Chapter 2: A New Life on Miranda's Feet

Nicole

For the better part of the night, Nicole begged Miranda to let her go but found that her captor didn't hear her or didn't care for her pleas. Placed on the ridge between her big and second toe, she could not see beyond the red-headed witch's ankle. Her world was only her neighbor's right foot, which to a person of normal size looked was smooth, clean, and well cared for, but being the size of a dust particle, she was literally part of another world. A world no one would ever see with their naked eye. A world in which she would never be found.

The lines below her toes were about as massive if not even more massive than the Grand Canyon itself. The landscape was filled with ridges and incredibly uneven with bits of dead skin from the size of her head to a small building littering the endless landscape along with various filth that normally clung to toes. The wiggle of Miranda's toe caused tremors and earthquakes strong enough to knock her on her ass and a single footstep sent her flying several feet, but Nicole had found an imperfection in the woman's skin and took shelter in it. What was also interesting is that when her captor got into bed and lied down on her side, she did not fall off, heck, she was totally unaffected by this simple motion, well simple for Miranda.

Her foot had its own gravity. Miranda's foot had quite literally became her own world. Nicole was terrified. Her night was too scarring to her psychologically for her to sleep as peacefully as her captor did and when morning came, her torment began again as her captor wiggled her toes, causing Nicole to scream and come loose from the imperceptible cut on Miranda's foot.

The voice of the witch rang in her mind once more; "Have you finished exploring your new home yet, my little dust mite?"

Nicole looked up, but could only make out the ridge of her foot. She could not see anything beyond that. Remembering that she couldn't see her captor unless she brought her moon-sized and gorgeous face down upon her world to address her. Nicole was blind to her captor and the world above Miranda's ankle, but definately not to the world down here where her toes flexed, twitched and produced footfalls.

"Answer your goddess when she addresses you, little one." Her words came again. They were stern yet calm.

Tears started streaming down the young woman's face. What had she done to deserve this? Why would God let such a horrible monster walk this world and shrink people like this?

"I know you're still alive down there," the planet-sized red-head with a Received Pronunciation English accent spoke to her, "I can sense your lifeforce on my foot. I thought I had told you that I wanted you to be at the tip of my big toe by morning."

The world shook and reverberated again as the witch flexed her big toe. Nicole yelled and fell to the ground, but the rumbling did not cease. That's when she noticed something in the distance. The witch's fingers were massaging her foot. Her massive digits were on either side of the area between her big and second toe.

"I hope you don't plan on being a defiant little speck." Miranda said. "I can be a merciful goddess, but not when my subjects disobey me. So, what will it be?" Her voice sounded nonchalant, but the sinister intent was there. "My fingers are like Mount Everest to you, but I'm not entirely sure if I can squish you like this. Do you think you'll survive in my saliva if I spit on you? Probably not."

Miranda was getting impatient with her captive. She wanted an answer from the insignificant creature on her foot and Nicole was so afraid. She wanted it all to end, but something within her gave in to the demands of the cruel goddess and she spoke to her.

"My... I... I couldn't-"

"Well done, my pet." A tremor rocked the ground as the woman removed her fingers from her foot. "I knew when I shrank you to the size of a mite, you wouldn't be as dim-witted as one, but you're still a mite nonetheless, just not as dim-witted."

Nicole was trembling, but she didn't know if it was out of sheer terror or out of hatred and anger. Miranda stole her life from her for no reason and now she was treating her as if she was less than nothing. She bit down on her lip so hard that she cut it and started bleeding. She wanted out of this nightmare, she wanted her life back and right now she had this woman's full attention, but before she could say anything to her, the witch's words dominated her mind and thoughts.

"Now, here's what's going to be our little routine from here on out; Your home is the landscape of my feet now and I want you to traverse them as I go about my daily routine. You will collect smaller parasites and bring them to the tip of my big toenail to pay homage to me, your goddess, each month. After each month, you will be expected to switch between my feet, so that means, next month, you will traverse my left foot and do the same on there. You are to continue this cycle until I command you to otherwise. If you fail to complete these tasks or disobey any of my orders, then you will be punished. Understand?

Nicole couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was essentially reduced to a parasitic slave on the foot of a Witch. Who does this evil bitch think she is? What gave her the right to do this to someone with a life, a rewarding career, a loving husband and two sons?

"Hey wait," Nicole began, "You can't just-"

"In case you haven't noticed, you are a mere parasite on my foot. Nothing more." Miranda's voice rang again. "The fault was yours for eavesdropping on me and finding out who I am. You gave me no other choice. You, mortals, have persecuted my sisters and me for thousands of years and we have no choice but to resort to these kinds of methods to keep our Covens safe from prejudice and persecution."

"S-so you really are a witch?" Nicole's voice quavered. "I never would've told anyone about you, who would believe me!?" Nicole cried in outrage.

"You'd be surprised, little bug." said Miranda. "700 years ago, my cousin was burned at the stake for using her healing magic to purge the Black Death by the very peasants she saved. Just recently, a friend of ours went missing trying to make a failing small town in rural America better. There's no shortage of ignorance, fear, and brutality from your kind and if I could do what I've done to you on all mortals, I would."

Nicole didn't know what was more frightening, the fact that there were people like her capable of shrinking people to the size of a parasite on a whim, or the calmness in her voice as she described what she would do to all of humanity if she had the power to do so. Not only was she at the mercy of a psycho. She was at the mercy of an all-powerful psycho who could do lord knows what to anyone she wanted on a whim. She dreaded the full extent of her power and what she could do to anyone else if they crossed her. What dreaded her the most is that if she flat out admitted feeling this way, then that meant that Miranda had no intention of ever letting Nicole go.

"I'll keep conversations with you to the minimum." Miranda said. "I realize the world is unfathomably large and perilous for you, but I don't want you to take up too much of my time. After all, people don't talk to parasites. Your new life starts today, little one. You'd better get moving so that you can pay homage to your new Goddess."

"Wait no. Please don't leave me here, I'll do anything you- AAAH!"

Another earthquake hit as Miranda started to move her leg. Nicole tried to see what was going on above her, but she was still blind to the world beyond this wicked woman's foot. A stronger tremor hit, sending the microscopic woman tumbling into a cavernous ravine deeper into the witch's skin. All this chaos was caused by Miranda taking a single step. Nicole screamed in frustration. Miranda wanted her to fail so she could torture her more. How was a human the size of a dust mite supposed to survive on a person's foot?