Crash!

Jesse drew her blankets across her lap, blushing. “Dammit, Mona! Just because we’re twins doesn’t mean you can come into my room whenever!”

Mona shrank at her older sister’s chiding. But she brushed it off and instead curtsied. “I wanted to know what you thought of my costume… since you like dark stuff and all…”

Mona grimaced bashfully, and Jesse had to admit, her witch outfit was impeccable. It was the perfect blend of cute and macabre with a black tutu and a tiny set of fake pixie wings on the back. She even wore a convincing witch’s hat. Her feet, however, were bare.

Jesse sighed, and said, “It’s fine. Now, please go away.”

“I was also wondering… This is your last chance if you wanted to come with –”

“No,” Jesse said, scowling. “How many times have I told you, I’m too old for Trick or Treating, and you are too. I mean, c’mon, we’re turning thirteen this year.”

Mona pouted. “We used to do everything together! What changed?”

Jesse opened her mouth to answer, but a voice from deeper in the house interrupted the both of them.

“Mona! C’mon, sweetie! Before it gets too dark!”

Mona turned briefly to the door, then back to Jesse, whose scowl was ever-present. Looking very downtrodden, Mona turned on her foot and trotted out. “Coming!” She shut the door behind her.

“Finally,” Jesse said, uncovering the blanket and unveiling a scroll of aged papyrus.

Unlike that pretender, Jesse thought, I am a practitioner of real magic. And this was no mere children’s fable. She opened the scroll and dragged her fingers along the sigils. Feeling the power flow through her, Jesse trembled. The scroll went up in a wisp of black smoke. Jesse’s vision took on a lavender tint as her eyes glowed. The room began to shake, until…

Jesse blacked out.

***

Crash!

“JesseI’msorryIneedafavorcanIborrowyourboots?!”

As Mona caught her breath from bounding up the stairs and into Jesse’s room, she noticed something odd.

“Jesse?”

She took a few tentative steps into the room. She looked around the bookshelf, beneath her desk, even in her closet. But Jesse was nowhere to be found.

Mona checked Jesse’s bed, tugging at the covers and flinging a tiny little lump from amidst their cottony threads that Mona didn’t really care for. But she did care about where the lump landed.

“Oh, the boots!”

Jesse’s black goth-style boots. Mona grabbed them and stuck her foot in. She thanked the heavens they had the same feet sizes. No time for socks, her mom was waiting. Mona pulled the other one on and tied a bunny-ears not for each before leaping into action, racing down the stairs to join her mother at the porch.

***

Jesse had her suspicions when she came to in a twisted tangle of mountainous, plushy peaks. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard that familiar voice, yet terrifying in this context.

“JesseI’msorryIneedafavorcanIborrowyourboots?!”

…

“Jesse?”

 Jesse hadn’t the time to parse hearing her sister’s voice, an avalanche that she felt in her breastbone, before she felt a rumble and was pulled along the soft surface as it was yanked, upending the earth and sending Jesse flying through the air – even as she flipped and turned, the heavy metal posters and her occultic figurines of nebulous provenance on her dresser told her that Jess hadn’t been transported to any dark dimension – she had shrunk.

Jesse only experienced the scantest light before her flight ended; she plopped into yet another dark, sour-scented cavern.

Jesse’s head was spinning, her stomach was turning, and her entire being was aching. She rubbed her tummy as she tried to roll into a sitting position.

“Oh, the boots!”

And Jesse’s world was rocked once again. She was knocked off her feet as the cavern shifted. And from the faint aperture above, the light was blotted out as five meaty toes clutched the rim of the boot and descended downward.

“No… no, Mona, MONA?! MONA, HELP! I’M IN HERE! HEL–”

Jesse got a mouthful of Mona’s foot flesh, pinning her to the ground. More of her foot came in, pushing the beleaguered Jesse farther up to the end section of her own boot. Jesse squirmed and tried to escape, to struggle, to do anything to get out of this fate, but it was a lost cause. Jesse’s own boot fit her sister’s foot too well; it was a perfect match, and once Mona had tied the laces, Jesse was completely sealed in, unable to squirm, or even twitch. Trying to speak, to scream, would’ve been just opening the gates for the sour flavor of Mona’s foot, pushing against her supine body like a doughy plush rubber press, to enter her mouth unabated.

Once her shock wore off, Jesse began to think, as much as she could in such a situation. All she had to do was last until Mona took the shoes off… Then she could crawl out, get Mona’s attention, and figure out how to undo the spell mishap. Not a bad plan. Besides, aside from the crampedness, it wasn’t that bad in here.

But Halloween was only just beginning, and their neighborhood was large. Somehow, Jesse predicted with utter dread that was going to change.

***

“Trick or Treat!”

Mona held out a plastic pumpkin-shaped bin in one hand, while her other was holding onto her mother’s waist.

“O-ho!” said Mr. Adams, grabbing a clump of Milky Ways and plopping them onto the ever-growing pile of sweets in Mona’s container. “That’s an incredible costume! Did your Mom help you with it?”

Mona’s mother chuckled a bit before pushing her daughter forth to answer.

“Thanks!” Mona said, blushing. “But, I made it myself!” She beamed. “And my sister gave me a bit of help…” She put forth one booted foot.

“I see. She has good taste! Well, Happy Halloween.” He gave a polite wave and closed the door gently.

“Okay…” Mrs. O’Connor said, reaching into the pocket of her high-waisted jeans. She hadn’t wanted to dress up, but at Mona’s insistence she threw on the look of an ‘80s pop star that happened to match what she had in her wardrobe. Mrs. O’Connor pulled out her phone and checked the map. “That about does it for the north end… we could probably hit Parkview before people start turning in. How does that sound?”

“Great!” Mona said.

“You sure? It’s a lot of walking.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Mrs. O’Connor smiled. “Well then, no time to waste!”

And she grabbed Mona’s wrist. Off they went, Mona’s flouncy tutu bouncing around her hips as she skipped in pace with her mother. They’d been out for a good two and a half hours at this point, having canvassed nearly every house in their immediate neighborhood for treats. It was already a lot of walking, but Mona had endless stamina and a bottomless stomach; she needed all the candy she could get.

Jesse was having a much worse time. Buried in the bottom of her own shoe, she was being grinded into an imprint on the insole. Each step was another thump, thump, thump, slamming her down into the asphalt and hard ground, only the thin rubber sole providing a semblance of protection from being dashed against the rocks. Her body was an aching mess of black and blue bruises, and Jesse couldn’t help but cry out in anguish. This was always a mistake, however. The moment she opened her mouth, the continually increasing potency of the smell of Mona’s foot became the taste of Mona’s foot, her sweat rushing into any exposed pores like a water fountain of perspiration. The long night and the constant walking had made the interior of Jesse’s shoe stuffy and steamy, hot, cramped, and moist. In addition to the pounding Jesse had endured, she was now sopping wet and covered in her own sister’s juices.

“Hel–ach, ACH!!” Jesse would try to scream, try to find some sort of salvation, make some declaration of her own existence. But every time she opened her mouth, her tastebuds were beaten into submission. Every time she tried to struggle, Mona’s all-knowing toes would knead her into her place. Jesse didn’t know if it’d been a few minutes, or a few hours, or if Mona had been walking for days, weeks on end with her own sister in tow, completely unaware of the utter hell she’d been put through. But Mona’s feet were omnipotent. And somewhere within, as Jesse suffered and languished, she wondered if this was deserved. If this was her fault for toying with magical forces, or at the very least for being so dismissive of her sister.

All she could do was hope, pray, that the end was near.

***

“Oh, Mom? Can we take a break?”

“Sure, sweetie!”

The two veered to a bench at the side of the street and sat down together.

“You feeling tired?” Mrs. O’Connor said, pulling Mona into a half-hug.

“No, just… weird… I feel like there’s something inside…”

Mona bent over and tugged forcefully at her shoelaces, struggling to undo the bunny-ears knot. Once it was through, the shoe slackened around her ankle. It was now a struggle for her to pull her bare foot out of the slicked, moist surface, but she managed.

Propping her foot on her knee, Mona overturned the boot and shook it, but nothing came out.

“Oh, Mona, sweetie? There’s…” Mrs. O’Connor pointed at the unobstructed sole of her daughter’s foot.

“Hm?”

Mona noticed it. A tiny, squirming little thing writhing between the wrinkles of the pruned soles of her foot.

***

Jesse had been stewing in her torment for upwards of three hours, and at this point she was sure that this simply was going to be her lot forever.

“Mona… Mona…” was all that could reach Jesse’s lips, and whenever she did, her sweat would roll into Jesse’s mouth, feeding and sustaining her for just long enough to maintain the intake of breath, the beat of her heart. It was a self-sustaining cycle. The broken pieces of Jesse’s mind wondered, and reasoned. The action-reaction feedback loop. Beseeching her sister for help would always lead to her receiving the necessary manna required to persist for a bit longer.

Was this intentional?

Had Mona inadvertently become Jesse’s god?

Jesse couldn’t reason a conclusion adequately; her mind had since gone blank. Her lifecycle had, in her ironclad devotion to staying alive had forced her to regress to the more base instincts of a single-celled organism: live, and consume. In nothing but the cramped, fetid everything that constituted Mona’s boot… was it even Jesse’s boot, now? Did Jesse have a right to such things? No, of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Was it ever Jesse’s boot? Was anything of Jesse’s ever hers, rather than a waiting list for her to bequeath upon the true sister? The superior sister?

Jesse wanted to take it all back. How had she known she’d dismissed such an image of divinity what felt like a lifetime ago? But she couldn’t. All she could do was hope any chance of salvation would come.

“Please…”

Suddenly, the earth fell out beneath her, and Jesse realized it. The shoe was opening, and she was coming along, pasted perfectly to the underside of her sister’s foot.

Jesse couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t cry, but she could breathe. The cold, night air was sweeter than the sweetest of honeys and fruits. She took a gulp, and gasped. It was everything she thought it would be, and somehow having that mingle with the smell of Mona’s pungent feet made it even more delectable.

Jesse could see, out of the corner of her eye, her mother, and she immediately recognized her as the progenitor. The one who gave life to this and everything Jesse had ever known or will know. She was filled with humility and reverence.

Her humanity restored, Jesse took a gulp of air, and she tried to speak, to commune with these creatures. But words died in her throat. She had become a mute. Try as she might, nothing came out.

Then –

“EEEKKK!”

Mona STOMPED her bare foot flat on the pavement.

Mona wanted to get rid of the bug that had somehow infiltrated her shoe as quickly as possible, and this did the trick. Once she was done, Mona angled her foot upward. The underside was now flecked with pebbles and specks of dirt, and amidst them all, a massive, bloody-red stain.

“Oof, how’s that for a fright?” Mrs. O’Connor chided playfully. Mona stuck out her tongue, wiping the bottom of her foot against the smoothened concrete. The splotch on her sole was reduced to a faint ghostly impression, and the splotch on the ground but a black and red smear.

“Well, I think that we can call it a night at this point,” said Mrs. O’Connor.

“Right… and I guess I can give Jesse her shoes back!” cheered Mona. And as they began the lengthy trek back home, Mona couldn’t help but wonder, where had Jesse been in her room that time?

ALTERNATE ENDING (In this timeline Mona never sat down at the bench):

As it turned out, the shrinking effect was temporary.

Jesse came to on the floor of her room, her peeled-off form bursting out the entrance of the boot.

The floor. It felt too sweet a resting area for one who now knew the true scope of her place.

Jesse remained there all night. Still. Motionless. Eyes wide open.

Come morning, Jesse’s mother knocked on the door. “Breakfast, if you want it!”

Jesse twitched at the insinuation that she deserved such delights.

Jesse’s mom left soon enough, but not long after, Mona herself was gracious enough to burst through the door, asking for Jesse before accidentally kicking her in the head, shocking Jesse to near consciousness.

“Jess– oh, sorry, sorry!” Mona said, covering her mouth. “I didn’t know you were down there. Are you okay?”

Mona crouched, squatting on the balls of her feet as she examined Jesse. Jesse meanwhile had felt the blow. The realization that Mona’s toes knocked into Jesse’s forehead, a brief yet irreplaceable moment of connection with her one true lord and savior… it was enough to make Jesse weep.

And so she did.

Mona looked down as Jesse began to sob in a series of hiccupy, hoarse ribbits. “Are… are you okay? I mean, I didn’t really hit you that hard…”

Jesse’s vision was focused on nothing but Mona’s feet, right there next to one another, heels elevated. The long night of sleep had mostly allowed their pungent scent to aerate into Mona’s room, yet a trace of the essence that had become bound so inextricably to Jesse’s DNA still remained. Jesse knew that scent. She would never forget it.

Jesse squirmed forth, and Mona’s eyes bulged as Jesse planted repeated pecks on the tips of Mona’s toes.

“Whoa, uh, what are you doing?”

Jesse didn’t answer. All she could do was close her eyes in rapture and continue to lap and worship at the feet of the sister that saved her.

“Jesse? Hey, Jesse?!”

Jesse knew internally it was a sin to be so rash as to ignore her sister – former sister. She was so much more than a sister now. And that was exactly why she couldn’t even bring herself to stop. Everything was clear. And even though the two had returned to equal sizes, Jesse would do everything she could to summon up that sensation, that sense of belonging, and to give her sister a gift commensurate with that which Jesse herself had received. To let Mona know her place as the center of Jesse’s world, even as Jesse knew she should give everything to her.

“What the heck…?”

Jesse’s posture shifted as she worshipped. Where at first she was little more than a worm, aimless and insignificant, she began to contort into a semi-crouch form. A ready position, obedient. As she did, she could feel through her closed eyes a shift as well, a change. Something in her environment, so much so that Jesse was willing to break the encompassing taste of her sister’s feet and open her eyes to her tertiary sense of sight, where she discovered that she had once again been reduced to scarcely an inch tall. So engrossed in the sensation of licking her sister’s feet, she hadn’t even noticed it.

“Oh my God…” Mona asked, and she scooped Jesse into her palm. “We’ve gotta tell Mom… we’ve gotta get you to the hospital! We’ve gotta –”

Jesse looked shocked. She shook her head rapidly.

“N-no? You don’t want… to…”

Jesse shook her head.

“Then… what do you want to do?”

Jesse pointed downward pointedly, and her face ached with longing.

“My… feet? You want to keep kissing my feet?”

Jesse nodded.

Mona thought for a moment. She was confused. More than confused… utterly, and completely flabbergasted. She had no idea that Jesse had undergone a baptism in her own shoes just the previous night. Nor did she have the faintest inkling that the backfired spell had somehow reacted to ensure that exposure to Mona’s feet themselves would result in a resurgence of the reduction. All Mona knew was the last time she’d seen her sister, she’d been angrily shooing her out the door. Perhaps… Jesse had finally achieved some level of remorse? For being such a brat, such a meanie, and for forsaking their relationship as sisters just to get off on the weird things she does alone in her room? She was familiar enough with Jesse’s dabbling in the occult, and Mona slowly came to the realization, that combined with everything else that had occurred… Jesse must’ve finally realized the kind of sister she wanted to be! The one who would support Mona on everything she would do, from here on out.

Everything.

And with that, a sly smile came to Mona’s face.

“One second,” Mona said, and Jesse’s heart throbbed at being separated for so long from the objects of her affection. But Mona wasn’t going to disappoint her. With Jesse in hand, Mona dug through Jesse’s drawer, finding a red striped sock and dumping Jesse inside.

Jesse stretched and writhed amidst the cotton fabric of the sock, taking in whiffs of her own scent within the heavily garment. But she didn’t have the time to acclimate before she saw, from above, like a descending angel to ferry Jesse to salvation, five magnanimous toes burrow their way inside, ready to grant Jesse her final wish as a being with some level of free will.

“Hope you like it, Jess,” Mona crooned, already stepping into her new role as lord and master of her older sister. “You’re not going to be seeing anything except my foot for a long while.”

Jesse couldn’t hear her. The pure joy had made her deaf to all outside sensations and stimuli as she dove into Mona’s wrinkles, happily worshipping and lapping away at her rubbery skin. The only disappointing thing about it was the lack of sweat pouring out of her pores like a sponge. But that wouldn’t be for long; after all, today Mona had soccer practice.

This conundrum swirled around in Mona’s mind as she pulled on the matching sock and stood to height, smothering Jesse against the floor. “I guess I’ll have to figure out something to tell mom about where you went, huh. Maybe, ran away during Halloween night?”

Mona thought to herself as she walked out of Jesse’s former room, each step a gift to the mite-sized marvel buried in her sock.

“No, no… kidnapped? … Nah… maybe, fell into the river… that could work…”