It must have been hours, but that was impossible to tell. Your muscles ached in the darkness. Your head was swirling, you could barely breathe from all the pressure on your back, and what little air you could get was a hot, heavy musk. 

You've been phasing in and out of consciousness, eventually being woken by strong, loud thudding all around you. The pressure of your back increased for a moment, pushing you deeper into the soft, moist surface beneath you. The next moment the pressure was lifted slightly, allowing you to take in a gasp of course humid air, before crushing it out of you a second later.

This cycle continued for what felt like a lifetime, sometimes changing pace, never letting you get used to the rhythm to draw in more air. Your clothing and face became drenched in the slightly salty liquid that seemed to be squeezed out with every impact. 

Then, slowly, it all came back to you. You were inside your supervisor’s shoe. 

Each step Willow took was pressing you deeper and deeper into their insole. The liquid now coating your body, Willow’s foot sweat. The hot musk you tried so hard to breathe through was the product of a hard day's work, as well as socks worn two days in a row. 

Willow walked casually down the hallway of their apartment building, taking out their keys as they approached their door. 

Entering and closing the door behind them, Willow breathed a nice sigh of relief. It always felt so nice getting home after a long day at work. Looking down at their shoe they were also reminded of another little benefit of coming home. 

Willow walked very leisurely over to their couch, taking slow deliberate steps, and pausing for an extra second while standing on their left shoe. The anticipation of a new toy never got old. 

Plopping down onto the soft cushions of their couch, Willow reached down and slipped off their shoes. They held the left one up, their eyes scanning their insole until they saw a tiny thing that looked like a piece of flattened lint. 

“Hey loser,” Willow chuckled, reaching in with their free hand, “ready for some overtime?”

Willow pinched you up between their massive fingers. Compared to the work tweezers made specifically for picking up tiny employees, Willow's fingers were warm and crushing. You felt your ribs almost crack from the slightest pressure they exerted picking you up and setting you down. You gasp for air on the coffee table, cold, fresh air filling your lungs for the first time in hours.

You only had a moment's rest before you felt two large thuds alarmingly close to you. Looking to your right, you were faced with a massive pink wall. It stretched upwards for hundreds of feet, long fleshy wrinkles covering much of the surface, before ending in large dominating toes. You breathe in, a familiar musk filling your senses as you gaze upon Willow’s gigantic feet.

“Get to it,” Willow said, throwing their worn socks aside and resting their head in their hand, “I like a nice foot rub after work~.”

Guided by fear, you walk up to Willow’s heel. You see a distinct patch of dried red something, roughly your size, decorating Willow’s sole.

Oh god… is this…?

Forcing that thought aside, you reach forward, now feeling the soft and doughy flesh of Willow’s heel. They felt hot as you grabbed the handfuls of skin, pushing in large circles as hard as you could. You had no idea whether or not this giant could even feel you. But you knew something bad would happen if you didn’t listen to what they said…

Willow reclined further into the couch cushion. It was true, they could barely feel you at their heel, outside of some imagined sensation they thought they could feel. If they could, they would have also felt the other tiny employee (on their eighth day of probation) currently hanging on the ball of their foot. They had been placed in Willow’s sock two days ago and quickly forgotten, having to survive off lint and sweat. 

Reaching into their shirt pocket, Willow did remember Jessica. Pinching them out of their shirt, Willow leaned forward and dropped the tiny woman next to their other heel, still not noticing the tiny hanging employee.

“You too, bitch,” Willow smirked.

Jessica was another worker from the warehouse, one that you only faintly remember. Word around the warehouse was that she had applied for Willow’s position, and her not showing up to work anymore meant she didn’t get it and went to find another job. But that was three months ago…

After getting up, you saw Jessica get up and obediently begin rubbing, even licking Willow’s other heel. She made it seem like the most natural thing in the world.

Willow leaned back for the last time, closing their eyes very satisfied that their two little pets were hard at work, and enjoying an extremely detailed massage.

Meanwhile, on the table just behind a candy wrapper, another tiny ex-warehouse employee was watching the scene unfold. He had also been given ‘one week probation’, of which they were on week 59. Eventually Willow had just forgotten about him amongst the others, letting him escape and live under the couch, scrounging for crumbs while Willow was away. Only today they seemed to be home early…

All of you shared one trait in common, you now lived under the shadow of Willow’s soles.