Without warning, Julie snatched him up from the bed, her tremendous fingers squeezing him menacingly. “I heard you were a great study-buddy,” she said as she left Haley’s room. “I could use a good luck charm.” Despite the dizzying motion of her hand, Chuxi could see that they had entered Julie’s room, a much messier affair.
Once seated at her desk, Julie’s hand moved down towards the cluttered surface… only to continue past, where she set him down on the floor. “Since there’s no room on my desk,” she explained, “you can stay under here.” Of course her statement was patently false, but Chuxi knew better than to argue – in fact, he decided that his best course of action was to say nothing at all. If she wanted to subject him to her bizarre impositions, then so be it. He just hoped that she wouldn’t go too far, because if it came to a physical confrontation… the outcome was obvious.
“Stay put under there, okay?” she called down from on high. “I wouldn’t want you to accidentally get hurt.” Her point made, Chuxi moved as far away from Julie as possible. Much like the desks in the library, this one had three solid panels as opposed to legs, which effectively served as walls for him. He hunkered down in a corner and waited.
After several minutes had passed, Chuxi dared to hope that this was the extent of what Julie had in store for him. While the structure of the desk served to trap the stench emanating from her feet, there was plenty of distance between him and where they rested, curled up beneath her chair like a pair of great beasts. High above him, he could hear Julie’s fingers typing away. Maybe she really was studying.
The timing couldn’t have been any better. The moment when Chuxi had relaxed his guard just that little bit, Julie shoved her feet directly into his corner. It felt like being hit by two bulls wrapped in cotton – filthy, sweat-soaked cotton. A fleeting glance upwards revealed his tormentor leaning back in her chair in a theatrical stretch, one hand raised far backwards while the other covered a yawn, as if she were completely unaware of the drama unfolding beneath her desk. Chuxi didn’t believe it for a second.
After the initial impact, Julie began to rub her feet and toes all over him, forcing him to shut his eyes to prevent her acrid perspiration from turning him blind. Inevitably, her playful jostling resulted in him ingesting some of her disgusting fluids, which, combined with the hellish smell, made him gag violently. This awful battering continued on for what seemed like an eternity, but when one foot suddenly drew back it was far from over. She was simply removing her sock.
Like a wrestler tagging in, the newly bare foot replaced the sock wearing one. If there were any lingering questions about Julie’s awareness of his predicament, they were well and fully answered when she dexterously wrapped her big and second toes around his head, exposing Chuxi to the grimy recesses between her toes. Here the smell became worse than anything he had ever experienced in his entire life, and it didn’t help that the rest of her foot pressed down on him like a trash compactor. He gasped and struggled for breath, unable to gain relief from the air tainted by her reeking toes. Worse yet, his desperate attempts for air only served to send Julie’s nauseating sweat down his throat, making him cough and sputter.
Just when he thought he might seriously vomit or worse, Julie stopped. Shaken, Chuxi raised his head and looked up to see Julie gazing down at him, her eyes wide with surprise. “Oh my God, Sushi,” she said, her hand over her mouth. “I didn’t know that was you down there!” Of course she was lying, but Chuxi was just thankful that her assault was over. “Why don’t I put you somewhere safer?”
Alarm bells went off in his head, but he didn’t try to run when she reached down and grabbed him. Even if he wanted to, brawling with Julie’s toes had left him utterly drained. With her tree trunk fingers wrapped around him, it didn’t surprise him at all when he saw Julie’s other hand reach for her discarded running shoe, fresh from a long day of use.
“Have you ever wondered what it’s like inside a woman’s shoe?” she asked, her hand hovering over the open mouth of her sneaker. Chuxi didn’t know how to respond to such a ludicrous question, so he just remained silent. “Well, anyway, you’ll be safe in here.” She gave him a not-so-gentle squeeze before dumping him unceremoniously onto the soaked insole.
Enough time had passed since her run that the heat emanating from the shoe remained bearable; the smell, however, hit him like a kick to the head. A quick survey of the worn cushion revealed relentless abuse, such that the punishment from Julie’s feet had transformed what had once been white into a pitiful gray. Worse yet, his feet sank into the fabric like he was standing in a swamp. The sheer amount of sweat that bubbled up disgusted him. He got a much closer look at that insole when Julie dropped the shoe on the floor and he lost his balance. Bracing himself with his hands, Chuxi just managed to avoid face-planting in the vile fabric.
“Just hang tight there until I finish studying.” Julie smiled down at him, her wickedly amused expression framed by golden locks. “That insole is so comfortable for my hot, tired feet, so… I dunno, take a nap there or something!” Then she disappeared, leaving Chuxi to suffer in the dank confines of her shoe.
At first he was angry, but his mounting fatigue quickly overcame his indignation. Julie could brush aside any resistance he could offer, so why bother wasting energy on it? In truth, he had entered survival mode long ago – all he wanted now was to make it through this. Scratch that – all he wanted was to see Haley. For the first time, he wondered if he would even make it that far. Julie could end his life on a whim, but was she really a murderer?
Suddenly, a shadow passed overhead. He turned to look upwards, but it wasn’t Julie’s face that greeted him – it was her foot. Finding energy that he didn’t know he had, Chuxi rushed towards the toe section, crab-walking desperately backwards. Julie’s big toe came towards him like a battering ram, and it required a wild twisting effort on Chuxi’s part for him to avoid getting his head crushed. Unfortunately, this meant he had positioned himself in the most disgusting place possible – between her first and second toes.
Immediately, the heat and smell intensified. With his head wedged between her toes and the rest of his body beneath her sole, he felt like a mummy in a coffin – but unlike a mummy, he was still alive. Julie had spared him her full weight, but even without actively applied pressure, it was like lying beneath a hundred mattresses. Sweat began to form in the crevice, drowning his head in liquid filth. Added to that was the ever-worsening stench of Julie’s foot, which hugged him so intimately in the worst way possible.
It was no wonder it took him so long to figure out.
First, he heard a mechanical buzzing noise. It sounded far off, as if in another room, but then again anything would, given the circumstances. Then, the pressure coming from Julie’s foot began to rise and fall rhythmically, forcing him to inhale in the interludes, such that she controlled his very breathing. Naturally, the heat and sweat increased exponentially, completely drenching him in her vile perspiration. Even then, it wasn’t until he heard the first moan that it all fell into place. The buzzing noise, the rhythmic pressure, and now Julie's sighs -- how could he miss it?
Julie was masturbating.