They were back on the porch. Jarred couldn’t believe his luck. Jessica had refused to talk to him the entire morning, but after swearing to do her history extension paper and giving up his lunch break to make her art project and buying her lunch and carrying all of her books, she had spoken to him again. Whats more, Jessica seemed to have a change of heart and invited him back to her’s again. All he had to do was to promise to not so much as look at Hannah. When they arrived however, things didn’t go as planned. As Jessica opened the front door, Jarred could already tell something was off. There was already a pair of shoes inside, boots to be exact, men’s boots. When they entered the living room, Jarred still carrying a armful of books, there was another senior sitting on the couch.

“Hey bitch,” the boy said and Jessica’s face twisted into one of disgust.

“Donny? How the hell did you get inside my house?” she demanded.

“That’s not important right now. Who’s this loser? My replacement?” he asked mockingly.

“I’m Jarred and …” he started, but Jessica cut him off.

“Fuck you Donny, get out of my house or I’m calling the police,” Jessica threatened.

This made Donny mad and he got up briskly, “What did you say you whore?” he spat.

The next moment was like slow motion, Donny advanced towards Jessica and Jarred dropped her books, getting between them. Then there was a flash. It was the sky, that became bright for a second and light flooded every corner of the Earth. Most people saw it and were unaffected, ignoring it, little did they know that their lives would be changed, just a little because of it.

When Jarred opened his eyes again, he was in a strange place. He still wore his clothes, but he wasn’t in the living room. He was standing in a jungle of cream trees. There was a lingering smell of feet and Vanish but he dismissed this, he had to figure out where he was.

“Jarred!” screamed a voice that he recognised as Jessica’s. He ran, pushing through the thick forest, running towards her voice. When he found her she was staring awestruck into the sky.

“Jessica, are you okay? Baby, speak to me,” he tried, “We need to figure out where we are.”

“Jarred …” was all the girl could say. He followed her trembling finger that pointed up and blinked in confusion. Through the tangle of beige fibers, in the distance, at least a mile away, was the looming shape of a couch, but impossibly enormous. He looked around and only saw more to baffle his mind: walls that stretched to an astronomically high ceiling, a TV the size of a city, and they were in the middle of some vast plain of beige fibres.

“Jessica, I think we’re ..”

“No Jarred, don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it,” she trembled.

“I think we are still in your living room,” the boy finished, “whatever the light was, must have shrunk us.”

He looked to Jessica for support but she had her eyes closed and was shaking her head.

“No way, thats crazy. Crazy! Shrunk? What the fuck is this, hollywood? We can’t be shrunk. We can’t!” Jarred wrapped her in his arms to stop her rambling and felt her shaking against him. He held her this way from a few minutes.

“Listen, we’re going to be okay, we just need to find a phone, or someone to help us,” Jarred said.

“Find someone? Are you crazy? Have you never met people? If they see tiny people, they’ll like experiment on us, or make us their slaves or something!” Jessica yelled. She screamed as something emerged from the fibres behind her. Jarred rushed to her side but relaxed when he saw that it was Donny.

“Jesus, you don’t have to scream. It’s just me,” Donny said, “What the fuck happened?”

“Donny, I think we shrank,” Jarred said, waiting for his reaction.

“Shrank? That’s ridiculous! We can’t have …” Donny began but a lock clicked and all three of them froze. Jarred, who was taller than the other two could just see the door swing open.

***

Mr and Mrs Jensen had been walking their three dogs when the light struck. They were awoken along with their pets by the ground beneath them shaking. The couple in their 50s were both bankers and had lived next door to Jessica’s family for years and were great friends of the girls; they celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas together like an extended family. They felt a mixture of shock and horror when they realised where they were: shrunken and on the sidewalk in front of their neighbours’ house. When they realised why the ground was shaking, they were stuck with even more horror and fear.

Hannah had been walking home and was nearly at her front door. Little did she realise that the tiny couple and their minuscule pets lay dangerously close in her path. Mrs Jensen screamed as Mr Jensen pulled her to her feet and they began running towards the house. Their pet’s however were left confused in the path of the giantess. The couple turned away and kept running as they heard the stomach-churning crunch of Hannah’s sneaker crushing their three dogs behind them. The girl didn’t even realise as she liquified the animals under the sole of her Nikes.

The tiny couple ran as fast as their legs could carry them but within two steps, Hannah was already over them.

“Listen sweetheart,” Mr Jensen yelled, panting and regretting every time he had driven past the 24-hour gym on the way home from work, “the only safe place is on that girl’s shoe, do you think you can climb it?”

“What? That’s crazy, its too high,” she replied, still running hopelessly.

“I’ll give you a boost, you have to!” he yelled.

But it was too late, the shadow of Hannah’s shoe fell over them like a cloud casting darkness across their world. Both screamed as the heavy rubber sole fell on them. Mrs. Jensen was lucky, she slipped into the slit between two planes of rubber and only her arm fell under the weight. She screamed as it was smushed into the ground. Her husband had no such luck. Mr. Jensen didn’t even have time to turn as the rubber pushed him down mercilessly and liquified his body like it was pea. He died instantly and was reduced to nothing more than an imperceivable red stain under the teenager’s shoe.

Mrs Jensen was in another hell. When the shoe rose again, it carried the tiny woman hostage. It was a strange feeling of weightlessness and being at the complete mercy of the enormous teenager’s shoe. When it came down again, Mrs. Jensen was afraid she would fall out, but maybe that would have been a kinder fate: the sheer sound of the footfall shook the tiny woman half to death and in her panic, she realised that under the shoe, she couldn’t breathe.

***

“Jess? Are you home?” boomed a voice louder than anything he had ever heard. Jarred somehow managed to stay standing but Jessica fell to her knees clutching her ears at the sound.

Hannah stepped inside, taking the silence to mean that her sister wasn’t home. He locked the door and walked into the living room. Unknown to her, each step she took shook the ground like an earthquake and the three tiny people. She took off her shoes and dropped them by the coat hook, not knowing that in doing so, cut off Mrs’ Jensen’s air supply. The tiny woman struggled in vain against the shoe but its weight alone pressed her against the carpet and she was running out of air. In the simple act of taking off her shoes, Hannah had doomed their neighbour. Mrs. Jensen would suffocate within five minutes.

Hannah tread lightly into the living room seeking her sister, but all she saw were the dropped books that had not shrunk. She went to pick them up.

Standing near the books, Jarred almost jumped for joy when Hannah’s gaze fell on them. He thought that she saw them, and that those glistening eyes would mean their salvation, but he was wrong. As the giantess dropped to her knees, he was hypnotised by her size. Hannah lowered herself to the ground with her legs apart for balance and finally sat on her feet. Oblivious to the three tiny beings that lay between her taut thighs, she began picking up her sister’s books. Hannah smiled a little, seeing the mess made her remember her sister as normal, instead of the furious ball of anger that she had been the night before.

Jarred’s hope was crushed when he saw Hannah picking up the books, completely unaware of their existence. She had come home straight from practice and still wore her uniform shorts. The smell of sweat hit the tiny people hundreds of times more powerfully than a person of normal size. Hannah barley noticed her smell but to the tiny beings surrounded by her form, it was almost overwhelming.

As the men starred at the titans before them, Jessica was snapped out of her panic: her attention-stealing whore of a sister was distracting the men; who had only moments ago been ready to fight over her, and Jessica had to get their attention again.

“HANNAH! LOOK DOWN YOU STUPID BITCH!” she yelled cupping her hands. While the boys were stunned by her action, Jessica knew that such insults were normal from her. She expected Hannah to realise how foolish she had been to not see them, and then apologise profusely for her incompetence. To her surprise, Hannah didn’t even react. The giant girl couldn’t even hear her sister’s tiny screams and a moment later, finished collecting the book and got up. In standing from her current position, the three tinies got a sense of how tall she was compared to them.

Jessica screamed as Hannah’s socked foot landed a few centimetres from her, the pungent smell of her feet alone causing her to become nauseous but she stayed standing because she didn’t know what else to do. They could make out her toes underneath the thin fabric, even the smallest rose a little higher than Jarred’s head. The boy realised how well and truly minuscule they were compared to Jessica’s little sister.

The titanic teen turned and began to put the books away. All the tinies saw were her magnificent legs and stunning perky ass retreating impossibly far away.

“That stupid bitch,” Jessica muttered.

“Are you crazy?” Jarred yelled at her, “Insulting your sister now? Did you not see how huge she was?”

“Amen to that brother,” Donny added.

“Not helpful,” Jarred dismissed him before returning to Jessica, “Jess, we need to get her to notice us but we have to be really close to her face. Even when she sitting down, she couldn’t hear you.”

“Well, I guess the right thing to do would be to offer to go after her,” Donny said faking genuine interest, “I’m getting me some of that.”

Before Jarred could stop him, Donny ran off towards the giantess, making slow progress through the carpet as Jarred tried to get his head around it all. He contemplated running for cover but couldn’t decide, until Hannah came back.

Donny was nearing the doorway when the giantess returned, still wearing her soccer shorts but having changed into a black tank top instead of her t-shirt. She strolled carelessly towards the living room to watch some TV and without knowing it, approached Donny. The high school senior gazed at her in awe, her body the embodiment of femininity and power all at the same time. He took a step forward and then collided with her bare toes. Jarred and Jessica watched in horror as the force of her foot rising knocked Donny into the air, where he sailed for some time and landed in front of the couch, not moving. Jarred and Jessica both panicked and ran for the coffee table, for some cover as Hannah stepped towards the couch and Donny. The diminutive man writhed in pain, the impact having broken several ribs and his right arm, but his fate was not to die so easily.

He tensed for the impact of the giantess stepping on him, but she didn’t. Instead, Hannah’s feet stopped on either side of him and she sat down on the couch, turning on the TV and getting comfortable. Donny breathed a sigh of relief and Jarred and Jessica, who had reached the foot of the coffee table had begun to climb it. Jarred noted that even though the table had appeared smooth at normal size, the tiny chips and dents in the wood were more than large enough to act as footholds at their current size. He was an avid climber and had no problem reaching the surface of the low table. He turned to see Jessica still far behind, lower on the table leg. She on the other hand was afraid of heights and was not enjoying the idea of plummeting to her death from a coffee table. Jessica was at her wits end only a little way from the top and she looked down. It was not a lie when they said to never look down, because when she realised how far she had to fall, her body tensed and she froze. This is the end I guess, she thought and was contemplating letting go and ending it right there and then.

“Hey stop looking down,” Jarred’s voice broke her out of her trance, “Look at me and keep climbing you’re almost there.”

Motivated by his words and just his voice, Jessica shook her head clear and continued climbing, ignoring her aching muscles. When she was close enough, Jarred pulled her up while lying on his stomach. When the two were up, they simultaneously look down at what they had accomplished and then at each other. They hugged and Jarred squeezed Jessica tight against him, thanking God that they were still alive, but cursing their situation.

The top of the coffee table was incredible, a vast surface strewn with a few gigantic objects. They were closer to the couch than the TV so the remote stood far away and some magazines were near the centre of the table. From their position, the two tiny people looked at Hannah who sat, facing them, but completely oblivious to their presence, watching TV. Jarred walked towards her end of the table with Jessica close behind. Upon reaching the edge, he looked up at Hannah and wave his arms: futile. Jessica tried yelling again, “DOWN HERE BITCH!” but it was useless, they were simply too far away. Suddenly, a movement caught Jarred’s eye, could it be … yes, it was Donny. Somehow the poor bastard had survived and was lying on his back between Hannah’s feet. At least he was safe, or so they thought.

As a commercial came on Hannah sat up right, eagerly awaiting her program. She was still tired from practice and since Jessica hadn’t yet come home, hadn’t thought to take a shower. She wriggled her toes, happy to be out of her tight, hot shoes at last. She felt some piece of food or something under one of her feet and she decided to play with it, without paying much attention to it. Hannah had very sensitive feet and she loved to play with them. What she did not know was that the piece of food or dust was in fact Donny. Jarred and Jessica watched on in horror as Hannah’s moving foot covered Donny, but they were only spectators.

Donny screamed like he had never screamed before when he saw the foot hover over him. Hannah lowered it lightly but the force still knocked the air out Donny. As he gasped, his eyes teared: the smell of her sweaty feet hitting him full force. Donny tried to move but he completely pinned under the flesh while Hannah decided what to do with him. The heat from her skin was like a sauna to Donny and sweat instantly soaked his body. He thought he would die in the hot, humid, stench under Hannah’s foot, but then she started playing with him. As she raised her foot, his body stuck to it like dirt in the sweat but when she flicked it to the side, his body was thrown to the ground. The impact was painful, but his body refused to black out. As Donny screamed in agony, Hannah continued to toss him around between her feet. Sometimes she would accidentally catch him underneath her soles and parts of Donny would break with inaudible cracks, but she had no idea. After a few minutes Donny was already praying for death. Tears rolled down his cheeks but were imperceivable, mixed with Hannah’s foot sweat and dirt, his voice had become hoarse down to a miserable whisper and his sobs were fading.

Hannah, not knowing any of this played more vigorously with her toy as shed show came on, keeping Donny in an even worse hell. The slightest bit of additional pressure would have been enough to crush the man and put him out of his misery, but Hannah was just gentle enough, if gentle didn’t seem so out of place for what was happening, to keep him alive and suffering. Jarred looked away, assuming that Donny would be dead and instead tried to think of a solution to their problem. Jessica however, caught little glimpses of Donny’s body and could have sworn she saw movement. With a sadistic smile, she sat on the edge of the coffee table to watch her little sister put her ex-boyfriend through hell at her feet.