It all happened so fast… It was a normal day, people going about their business, shopping, and going to work. Suddenly, a loud noise like the whirring of a machine sounded throughout the entire city. After a few seconds, the noise was replaced by the sound of lightning, which was so strong and loud it would scare Zeus himself. I cowered in fear at the noise and shut my eyes. I could hear faint whispers but didn’t want to open my eyes, scared of what I would see when I opened them. When I noticed the faint smell in the air, I finally opened my eyes and looked at my surroundings.

     I wish I had kept my eyes shut…

     At first, I didn’t realize what exactly was going on, for some reason, it was very dark even though it was noon a moment ago. Looking around, the sidewalk was still beneath my feet, and the buildings were still there, but then I continued to gaze upwards, and the sky was completely gone. In its place was a massive, vaguely tube-shaped structure that seemed like it was big enough to fit a country, possibly even a whole continent inside! I looked even further up at the ceiling, which appeared to be miles in the sky. In one direction far off in the distance, it seemed to curve down and meet the ground. In the other direction, it seemed to curve up even higher and there was light coming in from a hole in the structure that was out of view. Along the walls there were a couple of holes on each side, surrounded by metal rings, letting the only light in that reached the city (though it was very little). I didn’t know what to make of it when the smell came to my attention again. It was a weird smell, it was a peach-scented smell, but there was also a very faint hint of… sweat?

     Why did this strange, alien place smell so odd, and why was it so stuffy here as well? I had already been at the edge of the city so I decided to run over and see what things looked like on the floor everywhere else. After a couple of minutes, I exited the city and the entire floor was this darkish off-whitish yellow? The lack of light made it hard to tell. It was very flat, although it seemed that far off in the distance there were areas that lowered down.  I walked out onto it and seemed solid, but also spongy at the same time, also slightly damp. It felt kind of gross to touch but at least it was solid. As I was feeling the ground, a very light rumble permeated the entire structure, then another one, and another, increasing in volume and intensity each time. There was an odd but consistent rhythm to it, what it was I had no idea, but one thing was for certain, it was very big and it was getting closer fast. It was at this moment that I could feel my heart rate increase, my body went into fight or flight mode and my anxiety shot through the roof. Boom, boom, boom, the sounds kept getting closer and louder, but then, they stopped. What followed was a few seconds of silence that felt like it lasted 100 years. an absolute silence could be felt as everyone tensed and waited for what would happen next. Without warning, the entire structure was lifted into the air. No one's knees could take the force and everyone was knocked down. While still suspended in the air, the structure we were in was whisked in a direction and the rumbling returned, except it was farther away again. Had whatever was making the noise captured whatever we were inside of? Or was something else taking us away from it? Before I could seriously ponder the question we seemed to drop out of the sky. I felt myself floating for a few seconds before we crashed down onto some kind of surface outside. Landing face-first on the weird floor was a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it had broken my fall pretty well so it didn’t hurt that much despite falling so far and fast. On the other hand, now my entire body planted face-first into some weird, slightly damp, alien floor. After quickly getting up and regaining my bearings there was a light rumbling. Distinct from the sound before in the direction of the light on the other side of the structure. I looked over and all the color drained from my face as I realized where we were.

     A shoe, we were in the shoe the size of the Earth. And to make things worse, this shoe’s owner, who had to be the size of Saturn, at least was about to put it on with us inside. I watched as the toes slowly slid in. They were painted with regal blue nail polish. A golden ring wrapped around the 2nd toe shined in the light coming from the smaller air holes. The foot certainly belonged to a woman, that much I could tell, but was this truly just some woman? Our city, with its over two million inhabitants, was nothing but dust before her godly toes. Each toe was the size of a moon. As her toes slowly inched forward I realized that she must be a Goddess. How else could she be so massive and powerful? Were we being punished? Did she even know we were here? I had no idea, but I dropped to my knees and started worshiping her. Begging her for forgiveness and to spare us from her divine wrath. I could hear everyone else in the city screaming and panicking as the toes inched ever closer. They were already on the outskirts of the city. At this point, I had accepted my fate as a sacrifice for a Goddess so superior in every way to me. I watched the toes rise above the city, we seemed to be directly in line with her 2nd toe, the one with the ring. It descended and I watched as it completely obliterated the city with a loud THUD. I prepared for the worst, but the toe had missed me by what was probably a millimeter to her. The toe then raised back up and passed over me and came to rest far off on the other side of where the city had been. I had been spared, I thanked this Goddess for her mercy and benevolence. My worship of my new deity was interrupted when she started to walk, shaking my entire world. I tried to grab onto the floor but it was no use. Her foot tilted down and I started to roll down deeper into the toe section. I got caught in a rut and the floor started to level out. I looked up and saw her toe coming down like a meteor. This must be where her toe usually rests and that's why the ground is depressed. As her divine toe descended I could see the rubble of the city in the crevices of her toeprint. Two million people, crushed in an instant, and now I would join them…

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     Maria was relaxing in her room when she decided she wanted to go out and get some food. She got up and looked around for her Converse but she couldn’t find them. She left her room and walked down the hallway into the living room. Her feet made faint sounds on the cold wood floor as she walked. She found them sitting next to her front door picked them up and walked over to her couch. She sat down and put the shoes on the floor as she admired the pedicure she had recently given herself. She had outdone herself with that blue polish, and that toe ring she had got recently looked super cute too. She started to put her shoes on, deciding she didn't need socks as she wouldn’t be out for long. She tied her laces, stood up, and walked out the door, never knowing she had ended two million lives under her toes that day.