The water was running again, though it didn’t seem to matter much. My brother was still standing directly above me, his grey sweatpants covering most of my vision. To my right was his foot; so huge he could crush me without even a thought. To my left, another one, just as deadly as the first.

            He looked so cute in this light; his shaggy brown hair tossing to and fro as he constantly shifted his weight. He had a cute button nose and freckles surrounding it. I always loved his freckles. No one else in the family had them. Not my sister Samantha, nor my mother, nor me. I always wondered where they came from.

            Ah! I shouted as his foot moved back. It didn’t come any closer, but at this point my nerves were making me jump at even the slightest movement. Any tiny action, even just sliding over an inch, could kill me. Something like that does a number to your nerves. Now he was leaning forward on the counter, his left foot resting on his toes. That was it. Just resting, rocking slightly to the side.

            Come on, please leave. Please. Please. I tried to slow my breathing but it wasn’t helping. Whenever I became even a little bit calm the mental picture of my giant brothers foot coming down on that other ant brought me back to reality. That bug had been smashed completely. Only a tiny leg was left un-crushed. He didn’t even think about it either. Just a little accident. Just a small little movement and that bug’s life was reduced to nothing. I didn’t want to go out like that bug. I didn’t want my little brother to squish me under his foot. 

            I didn’t have a choice in the matter though. If his foot did come over me, if he unconsciously choose to step on my tiny form, that was it. I’d be killed, mashed against his gigantic sole. That would be it.

            He was still fidgeting a bit, his left foot rocking back and forth on his toes. What was he doing? What was even taking him so long? The more important question, however, was how did this happen to me? I was a normal person! I didn’t do anything that was far from ordinary. I went to school, I did my chores, I tried not to piss anyone off, and this is what happens. I get turned into a bug, a small ant, and left on my bathroom to be crushed by my adorable little brother. Where’s the justice in that?

            Then I started to wonder about the other two ants. Did something happen to them as well? Were they always ants, or were they people? My heart stopped as a possibility hit me. What if they were my mother and sister?

            I glanced back over to the mangled corpse of that first ant. Had that been my mom? Had my brother, my sweet, loving brother, crushed her? No, that couldn’t be right. Nothing like that was true. Nothing like that was possible. This wasn’t possible!

            Again he moved his foot. My breathing stopped as he brought his left foot back up to me, slamming it down so close to my body that if I just reached out I could have touched it. I was so close to death. I didn’t want to die though. I really didn’t want to die.

            Luckily his left foot, the one only a few inches from me, was staying relatively still. His right foot, however, was shuffling about uncontrollably. It swayed to the side slightly, moving over the floor and the tiny dirt particles that covered it, then back again. Side to side, crushing the dirt pebbles then shifting off of them yet again. I kept looking at those tiny little specks, knowing that to him, this giant, I was nothing more. I was just another tiny speck of dirt on the ground. One to be ignored, to be stepped on, or to be pushed aside at will. I was nothing to him.

            I tried shouting again. This time a tiny little whisper came out. That was it. That was all I was capable of. Barely even a breath. He couldn’t hear it. Hell, I could barely even hear it! But at least I was starting to move. In a few hours, if I lived a few hours, I might gain control over my body.

            But what then? Live out the rest of my life as an ant? I could see it now, scurrying around the floor quickly, trying to avoid getting squashed by my giant family, assuming they were still alive. Maybe Tommy would feel merciful and drop a few crumbs of food down to the ground so I could greedily gobble them down.

            His foot moved, passing over my small, insignificant body. Every time it did I saw the grooves of his sole. All it did was reaffirm my suspicion that there weren’t any safe spots. If his foot came down on me, no matter where I was, that was it.

            The bug to my left managed to move two of its legs, weakly, as the giant’s feet came to rest on either side of it. I knew how the bug was feeling. It was horrible.

            Tommy fumbled around above us, reaching for something, finding it, doing whatever he was doing. I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to move. I just wanted to be free. I just wanted things to go back to normal. Why couldn’t Tommy just be my small, little brother again?

            In real life – I’m still holding out hope that this is just a dream – he barely even comes up to my waist. He play’s video games, he eats junk food, he runs around like a lunatic outside. He isn’t some insane murderer. He’s just my brother.

            I saw him shift his footing a little bit, coming up onto his toes as he reached for something on one of the higher shelves. The other ant was flailing wildly, his legs apparently responding to him. Still, it wasn’t enough for any actual movement. He was still trapped, the same as me. 

            Tommy came down again, his shoe cutting off my line of sight to the other bug. Secretly I hoped my brother stayed where he was. I wished that he wouldn’t return to me, even if he did end up crushing that other ant. I didn’t want Tommy to crush me. I didn’t want to become a stain on the bottom of his foot.

            The boy started rocking again, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. I wondered what the other bug was thinking. Was it terrified? Was it on the verge of passing out? Or, somehow, was it optimistic about the situation. Maybe we would escape this mess. There was still hope. I tried to move my arm again. This time the very tip of it bobbed a little. That was something.

            Again my heart sank as I saw Tommy’s foot moving towards me. I felt the ground shaking underneath his weight. He was so huge now. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of it.

            Another stomp as his shoe came down only a few inches away from me. This was my little brother. The same kid I had played with after school. I used to build little Lego models with him. I used to push him on the swing set, or play tag, or catch. I protected him whenever things were scary. This was the same little boy who would crawl into bed with me whenever there was a thunderstorm. Now he could kill me without even noticing.

            His left foot passed over me again, slamming onto the ground just to my right. For the first time I noticed a little leaf that was still glued to the underside of his shoe. How long had it been there? Only a few minutes? Hours? Days? Had that small little plant been trapped on the underside of his shoe, trampled with each step, for days? Was that going to be my fate as well?

            His feet continued to move around me, stomping on the tiles, the simple, thoughtless motion sending my tiny body rocking as if caught in an earthquake. Still, his shoes didn’t land on me. At least not yet.

            I started wondering how many bugs he had actually killed in his life. We had played outside so often. Sometimes we would run around pretending to be superheroes, sometimes we would simply be tossing a baseball back and forth. How many times had he been running and simply squashed an insect under his feet? How many lives had he crushed?

            Again the shadow passed over me. That was all it did though, simply pass over. My eyes were drawn to his movements as he went back over to the other bug, his shoes crashing into the ground next to it. He finally planted his feet next to the ant, both of them on its left side. At least it wasn’t squished.

            Then Tommy started squirming around again, moving his foot side to side, casually rolling over the small little marbles of dirt. I could see the ant trying to crawl away, though he wasn’t making any progress in its position. I felt so bad for it. With each swing Tommy was edging closer and closer to its body. Why couldn’t he just leave? Why couldn’t my brother just look down and recognize us? Take pity on us? Tommy, I began again, but my thoughts were cut off.

            Suddenly the boy moved his left foot, sliding it over so that it was hovering only a fraction of an inch over the other ant’s body. I heard another scream as his foot came down. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see my little brother crush another innocent bug.

            But the scream still continued. When I opened my eyes I saw that things were worse than I imagined them. The lower half of the bug was caught under my brother’s foot, squished.

            If I had any significant control over my body I would have thrown up. My brother simply stood where he was, squishing a poor bug into nothing. No, that would have been better than this. Half trampled. Crushed its lower half but left it alive.

            Damn it, I said to myself, closing my eyes, the screams of the bug still piercing my eardrums. Why couldn’t he have just killed it?

            Again my eyes opened. My gaze drifted up to my brother’s face. He wasn’t concerned at all. He was just looking ahead, his gaze falling on some of the objects high above us. We really weren’t anything to him. He couldn’t hear the screams coming from the poor insect he was torturing. He was just too big, too powerful. And even if he could here them, even if he knew that there was a bug under his shoe, would he even care?

            We are just ants after all. Pathetic, worthless bugs to be trampled without a second thought. Step on us, squish us, burn us with a magnifying glace. He was our superior in every way now. He could do whatever he wanted to us.

              The screaming stopped after a few more moments. I could still see the bug’s legs wobbling in the air though. It wasn’t dead. Just trapped. I felt so terrible, both for the ants that my brother had massacred, and for myself. He had already trampled two of us. How long did I have before my brother squished me?

            He moved again, lifting his foot off of the tiny insect, taking a step back. I could see relief flow across the ants face as his shoe came off. It looked so happy in that moment, as if it had just escaped death. Then my brother moved back into place, his shoe falling hard onto the tiny ant.

            I heard the crunch as the rest of the bug’s exoskeleton was reduced to paste. My breathing was rapid again. Rapid and shallow. I didn’t want to look, but somehow I couldn’t draw my eye away from the sight of my brother’s shoe as he absentmindedly shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He still didn’t know what was happening. He still didn’t realize he was killing us.

            My breathing stopped as he took a step in my direction, his foot coming off of the now dead ant. It hit the ground close to me, the impact shaking my body yet again. I wanted to run away. I wanted to find a safe place to hide. I wanted to be anywhere but here. Anywhere, but at the feet of my giant brother.