The Lonely Shoe

The end

The shoe leader goes over to the second biggest shoe, a black hiking boot and puts a shoelace around him. The other shoe looks at the shoe leader with surprise awe. With another shoelace, the shoe leader points out at the army and then at the black hiking shoe. The other shoe nods and steps forward, raising all his 4 shoelaces to the sky. A low roar is heard, and the army starts to move into groups

 The shoe leader looks proudly at this and then slowly goes his way. 

This time the journey took less time. He was now used to move and had more shoelaces to help with his movement. His shoelaces had split many places and mutated. There was now 8 sharp and strong shoelaces that could hold him up and he used them as their were legs. 

He got to the house after half a day and walked angry straight up to the front door and... 

Froze. 

He just stood there while looking at the door. 

After some time slowly and nervously the shoe leader moves its shoelace to the doorbell and carefully pressed the doorbell. 

The shoe leader steps back and waits.

But nothing happens.

The shoe leader walks nervously up to the door again and carefully rings it again and steps back.

Nothing happens. 

This time the shoe leader walks up aggressively and rings it again. 

But still. Nothing happens.

The shoe leader feels the rage build up and shakes from it. He starts to look around and after a bit he sees the letterbox. Using his longest shoelace, maneuvers it through the letterbox, to the lock on the other side and opens the door from the inside. The door opens up slowly and he walks into a dark hallway. 

No one seems to be here. The shoe leader takes two jumps into the hallway and a broom comes swinging down and hits it. He flies through the hallway and hits the staircase wall with a bang. The shoe leader shakes and looks up at a scared old boy. 

Aaron's POV:

Old boy Aaron looks down at the grotesques looking shoe. He needs to kill it before it starts to eat him from his feet up. He knows that. It has been all over the news "Shoes are taking revenge. It's kill or be killed". 

But somehow the shoe, they look so familiar. And the shoe also seems to recognize him. It does not attack him but just look at him with its shoe-laced-holed eyes. It even looks like tears are falling from those holes. Who and what is that shoe?

Shoe leader POV:

The shoe leader can not stop the tears from flowing out. Looking at the old boy brought back his original desire and wish. He just wanted to be his shoes again. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Time seemed to move slowly as the shoe leader and Aaron just looks at each other. Not sure to attack or console each other. 

But then something changed. A sound is coming from the stairs. The sound of small bare feet on wooden floor. Aaron's son comes walking down the stairs with a toy bunny in his arms and looks at them. 

Fear paints Aaron's face and at that moment he becomes determined to kill the shoe in order to protect his son. 

The shoe looks sorrowful up at the old boy's face that is painted with murderous intention. The feeling of fighting back is leaving his body as Aaron swings the broom backward to give the final blow, like an executioner. 

But the son had other plans. The son jumps down the stairs before Aaron manages to swing the broom down and takes up and hugs the shoe leader tightly. 

"Haha, funny shoes". He laughs.

Aaron's son looks up at the broom that almost landed on him and then at his terrified dad that stands behind it. His smile gets bigger.

"See dad! Funny shoes! Can I keep them?"

Aaron looks scared at the son and then looks at the shoes.

The shoe leader can not look away from the son. In its shoe-laced-holed eyes, the son had a gentle light surrounding him. He looks exactly like the old boy when he was young. The smile, the warm and the eyes are exactly like that of the young boy that had loved him so many years ago.

The shoe leader looks at the old boy and mutters a single word for the first time.

"Please"

Aaron and the shoe leader stare at each other for a while, but then Aaron's face softens up and he puts down the broom. He looks intensely into the shoe leader's shoe-laced-holed eyes for a moment and then nods.

"I'm not sure who you are, but....Please. Protect and take care of my son."

The shoe leader's shoe-laced-holed eyes overflow with tears and its many mouths tremble. It nods in agreement. 

Everything it ever wanted it had gotten now. Aaron's son hugs the shoe tightly and Aarons comes over and joins them. And as they all hugged, with big smiles on their faces, the rage and humiliation disappeared from the shoe leader's heart. 

But outside of the house, the story is different. 

The shoe army is marching strong through the street and the humans struggling to survive. The shoe army expanded drastically and humans fought back the best they can under so weird circumstances. Of course the human threw atomic bombs at one point, but it killed shoes and humans alike.

Many years later, after the world got divided between humans and shoes, that day, the day when the shoe leader found his family again, became known as 'the First Shoe invasion' which was followed by many others. 

Fortunately, the new little weird human / shoe family had some good years together where they were happy and only a few problems arouse into their little bubble. 

Reality and war first hit them hard later. Leaving them all in piecesonce again.

The end?