night, Michael had a sudden respect of that giant foot. Lora wore new socks they were white, thick and dirty as if she had them on outside. A lot of brown stains but no actual mud or dirt was on it. But they didn’t quite look like the kind of surface Michael would want to be smothered beneath. The foot lifted and he heard Lora going further upstairs. “No trace of him Lulu something new in your room”, Lora asked. “No if he’s hiding here he’s hiding good but what for. He needs to get down in the living room in the next forty minutes.” Forty minutes TSS easier done than said, thought Michael.
He made for the next steps and now he had the right technique. “Okay Lucy it’s your turn to guard the stairs I’m going the guard the corridor now he has to come out of the room at some point if he wants to win”. Michael has climbed down another five stairs when he heard Lucy approaching. Again he pressed against the carpeted step and waited. Lucy’s foot soon descended in front of him and he noticed that she also wore new socks. Hers were thick and black with a lot of fluff on them. The smell was strong even when not being beneath them. What have they been doing he asked himself already knowing the answer. He remembered that there was a home trainer in a room right next to the living room. He was sure they used it just to irritate him.But again Lucy just walked past him.
Now Michael realized why people were playing shrinking games like these. It was a real adventure with real risks and a real reward. And the adrenaline rushes were amazing.
He continued climbing down the stairs until he was in potential sight of Lucy standing at the end of the stairs. Right now she was looking in the opposite direction but if she would turn around she was likely to see him if he would continue climbing down. Hiding against the step would do no good if she’d look in his direction so he had to press down onto the carpet and crawl further. He lost a lot of his speed and he didn’t have a plan yet how to climb down.
He waited for her to check the stairs again what nearly took another five minutes. She looked in his direction but he was hidden well. When Lucy did not see anything she continued looking for him in the living room. Just when he approached to get going again a shadow fell over him. He had been so concentrated that he didn’t pay any attention to Lora who seemed to have been going downstairs. He looked up to see her foot descending on him making his nightmare of being smothered beneath these disgusting socks true. He was grinded between the carpeted step and Lora’s foot but at least she seemed to not have noticed him yet. The smell was indeed terrible but the horror ended fast when she lifted her foot again and continued going downstairs. Michael was a little bit flattened and needed some time to recover from this incident but he had faced things far worse.
“It has no sense nothing is moving up there we should concentrate on the stair’s end and the way from there to the couch table”, Lora said. “We should check our socks to see if we might have already stepped on him without noticing like yesterday”, Lucy answered and they checked. Lora started to grin. “Well that looks at least like his shape doesn’t it”, she said. Lucy nodded “The question is where did you step on him”.
Michael became nervous. Lucy came in his direction and he was definitely in the wrong position but if he would move they would see him instantly. So he prepared for being stepped on again. When his expectations met reality Michael was overwhelmed by the moisture and smell of her foot. He was pressed into her soft thick sock and again flattened. But it was only another short encounter and Lucy continued inspecting the stairs. Lora turned in direction of the couch again and Michael took his chance to climb down another five steps until Lucy came back down again. Michael wanted to avoid another encounter and used his first hiding method since Lora wasn’t in sight right now. Lucy walked past him again. When she started to check her foot again for a potential shape of him Michael reacted quickly and pressed down onto the step again. And not a second too early because when Lucy saw his shape on her sock she directly looked in his direction.
“Lora dear he must be still on the corridor or the stairs I just stepped on him without noticing”. “Damn we might be too drunk to play these kind of games we must pay more attention”, Lora answered and came in sight again. “I hope he enjoyed these meetings with our feet. Our special preparation was just for him after all”, Lucy joked. Michael grinned as they confirmed his suspicion. The game was actually really fun, he thought. He didn’t really like being stepped on but it was a risk he took with pleasure. It might be different if they’d catch him but until now everything was running according to plan. But now it started to get really thrilling. The two girls now watched the stairs continuously knowing he couldn’t be far off. Now he had to make a new plan…