Can't Let Go The Last Voyage of Leo Finch chapter 4 by deleted_user

The stench of unwashed feet had never been so vivid; it was hard to believe this hellish landscape was the sole of your mom's foot. Years of calloused skin rub against your hands and knees like sandpaper, not to mention the vast wrinkles and the sticky layer of sweat that was keeping a desert of dust glued to the skin. Getting any higher on her body was going to be impossible for you at your current size, and if the doctor's predictions were right, you'd only get smaller. Instead, you set your sights on a more reasonable goal; the softer flesh between Eleanor's toes...

The wiggling mountains ahead rain down grime onto the couch below; getting to them was by no means easy. Each subtle shift of Eleanor's foot created new wrinkles and cracks along the dry skin. More than once, your leg had gotten lodged into one, causing you to trip and face-plant against the sole. You cough and sputter the rancid grime out of your mouth; the smell was getting worse the closer you got, and soon, you were at the arch of Eleanor's big and second toe. 

The salty air burns your lungs, each breath dries out your throat, and shrivels your tongue. Waiting for a moment when those toes finally stop wiggling, you leap down between her toes and onto the spongy skin of the second toe. Like a fly caught in a fly trap, the moist layer of foot sweat has you stuck fast to the toe, and despite all your relentless pounding and thrashing, the skin was still too thick for Eleanor to notice. 

"Maya, start getting ready! We have dinner in an hour!" Eleanor shouts down the hall. The echoes of her voice are so powerful, your bonds are briefly loosened. With your last bit of strength, you claw up towards the toenail. You can feel the foot begin to stir violently around you, and a wave of loose debris falls from the sole as Eleanor starts to get up from the couch. In the few seconds it takes your mom's foot to hit the floor, you are ripped from your holding and flung deep between the toes until you collide wetly into a ripe clump of toe jam. You can barely move and are even further from salvation than when you started. the acrid smell of feet fills every pore on your body. Unable to withstand it, you throw up whatever contents were in your stomach before this nightmare began and black out. 

Boom

Boom

Boom

You jolt awake to the painful eruption of Eleanor's footsteps.  You watch with horror as you are thrust into the darkness of Eleanor's heels as your family goes out to dinner without you. Each step creates new beads of foot sweat which seep down your back, and over your head. Through burning eyes, you can see the blurry landscape of a parking lot as Eleanor steps out of the car. Throughout the dinner, you slip in and out of consciousness; you are so dehydrated, you can feel your brain shutting down. Fuck me! You yell out with a raspy voice, and you resort to the only option you have available. You begin to chew on the toe jam around you, trying hard not to puke, but you have to free yourself. After a couple of minutes, the gunk is loose enough for your arms to break free. You yank the rest of your body out of the toe jam and jump down to the soggy insole of Eleanor's heels. The floor squelches with every step you take; it's a bog of foot sweat, new and old. You can't believe you're actually going to do this, but the severe dehydration will kill you if you don't act. Falling to your knees, you press your face into the wet insole and drink greedily.

The foot sweat exits your mouth as soon as it enters. The taste is so vile, and you have no saliva to expel it from your tongue. The salt from the sweat has only dried you out further, but you keep going. After more attempts, you're finally able to swallow some. The hellish liquid sloshes in your empty stomach, despite your body's protest, you keep going, not noticing the growing motion of your mom tapping her foot as she waits for her food. 

The ground lurches back and forth again and again until suddenly, you are launched back into the miasma of your mom's foot, right back into the toe jam, right at square one... You cry. Hard. This can't be how you die. Throughout the dinner, you lick at the thick sides of the toes around you, your mouth too dry to even taste the sweat anymore. Returning home, you can feel cool air rush into your lungs as Eleanor removes her sandals and heads to the bathroom. On her walk, you can feel the vibrations of her bare feet slapping against the hardwood floor and a noticeable squish on one step, probably an unfortunate bug. 

You pause your drinking when Eleanor plops down on the toilet. The sounds of her bowel movements are sickening to say the least, and as you look up, you notice something peculiar. From way up above, Eleanor was looking right at you, or at last, her gaze was on her feet. You scream and wave your arms, desperate for her to notice you. Her eyes squint, and her toes start to clench around you, driving more toe jam and sweat into your face. The toilet erupts above you, the pungent smell wafting down and overtaking the constant foot odor you've been huffing for hours now. You've long since lost the ability to produce tears, but you cry nonetheless. You wish you had been that bug earlier; this was torture you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. 

Finally, a sign of hope, the toilet flushes above you, and the foot stomps into the shower. Water!!!

Avoiding the gaze of Eleanor's now naked form above you, you watch the first water droplets rush down her body and finally settle at Eleanor's dirty feet. You drink all you can, though the water is well tainted with the grime from the foot around you, it's delicious. You feel the toe jam break down, and you are at last able to crawl up onto the toenail of her second toe. The shower finishes, and you ride the foot into Eleanor's room and onto her bed as she quickly falls asleep. Now temporarily nourished, you fall fast asleep on her foot.

The next day was easier to outlast, now atop a toenail, the smell of her foot was less pungent, but grew steadily throughout the day. By the late afternoon, Eleanor returned to the couch and curled her feet up just like the day before. After the momentum ends, you find yourself once again clinging to the expansive, dust-coated sole of your mom's foot. You slide down onto the couch and quickly rappel down to the floor. It has been so long, you almost forgot what the world smelled like without the overwhelming stink of a giant foot. You couldn't look at your mom the same; she had utterly broken you and was completely unaware of it. She still thought you were on that houseplant; perhaps it was best to go back there. 

For almost 3 hours, you trek across the dirty floor to the base of the table holding your plant home. Just as you are about to start climbing, you hear the familiar slapping of giant bare feet as your mom gets up from the couch. They get closer and closer, until it's too late. You almost can't believe how cruel fate was. The sole of Eleanor's foot looms over you, raining down food crumbs and debris. It plummets to the floor, and rather than being crushed, you wake up suspended deep in a pit of reeking toe jam between your mom's toes. They weren't done with you yet, and this time, there was no escape...

Eleanor stood in front of "Hulk" the houseplant. She wondered how her son was doing, though she couldn't see him, she still left food out for him each night. She stood and talked to him like everything was normal; she talked about her day and how the family was doing, never realizing he was currently in a living hell beneath her foot. He would spend almost a week trapped in an endless cycle, barely surviving off shower water until one night Eleanor was too tired to shower, and Leo was left to die stuck to her sole as she slept peacefully...