Colleagues (Part 6) - Cure

It’s been 3 weeks now, almost every day looked the same.

Naomi came back from work, placed her dirty sweaty feet on the table, you and Jonathan treated them and ate whatever you could from her soles and from between her toes.

She mocked you occasionally, complimenting you for doing a good job, casually eating normal food in front of you and throwing lots of it to the garbage for you to see.

She stopped completely serving you crumbs or water, her foot gunk became your sole source of nutrition, instead of water you licked foot sweat and instead of actual food you ate toe jam.

On lucky days - you could find a crumb or two smashed on her sole and you could scratch it off using your teeth.

You and Jonathan slowly became friends, you talked about all sorts of things.

It was the only thing that made this hell bearable.

Today when she came back from work she had a big smile on her face.

“Hey boys, the cure is finally being sold”, you both stood up inside the cage as she said that, deep in your heart you started losing hope of this day to come.

She opened your cage, “so, you want to buy that cure?” She asked, you stepped out and looked at her in shock.

“Y-Yes, of course I do”, you said, confused.

“ok, so it’s not so hard, there’s an account you need to transfer your money to”, she explained and sat down, then opened her laptop, “wanna do it now?”

“Yes, please”, you said in disbelief.

“Greg! Don’t believe her!” Jonathan called from the cage.

You turned back to him with a helpless expression.

“Lol, what? Don’t believe me?” Naomi laughed, “I won’t force you to do anything, if you want to stay and treat my feet every day like that for the rest of your life - I will be the last person to oppose, I’m fine taking care of you both like things are now”, she said and shrugged.

“Naomi, do you promise it’s not a trick?” You asked and looked at her with puppy begging eyes, “I trust you”, you added pathetically.

“I can’t believe you guys are even saying that, I’ve been more than fair in taking care of you so far”, she said in a sincere tone, Jonathan released a cynical chuckle, you also felt like this is complete bullshit.

“I mean it, you have no idea what’s happening out there, shrinkies are being squished on sight, tortured to death in horrible ways”, then she looked at you, “Greg, you know, Anna found Charlie, yeah he also shrunk”, she said and paused.

You looked at her and waited for her to continue.

“She crushed him with her toes, limb after limb, then she sent it in the girls whatsapp group, you want to see i-”

“NO”, you shouted and held your ears, “ok, Naomi, please, lets buy the cure, I believe you, ok? Thank you for taking care of us” You said in fear.

“ok”, she smiled and entered a website on her laptop.

You guided her on your details and you made the transfer, 100k$ of your savings, you had to digitally sign a few docs to get it authorized.

“ok, so the cure will be here in a few days”, Naomi concluded, “I think I totally deserve a treatment after this”, she said smiling and closed the laptop, then placed her feet on the table.

You were used to it already, Jonathan sighed and climbed down from his cage.

“I think you’ve made a mistake”, he whispered as he walked past you to her other foot.

You started licking, then after 10 minutes Naomi leaned forward, “oh, by the way Greg, I thought you can help me with something”, she said and you stopped licking to look at her.

She pointed at a dead skin cluster next to her heel, “can you get rid of it?”

“How?” You helplessly asked.

“Use your teeth or something, it shouldn't be that hard”, she replied.

You opened your mouth to protest but you quickly closed it, better be obedient, you started grinding your teeth against it, you ripped off a piece and started chewing it.

“Excellent, I know I can count on you Greg, thanks”, she said with a smile and laid back again, watching her stupid show on TV.

Her dead skin had a viscous texture, it was like beef jerky, and the taste wasn’t as bad as her toe jam, it was humiliating to admit - but it was even refreshing to finally have something else to eat. You felt stupid for not thinking about it yourself already.

She sighed in pleasure and closed her eyes as you two kept working hard like any other day.

“Are you sure you guys don’t want to stay like that?” She asked and giggled, “I’m going to miss it so much”.

You didn’t even think to reply, there’s nothing you wanted more than this nightmare to finally end.

—----------

It’s been a week like that, you wondered what’s going on with the cure.

Today when she came home, she finally carried some sort of a small bag, both you and Jonathan jumped and held the bars, looking at her.

“Guess what arrived today!” She cheered and waved with the bag, you both looked at her silently.

She sat down and opened the bag, then pulled 2 small bottles outside, “ok, listen”, she said, “few things you should know”, she coughed her throat, reading from the bottle.

“It has 56% success rate”

“Wait, what?” You snapped, “they said on TV it always worked”

She giggled, “that was just a show before the actual results, now they have the specifics, and yeah it doesn’t always work”, she shrugged, “but 56% sounds good, right? Maybe just one of you will grow back, who knows”.

Jonathan just stood quietly and watched the both of you, obviously doesn’t believe a word of it.

“Ok, let’s try it please”, you walked towards one of the bottles.

“Ah ah ah”, she pulled it back and placed her feet on the table, “no way you guys are trying it before kissing every inch of my feet”, she giggled.

“Kissing? Seriously Naomi!?” Jonathan shouted.

“Ok, ok Naomi, please, it’s fine”, you gestured with your hands for both of them to calm down, afraid Jonathan might ruin it for you and she will spill the cure or something, you quickly ran to her foot and started kissing like your life depended on it.

“Babe, you better do the same or you don’t get the cure”, she waved with the bottle playfully in front of Jonathan.

He looked at you, then sighed and did the same.

You miserably kissed her foot, it was sweaty and dirty, she was after jogging again.

She sighed and turned on TV, sitting idly with a smile and letting you both worship her like she’s a goddess.

She finally pulled her feet back and placed one bottle on the table, “ok, I guess you guys earned it”, she got up and went to the kitchen, came back with a tiny spoon, she opened the bottle and took out some of it, then placed it on the table.

“OK Greg, you go first”, she said and you slowly walked towards it, your whole body was shaking, you kneeled and started sipping it, you immediately started coughing and gagging, it was disgusting, Naomi giggled.

Treating her foot every day probably completely ruined your sense of taste, because you could swear it tastes a bit like her foot sweat, you kept drinking it until you finished the whole spoon.

“Ugh, how much more do I need?”

“Umm, I think that should do it”, she said.

“Let me have another spoon, just to be sure”, you asked.

“ok”, she said with a smile and filled the spoon again and placed it back down, you immediately drank it.

“I don’t understand, why do we need 2 bottles?” Jonathan said, “one would be enough for the both of us”, it made sense.

“Oh umm, that’s their recommendation, but you don’t drink everything, it gets spoiled after a day”, she explained.

“A day?!... So most of it goes to the trash?” Jonathan asked, “it doesn’t sound right”.

“Are you calling me a liar?” She asked irritatedly.

“Whatever Naomi”, he replied, trying to avoid a fight.

You finished another spoon, you were stuffed, “how long before it takes effect?” You asked.

“They say up to a day, and you can’t be in the cage during this time”, she explained and you nodded, “ok now you babe”, she opened the other bottle and used the same spoon, she placed it in front of him, he sipped it, then gagged it out.

“What the fuck?!” He snapped.

“Hmm?”

“T-That’s your fucking sweat!” He shouted.

“Lol, your taste buds are broken babe”, she giggled.

“I think she is right, maybe everything tastes like that for us now”, you told him.

“ok, so give me something normal to eat, let’s prove it”, he insisted.

“Look, I don’t like your tone”, she pulled the spoon and placed it back in the bottle.

“Dude, just drink it, we might finally go back to normal”, you told him, but he just waved and climbed back to his cage.

“Leave me out of this bullshit”, he said, you couldn’t believe he’s passing away a chance to grow back to normal.

You turned to Naomi but she already walked away and threw the bottles to the garbage, you paid 100k$ for a spoon? And a whole bottle wasted on Jonathan?

“Well, see you tomorrow boys, good luck Greg, don’t forget not to go inside the cage”, she said with a smile and went to shower.

You were excited and your whole body trembled, 56% chance, you sat down and prayed that the cure would kick in.

—------

end of part 6