Chapter 1: Tongue-Tied Arch
The air in Licory’s bedroom was thick with the scent of melted beeswax and cheap, floral perfume. Deep emerald silk draped the walls, swallowing sound and light, leaving only the erratic flicker of a dozen candles to push back the gloom. The polished hardwood floor was a stage for frantic, tiny movements—the skitter-scrape of miniature feet, the soft thump of a body hitting a wall, the muffled, desperate panting that was almost lost beneath the low hum of the city outside.
Licory lay propped against a mountain of velvet pillows, her long black hair splayed around her. She wriggled her toes, a slow, deliberate motion.A chorus of miniature grunts and strangled cries answered her. Between each of her toes, a shrunken man was wedged tightly, their world reduced to the oppressive smell of her skin and the crushing pressure from above and below. She sighed, a bored exhale.“Keep them apart,” she murmured, though no one normal-sized was there to hear. It was a reminder to herself.Her feet were wide, her toes prone to curling into each other. The living toe separators were a practical solution. One of them, a braver soul trapped between her big and second toe, tried to shift his weight.Licory flexed, pinning him instantly. A tiny, choked sob escaped.A smile touched her lips.The door burst open without a knock.
Carmella filled the doorway, a whirlwind of energy that made the candle flames shudder. Her short brown hair was mussed, her striking yellow eyes alight with mischief. In her cupped palm, held tenderly as a wounded bird, stood a tiny, terrified figure with bright green hair.
“Lico! Look what I brought!” Carmella singsonged, kicking the door shut with her heel.
Licory tilted her head, her brown eyes scanning the newcomer in Carmella’s hand.“Another one? You’re running out of space on your shelf.”
“This one’s special,” Carmella said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. She strode across the room, her steps making the floorboards tremble for the tiny inhabitants. She came to the edge of the vast bed, looking down at Licory’s captive feet. “Ugh, you’re using the Freds. They always weep so much it gets slippery.”
“They’re effective,” Licory said flatly.She looked at the green-haired man in Carmella’s palm. He was shaking, his little arms wrapped around himself. “Who’s the special one?”
Carmella beamed.She lifted her hand closer to her face, her breath washing over the tiny man. “This is Rel.My Rel. Say hello, baby.”
The tiny figure—Rel—managed a microscopic wave.His blue eyes were wide with a fear so profound it looked like serenity.
Licory raised an eyebrow.“Your Rel?As in, your boyfriend Rel? From your poli-sci class?”
“The very one!” Carmella plopped down on the bed, making the mattress undulate like a wave. Licory’s feet shifted; a few muffled screams were smothered by flesh.“He’s been so lost lately.So empty. Wandering around like a little ghost. I finally figured out what he needs.”
Licory watched as Carmella brought her hand down, depositing Rel onto the vast landscape of the embroidered bedspread. He stumbled, fell onto the intricate, mountain-range stitching, and stayed on his hands and knees.
“He needs purpose, Lico,” Carmella continued, her tone softening with a performative kindness.“He needs to belong. To be useful. To me.” She kicked off her chunky sneakers, then peeled off her socks with a slow, deliberate tug. She wiggled her bare toes, which were painted a chipped black, right in front of Rel’s face. “Don’t you, baby? You want to be useful to me, right?”
From his place on the bedspread, Rel looked up. He looked at the colossal, weathered soles of Carmella’s feet, at the arches that rose like canyon walls, at the toes that flexed and curled mere inches from his world. He looked past them, to Carmella’s face, which was smiling down at him with a terrifying mixture of love and ownership.
“Yes,” he whispered, the word so small it was almost nothing.“Please.”
“See?” Carmella said, grinning at Licory. “He gets it.”
Licory felt a faint twinge of something—not jealousy, but curiosity. She watched as Carmella lay back, mirroring her own position.“So show him, then. Show him what ‘useful’ means.”
Carmella’s smile widened. She turned her attention back to Rel.“Okay, sweetie.Lesson one. This is where you live now.” She lifted her right foot, looming it over him. The sole, a landscape of whorls and ridges, blocked the candlelight.“Your job is to make me feel good.To worship.To serve. You’re gonna start by learning the terrain.”
She lowered her foot, not onto him, but beside him. The sheer scale of it, the warmth radiating from the skin, the faint smell of leather and sweat, made Rel shrink back. “Touch it,” Carmella commanded, her voice losing its bubbly edge for a second. “Get acquainted.”
Trembling, Rel shuffled forward on his knees.He reached out a minute hand and pressed it against the ball of her foot. The skin was surprisingly soft, but firm. He ran his hand along it, a tiny explorer on a vast, yielding continent.“Good,” Carmella purred.She closed her eyes. “Now use your whole body. Learn it.”
Rel, driven by a desperate need to please, to finally have instructions, pressed his face against her sole. He inhaled her scent, a deep, musky, human smell that was unmistakably her.It was overwhelming, intoxicating in its intimacy. He moved along the arch, his hands sliding over the smooth skin.Carmella let out a soft sigh. “He’s a natural.Look at him, Lico.”
Licory was looking. Her fingers idly traced the spine of a man trapped between her own toes, feeling his frantic heartbeat against her skin.“He’s eager. Broken things usually are.”
“Don’t be mean,” Carmella said, but she was still smiling. She opened her eyes and looked down at Rel, who was now kneeling at her heel.“Okay, enough geography. Practical application.” She raised her foot again and rolled onto her side, facing Licory. “Watch this.”
Carmella crooked a finger at Rel.“Come here.To the toes.”
Rel scurried forward, obedient. When he reached the base of her toes, Carmella lifted her foot and gently, so gently, rolled it until the tips of her toes were facing him. The spaces between them were dark, inviting crevices.“This,” Carmella said, her voice husky, “is a prime spot. A place of honor.” She used her other hand to gently pluck Rel from the bedspread. He gasped, dangling in the air. With meticulous care, she slotted him into the space between her big toe and the second toe. She then pressed her toes together, imprisoning him in a warm, fleshy vice.Rel let out a sound—part gasp, part moan. The pressure was immense, a constant, enveloping squeeze from all sides. He was engulfed by her, utterly contained.“Fuck yeah,” Carmella breathed, her eyes fluttering closed again. “That’s the stuff.You feel that, Rel?That’s where you belong. That’s your purpose.You’re gonna keep my toes company. You’re gonna listen to my day. You’re gonna be my little foot-fucker.”
The obscenity, said with such warm affection, made Licory shift.She felt a slow heat stir in her own belly. She watched Rel’s tiny hands push weakly against the monumental toes that confined him, not to escape, but to test the firmness of his prison.He was accepting it.Embracing it.
“See how peaceful he is?” Carmella whispered, watching Licory’s face. “All that noise in his head… gone.Just quiet submission. It’s beautiful.”
“He is pretty,” Licory admitted softly. She released the pressure on one of her own captives, the man between her pinky and fourth toe.He gasped for air, his little chest heaving. With a casual flick, she sent him tumbling across the sheets.“One of mine is defective. Sobbing ruins the ambiance.”
Carmella laughed, a bright, shocking sound in the velvet room. “Trade you.I’ve got a screamer in my left sneaker at home.Needs breaking in. Rel here… he’s already broken. Just needs shaping.”
She flexed her toes, and Rel groaned, a tiny, pleasurable sound.Carmella’s breath hitched. “Oh, he’s a good one. He likes it.” She opened her eyes, fixing Licory with a knowing look.“You want to try him?”
Licory’s breath caught. She looked from Carmella’s triumphant face to the tiny man wedged between her friend’s toes. His green hair was matted with sweat, his eyes closed in what looked like rapture. “He’s yours.”
“We share everything, Lico,” Carmella said, her tone implying this was the natural conclusion.“Come on. Give me that one… the squirming one by your knee.I’ll take him home.You take Rel for a bit. See how he fits.”
Carmella didn’t wait for an answer. She reached out and scooped up the discarded, sobbing man from Licory’s sheets. He was still catching his breath, confused, when she popped him unceremoniously into her jeans pocket. Then, with infinite care, she extracted Rel from between her toes.He was slick with her sweat, panting, disoriented.
She held him out to Licory.Licory held out her own hand, palm up. The transfer was made.Rel tumbled into the warm basin of her palm. He looked up, meeting her quiet brown eyes.He saw none of Carmella’s fierce, possessive joy here. He saw calm, deep, and implacable stillness.
“Hello, Rel,” Licory said, her voice a low murmur.He didn’t speak. He just knelt there, in the center of her hand, waiting.Licory brought her hand to her face, examining him. Then, with a slow, deliberate movement, she lowered her hand to her raised right foot. She guided him, not to her toes, but to the spot just below her arch, on the top of her foot. She placed him there, on the delicate bones, and then lowered her other foot, trapping him gently between the bridge of one foot and the sole of the other.A different kind of pressure.Softer, but total. He was buried in a valley of warm, scented skin, surrounded completely. He could see nothing but a dark, perfumed tunnel of flesh.
“He’s an insole,” Licory said to Carmella, a note of finality in her voice.“For comfort. Not for play.”
Carmella giggled, already fiddling with the squirming man in her pocket. “However you want to use him, babe. He’s ours now.” She stretched, her body a long, lazy arc.“This was a good idea. A really, really good idea.”
Beneath the smothering warmth of Licory’s feet, Rel listened to the giant women’s voices rumble above him.He breathed in Licory’s cleaner, powdery scent. The terrible, yawning emptiness inside him shrank, soothed by the absolute certainty of his position. He had a place.He was being used.He was fulfilling his purpose.
He closed his eyes, and for the first time in years, he felt whole.