Chapter Six
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge” - Daniel J. Boorstin
I finally reach the end of the monstrous forest. I look downward and find there to be a bit of cliff. It’s nothing to that of a normal sized person. However to me, the distance from where I’m standing now, and the kitchen floor is comparable to that of two story house.
My stomach grumbles once again with the smell of pizza still in the air. My stomach cries out for but a small morsel of that pizza, however I knew the likelihood of me getting any is slim to none. As I’m dealing with college students, or at the very least college aged young adults. They don’t necessarily think like that of a more mature mind would. Where someone my age would eat at the table, even if I was alone; a young adult like them would think nothing of eating in there room which is what happened today. I did have the feeling though, while it wouldn’t be pizza there would be plenty of food to find in the kitchen as young adults aren’t the most meticulous of cleaners.
The night had completely solidified, from what I can tell we must be on the side of the building away from the street. As there aren’t any street lights shining in through the building and I haven’t heard any cars drive by nor seen any headlights at all. In fact if not for the random lighting you get from just living in the city there wouldn’t be much light at all coming in.
This of course made my situation worse. As there is very little light coming in, and no one is in the living room; so no additional lighting is available. The towering shag carpeting doesn’t help any as it blots out over 90 percent of any of the minute lighting that would be coming in. All in all it’s a fairly dark world I’m living in. My eyesight has somewhat adjusted to it; however people weren’t made to live in such poorly lit situations.
“stop it” I say to myself interrupting my own rambling thoughts. I need to stop thinking of this as some kind of permanent change. It is just temporary. I look back down at the cliff and cringe a bit. It’s a long way down to the floor. I look back at the pillars and notice a small trim of threading that is wrapped around them. I pull at the small white threading on several of the carpet strands and tie them together in order to create a makeshift rope.
I tie my newly made rope around one of the carpet strands and toss it over the cliff. I keep telling myself this is no different than boy scouts. I look over the ledge one last time before I grab the rope and start to rappel down. Several horrifying minutes later I touch down on the ground. I shiver as my bare feet hit the cold tile of the floor.
My feet were starting to get sore as I had been walking for a good twenty minutes on this cold floor. However, I finally reached the garbage can and just as I had suspected crumbs galore. I shove an Oreo crumb into my mouth before reaching for a shard of a stale tortilla chip. As I continue to stuff my mouth full of the discarded morsels I hear the noise of something or someone approaching. I look behind me and chalk it up to just me being paranoid, however I look behind me once again and this time I spot the huge lumbering Godzilla like creature. It was a bug on a scale I never thought or wanted to witness. If I had to guess I would call it a beetle of some kind but species identification was never something I aspired towards.
“Get, get away” I shout meekly as I take off running from the garbage can hoping he came with the same thought that I had which was the crumbs around the garbage can. Luck was not on my side as the bug was in hot pursuit as I am in a mad dash for my life. I have no idea where I was running at this point, I was just running. I reach the underside of the table as the giant bug follows closely behind. I am panting heavily when the sound of one of the girls approaching fills my ears. I run out from beneath the table knowing this was my only hope. The bug followed a bit to close behind me for comfort when I felt and heard the rumble from her voice.
“EWWW” the giant spoke. It was simply amazing. The voice was beyond my level comprehension. The only way to describe it is just loud. It was the only sound that is heard. I looked up dizzingly at the giant girl before me. She turned away for a moment, the air from her pivot and footfalls sent me tumbling backwards. I scamper to my feet as this has caused the beetle to gain ever precious ground on me. A moment later her pink and white striped sock slams down in front of me with the impact of a meteor striking the planet. I stumble forward smacking into the pink and white mesh of her sock. I climb into one of the cave like holes of her sock and hold on as I watch the bug disappear under the converse shoe she slammed down with her hand. She lifted the shoe for but an instant before she pelted it back down against the floor. This happens several more times as the bug is ground to a paste.
The entire thing was cleaned away in a matter of an instant as she swipes a Kleenex over the area of the floor the bugs remains were. I watch in a bit of awe as she tosses the Kleenex containing a bug that surely would have meant my doom into the garbage can.
The realization of the situation had yet to fully impact me when her foot began to move forward. I stammered back and forth finally grasping tightly one of the pink threads of the sock. The entire sock to me wasn’t really a fluid piece of material as it would appear to you. It was a series of squares all made up in a mesh like pattern.
As we move deeper into the kitchen, I begin to find that moving in this manner is much easier then it would appear; as the force of her forward progress is pushing my back towards the wall of foot flesh. As the fridge door closes and we begin to move away from the kitchen area I wonder if I could even get off if I wanted too. As the force of the wind to me is literally pinning me against her foot, so by grasping each side of the sock strand I can hold myself in place.
We cover the entire length of the apartment in a matter of seconds. It would have taken me a week to cover a distance of this magnitude. As we reach her bedroom she sits back down at a desk. I realize how perfect this is. While it’s not the exact person I was intending, the roommate of the girl I sold the car to will be just as good. As it’s not like I have any connection to these girls other than the selling one of them a car. If I can just get atop the desk, I can perhaps get her to see me for something more than just a tiny parasite.
The clanking of keys from far above fills the room followed by a couple of mouse clicks. The roommate sighs quite heavily before much to my surprise standing back up. The unexpected movement nearly causes me to fall off the sock; however I manage to keep my balance as her foot rises up into the air. I look out and over the edge of the sock a bit causing my eyes to bulge open in and my heart to race as I realize how high up I am.
The realization of what this brief moment means is not lost on me. This is the first time my brain and body has actually had a complete thought process based on the reality of my situation. Every time before this my brain was telling myself this isn’t high, this isn’t far. As this is only a footstep, this is only a millimeter or so high. This is just a foot off the ground. However, this time was different. My brain has accepted this as reality and like now with me fully looking downward I completely comprehend this situation for what it is. A death defying height in which a single mistake on my part could mean the complete annihilation of my existence.
My hands grip at the fabric strand of the pink and white sock a bit tighter. My breath has quickens a little bit more. As the roommate sits down upon her bed the sounds of bed springs compressing sends a chill down my spine. The foot I am on lifts higher and higher into the air. I watch as her hand comes into view for the first time. The sheer size of her hand is unreal and for the first time I have nowhere to go, nowhere to run. I don’t have the benefit of being deep beneath a sea of carpeting, or have the tall fabric spires of an insole to hide beneath. I can’t run anywhere. I am holding onto a fabric rope thousands of feet in the air and just inches from me is a hand that could just as easily be the continent of Africa.
In the matter of an instant everything around me is shrouded in darkness as the hand of the roommate completely encompasses everything around the toe end of the sock. The temperature quickly rises or maybe it’s just me perspiring like I have a tendency to do in dangerous situations like these.
I can feel the sock that I am on lurch forward. I wrap my arms around the thick rope like mesh of the sock. In fact mesh is probably the wrong word for it. As the sock is more like a series of walls and the cotton may as well be concrete. I watch in trepidation as her foot becomes further and further away. The sense of security that I had, knowing that a wall of flesh just behind which would prevent my fall is now gone. If I fall backwards know it’s a straight drop to my doom.
As the sock breaks free from her foot, it swings back and forth for the longest few seconds of my life. The entire situation reminds me of that of when you’re on a rollercoaster. You always have that long slow methodical march up to the very peak of the ride. You can feel the tension in the air; everyone has that nervous, fearful, anxiety swarming about. Then at the drop of the hat everything changes. As you are dropping straight down, well this was much the same way. The sock and I swung back and forth free of her foot. Then a moment later we were in a state of free fall.
“AAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH” I cry out as the sock and I drop faster and faster, everything around me is blurry as I struggle to make out anything at all. Then just as sudden as it starts everything comes to a crashing halt; it was as if we were driving a hundred miles an hour and then crashed into a tree. Only instead of a tree it was the girl’s bed.
Upon impact I bounced up into the air and slammed against the top of the sock and then hit the bottom layer of the sock a second later. Somehow during the fall I became sandwiched between the two layers of sock. As my head assaults the bottom layer my vision blurs as my head starts to pound. As I sit up I feel the room start to spin before I lie back down. I think I have a concussion I say aloud to myself as I stare upwards at the giant girl before me.
The entire process of her taking off the sock felt like hours upon hours; however the second sock dropped atop of the first just a moment later. I could feel the bed bounce up and down as her weight lifts off the bed.
The second sock left me buried underneath several hundred tons of cotton. The weight wasn’t deadly crushing; it just is holding me firmly in place with my body completely pinned down. I could hear the rustling of the girl’s clothes leaving her body. A thunderous thud of her clothing landing nearby sent chills down my spine.
My concussion hits full swing as I hear the sounds of the girl bundling up her clothes. Everything goes into disarray as I manage to grasp onto the sock as everything begins to sway back and forth as I fight to stay conscious as the effects of my concussion worsen.
As she continues to walk, I find it’s not my consciousness that fails me but my grip. I can feel my hands slipping as gravity gains the advantage in this decisive battle. As my fingers lose grip with the sock I halfway expect to tumble to my doom, but I land on another article of her clothing.
“That wasn’t so bad” I mutter to myself just as she releases her grip on the bundle of clothes and everything begins to freefall. A panic fills me like a steak dinner as I tumble through the air. A loud girlish scream escapes my mouth as I fall for what feels like an eternity before I come to a sudden halt and tumble end over end before falling and then tumbling some more followed by falling again. As I come to a rest the effects of my concussion and what very well could be a second concussion start to set in. This time, the fight has left me as well along with my will. Defeated for the moment I stage a mental retreat and lose consciousness