The Fate of Sean - NEW! - (Complete short story)

The short story that follows is not common, nor for the faint of heart. It is about a broken family, a little boy who wasn’t born under the right star, and his miserable fate. When I read that story first in the newspaper, my stomach churned. I didn’t know what to think of it and it stuck to my mind. Now, after some time, things have changed, I no longer believe this whole mess happened for no reason. I think it happened so I could challenge my own beliefs. I will try to tell you that story the best I could, so it is not forgotten. It did, after all, help me open up my eyes and realize there are people suffering out there. 

And they are meant to. 

Catherine was watching TV. Not because she really enjoyed it but because she was lazy and didn’t want to get up from the sofa. She was watching reality shows, smoking cigarettes and enjoying a coca. Fact is, she didn’t work. When her husband died four years before, she fell down the spiraling pit of depression and never managed to get back out of it. Despite being a beautiful woman in her 40’s, Catherine’s life was more or less about how much TV she could watch, how much cigarettes she could smoke. She never really did anything else.

I think it was a show about people trying to lose weight and winning money. She watched it by default, not with great interest, but would occasionally laugh. She was interrupted by her daughter Lindsey, coming in from the front door, all sweaty from jogging her 5 miles run of the day. Lindsey was Catherine’s only daughter. She was also from her first husband and she was the beautiful version of her already beautiful mother. If only Catherine was half as energetic and focused as her daughter, she would be back to work and living a normal life. Lindsey was a 16 year old heartbreaker, long blond hair, perfect body. She only had a few flaws, showing when she was home. She always complained about her mother not doing anything and sometimes had a bratty attitude, being the one almost in charge of the household. She would run errands, cook, clean…pretty much run the house the way it should eb while her mother would only watch TV. 

“Still exactly where I left you.” She said to her mother as she walked in the living room, all sweaty and panting from her run. She had a nice sports outfit, adidas pants, adidas jacket, long pony tail, head band, wrist bands, white socks, and some dirty looking old adidas running shoes that had seen better days. Catherine ignored her daughter, she was focused on watching her show. She simply moaned something like “hi honey”…absent mindedly. Lindsey walked in the kitchen to drink a glass of water and walked back to the living room. 

“Can I borrow Sean?” she asked to her mother. 

“Sure.” Catherine said. The woman then pulled her right bare foot, and by that I mean all 5 toes almost deep throat, out of her son’s mouth, who was lying on the floor under the sofa with only part of his chest and head sticking out from under it. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about Sean. 7 years old boy was Catherine’s husband’s son he got from another woman before he met her. Since his father died he was taken care of by his step-family, Catherine and Lindsey, who disliked him more than the definition of dislike suggests. The boy was treated like a slave by both women, not only her didn’t complain, but poor boy never really knew anything else. It’s been years. Four years. He was only 3 years old when his father died and all he could remember of him was a faint memory of a distant man who never truly cared about him. Just like the two women he lived with. He never went to school, never learned how to write, he barely spoke, mostly because he would always have his mouth full of toes or socks or because he had shoes to lick. He was the footslave of the house, nobody knew about him in the outside world, and he was never allowed to leave. At night, they would lock him up in a dog cage in the basement. He was the one in charge of cleaning, doing the dirty chores and when those were done, he had to resume his position under the sofa, where he truly belonged, under his step mother’s feet. His life was misery, and he didn’t even know it was, because he never knew better. 

Lindsay sat on the sofa next to her mother, who actually ordered her son to move over. Sean didn’t complain, he just wedged himself away from her mother like a worm to end up between Lindsey’s dirty sneakers. It didn’t take long, both of those sneakers were on his face, smothering him with dirty used soles that smelled like old filth. Lindsey just relaxed after her run, using Sean’s face as a footstool. This wasn’t unusual, it was a daily routine. After 5 or 10 minutes, Lindsey kicked off her sneakers, revealing her extremely smelly humid socked feet and planed both of them on Sean’s face, transferring her sweat into his skin. 

“Honey… how come your feet smell so bad after you run! This is awful, you got to buy new sneakers, you stink!” said Catherine, and then she laughed at what happened on the show. 

“I like these old shoes, they are comfy mom, still lots of life left in them.” Said Lindsay, rubbing her feet on her step brother’s face like usual. She couldn’t feel as much air flow as usual between her toes so her forced them over the boy’s nose. “Smell my toes!” she said harshly. The boy’s breathing resumed heavier. “Idiot.” She added, then took a sip of water. 

“Yeah, we should do something about Sean, he’s been slacking lately.” Said Catherine. 

This exact moment in the story is when things started to change for Sean. Fact is, never before the question about what to do with him really made it to actual thinking about it. But that day, Catherine and Lindsey really started to think about how to get rid of him. 

“We should just bury him in the backyard. He’s a worm after all.” Lindsey said. Both laughed. 

“Or maybe we could run him over with the car and leave him in a ditch somewhere.” Said Catherine. 

“Nah…that’s way too risky. Someone would find him.” Said Lindsey. She then stuck her right foot in the boy’s mouth. “Suck the sweat off my socks, slave.” She said to the boy. Sean sucked the wet socked toes in his mouth, like usual. 

“We could tie him up to tree and leave him die of hunger.” Catherine said. 

“Mom, you watch too much TV.” Said Lindsey. Catherine lit another cigarette. “Just poison him, mom. Make him your ashtray and force him to eat all those cigarette buds until he chokes on them.” Lindsey said. 

“Now that’s an idea…” said Catherine, then both girls laughed again about their evil ideas. “Nah…” continued Catherine. “We need something more permanent for him. I am fed up of taking care of this little creep.” Catherine puffed on her cigarette, then looked at her daughter switch her right foot for her left, inside Sean’s mouth. There was an odd silence, only the TV was humming some advertisement. 

And there it was, the perfect solution. On the TV. 

“---- Tired of clutter and mess in your home? Try the ShrinkMatic! It’s efficient new technology will shrink your belongings so they take less space in your home! Just unshrink them when needed, and shrink them back! ShrinkMatic! ShrinkMatic will transform your life. More space, more Fun! ShrinkMatic, the perfect solution to get your stuff sorted out and your home cleaner. ShrinkMatic, call now, and get the ShrinkMatic Box. A simple box that can contain a full garage worth of stuff one shrunk! Call now! ShrinkMatic… Make your life easier! ----”

“Mom…that thing…!” Said Lindsey watching the advertisement. 

“Yeah? It’s crap, not even sure it works.” Said Catherine. 

“But think about it mom, if it works, we could shrink Sean!” said Lindsey. 

“What? You think it works on humans?” Catherine said, her eyes suddenly becoming larger, betraying her interest. 

“I dunno, but if it does…. Say, Sean would finally be the worm he’s meant to be!” said Lindsey removing her socks and stuffing both of them inside Sean’s mouth. She then placed her bare sweaty feet on his face and resumed using him as a footstool. “Wow, this would be awesome. I could wear him inside my shoes at school!” said Lindsey her imagination suddenly going wild. 

“Eww! Wait, you would put him inside your running shoes for jogging?” asked Catherine before bursting out laughing. 

“Hell yeah! Definitely!” said Lindsey. “He would be so little! Nobody would find him inside our shoes, right?” Mother and daughter laughed hard suddenly thinking of all the possibilities this would give them. They stated listing all the places, mostly shoes or boots, and all the chores he as a shrunken little boy, would have to do, like clean shoes, lick feet, clean inside of shoes, being trampled inside shoes, worn into every single pair. They really let their imagination up and running, forgetting about the TV Show. Lindsey removed her bare feet from her step brother’s face and looked down at his miserable face, mouth full of her dirty worn socks. “Say, loser, you’d love it to be shrunk… right?” The little boy nodded, not knowing what shrunk meant, nor what they were talking about. He wasn’t intelligent enough to actually acknowledge the conversation above him. Lindsey laughed at him. She planted her both feet on his face again, rubbing her now more dry soft soles over his skin. 

There was another silence, too long not to be noticed. 

“We should call and order it.” Said Catherine, grabbing the wireless phone on the coffee table. 

“What? You’re serious?” said Lindsey. 

“Yup. At least we can try.” Said Catherine. She dialed up and waited on the line for someone to answer. Lindsey needed a shower, so she stood up on the face under her feet, stood there a few seconds and stepped off. She ordered Sean to get out of under the sofa and follow her to her room.

“And bring my sneakers.” She added, walking away. Like usual, Sean did what he was told. Lindsey took a shower while he smelled inside the running shoes. 

Normal life resumed for all of them for the next days. The only difference now, was that there was a shipping company delivering a ShrinkMatic to them and it arrived two days later. They even got the free ShrinkMatic box, which was a ridiculous plastic shoe box that would supposedly contain shrunken stuff. The parcel arrived while Lindsey was at school. Catherine read the instruction manual and tried the little device on small objects, shrinking them down to mere lego size things. She was amazed at how small the sofa was, then she grew it back to normal size. Sean didn’t realize what was going to happen to him, but he got suspicious and scared. Catherine was standing on his chest in the living room, she’s been having fun shrinking furniture down and goring them back to normal size, testing the device while trampling her step son. Sean started crying. 

“Shut up Sean, that’s what you deserve anyway. You’ll be so small Lindsey and I won’t even feel you inside our shoes.” She said, stomping her bare foot down on the boy. Sean suddenly understood. He wasn’t brilliant, but now he understood what was going to happen and it scared him. He cried, sobbed, and had a hard time holding her mother’s weight on his chest. He caved in, started to have less strength and unable to take his breath back. Catherine stepped off of him, and kicked him in the face. She then pointed the device down towards him and frowned. 

“Well, here comes nothing.” She said. 

The boy only had time to whimper…”Mom…” fear and despair in his little boy’s voice. He -never- talked. But then, it didn’t really matter anymore as he shrunk down so quickly. In matters of seconds, he was one inch tall, only wearing his boxers that shrank along with him. Catherine laughed so hard, she bent down and looked at her tiny little step son. 

“Oh...my god… it actually worked!” She said with stupefaction. She poked the little boy with the tip of her toes. She then stepped on him full weight, not even thinking that it could potentially kill him. The little boy who couldn’t understand what was happening, was surrounded and crushed by the giantess’s foot flesh and sole and his molecular structure being so dense, he didn’t even feel crushed more than usual. The only difference between being trampled normally and being trampled while shrunken, was the fact he was engulfed in foot flesh and darkness, and that her mother’s foot smelled 20 times stronger. Catherine stepped off him and laughed so hard. “This is amazing. Finally after all those years you’ll be useful to something, foot boy. I’ll never grow you back to normal size you hear me loser? Do you even know what that means?” Catherine was on fire, she taunted and insulted her step son, treating him like a piece of rubbish on the floor, stepping and crushing on him. “you’re going to live your life inside our shoes and nobody will ever find you in there!” she said. “Speaking of shoes…” Catherine walked to the hallway closet and grabbed the house mules she used to wear all the time inside the house. Some old leather slip on mules with the imprint of her foot on the insoles. She walked back to the living room and picked up her son between her cigarette smelling fingers and dropped him inside the dark cave of the shoe. “There you go. Get used to your new life!” she said. She then slipped her huge bare foot over Sean, trapping him under her toes, laughing and genuinely being happy about her step son’s predicament. He was a loser after all, wasn’t he?

Catherine kept his step-son trapped in her shoe like that until Lindsey got back from school. 

“Where is Sean?” asked Lindsey, walking to the living room and not seeing Sean at his usual spot under the sofa and under her mother’s feet. She was also wearing mules, which was not usual. 

“He’s inside my shoe, smelling my toes.” Said Catherine, proud like a bitch. 

“Oh my god…it worked?” asked Lindsey. 

“Yup!”

“Let me see him!” Asked Lindsey. Her mom removed her foot from her shoe and pulled little Sean along. “Oh my god…..he’s so tiny! I can’t believe it worked!” She said, staring at the littler boy. Then her facial expression turned from surprise to a wicked smile. “Can I borrow him?” she asked, like usual, only this time it wasn’t to make him smell her feet after jogging, it was to put him inside her dirty running shoes and go jogging with him inside them.

“Sure honey!” said Catherine. 

…

This short story was not common. A broken family, a broken soul. Sean spent the rest of his miserable life at the size of one inch tall. He spent 22 hours a day inside either his step mom or step sister’s shoe, or boot, or whatever footwear they had to do whatever they had to do. The company manufacturing the ShrunkMatic was brought down to justice and bankrupted for a technology that people misused. Tiny Sean was found years later, sewn to a old knee high boot’s trashed insert insole after spending years in it. Lindsey had permanently made him an insole for her clubbing boots and she wore those boots almost everyday when going to work at the bar. She became a barmaid in a local pub. This story made it to the newspaper, like many other shrunken people stories who ended up being forgotten. 

This whole mess didn’t happen for no reason. It was Sean’s fate to be an insole. He was never meant to be anything else. After he was found and saved, the story didn’t say what happened to him. I believe he is still inside a woman’s boot or shoe somewhere, suffering his fate like all of us. 

Only his fate, was to be an insole. Poor boy .

I am glad my own fate is different. Oof, I’m lucky after all, even if my own life is crappy sometimes. I remind myself this sad story here and there when I feel bad, and I get to think about Sean and how everything in my life could be a lot worse. 

Then it makes me feel better. 

The end.