Jeff spent a lot of time alone with his thoughts, it came with the life of a TINEE. And, the more he thought about it, the less useful TINEEs seemed. The whole shrunken slave thing didn’t make sense. There were no tiny tools or technologies that would help him do anything Hannah could already do for herself better. Painting her nails almost had him fainting from the fumes by the third toe. Feeding her was a Sisyphean task. The whole economy of TINEEs relied on those who bought them taking pleasure from pure sadism. But, as far as Jeff knew, most women bought strangers. It was only pure coincidence that Hannah found him. He just couldn’t see it, why put so much effort torturing someone you don’t even know? Only society’s freaks bought pets to torture, all the normal people have some sort of loving instinct towards living things.

BAM!! Jeff’s introspection was lost to the colossal weight of Hannah’s toes returning to Earth on top of him. Today was the first school day since the sleepover and Hannah had tossed him in her sock. There was no taunting this time, she walked out of the room in pajamas to shower, returned wrapped in towels, and dressed, her giant body glistening from the steam of the hot shower. Jeff was dropped in a thin, gray sock that barely rose to her ankle. Before he could right himself, Hannah’s toes, still dripping beads of water invisible to her, bulldozed him face-first into the end of the sock. Lint stuck to his damp body as he scraped along the sock’s interior. Finally, he ended up under some combination of her three smallest toes, his face buried in the crease of her skin.

This was Jeff’s introduction to the weight of a human body. Even without being subjected to the stamping power of her foot, each step Hannah took felt like a punch to the chest. He learned quickly to exhale as she stepped down and inhale as her foot rose. This, too, was terrifying. Each step was a rollercoaster acceleration upwards and downwards without relief. Her shoes lessened the pain some, though with them came a smell Jeff also needed to accustom himself too. The tang of sweat surrounded him, aided by the small amount of sweat coating him as his body heat warmed her toes. He doubted she even noticed.

The waiting was almost as painful mentally as being stepped on. During class, Jeff remained trapped motionless against Hannah’s skin. Only the occasional squeeze or roll down the arch of her foot to the heel and back broke the monotony. Once, she trapped his face under the pad of her pinky toe, tapping him with it as if to remind him of his insignificance.

Then, came volleyball practice.

“Okay ladies, I don’t need to tell you how important our game on Friday is. If we win this, we will qualify for regionals.” Muffled, Jeff heard the voice of the school’s coach, a middle-aged woman he never learned the name of. Men weren’t allowed to train or participate in any activities that encourage testosterone. “Hannah! How’s your ankle? We need you as our starting outside.”

“Good, coach. I got another TINEE and he’s really been relieving stress today.” Hannah’s voice boomed above.

“Glad to hear it, alright! Warm up! Let’s go, let’s go!” The coach said. Hannah jogged out of the locker room, throwing Jeff’s world into a new level of chaos.

Screaming for the first time as a TINEE, Jeff rattled around in Hannah’s sock with only her toes to act as a cage separating him from certain death under her arch. Soon, the whole sock became soaked with sweat. Try as he might, the salty liquid found its way all over Jeff’s body, including inside his mouth. Like everything, it was not bad enough for Jeff to not put up with it. He was already accustomed to her scent and this was just a more concentrated version of it.

It was the jumping that Jeff decided was the worst part. Immense pressure as Hannah tensed to leap, brief seconds of terrifying weightlessness, then more pressure than Jeff thought possible smashing him headfirst into the indent in her shoe left by her toes. After a while, Jeff determined by the cheers of her teammates that Hannah scrunched her toes as an involuntary flex when she pulled off a particularly good play. Apparently, she was quite good, as he became very accustomed to the grip of her toes.

Jeff and the sweaty socks were left in her gym bag. Even if he could muster the energy to try and move or escape there would be no point. This was a TINEE brand bag, guaranteed escape proof. He let himself soak, dissociating as Hannah met their mother and the two drove home. To be fair, Jeff thought with a tired smile, he learned about as much today as a normal day in school when he was regular-sized.

Even after experiencing it firsthand, Jeff refused to believe this would be his life from now on. The idea of undergoing this hell everyday was agony. To be so thoughtlessly tortured was maddening. His mind flashed back to Allison’s words, “They used you like a piece of plastic. I could use you like a person." They were beginning to make sense. Being Hannah’s foot-massager was pointless. How could Gordon have lived for so many years under so many feet every day of his life? Maybe his foot fetish really was that important. Even if the stomping became too much or the sweat was too thick, Gordon could still find some erotic pleasure from having a foot the size of a building controlling him. Maybe, it would be better to have Allison steal him away. At the very least, he would know she’d be loving every second of his torture. He shook his head – why does that make it better? Shouldn’t that make it worse? But it didn’t. No matter how illogical it seemed, Jeff decided he would rather have someone think of him like a person.

Unfortunately for Jeff, it would be some time before he was able to tell Allison about his decision.