Jason's face was sideways, pressing against the slightly damp and worn insole of Melissa's flats. The only light came shining down from above, through the small slit between her ankle and the side of the shoe. It didn't provide much light. The smell hit Jason instantly. It wasn't awful, or at least he had gotten used to the scent of feet, but it was worse than before. It wasn't Melissa's feet that were the source, it was the shoes. After years of having feet in them, the scent just stuck around. It was bearable for Jason, though he did wish he could do without it. Jason tried to stand, but there were constant, subtle movements that negated any attempt at getting up. The movements were pretty unconscious to Melissa, she didn't even think about them. Thus she never thought about the fact that such movements were causing a terrible experience for her puny brother.
Jason tried to look out through the small slit, but was only barely able to make out the enormous figure that was his sister. Anything he could see was blurred and impossible to identify. It was hard for him to wrap his head around the fact that it was another human being he was looking up at. A human being he was bigger than...at least, he used to be bigger than. Regardless, the situation was starting to set in for Jason. He was inside of Melissa's shoes. That was not a good place to be, not at all. It was already impossible to get someone's attention when he was out in the open, and nothing was obscuring him. But now he was inside of her shoe, with her massive foot taking up the majority of the room. There was no way she would see him if she looked down at the inside of her shoe while wearing it...an idea already absurd. And he didn't know about Melissa, but be never looked inside he shoes before putting them on, so there wasn't a good chance at being seen then. It was a terrible situation. The only situation worse would be being stuck on the bottom of the shoes. Jason was not going to let that happen no matter what!
There was only one choice, Jason had to get out of Melissa's shoes. But how? From the little light available, Jason could see the sides of the flats were not something he could easily climb...They were also miles high. Not to mention, the constant movement and giant foot made it hard to do things. If he was going to escape, he was going to have to do it when Melissa wasn't wearing the shoes...but that meant only one thing. Unless fortune smiled upon him and she removed her shoes right now, he was going to be in them while she was walking. Fortune didn't smile upon Jason.
Jason's entire world shifted as Melissa began to walk. It all happened in a second and without any kind of warning. Her heel lifted off the ground first and Jason was flung towards the toe section like a miniscule piece of dirt. That's all he was. The free space he had got smaller and tighter as he neared the toes, and her feet took up the shrinking room in the shoe. With a blur the shoe leveled out and Jason felt he was traveling at a hundred miles an hour without a seatbelt. As he foot tilted back to land on the heel, Jason was flung a small ways back to where he came and landed with a wet thud onto the insole again. He foot slammed down onto the ground and leveled out, and Jason was again tossed about like a ragdoll. His body had been smashed into the side of the shoe and the flesh of her foot many times during the trip and it was pretty painful. And she had only taken one step.
It continued. Each step was a roller coaster ride from hell, except there was no seatbelt. Every cycle of step took about a second, but because it was constant, it felt like it never ended. Over and over he was tossed and flung and thrashed about like a miniscule piece of dirt. In fact, there were other, similar sized pieces of dirt also being flung about just as Jason was. No normal sized human would see them, but Jason saw them, in between the nauseating twists and turns he had to deal with. He also had no idea where he was--or rather, where Melissa was. He knew they started as his apartment, but after that it was up in the air. He had no time to ever think about it as he was thrust into the flesh of Melissa's foot again and again. After several dozen more steps, and after Jason's body, and sprit, were beaten and bruised, things started to settle down, just a bit.
Rather than a step, Melissa's foot moved in a different way. It gave Jason a slight reprieve from the constant battering he was taking. Then things started to get a little tilted. Melissa's shoe lifted up and any free particles in her shoe began to slide down the insole, including her miniscule brother. Jason had no control over his momentum as he slid down the grimy insole of Melissa's shoe. The last step had dropped him on his stomach, so his face was up against the insole. As he slid, his face and body gathered up all sorts of dirt and grime. It coated his body and because of his stance some of it got into his mouth. The putrid taste of the grime caused him to gag, but he kept sliding right through it down to the heel of the shoe. Bits of dirt lodged themselves into his nostrils and forced him to inhale the scent of the grime inside Melissa's shoes, and didn't allow him to get it out. But the sliding didn't stop. It was the worst slide imaginable, and it didn't end, because he was simply too small in comparison to Melissa's shoes. He tried to grip is hands into the damp insole to stop himself but found it was simply impossible for him to achieve. Next he tried to turn his body to stop his face from taking the brunt of the disgusting grime, and while it did work, he was now rolling sideways, like a carpet being rolled up, only much worse. The rapid movement messed with his equilibrium, and now he was small, covered in grime, and dizzy. The only hope he had of stopping this awful ride was hitting the heel of her shoe, and after a few more seconds of rolling, he bounced against the black leather and came to a halt.
---
Melissa had stopped by Abigail's house just to check up with her, especially considering the ongoing lack of communication with Jason. It was beginning to worry even Melissa. After a quick stop, she walked out to her car and drove to work.
---
Jason laid at the heel unmoving. He was too defeated to even break out crying, too broken to even lift himself up. It was basically pitch black in the shoe where Jason was. Only a sliver of light was streaming in from above via the gap between her shoe and foot. It barely lit anything up. It did, however, give the bare minimum amount of light to allow Jason to see the monolith heel of Melissa right next to him. It easily dwarfed him and it only made him worse to think about the fact that that was his sister. Eventually, Jason found enough strength to sit himself up, leaning against the back end of Melissa's flat. He could feel the swaying and bumping beneath him, and guessed it was a car moving. It felt calm compared to everything else he had just been through.
Jason used the time to reflect on his situation. Things were bad, really, really, bad. When he had first shrunk, he assumed it would be easy to get Abigail's attention, but he was wrong. Then he was smashed by Abigail's feet, and it was terrible, but he always assumed he would eventually get her to notice him, because he was always near her. But now he was miles away, and getting farther away every second. The good news was that he was at least with Melissa, though that was hardly good news. He couldn't believe how low he had become, how humiliated he felt. He was literally a piece of dirt inside his sister's shoes, and she didn't even know. She had complete control over him, no, that wasn't right. Her foot, her freaking foot, had complete control over him. The simple action of walking decided his fate, and it was horrible. Not to mention of repulsive gook he was covered in, that made him reek and ready to puke constantly. He had no idea that grime of this magnitude resided inside people's shoes. It really couldn't get much worse than this, could it? He would have to tell Melissa to get new shoes when he got back to normal size...
He thought before that this whole adventure would be a funny little story to tell, but now he wasn't so sure. How was he going to talk to Abigail and Melissa about this? There was nothing funny about his situation, about how degraded he was. He felt terrible about it, and that was only half of it. How would Abigail and Melissa feel knowing what they put him through? How would they feel knowing that their feet were used as instruments of torture for someone they love? He would have to tell them eventually, but Jason had to accept reality. When he got back to normal, this wouldn't be a funny story to tell, this was going to take a long time to get over. But that was the future, and in the present Jason still had bigger problems, such as the massive foot of his sister mere centimeters away from him, and her being completely oblivious to him. He realized he could have used the time she was driving to attempt to get out, but it was too late, as the car came to a halt, and Jason prepared for the movement he had come to hate.
---
Melissa arrived at work after a short car ride. She was a waitress at a restaurant, not the most glorious job, or even the most well-paying, or even that gratifying, or even...Yeah, it wasn't a good job, but she made enough money at least. She walked into the place and went to the back of the house, where she started to prepare for her shift. There was concern for Jason in her mind. He was her brother, so obviously she was worried about the lack of communication, but she still held on hope that there was something that was just holding him back, and he was really okay. It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened. Regardless, work would keep her mind occupied.
In the back, Melissa unzipped a bag she had with her and took out her pair of black trainers and a pair of black socks. Obviously her flats were not work acceptable, so she had to change them. She slipped her feet out of her flats and, one at a time, slipped her socks onto her feet. She then shoved them into her trainers and lifted up her flats by the heels. They propelled upwards, dangling in the air by one finger each. Still holding her flats, she reached for her bag and opened it up, before dropping her flats into it unceremoniously. She then zipped it up tight and brought it over to the hooks where employees kept their things. Once everything was done, she clocked in and began her shift.
---
Jason was tossed around a dozen or so times until he finally saw a light. The massive sole of Melissa's shifted and removed itself from the shoe and the overhead lights shone down upon Jason, but more importantly given him a breath of fresh air...or fresher air at least. He gazed upward through the large opening in the shoe and saw his sister above him. It was still hard for him to comprehend just how gigantic she, and everything, was. He pressed his hands into the moist insole and pushed himself to his feet. It was the first time he had stood up in what felt like forever. The smell emanating from within the shoe lingered and found it's way into Jason's nostrils. He was used to it by this point, but that didn't mean it smelt good. He gazed upward again and saw Melissa's foot hovering up above. Soon a giant black canvas enveloped her foot, Jason realized it was a simple sock. The other foot was swallowed by the sock and then her feet disappeared. But in their place came Melissa's giant fingers, gripping the heel of the shoes and seriously freaking Jason out. The mammoth digit was not far from his location in the shoe, so he quickly ran towards it in a vain attempt to garner her attention. But he was much too small to make any real distance before the inevitable happened.
In an instant, the landscape flew upwards with enough velocity to toss poor Jason outside of the shoe. He rolled and tumbled through the air for what felt like several minutes. He was ready to puke before he even landed. With a thud Jason hit a hard rough object and slid down just a bit. He could feel movement beneath him, but he wasn't sure what it was. Once he recovered from his fall, he looked and felt around and began to understand where he was. Looking up into the sky confirmed it. Up above he saw Melissa's face staring down at him...no, not at him. She was staring down at her shoes after she had just put them on. She had no idea directly in her line of sight her miniscule brother was sitting on the laces of her shoes, and likewise she had no idea what torture she was about to put him through. When the shoe began to move, Jason gripped onto the lace with all his might. As she took steps, the force pressed Jason into the lace, preventing him from moving even if he would have wanted to. Then the force released and Jason had to grip harder than he ever had to prevent himself from flying off the shoe and into the unknown. When the shoe crashed on the ground Jason was slammed hard into the rough lace. And that was only a single step. Melissa went on to take several more.
---
Melissa had barely been at work for five minutes before her boss found her. He was kind of an asshole and definitely didn't like Melissa. He was always making her do things that weren't part of her job, and she had no choice but to do them. Today was no different. He told her there was a dirty table and she had to clean it. It wasn't a question, or even disguised as a choice, it was a demand. He lazily tossed a rag at her in such a way she would never catch it. It fell just short of Melissa's hands and landed on top of her shoe, and then he left, proud of himself.
Melissa bent over and picked up the rag and proceeded out to find the dirty table. Once located, she uncaringly tossed the rag from a few steps away onto the table. She began to wipe the table down, where a lot of the crumbs flew down to the carpet floor to be forgotten. They would get vacuumed up later. But there was one sticky spot in particular that refused to be cleaned with a simple wipe. Melissa had to scrub the rag hard on the spot to clean it off. Normally she wouldn't care that much but she knew if the table wasn't spotless her boss would have made her clean it off again. After some rough scrubbing the spot had vanished and the table was clean. Melissa began to head to the back to drop the rag off when she was greeted by a nice surprise.
---
Jason's grip was loosening, if he took a few more slams to the face after Melissa took a step it would be impossible for him to hang on and he would be sent flying, but he didn't have any other options other than to keep holding on and hoping she stopped. And eventually she did. Jason took the opportunity to ungrip the lace. His hands are turned red from the intense force he was holding on and they felt like they would be stuck in a gripping position for the rest of his life. He painfully bent his hands trying to get him back into shape, not paying attention to anything happening in the world above. Because of that, there was no way he ever saw the giant white rag falling from above as it crashed down onto him.
Darkness covered Jason. Instinctively, he flailed about trying to get the massive rag off of him, struggling to get out of the darkness anyway possible. The only thing Jason managed to do, however, was get his arms and legs tangled in the small fabric of the rag. Weightlessness took over Jason as he and the rag lifted into the air. He saw Melissa's shoes get farther away as he and the rag were held by Melissa's waist. She began to walk and while doing so gently swung the rag back and forth. Gently for her, anyway. Jason felt the extreme force of both back and forth swinging. The only solace was that it was a consistent swing. It wasn't much solace, nor did it even last long.
When the rag was tossed to the table, Jason went along with it. He flipped and spun around in the air, screaming the entire time. His eyes were shut closed, but even if they were open he wouldn't have been able to see where he was landing. With a smack, Jason and the rag landed on the table, halting all movement. Jason hit the table head on, the rag providing no cushioning. After dealing with squishy insoles and relatively soft flesh, he forgot that not everything had so much give. After taking a full second to catch his breath and get his bearings, Jason attempted to move, but still found himself tangled up in the threads of the rag. Before he could attempt to untangle himself, a gentle pressure pushed down unforgivingly on him, into the hard table.
Jason was mercilessly dragged across the table along with the rag. While the table might have appeared, and even felt smooth to a regular human, it certainly was not for someone of Jason's small stature. Seemingly miniscule ridges and bumps in the table scraped against Jason, ripping at him. He screamed as loud as he could but any sound he made was drowned out by the rag overhead. Melissa moved the rag in a circular pattern around the table, making sure every inch of it was hit and wiped clean. Melissa was simply knocking the crumbs to the ground, but unbeknownst to her, the crumb that was her brother was brought along for the journey. If Jason had been lucky, the rough parts of the table would have broken the threads that binded him, and he would have been tossed down to the floor, only to be vacuumed up later with all the other filth. He wasn't that lucky, though.
When the rag lifted, Jason assumed the beating was over, but in truth it hadn't even begun. The rag was lifted high enough to give him a good enough view of the table he had gotten to know pretty well over the past couple seconds. He realized he must have been stuck to a rag that Melissa used to clean the table, which is why he was confused when the rag started to head back down. Things got more confusing when a pressure appeared behind Jason's back, giving him the feeling like he was sticking out in the open. As he approached the table, he noticed a big glob of...something stuck to the table, and realized he was heading straight towards it.
Jason attempted to put his hands in front of his face to shield himself but remembered he couldn't move them. Instead, he was pressed down hard face first into the glob of sticky residue on the table. Extreme pressure fell on top of him and he felt like he was about to explode. While the constant pressure forced his face and body into the goop, he was then dragged violently back and forth through it across the table. It was obvious what Melissa was doing, trying to remove the vile substance from the table. She just didn't know she was torturing her brother at the same time. Over and over again Jason was scraped against the goop. It stuck to his body, covered his face, and silenced his screams as it got into his mouth. Whatever it was, it tasted terrible. Tears welled up in Jason's eyes as he silently begged Melissa to stop, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as she continued to scrub, determined to remove the table of that filth. Scrub. Scrub. Scrub, and eventually the residue had been successfully removed from the table, and Melissa was pretty happy with herself.
Jason was miserable. His body had been bruised and beaten. Although he couldn't see it due to his predicament, his body, and the rag surrounded him, had been colored black from the gook that was scrubbed off. He would have been impossible to see regardless, but now he certainly invisible to any normal person looking right at him, a fact that was proven a second later as his world was turned and he saw his sister's moon-sized face staring down at him--or rather the dirty rag. Jason could hardly see through all the gook covered his eyes, but he saw enough to get a glimpse of Melissa making a subtle disgusted face at the filth on the rag she was holding. Jason raised his arm towards her in a futile gesture to capture her attention...but wait. He was actually able to move his arm. He checked his other limbs and found they were free as well. The scrubbing must have worn the threads down and freed Jason from his prison. He thought it was a blessing, but it was more like a curse.
Melissa quickly swung the rag as she turned around, propelling the puny Jason off the rag and towards the ground at a high velocity. It was the same as when Melissa had tossed the rag, where Jason was spinning and flipping, except now there was nothing surrounded him. He was nothing but a speck of filth flung through the air without a care or regard. At least the ground was carpeted where he was landed, that would be helpful. At least, that's where he could have landed, except that someone walked past and stopped right at the spot he was to land. With a painful bump, Jason crashed into the person's sock by their ankle, and collapsed into their shoe.
---
Cynthia walked into the restaurant Melissa worked at and walked around for a second to find her. She was out in the dining room cleaning a table for some reason. Cynthia assumed it was because of Melissa's boss. She called out to Melissa as she was approaching and the two started chatting. It was a quick chat, with not much being discussed. The two were just going to hang out tomorrow, pretty normal for friends to do, nothing bad about it. She said a goodbye and walked away, none the wiser of the puny addition inside her shoe.
---
It's said that when one sense is deprived, the others become more potent. This was much the case for Jason, who found himself with little to no light filtering down onto his position, but instead his nostrils were being desecrated by the scent of days old socks, reeking of sweat and grime build up into the threads. He could feel the alternating mushy and crusty areas rubbing against his body. He knew it was somebody's sock, but it was unfathomable that a person would allow their socks to get this filthy, and couldn't believe how they could wear them without being driven mad. Jason was old pushed up against the side and he couldn't take it. That was the bright side of Jason's predicament, if it could even be called a bright side, he was against the side. He could still move, barely, but there was freedom, that was a good thing. It didn't last long.
Cynthia took a step at the moment Jason was adjusting his body and he was sent flying deeper into the cavernous shoe. The stench intensified and combined with the whipping motion of her steps, he puked as he flew through the air. He came to a stop deepening in, lying on the insole of the shoe, but still on the side of the sock, but was instantly flung around again as Cynthia took more steps. Like a rag doll Jason was tossed around and around, he wanted it to stop, and eventually it did. His puny body was tossed into the gap formed by Cynthia taking a step. He landed face down on the wet insole, disgusted by the whole ordeal, but it had just started. Cynthia took another step and her encrusted sock pressed down hard onto Jason's form, squishing him into the rancid insole. It squelched as the pressure increased and Jason let out a scream. Putrid swear oozed out from the insole and found it's way into Jason's mouth. The salty-sour taste covered his tongue and made him gag, but the pressure of the step had now closed his mouth, and the sweat had no where else to go, except for him to swallow it. It stung as it went down his gullet into his stomach. The pressure released for a split second as Cynthia lifted her foot for another step, and the process repeated itself. Jason tried to keep his mouth closed, but the screams couldn't be held back. He was squelched into the insole again as rancid sweat filled his mouth and went down his gullet. Again and again and again. Cynthia didn't really mind walking, it's not like it hurt anyone.
It was an extremely long trip for Jason, though in reality was only about thirty minutes. He had wanted nothing more than to just pass out, to stop experiencing the torture and hell he was being put through, but he was conscious the entire time, and was forced to endure each and every single step Cynthia took, all while she was none the wiser. That's what made it worse for Jason, that fact that she didn't even know. It's one thing to be battered and bruised by someone knowingly, but this girl was simply walking and going about her day like nothing was out of the ordinary. It was brutally humiliating. Eventually things settled down and the movement stopped, for a second. The entire foot moved as Cynthia took her shoes off, and Jason found himself going along with it.
The intense sweat had cemented Jason to the crusty part of the sock, making it impossible for him to move any part of his body. Light flooded his world and fresh air invaded his lungs as he was taken out of the shoe with the foot. It was short lived as Cynthia set her foot down and Jason was mashed into the floor. Thankfully, it was carpet. The fibers scratched at Jason's bruised body, but he was held fast to the crusty sock. The familiar crushing of Cynthia's steps took over as Jason was pressed down into the carpet, but this time there was no insole to provide rancid fluid that no human every should have to ingest. Jason wasn't much of a human anymore, though.
The carpet didn't last long as Cynthia moved towards the tiled floor of the kitchen to get a snack. Compared to the carpet, and even the nasty insole, there was absolutely no give from the tile, and the rough, crusty sock wasn't very soft either, crushing Jason between an essential rock and hard place. Rather than below, sweat now poured down from above onto Jason's already soaking wet body. He was already disgusting enough as it was it was basically meaningless to him. He was already filth. For a full few minutes Cynthia stood still, occasionally putting her entire weight on the foot Jason was beneath, crushing him more and more into the unforgiving tile floor. But still he stayed conscious, a fact that was getting more frustrating and annoying at every step of the journey for poor Jason.
After what felt like an eternity, the pressure changed and the walking resumed, the carpet returned and things were looking up for Jason, literally. The foot he was on was lifted up and placed on a table. He had a nice view of the television, showing an episode of some show he had never seen before. It reminded him that, despite all this, he was still human. TV was still a thing, and he was finally getting to do something normal again, albeit while adhered to a slimy sock.
He struggled to break free of his prison, but nothing would budge. His arms were stuck. His legs were stuck. His torso and even his head was stuck to the filthy, grimy sock that had become his new home. He heard Cynthia laughing from behind him, presumably at something happening on TV. It made him angry, frustrated. How come she got to enjoy the show, nice and comfy on a couch or whatever, and he had to be stuck to this stupid sock that should never be this dirty, ever. He was angry, but also sad. Miserable. The anger turned to tears, as they slid down his cheeks onto the table far below him. He missed Abigail. At least when he had been a small speck at home, Abigail was there. At least when he was being stepped on before, it had been by Abigail, the woman he loved. It had been by someone who knows how to wash clothes. Jason just wanted to be back home, even if he was an insignificant piece of dirt, at least he would be home. Now he was just a piece of dirt lost in the world, never to return...
No, he couldn't think like that. He couldn't give up. Things weren't going well for him, but he couldn't forget who he was. He was Jason Jackson, a human being. Not dirt. Not filth. Human. Being. This moment of rest came at the right time, something he needed to remind himself of who he really was. He would get someone's attention, and he would return to normal, come hell or high water. With newfound determination, he realized how tired he was, and with the peaceful, though smelly, situation he was in, his body took over and made him get whatever rest he could. Jason fell asleep with a smile on his face.
He was shaken awake by a massive motion of Cynthia lowering her feet back to the ground. The first thing Jason saw after opening his eyes was the crushing darkness of his body being pressed into the carpet once more as Cynthia began walking away. It might have been the drowsiness from his sleep, but there seemed to be less steps this time, but soon a new motion arrived. A lifted motion different from the all too familiar steps occurred, leaving Jason confused. The next thing he knew he was flying through the air, flipping head over heel. He and the sock landed on something soft and cushy, leaving Jason staring straight up at the ceiling. He took a quick look around at the blue walls that rised up a bit above him, but his attention was soon drawn to the object flying in from above. It looked just like...a sock. The second filthy, grimy, crusty sock landed directly on top of Jason, putting him in the middle of a filthy, socky sandwich.
---
Cynthia arrived home and made herself a quick snack, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, her favorite. She walked over to the couch, popped her feet up on the table, and proceeded to watch some TV. That's why she spent a lot of her free time doing. She sat there for a few hours not doing much, just relaxing. It was nice. Once she got her fill, she walked to her room, where she took off her socks. She had been wearing the same pair for about four days, so it was probably time to switch to a new pair. She could have easily worn them another day, but, eh, might as well. Plus, she was probably going to do laundry soon. Might as well get them done. She carelessly discarded her socks, tossing them in the general direction of the hamper. There wasn't really a need to be careful with them, they were just socks, after all.