I wondered what we could possibly need to talk about. Everything had been going great as far as I could tell. Fulda had rarely been more affectionate toward me than she had in the past couple weeks, and seemed happy to spend time with me when she was home. For my part I couldn’t get enough of her, and was excited to be with her at college. Her insistence on sharing me with her friends seemed odd, but they had always been a tight-knit group and I didn’t think too much of it.
“We’ve been together almost seven months, right?” she began. I nodded: prom had been just after our six month anniversary. “And in that time, do you think I ever cheated on you?” Slowly I shook my head in response, sending this was about to go very badly for me. “How many chances do you think I had, starting from day one?” I began to think about it, but her stern voice broke in quickly with, “Lots. We both know I’m fucking hot. So why is it that, first chance you got, you blew my best friend?”
Fulda sat up, causing me to bounce a bit on the newly relieved mattress. She turned over and swung her legs over the side, placing them firmly on the floor. Vibrations from her weight sent shocks through the springs while I sputtered to find an answer. Try as I might I could not make words come out, only incomprehensible sounds while she slipped on a white tank top. While I continued to babble she stood up, towering over me prone on her bed, and pulled on a pair of black shorts, rolled at the bottom to be excessively short.
“Neither of us were thinking clearly,” I finally blurted out. “She didn’t take being shrunk well at all, we both almost died the night before, we were feeling vulnerable, and it just happened. If I could go back and do it over again, I’d certainly make different choices.”
Fulda slammed her butt back onto the bed, shaking me back into stunned silence. “And why is that? Because you got caught, right?” She bent over and reached for something on the ground, but I could still hear her powerful voice clearly. “The day I spent with tiny Anni was very illuminating for me. Not only did she tell me what you did, but that you initiated it, and all she had to do was say she thought you were cute and put some doubts in your head. Honestly, I can’t say I blame you; she’s gorgeous. But you keep lying about it, and worst of all, you didn’t even apologize. You only ever think about yourself.”
Two loud rubber thuds rang out, and she stood from the foot of the bed again. Fulda turned around and easily spotted me, my torn white shirt sticking out like a sore thumb against the red sheets. She reached a hand down for me, and I was too terrified to even move out of the way. To my surprise though she didn’t swat me. Instead, her hand slid beneath and scooped me up, carrying me to her face. By now her expression had softened a little, and she even had a small grin.
“But like I said, I don’t blame you. I’m even willing to forgive you for it, if you hold up your end of the bargain.”
“Please, Fulda, I’ll do anything!” I begged.
“I know you will.” Her smirk spread into a full, toothy grin, and the morning light glinting off her teeth made me shield my eyes. “You had your fun, now I want to have mine. We’re going to play Realm of the Titaness again, only this time I’m not going to hold back. She said your whole thing lasted about fifteen minutes, so if you can make it that long I’ll forget the whole thing. If not, then I’ll say we’re even.”
Was she really going to kill me over a moment of weakness? I realized that it was a lousy thing to do, but this seemed excessive. With how much power she had there were so many other tools in her repertoire that she could use to get back at me beyond such brute force. Maybe this was another threat, and she was playing with me again to remind me of what she can do? It was a risky assumption to bet my life on though, and I’d seen her do some heinous things to other people in a rage.
While I had been lost in thought Fulda was lowering me to the ground, and being roughly dumped out of her palm brought me screeching back to reality. By the time I righted myself she had stood back up, looming over me like only she could. With her feet spread and hands resting just above the tops of the stockings she still wore, she cut an imposing figure. I looked up from the well-worn Converse to her face, and saw the familiar grin she had when drunk with power. “You’ve stumbled into the wrong titaness’s lair, you puny worm,” she boomed. “I’ve killed hundreds of your kind, you are nothing to me. Prepare to become a stain under my sole.”
Fulda’s exposition ended, and I began to run. Her awesome feet stood between me and the underside of the bed, ruling out the idea of holing up in there for the duration. Getting to my house would mean running by the rounded tip of her shoe, and I would be far from safe in there anyway. That left the door out of her room, the longest path, as the only viable exit. With my life on the line, I had to try.
I blazed a trail for the closed door, moving as fast as I could. The soft carpet did not make it easy, and I found myself having to hop over the strands of fiber like they were hurdles. With each step my feet sank into the carpet, threatening to entangle me if I stopped moving. Several times I tripped when a frayed strand caught my ankle, but all the same I felt I was making good progress.
The ground rumbled, and I looked over my shoulder to see the heel of her shoe against the ground, sole stretched as high as it could go. Fulda rapidly swung her shoe down, crashing it against the floor with an enormous tremor. I stumbled and fell face-first onto the soft ground, where it quickly dragged me to a stop. Fulda’s shoe had stopped just short of me, and her leg was far from fully extended. This may just be her messing with me again after all.
While I hoped this was just her idea of playing rough, I had to plan for the worst, so I quickly scrambled back to my feet. I resumed my course, taking the most direct route since there was nowhere to hide anymore: Fulda had a habit of keeping her room immaculately clean. Less than a minute passed before a shadow passed over me, and I braced for impact.
An enormous black and white wall slammed into the ground before me, turning my knees to jelly. I ran into the black canvas, leaning heavily on it to keep from falling at the base of her obelisk-like leg. Thinking quickly, I pushed off and ran along the inside of her shoe, stepping on the rubber as much as possible to quicken my pace. Soon I was at the end of the shoe, and with a bounding leap I launched myself from the white rubber.
With the extra elevation I covered what seemed like a significant distance, then used that momentum to hurry along just above the carpet level. Unfortunately, while I may have been moving faster than usual, there was no way I could outpace Fulda. Even at normal size she dominated me at every sport we played thanks to her significant physical advantages, and racing was no different. Now that her legs were hundreds of feet long compared to me, I had no chance of outpacing her. My only hope was slipping under the door.
Fulda must have come to the same conclusion, and was doing her best to block my path. Her shoe set down directly center in front of me, nearly causing me to slam into it with my forehead. Luckily I was able to adjust in time, and scaled the rubber wall to get to the canvas above. I darted across faded black floor just below her shoelaces, sliding off the side to another bit of deceptive safety to continue my escape.
A thought occurred, and no matter how much I tried to focus on my self-preservation I could not shake it. Each time her shoe had barely missed me, Fulda was more than capable of overtaking me with it. Her coordination was near-perfect, and if she wanted to hit something she rarely missed if it was in range, which I clearly had been. Either she was indeed playing a role and doing a great job of selling it, or she was herding me for her own amusement.
“Are you getting tired, little bug?” Fulda bellowed. “You must be. No one as pathetic as you can run from me forever.” She had a point. My breathing was beginning to get labored, and my legs were aching from the effort of having to jump through the carpet. On the other hand, she had barely moved; the only thing being strained for her was her patience. Still, what I lacked in ability was being compensated for by the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
Another taunting foot set down in my path with a deep thud, making the floor quake from its impact. I stumbled again, but this time was unable to recover before running into the cold rubber around the bottom of her shoe. A grinding racket filled the air behind me, and I looked back to see her shoe dragging across the ground toward me. I stood in a narrowing canyon where I would soon be crushed as though it were a trash compactor, and made a snap decision. With a firm push I left the side of her shoe behind and ran toward her toes, legs burning as they churned through the carpet.
Rubber thudded against rubber behind me right when I cleared her instep, another brush with death. The slit under her door was now only a few seconds away: if she wanted to crush me, she would have to compensate for its proximity. Sensing her frustration, I summoned one more surge of energy and sprinted the rest of the way, diving for the opening as I approached.
I landed hard, and my heart sank before I could even begin crawling through the gap. The massive door across the hall swung open, and two enormous feet, the socks covering them stretched near the point of tearing, stepped through the doorway. There was no doubt in my mind that was Gina coming out of her room for some reason I could only guess at. In the well-lit hall she would easily spot me and it would be game over. With Gina I had no doubt she would smash me without a second though, or give me back to her sister – or, worst of all, take me for herself.
Two loud thuds sounded when she set her shoes on either side of me, and I flipped myself over to face the music. Fulda stood towering, practically on top of me, blocking out the illumination from her room’s light bulb. Despite the shadows I could see her smug grin. “Nowhere left to run. End of the line, pest,” she declared, and raised her left foot. She set it down, letting her worn sole hang over me. “Nine minutes. Better than I expected, but a pipsqueak like you is no match for a mighty giantess.” Her taunting finished, she began slowly lowering the sole onto me.
Fulda probably expected me to accept my fate, but I had no intention of being so accommodating. While her shoe gradually pressed down I forced myself back to my feet for one last shot. Using my size to my advantage for once I ran out from under her approaching shoe and hopped on the one beside it, clambering up the white rubber over the toe and running for the shoelaces. I quickly bear crawled over the tattered strings and up the faded black tongue to reach her ankle, and grabbed onto the skin-tone nylon at the base of the colossus.
Her other shoe hit the ground hard, purging all doubt in my mind: she was legitimately trying to crush me. To avoid getting sucked into her shoe I climbed a little up her ankle, just enough to clear the rounded nub on the inside of her leg. I looked up the monolithic limb, feeling the awe of her titanic body, and noticed something fortuitous: there was no way she could see me over her massive chest.
Thinking the job finished, Fulda turned to walk back to her bed. As she spun on her heel the stocking I clung to came unsealed from her skin, sending me swinging with the momentum. Unable to stop myself I banged into her soft skin before the nylon snapped back to form. She stopped mid-step, leaving me clinging to the stocking for dear life. “What in the…” she muttered, and I knew the jig was up.
Fulda bent forward just enough to peer over her ample bosom and spotted me immediately. “You’re a resourceful little shit!” she said. “But as always you played right into my hands. You’re lucky I have such nice legs, since they’ll be the last thing you see.” She began doubling over, and I quickly scampered to the other side, using her stocking as a rope wall.
I made it around to her Achilles heel before she reached my level, and I pressed myself into it as hard as I could. Her blue eyes scanned around her ankles for me, but came up empty. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Fulda called in a sing-song voice. “If you make this easy for me, I’ll make it quick.” Under no circumstances was I going to give up that easily, and stayed perfectly still, clinging against her ankle.
After several seconds she sighed loudly, her hot breath rushing around her leg and buffeting me with a gentle breeze. “I know you’re on my ankle, if you don’t come out I’m just going to come for you. Stop delaying the inevitable.” I knew Fulda was more than capable of reaching me here, but this was my personal act of defiance. If she wanted to get me, she’d have to work for it.
Fingertips crested the curve of her leg and I exploded into action. Kicking and grabbing for all I was worth I began scaling Fulda’s calf. I clenched my eyes shut while I ascended, knowing only that I needed to keep grabbing handfuls of nylon and forcing myself upward. A resounding crack rang out below me where her hand slapped against her ankle, just missing me again. Vibrations ran up her muscle, shaking me as I tried to hold my grip, but unable to deter me.
Feeling a glimmer of hope I continued upward, moving like a maniac. All the work Fulda put into her legs paid off, and the firm tissue was much easier to climb than expected. Despite the inverse cliff face I made decent progress, and sensed I would be at her knee before long. Fulda sighed again. “Fine, have it your way,” she announced, and stood back up, the curtain of red hair lifting from the other side.
Fulda lifted the leg I was hanging from into the air, her flexible joints allowing it to get rather far up. I saw her thigh approaching and, fearful of getting squished between it and her calf, pressed myself as far into the muscle as I could. With a rush her leg shot downward again, making my stomach leap to my throat from the lightning-fast descent. Her foot crashed into the floor with a crack of thunder, and I lost my grip. Both of my feet slid out from the nylon mesh, and one of my hands lost its grip. I was left dangling by a couple fingers.
She rectified the situation almost immediately. Fulda lifted her foot again, making me flop against her leg, before stomping it back onto the ground. I lost what was left of my grip and tumbled to the floor, landing on my back. Before I could stand up again she stepped away, denying me another attempt to hide from her, and turned around.
I looked up at her while she assumed her favorite intimidating pose, sporting a smirk while she mocked me. “So, you finally got to climb me. Was it everything you dreamed of?” All I could respond with was a quiet gurgle and a moan, finally accepting my defeat. It’s not like she would be able to hear me anyway, or care about what I said.
In a flash her shoe was above me again, heel resting gently on the floor. The diamond pattern was faintly visible in the brown rubber, most of it having been rubbed away some time ago. She slowly lowered it onto me, letting the fear build up, but I no longer had the ability to run. My lungs burned and each gasping breath was tainted with old rubber, and my legs sent shocks of pain up my body when I tried to move them. This was it.
Her sole set down atop me, pinning me between it and the carpet. I feebly pushed against it, but it was no use. Even full-sized it had taken me some effort to move her legs from atop me, and I was far too weak now. “Just as well, I was getting bored of you anyway,” Fulda stated, her booming voice resonating in the tiny cavern I was trapped in. “We’re through.” With a little effort she pressed her foot down. I felt my bones compress and bend, and tried to scream though I couldn’t open my mouth. A pain I had never imagined wracked my body, and all my bones snapped almost simultaneously. There was a brief flash of agony when Fulda crushed me, then nothing.
Fulda heard the familiar crunch of a tiny person being crushed beneath her tremendous shoe. Her pupils dilated and she gasped, then raised her heel to apply even more pressure. She rotated her shoe back and forth, grinding her now ex-boyfriend into an unrecognizable mush. It had been so long that she had almost forgotten how exhilarating it was to squash someone.
Her excitement for the morning over, she went back and laid down on top of her covers. Fulda kicked off her shoes and pulled out her phone, then used her feet to angle the sole toward her. She snapped a quick picture of the quarter-sized stain, grinning at the recent memory. As she opened the group chat with her friends she couldn’t help but think about how the whole summer was hers now, and how many boys had been dying to get with her. Without a doubt in her mind, she would make that literal.