Helen, with a final painful swipe, finished licking every square inch of both of Anna’s dirt-stained, foot-worn, sweat-dried flip-flops, her tongue having long ago run dry, collapsed in an exhausted heap onto the rubbery foam top, her head leaning partway into the indent where Anna’s second toe normally sat, which fit Helen’s head pretty well.  She panted, clutching at her jaw, which had been forced to stay open for the thirty-plus minutes it had taken her to get across both shoes, and just massaged her numb chin, trying to regain some feeling.  Groggily, she looked forward to see Anna’s chin resting on her upturned fist, her arm propped against her leg.  Kevin was still being held upside down, but he had stopped protesting a long time ago, as so much blood had gone to his head it had made him dizzy.

                “Thanks, sis.  Feeling any better now about your spotless house being free of my nasty germs?” asked Anna playfully, shifting the arm holding Kevin.  She lowered him back toward the couch, releasing him next to a flip-flop.  Helen crawled off of the flip-flop and hugged herself to Kevin, helping him stand up.  As he had been held upside down the entire time Helen cleaned Anna’s shoes, he wasn’t exactly in the best state to stand up straight, and promptly fell back down.

                However, this was made irrelevant as Anna’s hand descended on the pair of them.  Helen held an arm up in protest but quickly found it pushed awkwardly across her chest as stout finger flesh encased her.  Anna looped her thumb under the crouching Kevin, pinning him to the heel of her hand, while using her other four fingers to grasp her sister-in-law.  She then clenched her fingers together, roughly gripping the weary husband and wife in one hand against one another.  Using two fingers from her other hand, she shoved her white flip-flops off the couch and to the ground, where she slid her feet back inside.  She straightened her legs into the air, twisting her ankle around and arching her foot back and forth for emphasis.

                “Mmm… MUCH better, Helen.  Thank you,” she smiled.  Helen nodded weakly.  “Well, I guess we might as well go check on our daughters, right?” she asked kindly.  At this, both parents perked up a little bit, trying to get into a position in Anna’s firm grip that didn’t threaten a death drop.

                “R-Really?  A-Ashley?” gasped Helen hopefully, gripping her hands around one of Anna’s fingernails.

                “Of course.  I’m sure you two wouldn’t mind seeing her… and neither would I,” winked Anna, and at this point, Helen got chills, realizing how very easily her sister-in-law could use their daughter as leverage.

                “A-Anna?” called Helen.

                “Yep?” she answered quickly, not really paying attention to her little extended family clasped in her warm fingers as she strode out of the living room and toward the front hall.

                “You… you wouldn’t actually… I mean…”

                Anna raised them both up toward her face and smiled.  “Wouldn’t what?”

                “D-Do anything to Ashley?”

                Anna grinned, amused by Helen’s mini-epiphany.  “Would you do anything to Alison?”

                Helen was taken aback by this.  “Of c-course not!”

                “Hmm… now, there’s the problem.  See, you not only WOULD do something to her, you already have.”

                “Wha…” gasped Helen, realizing what she was getting at as Anna began stomping up the staircase, mostly for the detriment of Helen and Kevin, who were vibrated mercilessly in her swinging grip.

                “Anna, you… you…” gasped Kevin, finally righting himself enough to speak, albeit unclearly.  “If you lay… one… FINGER… on Ashley’s head…”

                “You’ll do what?  Punch me in the fingernail?” laughed Anna, rolling her head and allowing her thick curls to fall over her shoulders in longer cascades.  Having effectively silenced Kevin and Helen (both of whom had gone pale and pasty with nervousness), Anna turned the handle to Ashley’s door and entered.

                On the bed sat Alison, her flip-flops lying on the floor, a sock on each foot, a pair of red Converse resting on the bed spread.  Curious, Anna entered and upon getting closer, realized that Alison had Tony in her cupped palm, held at chest level, and she was smiling as she spoke softly to him.

                Upon seeing this, Anna couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt in her heart.  While she hadn’t caused deep physical harm to either Helen or Kevin, she was finally able to reflect on the past hour downstairs with them and realized just how downright cruel she had been, punishing them in unique and unusual ways.  She felt somewhat justified in it, as there seemed to be no other way to get the pair of them to come around and give the widowed mother and daughter a break, but now, seeing Alison treating the tiny Tony so sweetly and gently, almost as if taking care of him, she was painfully reminded of her daughter’s much less forward and determined nature to problems.  At this moment, she envied her daughter’s sense of self-restraint.

                Seeing her mother enter, Alison looked oddly embarrassed, pulling both feet in to sit cross-legged, cupping her other hand underneath Tony.  “Hi, mom…” she said cheerily at first, although her tone changed when she realized how gruffly her mother was holding her aunt and uncle.  “Mom?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.  Anna, seeing this, quickly held her palm underneath the two of them and dumped them into it, sprawling.

                “Sorry, honey, we were just having an … interesting… discussion,” interjected Anna quickly, walking toward the bed as Helen crawled to a crouching position on top of Anna’s outstretched fingers.

                “Alison!” she called out, getting the titanic teen’s attention.  “W-Where is Ashley?  I want to see her,” she said, her voice cracking again, knowing that her daughter might soon very well find herself in a similar situation that she and her husband had put them through.  With this in mind, she at least wanted the chance for Ashley to see that her mother and father were all right.

                Anna, however, at this point had no intention of harming Ashley, even mentally, realizing that Alison seemed to have gotten on perfectly well with her cousin and boyfriend, despite the particularly opportunistic nature of the situation; this only added further guilt to her conscious.  Still, she couldn’t help but wonder why Alison was looking so embarrassed.

                “A-Ashley, Aunt Helen?” asked Alison, biting her lip again.  “She’s… uh…”

                “SHE’S IN HER SOCK!” screamed Tony, finally having the strength to speak up as he leaned as far out of Alison’s cupped hand as he could without falling.  “SHE PUT HER IN HER SOCK!”  Alison lowered her head, fidgeting and clearly embarrassed.  Anna’s jaw dropped, not out of abject horror, but simple surprise.

                “Her… her s…” gagged Helen, unable to process it in her mind.  She locked angry eyes to Alison, glaring at her first before looking hysterical an instant later.  “You… put her… you put… my DAUGHTER IN YOUR SOCK?” she shrieked, looking like she wanted to leap off of Anna’s perched hand and strangle Alison to death.  At this, the gigantic teen niece began to cry.  She lowered her hand holding Tony back to the bedspread, whereupon he quickly dashed back to the sock holding his girlfriend to try to speak to her through the fabric.

                Helen’s eyes caught the wriggling bump inside the sock pushing out against the fuzz, directly pressed into Alison’s sole.  She screamed violently, her body shaking to see her daughter helplessly trapped inside of something that could so easily kill her with the incorrect motions.  Kevin sputtered, his eyes bugging, unable to come up with a retort as the two parents clutched each other, shaking.  Alison, still crying, immediately jammed her thumbs into the opening of the sock to pull it off and free Ashley.

                “I’m sorry!” she yelled, her voice cracking.  “I’m so, so, sorry…” she moaned, feeling genuine remorse at this point as she yanked the sock past her heel.  Alison, as well, realized she had slipped into a person entirely apart from her normal personality; now, though, having adults here to see her unfettered, uncontrollable fun having taken place at the expense of Ashley’s safety, she felt a sense of guilt trickling into her psyche just as quickly as her mother had at initially believing Alison had showed her charges some true kindness.  She reflected on what she had just in one hour forced to another human being to do: a cousin of hers, no less.  She felt genuinely sick to her stomach.

                However, before Alison could peel the tight sock off of her damp foot past her sole, thusly releasing Ashley, Anna slapped her hand down onto Alison’s wrist, gripping it and halting the action.  “Hold on, Alison,” she smiled slowly, finally able to process what her daughter had done.

                “Hold ON?” screeched Helen.  “NO!  Alison, let her OUT right NOW!” she bawled, clutching her forehead and cheeks in worry.

                “Umm… mom?” asked Alison, wiping the tears from her eyes and raising another eyebrow at her mother’s odd reaction.

                “Just… wait a second,” said Anna, and once again the mother-daughter combo shared a moment of understanding.  Nodding slowly but still not entirely getting it, Alison reversed her motion and began stretching the sock back up toward her ankle to put it back on, leaving her cousin still pinned firmly against her wrinkled foot bottom.

                “STOP!” roared Kevin.  “D-Don’t undo it!  Get the sock off!  Get the sock off!”

                “Mom, I…” breathed Alison, still not entirely sure of the reasoning behind this.

“What happened, honey?”

“I… she… she told me…” gasped Alison desperately in a cracked voice, more tears flowing down her cheeks as she recalled the numerous, unimaginably awful things that had been said to her in the last hour.  Before she could finish, though, her mother placed a soft fingertip over her lips to shush her.  Anna beamed, feeling more empathetic to her daughter than any other times in their lives.  Without having been in the room for the last hour, Anna could understand very clearly what had taken place.  She knew well of Ashley’s formidable and abrasive personality, tossing insults with almost as much volume and frequency as her mother, from whom Anna was sure she had learned most of her tricks; however, she knew that Ashley lacked Helen’s high-and-mighty subtlety, instead going straight for the throat.  And Anna had a feeling that her daughter wouldn’t have resorted to such measures unless the situation truly called for it, as Alison was, in all other aspects of life, a kind, caring, and gentle person to all she met, even her enemies to some extent.  The guilt she felt upon entering the room and seeing her daughter’s (at first) gentle approach to the situation faded as she realized Alison had gone through a very similar process and line of thinking to herself. 

Her daughter, seeing her mother’s lack of an angry reaction, smiled hesitantly at her, moving her hands back to her lap.  For a few moments, there was near silence in the room.  Alison and Anna just smiled at one another, wordlessly comforting and accepting the questionable choices each had made in the last hour.  Kevin and Helen, still crowded in Anna’s warm palm, held one another, Helen sobbing onto Kevin’s shoulder without a word, having a feeling that no words she could use at this point would allow her daughter out of the smelly, fleshy, fabric-covered prison she was in.  Tony had his face pressed against Alison’s sock, trying to speak to the groggy Ashley inside.

Anna’s eyes shifted to the digital clock on the bedside table.  8:24 pm.  She grinned, looking back to her daughter and finally breaking the silence.  “You hungry, honey?”

Alison wiped her eyes of the tears, sniffled, then shook her head.  “Uh-huh.”

“I have got to get out of this house and get some fresh air.  Wanna go get some dinner?  I know it’s pretty late, but…”

“Sure,” nodded Alison, but suddenly remembered the four tiny captives.  “But… um… what are we gonna do about…”

“Don’t worry about them,” answered Anna jovially, running her free hand through her thick hair.  “We’ll take them for a little field trip.”

Kevin gulped loudly.  “FIELD trip?”

“What, do you want me to just leave you hear?” laughed Anna.  “You’d miss out on the pleasure of our company, Kevin.  A couple of cute gals goin’ out for dinner: what have you got to lose?” she asked playfully, receiving  a groan of reply from him.  Now, no longer feeling like she had to censor her actions for the sake of her daughter, Anna quickly bunched her fingers back around Helen and Kevin, crumpling them together in her palm.  “But first!” she snickered.  “We have to make sure we’re lookin’ good enough for this town to handle.  Who knows, maybe we’ll go clubbing…”

“MOM!” laughed Alison, embarrassed.

“Relax, honey, it was just a joke,” she said, turning to walk back toward the door.  “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Umm, Mom?  What should I do about…” mumbled Alison uncomfortably, pointing at her sock still containing her thrashing cousin.

Anna waved a hand casually, brushing off the question.  “Don’t worry about her.  Just try to walk on your toes,” she grinned, looking immediately down at Helen, who was instantly awoken from her depressed stupor.

“No!  ALISON!” she screamed as the humongous teen slid her legs to the side of the bed, about to put her weight on them and stand up.  “Alison…” she breathed, beginning to hyperventilate.  Despite the fact that she was already becoming accustomed to the pleadings of her irritating and thieving family, Alison couldn’t help but listen to her aunt’s impassioned cry for a moment, hesitating before standing up.

“W-What is it, Aunt Helen?”

“Please…” cried Helen, bursting into tears again.  “Don’t do it.  Don’t keep her in there.  Don’t stand up… I… just, just… please… don’t do this,” she mumbled, unable to consolidate her suggestions clearly.  She placed her hands together as in prayer, shaking them violently at her niece.  “Please… m-my… m-my daughter…” she cried.

Alison’s features softened for a moment, before she looked up at her mother’s face.  Anna didn’t want to pressure her daughter into doing it, so she stayed straight faced.  She intended her daughter’s actions to be fully of her own accord.  What a simple glance at her mother’s face did, though, was remind Alison of the situation that she and Anna had been in only a few hours before.  Both, so emotionally drained and running out of options.  She realized just how similar their situations were between the families, except for the fact that Kevin, Helen, and Ashley had only been experiencing these feelings of entrapment and hopelessness for only an hour.  And this was what made her reach her decision.

“I’m sorry, Aunt Helen,” shrugged Alison, wincing a little.  She stretched legs forward, then planted both feet on the ground with a loud smack that shook the carpet, arching the foot holding Ashley underneath to account for her shape.  Helen screamed loudly, throwing herself onto Kevin’s shoulder.

“Can you feel her, honey?” asked Anna.  “She’s okay?”

Alison stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth, looking at the ceiling as she tried to concentrate and feel.  After a moment, she felt Ashley recovering from the concussive blow of soft flesh that had thrown itself onto her, and her arms were soon pushing fruitlessly against the warm sole again.  Alison nodded.  “She’s fine, I can feel her down there.”

“Great,” smiled Anna.  “I guess we’re all set then, huh?”  She started walking for the door, laying her other hand overtop the hysterical couple in her palm, trying to help cover up Helen’s loud sobs.  She pressed down, forcing them to become spread-eagled across her fingers and hand heel, their limbs crossing over one another in an effort to make room.  Kneading them between her palm, twisting her wrists and rotating her hands against one another like a wheel, she padded into the hallway.  Alison looked down at the bed at Tony, who was leaning over the edge as far as he dared go without the risk of falling, calling out Ashley’s name with no response.  Almost feeling sorry for his plight, Alison reached down and scooped the hapless eighteen-year-old into her palm before heading for the door, walking on the ball of her foot and keeping her heel raised in the air, alleviating most of the pressure off of her trapped cousin.  Admittedly, it was impossible to keep it all off of her, and Alison could feel her cousin floundering fruitlessly beneath her slightly raised foot, several folds of thick sole nevertheless pressing down on her oppressively.  Combined with the tautness of the sock fabric achieved because of Alison’s arched foot, she couldn’t imagine Ashley was enjoying a particularly comfortable ride with her face pinned so hard against the pale skin, gasping for breath through microscopic sock thread holes, each inhalation bringing a disgusting cocktail of dirt flecks, sock lint, and humid sweat into her nose.

Anna pushed the door open to Kevin and Helen’s bedroom, scanning the wide expanse of the cashmere carpeted floor, the king sized bed, and flat screen TV up on the wall.  Helen’s make-up counter sat along the far wall, next to the bathroom door, and was lined with brown leather boxes stacked neatly in a wooden tray.  Anna came a stop in front of it, followed closely by her tiptoeing daughter, and pulled the stool out from under the desk, taking a seat.  She opened her hand over the table, allowing Kevin and Helen to tumble roughly from her grip and onto the wood.  Helen immediately dashed for the edge to crane her neck down toward Alison’s socked foot, which was still arched safely up in the air.  She breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that Ashley would still be uncrushed, but looking down at the immense foot of her now-omnipotent niece so far below, which had her daughter clasped so thickly between dingy white fuzz and warm, moist flesh, she couldn’t look at it any longer and had to pull away, knowing there was nothing she could do.  Slowly, Helen was coming to the terrible, mind-crushing realization that nothing she said was having any effect on the outcome.

Alison leaned an arm against the wall for support to ensure she didn’t accidentally trip and put all of her weight onto her left foot, which would have spelled messy disaster for her cousin, while still gripping Tony firmly in her other hand, allowing her arm to drape casually at her side, with the tiny boyfriend’s face pushed against a white, billowing fold of her skirt.

“Let’s just take a quick look at what we’ve got here,” suggested Anna, gripping the first leather box and lifting the lid, revealing a sparkling silver necklace inside.  She raised an eyebrow, looking down at her sister-in-law.  Helen raised a fist, desperately wanting to protest, but she didn’t have anything to say after this single glance.  Anna hooked her fingers around the necklace, lifting it out of the satin base and holding it up, allowing it to gleam in the light.  She turned to her daughter.  “What do you think, honey?”

Alison nodded, smiling sweetly.  “I think it looks great, Mom.”

Anna next looked down at Kevin and Helen.  “What about you two?  This going to look as good on me as I’m sure it does on Helen?”  Kevin and Helen, looking uncomfortable, clutched one another’s arms for solace and nodded robotically, their eyes continually shifting nervously down toward the carpet below so they could ensure Alison hadn’t planted her foot flat on the ground.  Anna, content with their non-verbal answers, lowered the dangling, cut silver medallion that acted as the centerpiece of the jewelry into her hand, examining it and curling her lip upward in slight disappointment.  Finally, carefully hooking a fingernail into the clip holding it on to the thin, shining chain of the rest of the necklace, she looped the medallion off, laying it flat on the counter right next to Kevin with a loud clack that caused him to jump in fright.  Then, pinching the end of the chain between her thumb and forefinger, Anna allowed it to drop to the countertop.

“That thing’s pretty ugly, Helen, I don’t know how you’ve allowed yourself to go out in public wearing it,” smirked Anna, tapping a finger on the clunky medallion.  “You got anything else I could use instead?”

“I… I… m-maybe… j-just open the other b-boxes…” stuttered Helen, who had swallowed her pride and indignation at Anna’s tinkering with her jewelry in favor of hopefully sucking up enough to win Ashley’s freedom from her sock-locked prison underneath the monumental tower of Alison.

Anna’s eyes, however, had locked firmly to Helen as she rested her chin on her propped up fist, leaning forward.  Helen swallowed dryly, holding tightly to her husband’s shoulder and pointing a wavering arm toward the leather boxes, hoping to have the gigantic sister-in-law’s attention diverted elsewhere.  However, Anna didn’t let up, her lips shifting and upturning as she chewed over a thought.

“You always find things wrong with the way I look, Helen.  Always.”

“N-Not always, I…”

“Yes.  Always.  And you know it, too,” retorted Anna sternly, raising a hand and pointing accusingly at Helen with a fleshy log of a finger.  Helen looked down, nodding slowly.  “But… I guess that must mean you think you look pretty good, then, huh?”

Helen didn’t respond.

“Well?” she asked a little louder, slapping her hand flat against the marble countertop and vibrating the couples’ legs.  Helen, panicking for an instant, grasped painfully around Kevin’s sides before locking eyes with Anna again.

“I… I-I… I s-suppose I t-try to look good…”

Anna nodded knowingly.  “Oh, and you succeed, Helen, you succeed,” she beamed enthusiastically.  “Personally, I think you look pretty hot for a 43-year-old.”  Alison rolled her eyes to hear her mother’s attempt at modern jargon again, but smiled at the same time, enjoying this scene before her.

“T-Thank… you?” gasped Helen, wondering what the correct response to this was.  Anna raised her flattened hand off of the table, allowing it to hover just overhead, her fingers waving slowly, curling against one another as if she were thoughtfully trying to pick out a piece of candy from a basket.

“Don’t mention it,” she winked.  “And in fact… you always manage to look so GOOD at all those parties you have, I can’t help but wonder how you’d improve my own look…”

“Y-Your l-look?”

“Yep,” laughed Anna, fully extending all her fingers like a claw, moving them toward the shuddering couple.  “Helen?” she asked finally as her soft fingers closed back around her helpless sister-in-law.  “How would you like to be my jewel for the evening?”

Without waiting for a response, Anna had plucked Helen from the table, despite Kevin’s useless attempt to hang on to her, and plopped her into her wide, waiting palm.  Helen groggily tried to stand up, but found the uneven plain this time too dangerous to try standing on without tumbling to the marble countertop.  She huddled, shaking with fear, as the fingers of Anna’s other hand swooped down and grabbed the silver chain, bringing it up to Helen.  Calmly, she pinched the pin hook of the end between two fingers, opening the clip, and descended toward Helen.  She slipped the sharp end right through Helen’s pant leg, careful not to actually cut into Helen’s skin, and looped it out, closing the clasp. Helen, panting with nervousness now, leaned forward to try and unhook the clip, but found Anna’s middle finger flicking at her face, smacking her roughly back against her pillow of cushy finger flesh.

Before Helen could rise again, as the flick had caused her to begin dizzily seeing spots, Anna had hooked the other clip through her other pant leg.  Then, with Helen attached by both pant legs to each end of the necklace, she curled two fingers around the long end of the necklace opposite Helen, and lifted it up.  The tiny sister-in-law was lifted screaming out of Anna’s warm hand, hung upside down by her legs.  Anna nodded and smiled, satisfied with her work.  “Yes, I think you’d complement my outfit just great, Helen,” mused Anna, slowly slipping the other end of the necklace over her neck.  Helen fell below her sister-in-law’s chin, but was caught and cradled again in Anna’s palm, her whole body shaking.

“A-A-Anna!” she squeaked, sputtering for air and moisture in her throat in order to speak clearly.  “Don’t!”

Anna just simpered at the little woman in her hand, gently stroking a thumb along Helen’s torso to try and soothe her.  “Make up your mind, sis.  You’ve always felt like you could improve my looks if you pestered me hard enough.  And now…” she giggled at the irony.  “You really are going to improve them…”

Helen yelled, terrified, as Anna’s soft hand slowly tipped over, allowing her to drop down.  She tumbled through the opening of Anna’s white shirt before bouncing painfully off the top of her right breast and rolling over the thick fabric edge of her bra.  As the silver chain of the necklace began to lose slack, Helen slipped onto the open crevice in Anna’s chest.  However, as so much moisture had been building up in this tightly packed area because of the lack of AC, the slick surface of Anna’s tough flesh removed all friction, allowing Helen to slide, screaming, into a firmly locked position between each of her breasts.

Anna grinned slyly at her daughter, who covered her mouth to giggle.  “C’mon, honey, go grab those shoes from Ashley’s room,” said her mother, waving a hand toward the door.  “We’re going to dinner.”

Alison’s eyes gleamed, enjoying this entirely unique mother-daughter time and for the first occasion in months feeling perfectly happy. She carefully between walking back toward the door, but she stopped in her tracks, turning back to Anna.  “Umm… Mom?  Is it… okay to wear those… with her still down there?”

Anna glanced down at her daughter’s foot, seeing the barely moving form writhing still against the touch fibers under Alison’s sole, then shrugged.  “Just keep walking like that, and there shouldn’t be a problem, honey.  Besides, we’ll be in the car, you can take the weight off of your feet to make it easier.”

“Okay, Mom,” said Alison, stepping slowly out of the room and heading back toward Ashley’s abode.

“NO!” roared Kevin.  “She can’t wear god-damned SHOES!  ANNA!  That’s my DAUGHTER down there!” he continued, breathing heavily from the strain and rage.  “She…”

“Hush up, Kev, you’re gonna want to save some for later,” laughed Anna, quickly clasping a firm finger flesh pad around his head, cutting off his ranting in its tracks.  She gripped him into her palm and, looking around, spotted Helen’s stylish black leather purse on the countertop.  She unzipped the top and, lowering Kevin toward it, released his protesting form from her grasp into it before zipping the bag all the way up except for the last couple metal teeth, just to ensure he didn’t suffocate.  Feeling well gratified and ready to leave the house, Anna looped the bag over her shoulder and started to walk for the door.  On her way, she grinned as she clasped both hands around her B-cup breasts, jostling them a bit into place, and allowing the gasping Helen to be compressed more tightly against the sticky, sweat-residue covered skin with a soft, pained cry.