Throughout the night I barely slept a wink.  For once it had nothing to do with comfort, since laying at the bottom of Akane’s stocking was almost the exact same as being in a hammock without the worry of falling out.  Exhaustion eventually overcame the non-stop replay of Vanessa’s death as well, but in its stead arose a scene even more terrifying: my own demise.  Between Gina’s increasing roughness and Roni’s return to the outside I expected to be no more than a smear within a week.

The worst part of it all was that my brain could not settle on only one scenario.  First I imagined Gina handing me off to Roni and giving her carte blank, only for her to squeeze me in a fist until popping.  After that it was Gina setting me down on the floor and stomping on me, then grinding me into the carpet.  Following that I pictured her shrinking me until I no longer existed in any meaningful sense of the word, a death without dying.  Every time I shook one scene out of my mind another arose, with a consistent feeling that it would happen soon.

It was still dark when the pounding of feet on wood began, informing me that it was officially morning.  There was a click, and light flooded the room, it all reached me in a hazy fog through my dark nylon prison.  My sleep-deprived mind got hung up on the petty details though, like this house having functioning lights and, apparently, real floors.  I could not remember the last time any of the lights in the run-down building Fulda had left for me worked, one of the many things which had fallen by the wayside as she stopped caring about my well-being.

More footsteps, and I saw a giant shadow moving toward me.  It was like looking through cloudy glass, but when it got closer I clearly made out Akane’s face stretching from end to end of my field of view.  Her unblemished skin was marred by hundreds of tiny interlinked threads, forming a fine mesh that was just visible to me.  I tried rolling over to face her more directly, but the encasing nylon stretched too easily, and all I managed to do was find out what it must be like to be stuck in quicksand.

A long shape extended forward, and with two digits she gripped the top of my vertical prison.  Akane gently lifted it up and I began to subtly swing back and forth, the tiny movement enough to start a minor pendulum effect for me.  She held the stockings at arm’s length while she carried them back to her bed, as though they contained hazardous material she wanted to avoid inhaling at all costs.

Carefully she draped them on the edge of her bed, acting like even a light jostle would shatter them.  I rolled a little from the moment, ending on the knotted stitching where her toes would be.  My cell drooped slightly, leaving me to hang a bit below Akane’s knees.  To maintain some semblance of continuity I looked up, trying to focus on her while my mind failed to assemble the pieces into a single coherent image.  Something about having an enormous shadow loom over me instead of a person made it even worse, playing into my paranoia from my restless night.  Now destruction could take any shape.

Blurred movements and a wave of sounds built my existential dread, culminating in the sound of a long zipper being drawn.  That could be anything from Akane’s dress to a lightless bag to stuff me in and forget about, I thought.  Something enormous crashed onto the bed, rocking me back and forth from the impact.  I finally got a solid update when I bumped into something firm yet supple, and looked up to see a slender leg stretching toward the sky.

Finally the time came, and my nylon cage was lifted from the bed.  I looked up the slim tube of synthetic fabric and saw long, delicate fingers probe into the opening, prying it apart.  After a bit of fumbling on her part the opening had widened to the point that I could see a huge, light-drinking eye staring down at me surrounded by pale skin.  I gave a feeble wave to greet her behemoth iris, but got nothing back.

The bottom of Akane’s stocking wobbled while she lowered it, and her fingers adjusted around the top.  A few seconds passed in chaos, then a row of toes burst through the darkness.  My eyes went wide and I looked for anywhere to crawl through to escape the advancing foot, but found nothing in the intact stockings.  “Hey, Akane!” I shouted, hoping she would be able to hear me.  “I’m in here!  You put me in here for safe keeping, remember?”  Her foot pushed forward, stretching the nylon around it.  If she did hear me, it was not enough to stop her.

Threads creaked and groaned while they formed a skin-tight seal around Akane’s imperiling foot, its big toe pointed right at me.  Panic gripped my already frayed mental state and I flipped over myself so that I would not have to watch its gradual slide toward me.  Desperate to do something I began clawing at the fabric, hoping to open a gap wide enough to slip through.  The material was too durable, however, and my tiny fingers were barely even enough to nudge it.

Akane’s toe rammed into my back, immediately curving my spine backwards.  She continued to pull, tightening the stocking around her leg and driving her foot further into my back.  My body formed along the curve of her toe, pulled tight and suspended by the fine net around me.  I grimaced from the pain, and let out an agonized cry when I could no longer hold it in. 

Pain shot through my body when Akane wiggled her toes, dragging me up and down with them while she tried to get the nylon to adhere to them more securely.  Maybe she feels something inside it, I hoped, but when a new wave of pain wracked every nerve in me as she stretched her toes I quickly forgot the idea. 

My strained and agonizing position stabilized when Akane was finally satisfied with the fit, but that did not last long.  Her foot pointed down at the floor and began its descent, with me at the front.  The only thing in my head was pain.  Past and present had become meaningless abstract concepts, the only thing that was real was that instant and the inescapable, burning misery.  I welcomed the possibility of being smashed beneath her toe if it would mean an end to this.

To my dismay her toes raised at the last minute, moving me out of harm’s way while another jolt shot though every nerve in my body.  When her foot set down the flesh buoying me widened, further distorting my already strained limbs.  Even worse, I was effectively mounted on the tip of her big toe, keeping my feet just out of reach of the ground.  The tiny bit of relief that would have afforded was denied me, leaving me on the plateau of agony.

Awareness of my situation finally expanded beyond the immediate, paralyzing misery of my body being stretched beyond its shape and included the horrors from the environment of simply being pinned inside a stocking by a gargantuan foot.  The fine mesh cut into my skin, not hard enough to break the surface but with enough force to feel as though it was on the verge of cutting through.  Every square inch of my exposed skin was subjected to this force, and my clothing only slightly dispersed the impact.

As a result of the flesh-rending weaving my lungs could barely expand, leaving me scarcely able to breathe but unable to pass out.  The nylon was skin-tight to me as well and much stronger, keeping my chest neatly constricted.  I was only capable of breathing in small gasps, sometimes not even that much, while my lungs screamed for more.  It was a difficult balance between hyperventilation and asphyxiation, with neither providing the release I desired.

When I thought it could not possibly get worse Akane took a step.  The subtle shift in her weight jabbed her toe deeper into my back, kicking off a new wave of pain right before her foot lifted from the ground.  I sailed through the air on the prow of her toe at what seemed like a million miles an hour, the world flying by at an incredible rate distorted by the dark translucent fabric and burgeoning delirium.  Another jolt when her foot tilted up, with the titaness inflicting my misery just at the edge of my vision.  Vibrations ran up her foot and into my body when her heel slammed into the ground, sharply jerking my limbs back and forth while my whole skeleton rattled.

Every single striding step was like that.  With the powerful forces acting on my body constantly in limbo I was never able to feel settled, and each rhythmic pounding was like the start of a new eternity of misery.  It did not seem like she took many steps, but the endless churning of her foot made it impossible to tell.  For all I knew she walked to the end of the earth and back with me trapped in there, or she paced around her room once. 

Mercifully she came to a stop at last, allowing me to settle back to the plateau of agony instead of constantly being spiked further into the suffering stratosphere.  “Hey Liz, what’s up?” Akane asked.  The gentle rumble of her voice was practically soothing compared to the violent tremors of her footsteps.

The world was still shrouded in the fog of Akane’s stockings, but while everything was still and brightly lit I could see through translucent nylon well enough.  The brunette giantess sat in a thickly-padded leather chair, her long legs crossed at the ankles and propped up on a desk.  She twirled a strand of hair around a finger while reading from a grimoire that was propped open against her thighs.  On the cover were clear, large characters that I had no idea what they meant but knew they came from a dead language that was better off forgotten.  It was an exact recreation of the book from which Gina recited passages while not terrorizing us.

Liz slowly turned to face Akane as though she had been expecting a guest at just this time.  She looked her over and easily spotted the oblong protrusion from her foot, nearly vacuum-sealed in by nylon.  “Not much, just reading the Goddess’s works,” she replied, fighting against a smile.  “You having fun with your little friend?”

Akane hesitated before answering, but failed to pick up on Liz’s glaring hint.  “I can’t find him, actually,” she finally said.  “He’s missing and I’m really worried!”

Liz gave an exaggerated fake gasp at this revelation.  “I’m worried too!” she mocked.  “He was really small when She dropped him off last night, he might have gotten even smaller.  He does that so much it’s almost like he enjoys it.”

“Hm, maybe.”  Akane pondered a second before continuing.  “I remember putting him in my hanging stocking last night so he wouldn’t wander off,” she recounted, conveniently leaving off the part where she almost crushed me by accident.  “Do you think he shrank so much he fell out of it?”

Liz continued staring at me, clearly finding the whole situation amusing.  “He would have to be really small, but I think that’s what happened.”  She must be loving this.  “You should go look for him, I know you were really looking forward to that picnic or whatever you had planned, you weirdo.”

“Yeah, I guess.  Thanks.”  Akane turned and left Liz’s room, beginning the unbreakable cycle of ever-changing suffering once more.  Though it was impossible to hear anything beyond the overwhelming thunder of her feet I was certain Liz began laughing the certain Akane left, allowing me to suffer at the bottom of her stocking.

Akane walked all day looking for me, never thinking to check what the tiny bit of irritation she felt was.  By the end of it I was exhausted from the unending pain and misery, and the only thing keeping me upright was the nylon’s tension forcing me against her toe.  The only upside was that she never put on her pair of high heels, which would have set off a race between her own body heat and being smothered for what would kill me in the most pathetic way.

She draped one leg over the other, allowing her foot to dangle loosely.  This was the first bit of relief I had felt since becoming trapped in Akane’s stocking, since her toe put a smidge less pressure on me and I could hang against the nylon like a net.  The stocking continued to loosen, and I dropped from her toe into the tiny reservoir of fabric hanging off the end.  Its slack increased at a steady rate, and I finally realized that Akane was rolling it off her leg.

At last she pulled it free, releasing me from my prison.  A low gasp burst from above, and her hand began to upend the small ball of fabric.  My limp body rolled out of the black nylon and into her cupped and waiting hand.  I remained still, unable to move even if I wanted and simply glad to breathe freely.  Residual pain was the only way I knew I was not paralyzed, but that was a small comfort while my limbs refused to move anyway.

“Oh Gina!” Akane exclaimed upon seeing my near-lifeless body in her hand.  “Have you been in there this whole time?”  I did not respond.  Words were beyond me at that point, and rational thought was teetering on the brink.  “I was worried about you, why didn’t you say something?”  I would not have dignified that with an answer even if I could.

“I am so, so, so sorry about that,” she continued when I stayed quiet.  Maybe she thought I was mad and giving her the silent treatment rather than on death’s doorstep.  “Please believe me, I had no clue you were in there.”  Surprisingly her voice was laden with sadness, as though she genuinely felt remorseful.  “Here, let me make it up to you.”

Slowly her hand lowered to the mattress, where she created a long slide with her fingers.  I slowly rolled down her digits until hitting the mattress, then she carefully moved her hand away.  Incredibly the mattress was even more comfortable than her cupped palm, though at this point a bed of nails would seem like the height of luxury.

Akane began chanting, and her arcane syllables imbued me with power.  I felt myself sliding along the mattress in both directions, but I could not make my eyes open.  If she was doing this wrong I would shrink to the point of effective non-existence.  While that would be an escape from suffering, I was still against it because I could already hear Gina’s earth-cracking laughter upon hearing the news.

“Oh good, you’re breathing!” she declared.  I was ambivalent on the matter.  “I, uh, think I made you too big, They only want you up to my knees.”  If she shrank me again I would tell her to just end it.  “But… I’m not sure They’ll notice.  Besides, you’ll be more fun to snuggle with now.”  Wait, what?

The mattress dipped behind me, and a long, slender arm wrapped around me.  Akane pulled me close, and I felt warmth radiating from smooth skin.  Silky hairs brushed the back of my neck, and my legs made way for hers as she curled around my body.  “What do you say?” she purred, her voice just a little duskier than normal.  “Want to be my teddy bear tonight?”

On the one hand, she had spent all day nearly killing me out of negligence.  On the other hand, this was the first human touch I had felt in what seemed like forever not explicitly meant to hurt me and might be the last until it was “her” day again.  Besides, she sounded truly sorry for putting me through that.  I gave an affirmative grunt and she squeezed me tighter.  Seconds later I was asleep, my body and mind exhausted from a day of hell.