…Fresh air finally comes rushing into the boot, and there is a strong suction as Anna’s massive, sweaty foot slides up and out.  

I hear myself sobbing.  It has been hours.  My body shivers as cooler air flows in.  I’m naked and soaked in sweat, lying on Anna’s filthy, leather insole, into which I’m embedded.  There’s the searing pain again.  My right arm is clearly broken.  I can’t even move, and it hurts to even breathe.  A few of my ribs are broken too.

But she hasn't killed me.  Yet.  But I’ve been crushed underneath her oppressive, god-like, muscular feet.  How could this have once been my best friend? No.  Maybe she never was. Maybe it was always a lie. Anna’s leather boots are tough and unforgiving.  Anna’s foot is more calloused than Mom’s, and it sweats SO MUCH.  Anna’s footfalls brutal and careless.

Tears stream down my cheeks as I survey my surroundings. I’m so small and insignificant… the leathery sides of my prison are beyond unreachable. The smell of hot damp leather and the remnants of Anna’s sweat seep deep into my nostrils.  The heat… the crushing weight of Anna’s foot… it’s still reverberating in my foggy mind.  The light creeping into the boot seems hazy.

“Thanks!” I hear from above.  I wince in pain as I tell my muscles to help me sit up, but that’s not ABOUT to happen.  My arm and ribs quickly scream for me to stop trying.  But even from here, I can partially see out the monumentally tall mouth of the boot, enough to make things out.  The giant world high above looks hazy, but I make out a massive steering wheel above me, with Anna Robins painted in white neatly along the rim.  I also see the edges of her blue jean covered knees sitting cross-legged in the driver’s seat. I think I hear the rubber-soled footsteps of someone walking away in the distance.

Then Anna’s god-like head leans over me with a leisurely, smug grin plastered across her face. She grins, as she takes an extra-large bite of the cheeseburger the car-hop just delivered.  Then a giant Styrofoam drink passes into my field of vision she pulls it to her face for a drink. Anna’s foot was so salty, and with all the gunk I swallowed I find that my mouth is bone dry.  But I’m unable to do a thing as I watch her enjoy her giant meal.

I focus on Anna’s huge, grinning face.  I focus on her on her expression… the movement of her cheeks as she chews and sucks liquid up through the straw… God... if she decides I'm nothing to her, with the ridiculous amount power she has over me… what would I... become...?

I find myself imagining her massive, muscular, sweaty foot dancing along the rim of the boot, with her giant grinning face mocking me from above.  

I know it’s strange to get a thrill out of this thought, but what if I decide... I actually...want this…? God… I could just give in to this feeling. I'm already a crushed, smashed, insignificant bug under Anna's godly feet.  What point is there in fighting?  I feel myself sinking to a new low as I allow myself to focus on something I had always averted my mind from in the past:  Anna’s beauty.  Anna’s gigantic eyes are almost hazy they’re so high above me.  She's so cruel. But she’s undeniably beautiful. I watch her giant mouth as she puts it to the straw to take another drink.

What would it be like if she actually swallowed me?  To pass past her lips, to slide down her throat into an endless darkness... Such beautiful lips. Her massive cheeks, they look so warm. What would it be like… to kiss her…?   

No.  No.  No. No more.  Stop this Alisa. 

“An..na... let me... out…” I hear myself say, weakly.  My mouth is bone dry.  “Let me out…” I cough, finding I have to close my eyes and turn my head to the side from the pain.  It hurts to try to scream.  But I CAN’T give in to these thoughts. I simply can’t… let myself… become… this.  “Let… me… out!!” I finally scream, projecting a rather hoarse, tiny version of my voice.

High, high above me, I hear a light chuckle.  “Was that you?” she laughs, her mouth full of burger.

“Anna!” I yell again, closing my eyes in the pain.  It really hurts so bad to scream. I open my eyes to see if she heard me, but from the inquisitive look on her giant, pretty face I can tell she can’t really make out what I’m saying.  I see her lean closer to the boot just to look down at me.  

God, so beautiful. Come closer…

“Say again?” she says with an amused look on her face, as she cups her hand behind her ear. It seems hopeless.  It's a miracle she heard me at all.  The distance my voice would have to travel… just to reach escape the opening of her boot it must be reaching the height of 20-story building, then much farther to reach Anna's giant ears.  But maybe there was a mega-phone effect from the tunnel of Anna’s boot...  Or something.  She clearly heard me.

I’m a tiny shrinker, and my body is broken, smashed, and embedded into her insole. I’m lucky to be alive… The way she's been acting... She's getting off on the power... She's so in the thick of it, I'm not sure she’d even shed a tear if I were crushed to death under her massive pounding footfalls. Do I really expect her to listen to me? 

“Anna, I'm your best friend!!” I scream at the top of my lungs, as tears start streaming down the sides of my cheeks.  Suddenly her face leans out of sight. 

Her sweaty foot eclipses the opening of the boot. 

“Nooo! Nooo!” I scream, tears streaming. But her gigantic glistening sole and massive sweaty digits hurriedly pass over me, and all light fades to nothing. In the darkness, a now invisible ceiling of muscular flesh presses down.   I hear the zipper on the side of the boot zip up.  Heavy pressure flattens me now.  I’m splayed out underneath the flesh of her sweaty foot, under the doughy flesh of her instep.

“God, no, please Anna…” I sob.   I’m lost to the hot, thick flesh and leather that surrounds me.  I’m already baking.  “Anna, please…”  I’m suffocating. Crushed. Baking alive again. 

“Ex best friend,” I hear her say. The pressure abruptly vanishes... and suddenly I am crushed, quite painfully as she stomps me against the floorboard.  God, it hurts, in every way imaginable. "Now WORSHIP," she commands.

She’s colossal.  Powerful.  Heavy. Yes... Anna. 

 …why even… fight it…? I stick out my tiny tongue and worship her godly, sweaty sole, lost underneath her in he darkness. 

…

…

“Aha!” Anna booms, as her face grins down at me from high above.  She’s standing now, balancing her weight on one foot as she holds her other foot, the one with me stuck to the bottom of it, up into her view by the ankle.   “Do you hate me?” she says with a massive grin on her face.  “No you don’t,” she laughs.  “Not even after being stuck to the bottom of my foot for a whole fucking week,” she adds.

With that, she plucks me free from her sweaty sole with her fingers.  We’re in her room, and she’s got the door shut to keep her mom out.  It seems like another life ago that we were playing video games in the floor, and I was normal-sized. A week ago.

I’m suddenly face to giant face with Anna.  I scream in pain as her thumb and forefinger pinch me and pull me close to her mouth.  “You probably still want to be friends, don’t you?” she says, her enormous mug filling my vision.  “You still want that despite everything,” she grins.  “Say it.”

“…I …want to be your friend,” I meekly whimper.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” she booms, her massive mouth opening and filling my vision.  It nearly busts my tiny eardrums, and I’m left in shock from the sheer volume of her voice.

“..I want to be your friend!” I cry, closing my eyes, tears streaming.  I’m completely sincere. Sobbing. She can play me like a piano. She always could.

“Thought so,” she replies, playing with the violet jewel around her neck with her free hand.  “Well, I guess we could try that again,” she smiles, her huge grinning lips filling my vision.  She continues grinning, lowering me away from her mouth a bit.  “But one wrong move, and you’re demoted,” she chuckles, her enormous face taking a pert grin. “…back to toe-jam!” she finishes, as she looks away from me.  I see her give the jewel a quick twist.

…

…

The next thing I’m aware of, I’m lying underneath cover.  All the sweat and grime covering my body doesn’t unshrink along with me… conveniently, changing sizes is more effective than getting a bath.  I can feel that I’m wearing pajamas.  But my arm and ribs are still screaming in pain, no different than they have been for the entire week underneath Anna’s giant foot.  I try to maintain my focus.  If I focus hard enough, I can seems to partly ease the pain away.  

It’s dark.  It must be night. I hear someone breathing next to me. 

…God. Anna.  Anna is breathing next to me.  I must be in her bed, at normal-size.  How long have I been asleep next to her? I start to cry, but I try to be quiet. Trying not to wake Anna up.  I’m shaking, so terrified of her.  But I’m too exhausted and broken to move.  I close my eyes, and just try to focus. Try to make the pain ease away in my mind.

I don’t remember falling back asleep.

…

…

…

“Well, how was your week?” Mom says, not looking at me, just keeping her eyes fixed on the road.  Her violet jewel is now dangling from its rightful place around her neck.  She picked me up from Anna’s house only just a few minutes ago.  I’m still in a daze.  I’m not sure whether I’m coming or going, but do I know I feel sick.  And the pain is getting to me. 

…

...Anna.

...Anna’s face, Anna’s voice, Anna’s crushing footfalls...  

...I can’t pull my mind away from her.

…

A sharp pain shoots though my arm, and then my ribs.  I suddenly feel like I’m going to pass out. “I think I need to go… to the hospital…” I reply.  I’m in a haze. My mind is still lost under Anna’s giant feet down in her domineering black boots. My right arm won’t even respond, and my ribs are on fire.

“You know they won’t admit you,” she replies. I just sit silently for a moment.  I can hardly remember the events of the last few hours.  Mom came and picked me up… I had a lot of trouble getting to the car…  I remember falling twice. Anna smirking at me from the front door was the last thing I saw as we drove away.

“But... please…” I beg.  I’m almost lurching in pain at this point. I need to see a doctor.

“What exactly do you want me to do about it?” she replies, irritably.  Then she turns and glances at me. “You're a shrinker, Alisa. And you’re still grounded. I had planned to put you right back in my shoe the when get home,” she adds. I look away… and I start involuntarily shaking as I suddenly feel her run her fingers along the smooth skin of my cheek. She absentmindedly wraps a strand of my hair around her fingers.  

“But… Mom… I… just can’t…” I plead.  “Can't I just have a day… to rest… please, just a day…?” I whimper timidly. She doesn’t respond, but I can feel the tension growing. She’s gone a week without feeling my tiny body under her massive soles, and I remember that look on her face as she gazed down at me last time, flattened to her foot flesh… all powerful… secret, sadistic delight… I’m sure she’s itching to get me back down there. And I’m making that difficult.

“Alisa, honey, I’ve gone so easy on you in the past…” she finally replies, delicately, still rubbing her fingers along my cheek. “I don’t know how else to say this… you’re going back whether you like it or not,” she declares, pulling her hand back to the steering wheel and focusing her eyes on the road. I’m shaking, quivering.

…

I don’t… know what to do.

…

…I remember Ms. Pattie, and her flowing red hair, from last week. 

…You seemed to care about me. I even remember wishing you were my mother.

…I need to see you again, I want to come back and see you again.

…

Somehow… as carried away as Mom is getting with this… I’m not sure I’ll ever get the chance…