Lucy was laid asleep in the hamster home when she heard the quiet thud of Ceri’s door closing and the light sound of her voice from across the room. She stirred from the strips of fabric in her little house and decided to go to greet her mistress. When it came down to it the thought of going to greet her owner like a trained puppy still annoyed her, disappointed with herself for letting go of so much of her humanity.

Yet at the same time she had come to enjoy, and even want, to see the warm smile Ceri would give when she was ‘good’ for her. As she worked to straighten her hair out she heard the radio click off and sighed a long sigh of relief as the grating voice of the talk show host finally left her head. She was about to climb out of the round hole that was the doorway to her home when she heard a second, heavier set of footfalls come across the room. She paused instinctively, waiting for some clue as to who it was.

“Why’d you leave the radio on?” asked a female voice Lucy didn’t recognise.

“Oh, it’s for Lucy.” answered Ceri moving to her bed and sitting down to remove her converse.

“Who’s Lucy?” came the voice again as once more the heavier footsteps came across the room towards the bed.

“You know who Lucy is! I’ve told you about her loads of times!” said Ceri, disbelief in her voice.

The heavy footsteps came towards Lucy and she felt her heart begin to beat faster. She had been shown to a number of Ceri’s friends but it was still a frightening experience to be fussed over and stared at by a stranger, an enormous stranger at that. Suddenly there came an almost deafening rattling noise and everything shook with bone-jarring vibrations. Lucy fell about inside the white plastic box, bouncing off of the walls a couple of times as the shocks began to make her feel dizzy.

"Hey! Don’t do that!” Ceri exclaimed as she came over and held the base of the cage to stop it swaying on its hook “you might scare her.”

Emma looked sceptically to Ceri but she didn’t seem to notice, she was more concerned with making sure her small girl was alright. Lucy heard Ceri come over to the cage and tell the new girl off for being rough, everything returning to normal as the swaying was suddenly halted and the banging ceased to echo around her. She shuffled forwards on her hands and knees, poking her head out of her door to look around.

Stood next to her mistress was a girl with dark red slightly curly hair that hung just over her shoulders, she had black make-up around her eyes that made them look bright and cat-like and dark red lipstick that matched her hair. She was in a black tank-top, a dark red denim skirt and heavy looking boots that came up to her calfs. She stood watching Lucy with a firm gaze, an almost calculating look in her eyes as they watched her like a predator.

"Aww there she is, there’s my little Lucy.” Said Ceri sweetly, suddenly breaking the ominous spell of the other girl’s eyes. She was talking more to Lucy than to Emma as she pushed her fingertip slightly through the cage bars, wiggling it up and down as though trying to entice the girl further out of her hideaway. Emma just stared at the girl as she warily crawled out into the open, her lip curling slightly into a sneer as she watched the display of affection between Ceri and her pet.

“What is it, some kind of rat?” she asked mockingly.

Lucy’s mouth hung open with disbelief at how rude this girl was being, she sat in a kneeling position her legs tucked under her as she crossed her arms over her chest in a pout, looking away at the floor to avoid the look of distain the girl was giving her.

“Oh don’t be mean, you’ll hurt her feelings!” Ceri said giving Emma a playful slap on the shoulder, Emma just smiled mischievously and gave a small giggle

“I know, I know, I’m sorry” She said still smiling sweetly “Hey, shall we have that drink now?”

“Yeah ok, the wine’s in the fridge, I’ll just go grab it!” Ceri replied excitedly as she hurried past Emma and went to fetch the wine. Emma went to follow her but paused for a second taking one last look at the cage. Lucy noticed her looking and wondered for a moment what the girl was thinking, she didn’t like the look in her eyes but she knew she was safe with Ceri about. She shuffled about turning her back to Emma, then turned her head and poked her tongue out in a silent raspberry a the giant girl.

Emma watched the little thing shuffling about and gave a derisive huff of laughter

“Hurt her feelings, Ha! Stupid thing doesn’t even know what’s going on.” She said with a sneer and gave the cage one last heavy poke with a finger, grinning as she heard the startled squeak of the girl falling flat before walking off to find Ceri.

A few weeks went by and the atmosphere between Emma and Lucy never really thawed, Emma resented the attention Lucy got when in her opinion the small girl was nothing more than a budgie or a rodent. As far as she was concerned the pet should be kept in its cage when she was around because she came to see Ceri, not her stupid toy. In the same way Lucy resented Emma's obvious dislike for Ceri's affection towards her, and the girl's obvious attempts at belittling the value Ceri placed on having her around.

Ceri couldn't help notice the tense feelings between the two girls. She wanted both to be happy because she loved both of them equally and in their own ways, but sometimes it was difficult to try and build the bridges before one or the other did something to burn them before she could try! Sometimes Lucy wouldn't come out of her little home, other times Emma would make excuses about holding her or find a way to avoid being around while Ceri petted the small girl.

One evening Ceri had let Lucy run free on the coffee table, the two bigger girls curled up on the couch together, Emma had her feet on one corner of the table and Ceri lay across the length of the couch cuddled up against Emma while she browsed through a TV magazine.

“There's nothing on, just a couple of films but I hate watching films on TV, too many adverts...” Emma said with a dejected sigh.

“How about I go choose us a DVD or something?” Said Ceri helpfully as she moved to sit up.

“Yeah ok, nothing too heavy though, I just want to chill out to something I can stare at.” replied Emma as she closed the magazine and dropped it to the floor by the couch.

“I've already got something I like to stare at while I chill out” Came Ceri's voice in a slightly husky tone as she looked at Emma with a teasingly bite of her lower lip.

Emma knew what Ceri meant but she couldn't help but tease, it was in her nature to make light of most things as she leaned back again from dropping the magazine down and looked innocently at Ceri

“let me guess, your miniature poodle over there.” she exclaimed sarcastically with a nod in the direction of Lucy who jealously looked on at the two huge girls over her shoulder, trying not to make it obvious she too was watching what was going on.

“No silly! I meant you!” Ceri said with a pouty expression then grinned as she playfully smacked Emma on the shoulder before leaning in and kissing her lightly on the cheek. Getting back to her feet she happily trotted off out of the room to go and pick out a DVD, calling back as she went

“Don't let Lucy do anything naughty!” Then she was out of sight.

Lucy gave a pout of her own, grumbling to herself as she sat with her knees up to her chest, arms folded around them and her chin sunk firmly into the top of them

“Don't let lucy do anything naughty she says... Ha! What can I even do up here? Its not like i'm going to.... *Oooff*!”

Lucy's train of thought was abruptly cut off by something large, soft and warm prodding her firmly in the back, sending her sprawling onto her front. She scrambled to get to her feet but as she got up onto her hands and knees the same large soft object pushed her back onto her face, hurting her slightly as she banged her cheek off of the hard surface of the table. Lucy let out a little squeak as she fell for the third time and heard the distinctive giggle of Emma from behind her.

She was finally left for long enough to scurry across the table as she turned to see what was going on. She could see she hadn't been left alone, she was just out of reach and it had been Emma's socked foot that had been pushing her about on the table. Lucy was outraged and began to shout at Emma, but as she had just got herself worked up into a rant she was silenced by the huge girl sliding herself along on the couch to get to her prey once more.

Emma smiled to herself a devious grin, she was like a cat after a mouse, and this mouse had no-where to go. She placed her feet either side of the little cowering girl, tilting them so her soles faced Lucy like two long walls of warm, damp fabric. She began to move them closer to her little victim but rather than close them entirely around the girl she swiftly flicked her right foot, feeling it bat Lucy across the table into the sole of her other foot. Her grin became vicious as she giggled with glee hearing the small girl cry out in fear as she tried to find her feet again whilst holding onto her socked sole. She flicked her left foot, thumping it into Lucy's whole body and batting her back to the other side before slapping her away with her right foot again.

Lucy's body had become like a pinball to Emma, being beaten and thrown one way then the other, constantly barraged by the two huge feet either side of her, the soft hot feet slamming painfully into her whole body, sending jarring impacts through her and winding her each time. Catching her breath came only on instinct as she gagged on the odour that was beginning to fill her little space, only only thing worse than being beaten with the sweaty feet was the constant ringing of Emma stifled laughter as she tried not to alert Ceri to her little entertainment.

“Found one!” came Ceri's voice suddenly from down the hallway, which made Emma jump, having almost lost herself in the fun she was having.

“CERI! HEL...” Lucy had tried desperately to call for help as the beatings had stopped while Emma sat in surprise, but just as she had started to scream out her world was sunk into nightmare of heat, pressure and pain.

Emma heard the irritating little rat begin to scream out, realising she must have recognised Ceri's voice she acted on impulse needing to shut it up. She lifted one leg, flattening the little creature under her sole and pinning her to the table so she couldn't scream out any more. She could feel it wriggling around slightly tickling at her sole, she tried to think of what to do with her, Ceri would know something was wrong if she just left her alone, the little creep was nothing if not a tell-tale and though Ceri couldn't understand it she would eventually work out why it was so agitated.

Lucy was pinned flat to the hard surface of the table, the socked foot moulding over her body half flattening her soft frame. She whimpered and cried, completely trapped and helpless as she suffered the heat that was washing over her and the scent of Emma's feet. A droplet of water trickled down Lucy’s forehead, she could tell it wasn't from her however as she hadn't been under the foot long enough to begin to sweat herself. She struggled harder, trying desperately to do something, anything!

Suddenly the pressure above her increased and she let out a cry of pain and then choked as the acrid salty taste of Emma's sweat filled her mouth, the sock fabric pushing into her mouth under the pressure to sit on her tongue forcing her mouth to remain open. Lucy thought Emma had decided to kill her, but then suddenly the pressure pushed up her body and the table began to slide underneath her, or more so, she began to slide over the table! She screamed as best she could as the friction burned at her exposed skin until suddenly she was free-falling through the cold, clean air.

Emma knew what she had to do, shift the blame to the small girl. After-all it couldn't be that hard to believe she was as stupid as she looked, was it? She moved her foot across the surface of the table, hearing the muffled cries of the girl beneath her as there was a slight squeak of the girl's skin sliding across the polished surface of the table. She swept the girl off the edge of the table and waited a second to hear the satisfying slap of the little body hitting the carpet below.

Emma shuffled back across the couch and put her feet up along the length of the cushions, grabbing the magazine again and hurriedly opening it to a random page. She tried to settle to make it look as though she hadn't moved much since Ceri had left but she still nearly jumped when Ceri came back and let out a startled cry at seeing Lucy on the floor at the near end of the coffee table.

“Lucy, what on earth are you doing down there?” Said Ceri, genuine worry in her voice as she saw her little pet sprawled across the carpet, obviously in some discomfort.

Emma put on an interested expression as she let the magazine drop to the floor once more and leant forwards to see what was happening

“Maybe she tried to get off the table and come to you when she heard your voice?” Emma suggested trying to sound helpful, just barely able to keep the delighted smirk off of her face.

“You silly girl Lucy, you know you shouldn't try to get down from heights without me! I'd better put you in your cage for the night.” Ceri looked concerned as she spoke to Lucy, holding her gently in both hands as the small girl made groggy movements trying to get her bearings from the painful fall to the floor.

Ceri took her back to her cage and opened the door, lifting her up with her cupped in the centre of her palm. She lifted Lucy to her face and gave her a small kiss on the top of her head before reaching into the cage, tilting her palm to let the small girl slide off onto the base near her home. Lucy's bones ached, she was pretty sure nothing was broken but for the pain in her movements she may as well have broken every bone in her body. She was shaking with shock, her mind racing with the fear she had been put through.

Lucy had never been treated in such a malicious manner, sometimes she had been hurt accidentally, or Ceri had smacked her to punish her, but she had never been so terrified or so badly beaten. It made her realise just how much she had settled in to living the life of a girl's pet, she had forgotten the potential for harm that these giants possessed. Lucy crawled into her home filled with fabric strips, bedding herself down and trying to block out the world, she shivered, cried, and began to dream of getting her own back.