Meeting Dad (2021) (Patreon)

The story is written by the incredible author Mysterion1800.

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Todd couldn’t believe what he was doing. He should’ve been excited. He supposed he still was, to some degree. But, what he mostly felt was fear.

For eighteen years, he had no father. Then, after doing one of those DNA tests for a genealogy website, done mostly for a laugh, he suddenly did.

Jeff was his name, apparently. He was in his early forties, meaning he had conceived Todd no later than his early twenties. He was a warehouse worker and had been for the length of Todd’s life. What came as a shock to Todd, however, was that Jeff worked in a warehouse in town. His father had never been far away.

Perhaps even more shocking, however, was how willing Jeff was to speak with him. After learning that they were a genetic match, Todd, after some rumination, messaged Jeff and received a reply just a day later. They then messaged each other back and forth constantly over the next few days, Jeff constantly repeating that he did not know that he had knocked up one of his girlfriends, and had he known, he would’ve been there for Todd. And Todd believed him.

Eventually, however, their conversation took a turn that Todd should’ve expected, but nevertheless, didn’t quite anticipate this soon.

“Let’s meet up.”

Todd now stood in the corner of his town’s only park. It was around noon on a weekday, so the park was devoid of other people. Todd both welcomed and despised this emptiness. On the one hand, this meant he and his father could have their meeting in peace. On the other hand, he would be completely alone with his father, whom he had never known.

Still, his father couldn’t be dangerous, could he? Jeff seemed nice over the messages. He was apparently even taking a half-day off work to come and meet him, intending to take his son to lunch after they met at the park.

Todd began pacing, pulling out his phone to look at the time. His father was running late. Would he be a no-show? On his fifth round of pacing, Todd’s phone slipped out of his sweaty palm and landed in the grass. Sighing, Todd bent down to pick it up, but felt something sharp stab into his palm.

Todd instantly recoiled. He inspected his hand and noticed a small bump, rather like a bee sting. Before he could look away from his hand and find the culprit, however, Todd felt his whole body become tense and cold. Then, he blacked out.

***

Todd couldn’t have been out for long. When he awoke, his phone was still in his hand, and he immediately checked the time. Only a few minutes had passed. However, Todd was now somewhere else completely. He was lying on hard earth and surrounded by a forest of odd-looking trees. They were tall, very green, extremely thin, yet also incredibly wide.

“Where the fuck am I?” he asked aloud.

Todd then turned to his left and saw a large concrete building in the distance. It was as tall as a skyscraper, yet seemed to be as wide as a strip mall. The outside was weathered and cracked. It was old, whatever it was.

Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise invaded Todd’s ears. He instinctively slapped the back of his neck, believing it to be a normal mosquito, but this buzzing noise didn’t just annoy his ears. It rumbled throughout his entire body, rattling his bones. A large shadow then zoomed over him. It came and went very quickly, but Todd couldn’t mistake it for anything else. It was a giant fly.

Everything suddenly clicked. The strange forest, the massive concrete structure, the giant fly. Whatever had stabbed Todd earlier had shrunk him. He was no bigger than a common ant.

Todd’s blood ran cold again, but thankfully, he did not shrink further. His mind could barely process this revelation. He was only beginning to question how or why his clothes and phone had shrunk with him when suddenly the ground trembled slightly, and a distant crack of thunder split the air.

Todd turned again. For a while, he didn’t see anything. However, the trembling, which had started faintly, became more intense. The cracks of thunder only grew louder, as if the source was coming closer. There was also something rhythmic about the trembling and the thunder. It had the same cadence as someone walking.

However, Todd soon learned why this commotion resembled someone walking. In the near distance, a colossal figure was approaching the spot where Todd now stood. There was no mistaking this titan for anything but a man. His skin appeared slightly weathered, likely due to both work and age. His hair had been combed back and was slick with gel. A mustache and beard decorated his upper lip and chin. A golden chain necklace hung lazily from his thick neck. A plain tee shirt and jeans covered his torso and legs. And even from Todd’s vantage point, there was a powerful scent that radiated from the man, one that was a mixture of sweat and deodorant. The giant’s facial features were also familiar to Todd. Some he had seen in a photograph that had been sent to him not that long ago. Others that he had seen in his own reflection for years. But if there was any doubt regarding who this giant was, the next crack of thunder quickly made it abundantly clear.

“TODD?”

Almost instinctively, Todd replied, “D-Dad?”

The words just came out of Todd’s trembling lips as he gaped at his blue-collar Adonis of a father as he loomed over him. Had this day gone the way he would’ve wanted it to, Todd wasn’t even sure if he would be calling Jeff “Dad” yet, but the immense size of the godlike being before him, combined with the fact that this was the father had never knew he had, had him gobsmacked to the point of feeling like a small child who been caught doing something wrong.

Todd wanted to back away, but he couldn’t. He was transfixed by the sight of his giant father, who was now a deity ruling over his diminutive son without ever knowing said son was even there. Todd watched as Jeff turned his head from side to side, likely scanning the park for a normal-sized son. Not the mite Todd had become.

“Dad. I’m here. It’s me, Todd. Your son. Look down, please.”

Todd intended to scream at the top of his lungs, but it instead came out as a tiny whisper. It was like he already knew there was no point in trying to grab his father’s attention at this size. Unless this shrinkage was temporary, Todd knew only two fates awaited him at this size. Either some creature in the grass was going to eat him, or some giant would stomp by and crush him. And that giant was more than likely going to be his father.

As if Todd’s mouth couldn’t open any wider, Jeff began to take a step forward. A white sneaker the size of an aircraft carrier eclipsed the sun and started to descend upon the spot where Todd stood now. Todd wasn’t going to have to wait long to meet his maker. His maker was going to crush him now.

“No!” Todd shouted.

However, his father’s unforgiving sneaker did not slow down as it lowered towards the earth, Jeff’s full weight ready to bear down on the ground beneath his sole. Todd broke out of his stupor and somersaulted out of the way, not even sure if he would clear the shoe.

Todd had, but just barely. The shoe crashed into the ground effortlessly and with tremendous force. The grass was completely flattened. Dust exploded from beneath the sole of Jeff’s shoe, the same air throwing Todd backwards for what felt like a couple hundred yards.

Winded, Todd looked up in time to see his father’s other foot swing and crash land on another patch of grass closer to the concrete base. Not long after that, the foot that almost crushed Todd into oblivion also rose again, stepping even further ahead. Todd raked his head up further to look at his father’s face. A vacant expression. Jeff was clearly unaware that he had just come extremely close to crushing his only child like an insect.

Todd let out a sob, but Jeff still paid no mind. Todd then watched as his father turned around to face the other side of the park before bending down to sit on the concrete base. Another crack of strange thunder reverberated through Todd’s ears as Jeff let out a sigh of relief, clearly satisfied to not be on his feet anymore.

Todd, feeling even more like a small child, timidly took a few steps closer to the titan sitting on his throne, but was blasted off his feet again when his father suddenly stretched his legs, the heel of one of his father’s sneakers almost flattening him again.

Both of his father’s sneakers now loomed over him, their intimidating presence only outmatched by Jeff himself. Todd could even see bits of grass and what looked like a bug or two stuck to the soles of his sneakers. Bugs that were far bigger than Todd was.

“Dad.”

The word came out softly again. Todd did not know what to do.

As if to answer his son, whom he still had no inkling was actually there, Jeff bent down and began to untie the laces of his sneakers. Todd continued to gape once more as fingers the size of redwoods unwound the laces and then lifted the shoes free from his father’s feet. Socked soles now filled Todd’s sky.

The air became putrid within seconds. Todd immediately started coughing, tears welling in his eyes as the stench of his father’s foot funk washed over him. Todd couldn’t help but wonder if this smell was the result of his father’s short work shift today, or if Jeff had a bad habit of reusing socks because he was too lazy to do laundry. He prayed it was the latter, because the idea of how much worse it could have been if his father had worked a full shift was something Todd didn’t want to consider.

But his father wasn’t finished. Jeff’s giant fingers reached down again and pulled the rancid socks away from feet, revealing sweaty soles, somewhat pruned from their own sweat. Jeff let out an even louder sigh, his toes flexing in their newfound freedom.

This amplified smell made Todd fall to his knees. He gagged, but nothing from his stomach came up as it was empty in anticipation of having lunch with his father. When the retching subsided, Todd looked up again at his father’s bare soles, adorned with pieces of sock lint, stretching over him. His father clearly wasn’t the worst at foot hygiene as Todd first thought, but these were evidently hardworking soles of a hardworking man, older than Todd and undoubtedly stronger too.

There was another crack of thunder as Jeff spoke to himself aloud.

“BOY, WOULD IT BE TOO MUCH TO ASK MY SON TO RUB HIS OLD MAN’S FEET ON THE FIRST DATE?”

Todd’s teeth clenched hard as he cringed at what Jeff had said. The last thing he wanted to imagine was him massaging his father’s bare feet as those same bare feet now threatened to wipe him out of existence. Even in his current predicament, an intrusive thought entered Todd’s brain. Was Jeff only there so he could freeload off him? Jeff never came off that way to Todd in their online conversations, so he simply hoped that Jeff was in the early development stages of refining his fatherly sense of humor. Todd was not only hoping it was the latter, but he was hoping to live to hear more of it. However, Todd had no further time to ruminate on this as hell broke loose again.

Jeff’s feet suddenly slid backwards on the grass towards the concrete base. It was apparent his father was getting ready to stand. Was he leaving? Was Todd going to survive this encounter just to be abandoned?

“No, Dad. Don’t go.”

Jeff then stood up, towering over his gnat of a son once again. He then began to walk. At first, Todd’s worst fear seemed realized as his father looked as if he was walking back towards the parking lot. However, Jeff then stopped, pulled out his phone, turned around, and began stomping in the opposite direction towards Todd. His father was pacing. And to make matters worse for Todd, Jeff now had his phone out to distract himself from the world beneath his feet.

“Dad!”

Todd screamed again as Jeff’s bare feet closed in on him. Once again, his father’s foot blotted out the sun as Jeff raised it above where his minuscule son stood. Todd got another glimpse of his father’s bare sole as it threatened to turn him into paste. In addition to the sock lint, Jeff’s sole was now decorated in flecks of dirt and bits of loose grass, and his father’s careless step was ready to add his tiny son to the mix.

“No!”

Todd dived out of the way, once again barely avoiding being crushed by his father’s unrelenting feet. Jeff, still eternally oblivious, just kept walking, more absorbed in the message he was typing.

As Todd caught his breath, he suddenly felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Had he gotten a text? At this size? He quickly pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and noticed he had received a message on the genealogy app from none other than Jeff himself.

What’s the holdup, kid? I don’t bite.

Todd couldn’t believe it. He might have the chance to survive after all. Frantically, he began typing a message.

Help! Shrunk by something…

Todd suddenly felt a shadow roll over him. As he was typing, his father had paced back towards him and was about to crush him a third time. Without even bothering to yell, Todd jumped out of the way as his father’s bare sole stomped down. As Jeff continued his current round, Todd, quickly recovering, continued typing his message.

strange. Now extremely tiny.

Todd rolled as his father’s foot came down a fourth time.

At your feet. Not a

Todd dodged his father’s foot a fifth time.

Joke. Help me

A sixth stomp.

please, Dad.

A seventh.

I beg you.

Todd was finished. He let out a triumphant cry. His thumb was about to press send when he felt the presence of his father’s descending bare foot for an eighth time. But this time, there wasn’t any time to get out of the way. The only time Todd had was to turn around and scream.

“Dad! Don’t crush…”

Todd wasn’t able to finish the sentence, or even press send. His father bore his full weight down upon his ant of a son.

Every bone in Todd’s body ached. His senses were overwhelmed by the acrid smell of his father’s feet. He didn’t know how it happened, but somehow, despite being stepped on by his titan of a father, he hadn’t been fully crushed. At least, not yet.

Todd’s phone hadn’t been as lucky, however. His fingers could feel the splintered glass of the screen, and though it was hard to tell due to the heat radiating off of his father’s sole, Todd also felt the lithium battery of his phone beginning to warm up after being ruptured. All he could do now was wonder what his father was about to do next.

Todd quickly got his answer. More weight began to bear down upon him as the ball of his father’s bare foot twisted as if Jeff was putting out a cigarette. Todd tried to scream, but his lips were sealed closed by his father’s leathery sole. He suddenly felt weightless as his father lifted his foot; Todd still stuck to the sole. Light briefly blinded him as his father took another step. The wreckage that was once Todd’s phone slipped through his fingers and fell somewhere in the forest of grass before Todd was once again pressed into the earth by his godlike father.

Mercifully, Jeff eventually sat back down on the concrete base, sitting back all the way against the railing this time, letting his bare feet rest on the concrete, soles visible to the world. This gave Todd an opportunity to get more than just a fleeting glimpse of sunlight and breathe in somewhat cleaner air. He even managed to get his face unglued from his father’s sole, though the rest of his body remained stuck.

“Dad… help me.”

Once again, Todd knew it was futile, but he wanted to try and get his father’s attention one more time anyhow. It did not work. Jeff remained seated in that position for a little while longer before eventually reaching for his discarded socks and shoes.

Todd didn’t even bother resisting as his father’s sock was rolled over his father’s sole and, by extension, himself. The sock, putrid on its own, amplified the horrible smell of his father’s feet, but there was no use in fighting it, especially as it only got worse as Jeff slipped his massive feet back into his sneakers. The damp but cushioned insole, aided by the sock, was at least more comfortable than the scratching grass and hard earth of the park.

Todd then felt his father begin to walk back to his vehicle, continuing to torment his ant-sized son with every step with impunity, purely because he did not know his son was even there to begin with. But, it didn’t matter anyway. Unless he spontaneously grew back, this was Todd’s life now. He’d better get used to his father’s feet. They would be keeping him alive for however long his tiny life lasted.