“You know,” said Connie, looking up as Katie was putting the finishing touches on her makeup. “I have never seen her this ticked off before.” 

“Seriously?” Asked Felix, looking between Katie and Connie. “I’ve never seen her so deadpanned and uninterested in us.”

Katie had not acknowledged the tinies once while doing her makeup. While that on its own wasn’t strange, Connie kept waiting for her to give them some kind of task. According to him, it was out of the usual for her to let them relax when they were outside of the cage. 

“My theory,” said Connie. “I think you really pissed her off when you didn’t push me off this desk. I’m not complaining, I just hope she doesn’t follow through with it when she’s done.” 

Is that what was going on? Katie said earlier that all the ‘fun’ was taken out of torturing Andrew, but she sounded more annoyed than mad. 

“What’s his deal, do you know?” Asked Felix, looking at Andrew. Connie and Felix sat next to each other, and started talking more once they realized Katie was ignoring them. Everybody in the cage seemed to at least act friendly with each other, even Elias. But nobody ever talked to Andrew, and Andrew never talked to them. Even now, he preferred to lay in the puddle of Katie’s dry spit than sit with them. 

“Who, him?” Said Connie, pointing to Andrew. “Like I told you before, it’s for the best if you just stay away from that guy. There’s no use getting yourself in trouble with Katie.” 

Felix nodded, though he was unsure why talking to Andrew would get him in trouble with Katie. Something was for sure different about the way Katie treated him versus the others.

Last night, Elias explained to Felix the way Katie goes about training slaves. The first week is all about breaking down the person’s will. It’s why Felix spent the morning and afternoon being nearly pummeled to death under Katie’s foot, and why Katie killed Emma and Mia in front of him. Elias put it bluntly, “they died because she wanted to show you your place.”

“And because Katie hates the girls.” Sofia had said.

Then there was the second week, the week Sofia was in. That week was about obedience training, and making sure any new slave knew their place. It’s why Sofia was in the same shoe as Felix and not Connie. Then it’s the third week, which is about refining to what the master wants, and the fourth has to do with more mundane things like helping the master cheat on her test.

Make it through all 4 weeks, and Katie sells you to the highest bidder. The strange thing was that Andrew didn’t fall into any of these weeks. If he were in the first week like Felix, why wasn’t he placed in Katie’s shoe with him? And what good would setting off Andrew’s allergies and spitting on him do with obedience? That was more about doing what he was told, but it seemed like Katie was just flat out torturing Andrew. 

Katie’s makeup case clicked shut. She took a breath, admiring a job well done. The teenager looked a lot older with her makeup down, and Felix wasn’t sure if he’d mistake her for another college girl if he saw her at a frat party. 

She looked at them, and Felix’s heart nearly leaped from his chest. So much fear disposed on him, and just with a short glance.

“I’m done playing with you two.” Katie’s hand came for them, but her fingers only wrapped around Connie. She picked up Andrew, and skidding out from her chair she knelt under the bed and rattled the cage. When she came back up, Felix only saw one tiny in her hand, but didn’t know who it was. 

“Aww, look at you,” Katie cooed to the tiny in her hand as she sat. “You finally look pretty. I mean, honestly, did you really think pulling up your skirt that high made you look cute? Or the way you bobbed your leg over the other one in class. You wouldn’t believe how many times me and my friends made fun of you for that.”

Through the cracks in her fingers, Felix saw the mangled form of Angelina’s body. “But thanks to me, you finally look cute! You’re just the prettiest slave in the entire pack.”

Angelina fell from Katie’s fingers, dropping to the table and jerking around while erupting in pain. Felix thought she looked like she was on fire. Every nerve in her body must’ve been exploding in extraneous pain, and it was Felix who did that. Looking at the pathetic mush of a person, Felix wondered if he should’ve let one of his other companions die to avoid this. 

“You two are going to go out with me tonight,” Said said, giving herself one final check in the mirror. She patted on her cheeks with her palms, straightened out the wrinkles on her shirt and winked at her reflection.

“I was very upset with your performance in my shoe, 76.” Katie addressed Felix ignoring the withering Angelina under her. “But maybe I just couldn’t feel you as well. I’m not the monster I’m sure everybody keeps telling you I am. I can admit when I made a mistake. So this time, I’m going to put you in these.” 

Reaching under her desk, Katie pulled from the floor a dirty pair of stockings. She raised them over Angelina’s body, taking pleasure in the way the stocking’s gentle tickle’s sent Angelina into a twisted pain. 

Felix’s body flinched as he tried to take a step forward, his body too conditioned to Katie’s torture for his heroics to try and save her. Besides, he’d probably end up getting Angelina in more trouble if he did anything. It's like the others keep saying, they’re suffering because he won’t learn his place.

“And I’m going to drop this little chew toy in there with you. You’re going to train it like I had the other bitch train you earlier. Make sure she learns her place by the time I take her out again, I’m not entirely convinced that from that pathetic show you all put on earlier.” 

With a quick scoop, Felix was picked up by Katie’s hand. He’d grown used to the motion of being trusted around in a giant’s hand— it was nothing compared to the sensation of being stepped on— but the feeling of being dropped was still spinning his head in circles. 

Felix rolled to the bottom of the stocking, and it wasn’t long before Angelina’s frighted body rolled down on top of him. She was even scarier up close. Angelina’s wounds were sealed up with the piece of hair Sofia found, but patches of dried blood stained on the edges were her skin still stuck to her bone. 

“Here comes my foot, be good bugs for me and lick up any of the sweat. It took you way too long to learn that the first time around.” Katie’s foot slid in.

Angelina was hysterical, but her hysterics were more tame than earlier. She spent all day crying, Felix doubted she had much strength to throw too much of a tantrum. 

Katie’s foot wiggled in the stocking that shook as the beast approached. What should Felix do? If Katie’s foot came down while Angelina was still on top of him then he’d be crushed. When it was him and Sofia in the shoe, Sofia forced Felix under Katie’s big toe so she could have an easy ride, but if Felix did that to Angelina she’d die for sure under the weight. 

Thinking quickly, Felix threw Angelina off of him and over to Katie’s smallest toe just as it connected with her. Angelina again erupted in a roar, but her voice tired from screaming quickly died out into a muffled cry. Katie’s big toe pressed into Felix’s face

The first thing Felix felt was the warm skin roll over him as Katie lowered her foot to the ground, and the second, more noticeable, was how much more potent the smell was.  Felix gagged and spit up phlegm uncontrollably, his mouth opening up and letting the salty sweat drip into his mouth. If nothing else, at least the taste was better. Katie must’ve showered since her time at school. 

Even though she didn’t scream, Felix could hear the faint cry escaping Angelina’s lips as Katie’s foot connected to the ground. Luckily Felix’s time in her school shoe had him used to the feeling of being stepped on, but poor Angelina couldn’t bear it. Maybe it actually helped him that Sofia had him under the big toe. 

Angelina slid her foot into a shoe, but even though the light dimmed it didn’t go out. Instead her foot slanted upwards, more pressure being added onto the sole. Tilting his head and looking through the tiny holes in the stocking, Felix made out the edge to a red strap. Katie was wearing heels. 

As Katie took her first step, Felix turned to Angelina, whose entire body was under the pinkie toe of Katie save for an outstretched hand. “Don’t tense your muscles, it’ll only make the landing—”

Felix was cut off by Katie’s foot coming down. The air was knocked out of his gut, water formed around his eyes. He shouldn’t be talking, not while Katie was walking. Even though he was used to the impact, he wasn’t used to the increase in pressure. But Angelina was struggling, even under Katie’s smallest toe her injuries weren’t anything to be taken lightly. Too much contact and she could pass away from the pain alone. 

Cold air rushed over Felix. He hadn’t realized how much his body had heated up in the few minutes he’d been inside Katie’s stocking. Katie must’ve been outside now, otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten so cold so drastically. 

Katie stood still. Felix took the moment to address Angelina. He stared closely at her hand, waiting for it to twitch. It never did. “If you’re still alive,” Felix started. “You need to get your face out from under her toes. There should be enough room in the stocking to scoot up, if you have the strength too.” 

No response. 

“I’m sorry about before,” said Felix. She might not be able to hear him, but he needed to get it off his chest. “I thought I was helping you, I didn’t know she was going to do… this to you.” 

Still no response. Felix took a breath, needing to pay more attention to the weight on his chest. When Katie stood still before it was like her toes rested waitless on top of him, comparatively to being stepped on anyway. But things were different with the slant. Before her weight was mostly on her heel, but now her entire body weighed on her toes, and thus Felix. 

A heavy boom. A shadow fell briefly over Felix, and through the stocking Felix saw the figure of a giant boot walk pass Katie. He hadn’t thought of it before, but if Felix could look out of the stocking and see the outside world, then the outside world could see him. 

If Felix could get somebody’s attention, they could help him. 

A car rolled up on the curb, and Katie walked to the window. “For Katie?” She asked. Felix couldn’t hear a response, but Katie opened the backseat and slid in. The air was cool and smelled like air freshener. Felix had been in enough Ubers to know what one smelled like. Where was Katie going?”

About 10 minutes into the ride, while Felix was debating whether to start licking the sweat off Katie's foot now while the levels were low, Angelina’s hand twitched. She pressed it against the toe, pushing against it until her face slid out from under the pinkie. There must’ve been enough sweat for her to do that. 

Angelina’s right cheek was sunken down to her chin, a feature Felix was unsure was there before she had been dropped inside of the stocking. “I’m dying?” Angelina asked, terror in her eyes and shaky voice. “I… I can’t feel anything. Help me.” She begged.

Felix looked up. How long would it be before Katie reached her destination? It could be a couple minutes, or it could be hours. She hadn’t checked on them yet, but would she feel if Felix left his spot under her toes? 

Risking a punishment, Felix slid out from Katie’s big toe. He scooted against her second and third ones, the fabric making it hard to squeeze through,  until he made it to Angelina. “Don’t panic,” he said, unsure of anything better to ease her worries. “You’ll be fine, we just have to make it through the night and everything will be fine, I promise.”

Katie’s toes flexed. Spit flew from Angelina’s sour mouth. She may have not felt the pain, but her body did. 

Shit, Felix forgot. When Sofia left her spot under Katie's toes, it wasn’t Sofia who was punished for it. It was Felix. 

“Stay strong,” Felix urged. He rushed back to the big toe, losing his foot several times before squeezing his legs back under her big toe. 

The pressure under Angelina stopped, but it transferred to Felix. It was too much of a pressure difference, one preferable side effect to Katie being in heels, but it still hurt. Angelina meanwhile laid still, looking up at the car’s roof as lonely tears fell from the side of her eye. 

It wasn’t long before the car pulled to a slow stop and Katie stepped outside of it. Angelina moaned as Katie walked towards a house. A doorbell rang. Anxious moments pass before it's open, followed by loud screams and Katie being embraced in a hug. 

All Felix saw as Katie walked in the house was a handful of feet on the floor. Some were in shoes, others were bare, and one was in just thick black leggings. They chatted and moved around the room, unaware of the tiny people inside Katie’s stocking. 

Felix stuck a hand out, feeling at the fabric. If he pulled hard enough at it, he might be able to rip it. If he remembered correctly from his sister wearing them, they tear accidentally all the time. Felix wasn’t as weak as the others, he might be able to do it. Then he’d just have to get somebody’s attention and hope they didn’t freak out. 

But first he had to make sure he didn’t pass out under the pain. Despite the couch just feet away from her, Katie refused to sit down. Many of the teens in the room stood, afraid of the social stigma of sitting down. Felix’s legs were being crushed, if he didn’t act soon he wouldn’t have leg strength to run away. 

Felix reached out and grabbed for the fabric. He glanced at Angelina. Would Katie kill her if she found out Felix left? She was going to kill Felix earlier when Sofia left, or at least it felt like she would. Felix knew Katie wasn’t above killing, but if he escaped he could save the others back in the cage under Katie’s bed. 

And there he was again, faced with a choice between Angelina and the others. He could save one, but not the other. It wasn’t his place to choose, but he couldn’t not act. But he promised Angelina she’d be safe. She was so still under Katie’s toe, her death would be painless. 

Felix grabbed the stocking. He pulled with all of his strength to rip it apart, but even he was too weak to do more than just break it a little bit. He looked through the hole up at Katie. She was still distracted, Felix had to act. He pulled harder, not allowing himself to let up even a little bit. 

If he were fast enough, he could save Angelina too. Originally, he wanted to wait out the party and find the host after the fact, but if he got somebody’s attention quick they could help Angelina escape before Katie could kill her. Then they’d find a doctor for her, he’d save everybody. 

The stocking ripped. Seeing his chance, Felix used the sweat under Katie’s big toe to push himself out from under it. He spun around, pulling himself out of the stocking and onto the carpeted floor below. 

He’d done it, Felix had actually escaped. Katie shouldn’t have been so naive to think Felix wouldn’t try something like this. His legs were too weak to stand, he’d have to hide longer than he wanted until he gained the strength to move. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t far from the couch. All he had to do was drag himself under it and—

Shrouded in the darkness under the couch was hard to see, but it was unmistakable. Twisted and dismembered, disfigured and unjointed, a twisted body laid still under the couch. Its face was petrified with pure terror, though it didn’t move. Maggots half the size of it crawled from a hole in its stomach, and ants circled around it. 

Another tiny person laid dead under the couch. 

“Uh oh Katie,” said a feminine voice. “It looks like one of your slaves escaped.” 

Felix was stunned. He had to run for the couch, but some of those bugs were the size of him. 

“Tsk tsk, I had more faith in you.” The rough bottom of Katie's heel pressed into Felix’s back. Tilting his head up as much as he could, all of Katie’s teenage friends were staring down at him. It was intimidating, and none of them looked the least bit sympathetic or surprised. 

“He’s only in his second day of training,” Katie assured the group, ignoring her slave. “I don’t like to show you the magic behind the curtain, but I guess here’s your glimpse.” 

“Don’t worry, katie.” Said a brunette as she knelt down to get a better look. “Why does it look so scared? Don’t they usually know their place by now?” 

“I think it found Shitstain.” Said a blonde girl. Was she referring to the person under the couch? “Shitstain hid under the couch after my dog chased it there. MY baby waited there a week for it to leave before it died of starvation. I still want my money back for that, by the way.” 

“Fuck off, Jasmine.” Katie rolled her eyes. “All sales are final. Besides, you only paid $2.50 for it anyway, so drop it. Unless you wanna be my next project.”

“Given your track record with training female slaves,” said Jasmine. “I’ll pass.”  

Felix wiggled his ankle. His legs were starting to wake up, but he couldn’t tell if he could move them yet with Katie’s heel weighing on top of him. He’d rather take his chances with the bugs under the couch than with whatever these girls had planned for him. 

They all must’ve known about Katie’s tinies. Why couldn’t Felix put two and two together? Katie was out with friends, why wouldn’t they be the same friends she sells shrunken slaves too? The person under the couch— the living person that one of Katie’s friends dawned the nickname Shit Stain— must’ve been one of Katie’s old slaves. Trained and sold for less than a transit ticket, that’s how much these girls thought they were worth. 

The crusty heel pressed down on Felix’s back like it would a cigarette. The heat radiating from Katie’s foot stretched all the way to the floor, as did the putrid smell. Angelina was likely right above him, what a cruel fate it’d be to have them both crushed like this. 

“Hmm, maybe he wasn’t escaping.” Said Katie. r up something awful. She knew damn well what he was doing, if she was pretending she didn’t it meant she had other ideas. “I bet you came out here to tell us you finished training that dumb bitch, didn’t you?” 

Katie pressed down harder, she wanted Felix to give the answer she wanted. “She’s trained,” Felix’s voice strained under the pressure. 

The heel lifted off, and Katie took a few steps back, leaving Felix alone in a circle of feet. “See girls, he was just coming to tell us he finished training the other slave.”

Some of the girls giggled, and a few tried to talk at once which created an incomprehensible blurb. Katie bent over, one of the girls making a comment about her ass for laughs. The titan dug her fingers into the home Felix created in her stocking, and after a little digging she pulled out her other slave. 

“Holy shit,” said a brunette. “Is that Angelina?”

“Careful Hanna,” said Katie standing up. “I haven’t sold her to anybody yet, so she doesn’t have a name.

Katie laid Angelina out in an open palm, and suddenly Felix was old news.  The group of girls swarmed around Katie’s palm, poking and prodding at the tiny girl on top of it. They cooed and made sounds like they were talking to a cute puppy. 

“Look at it squirm,” said one girl.

“I just want to eat her up.” Said Jasmine with chattering her teeth. 

Felix smashed his head against the floor. It pounded back, and he was unsure why he did it. He was overwhelmed. His choices carried too much weight. Too many consequences. 

“Okay, okay, back up.” Said Katie. “Let’s see the bitch work.” The girls took a step back in the circle, allowing Katie to kneel down and place Angelina in front of her feet.

Katie placed her hands on her hips, eyes furrowed like she was waiting for something to happen. Angelina’s body was near lifeless. If it weren’t for the rhythmic soothing of her head bobbing back and forth, she'd be no different from the body that laid still under the couch. 

Jamie bent over, the flashlight on her phone illuminating onto Katie’s foot as he camera pointed towards the tiny next to it.

“Oh my god send that to me,” said Hannah eagerly. 

“Shh.” Jasmine’s thick white teeth cracked through her lips as she looked down at the camera. “I’ll send it in the group chat.”

Katie’s toes gently nudged into Angelina. “Go ahead worm, show me what you learned in your day as my slave.” 

Angelina gave no signs of acknowledgement, yet her lips slightly twitched as she breathed. Slipped from her heel, Katie’s sole hung only inches above her. Only Felix had an angle on the sight, but Jasmine did lay on the floor to get a better shot with her phone. 

“You must’ve been taught to wait for orders, good Slut,” said Katie. “But don’t keep your owner waiting, I want you to lick my nylons. Go ahead.” 

The giant girls around them squirmed in anticipation, but Felix knew they’d be waiting a long time. Angelina was alive, conscious even evident by the way she groaned in fear, but she could move. Her body was giving out, it didn’t have the strength to move. 

“Hey, brat!” Katie tapped her foot down. It was light, but hard enough that Angelina came up with Katie’s foot before falling back on the carpet. Angelina wiggled, her body coated with a new layer of sweat, but she didn’t have much mobility. 

“Step on her again.” Said Jasmine, not looking up from her phone. “She’s starting to wake up.”

Katie did as the crowd instructed, stomping her foot down, but this time twisting it into the carpet. Jasmin and Felix’s jaws dropped from their faces as they hard light crunches. When Katie pulled her foot back up, Angelina looked flatter than usual. 

“Is this better?” Katie asked, lightly placing the ball of her feet on top of Angelina’s body. “You’re pathetic, maybe what you were taught is that you’re not worth sticking your neck out to reach my feet. So here, lick them now like you’re dirt I accidentally stepped on.”

Felix was too far away to see if Angelina licked Katie’s foot. Half her body was covered by Katie’s sole, but Katie’s gaze of displacement gave it away. She pressed her foot further down, the floor creaking as the carver fibers folded under her. 

Angelina was submerged under Katie’s sole, the carpet being the only resistor of her becoming completely flat. Katie slowly grinder her foot left and right, Jasmine using her free hand to cup her surprised mouth. Angelina’s body was cracking. 

“You spent all of your high school career using your tongue to get what you want. When it was for Mr. Lamon you had no problem licking whatever he asked you to, why can’t you do that for me?” 

A pair of toes moved closer. “She’s a pick me girl,” said Hannah. “She hates you cause you’re not a man.” 

“Figures,” Katie’s toes flex as she grinds her foot harsher into the ground. She raised her foot up, Angelina sticking to it and falling to the ground, only to slam her foot back onto her and grinding her foot more. “Maybe if a man tells you, you’ll listen.” Katie looked down at Felix. “Go ahead, tell her.” 

All eyes were on Felix. The girls cooed and whispered to each other. Katie lifted her foot off Angelina, placing it besides her. Felix hesitantly approached the beast, focusing on the beaten girl under it.

Angelina was in this position because Felix got cocky. It was his fault, he should’ve just stayed inside the stocking. The closer Felix got, the more disfigured Angelina became. Several bruises lined her body, and her joints were messed up or poking in wrong directions. She looked so flat, even the faint rising of her chest barely added depth. 

Felix knelt beside her. “Listen, Angie, I know you don’t want to do it, but lick her foot. You have—“

“So… cold.” Angelina muttered. Her lip quivered, and tears once again streamed her cheeks.  But these tears were quieter. 

“Don’t say that.” Felix begged. Katie’s toes were scrunching impatiently. “We’ll help you back in the cage, you’ll get better.” 

Angelina pouted thicker, the thought of getting better scarier than the thought of drying. 

“You can’t give up, Angie. If you die..” What did Sofia say to him, when Felix wanted to die? “If you die then what’s the point of any of this. All of this suffering, all the people Katie killed. None of it matters if you don’t get better and escape.”

“I don’t… care.” Angelina’s voice was low, and though she cried she sounded content. “I’m ugly. This isn’t my body anymore. I don’t, Christ look at me. I don’t want to live.”

“Have you told her yet?” Katie asked.

“Jesus fuck, Katie,” said Hannah, getting a closer look at Angelina. “Did you bite her?”

“I prefer the word chewed.” Katie said. “Chewed a lot.”

Felix touched Angelina’s hand. Time was running out. “Just lick the foot, we can talk more later.” 

Angleina shook her head, her final year falling to the floor. “I’m not sorry.” She said, “You are, but I’m not. I know you feel bad, but just… please… just let me die now.”

Felix stepped back, shaking his head. Crawling on fours, he moved to Katie’s sole. Felix stuck his tongue out and dragged it across her stocking. 

“Forgive her, goddess.” Felix said in between licks. “She’s not trained yet, allow me more time to train her.” Felix sucked up Katie’s sweat.

“I’ll punish you later.” Katie twitched her foot, sending Felix flying back.

Felix rolled on the ground. Getting his bearing, he pushed himself back up. “Wait!”

Two fingers wrapped around him. “Where’s the fire, little guy?” Hanna said as she pulled Felix up in the air. She twisted him around to her face, and shined her stained teeth at him. “Mmm, maybe I’ll take a bite out of you, too.” She chattered her teeth at him. 

Felix turned around. Hannah was scary, but he needed to see if Angie was okay. 

“Oh, you wanna watch?” Asked Hannah. “Let’s watch, then.” She bent down, extending out her hand so Felix could see. He was still so far away, Katie didn’t even look at him. 

Katie bent over and pursed her lips. Felix shouted, remembering the sight from earlier. But before long, a giant glob of saliva dropped from Katie’s lips. “Bullseye!” She yelled as her spit connected with Angelina. 

Jasmine stood up. “Let me help you.” She said, cupping her lips and spitting over Angie. A few of the other girls joined in, all releasing as much spit as they could on the tiny girl. 

Felix could do nothing but watch as the pile of spit grew larger and larger on top of Angelina’s body. At first it dropped off her, only costing her before spilling into the carpet. But as the carpet fibers grew moist, there wasn’t much space for the spit to go.

Katie and her friends continued to spit on Angie, and her entire body was trapped under a pool of spit. For a while she laid still, but as the spit seeped into her throat she started to squirm.

The girls laughed as Anglina drowned in their spit. Jasmine continued filming. Getting real close to Angelina’s body. The camera captured her final moment. Angelina had again gone still, but this time she wouldn’t move again. 

She was dead. Strangely, Felix found himself thinking of Sofia. He understood now why she didn’t want him to apologize to Angelina. Saying sorry fixed nothing.