“What exactly are we going to do with that?”  Malva was clearly very proud of herself, grinning deviously as she tossed the ball into the air and caught it.  “I mean, Shauna’s already… captured, right?  Isn’t that how this works?  We can’t catch her again.”

She ignored me, though, and rose to her feet, brushing past me and poking her head out through the curtains.  “Hey, Shauna,” she called across the store, and I stood up behind her and leaned over to peek out through the curtains as well.

“What are you doing!” I hissed in Malva’s ear, but she just gave me a little shove.

“Hey, shut up and trust me,” she whispered, and we both watched Shauna perk up and smile in our direction.  “Come here, we need a hand with something.”

Shauna looked back at Chloe, who was busy admiring herself in a large mirror and comparing a few different sets of earrings.  She stayed rooted to the spot until Chloe gave her a brief and dismissive nod, and watching her play the obedient puppy just got me all worked up again.  It was like there was this clenching, rising wave of lava pushing from my belly to my chest as I watched her gleefully bound towards us.

“Grab those boots, too,” Malva added with a little grin, gesturing to a pair displayed at the end of a rack and then taking a brief glance at me.  “Size eight,” she correctly assumed, then pushed me back inside the dressing room and picked up one of the dresses she’d snatched from the rack, and I awkwardly stumbled around at her direction as she positioned me in front of a mirror and draped it over my chest so I could imagine myself in it.

“What do you think?” she lazily asked, but I was a little too impressed to respond.  The dress was amazing, tight at the top and white with a bit of black stitching and detail work, then transitioning above the waist to a black, sharply angled, flowing slit skirt that looked like it would drop just past the knees on the long side but still bare most of my leg on the other.  It wasn’t like anything I’d even imagined being on my body.  It was the kind of dress a supermodel would wear.  It was…

“Pretty!” Shauna squealed as she slipped past the curtains and joined us, a tall white stiletto-heeled boot in each hand.  I whirled around to face her, having almost forgot she was coming in all my fashionista fantasies, but Malva quickly intervened.

“Don’t you think those boots would go great with this?” she hastily asked before I could open my mouth, and Shauna looked me over with those big dumb cow eyes and gave an enthusiastic nod.

“Good, then help me get her into this.”  Malva spun me around and pulled the dress away from me, and I was left standing face to face with this prissed up version of the girl I’d come to loathe.  All I could think about was that she was seeing me in my underwear and it just pissed me off more and more, but then they were both on either side of me, lifting my arms and unzipping things and sliding the fabric over my skin and smoothing it out.

It was a whirl of activity, at least to me, but in another moment when it was all over I was left staring at myself in the mirror, blinking in confusion as I seemed to be seeing someone else.

“You’re beautiful,” Shauna murmured, giving me one of those huge, eager smiles from over my shoulder, and I almost believed her.  I looked sophisticated and sassy.  I looked like a woman.

“Yeah, good work, Shauna,“ Malva muttered with another of her wicked smirks.  “Now, return.”

I whirled around and watched wide-eyed as Malva held out the Flare Ball she’d showed me earlier.  Shauna blinked once and then dissolved in a flash of light, and by now I understood what had happened.

“Oh god, you mean that was <i>her</i> ball?” I croaked, trying to catch my breath and gather myself.

“Absolutely,” she laughed, turning the ball over in her hand a bit and looking over Shauna’s suddenly very tiny form.  “I swiped it from Chloe’s dresser, easy enough,” and with that she casually tossed the ball towards me and I shrieked in surprise, barely managing to clumsily grab it out of the air.

She laughed at my reaction and shook her head.  “What are you so concerned about, huh?  She’s nothing, remember?”  She stepped forward and cradled the hand that held Shauna in both of hers, looking into my eyes as she continued.  “ And now you’ve got her, tiny and insignificant like the little fucking insect she is.”

The way she looked at me and the way she talked stirred something in me.  I took a deep breath and examined the tiny Shauna I now held in my hand, and the more I thought about that, just the fact that I was holding her in the palm of my hand and could do anything I wanted with her, the more flustered and excited I got.  I pressed my thumb into the side of the ball and turned it a little, watching the tiny girl stumble and fall onto her backside, and it made me grin.

This really was how things were supposed to be.  I was the one with power.  I was the Champion, I’d beaten them all, and I deserved to be in control.  I deserved Chloe, and nobody else was worthy of her attention like I was.  “Stupid bug…” I whispered, narrowing my eyes and further scrutinizing Shauna.

The bitch was still smiling.  Didn’t she get it?  Didn’t she understand what was going on?  I ground my teeth a little, but Malva laughed a little and started to slowly turn my hand over.  I looked up, meeting her gaze, but she just grinned that same devious grin and turned my hand further until the Flare Ball rolled from my palm and tumbled towards the ground.

“Malva!” I cried as I realized what I’d done.  It was a serious fall for someone as small as she was, and even inside the ball she was sure to strike the floor pretty hard, hard enough to injure or maybe even kill her.  The ball smacked into the hard floor with a sharp crack and bounced a few times, and I went to reach for it but Malva grabbed my wrist.

“Leave her.  She belongs on the ground, doesn’t she?”  Malva intertwined her fingers with mine, and her other hand reached out to lightly brush my cheek.  “She should be treated like the dirt she is.”

Malva was making so much sense right now, and besides, I could see Shauna moving.  “Dirt…” I mused, stretching out my toes towards the ball containing her.  “You’re nothing but dirt, Shauna,” I purred while lifting those toes, sliding them over the curve of her ball, letting the silky sole of my stocking rub back and forth over the smooth plastic and totally obscuring the tiny girl from view beneath my foot.

“She’s so little, Lucy,” Malva whispered while she crouched down, running her hands along my silky thighs.  “So small and weak that you can just step on her.”

My breath was coming faster now as my mind started to race.  “I can imagine her, so tiny and helpless, trapped in her ball and staring up at my foot completely covering her…” I slid my foot slowly forward and back, letting the ball roll along my arch as I stared at myself in the mirror.  So in control.  So… sexy.  “Get down on your knees, Malva,” I demanded with utter confidence.  “Get that girl out of her ball.”

Malva grinned a bit more broadly and did just as she was told, slowly and seductively sinking to her knees before me and meeting my gaze the whole while.  She slipped a hand beneath my heel, gently cradling my foot while she slid Shauna’s Flare Ball out from beneath it.  Her thumb quickly found the button and dropped the tiny girl into her waiting hand.

“Good, good,” I hastily whispered.  “Now, kiss my foot.  Kiss my foot and then put her back on the ground so I can play with her.”

Malva laughed again softly and gave a little nod.  “Yes, Miss,” she gaily quipped while bowing down before me and pressing her precious lips to my toes, giving them a long and lingering kiss.  She dumped Shauna at my feet without much concern once she was done, but stayed down on her knees to watch me enjoy my new little toy.

“Look at you,” I scoffed, watching the tiny girl pull herself to her feet after being unceremoniously dumped on the ground.  “Gosh, Shauna, you’re just so <i>little</i>” I taunted her, then reached out and knocked her over with my toes.

She started to pull herself back up again, still trying to do her best to give me a warm smile, and this time I slid my foot to the side and kicked her over once again.  “I can’t believe I let you bother me, Shauna.”

She rose back to her hands and knees, but I didn’t give her enough time to get all the way back up this time.  I planted my heel in front of her and then gently dropped the ball of my foot onto her back, pushing her flat to the ground with just a little tap of my foot.  “I’m the one that matters, Shauna.  I’m the one with power.”

My heart was hammering in my chest, blood was rushing in my ears.  I’d never experienced such a rush; there was no stopping me.  “And you,” I declared, slow and sultry like I imagined a sophisticated, powerful woman would speak.  “You’re just a…”

My foot slapped down on her body to punctuate every word.  “Tiny.  Useless.  Nothing.”  With the last one I left my foot resting on her.  I could feel her little body through the sole of my sheer white stocking, just laying there.  Malva was staring upwards at me, watching my eyes as I kept Shauna pinned beneath my foot, and it felt like my body was totally ablaze, tingling in places I wasn’t even aware of before.

“Get those boots,” I demanded, and Malva eagerly nodded, rising to her feet and crossing the tiny room to fetch them.  They really were gorgeous, knee high with a tall, slender heel and a couple inches of platform.  A pair of thick straps criss-crossed the fronts of each, the right, white leather held in place by a pair of broad, gold buckles.

My eyes dropped back to my feet to see how my trampled tiny friend was managing.  Shauna had managed to roll over and sit up a bit, but I could tell she was a little worn out.  Not that I had been particularly rough with her; I just wanted to show her how superior I really was, but between the fall and struggling under the weight of my foot she’d already been through a lot.  I was about to give her just another slight nudge with my toes when a chorus of loud crunches and cracks nearly made me jump out of my new fancy dress.

My eyes snapped to the source of the sound and there I saw Malva’s own heavy black boot planted atop the shattered remnants of Shauna’s ball.  “What did you do?” I gasped, but she just chuckled briefly and shrugged, kicking the little pieces out of the way and dropping back to her knees.

“You worry too much, Lucy.”  Her hands guided my toes into the opening of the first boot and I let her help me push my foot down into it.  I had to place my hand against the wall to keep my balance while she did the same with my other foot and tightened the buckles.  “Now, how do they feel?”

Once again, I couldn’t believe what I saw in the mirror.  I’d never worn anything more than kitten heels, and there was something amazing about suddenly being five inches taller.  Malva was right, too, my legs looked fantastic, and I felt all that much more alluring as I gave a little turn.  I wasn’t even embarrassed when I stumbled just a bit and caught myself against the wall, laughing a little as I turned back to Malva, raised my arms above my head and adopted my best sexy model pose.  “Amazing,” I replied.  “Absolutely amazing.”

Malva bent down further, lowering her head next to the tiny Shauna as she continued to stare up at me.  “They’re totally hot, don’t you agree, little girl?” she teased the tiny thing, giving her a little poke with the tip of her finger.

Shauna nodded a few times and tried to turn and give Malva a little smile, but another poke pushed her back towards my feet.  “They’re super pretty,” she called out, though I could barely  hear the squeaky little sound.

“Then why don’t you go give them a kiss?” my companion suggested, then planted the tip of her finger in the tiny girls back and forced her flat on her belly.  “Go on, crawl to her boots like a little worm and give them a kiss.”

I couldn’t help but cackle at the thought of her squirming at my feet, but all I had to do was look down to see that she was already pushing herself along the ground towards my comparatively towering footwear.  “You’re going to use your tongue,” I spontaneously added.  “You’re going to crawl and lick my boots, tiny worm.”

I  looked to Malva for approval, and the smoldering desire in her eyes did more than reassure me.  She laid her hands across the fronts of my legs and let them slide up towards the tops of my thighs as she stood up in front of me.  “God, I’m so hot right now,” she murmured, voice low and lusty as her hand slipped along the small of my back.

I couldn’t feel Shauna licking the side of my platform boot, but Malva leaned to the side enough that we could both glance her for a moment and watch her obediently tongue the tall platform sole.

“Step on her,” she whispered, more a plea than a demand, but I blinked and shook my head.

“I’d crush her,” I lamented, and while just saying the word ‘crush’ sent a thrilling shudder through my core.  “I don’t want to hurt her,” I lamented.

“Just rest your foot on her,” she continued, her body sliding up against mine.  “I want to know that little bitch is helplessly pinned under your boot when we kiss.”

My eyes widened a little at that, but she had me so worked up that I wasn’t even that surprised that she wanted to kiss me.  I carefully slid my boot forward, balancing it on the tall stiletto heel and delicately letting the thick sole settle onto Shauna’s tiny little body.  “Mnnn~,” was all Malva had to say before her hand slipped beneath my hair and pulled my head towards hers.  I knew I was supposed to close my eyes, but my mind was racing as she leaned closer towards me.  If I had closed my eyes, though, I wouldn’t have noticed the curtain parting a little more.

Chloe stood in the entryway, smiling sweetly as she watched the two of us.  I shrieked and almost lost my balance, draping my arms over Malva’s shoulders to keep myself from falling, and Malva only gave another of her little playful laughs at my distress.

“Where’s Shauna?” she asked with what seemed to be a terribly casual amount of concern.

“Under her boot,” Malva chuckled while dragging her fingertips along my cheek.

“Chloe, I’m sorry!”  I started to stammer and shrink, all of my sexy confidence dissipating with incredible swiftness.  “I got carried away, I didn’t mean for anything to happen, I just felt so angry and…”

I continued to plead with her for forgiveness, but she only shook her head and took one step towards me, then another.  I chewed  my lip and wholly anticipated some sort of terrible retribution.  The idea that I’d somehow disappointed or disobeyed her was more awful than almost anything I could think of in that moment.  She looked me dead in the eyes, that same confident smile never left her face.  I was utterly paralyzed with dread, and that has to be the only reason that I didn’t resist, didn’t even move as she slowly settled her stylish high-heeled shoe atop my boot and began to slowly press down.

I could barely feel her at first, but as Shauna’s little body started to crumple beneath my boot I was acutely aware of every crunch and squelch, feeling it just as clearly as I heard it.  Her eyes never left mine, and the smile never left her face as my boot descended towards the floor, snuffing out the little life of the girl who had been my best friend.

I couldn’t begin to conceive how I felt in that moment.  I had been excited to torment her, even to step on her, and maybe I had enjoyed the sensation but I was so filled with that sick dread that I don’t even know if I felt anything.  All I know is that once Shauna was squished, Chloe turned  away and headed back through the curtain.

“We’re done here,” she called over her shoulder as she left, and Malva leaned in to give me a little kiss on the cheek before she walked out after her.  As for me, I stood there, afraid to move my boot and afraid of what I was going to see, but at the same time I couldn’t be left behind and I couldn’t take my eyes away as I slid my boot back and revealed what was left of Shauna.

Just a reddish wet mess and a pretty pastel rag.

I ran through the curtains, stumbling in my massive heels all the way back to the car.