Geoff could hear the party going off inside, the thundering beat of the bass system Jo had installed making the deck vibrate at even intervals. The tiny bug couldn’t do much, except sit and wait patiently on his prison of wooden planks. The sliding glass door had been shut, any and all cracks sealed thoroughly. There was no way for him to go back inside.

So, instead of worrying about the tragedy that had become his life, despite the endless tortures and horrors that promised to be in his future, the small boy simply leaned back and relaxed. He was safe up on the porch, at least relatively. There weren’t too many bugs that would venture this far from the protective grass, and most of his giant friends and family were staying inside.

The stars were comforting. Even though he was only a fraction of his normal size, those tiny pinpoints of light still looked the same. High above and unreachable, never changing. One of the few constants in his life.

He wondered how Jo, Erin, and Emily were handling his disappearance. Sure, they had shrugged it off before, but surely they would start to worry, right? One day missing was a problem, but there could be an excuse, some set of bad circumstances. Two days though, they would start worrying. He was sure.

But then he started thinking about his sisters, and the ways they laughed whenever they joked about him accidently walking into a bad neighborhood and getting stabbed, or shot, or torn to pieces by a rabid dog. It had seemed like stupid jokes before, but now… he wasn’t so sure.

Geoff sat up suddenly, hearing the door slide open, a burst of hot air wafting across the patio. It carried with it a mixture of intense aromas; sweat from all the closely packed bodies was the most prominent. Trailing just behind was the overpowering scent of alcohol.

The tiny quickly jumped to his feet, looking for a place to hide. He knew that outside, where the moon was his only source of light, he wouldn’t have any chance of being found by these giants. He had been showed that before, and had taken that lesson to heart.

Before he could move, the ground underneath him started to vibrate as the giant took the first of her great footsteps. Geoff was almost knocked over, just barely managing to remain standing as the massive goddess simply strode over to the edge of the patio. She stopped only a pace away from the tiny little bug.

It was only after Geoff regained his balance that he had time to look up at the massive face miles above his. When he did, when he saw the full, red lips, the long, flowing hair, the sparkling eyes and the rossy cheeks, his heart skipped a beat. Standing before him, her pale skin radiant from the moonlight, was Jo.

“Jo…” the tiny boy whispered, his emotions dropping from the momentary high of seeing his former love. She wasn’t going to see him. After all, he was only a bug to her.

His gaze lowered, first passing over her breasts, covered in a tight black jacket, the one that he had bought her for her birthday. She had said it was her favorite. Then down to her butt, cupped gracefully by her yoga pants, and finally to her shoes. They were a pair of Nike high tops, the color explosive even in the low light.

Geoff gulped, marvelling at the giant’s shoes. They were one of the most impressive things he had ever laid eyes on. Massive, bulky, and amazingly attractive. Though he couldn’t see it now, he knew that the sole was a vibrant mixture of reds, greens, blues, pinks, and yellows, each looking like they were splashed on. The sides had the same effect, only they had the reflective property that nice plastic often had before it became worn out and cracked. Her soles were simply matte.

Even the laces stood out with their neon colors. He really loved those shoes, and knew Jo loved them to. That's why she only took them out on special occasions, or when she wanted to look really nice. She had worn them on their first date. Then, they seemed loving and inviting. Something that spoke of her carefree, easy going nature and fun attitude. Now though, from his shifted point of view, they only looked like a colorful tool to crush him to death.

Geoff jumped a bit as his girlfriend moved her foot slightly, inching it unconsciously in his direction. She look drunk, that was for sure. Geoff couldn’t blame her though. If he was in there, back to his normal size, he’d be the same. Still, it didn’t help his chance of being found at all.

So he turned around, knowing that nothing but trouble would come of him trying to reveal himself. Without any more though to the giant girl, he turns around and started running to the shadows.

He didn’t make it far before he heard, and felt, the impact of Jo’s first step. He glanced over his shoulder, wary of where the girl might choose to place her foot, praying it wasn’t not him. She arched her back, yawning deeply, then lifted her shoe.

It came down hard, shaking the patio, though it wasn’t too close to Geoff to cause him much worry. As long as nothing abnormal happened, it looked like he would survive his most recent encounter with normal sized humans.

But then something fell from Jo’s hand. It collided with the wood with a tremendous thud, the giant black object bouncing, then tumbling about wildly. Geof could only crouch down, throwing his arms above his head in panic, waiting for the mad tumbling to stop.

“Woops,” he heard his girlfriend say from above. Tentatively he opened his eyes, confused momentarily at the sight infront of him. It was only after moments of thought that he realized the object that had crashed only a few paces in front of him was Jo’s cell phone. Then her slender fingers came down, wrapping around the black devise.

Geoff's breath was taken, the sight of her massive fingers so close to his tiny, vulnerable body proving more impressive than he would have imagined. Once again he was only a few paces away from a giant that could kill him without a single thought.

Then his stomach sank as he heard his girlfriend utter a single word. “Oh?” she said, curriouse, he hand ceasing to move. Slowly Geoff dared to drag his eyes away from the phone, up her slender arms covered by the tight fitting black jacket, up to her pale, thin, beautiful neck, then to her eyes. Dread filled him as he realized what she was looking at.

“What the?” she whispered again, her eyebrows coming together in a look of confusion. Suddenly her fingers released their grip on her cell, drifting closer to Geoff's small form. The boy screamed, turned and sprinted away, thinking only that Jo thought of him as a bug.

He had been conditioned to think that way. Only a day or so at the size of an insect, yet he knew his place in the universe. He was not the giant master of things that he had once been, big enough to disregard most of the horrors that were below, thinking only of his normal life. Now though, when a single step could mean his bloody death, when a beetle could chew his head off, when his maid thought that he was only a bug, his self image was starting to waver. Was he really a human anymore? With everything that had happened, with all the horrors that will surely come, how can he say that he was anything more than a bug?

So, when Jo’s slender, warm fingers grabbed at his waist and chest, as he was trapped by his former love and girlfriend, he could think of nothing else than being squashed like the insect he was. He didn’t want to die like this. Jo would bring him up to her face, perhaps it would take a moment to realize that he was nothing more than a pest, but the realization would come. When it did, she would simply grip harder and harder, until his chest burst and he became nothing more than a corpse in her hand.

Wind whipped at his hair as Jo accelerated him upward, bringing him closer to her face, just as he had thought. His arms were pinned against his body by the girl’s monumental grip. Even though she was barely applying any pressure, it was still enough to make him feel uncomfortable, breath coming hard as her fingers prevented his chest from expanding.

He squeezed his eyes closed, unable to look his former lover in the eye as she murdered him. His breathing was hard and rapid, his heart beating with the same intensity it always did whenever one of these gods tried to kill him. To think that after all he had survived, he was about to be squished by Jo, just because she dropped her phone. After all the feet he had dodged, after escaping the trash compactor, after the beetle, Jo was simply going to kill him.

But death did not come. Eventually his heartbeat lessoned, his mind coming to terms with the fact that Jo had yet to murder him. Slowly his eyes peeled open to see his girlfriend’s pale face, rosy cheeks, pink lips, and gentle features framed by the moonlight at her back. Her eyes, orbs of a deep, comforting brown, were looking at him with amazement. Not horror, nor anger, as he had expected.

“Jo,” he said, almost a whisper, his nerves barely even letting him say that much.

“G… Geof?” She questioned back.

A smile found its way onto the insects face. “Jo, it's me!” the bug said, his hopes suddenly rising. “Yes, its me!” he repeated, excitement taking a firm hold. For the first time in what seemed to be an eternity, he felt like a person again.

“Geoff, is that you?” Jo said, bringing him closer, still looking confused and shocked. “What?”

“Yes, its me! Thank you, thank you.” He couldn’t contain the glee that flowed over him, through him, around him. “I don’t know what happened. I shrunk and… and… I don’t know. Things have been happening, I was almost stepped on. But, that doesn't matter now! Jo, you found me, now we can-” he was suddenly cut off by the giantess that held him.

“Oh god,” the girl said, bringing up her free hand to slad her forehead, breaking out into a fit of giggles soon after. “I must be wasted.” Another fit of giggles followed. “I think this bug is my boyfriend.”

Then, just like his hopes, Jo let him drop. It was sudden, quicker than he was really able to process. One moment he had been saved, his girlfriend having found him and acknowledged his existence. The next, his was slipping through her grasp, tumbling down to the dirt. As he was supposed to. No, he was not a human anymore, Jo had just confirmed that. His body collided with the wood.

He felt Jo's footsteps reverberating off of the wood as she walked away, the screen door opening and shutting as she passed through. And all the while he could hear her cute giggling, and the occasional word. “I thought he was Geof,” she said. “But it was just a bug.”

And so his part in the world was once again confirmed. He was just a bug. A pathetic, weak, small, disgusting little pest that didn’t deserved, and would never receive, even the lowest form of compassion or kindness. The former love of his life had just laughed at him, dropping him without a care, leaving him to die.

What was he supposed to do now? He couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity. He had been talking to her, actually was able to make her realize that it was him that she held in her hand, yet it didn’t matter. He was just a bug. How long would it be until he was finally crushed like one?

A light breeze rustled the grass, eventually finding its way over to his body, feeling cold against his skin. The black sky hung above, much like it always had, yet now it looked more ominous, more constricting. The stars were no longer the tiny balls that represented a hope for his future. They were only reminders of the heaven he would never return to.  

It sounded far away, but he could hear the screen door open and close. He didn’t care though. He just stayed where he was, his back against the cold wood, his arms and legs spread about himself, his unblinking eyes staring at the heavens.

Laughing, footsteps… something in his mind put together that it was his sisters that had come outside. They were to the back of him, still out of view, probably leaning against the house and talking about someone in the party. It seemed that they hadn’t seen him yet. Perhaps that was a good thing.

The tiny bug blinked, tried to move, found that his muscles protested too much. Perhaps if there was a reason to get up he would manage, but for now, after what had happened, there didn’t seem to be a point.

Maybe Erin would come over and step on him. Maybe it would be Emily instead, her massive Nike’s stomping on his head without a thought, his brains splattering on the wood, filling up the tiny gaps that made up her sole.

“No,” he said allowed, his arm coming up and slapping him in the face. He couldn’t just roll over and die like this. No matter what happened, no matter how many times he tried and failed, he needed to persist. Even a bug has a chance, and Geoff wasn’t about to throw that away.

Though his tired muscles screamed at him to stop, he pushed himself into a sitting position, then onto his feet. Everything ached, from his legs that had been running for so long, to his chest that had been bashed countless times, to his head that might had been hit one too many times. But he couldn’t die. Not now, not after all that had happened.

The ground started vibrating under him, growing with intensity with every second. Geoff tried to turn and run, but the tremors soon made it hard to even keep his balance, let alone move.

With a final slam, an unimaginably huge pair of feet slammed down on either side of him, knocking him onto his backside. He looked up then, the sight taking his breath away. Though he had seen Emily from this point of view before, it just isn’t something that one can grow used to.

She was wearing normal clothes, jeans and a pink sweatshirt, though it looked stunning in the low light. And that was to say nothing of the shoes that surrounded tiny Geof. An old pair of DC skating shoes. They had high tops and a thick lip that the giantess had her pants tucked into. The sides of the shoes were made from a fabric that had been beaten and assaulted by years of wear and tear until it took onto an almost torn, violent look. Although it was old, it only looked better with age.

The laces were thick, black, and relatively clean. Emily had to replace them often, as they often become the most disgusting thing about the shoes, always getting caught under the sole. The sole itself was colored a dark grey on the sides, and a black on the bottom. It was thick, almost as tall as little Geof was, and completely devoid of any safe spots. Only narrow ridges in the shape of zig-zags and the occasional circle, though nothing deep enough that he could possibly survive being stepped on.

“Emily!” Geof shouted, though he knew it wasn’t going to do much. “Please, It’s me, Geof!” His sister ignored him, simply staring out into the lawn, occasionally saying a few words to her sister, who stood at her side.

“So, how do you think the parties going?” Erin asked absentmindedly.

“It's Okay. I mean, I’ve been to better, but for a spur of the moment thing it's going pretty decent.”

“True. Though I was hoping a few more people would show up.”

Emily shrugged. “Honestly, I’m kinda glad it was on the small side.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t find anything to wear. Anna didn’t do our laundry this week.”

“Probably shouldn’t have sent her home.”

“Probably not. But look at me, I’m just wearing a sweatshirt and jeans.”

“Your shoes look nice though.” Emily’s gave drifted down to the old skating shoes that clutched her feet so snuggly. She moved them around a bit, observing how the material seemed to move as the lighting changed. They did have a certain appeal to them.

“Right. Unlike that bug down there.” Geoff's heart stopped.

“What bug?” Erin asked.

“The one between my feet,” she said, pointing out the tiny speck.

“I still don’t see it.”

“Erin, it's me!” Geoff started, a rush of excitement and fear coursing through his body. Once again he had been found, but he didn’t know if it would end up and better than any of his other encounters with giantesses.

Almost as if to answer his question, Emily moved her foot swiftly to the side, the thick sole crashing into his small form, knocking him hard against the wood. He rolled for a moment before regaining himself.

High above he could hear the mocking laughter from his sisters. “Oh, that one,” Erin said, glaring down at the little pest. “Ugly little thing, isn’t it?”

“It's just a bug. A stupid, pathetic little ant.” She lifted her shoe, moving so that her foot hung over Geof’s head. For a moment the boy was stunned, the sight of his giantess sister holding her humongous shoe above his head, ready to crush him, proving too much for his mind.

Once again he had been found, and once again he was thought of as nothing more than a bug. And now it looked like he was about to be crushed like one. “Stupid thing,” Emily said down, that cruel smile lighting up her features. Geoff remembered it well, it was the same one she had whenever she picked on him when he was younger.

Slowly she brought it down, the massive sheet of hard rubber descending until it just barely started pressing on her little brother. “How does that feel, buggy?” he could hear Emily say from miles above, her titanic voice muffled by her shoe’s sole.

It was so dirty, he couldn’t imagine how it ever got to this state. Dirt was caked into the treads, along with grime, dust, food particles, and the leftover remains of bugs and plants that she had trampled into paste. He could only imagine that his fate wouldn’t be much different.

“Emily,” he pathetically called, his eyes closed, his cheek pressed against the girl’s dirty sole. Then she started moving her shoe around in small circles, dragging his body along the hard ground, rolling him as she went side to side. It was torturous, a pain that he was unable to control or stop. And it was all due to his older sister.

“Please!” he called out, though his screams were drowned by the giant’s laughing high above.

“You think it's dead yet?”

“I kinda doubt it.” Emily removed her foot, letting the faint light wash back onto her mashed and brutalized little brother. “See, its still twitching a bit.”

“God, why don’t these things just die? I mean, look at it! You didn’t even step on it and it's almost dead!”

“I know. Disgusting little things.”

Geof didn’t know what to do. This was it, surely. If he couldn’t somehow make his sisters realize that he wasn’t just a bug, they were going to torment him until they eventually killed him. He didn’t want to die like this, squashed by the underside of his sister’s sole.

But he was only a bug. He didn’t have a say in such things. If the pair of goddesses above him wanted to torment and torture his little body, they could. That was the power that they had over him, complete and total.

“Hey bug,” Erin said, taking a step closer to his already broken form. She lifted her shoe up, just like her sister had, then gently brought it down until it just barely pressed against him. He cringed as her shoe made contact with his face, her equally dirty sole coating him with grime and filth. “You better start licking, or I’m going to squish you!”

Geof blinked, almost on the verge of tears. He could do nothing about this. He was only a bug, and a bug had to do what his gods said. Without thinking, he stuck his tongue out, slipping it into one of the thick grooves in her shoe.

“Erin,” Emily said through laughs. “It's a bug. It's not going to lick your shoe.”

“Oh, I guess you're right. We’ll just have to kill it then.”

“Please,” Geof begged as Erin moved her shoe away from his crippled body. He tried to move, but found that the pain was to complete. Now he was truly powerless, nothing more than an ant to be killed.

He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want his sisters, the girls who he had grown up with, played with, loved, to murder him like this. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right! He didn’t deserve to be at this size, to have to try and survive in this world. He wasn’t a bug!
But he was. “Wanna squish him together?” Emily asked playfully.

“Sure.”

Suddenly the light was blocked out, a pair of massive feet hovering above his disgustingly tiny, pathetically feeble, life. “See ya bug,” Emily called down, that devilish smile spread wide. She was really going to love crushing her little brother.

“You better enjoy this,” Erin added. “It is our shoes after all. Now die!”

“Please-” was the last words that escaped the tiny insects mouth before the girls’ feet came crashing down on his unprotected body. His chest ruptured, organs exploded out from his sides. Bones were snapped, then snapped again, his spine ripped into thousands of pieces. His head cracked open, brain matter squishing until it made up the lowest layer of grime that covered his sister’s shoe.

Perhaps the thing that hurt the most was the fact that Jo would never know what happened. Well, none of them would, but he could only imagine it would hurt her the most. Even as he took his final breath, Geof could only think of her, and the sweet moments they had together. Thier first date, all the times they cuddled on the couch, the movies they had watched together, all the love that they had shared. All dashed away with a single motion of his sister's shoe.

“That was fun,” Erin said, unaware of the life she had just ended.

“It was. Wanna go back in now?”

“Sure.”

The giants walked away, some of their brother’s remains staining the deck, the rest glued to the bottom of their shoes, where it would stay for all eternity. Geoff had been nothing but a bug, and now he shared ones fate. Nothing more than another sheet of grime to adorn his sister’s shoe.

“Hey, what ever happened to Geoff anyway?”

“I care?”

“Good point.”

Hours later and the party was dying down, the last of the drunks stumbling out into the darkness of the night. The house was littered with red solo cups and beer bottles, as well as some other mysterious fluids that no one really wanted to question. Nothing looked broken though, and that was always a nice thing.

Jo sat on the couch, her light body sinking into the deep cushions. Her chin was propped up on her palm, her elbow resting on the couch’s back so that she could look out the window. She had always liked this couch, it was great for snuggling up with someone you loved.

“Hey Jo,” Erin said, turning the corner. “I think I’m going to go to bed. We can clean tomorrow.”

“Alright,” the girl answered, almost in a monotone. She didn’t look away from the window.

“You alright?”

“I’m fine.”

It was quiet in the house, all the life drawn out of it. Erin walked over to the girl, sitting down on the comfy cushions lightly. “You still worried about Geof?”

“A bit. I really thought he’d be back by now.”

“I know. I’m getting a bit worried too.” She put her arm around the other girl, bringing her close. “But don’t worry too much. Geof is a resilient little moron, he’ll be back soon.”

Jo giggled a bit, turning to Erin. “What ever happened to that, ‘maybe he got stabbed’ stuff.”

“That was only a joke. I care about him to, Jo. But, worrying about things isn’t going to make much of a difference, especially this late. Come on, let's get some sleep.”

Jo nodded. “Alright. Maybe he’ll be back by morning.”

The two giants stood up, walking away from the window, Erin shutting off the lights as they left the living room. “I’m sure he’s fine, Jo,” Erin repeated one more time, now and forever unaware that her little brother was already dead, the pulp of his body molded to her sole.

Jo responded, “I hope so.”