Adam had finally graduated university and was looking forward to getting on with his life. Adam had been bullied all through out high school by a girl named Erica. Erica was downright ruthless and made Adam’s life a living hell. Even worse, when she found out they’d be going to the same university she made sure to pick a dormitory that was close to his so that she could keep it up. By the time Adam had found out he’d already paid and it was too late to turn back. His parents ignored his pleas completely and forced him to go. Erica continued tormenting him throughout the 4 long years of university. One of Erica’s favorite tortures was making him sniff and kiss her feet in public. Pretty often if she saw him outside of class in the common grassy areas where other students would hold outdoor activities and picnics, she’d chase him down and tackle him to the ground. She was far stronger than him so it was easy enough for her to hold him down and shove her feet in his face. She’d shout loudly “SNIFF THEM! RIGHT NOW. DEEP BREATHS!” And laugh wildly while nearby students watched. The first few times some students tried to help but Erica swiftly took care of them. By the end of the first semester it was such a normal thing to happen that students just glanced over a laughed a bit before going back to whatever they were doing while Erica continued forcing Adam to breath between her toes until she felt like it. But Adam was ready to put all that behind him and finally be free of her. 

As a graduation gift his parents had been saving up money to buy him a trip to the I.R.L facilities. In Real Life was a company that perfected full immersion VR tech. It was extremely expensive so much so that typically only rich people went, but his parents managed to get a good deal. Adam was so excited and called the the company to set up his appointment. Each client who visits gets to pick a “scenario” that they wish to experience, and they are able to control some aspects once they’re in as well. There are hundreds of thousands of different scenarios to pick from. Adam had chosen a simple one. He wanted to relive his time at school but without the threat of Erica. He’d be able to make friends, go to parties, and have a perfectly normal life. The ticket that his parents got could only get him 30 days worth of time, but that was enough for him. 

The day had finally come, and Adam entered the building and met with reception. Adam was met with a gorgeous brunette named Amanda around Adam’s age. “Registration number please” Amanda asked with her professional voice. Adam told her the number and she looked him up in the system. When she saw his name a confused look appeared on her face. “Wait a second aren’t you…?” She looked up at his face and back down at the computer a few times and finally burst into a fit of laughter. “OMG you’re really him. It’s you.” 2 other female receptionists nearby around the same age  came over to see what was going on. Adam was very confused at this point. “Guys. It’s foot sniffer boy.” Amanda said squeezing out each word in between fits of laughter. “No way! Foot sniffer boy!” The other two girls started laughing as well. Adam’s face turned bright red as his thoughts raced a million miles per second. What could they be talking about. He managed to stutter out “Wh—what are you guys t—talking about?” One of the girls pulled out her phone and searched it on youtube. Over a hundred videos uploaded by Erica of various times she made Adam kiss, smell, and lick her feet. Adam wanted to die of embarrassment right then and there. He couldn’t say anything and looked as if he were about to cry. Amanda figured she might get fired for treating a client this way so she hurried along the process and the other two girls went back to their stations. “Alright alright it’s just a little fun, let’s get you into one of the rooms.” Adam couldn’t believe. Just when he thought he was free of her she’d managed to terrorize him immortally on the internet. Anyone who’d seen the videos would recognize him as “Foot sniffer boy.” 

Another employee guided Adam over to his room, where they helped him get set up. “So, here’s how it’ll work. All you have to do is lie down in that pod over there, close your eyes, and the rest is taken care of. As soon as you enter the machine will recognize it and the rest will be taken care of. We hope you enjoy your stay at I.R.L facilities.” Adam was now alone in the room. He decided to postpone thinking about his inevitable embarrassment in 30 days when he exited the machine. Adam walked over to the cylindrical mechanical pod that stood at about knee height and stepped inside of it. Arms at his side, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A curved piece of glass slid over the top and sealed the pod. The pod lit up with soft blue lights while the light in the rest of the room shut off. 

When Adam woke up, it was freshman move in day at his university again. “I can’t believe it! It’s real! It worked! This is going to be so awesome. No Erica, just me living life as a normal college student.” Adam turned to his right and saw a woman who looked to be about 30 in a lab count. “Hello Adam. My name is Aida” the woman spoke in a monotone kind of voice. “I am the AI assistant for your specific scenario here in the VR world. If you have any questions or need assistance, just say “Aida” and tell me what you need and I will come to your aid.” With that the woman suddenly vanished. Adam smiled brightly and started his first day, his first real day of college.

Meanwhile, Amanda texted one of her close friends, Erica. As soon as she recognized Adam she couldn’t wait to tell Erica. Erica called her immediately. “You’re telling me my little foot pet is there right now?” Erica asked. Amanda excitedly replied “Yes! It’s him. He’s in for 30 days. I took a look at the scenario he picked. It’s weird, he picked something really basic but it looks like there’s one very specific change to reality. You don’t exist in his scenario. Like, at all.” This made Erica laugh, and then her laughter turned into a sadistic tone of voice. “Oh, my little foot sniffer thinks he can escape me that easily huh? Hey Amanda, would it technically be possible to change a scenario once it’s started?” Amanda figured she’d ask and replied, “Yup. It absolutely is. I have access to that part of the system. I’ve already asked my boss to let me close tonight. Come by at 9pm and we’ll be the only ones here.” Amanda finished. “Perfect” Erica replied before hanging up. Poor Adam had no idea how quickly his dream world would become a nightmare. 

Erica arrived that night and the two chatted a bit before turning off the lights in the building and locking all the doors to make it look everything was closed down. Amanda led them over to Adam’s room and she unlocked the door with her key card. Erica walked over to the pod Adam was in a peered in. “Oh my poor little foot sniffer. I’ve neglected you. Clearly if you’re trying to run away from my feet I haven’t trained you right. But don’t worry, soon enough you’ll have more feet than you know what to do with.” Amanda booted up the computer in the room and began working. “So the way this thing works is it uses the subject’s own memories and a bunch of data fed in from our system in order to re-create the world. First thing we want to do is replace Aida with you, or his memory of you anyways. And normally they can end the scenario early in case there’s a problem, but I’m adjusting the assistant’s settings to disable that option. I’ve made it so the assistant will emulate you as closely as possible, meaning instead of helping him it’ll work to make his life exactly as you would want it to be. Now, what scenario do you want to replace his with.” Erica explained everything in freighting detail, and Amanda worked for a few hours to make all the adjustments. “Aaaaaand done! Are there any other changes you want to make before I hit save them?” Amanda asked. Erica thought for a second and asked, “I don’t suppose there’s a way to keep him in there for longer than 30 days is there?” Amanda thought about it, “Wellll…technically no. In 30 days the machine is hardwired to automatically release him. But actually there IS something we can do. Usually only the millionaire clients can afford this option because it takes up a lot of resources from the building, but we can alter his sense of time in there. See some really rich old guys actually pay millions when they’re about to die to have their brains permanently uploaded into the system. Then we alter their sense of time so that they can spend basically eternity in their own personal paradise. I don’t have the authorization to do the mind upload, but I CAN change the flow of time.” Erica replied “That’s perfect! How about…1 hour in the real world is one month in his world.” Amanda began typing, “So that’s 2 years in his world for every day in the real world, let’s see, after 30 days he’ll have spent 60 years in the scenario.”

Adam was in class with his hand raised. The female professor pointed to him, “Yes you, Adam. Please tell us which of these options would be a best fit for the question.” Adam confidently replied, “The third option makes the most sense.” Adam had been enjoying class so far without the fear and anxiety of Erica springing up. Suddenly, something strange happened. Adam felt like the entire world “flashed” for a second and everyone in the room froze. After a moment everything resumed. The professor answered, “Incorrect Adam. The only real solution to the problem is for you to come here right now and sniff my feet.” Adam’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. He started stuttering again, “E—excuse me?” The female student sitting to his left turned to him with an annoyed expression on her face and told him “You heard her. Go sniff her feet loser.” Adam was sweating now, heart beating faster and faster. It was at this point that he noticed all the male students had disappeared from the room. The professor spoke up again, “My feet are only getting sweatier Adam, come here right now and inhale the stench between my toes.” The girl to Adam’s left peeled off her ugg boots and dropped her feet right on his desk. The girl to the right did the same with her ratty converse sneakers. The odor wafting into Adam’s nose was unbearable. Thick humid cheesy foot stench. The girl on the right spoke, “Guess you can sniff ours until you go over there and sniff the professor’s feet.” He tried to push their feet off of his desk but that only caused them to start shoving them in his face. Little did he know Erica had made him extremely weak, so even at full force he couldn’t make their legs budge. They rubbed their feet all of his face focusing on his nose. That’s when it hit him. In his complete panic Adam shouted “Aida! Help me!” Suddenly, the girls retracted their feet. Adam didn’t miss the opportunity and immediately jumped out of his desk and ran towards the door in full sprint. However it was locked. No matter how hard he pulled it wasn’t moving at all. He turned around and saw something that horrified him. 

“Hey there foot pet. I missed you”. Erica said smiling at him. “No. It can’t be. You’re not supposed to be here. None of this is supposed to happen. Why is this happening?!” All the women in the room started laughing. Adam simply curled up in a ball with his hands over his hears to block out their laughter. “No, it’s not supposed to be this way.” He muttered to himself. “Aida, Aida, Aida, where are you. Stop the scenario now” he kept muttering. Erica sternly spoke down to him. “Oh shut up. Aida this, Aida that. Aida’s not coming to save you. No one is. You see when Amanda heard you were going to go in for a VR experience, she of course told me immediately and we decided to make a few…changes. I felt like there weren’t enough feet you know? And one key ingredient was missing. Me. So I fixed it. NOW this is paradise. And by the way, Aida’s gone. She’s been replaced by me. I’m your goddess now. And goddesses have divine power, did you know that? You’ve been a bad pet, so I have to punish you.” Erica snapped her fingers. Suddenly Adam felt like he was enveloped in a very warm, soft, and plushy cocoon. Just then the cocoon opened up and light entered from every direction. Adam stood up and looked to see an even more horrifying sight. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse. Erica’s giant smiling face was looking right down at him. Without thinking, Adam immediately jumped off of her palm. He figured maybe even if he hit the ground and died it would force the machine to pull him out. Erica just smirked and muttered “I thought you’d do that. But this is my world now.” Adam could see what awaited him below. Erica had removed her old running shoe and her bare foot was now exposed. As Adam neared the ground she skillfully grabbed his head right between her big toe and second toe, his face facing the inside of her toes. “I can finally show you my feet in ways I never could before. This is where you truly belong Adam.” With that Erica slid her shoe back on and walked out of the room. “This must be what hell is like.” Was the only thing Adam could think. “How the hell does it smell EXACTLY like her feet? How can it be THIS realistic?” Adam barely had time to process as the potent thick humid foot odor consumed his entire being, foot sweat soaking him to the bone and pouring into his mouth, globs of toe jam oozing over his face and onto his lips. He couldn’t move because of the pressure of Erica’s foot. Adam felt like he was trapped in Erica’s shoe for what must have been several hours. Eventually he could feel her foot shifting. Cool air entered his foot tomb as the foot and him were pulled out, as Erica had not released the grip of his head in between her toes. Finally she released and for the first time in hours Adam got a look of something other than toe flesh. Adam stared in awe, not knowing how to even react at this point to this ever worsening nightmarish hell. This place must have been the size of a football stadium. Well at least to Adam it was, but in fact it was the campus gymnasium. But the stands were not empty. In it he could see they were filled to the brim with women, all undergrads that were cheering and laughing at him. “They all came for you little foot bug. I haven’t told you about our activities yet. Here’s how this is going to go.” Erica started as Adam could see 10 different girls approaching him. “You know there’s about 15,000 students at our school here. Well about half of those are girls. 7, 329 to be exact. And you’re going to clean ALL of their feet. They’ll come in groups of 10 and surround you with their feet so you can bask in all that yummy foot cheese. One by one you’ll clean of their feet. Making sure to eat all of the toe jam, foot grime, and dead skin that you find. Their feet won’t ever get any less stinky, but it’s your job to make them look pristine. You’ll spend 24 hours on each foot, so that means 2 days per girl. That’s 14,658 days cleaning tasty foot gunk foot bug, aren’t you excited?!” Erica laughed maniacally. “40 whole years doing nothing but sniffing rank feet, drinking foot sweat, and eating toe jam.” Adam immediately shot back this time, “You’re a liar! I’m only in here 30 days. Not even you can change that!” Erica proceed to sit down on the ground and bent her right knee so that her right sole was facing left. She picked up Adam with her fingers and dunked his head straight in between her toes and began swirling it around as if she was cleaning a toilet. “First of all, don’t you dare talk back to me like that. Second of all, you’re right, I can’t make you stay in the machine for longer than 30 days. But Amanda could change the flow of time in here. So guess what my little foot bug, you’re in here for 60 years. No one’s coming for you. So we have plenty of time for activities.” Erica finished as she continued flossing Adam’s head in between all of her toes, pulling out pieces of toe jam and rubbing his face in it. Adam had started crying with each word she said while explaining just how trapped he was. “Now now don’t cry my little foot bug, it’s ok. Remember this is your fault. You tried to escape to a world without me. We can’t have that. Besides, first round is ready.” Erica dropped Adam back on the ground which was covered in some kind of carpet like material. He looked around and saw all 10 girls surrounded him in a ring of massive hot sweaty soles. They made it as tight as possible. The air was unbearable, Adam could feel every single molecule of foot tainted her flow into his nostrils and down into his lungs. Adam noticed a familiar face in the group, “Me first!” Shouted Amanda, the accomplice to the creation of this foot hell. Erica spoke, “C’mon now Adam, get to work.” Adam just couldn’t. He couldn’t handle the reality of the situation. He broke down, curled into the fetal position and sobbed. Erica looked down at him angrily, “Gosh could you even be more annoying? Guess it’s going to take a while to break you in.” Erica picked up Adam’s pitiful body and grasped him length wise in the underside of her toes as if she were grabbing a pencil with her toes. “Hey Amanda, let me borrow your socks?” Erica asked. “Sure!” Amanda replied. “I’ve worn them for about 7 years straight without washing” she added. No doubt another one of the adjustments to the scenario. Reality was completely under Erica’s control. She slipped her running sneaker back on after placing Amanda’s sock on her foot. Now encased within Amanda’s sweat soaked sock, under Erica’s horrid cheesy toes, trapped in the abhorrent running sneaker that held within it the memories of years and years of Erica’s feet, Erica walked off. She shouted down to Adam, “We’ll try again in 2 years Adam. Every time you disobey, into the shoe you go. And when you’re in the shoe, the stench of my feet and the sweat produced double every month, so I suggest next time you have the opportunity, you’d better clean all of their feet like you’re supposed to.” There would be no reprieve for Adam.

And so with that, decades went by with Adam sniffing literally thousands of different feet with their own unique foot odors, drinking tons upon tons of foot sweat, tons upon tons of toe jam passed through his bottomless stomach.

…To be continued?