“No…”

The controller fell from David’s suddenly limp fingers. It hit the floor hard, clattering expensively, though it wasn’t like it mattered. Not compared to the forfeit for losing.

“Yes!” his sister, Penny, cheered. “I win! I win!”

“That you did, honey. Well done for beating your big brother after he talked so tough,” their mom said, chuckling over on the armchair. Her bare toes pattered on hardwood, anticipating what came next.

“Wa-wait. This can’t be right. There’s no way I lost…”

A figure cast David in its shadow. He craned his neck to look up at Penny standing over him, lips twisted into the most insufferable grin she could manage. When he tried climbing to his feet she pushed him back down, overpowering him surprisingly easily in his state of shock.

“Stay down there, LOSER. Get used to being smaller than me for a change.”

“Only for a week, honey,” their mom said. “That’s what we agreed.”

“Mom, come on, you don’t think I was serious, do you?” he asked, gulping as he saw her reach for her handbag beside the chair.

“You’re too old to be reneging on bets, David. You lost, fair and square.”

“But Mom, I—”

“Enough. If you’d have won, I doubt you’d be complaining that Penny does your chores for the whole month. Instead you have to spent a week half an inch tall.”

“Yeah, between your toes. Isn’t that too far?”

“You agreed to it.”

“Because I didn’t think it’d actually happen! This is ridiculous.”

Finally, after rooting around for the duration of the conversation, David’s mom found what she was searching for. Out came her DURD—Domestic Use Reduction Device—and it buzzed to life with only a single button press. Panic tightened his chest upon seeing the device, caused his heart to race and nausea to build. He felt sick at the thought of what was about to happen.

“Can we do something else? I’ll do anything. Anything.”

“I’m not the person you have to ask. Better come to an agreement with your sister quickly, though, this’ll only take a couple minutes to set up.”

David reluctantly removed his fearful gaze from his mom playing with the DURD’s display and shifted it to his still-grinning sister. She shuffled her small bare feet, waiting excitedly for his request.

“Penny…”

“Yeeeeeees? What’s up, bro?”

It was obvious from the twitch of her lips that she was resisting the urge to laugh.

“Please, let me do something else. O-or even try again? Double or quits.”

There’s no way I lose twice, he thought. She got lucky.

“Hmm. Let me think.”

Her fingers stroked her chin—an exaggerated gesture. He was forced to watch her think, listening to the slapping of her bare sole on the ground as she tapped her foot, listening to his mom tinkering with the DURD, steadily sealing his fate.

“I’ve decided!” she announced. “And I might let you off… if you kiss my pretty feet.”

David sighed. It was cruel of her, but much better than the alternative. Despite his instincts to show nothing more than disrespect to his brat of a sister, he knelt. Her feet had a natural, youthful look to them. Soft, made softer still by infrequent maintenance. Currently—on account of a recent sleepover with all her friends—her toenails were neatly trimmed and painted pink.

Closing his eyes, he gave into the degrading demand and started planting light, hesitant kisses on her eager toes. She was giggling; either from the sensation, the sight, or both. Even their mom had a chuckle at what was unfolding. Eventually she pushed him back with a gentle kick and sat on the floor. Both feet lifted, paused for a moment for him to bask in the sight of her pink soles and plump toes, then rushed forward to claim his face.

“Keep kissing,” she ordered, on the edge of laughter.

David had no choice other than to kiss the soft, slightly sweaty skin rubbing against his face, exploring his features. Penny collapsed backwards clutching her belly, laughing loudly, yet never pulling her feet away for even a second.

“Okay, okay,” she said, breathlessly. “Now go kiss mom’s feet. Then, maybe, I’ll forget all about this bet.”

A glance cast at his mom’s waiting feet made Penny crouch down beside him and lay a hand on his shoulder.

“Think about it, big bro. Kiss mom’s feet now and potentially get out of a week shrunken and glued between her toes, nothing to drink but toe-sweat, nothing to eat but dead skin and toe-jam. Kiss her feet now and it’s entirely possible you’ll be spared. I know I would. Spending any amount of time between mom’s cheesy toes would be a nightmare.”

“Hey,” their mom said with a smile. “I have functioning ears.”

“It’s true! Don’t even try to deny your feet stink.”

“Alright, I’ll admit my feet don’t smell the best, but we don’t have to talk about it, do we?”

“Sorry, Mom,” Penny said, giggling.

Before crawling over to his mom’s feet, David spared her a questioning glance. She met it for only a moment, raising a questioning brow. He sighed again, then approached. Then had a sour, mildly cheesy—like Penny had hinted at—odour, recently freed from a pair of ‘too warm’ slippers. It took a moment of mental steeling before he started kissing the rougher, more mature skin of the tops of her toes. The nails were trimmed too short, unpainted.

“Well?” Penny said. She’d paused rolling around with laughter and lay watching, waiting, for him to carry out her command.

David’s mom was silent aside from snorts of amusement as he started lathering her smelly toes with kisses, catching whiffs of their pungent odour on every nasal breath. He heard Penny laughing harder than ever, rolling side to side on the floor behind him, probably with arms wrapped around her stomach as she tried to contain the laughter. His face turned redder with each kiss, hoping that soon it would be all over.

Once Penny had finally gotten over the scene, she climbed to her feet and cleared her throat.

“I’ve decided.” She stopped to let out a giggle that made David’s skin crawl. “No mercy. Mom, shrink him. I’ll go get the glue!”

“Mom, n—”

“Sorry, David, a bet’s a bet. It’s only for a week.”

Zaaaaaaap!

A nearly transparent beam of light shot from the DURD’s barrel and struck him in the chest. Immediately, around where the beam hit, he felt his flesh… spiralling. Inwards, toward the point of impact. That changed to an indescribable odd sensation, spreading out from the chest-spiral. A burst of dizziness, then, he felt his whole body dwindling rapidly.

In mere moment he was a half-inch tall. In front of him, a pair of giant feet with unpainted toenails. A similar odour to before flowed over him, although much, much stronger. The toes curled, plump pads bulging and rubbing against the floor. Another set of feet were quickly approaching from behind, every gargantuan footstep shaking his entire world.

With the massive, smiling faces of his mom and sister peering down at his shrunken self, David really felt his new size. The tube of specialised glue that Penny fiddled with made him incredibly nervous.

“That the stuff?” his mom asked, her voice booming, vibrating the ground itself.

“Yep! The same glue Stacey von Vallenhappenheimer used on Pik-Pok to glue her ex-boyfriend to her sole. That was hilarious! Well, it’s not quite the same glue. Simi liar enough, different brand.” Penny stomped a foot, making David stumble. “If you gave me more pocket money I’d have been able to get the good stuff!”

“All that’s important is that you’re sure it’ll work. This only lasts a week, right?”

David saw his mom reach for the glue, then saw Penny yank it away.

“Yes it only lasts a week. That’s what Stacey von Vallenhappenheimer said.”

“Okay, but—”

“Mom, please, trust me. Pull your toes apart. I’m gonna shove him in there!”

Their laughter was deafening. David ran towards the underside of the armchair in a moment of pure terror, between his mom’s feet. That did nothing to stop Penny pinching him between her fingers and bringing him close to her face. She stuck out her tongue tauntingly, then rolled him between her fingertips, spinning him around to see his mom prying apart her big and second toes, exposing the rank, jammy crevice between. Before he even had time to scream he was thrust toward the disgusting gap, hurtling toward it. Penny showed no reluctance shoving her fingers in there, pressing David firmly against the reeking skin.

Then he felt a cold metal tip travelling around the edges of his tiny body, distributing glue to seal him in place for the week.

* * *

June raced into the living room, stopping beside her grandmother’s armchair and jumping with excitement.

“Granny, all the dishes are washed up. Can I see uncle now? Can I?”

The older woman, still looking rather young for her age, raised a questioning brow. “Are they all dry?”

“They’re on the drying rack. Please don’t make me dry them off with a towel. That’ll take sooooo long. I only have a few hours before Mom and Dad get back from their date. Let me see him!”

June’s grandmother rolled her eyes, smiling wryly.

“You do remind me of your mother sometimes, June. So much energy. I can hardly keep up. If you want to see Uncle David so bad, get ready, my foot is probably going to be a bit smelly.”

“You always have stinky feet, Grandma.”

“Hey! Watch it cheeky, or I’ll fetch the DURD. I still have seven vacant toe-gaps for naughty girls.”

They both giggled at the mock threat. June’s grandmother picked up a foot from the floor, resting it sideways on the opposing knee. She peeled off the sweat-dampened ankle socks, exposing an aged, heavily wrinkled sole. More and more rough, flushed skin was unveiled, then her thick-headed toes.

June turned away at the surge of warmth and unpleasant odour wafting up from her grandmother’s bare foot. Yet, she soon turned back, giggling at the thought of the tiny man imprisoned between the toes. They spread wide and she finally saw him, peppered with sock lint alongside the skin all around.

“Gross!” June leaned closer, sniffed, then reeled away at the stench coming from the toe-gap.

“I warned you.”

“That’s so funny he has to put up with such an awful smell. Won’t he be used to it after all these years?”

“According to the doctors, no. Poor thing. It’s impossible for him to get used to it.” June’s grandmother smiled sadly, giving Uncle David a poke. He came to life for a moment, writhing in place. The movement lasted for a few seconds before he stilled. “Little David is stuck there for good, ever since the bet.”

“Mom’s never told me how it happened. She just starts laughing whenever I ask. Will you tell me the story?”

“Sure. I don’t see the harm in it. It all started with your mom beating your uncle at a video game he was supposedly good at. If he won, she had to do all his chores for a month. If she won, well, you can see the result.” June’s grandmother chuckled. “It was only supposed to be for a week, but the glue your mom used was cheap stuff, and wasn’t an anti-allergy variant. Of course, we had no idea that David was allergic. We found out a week later when he wouldn’t come off. The doctors couldn’t do anything about it, he’d literally fused to my foot. If we’d realised sooner, we’d have been able to save him.”

“Were you angry at Mom?”

“At first, yes. She’d just robbed your uncle of his life. University. A house. Marriage. He’d never get to experience those things. Instead all he gets is a lifetime between my toes. Then after thinking about it for a while I calmed down. It was an unfortunate accident. Your mom had a point, too.” She chuckled. “It is pretty hilarious. Once I calmed down, and after I got over my sympathy, I could see the funny side. I can only imagine how gross and humiliating it must be for David.”

“Does he eat? Or sleep?”

“Oh, your uncle is always eating. Notice how there’s no toe-jam. All the dead skin between those two toes is eaten up by him. No, he doesn’t sleep, either. Can’t, apparently. The fusion left him as nothing more than a living, thinking toe-wart; stuck in an unwilling symbiotic relationship with my foot. Sweat, dead skin and toe-jam is plenty to sustain him. Even if they were to perform an operation to remove him, his body has adapted to fit the new environment. He literally can’t survive without feet.”

“Oh my god, Granny, that’s nasty!” June laughed. “So he’s constantly smelling and tasting your stinky feet? He can’t even sleep to escape it? And he actually needs them to live?”

“That’s right.”

“Ew!” June peered down at her uncle, grinning. “Sucks to be you, Uncle David. Don’t worry, if you ever get removed and need a new pair of feet to leech off of, I volunteer. My feet get so sweaty, especially when I play sports. You’d love it!”

“Is that a genuine offer, young lady? Obviously I won’t be around forever, so he’s going to have to be removed one day.”

June’s face lit up. “Can I really? I was just teasing him. I didn’t know you’d let me.”

“Sure. Can I trust you to look after my son?”

June nodded frantically.

Her grandmother laughed. “Alright, don’t get too giddy. I’ll have to talk to your parents and it won’t be until you’re older, but one day we can transfer him over.”

“Hear that, Uncle? You’re gonna be my toe-pet next. Isn’t that exciting?”

June’s uncle twitched again in response to what she said. Twitched, presumably, with mutual excitement. She’d never know for sure, given he had no way to communicate any more, but she thought he looked forward to her feet.