When I woke up, I was surrounded by darkness. My head ached terribly, as if I had the worst hangover of my life. Little by little, the last memories I had before blacking out came to my mind: it was early on the morning, I was walking down a street on my own. Not a single soul in sight. Then, hurried steps coming up behind me… and nothing more. I tried to get up, but my muscles sent a jolt of pain through my body. It felt like my limbs were torn off and then put back in place. I laid down again, lost in an unknown location for who knows how much time. I looked around, but the scarce light, coming from a small opening high above me, didn’t help much. When my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw a human figure, not too far away from me, all curled up in a ball. Despite the terrible pain, I got up to my feet and walked towards it. As I got closer, I heard a quiet sobbing coming from it. When I got in front of it, the stranger turned to me: from the voice, I figured out it was a girl, probably in her early twenties. “Who are you? Why did you bring me here?” she said, with a voice broken by sorrow and tears. She was in a state of shock and scared to death. I painfully sat down next to her and I tried my best to calm her down. I told her that I was in her exact same situation, and knew nothing of that place, or about who brought us there. But together, we could try to figure out something. She seemed a little less worried, although still traumatized. The girl got up, still quivering in fear and introduced herself as Denise. We moved a few steps together around the dark room, looking for a way out, but to no avail. We noticed that the floor and the wall were strangely soft, and we wondered once again what kind of place that was. Suddenly, we heard two people quietly talking. Suspecting that there might have been other prisoners like us, I decided to get closer to the voices, even if my new acquaintance was quite reluctant. “What if those people were dangerous… They could be the ones who took us here! Sorry, I don’t want to risk it, and neither should you” she said with a worried tone as she started sobbing again “I… really don’t want to die in this place… and I don’t want you to, either”. I ensured her that no one was going to die there that day, and, promising her that I would come back for her, I ventured alone in the dark. In the corner of the room, I found two people, speaking softly to each other and hugging tightly, holding hands. They were a man and a woman and, they too, were complete strangers. As the man noticed me, he got up and told me the last thing he remembered before arriving there: it was exactly like mine, except that he was with his girlfriend when it happened. I told him everything I knew and, still puzzled by the situation, I hurried back to inform Denise. As soon as I reached her, the ground started shaking.

Loud, booming sound came closer and closer. Then, the rumbling stopped. Suddenly, the sound of a zipper being pulled. The small opening on the ceiling widened, and daylight blinded us. Then, the voice of a girl boomed in my ears, seemingly coming from all around us. “Finally, let me get a good look at you all…”. When my eyes adjusted to the daylight, I saw the smiling face of a teenage girl, observing us from outside. But something was definitely wrong. The stranger was incredibly huge. A massive hand pulled the zipper wide open and we got completely exposed to the light. The hand itself was as big as a house. The enormous girl moved a lock of her golden hair behind her glasses and began talking to us. “Nice, it seems that none of you is injured. You know, since when these ‘shrinking devices’ came out, I never believed they actually worked. I had to see it for myself, I couldn’t believe it was that easy to shrink random people to the size of ants and get away with it. But you guys proved me wrong! The transformation worked perfectly on you! Well, actually, it’s more like a downsizing than a transformation. You are just the same as this morning, I just, uh… made you smaller!” she said cheerfully. My heart sank, and I saw desperation in the eyes of the others, too. For us, it was difficult just to conceive that shrinking was possible, let alone to accept the fact that we all had been indeed shrunken down. One day we were normal people, with normal lives, hopes and dreams. The day after, we were prisoners of a spoiled girl we never met who randomly decided that we had to become her specimen. My only hope was, in that moment, that our captor was a reasonable person, and that we could somehow talk our way out of this. She snorted impatiently and said with an annoyed tone: “Once you’re done whining, I want to try you out. But first, let me get you out of my purse… It’s no place for you after all.”. Her eyes shone maliciously behind her glasses, her lips curled in a sly smile: she was up to something. And it was going to be terrible for us.

The mysterious girl lowered her hand into the immense purse in which we were held captive. She skimmed the bottom of our prison, searching for us. Her hand landed dangerously close to me, and balled in a loose fist, grabbing something. Then, it was lifted upwards, with a terrorized scream coming from inside. The giantess had taken Denise. She cupped her other hand, high above me, and dropped her captive on it. “What do we have here, a cute little girl…” the giantess said, intrigued. Denise was petrified. “You are shivering. Are you afraid of me?” she asked, maliciously. “You don’t have to. I’m sure we’ll get along pretty well. Now let’s get your friends to join you on my big hand, shall we?”. The giant hand loomed once again upon us and I was the unlucky one to be picked up next. I was soon surrounded by her fingers, that tightened up around me and took me away. The massive girl dropped me carelessly right next to Denise. I came down with a painful impact. “Keep some company to your little friend until I get you all up here” the giantess told me, as she reached out for the two missing people. “I don’t want to die here… I don’t want to die here…” murmured Denise. I tried to reassure her, telling her that everything was going to be over soon and that we were going to be alright, but even I struggled to believe my own words. Maybe if we complied to the stranger’s orders, we could earn her grace. And, perhaps, our freedom.

Once we four were gathered together in her hand, she leaned down and dropped us two by two on the floor, Denise and me on her left and the young couple on her right. As I got up, I looked around. Judging by the furniture, we were in the living room of a huge house, probably hers. Before us stood a giant sofa, upon which our captor sat. Suddenly a pair of giant, black, leather boots came crashing down before us, scaring us to death, as the giantess took them off. The thick, dirty, rubber sole of one of them stood like a monolith before us, only a few centimeters away. Its treads were so big that at our size, we could have got lost into them. The giantess, seeing us in such shock, giggled, and picked up her boots. Without saying a word, she put her feet, clad in short, black socks, before us. They were massive, at least ten time bigger than our tiny figures. Denise cowered in fear and disgust, as a distinct odor of sweat slowly filled the air. “Now you little guys are going to give my feet a long, nice massage. All my friends have little human pets for stuff like that and I know those tiny hands of yours can do wonders! So put them to work and try to do a nice job, if you know what’s good for you. You really wouldn’t like to see me pissed off…”. Denise look at me desperately, with her eyes wet. “Tell me it’s a nightmare”, she pleaded. There was nothing we could do about it. We had to obey the commands of the spoiled, gigantic girl that was bossing us around, as if we were her slaves. Maybe she saw us that way. I slowly walked toward the black, socked mass that was held in front of me, and put my hand on it. The surface was warm and soft. I rubbed my hands against it vertically, trying my best to pamper the impossible size of that foot. Soon, Denise joined me and, despite her reluctance and her repulsion, she imitated me. The giantess sighed, as she leaned back on the couch. “It was true, then. Tiny people really are the best stress relievers! You two down there are doing a particular good job…” the girl said, scrunching the toes above the shrunken girl and me. “Your friends, though, are quite slacking off… Get. Moving.” She commended imperiously to the other two people. I couldn’t see them from my perspective, but I could distinctly perceive the desperate cries of a woman.

I thought our humiliating task would never come to an end. I didn’t know how long it we kept massaging her foot, but we were both exhausted. My whole body hurt with every stretch and we went on pushed by sheer fear. Finally, the shadow of our giant captor’s foot was casted away, and we breathed fresh air again in what felt like ages. The giantess leaned over, with her massive face right above us, as she gazed right at me and her warm breath washed upon me. “You two actually did a good job, you really know how to treat a girl like me” she said. Then, she reached out with his hand towards us. We slowly pulled back, but she had no effort in getting to us, nonetheless. Her hand came closer, and gently patted us both on the head, then retracted. We heaved a sigh of relief. “As for the other two… Something really bad will happen to you” her voice boomed menacingly, as she leaned to the opposite side, towards the small couple on my left. Now I could clearly see them: the man was standing, facing our captor, and the woman was not far, crying desperately on her kneels. I couldn’t make out the man’s words as he spoke, but he pointed at his partner and then joined his hands in prayers towards the giantess. She didn’t seem to be softened by his words, but rather, they sorted the opposite effect. She got up to her feet, to her full height, dominating over us. “Shut up! I can do whatever I want with you!” she shouted angrily. The girl stepped forth and landed a huge kick with his socked foot right into the little man. The impact sent him flying across the room and he smashed hard against the wall behind him. He fell on the ground and didn’t get up. Meanwhile, we were assisting to such cruelty completely powerless.

The small women cried in sorrow at the top of her lungs, unable to react to such heartlessness. “I’m tired of hearing you crying all the time! I’ll silence you forever”, the giantess said, sternly. The same, socked foot that had just brutally executed a person was brought above the tiny woman and started descending upon her. Still crying, she tried to crawl away, but at that size, she had no chances. The massive foot covered her completely and her cries of pain were soon muffled by the soft mass. She slowly suffocated, the foul air beneath the teenager’s foot unable to fill her lungs and lost her senses. With a loud crunch, the giantess put permanently an end to her and lifted her socked foot, leaving her lifeless body half crushed on the ground.

Denise looked at the scene wide-eyed, her lower lip quivering with sorrow and rage. The giantess was looking down proudly at her deed, when she felt a little bump against her big toe. She turned her head to the opposite side and saw the tiny Denise hitting her massive form with all the might she could muster. “What, you, too, want to turn against me?” she said with an annoyed tone, “too bad… Let’s call it a day and say that you four were all a foul batch. Unfortunately, I’ll have to get rid of you and get some more people to replace you”. With a flick of her toes, she threw away the shrunken girl. Denise landed painfully on her back, hitting hard on the floor. I went to help her. She probably had some broken bones, but she was able to move. I got her up, and in that moment, we saw the enormous sole of the girl’s boot looming menacingly above us. “Run all you want, but you will not escape. You are about to meet your end beneath my boot, like common dirt. Like worthless ants, about to be splattered by a superior being. That’s what you get for disobeying me”. The heel touched the ground ahead of us and slowly, the boot began to descend upon us. I realized she was right: there was no way that we could get away from under her sole in time. Then I had an idea. Since we were so little, we could hide in the tread of her boot. I rushed towards the falling sole and threw myself on the ground, right under a space where I could probably barely fit. I encourage Denise to do the same: she was thinner, so she would have no problem fitting there. But when I looked for her, I noticed that she was still far behind. The space between the ground and the boot was becoming thinner and thinner: she didn’t have much time. Suddenly, she stumbled and fell prone. She crawled forward and I extended a helping hand, but she never reached it. The sole of the massive boot was now upon us and I felt my own bones creaking, struggling to fit in the tight space of the descending sole. Denise was being pressed down heavily. She looked at me one last time, with her eyes full of despair. “I didn’t want to die here” she said, frantic. Then, boot came completely down.

Trapped in the darkness beneath the gigantic boot, I heard the horrible sounds of her death. The bones cracked and were grinded to dust, the body tissues tore apart, unable to resist to such pressure. Finally, with a loud crunch, they were all compacted by the pressure. It was devastating. For the moment, I seemed to have survived, but I soon realized that I wasn’t able to move at all. The space was too tight for me and my body painfully bent just enough to make me fit, but impeding me any further movement. The giantess twisted her foot in satisfaction, but then she noticed that I was missing. “I didn’t feel a second pop down there…” she muttered, perplexed. She grabbed her foot and scanned the sole, finding me soon after. Her voice boomed above me: “It seems that you found a way to cheat death, huh? You think you’re that smart? Well, too bad for you, because you only extended your suffering. Now, I’m going to have a nice walk, searching for some new people to shrink. Meanwhile, you’ll stay beneath me, handling the full weight of my body. And I’ll make sure to step on every muddy puddle I see on my way. By the end of my little stroll, you’ll be nothing but a shrunken, muddy corpse on my boot”. She giggled and lowered her foot, trapping me again beneath her, completely hopeless. Then, the cruel girl headed for the front door and got ready for her walk. With every step, my body threatened to rip asunder under the unbearable pressure. I was lifted, the dazzling vertigo stunned me and then I was pushed down again with a tremendous impact. But the most painful thing of all was that every time I was brought up, I saw a bloody stain, only a few centimeters away: all that was left of Denise. The boot of a spoiled, teenage girl was going to be her final resting place, and soon, mine too. I started crying, as the giantess moved her first step outside.