Mary didn’t understand what was going on. She was so confused. People were streaming by her, heading toward the open doors of the train car. Mary joined them in their endeavor to escape, becoming one with the screaming mob. The crowd streamed from the train and Mary looked back, it was still so full of people, like it hadn’t even dent in how full it was. Mary was thinking about how strange all of that was when, all of a sudden, a giant converse shoe descended from the sky and crushed the crowded train flat like a tin can. Mary tried to scream but nothing came out. She tried to run but she couldn’t move.

The sight she witnessed would never be forgotten for as long as she lived. People just like her popped like bright red cherries beneath the giant shoe. The crumpling sounds of crunching metal masked the screaming cries of the people unlucky enough to be underneath the shoe's sole. Those sounds pierced Mary’s ears like fingernails on a chalkboard. People raised their arms up by the dozens to try and stop the colossal Converse from descending on them. It was useless as their bones crunched, organs burst from tearing skin, and their heads exploded like grapes. The shoe didn’t even slow down. It was an unstoppable force of nature that landed on what used to be a crowd of people, indiscriminately crushing everyone and everything under it.

The boom of the giant footstep shook the earth and Mary lost her balance. She fell on to the ground, only to be trampled on by the streaming masses. It was as if more and more people were coming out of nowhere.

“Funny, how you don’t even stop to help each other!” said the booming voice from above. It was the owner of the giant shoe. “But I suppose that’s to be expected from tiny selfish people such as yourselves. So really, I guess you deserve this!” The voice sounded familiar to Mary, but she couldn’t quite place it. She was too preoccupied with trying to get up and run away.

Mary saw the colossal shoe of the other foot come into view and felt her bladder give out because her body was so entranced with fear and terror. As hard as Mary tried not to look, it was as if her eyes were drawn to every little detail they could absorb. Mary watched a family of four running for their lives, all holding hands, screaming, as they were led by the father to safety, only to be trampled and crushed under the massive rubber sole. Scores of other people were also smashed without a flinch as the gigantic shoe boomed loudly on the ground. 

“You all deserve this!” the giant voice called again. Mary tried to stand back up and run again, but she couldn’t. It felt like such a weird out-of-body experience. Even though she was stuck, she could somehow see everything that was taking place around her. The first shoe lifted off the smashed train car, leaving behind a pulped bloody mess of splattered bodies. Mary was desperate to escape before she found herself under another crushing footstep. She even considered praying, even though she wasn’t religious, she was willing to try anything.

“Please, God…,” Mary whimpered and closed her eyes tightly, fearing the boom of another giant stomp. 

“Praying won’t save you,” the voice called out from above. Mary’s eyes shot open in a panic, was the giantess speaking to her? But when she looked up, the woman’s gaze was sweeping the landscape, quickly and cruelly stomping out tinies as she found them trying to hide from her. “Remember,” said the voice from above, “you all deserve this!”

Mary saw a mother with her young child get smashed by the tip of her shoe. Then to the left, an elderely couple were stomped without remorse. People whose lives had barely begun, and those who had lived a long time, only to be unceremoniously snuffed out under a woman’s shoe. Mary started sobbing and crying uncontrollably. What did any of them ever do to deserve this?This wasn’t fair! It wasn’t right!

“What’s this?” asked the booming voice from above. The two giant shoes planted themselves on either side of Mary. Everyone else was gone and it was just Mary now at the feet of this recklessly evil woman. “Looks like one of you almost got away, doesn’t it?” the woman asked, placing her hands on her hips and bending over toward Mary with a wicked grin on her face. Mary looked up at the colossal woman and screamed.

It was her. The giant woman was Mary. Mary couldn’t figure out how this had happened! Did Naomi trick her? Was this some sort of clone from the lab? Mary didn’t know, but didn’t have much time to think as the much larger version of herself stood back up to her full height and began to laugh and smile. The giant kept her hands on her hips and lifted one leg high into the air, positioning her foot right over tiny Mary’s body. Mary could clearly see the bottom of her shoe, tiny families and other random people were flattened into the treads of the rubber sole. Mary screamed at the gruesome sight, knowing that she was going to be next.

“Buh-bye!” called out the giant Mary and dropped her shoe directly on top of tiny Mary. The giantess smiled and giggled as she twisted her shoe back and forth, grinding out the tiny woman beneath her. Underneath the shoe sole, tiny Mary screamed and cried as she felt her bones snap, twist, and crunch. 

The giant Mary lifted her foot and looked upon the wreck of the tiny woman that was underfoot. “Man, you sure are resilient, aren’t you?” The giantess lifted her foot and slammed in down on Mary again. A surge of pain bolted through Mary’s tiny body, but the shoe lifted off her again. “Huh, why won’t you just die?” said the giant, “Maybe my heel will do the trick!” The giantess giggled as the tiny woman saw the worn heel of the shoe position itself over her and come crashing down. Mary felt every bone in her body break and she could tell she lost a lot of blood. The giant Mary twisted her heel, clenched her fist and her teeth, “Take that, you pathetic piece of trash, die like a good little bug.”

Eventually, the giant pulled her foot back, revealing a very badly damaged, but still living tiny Mary. The giantess shook her head, “You just really don’t want to die do you?” Giant Mary shook her head and reached down, plucking the crumpled tiny woman off the ground. “Don’t worry,” the giantess smirked, “I know what to do with you.” Mary flew through the air and came before the massive lips of her giant clone. “This will work,” the giant smiled, opening her mouth wide and bringing Mary closer. “Remember,” called the giantess softly, “you deserve this, you deserve to die…” 

The tiny woman landed with a splat onto the giant tongue. It swished her around and eventually banged her up against her hard teeth. Mary’s tiny body couldn’t even feel pain anymore, she just wanted nothing more than to die rather than suffer anymore. The little woman was coerced onto her own giant molars. There was a slight rumbling as the hot air of a throaty giggle passed the lips of the giantess. Mary looked up, barely conscious, but she could see the other set of teeth above her. Giant masticating molars dripping wet with saliva. Mary was so excited, she was about to die, and she knew it. She couldn’t not wait for this to be over.

“Good-bye, Mary,” the giantess spoke, “it was nice knowing you.”

The little woman laying on the teeth was confused. Did the bigger version of her actually recognize her and know-

CRUNCH

The giantess snapped her jaw shut and tiny Mary was pelted with darkness before opening her eyes, realizing she was safe and sound on her bed in the giant apartment. Mary felt all over her body and, although she was drenched in sweat, there was nothing wrong with her. No broken bones, no blood, it was all a wicked realistic nightmare. Mary panted and breathed heavily, trying to calm down her throbbing heart that felt like it was going to bounce out of her chest.

Mary laid there, slowly starting to feel normal again. Then she started thinking about the dream she had just had. She recalled the tiny families being squished and how scared and terrified she felt when she was getting stomped on and eaten. Mary felt awful…, her lips curled into a frown and tears started flowing from her tightly closed eyes. She couldn’t believe she had done those things. She couldn’t believe that she had treated others so poorly when they were innocent and didn’t deserve it. Mary’s guilt overwhelmed her as she started sobbing quietly to herself.

William was sleeping soundly in his wife’s giant shoe, until he was woken up by the sound of her sobs. Although they may have been quiet to Mary, to little people, they were extremely loud. William’s groggy face tried to look out of the shoe, but he couldn’t see his wife.

“Mary?” he called, “Mary, are you okay?”

“She can’t hear you,” said a voice from the depths of Mary’s shoe. William whipped his head in the direction of the unfamiliar voice.

“Who- who’s there?” called out William, caught off guard.

“My name is Chloe,” the figure said slowly walking out of the shadows into the light shining at the heel, “she can’t hear you. It’s impossible for giants, or anyone really, to hear us from in here.”

“How are you in here?” asked William. “I mean, why are you here?”

Chloe chuckled to herself, “Well, I was on the cleaning crew, and I got stuck right over there, and yeah… like I said, nobody can really hear you from inside here.”

“Oh, I see,” said William, noticing her uniform and name tag. “Chloe is it? Well don’t worry, we’ll get you back to your department tomorrow.”

Chloe looked at William and then toward the direction of the sobbing, “She’s having a nightmare.”

“Well, there’s not much we can do about it,” said William curling up onto the insole again. “Best get some rest so we can do our jobs tomorrow.”

Chloe sat down next to William and leaned up against the wall of the shoe. “I think she feels guilty.”

“For what?” asked William dismissively without opening his eyes.

“For killing all those people,” Chloe said with a yawn.

“What?” asked William in confusion, “it was only four people in New Mexico, and that was by accident.”

Chloe scoffed, “Tell that to the people that were crushed under these rubber soles…”

“Excuse me?” said William defensively.

“She’s the owner of these shoes, right?” asked Chloe.

“Yeah, her favorite pair,” responded William.

“Well I know we dug out a lot more than just four corpses from the treads.” Chloe said flatly, having flashbacks to peeling off skin and bone from the shoe.

William sat up and opened his eyes, “Say what?”

“Well, I mean, it’s hard to tell for sure when there are so many bodies packed into the treads of a shoe, but it definitely wasn’t four,” Chloe said closing her eyes sleepily.

“Then how many were there?” asked William, in shock.

“I don’t know,” Chloe shrugged her shoulders, “maybe 100? Maybe more?”

William’s face grimaced and his emotions tugged at him. Could his wife really have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds? That could explain the difference in her personality he just experienced. But why didn’t she tell him about it? She had plenty of opportunities to talk about it. William was racking his brain, trying to rationalize everything when Chloe spoke and interrupted his thought process.

“Goodnight,” she said, “I’ll see you in the morning, if she doesn’t kill us first.” Chloe laid down, trying to find a comfortable place to sleep.

“She won’t kill us,” Willaim said, “I’m her-” he cut himself off, realizing that this woman didn’t realize who he was. She had no idea that William was married to the gargantuan murderer. He refrained from saying anything, perhaps that would make things easier on him for the moment.

“Her what?” asked Chloe, interested in what he was about to say.

“Her… servant,” William said, laying down as well.

“Hopefully that carries some weight with her,” Chloe said, drifting off to sleep.

William just laid there, unable to sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he had just heard about his wife. When and where would she have been able to do that? And why? These questions plagued his mind for the rest of the night.

***

“Where are our parents?” asked Sasha, coming out of the shower, wrapped in a towel.

“I have no idea,” said Max, groggily waking up on the couch. He was so in shock and tired after returning home that he didn’t even shower or crawl to his new bed.

Both kids were comfortable in their new suite on the south end of the complex. It was a four bedroom apartment in the residential district of Miss Naomi’s complex where some of her higher level employees and lawyers lived. She had decided to give William and his family the best suite available, before deciding to enlarge Mary permanently.

“The last I heard was that Naomi called mom to her private residence last night,” said Sasha. “And she never came home.”

“No, but I did see her there last night,” affirmed Max, “and she did call dad late last night and asked him to come to the center of the complex where Miss Naomi lives. And who knows what happened then.”

“Will you please stop calling her ‘Miss’ Naomi?” Sasha shook her head in disgust. “It sounds so pretentious.”

“But she likes to be called that,” said Max.

“She’s not even here! I only call her that to her face,” replied Sasha. “Otherwise, it just sounds so… ugh… I mean, why give her any more ego?”

“I don’t know…” said Max sheepishly.

“When are they coming back? What’s the plan for today?” Sasha asked, a little annoyed with the situation.

“I don’t think our mom can come back here, can she?” Max said, looking at Sasha.

“What?” replied Sasha, “Why not?”

“You don’t know?” asked Max, “Mom is a giant again.”

“She is?!” said Sasha, nearly dropping her towel in surprise. “But, why?!”

“Well, Miss-uh, well, Naomi, made her a giant permanently,” Max explained.

“Why would she do that?” asked Sasha angrily. “Why would anyone want to be giant?”

“Apparently, our mom,” Max said shrugging his shoulders.

“You knew?” asked Sasha. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I forgot!” Max exclaimed.

“You are so stupid! How can you just ‘forget’ something like that?” Sasha said in frustration. “I swear this has our father written all over this. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing. I hate the both of them so much!”

“Calm down, sis,” said Max reassuringly. “We’ll figure this out. The way I look at it is, mom is ‘in’ with Naomi now. So our lives just got vastly better, and safer!”

“Just when I get used to one thing, everything changes again… it’s just so frustrating…” Sasha explained with exasperation. “I think I’m going to talk to Naomi.”

“About what?” asked Max.

“About everything!” Sasha replied.

“Well, good luck with that,” Max laughed.

***

Mary woke up, feeling groggy and sleepy. She didn’t sleep well at all that night. Her nightmares kept her awake, and any sleep she did get was stressful sleep. With her eyelids heavy, she tossed her disheveled hair out of her face and crawled out of bed.

William himself was awakened by the distant sound of rumbling thunder as Mary moved about on her colossal bed. Two booming sounds erupted as her feet hit the floor. Mary yawned wide and stretched her arms above her head.

“How did my little husband sleep last night?” William heard her say as her thundering footsteps approached closer and closer. Mary grabbed her Converse and lifted it to her smiling face. “Good morning!” she said as her giant gaze looked upon the tiny man… and a tiny woman… “What is this?” asked Mary, “Who is your little friend William?”

Before either of the tiny people trapped within her shoe could respond, Mary dumped them out onto her waiting palm and discarded her shoe on the floor below. Both William and Chloe were laying on there backs trying to sit up on Mary’s soft and doughy palm. Mary’s other hand came nearby and her finger swirled around the tiny woman before pushing her down and trapping her under the fleshy pad of her index finger.

“And just who are you?” asked Mary inquisitively as she watched her limbs squirm under her finger. “Are you a friend of my husband?”

“Mary, please-” called William.

“Husband!?” shrieked Chloe, “You are married to this woman? Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have said all that stuff if I had known!”

“Mary, this is Chloe, she works in the clothing department, she was helping clean and repair your shoes when she didn’t get out in time. We just need to get her back to her department,” explained William.

Mary removed her finger and drew her hand closer to her face. “I’m sorry? Chloe, is it? What stuff wouldn’t you have said to William here?”

William stood up and confronted his wife’s colossal gaze. “She told me about all the people you’ve crushed and killed.” Mary looked shocked and offended. “Don’t try to pretend you don’t know what she’s talking about Mary. What’s done is done… but you aren’t a killer, you have to stop, right now.”

Mary’s face shifted to one of shame and regret. “You’re right, I don’t know what came over me. I feel so bad about it.” Mary’s eyes grew watery, “I just keep thinking about them and what they went though… it’s just all so horrible.”

“What’s done is done,” William said again. “But moving forward, you need to control yourself.”

Mary was teary eyed, but nodded her head.