She was sure she was about to die. Or pass out, but the death would surely follow. Her body endured so far without much injury as the sand kept giving way. But she was suffocating. She felt compressed beyond any possible limit.

And then the foot lifted, almost pulling her along but not quite. Light flooded Katya’s vision. She was left in the middle of an indent on the sand, and as the terrifying sole was raised into the air, some sand rolled into the pit it made, further burying Katya. She hungrily inhaled air, which was still full of the man’s sweaty musk, and tried to wipe her face; but she only had one free arm, the other was in the sand. Her skin was bruised and bloody, her vision was full of colored spots, but she lived. She lived. A part of her mind went euphoric with this knowledge. He must have heard her! He spared her!

“Thank you”, she whispered in a raspy voice, “thank you, thank you, I am so sorry…”

The sole hung over her, the foot being balanced on the heel. She still couldn’t see anything else. Just this powerful, unyielding, manly sole. She could never even fathom than a sole of a man’s foot could mean so much. Could mean life and death. Brutish, sandy, reddened, hot…

It started descending again.

“Noooooo!” she shrieked. “Please!..”

But her pleas fell on deaf ears as the foot slammed into her once again, with the familiar might of the man behind it. It pushed her further in and squeezed the air out of her lungs. It rested heavily on top of her, imperious, regal in its absolute authority over the woman turned ant. She tried to cry, and plead, and beg for mercy, but all she was getting was just more sand dust and sweat in her mouth. She squirmed. He ground his foot in place once more, rubbing the gravity of the situation - and with it, her defeat, her humiliation, her - deeper in.

There, in the hot, odorous, painful darkness, compressed and wounded, Katya realized just how easily her life could be snuffed out. Her money, her friends, her career - nothing mattered, it was all left in some other life, luxurious and superficial. Her pride, her confidence… everything simply shattered under the unyielding pressure.

Then light flooded in again as the sole lifted. Katya’s bent body was left in the blurry footprint, only her head and one arm sticking out by now. She sobbed, afraid of looking up, but forced to, because that’s the way she ended up oriented in the sand. The sole hovered over her. She noticed the toes flexing.

“Please, stop”, she muttered between sobs with her bloody lips. “Please, I am so, so, sorry, please, just stop…”