Dinner for One (Chapter 10)

Unfortunately, Cody had no option for the next several hours to be purposefully amusing or not for her, as she climbed out of bed and spent the morning in almost-literally constant motion. Unlike Bri and Ashley, who’d unwittingly stepped on him with mostly mercifully-average fortitude yesterday, the highly-aware Kayla had a very compelling reason – her own diabolical ego-boosting sadism – to put grueling oomph behind every last world-breaking stamp she administered to her miniscule undersole passenger. Not only because she was both taller and stronger than either of the other two mile-high giantesses that had unintentionally treaded over Cody’s body, but because the domineering brunette slammed her foot back to earth with at least quadruple the necessary force each time, rattling furniture and popping his eardrums and making the floors audibly creak. The shrinker, losing stamina and verging on a blackout numerous times throughout this harrowing morning spent suctioned against Kayla’s beefy-dimpled sole crescent, just had to greedily suckle up leaked sweat and toe-crevice detritus whenever he had the chance, if only to keep himself from getting any weaker.

            Finally, just as Kayla was passing through the living room at midday, Cody heard the upbeat laughter-laced voices of Diane, Ashley, and Bri evidently hanging out nearby, but still horribly unaware of where he was or what he was going through in the same room as them. And then his gigantic warden shed herself of his presence on purpose, by scraping her foot hard along the carpet like a welcome mat, rather than staking a straight-downward sole impact which would’ve only further cemented the little thing’s snow-angeled adhesion to her damp skin. Grated agonizingly along the rug fibers by Kayla’s never-ending sole isle, jostling and spinning in so many chaotic directions in quick succession that Cody couldn’t even tell for a while which way gravity was pulling him, the micro-shrinker finally toppled breathlessly to stillness again. He wasn’t far from the base of the stool where she’d dropped those truth bombs last night. Which meant he still had roughly the same dangerous and protracted hike ahead of him as before to reach the watch – except he was in even rougher shape than last night, aching and worn-out and thirsting for ripe toejam, and also now facing the terrifying threat of Kayla searching for the transmogrifier first in order to damn him to permanent sole-stuck banishment down here.

            But Cody couldn’t lie down and wallow. Even if the odds were wildly against him, and Kayla possessed the power to find him wherever he ventured to instantly cancel out his efforts simply by pressing down and remolding his body into the warm sweat-spackled doughiness of her arch yield, he had to resist. So he rose, groggy and pummeled from relentless hours of being stampeded over by his nemesis, and took off running for the door into the hallway. High above and across the room, lounged across the furniture, three titanesses blithely carried on conversation, went over chores, cracked jokes, and discussed weekend plans, while one godlike being much-more-knowledgeably stared down at her phone, tracing Cody’s every move. Even if she couldn’t see him with her naked eye at this range, Kayla knew precisely where he was so long as she had that screen in-hand, which made the little thing’s skin crawl with seething awareness. As if he was being watched by an evil spectral presence, and also banefully paranoid of the fact that, at any second, she could ascend and strut straight back to where he was now, taking single nonchalant yet soul-whamming steps that were each equivalent to multiple minutes’ worth of sprinting progress by Cody.

            In stark contrast to the last time he was liberated from hanging like a dab of chewing gum to the underside of a giantess’s foot, however, he wasn’t immediately overtaken again and stalked off to parts unknown. Strangely, this was the longest unbroken period of time that Cody had enjoyed since reaching this denigrating gnat-stature over a week ago, where he wasn’t either smush-fastened into someone’s sole wrinkle ravine, or penned into a private prison of Bri’s black shoe. He could just run toward his far-flung destination, powered forth by all the pent-up desperation he’d suffered since losing the transmogrifier. Regrettably, though, now that Cody had his first real opportunity to try and change his fate before Kayla could seal it forever, he received another practical demonstration of just how dismally borderline-microscopic he was now.

He’d been jogging full-bore for at least ten minutes straight, headed directly for the exit to the palatial room, and yet while it felt like he’d crossed a lot of ground, the walls never seemed to get any closer, as if he was stuck on a treadmill, where nothing in the distance would ever get any nearer. Logically, Cody knew this wasn’t true, and the illusion was simply because his longest strides were immeasurably small, such that even a snail would outrun him. Still, it didn’t help his already-flagging tenacity to have to discover this reality for himself, without even the need of a giantess – either an oblivious or malevolently-intentioned one – to come tromping through and erase his meager progress by, either accidentally or not, stepping down on him so hard that he became deeper embedded in their supple foot flesh than a splinter.

Right around then, when Cody slowed his pace just to let his heartrate settle and simultaneously battle that internal pessimism telling him how long he still had yet to go, Kayla made her move. Cody had erred by watching her too often while the others happily chit-chatted, seeing her eyes flit back-and-forth from her phone screen over to whatever tuft in the carpet he was traversing, even if she couldn’t see his physical body from across the room. Every time Kayla’s gaze relocated him on his glacially-slow pilgrimage, he saw that glow of appreciative mocking in her eyes, and her lips curving anew into a sinister smile, even while she occasionally still spoke up to the others beside her – and none of them were any the wiser to the drawn-out hunt she was playing with Cody.

Now, finally, the little thing’s pulse leapt back to hyperdrive when he saw her massive gym-toned body surge upward from the couch, back on her feet once again, and shuffling his way. Having barely made it a meter across the floor, if even that far, the micro-shrinker could do nothing else but brace for impact and ball himself into the fetal position to reduce the brunt of Kayla’s foot when it came to collect him. That wasn’t what happened yet, however, as she passed him right by, still sweeping her soles low against the ground, rustling the forest of rug fluff, and quaking Cody to his core every time she even set a toe back down against the ground, let alone the heaving might of her heels. Even while she intentionally missed him that first time, Kayla was far from finished with him, as she pivoted right back around and meandered that way again, padding barefoot back and forth on the same track. Each time she came within inches of actually stamping upon her pinpointed victim, but never actually squashed him again, or at least not yet.

In spite of that staved-off torment, however, the repeated plummeting blockade wall of her bronze-tan insteps or scrunched-up toes were plenty of impetus to make Cody skid to a halt or lose his way en route to the door. Even the close-by seismic concussions between her prideful feet and the shaggy floor were enough to make the living speck’s body bounce like a jumping bean, all while she studied her phone and lightly chuckled to herself at how simple it was to terrorize and disorient her shrunken plaything.