You awoke in a bed in a dark room.  You sat up and looked around at your surroundings.  You seem to be your original size.  It’s been years since you slept in a bed and you forgot the sensation of it.  To your right there is a lamp that you switch on to get a better look in the dark.  You switch on and hear a groan next to you.

You turn around; your heart stops.  NO it can’t be.  There next to you was the one person you didn’t want to see… Sarah.

You knew this was a dream the moment you saw her. 

“Mike what are you doing?”  She asked in a tired voice.

You sat there stunted unable to move.  She looked roughly the same the last time you saw her; a couple of her features are different as she grew due to the five years last time you saw her.  You just sat there staring at her beauty. 

“Mike is everything ok?”  Sarah sat up and moved in closer to you.  You wanted to push her away so you won’t be weak when the inevitable happens; you will wake up and wish she was alive.  You get ready but she hugs you and your resolve melts away.  You pull her closer to your chest and just take in the moments before you awake.

“Yeah everything is fine.”

“Did you have a bad dream again, the one about the giantess?”

“Yeah…”  You kiss her on the head as she starts to fall asleep in your arms. 

“I love you,” she whispers under her breath before she falls asleep.

 “I love you too,” you say holding back tears.

You wake up with a jolt.  Damn it.  You couldn’t see around you because of the dark but the events leading up now flashed in your mind.  You didn’t want to move around too much so Gloria would leave you alone for the rest of the day, but she had other plans.  Almost as if she knew you were awake her foot moves forcing you down her shoe.  The foot kept moving until you were under the arch like you were before school.  This time your face was inches away from the skin with your back to the sock.   To your wonder that is all that happened.  Then a thought crossed your mind, how long was I out?

It was eighth period and Gloria hasn’t been able to play with her toy all day.  She was mad that the little guy would be so careless as to pass out on her like that.  She will have to teach him better.  Almost on that thought she felt a slight increase in breath in between her toes.  Oh so the bugger is finally up.  She forced him back to the arch of her foot to keep him safe while school almost ended.

If you thought the front of Gloria’s socks were hot, you were mistaken.  Under her foot was an oven; and you have been in an oven so it wasn’t an understatement.  She tried to bake you into some brownies.  You shudder at the thought when a liquid hit you in the face.  You spit it out of your mouth and wipe it away.  It tasted salty and your eyes burned as if you got sweat in them.  No rephrase that, you did get sweat in them.  Gloria’s feet are starting to sweat and you were right under the center of her foot where all the sweat will converge.  You tried to move somewhere else but there was nowhere to go, you were trapped under her foot.  You lay there awaiting the inevitable down pour of sweat that would come.  You just pray it was near the end of the day so it won’t be too much. 

The bell rang marking the end of the day for everyone.  It was Friday and Monday was a holiday; three day weekend to have fun.  She was planning her days as she got ready for the rest of the day.  She needed to be ready for the cross country meet after school.

You have been in Gloria shoe for about fifteen minutes after you heard the bell wondering why you don’t hear an engine to a vehicle.  Then a thought crossed your mind, does she have practice?  No she would have taken you out, right?  You hope so because you never been in her shoe when she ran.  You have been on the outside as she kicked you repeatedly which was bad enough, but to be on the inside… it won’t be fun.  It wasn’t the fear of being stepped on that scared you, it was the fact that she may have forgotten you are in there and crush you by accident.  These thoughts were crossing your mind when your air supply was sharply cut off by the foot being pressed down with great effort.

Gloria jumped up and down to loosen up her feet for the run.  She bent over and tightened her shoes so they won’t rub her feet and give them blisters, in doing so she cut your air supply out too.  No fresh air was coming in from the top of the shoe anymore.  Gloria did a couple of quick jugging exercises to loosen up some more.

You didn’t know if it was just you but the shoe was getting hotter by the second.  Then Gloria’s foot pressed down quickly into your face covering you face and body in liquid sweat that was covering her bottom of her foot.  Now you were covered in sweat, and if you thought the air smelled bad you were wrong.  Gloria’s sweat has to be the worse smelling sweat ever; now you were covered in it.  Your head was feeling dizzy from all the horrid smells from the shoes’ smell of old sweat and the new sweat covering your body swirling around and assaulting your nostrils.  You gagged and coughed while tears stream down your face.  Then the foot pressed down again in a rapid succession bashing your face.  Each bash reminded you of each victim killed but the one that got stuck in your mind was Britney.  Everything about it: the scream, the sound of her breaking, the puddle of blood.  The pain Britney experienced was going to happen to you if Gloria ran the race with you in her shoe.

Gloria walked up to the start line ready for the race.  Everything was out of her mind except the finish line that was at the end of the run.  The gun went off and she ran with all her might.

You heard the gun shot and braced yourself as Gloria took off run.  You did your best to brace yourself for the onslaught the foot was bringing.  Each step was agonizing as the foot would push air out of your lungs and fill you face with hot sweat.  You didn’t have much time to spit the sweat out so you did what you had to… swallow.  The hot liquid tasted of salt water and burned like it too.  You got a breath of air before it was forced out and the cycle refreshed again.

Gloria slowed down to a constant pace so she won’t tire out soon.

The rhythm was slowing down a bit making it easier for you to get in pace with the compressions.  It also allowed you to spit the sweat out instead of swallowing it.  Your body was already aching from the pain you received from this morning, during school, and now after her sprint.  You know you have bruises all over your body and probably look like a beat up rag doll.  Your noise is running, but you don’t know if it is blood from the beating your face received, or snot from the stench your noise most endure.  Either way your noise is running and you can’t wipe it with your hands.  After a while you get used to the smell, or enough that you aren’t gagging.  You don’t know how many miles you endured but you hope Gloria is about to cross the finish line.

Gloria was a few feet away from the lead runner from the other school.  Right now she was second place and the finish line was just ahead a couple of miles.  This is it she thought as she kicked it into overdrive and ran with all her might.  She pushed down with her feet with as much force as she could muster and bolted for the finish line.

You were about to take a breath when Gloria picked up the pace and smashed your face and body with her sweaty foot.  You cried as you felt your noise almost break.  Your body let out an agonizing creaking noise that meant your bones are about to turn to dust.  You tried to roll over to the side of the shoe to get out of this death trap.  You never tired in fear of Gloria seeking revenge for avoiding her play time with you.  The foot smashed your back as you let out another howl.  Your face was now being smashed into the shoe’s insole which absorbed sweat all day.  The liquid oozed out of the insole and seeped up your nostrils.  You were drowning in old and new sweat while being smothered by a foot that belongs to a kid.  You didn’t know which was more insulting.  Right before you drowned to death the shoe came off and you were looking up at the blue sky you haven’t seen in years.  Then Gloria’s had appeared above you smiling with a big grin. 

Gloria won the race by a foot, literally.  It was her right foot.  She was so happy that she jumped for joy then she remembered that you were still in her shoe.  She didn’t mean to keep you in for the race just before, to torture you, but she forgot to take you out.  She then pulled her shoe off and looked in to find you were alive.  She grinned at you and whispered, “You’re my lucky charm, next time when we have a race your coming with me.”  She then put her shoe back on and started to talk to friends she knew who congratulated her on her win.  She then found a ride back home and pulled you out and put you in your container.

When you finial got home and put away you started to investigate the damage done.  You couldn’t move your arms much or your legs.  Your noise was in fact bleeding and you had bruises all over your chest, and most likely your back.  Before you knew it you collapsed and fell asleep.

Gloria quickly checked her little toy and saw that he was fine.  She wanted to celebrate but needed more toys to do so; after all she did just win a race.  She left the house for a cool down run with her little bag with her.  Her parents are out for the week on a business trip and she had the house to herself again.  “Time to get some game pieces,” she said as she ran down the street looking for her next victims.