"Come on Karyn, pick up!". Jon had waited on the phone for a minute already, but to no avail. Karyn had not answered. Was she still angry at him? He had hurt her, sure, but right now she was the only person able to help him. Without her, or being able to access the stone, he really was in a tight spot.
He decided to try again in a few minutes, and in the meantime to check if he could do some damage control. Starting with the shoes.
Jon sat on his bed. First he tried to pull one shoe away. As expected it didn't even budge. Even if he tried with all his might, it didn't help. He actually realized that he didn't even felt pulling "at" his feet skin, as you would normally fell if you tried to get out of tight, or still laced sneakers. He could feel more strain on his ankle than on his feet. Did it mean that the heels become part of his feet?
"Ok, Jon, don't panic, think... What else can I try?" - he collected himself. Then it hit him: let's break the heel! At first he tried to do this with his hands, but once again, the heel was hard as steel. He looked around for something heavy to hit it with. There wasn't much in his room, but he recalled his old dumbbells that should be somewhere deep inside a box at the bottom of his wardrobe. They weren't too heavy, as he gave up on his attempts to build a muscle mass somewhat quickly, but hey, beggars cannot be choosers. He click-clacked to the other side of the room (he was really starting to hate that sound), and then after a little while, returned to his bed with a heaviest dumbbell. It was the only metal one he had, and it weighted just 12 pounds, but still, it was the best he could come up with. After sitting and placing one of his shins across his other leg, he hit the heel with all he got.
CLANK!
"Ouch! Fuck! you son of a bitch!" he yelled. Once again, it was as if his ankle took all the burden of the hit. It really hurt this time around, though. He massaged his ankle and muttered some further curses under his breath. His ankles were already sore from his earlier walk, and he thought that maybe he really hurt himself this time around, but thankfully the pain seemed to subside slowly. At this point he moved his ankle a little, confirming that nothing was broken, and directed his attention to the heel. It was, once again, entirely unfazed by his hit. Jon almost wanted to cry at this point.
"Jon what was that sound earlier on?!" -his mother shouted from the corridor.
"Nothing, I had just dropped something!" - was Jon's haste response.
"OK, I'm going out now! Remember that it's your duty to take out trash this week!"
"Sure mom!"
That was some good news for him. He will be able to experiment more. For now, let's leave the heel. Maybe there is anything else he can do... The last resort he could think of was to try to cover the heels somehow. After the last adjustment to his clothes, his new shoes were quite on display, so maybe he could change his trousers to longer ones. Once again, he went after his wardrobe (This click-clacking sound was really, REALLY, getting on his nerves now), and fished for a longer pair of jeans. To his surprise, he had no problem with that. Almost all of the clothes seemed to big and baggy.
"Right... I'm shorter now, after all". He noted to himself. "Finally some good news. I should not have any issues finding something that will cover the heels then.".
Jon had thrown a number of pants picked up at random on his bed, unbuckled his belt, and pulled his pants down. At this point, though, he had encountered another issue. "Shit! How am I to pull the pants off?". His closely fitting pants had leg openings that were much too narrow to be pulled trough the heels. After trying several times Jon resigned himself to a "brute force" method. "Riiip..." the heel had teared a hole in the lower part of his jeans.
"OK, at least one leg is free now...". Not seeing another option he had done the same with other leg. After standing up he had noticed his reflection in the wardrobe mirrored doors. It was quite a sight, standing there only in his boxers, t-shirt, and heels. He had averted his gaze, sincerely hoping that no one will ever see him in such state. He directed his attention to the pile of pants lying on his bed. He quickly picked a pair of jeans that seemed quite long, but as he tried to put them on, he had encountered similar problem as with his previous jeans - the leg opening was too small to pull his heels through it.
"Shit... OK, let's try another pants". This, though, have not turned out to be better. With growing frustration and anxiety he went through all of the pants he had prepared. He even ripped one of them while trying to force them through the heels, but ultimately was still left in just his undergarments and shoes. At this point Jon was starting to panic once again. The only remaining thing to do was to try to call Karyn again, and he did just that.
