“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” Mary whimpered as they finally came upon the door. The young woman’s heart pounded against her chest. Hours of pent up concerns and fears boiled over, making her tremble just from standing in front of the apartment’s entrance.

“You wanted to do this.” Emily gently nudged her forward.

Mary immediately took the step back, shaking her head nervously. “I-I’ve changed my mind. Let’s just go home.”

“Mary, come on.” Emily sighed. “It took us an hour to get here. You had plenty of time to change your mind before now.” With a weary smile she leaned against her albino girlfriend, arms wrapping around her dainty frame. “I’ll be right here for you, okay? Nothing’ll go wrong.”

Mary’s heart continued to pound, just now for a different reason. Emily was right, like always. She looked at her, managing a smile. Mary stared at her and took the features in, encouraged by her girlfriend’s gentle face. Long, wavy brown hair. A penchant for flannel and jeans. Yes, this was the woman she loved alright. Basking in her charm helped to soothe her more than any medicine. “Thank you.” She whispered while gently kissing Emily. Feeling better and more confident, Mary stepped up to the door and gently knocked.

Shuffling could be heard on the other side. Someone approached and opened the door for them.. Mary’s eyes widened. Short, black hair perfectly tucked away behind a white hairband. It was exactly as Mary had remembered her. Like she hadn’t aged a day. More than that though was the white dress she wore over her jeans. It was a gift she’d given the woman ages ago. Mary couldn’t believe her eyes.

“I was wondering when you would show up.” The woman smiled at them.

“H-Hi Melanie, long time no see.” Mary smiled awkwardly, her courage immediately leaving her the second the woman arrived.

“Yeah, thanks for agreeing to come over.” Melanie nodded, turning her eyes to Emily. “This a friend of yours?”

“A-Ah yeah! This is Emily my…girlfriend.” The shy albino girl nearly yelped as she said it. Stupid! She should’ve known better than to bring that up with Melanie.

“Is that so?” Melanie briefly looked Emily over and smiled. “Nice to meet you then, I’m Melanie.” She offered a hand.

“Emily.” In turn, Emily smiled and shook said hand. “I’ve heard a lot of things about you.”

“Not too much I hope.” Melanie stepped back, leaving the door open. “Well come on in then. It’s not much, but it’s home.” She walked deeper inside, gesturing for others to follow.

Before Mary could try and squirm her way out of it, Emily’s hand reached up and held her shoulder. “She’s way nicer than you said she was.” She whispered, smiling. “Told ya you were worrying over nothing.”

Mary blushed. “S-She was super mean back then. That’s why I was surprised she called us.” She hastily whispered back. Her girlfriend chuckled and walked inside, leaving Mary no choice but to do the same.

The inside of the apartment was cluttered. The sort of thing Mary would’ve expected of Melanie honestly. It had the typical living room furnishings: a table, chairs, a couch, a TV, et cetera. There were a couple shelves filled with a wide assortment of items, disorganized and visibly disarrayed. The table had a number of small books on it, all of which Melanie was removing to offer more space. She walked into the back, past a small assortment of exercising tools propped against a wall.

“Sorry about that. I should’ve cleaned up a bit more.” Melanie returned, wiping her hands off on one another.

“It’s okay.” Mary smiled sheepishly as she took a seat at the table. Emily remained silent, taking a comforting position at Mary’s side. “It’s good to see you again Mel.”

“Yeah, it’s good seeing you too.” Their host turned off into another room. The sound of clinking glasses was heard for a moment before she came out with two filled glasses. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Emily happily took one while Mary hesitantly took hers. She stared at it with a slight frown.

“I’m not much of a drinker.” The frail girl mumbled apologetically.

“Eh?” Melanie was back in the kitchen, returning with her own drink. “I made it as light as I could. Come on Mary, live a little!”

She’d forgotten how thoughtless the woman could be sometimes. Mary grimaced at her glass. It was all for the sake of smoothing things out. Just this once would be worth it. The young albino willed herself together and took a sip, immediately coughing afterwards.

“Such a lightweight.” Melanie laughed a bit crudely and took a seat, crossing her legs. “Some things never change huh?”

Emily took a sip with no problems, only looking at Mary. “You okay?”

Mary nodded. “Y-Yeah.” She managed another drink. “So Melanie…” Figures she’d blank on her words now. What was she supposed to say to this woman? “It was a surprise to hear from you so suddenly. Why the sudden invite?” Her chest wouldn’t stop pounding. She had to relax. It was only Melanie. Just Melanie…the girl she loved before she moved. Oh God. Mary took another sip of her drink, feeling lightheaded.

Melanie shrugged and set her glass down, eyes locked on the two sitting across from her. “Well we used to be friends before you moved. Then we kinda drifted apart. Why not?” Under the table her foot tapped along the ground. “Figured we could reconnect.”

There was also the fact that Melanie was a woman who constantly looked down on others that made Mary move in the first place. Not that Mary had the desire or nerve to speak that aloud. She gulped. The woman in front of her looked the same, but acted so much nicer than she remembered. How was she supposed to handle that? “Y-Yeah, we did use to be good pals huh? Time flies.”

“Well it’s good to see you two reconnecting a bit I think.” Emily took another sip of her drink. A moment later she frowned, glancing at her glass.

“Something wrong?” Melanie asked.

“I just…feel a little dizzy all of a sudden. This thing sure hits you quick doesn’t it?” Emily chuckled. Now that she’d mentioned it, Mary felt the same. The world was spinning around her.

“You two are some lightweights.” Melanie laughed, tucking a lock of raven hair behind an ear. “So Mary, I’ll just cut to the chase then. I want you back.”

It felt as though Mary’s heart had shot out from her chest and into orbit. Her jaw dropped. “M-Melanie!” She looked over at Emily, flustered.

Understandably, the wavy-haired brunette’s face had soured. “Excuse me?”

Unlike her two guests, Melanie seemed quite relaxed in her seat and took another sip. “You loved me didn’t you? Then you moved. Why?”

“I think we should be going.” Emily set her glass down and groaned, reaching for her head.

Mary whimpered under Melanie’s intense stare. This was just like back then. She stammered, gasping for air like an asthma attack was on the way. Certainly how helping things was how much the room was spinning around her. “C-Cause you were mean!” In a rare moment fueled by her liquid courage and backed by her loving girlfriend, Mary spoke her mind. “And you still are!”

She was met with laughter. “You haven’t seen mean yet. It should be kicking in any second now…”

Before Mary could ask what Melanie meant by that she heard a gasp come from Emily. The brunette was shaking. “Oh God…” She groaned and held her head. Mary wrapped her arms around her, crying her lover’s name out aloud. That was when she saw the impossible: Emily was getting smaller. Dwindling, further and further, her clothes grew loose and baggy. Soon they slipped off entirely and still Emily shrank, growing ever smaller until she finally was little more than a bug in her pile of clothes.

“Emily!” Suddenly, Mary gasped and clutched her chest. Her body, it felt like it was on fire! Like at any moment steam would be rising from her pores and she’d sweat out all her body’s liquids in swathes. The albino looked at Melanie, who only smiled as the pair suffered before her. “What did you…?” She winced again. Her clothes started to feel loose on her. Her pink top slipped past her shoulders, her bra soon following. Even as the world blurred around her Mary was aware that she too was shrinking.

It all turned into a haze, her body aflame as she shrank away and writhed in agony. Mary felt something large and thick grab her nude form, ice cold compared to how her body felt. She looked up and panted, barely able to comprehend the fact that they were fingers that had plucked her up and dropped her down on top of the table. Not long after Emily followed suit. Both were still in intense pain, but slowly…slowly the world started to clear up.

BOOM BOOM

Two deafening explosions pierced Mary’s shrunken, hypersensitive ears. Her eyes shot open, bloodshot and desperate to find what had caused such painful noises. She found her answer immediately.

Feet. Melanie’s large, bare, unshrunken feet sat atop the table and towered over the pair of shrunken women. Even in her hazed state of mind Mary could feel her utter insignificance compared to Melanie settling in. Each foot was several times her height, with toes half the size of her body flexing up at least two stories high. The looming soles shifted, one foot coming to rest over the other as a deep, sky-trembling laugh came from their giant host. “It took long enough. I was beginning to wonder if it’d ever work.”

“You bitch!” Emily shrieked, managing to stand as whatever it was that had shrunk them started to wear off. Mary’s mind went a million miles a minute. How? Why? What? How?! Was it their drink? It had to have been, but how did Melanie...?

All those questions and more became woefully irrelevant as one of Melanie’s bare feet came down to silence the screaming Emily. It just one simple motion the brunette vanished underfoot, helplessly pinned to the table as Melanie playfully rubbed her sole along the surface. “Seriously, you left me for this ant?” Her foot ground into the table mercilessly.

“Leave her alone!” Mary screamed through the pain filling her gut.

“Or what? You’re gonna cry? Have an asthma attack? Move away?” Melanie grinned and lifted her foot. Emily was brought along for the ride, stuck to her plush instep. “I always hated you Mary. You’ve always been a weak, sniveling loser, but you had the nerve to up and abandon me for this?” She reached over with a finger and pressed Emily into her meaty sole. “She’s worth less than the dirt on my shoes.” She laughed and proceeded to rub the shrunken woman up and down her foot.

“Shut up! Emily is amazing! Put her down!”

“I can’t. She’s busy cleaning between my toes.” The giant woman shrugged as her fingers pulled Emily up and started to grind her little body between each of her shapely digits. “I think you found your calling Emily.” Melanie grinned as the girl let out muffled, pained screams against her foot. “This is all your fault you know Mary. If you’d come alone your little girlfriend would be totally safe at home. Instead she’s here.” She finally pulled her fingers back and started to flex her toes against the woman.

“L-Let her go…” Defeat flooded Mary’s visage. She fell to her knees sobbing. “Please…Mel…”

The raven-haired woman seemed to ponder this for a moment. “Alright. She’s not the one I want anyway.” She plucked Emily from between her toes with ease and dropped her somewhere below the table.

“Emily!”

“Eyes up here tiny.” Mary looked up just in time to see the bare sole crash into her. It felt like a small building had collapsed on her person. A fleshy, sweaty, smelly building that crushed her deep into its wrinkly folds. “I figured you’d love all the attention Mary. You’re being awfully selfish you know. Here I am, nice enough to invite you into my home and all you’re doing is crying for your girlfriend.”

Mary sobbed, helpless to do anything but. Her tears blended with the underside of Melanie’s foot, stinging her eyes. The pain within her body was finally dying down, now replaced by the new, fresh pain of being casually crushed. She couldn’t move. She was always a frail girl, and now she didn’t have a chance of doing anything against the soul-crushing weight pressing down on her. She coughed as she breathed in more of the stifled air. Melanie was always more of the outgoing sort and her foot certainly smelled the part at this size.

She was certain she was going to die down there. However, right as it all seemed lost, Melanie’s foot lifted. “No dying on me yet. We haven’t even gotten to the best part.” The giant had a wide grin as her fingers reached down for Mary. The girl was hyperventilating, having too much of a panic attack to even comprehend the idea of resisting the powerful digits. They lifted her and dangled her over something familiar. Its size was magnified like the rest of the world, and Mary was clearly half mad by this point, but it was without a doubt a shoe. A tennis shoe at that.

“No....” Mary gasped. In one of the shoe’s openings she could see Emily, and she was fast approaching the other shoe herself.

“Welcome to your new home.” Melanie let Mary go with a laugh.

It was only a short drop before Mary landed against the insole with a wet squelch. She shuddered as the still moist ground absorbed her impact. The stench of feet was inescapable here, a hundred times worse than what she felt being under Melanie’s foot. The young woman clambered to her feet, looking up at the immense woman who just smiled smugly at the two girls in her shoes. Too small to even climb out on their own. It was obvious what she intended to do. Particularly when her bare feet came back into view over the openings.

It was probably futile, but Mary ran from the incoming toes. She couldn’t help herself. Fear for her life made her body move of its own accord. Muscles ached, bones popped, and she ran out of breath almost immediately but still she pushed on. Behind her the shoe tilted, shifting as Melanie’s impending foot marched inside after her. The light began to fade as the opening was completely filled; Mary looked back, watching the toes wriggling eagerly after her as everything faded away into blackness. The toes were simply too fast, effortlessly catching up to her. They bowled her over and slid past her in an instant, with more of Melanie’s bare sole coming in to trap Mary under her flesh.

For Melanie it was as simple as sliding on a pair of shoes. She smirked as she felt her new insoles pinned under her soles, each wriggling against her and crying for mercy. All of which went ignored as the woman stood. She reached into her pocket and pulled a cellphone, dialing a number into the touchscreen. “Hey, you wanna go clubbing tonight?”

With just one sentence Melanie had sealed their fates. After making the necessary arrangements she was off, paying the two girls absolutely no mind as she prepared herself for a night out.

Mary cried. She cried as much as was physically possible. In the span of just a few short minutes she was a broken woman. With her light cut off and her world replaced with the underside of Melanie’s foot all hope was effectively lost. Each step thundered in her ears, nearly shattering her ear drums with every step. The pressure was insurmountable. Were it a hard surface Mary would have died a thousand times over; but despite how painful it was Melanie’s foot was nothing like that. It was soft, plush, just firm enough to bring pain but just soft enough to assure Mary lived to endure it. She dreaded to think how Emily was fairing. Likely the same as her.

She was slowly breaking down. Of that she was certain. Her body would not last under this strain. Melanie’s foot was taking its time crushing her. Already her bones cracked and made worrying sounds, but they held under the pressure. The air was thin and filled with the scent of feet to the point that breathing physically hurt, and yet it was enough to live off of. Mary had always hated her weakness more than anything, but right now she hated not being weak enough to die more than anything else.

“Agggghnnn!” The latest footstep finally seemed to break something. Melanie paused as she felt a satisfying crunch under one of her feet, Mary’s arm. The poor girl tried to scream, only warranting a mouthful of foot for her troubles. Freshly-made sweat started to drizzle down her throat and burn, eliciting more pain for the girl. Nothing she did could’ve eased the pain even a little bit. With each movement of Melanie’s foot her shattered arm was shifted, causing another wave of searing pain and more muffled screams.

Emily was fairing no better. Her shrunken form had the misfortune of being pinned under the ball of Melanie’s foot, meaning she got to bear the full weight of each of Melanie’s steps. The weight was caving her body in on itself, deforming her. The beautiful, cheerful woman grew grotesque, her form further sullied by the mangled and sweat-stained appearance she had gained. It hurt too much to even scream, not that Emily could. Her vocal chords were one of the first things to be worn again by the steps.

BOOM

 That tremendously powerful stomp of Melanie’s foot finally did it. With a pop Mary’s eardrums had shattered. Blood dripped from her ears as she suddenly heard nothing. It was finally too much to bear. Mary’s screams turned to pleas, begging Melanie to stop this madness. Alas, even if the uncaring tomboy had even the slightest of interests in what Mary had to say the foot, the shoe, and the outside world had muffled her a thousand times over. All she was succeeding in doing was screaming herself mad in desperation.

“Please! Mel! I’m sorry!” In her servile, broken state Mary ran her tongue along the bare sole of the woman she once loved. “Let me out! I’ll do anything! See?!” It was pitiful how much she licked and kissed at Melanie’s meaty foot. The meek woman had completely lost herself to pain-induced, desperate insanity. Melanie was no longer a former bitchy friend. She was something more now. A tormentress who held her life in her hands, or at her feet, and decided everything. Mary was certain she was listening, testing her to see if she was worth serving her. Perhaps it was the lack of air, or maybe even some part of her skull had been caved in and it had made her delusional, but she was certain Melanie was like a God judging her right now. Mary rose to her test with desperate licks, another stomp pounding her teeth into nothing.

Surprisingly, the sensation did not go unnoticed. After having walked her way and now standing before the night club, Melanie looked down at her foot. The wetness under one of her feet was notable. Although, not in the way Mary had quite expected. “Did that little bitch wet herself on me?” Disgusted, Melanie stomped her foot. There was another satisfying crack, Mary’s legs. She smirked and resumed her walking.

With the latest stomp Mary’s legs had literally exploded, her body only barely managing to avoid bleeding out due to the intense pressure Melanie’s foot exerted over her. The latest surge of pain had finally broken her completely. Words, meanings, her situation, it was all lost as true and utter madness set in. All she could comprehend was her own suffering. Melanie who? Emily who? Names meant nothing anymore. It was just this world, this foot. That was all there was.

With her body so worn and broken down each step finally brought her closer to death. Melanie could feel it. Without any extra effort on her part more and more of Mary exploded beneath her. Then of course there was Emily, who never even made it to the club. Not that she was ever important anyway.

“Hey! Mel!” A woman approached Melanie as she entered. She grinned, rushing over with her arms outstretched. The woman leaped into a hug.

Melanie caught her with ease, and, with the added weight of the woman’s jump, she felt one final, satisfying pop under her feet.

“How’ve you been?” Her friend pulled back and asked with a smile.

Melanie took a deep breath and smiled as she flexed her toes over the remains of her former friend. “Amazing.”