“Oh shit,” Marc grumbled as he saw Val stomping towards him.

            “No,” Val growled. “No. You are NOT going to talk to her. Katie doesn’t want to see you, just leave her alone!”

            “Go away, Val,” Marc said. He pushed his way past Val and made his way toward the softball diamond. The various players of both college teams were still arriving and getting ready for the game. Val had been too, before she had seen Marc and intercepted him. Val ran in front of Marc again, blocking his way.

            “Go home,” Val said. “It’s over between you two.”

            “I just need to talk to her for five minutes,” said Marc. “I just want to—“

            “To what? Apologize? Katie told me all about what happened last night. I always knew you were an asshole, Marc, but I never figured you were the kind of guy to hit his girlfriend.” Marc could feel his face turn a deep shade of crimson. Val just crossed her arms and glared at him. She actually managed to look a little intimidating, despite being over a foot shorter than Marc and dressed in her maroon softball uniform.

            “That was only one time,” Marc said in a quiet and level whisper. “It was an accident.”

            “Bullshit. You’re scum. If you try to talk to her, I’ll kick your ass, I swear to God,” Val said. Marc rubbed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

            “I’ve had enough of this,” Marc muttered. He tried to move past her, but everywhere he moved, she moved also, blocking him at every turn. “Get out of my way, dammit!” Marc grabbed Val by the shoulders and threw her forcefully to the ground. She winced as she skinned her knee across the asphalt of the parking lot. He ignored her and headed forcefully toward the diamond, his eyes scanning the crowd to see if Katie had arrived yet. Behind him, however, he could hear Val groaning, and then letting out a quiet little chuckle.

            “Oh, that is so fucking it,” she said. Marc turned around, half-expecting her to be charging at him. But she was still lying on the ground, only now she had her hand raised. Marc blinked.

            “What are you—“ he began, before suddenly feeling a sick, twisting feeling in his gut. He cried out in pain. Pressure was pushing in on him from all sides. He was growing dizzy.

            “I have wanted to do this to you for such a long time,” Val said, anticipation bleeding off her every word. Marc slowly sank to his knees and looked about in an almost drunken manner. He could barely see, but what he could make out looked…bigger. Everything was getting larger. Sounds were getting louder. He was feeling so small. Smaller still. He could feel a seed of insignificance in his gut slowly growing and spreading until it reached his fingers and his toes. When the feeling was everywhere, his vision finally cleared. He blinked repeatedly, clearing his mind. When he looked at his new surroundings, he remained frozen for several long seconds before screaming at the top of his lungs.

            Everything was absolutely enormous. Somehow, he had shrunk down to no more than an inch or two tall. The parking lot stretched for miles. Before him lay Val, staring at him with a seductive little smirk. She chuckled again and slowly got to her feet, picking up her mitt as she did so.

            “H-how did you do this to me!?” Marc screamed up at her. Val just shook her head.

            “I can’t hear you, Marc. Don’t really care what you’re saying anyway. You deserve this, buddy. I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to see a bug like you get put in his place.” Marc just stared up at her in horror. Her size was beyond description. Her toned bronze legs seemed to stretch forever. It was as if the sky itself was talking to him.

            Her leg shifted, and a massive wall of black overtook his vision, causing him to lose his balance and fall. She was resting her foot on its heel, positioning her cleat over his tiny form. He could see clumps of dirt, bigger than his entire body, wedged in between the spikes of the shoe.

            “Whaddya say, little guy? Should I just squish you now?” Slowly, the building-sized foot began to lower on top of him. Marc raised his arms above him, as if it could do anything to save him.

            “Oh God no Val, please!” he screamed.

            “Naw,” she muttered. “It’s not for me to do.” The foot shifted away, and Val peered down at him again, somehow making him feel tinier. She slowly knelt down over top of him, clearly lording every inch in height she now held over him. She reached out with her large, dusty hand. Marc tried to crawl away, but her long, thick fingers quickly wrapped around him and lifted him into the air as she stood up. She smiled and winked down at him, and then dropped him into her brown mitt, which curved far up and around him and made for a truly imposing sight. He could just barely feel her hand through the leather beneath him. Val started heading toward the diamond, and as she moved, she repeated the process of picking Marc up and then dropping him a short distance back down into her mitt. He continued to scream the whole way, but it seemed that his voice could be heard by nobody over the small crowd that was beginning to form nearby.

            For the longest time, Marc couldn’t make out where they were, and Val seemed to be completely ignoring him. A couple of times, she actually stopped to talk with other people, whether they were fellow softball players or friends and family. When she did this, she closed her mitt shut around Marc, trapping him in a little bit of darkness and surrounding him with the thick smell of leather. Finally, the sky above him darkened with the color of stone, and Val seemed to be sitting down. They were in a dugout. Val looked down at him and winked again. He had always hated how much she did that.

            Without saying a word, Val reached down and grabbed him between her fingers again, lifting him up into the air. She was shielding him slightly behind her mitt, covering him from view from any nearby people. He was being dangled by his shirt, his legs kicking fruitlessly in the air, and she forced him to look in a specific direction. Marc saw what she wanted him to see, and could feel his heart stop in his chest.

            “Aw, lookit that,” Val whispered. “Katie just got here.”

            His ex-girlfriend jogged for the dugout, clearly late. He could just make out the black eye he had given her, though it was well concealed by makeup. It was the only detriment to her flawless, tanned beauty. He felt deep remorse welling within her. God, if only he could say how sorry he was.

            “Sorry, sorry!” Katie said. “Sorry I’m late!” She plopped down on the bench next to Val, sighing, and dropped the cleats she had been carrying. She was dressed in her uniform and sandals. Val had concealed Marc from view inside her mitt again.

            “It’s okay, don’t worry about it, hon,” Val said. Marc was slamming his body against the sides of the mitt, screaming his lungs out, trying to get Katie to hear him. For all he knew, Val wasn’t even aware he was doing it.

            “Um…Marc left me a message,” Katie said, in almost a whisper. “He hasn’t shown up, has he?”

            “I’M HERE, KATIE!” Marc screamed. “Look in her mitt, I’M RIGHT HERE! Please, help me!”

            “I haven’t seen him,” Val said, shrugging.

            “Oh good,” Katie said, the relief very noticeable in her voice. Marc sank to his knees, feeling utterly defeated. He looked up in the sky, and saw a strange look of inspiration on Val’s face. She looked down at Marc.

            “Oh, this is gonna be too good,” she whispered to him.

            “What?” Katie asked. “Val, were you just talking to your glove?”

            “Huh? No. Hey, are those new cleats?” She asked. She bent down and grabbed one up off the ground.

            “No, I’ve had those for years…” Katie said, slowly.

            “Oh, right, duh,” Val said. Very quickly, she grabbed Marc up, but he was almost immediately dropped. It was somewhere new. The smell of leather and old sweat was overpowering.

            “No…” Marc looked around in shock. “Please, no…”

            He’d been dropped inside Katie’s shoe. He was trapped. And alone.

            Val gave him one final wink and handed the cleat back to her friend.

            “Ready to play some softball?” Val asked.

            “God, yes,” Katie replied, pulling her shoes on. She paused, and stomped down repeatedly.

            “Rock in your shoe?” Val asked, hiding her smirk.

            “No, it’s nothing. It’s gone now.” Katie smiled.