Toadette's Story

Chapter 26 - Supreme Darkness

The Shy Guys had tied something over my eyes and gagged my mouth. Perfect. I had no way of communicating as they carried me to who knows where in the Toy Box. To think I was defeated because of some ticklish feet.

Above their marching chants, all I could hear was a train zipping by. So, these tracks served a purpose, after all.

Once the air changed is when I knew I had entered a different room. The rest of the Toy Box smelt like an ordinary building with occasional hints of sugar. However, this room reeked of nasty body odour mixed with expired food. And feet. Never a pleasant combo.

“Don’t kill her,” a gruff voice said. “But disable her in every possible way.”

My bindings were removed, yet the room was just as pitch black as when my eyes were shielded.

CLANK!

Not good. That was a gate or door. Where was the exit to this place!?

“Wee hee hee… What have we here?”

My hands went on the defensive. It took a few seconds to notice that my shoes were nowhere to be found. In my fumbling, I slipped on what felt like a puddle of oil.

“Who’s there!?”

“You sure you want to know?”

A spark lit the room for a second. Then it became a flame, and I turned blue in the face. Holding the flame, the lantern, was a gigantic Shy Guy draped in a green cloak. He was decently taller than me, with a spooky face cut out of the cloth.

I fled, only to hit my face on the floor again. This lantern oil was going to be the death of me. It made my soles even more slippery than their regular sweat!

“Now that the introduction’s out of the way…”

The creature blew out the candle, covering us both in an endless room of darkness. Okay, what were his potential weaknesses? My feet, probably. But how do you kick someone that’s invisible more or less? Screw kicking! How do you smother someone with your feet in these conditions?

My breath sat trapped in my throat as I tip-toed along the edges of the walls. Maybe I could find a latch to open the entrance to this place.

“BOO!!”

A giant arm pulled my chest, forcing air out my body. I hit at the creature with my elbow.

“I’ve got your every movement traced…”

“Let… me… GO!”

I bit into his arm so deeply until I tasted blood. He screamed and dropped me. As I spit, the clinking of the lantern signalled me to where it was.

I needed that light!

Crawling on my knees in this slick oil, my arms did a wide sweeping motion to feel for a piece of metal or wood. All the while, the ghostly dude growled and stomped in my direction. I had to be on the right track!

Nothing to the left. Nothing to my back-left. Something on the right?

No!! I went past it! But wait! My toes…

They were slippery, but I managed to carry the lantern with my feet. Once in my hands, I didn’t know what to do with the tool. I didn’t walk in here with matches, after all.

“Hand it over…”

The voice was right on top of me. Taking my chance, I rubbed my greasy foot along the massive face.

The monster coughed, flinging me into a wall. He sputtered and wheezed before running at me with his gigantic feet. Good thing he was making so much noise. Just as he nearly collided with me, I sprung into his shoulders and took him down.

Unable to see, I kicked at his face with my right foot. Quickly, I felt an opening in the cloth and slid my foot in there.

I wriggled onto my feet, now standing in both of his eye sockets. The noises of my slippery soles dancing on his face made my stomach churn, but this meant survival! At some point, he’d have to give in to these grimy soles.

“ENOUGH!” the giant Shy Guy howled.

Before I knew it, I was airborne and crashed into the ceiling. When I hit the ground, my insides felt mangled. But my grip on the oily lantern was firm, just in time to hear him approaching me.

“We’ll make a deal. You give me back that lantern, and I will let you go.”

“Yeah, right. What do you even need a lantern for, dark-loving freak?” I held it in the air, ready to slam it into pieces. This device was useless for me.

“Light is quite the powerful tool in the darkness.”

I maintained silence.

“I see what’s happening here. But luckily, Jack Lanterna always thinks ahead.”

Jack Lanterna? My breathing intensified as this hot air started to hurt my face.

“OW!!”

I dropped the lantern and a ton of glass shattered. Against the walls, it sounded like a ball was bouncing. What kind of ball would that be? One made of bricks?

“What’s wrong?” Lanterna cackled. “Mommy never taught you how to dodge in sports?”

A second strike hit me right in the stomach, barely missing my crotch. But my feet held me up. If I were to fall, I’d be sliced into a million tiny pieces thanks to this lantern. It only flickered once, then a second time. After that, nothing.

Damn! I was barefoot. I was stuck in this one position.

CLINK!

A third hit from the ball got me in the shin. He knew what he was doing.

That ball… What were the odds it was Princess Daisy’s stolen soccer ball? Made of gold, as she liked to brag. If I could bring this loser to his giant knees, I’d be leaving this place with the item. First, I needed to find a way to get from this spot.

Reaching slowly, I grasped the lantern’s handle off the floor.

“What a lacklustre opponent. I think I’ll finish you off before I die of boredom…”

While he pumped himself up, I tinkered with this doohickey with sweat racing down my face. How the hell would I light it?

Wait a minute. That school camping trip we went on back in sixth grade. While most the students had cheaper or traditional lanterns, Minh T.’s parents got her an electric one. It may not have been a real fire, but it was a super bright bulb in the shape of a fire. Moreover, it had a switch on the bottom!

OH! I brushed my hands against the bottom of this squarish lantern, yelling once the monster was a step away from me.

CLICK!

A dangerously bright light shone in both our faces. And from what I could faintly see, it pushed him back.

His wobbly stance was the perfect opening.

I set the lantern down and slammed both my feet into his mouth. Falling atop of him, I held on to his shoes for support, pushing my toes as deep as they would travel.

Salty? Probably. Greasy? Definitely. But the light revealed it wasn’t oil I stepped in. Instead, my feet were just soaked in melted butter.

It explained the bad odour. They set this trap up specifically for one or all of us. Hmm… Would melted butter make my feet taste better?

Clearly, it didn’t for this bastard. My foot thrust in and out his mouth like a plunger, and each time he reached for me, I dug my nails into his arms. This Toad wasn’t going anywhere until he was put out of commission.

“Doesn’t that foot smell yummy-wummy?” I giggled.

“You’re a psychopath!”

I wiggled my toes in his mouth. “Nah, just a fighter.”

40 seconds of violent gagging later, I pulled my slippery feet out this thing’s mouth. It sent a shiver up my spine, but he seemed incapacitated. The smell and taste didn’t knock him out cold, but his movements were too slow to harm me.

“Open your mouth,” I ordered.

Clearly, I hadn’t had enough of gagging this asshole. As horrible as the sensation on my feet was, seeing him below me was far too satisfying. Toadette held all the power now.

“Mwah, mwah…” I teased. “Make ‘em slimy.”

Alright, enough playing. Lest I ended up like Penelope with numbed feet.

A quick scan of the room showed me where the exit door was. It was big, blue, and sealed tightly.

“Let me out of here before you get my sweaty, STINKY feet going down your throat again!”

He coughed. “Don’t get too cocky. You’ve still got the big man to handle…”

A button clicked, and the metal door opened from bottom to top. I saw my poor flats sitting right next to it. Oh, I wanted to cry so badly upon seeing those smelly things. Before leaving, I shoved my feet in their little homes and picked up Princess Daisy’s golden soccer ball.

Boy, this baby was hefty. If you told me it weighed two kilos, I’d believe it. Who in the world plays soccer like this without breaking their big toe?

“You don’t stand a chance…”

SPLAT!!

A deep stomp to his large crotch shut him up for good. “I think I’ll be fine, thank you very much.”

While I was out in the open again, my tension didn’t lessen. The Red Station could be crawling with guards since they knew I was a prisoner here. I hid behind some giant toy blocks before hopping on a toy Ferris wheel.

Looking down, the area was clear. I vaulted off the blocks, tumbling to a halt when striking the ground.

You know, despite all this madness, I had a smile on my face.

With my feet being the powerful weapons they were against that guy, there was no question in my mind. I would not be beaten by their leader. No, I COULD not be beaten! If I could take down lantern freak, a regular Shy Guy would be amateur. What happened in the past must’ve been flukes and nothing more.

Maybe I wasn’t the strongest person around. Perhaps I wasn’t the smartest Toad around. Hell, I know I wasn’t the bravest girl around. But I had two things working for me: my speed and my sweaty, sticky feet.

“Watch out, Shy Guys,” I grinned. “Toadette’s here.”