I ran at a steady pace along the sidewalk, clear of anyone except for me all the way to the next street. It was a beautiful day for a run, and though the sun was beating down low humidity and a temperature of about seventy degrees Fahrenheit kept it from being too unpleasant. I had been at it for around twenty minutes, and even though my tank top was soaked with sweat I felt as though I could go for several hours. The steady pounding of bass in my ears kept my feet moving, and the wailing synth over it gave me something to focus on. Out here it was just me and the music, with nothing else to distract me.
Leaning slightly to the left I took the next turn, not wanting to tackle the hill across the intersection just yet. Another long strip of concrete devoid of anyone, leaving me free to move however I wished. The only other people I had seen since leaving the house were drivers, and neither them nor I paid each other any attention as long as I stayed out of the street. I began moving my arm with the melody, dancing the only way I could while maintaining a constant rate forward. My eyes opened and closed with the rhythm, and I lost myself into the music as much as I could while still not meandering into the street.
Since there were no cars coming I leisurely crossed the street, using the ramps on either side to avoid putting unnecessary strain on my knees. I quickly got back to the paved straight line, and right when I fell back into my groove a long shadow fell over me. At first I was thankful for the break from the sun, but when I thought about it there was nothing in this part of my route that should be throwing shade on me; I had run it dozens of times, and this was always where I regretted not putting on sunscreen. What was more, whatever was casting the shadow seemed to be moving with me.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I glanced over my shoulder. There, matching me step for step, was a lean, fit woman, a few inches over six feet tall. She was practically on top of me so that her head blocked out the sun, her tight black ponytail shining beneath its rays. Her large dark eyes were turned down, regarding me like an obstacle she was worried about tripping over. I had never seen her on my route in the several months I had been running it, but from her sun-kissed skin I guessed she had been running for some time. The woman’s outfit further confirmed that she was a practiced runner, since she wore little more than a sports bra and compression shorts, with white ankle socks peeking over the tops of her beaten running shoes.
Though it was tempting to keep looking back – the bouncing of her breasts was hypnotic, not to mention around eye level – I tore my eyes away and kept moving forward. The last thing I wanted was to trip and bust my chin on the pavement, and from how the woman had been looking at me she was more likely to trample me than move around. She was close enough I could feel her breath on my scalp, so I doubted she would even have the time.
Quite simply, she was too close for comfort, and with her significantly longer legs she would overtake me in only a few more seconds. On the narrow sidewalk there was not room for two people to move side by side, and neither of us seemed keen on going into the grass. With her advantage in size and frame I was sure to lose if she ran me over, but I could not simply yield to her as a matter of pride.
I tapped forward on my phone, skipping the steady songs for something faster and more erratic, scheduled for the trip home. My feet matched the new beat almost immediately, and I began to pull away from the much taller woman. There was a momentary burn in my thighs from the uptick in exertion, but that would go away once I got used to it. All I needed to do was take a turn that she did not and I could bring it back down and get back to my scheduled run.
After a few seconds I escaped her shadow and felt the encouraging sun on my shoulders again. Just as she could not be bothered to go around, she would not go faster, and I was safe from getting stepped on. Not far ahead was another intersection, and I could dart left into a neighborhood and get away from her. If she did not have earbuds in, I could make a pithy remark thanking her for the extra workout as she ran past.
The shadow fell over me again as I drew closer to the curve. She was matching my pace, making it even easier to shake her with a sharp turn. I looked back over my shoulder to give her a smug grin, but my face froze halfway there when she came into view. Her pace was the same as before, but in the last few seconds she had grown much taller. Now I was looking at the shallow crevice of her belly button, and when I looked up her immense form she was still looking down at me with the same disinterested gaze. It was like she thought I was a piece of driftwood, or a bug that had the audacity to cross her path.
Quickly my gaze snapped forward again, just in time to try to juke her. I hit the turn at full speed, leaning into it a little to decrease my turning radius, and sped through to the straight sidewalk. Triumphant, I began to slow down, until a knee on my lumbar jolted me onward. Subconsciously I sped back up, hoping to avoid another blow, but seconds later I was struck again, this time higher on my back. That certainly did not add up, and I looked behind me again to see what the big deal was.
My eyes widened, and I realized the big deal was her. She was over twice my height now, and my view was level with the bottom of her spandex shorts. I slowed down in my surprise and caught another knee, this time to the ribs, for my trouble. I wanted to say something, but before words came out of my mouth her knee struck me in the side again. Her eyes were still impassive, as though she had no idea she was hitting anything, let alone a person. Each hit was a little higher, and she seemed to be getting taller every couple of steps. If I did not shake her soon I was bound to wind up beneath her feet.
Desperation flooded my body, and I turned away from her again, taking a knee just below the shoulder blades as I did so. Nothing I had on this playlist was as fast as I needed to go, so I turned it up to drown out the sound of my own heavy breathing and began sprinting away from the growing woman. As I sped along the sidewalk I noticed that my surroundings seemed off. The privacy fence to my left was more like a towering wall, and the sapling I sometimes went by had suddenly become a towering oak. Even the square sidewalk segments seemed longer, taking several steps to clear instead of striding over them with a single bound. An impossible thought sprouted in the depths of my brain, but seemed more plausible with each step: I was getting smaller.
Before I could
The further I ran the larger everything seemed to get. Fences had become indomitable barriers, and trees were imposing behemoths to rival sequoias and redwoods. Before me the path to the next intersection elongated, but was fortunately clear of any debris that might act as a hurdle for me. I risked a glance behind at the woman, and saw that she had gained on me in every way imaginable. Not only was I now looking up at her knees, but they were passing just over my head with each stride. Still she maintained her comfortable pace; not a drop of sweat was on her. She looked down even more sharply at me, and her face was almost contemptuous as I ran from her, though still she said nothing.
After what seemed like several minutes I reached the intersection, and found that the curb was more like a cliff. Normally I would have reservations about jumping headlong over a precipice, but by now the woman’s footfalls were thudding louder than my music, and I knew that I would pay dearly for any hesitation. I leapt off the curb, just making it onto the black asphalt, and dashed toward the opposite side. My lungs burned for air and my heart was racing, and it felt like my legs were going to give out at any time. Slowing down was not an option though, and it was a matter of life and death.
Fortunately no cars came through while I crossed, though the titanic woman pursuing me would be enough to give them pause. As I approached the other side the curb grew taller until I could no longer see over it, then I found myself looking up at the top. Before I could fully digest this a tremendous thud overwhelmed my senses, accompanied by a gust of air. I looked to my right and saw an enormous black shoe with a white swoosh on the instep, with deep wrinkles and cracks running from the top of the toe down through the sole. With a quick glance up I saw a rounded, protruding bone just out of arm’s reach, golden skin stretched taut over it.
Before I could fully process the gigantic shoe beside me another one raced overhead, the dark crevasses on the sole starkly contrasting with the white rubber squares they divided. I barely had time to register its movement before it slammed back down in front of me with another crash, and small, normally-imperceptible specks of dirt rushed out the sides. The shoe beside me tensed up, forming deep creases around the toe, and a quick survey of her monolithic leg showed her developed calf popping out like a watermelon. In an instant it was gone, churning through the air, to land on the white curb with a grinding racket.
The gigantic woman disappeared behind the increasingly-imposing ledge. I would hope she had forgotten about me, but that would mean she had noticed me in the first place. While she was obliviously running through the intersection I had made it all the way to where the curb meets the road, and after a quick hop over the crevasse dividing them I was out of danger from any cars turning onto the street. Though I was a far cry from safe at this size outside, the most immediate threat had been avoided.
Standing at the curb’s base, I realized that what was once a simple step was now an imposing climb. My legs were exhausted, but it would be an ignominious end to be smashed by a vehicle driving too close to the sidewalk, so I summoned the last reserves of my strength and threw myself at the steep slope. I ran up the side for a few inches until it became too steep and fell forward, faceplanting against the white cliff face. Desperately my hands clutched at protruding specks of concrete, grabbing hold and using them to stop my fall.
My body dragged against the rocky slope until my feet finally found purchase on a pair of flecks, stopping my descent. Though my legs ached from futilely trying to outpace the gigantic woman they had some strength left in them, and I gradually ascended the rocky cliff. I was far from a proficient climber, but there were ample hand- and toeholds, and after a few minutes of maintaining two points of contact I flopped my limp body over the top of the ledge and onto the sidewalk.
The cool concrete felt nice on my stinging skin, especially after running across sweltering asphalt. Bit by bit I realized that if the asphalt was hot the sidewalk should be too, and something was amiss again. Around me the concrete was significantly darker than the curb I had climbed, as though something was blocking out the light. It dawned on me that I was in a shadow, and this close to the street it had to be a person’s. Terror shot down my spine, and I realized I was still in grave danger. Barely able to move, I craned my neck toward whatever was casting this shadow.
The weathered and cracked white sole rising beneath the toe of an enormous running shoe greeted me on the left, and a similar sight was on the right. With my bleary vision I could only focus on one leg, following its monumental length toward the sky. Her long, toned legs were perfectly smooth, as though she had just shaved them before going out for a run, and her feet were about shoulder width apart. Tremendous hands rested atop her hips, and I pushed myself up so that my gaze could scale the rest of her body. She was looking directly at me with eyes roughly my size, but now her tight lips were pulled to the side in a smug smirk. The whole time I was running from her I wished she would notice me, and now I wanted nothing more than to escape her gaze.
Her lips began to move, making faint vibrations in my chest, but I could not understand the words. That was when I realized I still had my earbuds in, and though the music had turned to nothing more than dull noise it was still blocking out her words. Since she was a thousand times my size I figured it might be worth listening to her, and quickly yanked them free.
“-own there, little man?” she finished, her voice a deep, resonating boom with a distinctly mocking tone. “I was starting to worry I’d never catch you, but I guess what the say is true: you can hide, but you cannot run!” She paused to let out a short belly laugh, then regained her composure. “I’m Stephanie. I’d ask your name, but what kind of person would name a bug?”
I clenched my teeth, air hissing through them as I brought myself up to a kneeling position. My legs pulsed with pain and every slight movement of them made me wince, but after a few agonizing seconds littered with screaming I was back to my feet. “I’m not a bug,” I shouted up at Stephanie while she watched with a bemused grin. “I’m-“
“I don’t know what you’re squeaking at me, I don’t speak bug,” she boomed, cutting my protests short. “Listen, you’re pretty fast for something the size of a quarter, so I’ll make you a deal.” No matter what I said she would simply talk over me, so I patiently waited for her to continue. “If you can make it across one segment of this sidewalk before I can, I’ll take you home with me and let you live in a jar on my nightstand.” I continued looking up at the colossal woman in silence, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “If not… well, I didn’t exactly have my heart set on starting a bug collection today, anyway.”
I looked Stephanie over, fully aware it was an offer I could not refuse. Each of her shoes was the size of a trailer, and though they were made of lightweight material that would hardly matter with her weight atop it. Her legs were like twin towering spires capped with a skin-tight black material that barely cut into her toned thighs. She had a great field of a flat tummy, making her moderate bosom seem enormous, and her enormous face still had a knowing grin painted on it.
She took a step forward, causing me to flinch as her mammoth white sole came toward me, but it set down beside me with a relatively harmless crash. Stephanie spun on her foot, assaulting my ears with the cacophony of cement grinding beneath her toe, and set her shoe down so I was in the well of her instep. Her other foot drew inward and set down beside me as well, forming a clearing with her insteps that I was almost trapped inside. The only way out was a narrow path between her toes that I would barely be able to squeeze through.
“And, go!” Stephanie bellowed, and I lurched forward. It felt like there were pins beneath my skin, being driven deeper with each step, and I found myself barely able to walk, let alone run. I leaned heavily on her shoes, my hands pushing into the soft rubber as I willed myself forward. If I could get going, I told myself, I could get back up to speed. All I needed was ten seconds of sprinting and I could make it to the other side
Before I was even clear of the trench between her feet Stephanie took a step forward, and my hand slid off the rubber as it rushed past me. I leaned hard to the other side, but as soon as the other one set down this one scrunched and coiled to move too, her heel rising into the air. With a soft pop she pushed off the pavement and I toppled over, too exhausted to even support my own weight.
Her second bounding step was more than enough to cover the rest of the distance, and I watched while Stephanie made a show of inspecting the pavement around her feet. “Hm, nothing here,” she declared. “Guess I’m not starting a bug collection after all.” She spun on a heel and turned to face me, her expression triumphant. “And it seems like you really are nothing more than a bug.” She grinned, sending a chill down my spine.
Stephanie took a slow, exaggerated step toward me, showing off the defined muscles of her leg. It took about ten seconds for her heel to touch the ground, but once it did she brought the rest of her foot down with a resounding slap. Her smile grew, and I tried in vain to push myself back to my feet. Not a single iota of strength remained in my muscles, and all I could do was flail in a pool of my own sweat while the gargantuan woman came toward me. She had just demonstrated that it only took two steps for her to reach me, and she was already halfway there.
In contrast to her first step, Stephanie’s last step was much quicker, practically exploding from the ground. It barreled toward me, then came to an abrupt stop when her heel crashed into the ground. She left her foot poised above, ready to strike, while I helplessly gazed up at the square sections of dirty rubber that formed her shoe’s sole. Of all the ways I had imagined dying, crushed beneath a shoe had never even entered my mind.
The rest of her shoe swung down agonizingly slow, only moving a few fractions of an inch a second. Little by little it blocked my view of her body until all I could see past the toe were her eyes gleaming with excitement, and soon those too were obstructed. The creak of her sole as it descended pounded at my ears, louder than my music had ever been, and I wanted nothing more than for it to be over. Her shoe lowered so gradually that I barely even noticed when it completely blocked my view and stretched as far as I could see in every direction.
The hard rubber set down against my prone body, and I did not even have it in me to try and push it off. It would have been futile even were I not exhausted; it would be like trying to move the earth itself. Stephanie’s shoe pressed down on me, and I felt my bones compress beneath it. Air rushed out of my lungs, and I found that I was no longer able to expand my diaphragm to draw in air. Panic set in when my respiratory system rang asphyxiation symbols, but they did not last long. Moments later Stephanie’s shoe was flush with the ground, and a brief flash of pain shot through my body as it gave way beneath her weight in a deafening crack of bones.
Stephanie heard the satisfying crunch of a bug beneath her shoe and raised her heel, pressing down on it even harder. She began to grind her toe back and forth, grinding it against the pavement until it was unrecognizable as anything more than a tiny smear. When she was certain it was completely pulverized, she set her heel back down and inhaled deeply to steady herself. After the endorphin rush subsided she looked both ways for oncoming cars then stepped back into the street to continue with her run.