Stand Your Ground - Part 2 (Patreon)

Our situation was horrifying enough. We were small enough to get lost in the carpet fibers, and there was no way to know if anything could change us back. If I ran, where would I run? If I hid, what would I do? I tried to think, but I couldn’t my mind to move forward any more than that. All I could manage was to slump to the ground, gasping and sobbing uncontrollably. It didn’t make sense. It just didn’t make sense.

When the giant witch came through the door, I let myself hope for a moment. I’d learned my lesson--I’m sure we all had. I’d never go near her again. I’d leave the state, leave the country, whatever I had to do.

Maybe she had a plan for us. Maybe she’d at least gather us up, and we’d talk to her and figure things out from there. That would be something, at least something better than wasting away helplessly on the floor.

But then there was no mistaking what she’d done. It felt like I watched her immense boot twist and grind back and forth for an hour. Whoever it was that she’d stepped on, she took her time with him. She drew the whole thing out for as long as she could, and the look on her face was just as unmistakable.

She took pleasure in killing one of my friends. It looked like she was getting off on someone dying under her foot.

Now I ran. It didn’t matter where I went, it didn’t matter how I hid. I turned away from her and sprinted in the opposite direction.

Yes, little things. Her voice was all around me. It echoed through my skull. Run. You should all run.

I kept stumbling through the carpet fibers, but I managed to keep my feet. If i could get to the wall I could find some crack or crevice to squeeze into and make it through until I came up with the next part of my plan.

The ground shuddered and bounced. I cried out, shouting as I went sprawling for a moment. A panicked glance over my shoulder and I shrieked in terror. One single step, and she was right over me, her dark eyes trained on my tiny form while she wore her weird, twisted smirk.

I kept running. I had to keep going--as long as I kept going, anything could happen.

Scurry. There was laughter in her voice. I amused her. You’re insects. Stupid, weak, disgusting insects.

I felt it before it even hit me. The rush of air pulled my attention back behind me and an absolute wall of blackness crashed down towards me, filling my vision in every direction. I screeched and screamed, stumbling as my body continued to turn--I couldn’t look away, kicking and crawling backwards until the blackness engulfed me and the unforgiving surface smashed me into the ground.

*****

I cooed as I stepped on him. I could feel his delectable panic beneath me while I held him pinned and pressed into the carpet. I could just imagine him gasping, shouting and straining against the impossible weight of my boot, and that put a broad grin on my face as I lifted my toes and let him loose.

It took a few moments, but the tiny speck emerged back into my sight before long, scampering away from me in total, desperate terror. I barely had to shift my heel forward along the ground before dropping my toes back down, smashing him to the floor again.

He was still so full of spirit, fighting and clawing with every ounce of his being. He’d do anything to preserve his meager little life--that insignificant existence, mine to snuff out on a whim. I rocked my boot back onto its heel and let him loose, and once more he was up and fleeing for all he was worth.

This time I only gave him a moment before slapping him back to the floor. I didn’t even move my boot forward, just dropped the pointed toe onto his little body and flattened him out once again. The tip of my boot curved upwards just the slightest bit, and he was so small that I had to lift my heel off of the ground to keep him trapped.

I had to be cautious with the pressure. I didn’t want him to break just yet--I wanted every last ounce of his struggles, I wanted to taste his anguish and despair. This time when I let him up, there wasn’t much left. His arm hung limply from his side and he more shuffled and staggered forwards than sprinted as he had before.

I didn’t lift my boot, just moved it forward slowly along the ground with my toes raised in the air, covering him one more time--for the last time.

I experienced his broken sobs as he was mashed into the carpet. They were all that he had left, and that alone was all it took to draw a low, soft chuckle from my throat. It lasted longer than he did, filling the otherwise silent room while I shifted my weight forward, bearing down on his almost unnoticeable body, giving one slow, firm twist of my toes back and forth until he was nothing more than the tiniest little smear.