Chapter 5 - Nightly Clean Up

"How come you never help me clean, Tim?" Allie asked playfully.

"Well that's not my job," I teased her back. "That's yours." I flashed her a genuine smile to let her know I'd always be there if she needed help. That was my job as the manager. To make sure my employees had the tools and skills available to do their job to their best ability. I'd never say I was the best, but I'd say I did the best I could.

***

A huge fluffy weight landed atop me, pushing my face into the soft texture. The overwhelming scent of mozzarella cheese invaded my nostrils. It was pleasant, for once. Having a glob of cheese sitting on me wasn't a good feeling, but it was a lot better than ones I had before. Things got a whole lot worse when an immense pressure was inflicted upon me, no doubt from Mindy having inadvertently stepping onto the cheese. Mozzarella invaded every orifice on me as the weight relentlessly pressed down. I could feel the sticky cheese getting stuck to the hair on my uncovered arms and legs, even my head. Then, just as quick as the pressure came, it was gone, but the damage had been done. There was a calm for a brief second for me to regain my composure, but that too was abruptly ended when the cheese and I were sent forcefully tumbling along the ground into the dark abyss that was beneath one of the food stations.

I was screaming the whole time we were tumbling, but my miniscule screams were muffled and absorbed by the cheese. With my face being shoved deep into the glob of white, I couldn't really see anything either, just feel the wild twists and turns of the tumble. Eventually things settle down, and fortunately the cheese had landed with me on the top; I could tell because there wasn't any weight above me. If it had landed the other way...there'd be no hope of me getting out. I began to struggle and pull my limbs out, eventually ripping and tear my arms and legs free from the sticky grasp of the cheese, and finally my head as well, letting me get a fresh breath of air. 

I bounce off of the jiggly cheese onto the tile floor below. Despite being crushed flat beneath someone's shoe, the top of the cheese was still higher than I was tall. It was extremely dark underneath the station, but some line still shone through from the ground, providing enough to see. Not a lot, but enough. From what I could tell, this piece of cheese wasn't the only piece of food to be left down here to rot. Giant mountains of chicken, hills made of avocado peels, hundreds upon hundreds of crumbs, and more I couldn't see. It wasn't just food, either. Impossibly large sheets of paper for wrapping sandwiches found themselves here, as well as cavernous plastic bags used to hold portioned meat in. This place was a graveyard for garbage and waste, and I was now amongst it all. 

I looked out towards the outside where the light was coming. Several pairs of shoes moved back and forth out there, even from the distance they still appeared massive. So much so that even far away I still felt residual shakes from the footsteps occurring out there. I had to come up with a plan, sooner rather than later. It was apart of the closing duties to sweep all of the trash from under the stations. If I was still here when we closed...I'd become part of that trash. But, I couldn't exactly just leave this place either. I looked again at the stampede of shoes outside. If I went out there again, I'd just be letting myself get stepped on easily. So basically, being under the station was dangerous, and getting back in the open was dangerous. There was no good option. Sitting around wasn't going to be much help, so I began to walk around beneath the station to brainstorm some ideas. The most crucial thing I had to do was get off of the floor. There was a less than zero percent chance I'd get any help when on the floor, so I needed to get up higher. 

That was easier said than done. I heard a noise elsewhere beneath the station, a noise that sent a horrific chill down my spine. I was instantly brought out of my brainstorm to search for the source. I found it. Off in the relative distance was a massive beast. It's antennae were wildly shaking about, as if sensing my presence. There was just enough light shining beneath the station for me to identify what it was. Now, it's not something I'd be proud to admit being a manager at the store and all, but there really was no helping it when we work in the food business. We had cockroaches. Not an infestation, but enough to be a nuisance. And now, when I was the size of a worthless crumb, I was staring down one. Or rather, it was staring me down. Instinctively I scream when I see a giant creature like that, which just alerted it to my presence and location. It began to scuttle towards me as I continued to scream in terror.

I killed a number of the little pests back at my regular size. It was gross, but it had to be done. I always had a bundle of paper towels or whatever to crush it in. That wasn't happened today, not now. The beast scuttled closer to me, and as it did so I truly began to comprehend its size. The cockroach was absurdly massive compared to me. It's leg alone was taller than I was. Meaning it's head--the horrific monster looking head--was staring down at me as it approached. If I wasn't already terrified, I would be based solely on the fact that a cockroach--a damned insect--was looking DOWN at me. I was beneath a cockroach. It probably just saw me as food. A fact I was pretty sure was confirmed as I heard and saw the snapping of its mandibles. I had to run, I had to do something, but I panicked. I stumbled backwards onto my butt, falling down on my back. All that did was make this enormous beast appear even larger. I couldn't believe it. After everything that has happened, after everything I endured, I was going to become a meal for a cockroach. I watched helplessly as the gigantic beast appeared over me, ready to go for the kill.

^^^

The store had closed up for the night, and all Allie had to do was sweep and clean up the floor. First things first, was moving the heavy station away so they could sweep up whatever filth found itself beneath them. The day crew was always kicking whatever food bits or trash that fell under there, leaving it for HER to clean up. They were making her life so difficult, ugh. Whatever. Allie moved one station away and began to sweep it all along the path. There were empty bags that once held meat, avocado peels, stray pieces of chicken, and more. With one down, Allie moved onto the next one. After moving it aside, she looked down at the floor and noticed a small scuttle. 

"Gross," Allie said quietly aloud. It was a cockroach. It was small, must have been a baby roach given just how extremely tiny it was, but it was a cockroach none the less. She quickly raised her shoe and brought it down upon the tiny creature, instantly flattening and killing it. She didn't even notice that its corpse fell from her shoe onto the floor again; it was instantly lost amongst the rest of the filth down there. That's where it belonged, regardless. Maybe if the day crew wasn't so filthy there wouldn't be cockroaches anyway. Moving on, Allie continued to sweep up. She brought everything together into one neat, big pile before brushing it all into the dustpan. With that done, she dumped everything into the trash can, which Maria tied up and brought out to the dumpster outside. Only one thing left to do before she could head home.

vvv

All of the sudden a brilliant, blinding light flooded from up above. I put my hands up to shield from the light on reflex. At the same time, I felt the overwhelming presence of the cockroach above me disappear. Someone must have moved the station I was under aside, spooking the bug and in effect saving my life. As my eyes adjusted I saw the towering form that was Allie standing above me. I'd have to remember to give her a raise for saving my life, haha. In an instant I see her leg rise into the air, giving me a glimpse of the bottom of her shoe before it came crashing down. The gust from the impact blew me away, sending me tumbling end over end before coming to rest a few feet away. When I settle, I look up and see Allie's leg rising into the air again, with her shoe miles above me. Even from my distance I saw something dislodge itself from the treads and come crashing down...right near where I had landed! There was no time to react as it slammed down inches from me, before bouncing off the ground once and flung its way towards me. In the blink of an eye I found myself being compressed down by a heavy force...it was the very cockroach that was just about to eat me! Only now, it was dead. Very dead.

In addition to the heavy pressure I felt weighing down my abdomen, I began to feel a wetness building all over as well. And no, it wasn't coming from me. I kinda wish it was. No, it was the blood and guts of the mutilated cockroach spilling out onto my body. I begin to squeal as my entire torso and waist was coated in a mess of thick viscous blobs and were only running down my sides because of the amount of it seeping out from the lifeless corpse atop me. As my mind began to fully process what was happening, my body caught up and began to reactively panic, attempting to squirm my way out from under this creature. I pushed and pulled and clawed about to dislodge myself from under it, in the process getting my hands and arms coated in all the gunk as well. I made some progress when the limp antennae of the cockroach fell right on my face. The flaccid feeler began to caress my face as I wiggled and shook and struggled to remove myself. With one push I managed to get most of my body free, with the one exception being my leg, still trapped beneath the creature. I slumped back for a second, tired from the exertion, as I stared to the sky above. 

Despite everything that had happened, I had never felt this small and worthless before. Way, way, way up in the sky was Allie, still standing there holding a broom. She stretched to unimaginable heights. I had a a few good inches on her normally, but now she was near incomprehensible to me. Here I was, literally being held hostage by a fucking cockroach, a dead one at that, while my employee towered over me, completely oblivious to where I currently was. She had absolutely no idea how much power, how imposing she was to me at the moment. She could end my life in one quick movement--just as she did to the massive beast that was currently on top of me. And the worst part...she wouldn't even notice. 

And she was about to use that power over me. It started when I noticed massive boulders coming flying in from behind me, almost as if a wind storm was coming. I turned my head back and was greeted with a gigantic wall made of straw poles, with a tidal wave of dust, dirt, discarded food, and pure filth coming right towards me. With my leg still trapped, I was unable to move at all. The only thing I could do was scream as the cockroach body and myself were effortlessly absorbed into the maelstrom of garbage. 

The next several moments were a blur, quite literally. It was near impossible to keep my eyes open. For one, I was spinning around so rapidly I was going to puke, and two, I was being pelted with who knows what the whole time. I felt my body being violently scraped between the rough tile floor and the unforgiving bristles of the straw broom. Every inch was beaten and bruised due to the constant rolling I was enduring. This continued for an unknown amount of time. When I finally opened my eyes, I had no idea how long I had been laying motionless. My head was spinning, my stomach was queasy. My arms were sore. My body beaten. Even lifting my arm up to rub my temples put me into immense agony. Tears streamed down my cheeks from the pain. No, not only the pain. Tears from how pathetic and low I had gotten ever since this happened. I truly didn't believe it could get any worse. But it can always get worse.

Tremors. Light at first, but they quickly picked up. More and more the ground beneath me shook, and it was at that moment I realized where exactly I was. Smack dab in the middle of the floor. There was no protection from the station above, it wasn't even close to me. My heart was beating faster and faster as I turned to look at the immense form of Allie heading straight for me. She had already caused me a great deal of agony, but apparently she wasn't done with the torment I had to suffer through. That's when I noticed the instrument of destruction she was holding. I would have breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it wasn't another broom, but I quickly realized what she was holding was worse. Much, much worse. Allie was about to mop.

^^^

Allie went to the back and grabbed a mop and a bucket. All she had to do was clean the floor and she could finally end this stupid day. It had been busy all night and of course she had to do most of the work. The floor was an absolute mess and she had to work again tomorrow. So annoying. Well, regardless, she was a hard worker and she was going to do the best job she could. With the mop all set and ready, she walked back to the line to clean up.  With a smack, she plopped and soaking wet mop down onto the grimy tile floor and began to swipe back and forth, picking up all the grime and muck that adhered itself to the tiles, making them shine again. As she was swiping, there was one particularly grimy spot that a simple swipe wasn't going to take care of. Determined to get the place clean, she positioned the threads of the mop over it, and forcefully put her shoe down onto it. She then began to grind her foot back and forth with some serious force, making sure those threads did their job and scraped up and absorbed all that stubborn grime. "Looks great," she said with a smile on her face she kept swiping, happy to see the dark spot had been taken care of. After, she took the time to squeegee out the mop, draining it of all the disgusting grime water it had accumulated. It was super full, so she had to squeeze hard on it. The water had already turned a nasty shade of brown. Yuck. With that done, she went back to mopping. She got nearly to the end of the line when she encountered yet another stubborn spot. Well, it worked last time, might as well do it again.

vvv

There wasn't anything I could do. Within a couple seconds, the monolith that was Allie was standing right above me. Fear set in the moment I stared up at her form. I was supposed to be Allie's boss, her superior, yet here I was quaking in fear as the 20something year old woman simply stood there, doing her job. I made a last ditch effort to garner any attention I could from her, but it was meaningless as the sky quickly turned into a blob of threads as the mop came slapping down upon me. 

The powerful scent of floor cleaner assaulted my nostrils, the acidity burning them with ease. My eyes were on fire. Obviously the stuff had gotten into them, and given my sized compared to how much it was, it wasn't just a few drops. I attempted to close my eyes but the damage was done as tears formed and welled up, forcing my eyes to stay open just a bit. A bit was enough to allow more of the fluid to flood into my eyes, burning them even further. Of course I opened my mouth to scream in agony, which just caused the cleaner to spread into my mouth. In an instant my throat was burning as the liquid effortlessly flowed down my esophagus. My entire body felt like it was on fire, and I was in complete and total agony, all while the cleaner-ridden mop sat atop me, pressing down and letting the fluids leak onto me. And she hadn't even done anything yet. 

With everything going on I didn't give it much thought, but coming into contact and ingestion that much floor cleaner probably would kill someone, but that is the curse of SHRK-2. The sheer resilience of the human body under such conditions was near miraculous, but it came at the cost of being able to withstand more than anyone should. The worst part was, despite how resilient my body was, how resistant it was to being poisoned from ingesting such things, I still felt all of the pain. I still had to endure all of the suffering that came along with it. This wasn't a virus, this was a curse.

I must have squirmed or moved about or perhaps I was just that unlucky, but at some point my arms had gotten tangled up in the threads of the mop. Before I had time to even attempt to free myself, I was violently whipped sideways. My face smacked harshly into the tile floor, before I began to be dragged across it. The rough, bumpy tile scraped and scratched at my face tearing small little cuts into my skin, which the floor cleaner instantly flowed to. All the small cuts exploded with burning pain as the cleaner kept trying to find every other orifice of mine to insert itself into. 

I was whipped viciously to the other side. The mop thread I was tangled into slapped down onto a pile of others, giving me a brief moment of rest, if you could call non-stop burning agony a rest. It didn't last long as I was whipped back around again. This time the mop thread and I were smashed down into the tile floor, my body and face slamming into the unforgiving and filthy floor. Once again I was brutally dragged along the ragged tiles, my body collecting bits of grime and muck as I went. All my tiny open cuts, my eyes, my nose, and even my mouth were being filled with both floor cleaner and pieces of grime. I was whipped aside once again.

This punishment continued for an ungodly amount of time, or at least it felt like it. In reality it was likely only about 15 seconds or so. The amount of times I had been whipped and slammed into the tile floor was uncountable. I was wishing, no begging to be knocked out from the force, but it never came. Instead I was being forced to endure and accept the savage beating I was taking, and feeling every single action. Whipped. Smashed. Dragged. Whipped. Smashed. Dragged. Whipped. Smashed. I waited for the drag, but it never came. 

Whatever my face was pressed against, it wasn't the tile floor, and it wasn't the other mop threads. It felt sticky, and filthy. I had no idea what it smelt like, as my nostrils were still burned from the scent of floor cleaner. Before I could even get another thought out, an immense pressure crushed down upon me. I let out a yowl of pain as the cleaner-grime water mix was squeezed out of the mop threads. The liquid helped release the muck from the floor, causing it to rise and turning it into a thick paste, like a swamp. The merciless pressure crushed down even harder upon me, causing the mop thread to flatten out, which in turn pushed me down further. I was completely submerged beneath the thick goo. Despite being as close to the ground as I felt I possibly could be, the overwhelming pressure increased even more. I was forcefully and mercilessly crushed down to the absolutely depths of this grimy bog. And when I finally felt my body hit the familiar feel of the tile floor, the pressure increased again. My face and body were utterly flattened into the grimy tile. I felt as if I had been submerged 20 feet into the muck. In reality, the dark spot was only about 1 centimeter thick at its worst.

The pressure had squeezed out a lot of tainted cleaner from the mop, flooding the entire place I was in, dunking my head beneath the water and the sludge. That's when the drag came. My body grinded and scraped along the vicious tile floor. With the amount of force being pressed upon me, I felt every single sharp groove and bump stabbing and piercing into my skin. One of my eyes was still shut, but the other was wide open. Both of them were still burning with intense heat and pain from the chemicals that had gotten in them. Globs of sticky muck was shoveled into my open eye as I was dragged along the ground. I thought it was impossible for my eyes to feel anymore pain, but having thick, greasy grime forcefully shoved into them did it. Finally the dragging stopped, but it was far from over. For a brief second, my closed up eye had stopped right atop a smooth hill. It was the only spot on the entire floor that was sharp and jagged, and it had ended up directly beneath my eye. Intense, blunt pressure stung into it, threatening to blind me. If it had been sharp, or if there had been a little more pressure, I probably would have. Instead, I just had to deal with it. Then the dragging started again, this time going back the other way.

The brutal, jagged hills of the tile floor dug into me once again as I was violently pulled along the floor. My nostrils were instantly filled with the foul smelling sludge I found myself in. The thick, viscous substance refused to exit my nose, forcing me to open my mouth to catch even the faintest hint of oxygen. While I did get some good old oxygen, I also got a mouth load of sludge thrust into me. The muck coated my tongue instantly, seeping into my taste buds. The remains of the cleaner was still there, burning the innards of my mouth as well. My body had been coated pitch black from the muck. Even if Allie knew exactly where I was, even if she had the best magnifying glass in the world, and looked directly at me, she wouldn't see me. I was perfectly blended into the grime and muck, one with it. 

I was painfully and mercilessly dragged back and forth a dozen more times, with the relentless pressure never letting up even a little bit. If anything, I feel the pressure actually increased just a tad. My entire body was torn up with small little cuts, with each one being blasted with burning chemicals and vile sludge constantly. Every inch was searing in pain, screaming out in agony while the torment continued. My arms and legs were twisted about in extremely painful angles. Nothing was broken, but that didn't really help. My arm was bent behind my back, my ankle pressing into my ass, my torso facing sideways. It would make a contortionist jealous. My eyes were coated in a thick layer of muck. Beneath all the filth and grime they were entirely bloodshot from the chemicals and sludge. A non-stop searing pain. My nostrils were beyond clogged with the muck. It felt like a stuffy nose, except instead of mild discomfort it was immense and brutal pain. My mouth was overflowing with a vile mix of floor cleaner and grime. My cheeks stuffed full with globs of gook sticking to my tongue and teeth and the roof of my mouth while the liquid passed through and burned my throat. 

Finally the pressure released. Given how much and how long it was sustained, it felt surreal not having that much force bearing down on me. It felt almost like I was floating. If I had been able to see out of my eyes, I would have seen that I was in fact dangling miles above the floor as the mop had been lifted up. My body dangled from the mop, adhered to the threads in a thick layer of grime. The feeling of weightlessness ended as a series of sopping wet pressure began to slowly lay atop me, a feeling I recognized as the mop threads. Drips of fluids dropped down onto me from above. That's when it happened.

I thought I pressure I was put under on the floor was intense, but that was a mere poke compared to the force being inflicted upon me now. An unforgiving and relentless pressure began to compact me in-between the threads of the mop. My entire being was mashed and crushed together. My shoulders were so pressed they were both touching my cheeks. My groin was being crushed into itself. My already contorted body began to wrap around itself. And the pressure continued to increase. My shoulders ground into my cheeks, my arms were shoved into my abdomen, my legs pulverized my crotch. I was gasping for every breath I could. My mouth was forced open from the pressure. Any movement was impossible, unless that movement was my own body being forced into itself from the ever increasing pressure being forced upon me. 

On top of all of this was a torrential downpour of brown fluids being dumped upon me. The mop thread I was tangled in was the first one into the squeeze bucket, meaning all of the liquid being squeezed out had to go through me. Gallons upon gallons of dirty mop water rained down into my body like a horrific form of water torture. The flood washed all of the thick goop from my eyes, and instead replaced it burning chemical-laced grime splashing directly into them. The pressure being put on me also forced my eyes open, rendering me unable to close them so they took the full brunt of the rain of mop water with no protection. My nostrils were instantly unclogged only to act an alternate path for the water to go into my mouth. Speaking of which, my mouth was now filled to the brim with the filthy mop water. I didn't even have to swallow, there was so much coming down in such force that the liquid forced itself down my throat. Gallon after gallon after gallon of brown muck water drained into my mouth. Just when I had thoughts that this torture was never going to end, the pressure increased even further. My body compacted itself again, more water came pouring down at a faster pace, and the pain I was enduring multiplied. All together, the squeezing pressure lasted a total of 5 seconds.

The torture finally stopped. The pressure was released and the downpour ceased. I swallowed the last of the water in my mouth before the feeling of floating came again. My eyes cleared from the grime build up, I could see what was happening. At least for a second before I was brutally slammed back into the tile floor as Allie continued to mop. Once again I was whipped and dragged and whipped and dragged along the jagged floor. It was not pleasant, but it felt a hell of a lot better than what I had just endured. After a few more whips, my body landed in a familiar texture. Oh no. It was another thick glob of grime. No. No, not again. This one wasn't nearly as deep and wide as the other, but I knew what was coming. Instinctively I let out a scream, just as the immense pressure bore down upon me. 

My face was flattened into the sharp and vicious tile floor. There was a lot less cleaner left in the mop threads, so this time it was less swamp and more thick goo. As the mercilessly grinding began, I learned the hard way that the last time it had been the liquid that helped lift up and release all the caked in grime from the floor. This time, it was me that was being used for that purpose. My open mouth was crushed flat against the floor, my teeth parallel with the tiles. As the grinding commenced, my teeth were used as a tool to scrape all of the muck off of them. Like a shovel my jaw plowed through the dark grime, scooping heaps and mounds of it straight into my mouth. Back and forth I was grinded against the floor, being sure to not miss a single spot. After several passes, my mouth was filled with copious amounts of thick, dark goop. It forced itself into the far etches of my throat and stuck there, making room for more and more of it to come plowing in as I was continually being used as a mere tool for cleaning. Eventually, the entire black spot was gone, almost all of it now being lodged inside my mouth instead of on the floor. Barely anything had made it onto the mop threads. At least the floor was clean.

With one last scrape I successfully completed my new purpose. With that, the mop began to rise once again. I knew where it was going: back to the squeeze bucket. A thread of the mop hung slightly slower than the rest, and on that thread was my mangled and disgusting form. I was covered in several layers of thick greasy muck, coating quite literally every inch of my body. My mouth was agape and filled with the grime I had just been used to clean. I made no attempt to even try and get out of the predicament. Why bother? I was on mop duty now. Night after night I would be used to clean the floors from all the filth. At least I was good at it, based on the sparkle the floor had. I didn't notice that my body had become untangled from the mop thread due to the constant beaten it had endured. The only thing keeping me attached was the layer of sticky grime, and that was quickly falling apart. As the mop hung over the vast ocean that was the mop bucket, it finally gave way, and sent me plummeting downwards, landing with an unnoticeable splash into the brown water.

The lukewarm water had awoken me back to my senses, reminded me that I was a human and not an instrument used for cleaning purposes. Though exhausted and drained of all energy, I still managed to break the surface. The water had brought to life all the grime that was inside my mouth, turning it into sludge. I was amidst an ocean of dark brown with faint hints of green--no doubt the cleaner that still had traces left in here. The edges of the ocean crashed into a massive wall of yellow that rose into the sky, making escape a literal impossibility. Even further up was the towering figure on Allie, standing above the bucket. She had one had on her hip, and a smile on her face, no doubt pleased with her cleaning performance. She then turned her attention to the mop perched above me, inside the presser. I knew what was coming next, I was just glad I wasn't inside it again. 

As she began to squeeze, a waterfall of muck water came crashing down, right on me. I was instantly forced beneath the surface of the water again, pushed far deeper than I had ever been before. The impact blasted my mouth open, forcing me to swallow mouthful after mouthful of the tainted liquid before finally reaching the surface and gasping for breath. I had all of a couple seconds to breath before another torrent came down, repeating the process again. When I came up this time, the flow had stopped, and the mop perched above was gone. Allie had already removed it to swipe up the last bit of filth from the floor, leaving me floating alone in the brown ocean, with no chance of escape. If I didn't get out of here, the water would be dumped down the drain along with me. And if I went down the drain...I didn't even want to think about what would happen from there.

^^^

Allie repeated the process. She pressed her shoe down onto the mop thread and began to slide it back and forth across the dark spot. She was amazed at how well the grime was coming. Whatever cleaner they were using must have been pretty strong! After a few more rounds, she lifted the mop and was pleased to see the grime was all gone. She took a second to admire her hard work. If she had any idea of the hellacious torture she had just inflicted on her boss, she would have felt guilt, sadness, and an overwhelming sense of regret. Instead, she felt joy and pride over the great job she had done. Allie returned the mop to the squeeze part and gave it a gentle push, just to get a small bit of the water out. She went back for one more round to finish off the floor, and finally she was finished. All she had to do know was dump the bucket. 

vvv

A miracle came when Allie returned the mop to the bucket. A thread had fallen and landed down into the ocean, into my realm. It was like a giant rope ladder sent from the heavens above to save me from this predicament. Now climbing back onto the mop threads was one of the last places I wanted to be after that whole ordeal, but if the choice was that or being dumped into the drain, the choice was obvious. I reached the thread, the sheer size of it reminding me how pathetically small I was now. I dug my hands into the fibers and hauled myself out of the water. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I was out of the ocean. I would figure out the rest soon. I heard noise from the world above, and looked up to see Allie wasn't alone. She was talking to another employee--Trish. I was much too tiny and far away to hear what was being said, but I saw enough. Allie handed the mop handle over to Trish, a gesture which I took to mean only one thing. Trish still had to mop her section of the café. And with a single motion, Allie had transferred the mop, and the fate of me, into the hands of Trish.

^^^

Trish was an 18-year old working at the café part time to save up some cash on the side. College was expensive man she had to do something. It had already been an annoying day and all she wanted to do was go home. All she had left to do was mop the floor of the bakery. It was a place people walked back and forth on all day, so the floor was pretty scuffed and had grime all over it. Ugh, but she really didn't want to set up a whole new mop when all she wanted was to go home. Luckily, Allie had just finished mopping, so Trish headed over and asked to use hers. Yeah, it was dirty, but some of that cleaner had to still be in it.

Trish rolled the mop bucket back to her area of the store. Her airpods were pumping out music loud enough for others to hear. She grabbed the mop and held it suspended in the air for a second as she took the time to change the song on her phone, before unceremoniously plopping the mop down onto the dirty floor and getting to work.

vvv

I did the only thing I was capable of doing and kept climbing up the mop fibers. I made as much progress as I could before the entire world stopped moving, telling me that Trish had reached her destination. I looked upwards to the world above and saw her standing there, looking down right at me. Rather, she was looking down at her phone in the general direction I was. Still, I took what I could and used the opportunity to wave and shout as much as I could, hoping to garner any attention I could from her. I was completely ignored. 

The mop began to rise upwards at a rapid pace as Trish grabbed the handle. In an instant I was removed from the yellow walls and the brown ocean vanished beneath me. I had a split second to make a decision, and I made one. I let go of the mop fibers and started free falling towards the tile floor. I knew I'd survive the fall, and it got me the hell away from that mop. I faceplanted onto the ground, it hurt like hell but otherwise I was okay. Far up above the mop hovered in the air like some sort of alien ship. Even further up Trish had begun to look at her phone again. 

I had landed right next to Trish's shoes--a pair of dirty old vans. I could see dirt stains all along the sides from lots of use.  It was weird, I felt safe next to her shoes for the sole reason that I couldn't imagine her setting the mop down so close to where she was standing. That's why panic set in when her massive shoe went soaring backwards several miles in the span of a second. A giant splash landed next to me, and hesitantly I looked up. All I could see was the massive alien ship that was the mop, hovering directly above of me. And then it fell.

The familiar weight of the mop flattened me into the floor. I flailed about as it settled on top of me, once again tangling my arms and legs inside of the arms and adhering my body to it. Luckily I was caught up in-between several fibers meaning I wasn't in direct contact with the floor, or the filth. The nauseating motion of whipping returned as I figured Trish had begun, but it didn't last long.

^^^

Trish had dragged the mop back and forth a couple times only to see that it wasn't removing any of the caked in grime at all. This mop sucks ass, she thought to herself. It was way too dry. So she lifted the thing back up and looked down into the bucket filled with dark brown colored water. It looked disgusting but there was some cleaner left and it was wet so it would help remove all those stubborn bits. She plopped the mop into the liquid, completing submerging it before lifting it back up again. Then she repeated the process a few more times. Submerge, lift, submerge, lift. She held the sopping wet mop above the bucket, brown gunk pouring out of it. Perfect, she thought. She smacked the mop back onto the grimy floor and began to swipe back and forth. There we go, it was working now. She jammed out to music as the mop effortlessly erased all the grime and muck to make the floor appear clean. 

About halfway through she took the mop and dunked it into the bucket, turning the already brown water even darker. She then left the mop submerged in the bucket as she pulled out her phone to text her friend, having a quick back and forth about their plans for tomorrow. Trish was supposed to hang out with her friend, but that had to be canceled due to something coming up. Just great. She left the mop submerged as she hit up her other friend about plans; Trish was not gonna spend her day off doing nothing. She stood there waiting, tapping her foot impatiently, staring at the dumb bubble indicating her friend was currently typing a replay. Hurry up, she thought to herself. After a full twenty seconds of waiting, her friend finally replied. And it was a no-go. Ugh, cool. Whatever, she'd figure it out tomorrow.  Disgruntled, Trish tucked her phone into her back pocket and lifted the reinvigorated mop from the bucket, getting back to finishing her work.

At one point her music stopped playing, so she whipped out her phone to figure out the issue. As she fiddled with her phone and airpods, she unknowingly stepped directly onto one of the mop threads. She was so distracted she didn't even notice she was standing on it. She subconsciously began to grind her shoe back and forth on it, still absorbed into seeing what was wrong. As it turned out, her airpods were dead. Just fucking great. Flustered, she put her airpods back into their case and then finally noticed she was standing atop some stupid ass thread of the mop. She ground her shoe into it hard once more just to take out her frustrations before finishing up the rest of the floor. What else could go wrong today?

vvv

A weightless feeling took over meaning the mop had been lifted once again. From my position tangled up in the fibers I couldn't see much, but I was able to see the ground below turn back into an ocean of brown. Before I could even get out a thought of what the heck was happening, we all began to freefall into the drink. I hit the liquid hard as I was quickly forced to the bottom. I didn't even have time to get a breath before the gunk swirled around me. Almost as quickly as it happened, I was yanked back out of the water. I attempted to get a huge gasp of needed air, but we went back downwards immediately. I went under the surface mid breath, causing all of the tainted fluids to be sucked into my mouth. We rose again as the water dribbled from my mouth. I couldn't even spit it all out before again I was plunged down into the depths. Unable to keep my mouth close, it popped open and more and more brown drink flooded into my mouth and down my throat. And then instantly I popped back up above the surface, and it was quiet.

All I heard was the splashing of huge waterfalls of gunk falling down into the ocean below. With how rapid everything had been, time seemed to stand still while we just hung there above the ocean, unmoving. It gave me much needed time to regain my breath and my composure. Everything started to move again as the ocean vanished and was replaced with the tile floor yet again, and in an instant it came rushing up to me as the mop landed with a loud and wet slap.

Then the whipping came again. Unlike before, when Allie was doing controlled swipes, Trish was instead just going wild. At some points I was dragged across the ground, before forced to scrape up and swallow globs of grime, then the next swipe I'd be sitting on the top riding the wave free of any danger, only to be ground into the grime and muck once again next time. There was no predicting where I would end up or when it would happen, I would just suddenly be lurched one direction only to be buried in a swamp of muck the next instant. The constant changing made it impossible to focus on anything other than being flicked around without a care. Despite spending overall less time being ground against the floor, I think I had swallowed even more grime than before, due to the sheer amount that was adhered to this part of the floor. On one particular instance, after being smashed face first into the tile, I had been used to scrape off a mouth full of grime in only a fraction of a second. The rest of the three seconds had been used to continually scrape off bigger and bigger globs of muck, forcefully shoving the previous globs into the back of my mouth and down the depths of my throat. 

Eventually the whipping motion stopped before I felt myself being raised into the air again. Having an idea of what was happening, I looked down at the floor and sure enough saw it turn into the dark brown ocean once again. I took the opportunity to take a deep breath and prepared for continuous impact back and forth. As expected, I was slammed down beneath the surface, awaiting the rise, but it never came. The mop and I just stayed there, motionless, at the depths of the murky grime ocean. I opened my eyes in a vain attempted to see if I was able to glean what was going on. All I saw was dark brown and all I felt was cleaner-laced grime burning my eye balls once again. I continued to hold my breath, thankful that I had taken a large breath of air. I had learned the hard way my body was extremely durable and able to withstand many things normal people wouldn't be able to. I doubted drowning was one of those things. I gathered that I didn't need much oxygen at all to stay alive, even the smallest bit could maintain me, but submerged in this ocean without any? That would be a death sentence. I kept holding my breath, struggling to stay alive.

I had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt like hours. Nothing was moving, it was completely still inside this place. I didn't think Trish was moving then, but if she wasn't, then what was she doing? My mind began to process all sorts of horrific scenarios, and I came back to several instances where I had to tell Trish to get off her phone during work. Given my limited intel down in the dark brown depths of the mop bucket, I could only come to the conclusion that now was no different. Instead of doing her work, Trish was on her phone. My stomach sank as I thought about the very real situation of drowning inside a disgusting mop bucket while she simply stood there on her phone, completely and utterly unconcerned with my fate. Panic started to set in making it harder and harder to hold my breath. I didn't have much longer.

How long had it been since I was submerged? Hours? Days? Thirty seconds? Every second that passed made it harder to keep ahold of my breath, causing more and more panic and dread to set in, further increasing the difficulty. I began to squirm and writhe in pain as the lack of oxygen was beginning to set in. That's when it happened, I couldn't take it anymore. My mouth popped open desperate for the oxygen that wasn't there. At that exact instant, the mop and me finally were beginning to rise. We broke the surface as my body inhaled as much oxygen as possible. I had lived. My mouth was open just long enough to be forcefully fed a few mouthfuls of putrid grime water, but I got the much needed oxygen. There wasn't any time to do anything other than breath before the mop and I were carelessly plopped back down onto the filthy floor and the whipping began again.

The constant whipping and swiping remained much the same as before, only now I was happy to at least be able to breath. After a few rounds of scraping off grime, I was whipped around to the top of the mop thread, facing upwards to the sky above. Then we stopped. I had an unobtrusive view of the world above, giving me a great sight of the towering Trish standing above me. And sure enough the first thing I see of her is her being on her phone. Basically confirmed my previous thoughts. I just stared up at her motionless because there wasn't much else I could do. My eyes were still reeling in pain, so I took a long blink. When I opened my eyes I no longer saw Trish. I instead saw the massive sole of her vans right above me, heading my way.

The waffle treads of her vans were pretty much clean, except for one small section when had some caked into muck stuffed into the holes. It appeared to be some gray blob, maybe it had been gum or mud at some point, but now it was just thick grime. And of all the places her shoe could have landed on my incredibly small position, it was that exact dirty spot that smashed down onto me. My face was forcefully shoved into the thick, greasy muck with no resistance at all. She then began to rock her foot back and forth. My face was shoved further in, flooding my nostrils and mouth with the viscous goop. Mop water was squeezed from the thread, turning the muck into more of a fluid, causing it to more easily slide into my mouth. As her foot rocked back, the sticky grasp of the muck attempted to take me with it, but my arms and legs tangled in the mop threads refused to let go either, and the amount of water built up into the thread weighed it down enough to keep it firmly planted. My head was being pulled one way and my body was being pulled the other, putting all of the strain on my neck. The further back Trish rocked her foot, the greater the force. My neck felt like it was going to be torn from my body until she finally let up and rocked her foot forward, smashing my face further into the caked in goop again, forcing more of the grime to be stuffed down my throat. She rocked her foot back, threatening to tear my neck in half once again. This horrific game of tug of war went back and forth, repeatedly shoving grime into my mouth and tearing at my body, over and over and over again. Eventually when she brought her foot back down, it contained a lot more force than previously. I felt my face get shoved deeper than ever before into the gooey slime that had formed in her shoe treads due to the mop water. Glob after glob after glob filled my mouth with no choice but to swallow it. The amount of liquid must have softened the grime, because as her shoe lifted up my face was forcefully plucked from it's grimy prison, flinging me back down into the mop fiber I was tangled in. And then the whipping continued again.

After the rest of the abuse, I was lifted up along with the mop. If I remembered the ordeal from before, I knew what was coming. The squeeze bucket. My arms and legs were still tangled up in the fibers despite the ordeal I had been through, preventing me from escaping the incoming fate. After a short trip flying through the air, it was time. The mop and I were placed inside the squeezer, and I braced myself as best as I could for what was coming.

^^^

Finally she was done. All she had to do was put the mop away and get the hell out of here. Trish lifted the mop up as a downpour of water rained down. She had let it sit in the bucket for so long that is absorbed a lot of liquid, and that excess was still dumping out now. The drips splashed down and landed right onto Trish's vans, right where she had a small hole, getting her socks and feet slightly wet. "Oh my god!" she gasped audibly as she let the mop fall into the squeezer part of the bucket. You had to be kidding me, she thought to herself. She could feel a small puddle of water settle beneath her foot, and her socks weren't feeling great either. How fucking uncomfortable. 

Ugh, this was awful. Her friends had bailed on her, her airpods were dead, and her foot was damp. This had to have been the worst day ever. What the hell did she do to deserve all of this suffering? She turned her attention back to the stupid dumb mop that got her wet. She glared at it for a bit before grabbing the handle of the squeezer and putting as much force as she could muster on it. She was angry, and she was going to take out her frustrations on this dumb mop.

vvv

Back when Allie had finished mopping, I had assumed there could be no greater pressure than what she had put upon me. I realized now that she was being gentle. In an instant I was forcefully pressed into another thread of the mop. The sheer speed of it had caused me to open my mouth, a terrible mistake as almost instantly a thick fiber from the opposing thread was jammed into my mouth. I felt the stringy rope glide down my throat. As the pressure increased it went further and deeper in, all the while leaking brown mucky mop water. The rest of my body was mercilessly pulverized into the rest of the thread. I was sandwiched between two massive, soaking wet threads of a mop that were constantly pouring out disgusting liquid all over me, all while a thick fiber of the mop was brutally and forcefully shoved deeper down my throat. The pressure kept increasing, pressing me further and harder into the thread. While it was soft, it was not comfortable. It had some give but the sheer force being inflicted negated any of that. The texture of the fibers tore at my skin as I was pushed deeper inside, likewise the spiny pins of the fiber inside my mouth was tearing apart my throat and releasing waves of grime water into it constantly. My arms and legs were already twisted from being tangled, but now the force being applied to them threatened to mangle them even further. They were bent in extremely awkward and painful positions, and they just kept getting bent more and more. Eventually the two ends of the mop threads met each other. They were thick enough to block out any and all light coming to my position. It created a kind of tiny gap that began to get flooded with disgusting mop water. As the pressure continued, the frayed fibers of the thread began to become entangled with each other, bonding the two different strands together into one, and casting me into a cocoon of sorts. The fibers kept tying around themselves, tighter and tighter until they were completely sealed together. The pressure finally let up, but the damage was done. I was now entombed inside of the fibers of the mop thread.

That's where I found myself. Encased in the pitch black darkness between two strands of a mop that were adhered to each other into one. Anyone looking at it would think it was simply only one thick strand, never knowing that in a tiny little gap was me, tangled up in the fibers. My arms and legs were awkwardly bent and caught up in the fibers behind me, putting me in a constant, sharp, unending pain. A thick, spiny fiber of the mop was forcefully shoved halfway down my throat, draining mop water down to my stomach. Every single part of my body ached in pain and exhaustion. I couldn't move an inch. I could barely breath. And I was constantly soaked in a foul smelling liquid, with no chance of ever getting dry in this condition. 

The unending sharp pain in my limbs, the constant wetness, and the fiber in my throat made it impossible to fall asleep regardless of how tired I was. So I just stayed there, awake and conscious, for the entire night in the pitch black and rancid hole. 

^^^

Trish felt better after that. Taking out her annoyances on that dumb mop felt pretty good. It was smart to do it on some inanimate object too, no harm done, haha. She took the mop, put it up in the back, grabbed her stuff and finally got out of there. The drive home was uneventful, but made her realize how tired she was. Getting home, she took a quick shower to get nice and clean, then crawled into her nice warm bed and under her comfy blankets. In an instant she was out, having one of the most comfortable and restful sleeps she's ever had.