It was early one Saturday morning, as the sun barely shone above the towering high rises of the city, the humans of 214 New Way Cres. Slowly, one by one, awoke. Many were rolling over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep, ignorant to the plight of the man trapped out in the hall. Running for his life, desperate to find a way to the outside world.

  Andy was a micro, a race of diminutive humans standing between 1 and 3 inches on average. And he was one of the unlucky ones to be the smallest he'd ever met. Andy had been born a free micro, spared the cruelty of being used to breed the stock used as expensive pets, toys, and food until one fateful day. When SHE arrived.

  His feet pounded against the thin carpet, and each ragged gasp brought with it a fresh wave a pain. After barely surviving his ordeal and made to endure a great deal of pain, he was sure at least one rib was cracked, but he couldn't stop running for even a second. Doing so risked a random human coming across him and crushing him underfoot on their way in or out. Or worse, they would capture him. Subjecting the micro to another life of torture for however long he survived. The memory haunted him as he sprinted down the hallway of the apartment complex.    It had been a day like any other for his village. Groups of gatherers left in the morning in search of food and resources. The elders were holding yet another meeting. Andy himself had just finished fixing a broken net and had been chatting with his best friend Susie when it happened. Their whole village was cast in shadow, looking up they all bore witness to what would be their demise. Emerald eyes gazed back at them all, gleaming with vicious delight. Her ruby lips split in a wicked grin. A human woman had found them. 

    Hidden under the roots of a tree in one of the cities' parks, they had been safe for decades. Yet in that single terrible moment. It all came crashing down under the looming threat that a single human posed.

  Her shadow seemed to grow when she locked eyes on him. Her hand, terrible, powerful, and all comparing began to descend towards him. It was all he could do to scream before he felt a pair of hands shove him to the ground. Susie stood over him, once again protecting him from those much bigger Han himself. A look of stubborn resignation on her face. She had made her choice, even when the mysterious woman's fingers wrapped around her Susie refused to scream. The woman looked her over once. Before throwing her in her mouth. Time slowed to a crawl for Andy, in the face of her imposing might he could only watch as she swirled his friend around her mouth. Beaming in delight at her taste before swallowing the 3 inch micro in a single loud gulp. She arched her neck, red hair spilling everywhere as she traced the lump traveling down her throat while letting out a soft moan. The whole village all stood still in shock for a few seconds before her predatory gaze locked onto the rest of the villagers. They all erupted into a mass panic.

  What happened next was a blur. Dozens of bodies clashed together in the attempt to flee. The larger micros barreling over their smaller brethren, trampling them underfoot. Andy tried to get up and run, his legs refused to cooperate, slipping uselessly in the packed earth as many of his friends and family met their end crushed under the human's hands. It didn't matter how old or young they were. The human mashed many of those attempting to flee flat under her open palms. Everything they were, everything they had done or hoped to do was reduced to nothing but a bloody paste in the dirt. He didn't know it then, but they would be considered the lucky ones. Many more were captured and tossed in some strange container. Andy legs still refused him then. Susie had been his rock ever since they were little. She had always protected him. Even amongst micros, he was small. Barely breaking an inch in height, he had been teased and bullied relentlessly. Now she was trapped in the humans toned stomach, and he couldn't do a thing as her hand fell upon him nearly breaking his ribs as his found himself plucked off the ground and tossed into the growing mass of writhing bodies.

  That was several weeks ago now. The woman whose name they would all learn and fear was Rachel. She had captured them for a simple reason. Because she could. She had decided that their "true purpose" was to be used by humans in whatever way she saw fit. She demanded that they call her Goddess and bow in her presence. Those who refused were made an example of. And the rest quickly fell in line. They quickly learned that even screaming as a loved one was taken would be met with punishment. Most got flicked, launching them across the enclosure and breaking several bones. Others would be joining them in whatever sick game she had planned. Before long, whatever spirit they had left was broken. Even talking amongst themselves seemed pointless. There was only Goddess and the prayer for a quick death. Andy decided that being eaten would be the worst way to go. 

  Yesterday, she finally grabbed him. On the brink of death from starvation and slightly delirious from hunger. He found her fingers pulling him from his corner, where he had spent his time trying to become even smaller than he already was. No one even looked at him as he was taken. They were all already dead. Their bodies just didn't know it yet. He recalled how Rachel had commented on how puny he was. That he was not even worthy of being a late night snack. If she hoped to get a reaction from him, it failed. Not that it mattered. Andy had simply hung limp in her grasp. She decided that instead of adding to her 'divine form,' he would be decorating her instead. She fastened the broken man's wrists and neck to a set of three chains. The ones binding his wrists were much shorter than the one around his neck. He wouldn't be at risk of choking to death. Whatever small mercy that might have been. All three chains merged into a single small clasp.
  Smirking at him, she said nothing before she lowered him down past her dress towards her platform shoes. It was only when he saw his destination, a cheap ankle bracelet, did he struggle. He wasn't the first one fastened here. He knew he wasn't the only micro adorning her person. There was likely one still attached to her necklace. But none that had been worn around her ankles had survived the night. The only thing that would be returning to her apartment would be an empty and bloody clasp.

  Her very first step showed him just what kind of fresh hell he was in for. Her leg swung forward, covering hundreds of feet to him in a single stride while the chains swung him behind her in the air. Then she stepped down. The cacophony of her footstep rung in his ear, but he didn't stop moving. Momentum carried him down and back up until... SMACK! He crashed face-first into her ankle. Pain exploding from the impact. For a few seconds, he even thought his nose was broken. But that was just the first step of many that night.    Each step was much like the first. Dragging him through the air before momentum carried him forward the crash into her ankle. Only falling back down as gravity took hold for a few seconds and the cycle could start anew. Swing, smack! Swing, smack! Each swing brought fresh pain and a new bruise. Nearly tearing his shoulders from their sockets from the G-forces while the metal, smooth to human hands, dug into his wrists. He tried to cry out, his voice hoarse and cracked from weeks of captivity. Once he heard the door slam shut, Andy knew. He knew that the only escape would be when his wrists or shoulders gave out. Either one would mean slowly bleeding to death on the dirty floor.

  Andy was certain that this was it. Whatever cruel gods that made this world where humans could kill micros with impunity had decided that his death would have been completely meaningless. Reduced to nothing but an accessory. But something had other plans for him. Over the constant boom of Rachel's steps, he heard it, the sound of metal stretching and breaking mid-swing. The clasp holding him to her had snapped, launching Andy tumbling through the air. Earth and sky spun around him. If anything remained of his voice, he would have screamed as the cheap carpet rushed up to meet him. He bounced once, twice, crashing into the wall with a dull thud. Momentum kept him pinned for a moment longer, just long enough to see the leg of his captress moving out of his sight before he fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. His vision began to fade. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was thinking how ironic the price of freedom had been.

  Hours passed, the micro man's unconscious body going ignored by all that passed by. Dirty, not moving, and only wearing a brown tunic. He was simply mistaken for a ball of dirt by all who happened to be looking at the floor. By the time he jolted awake, the ground was shaking once again. Rachel had returned from her night out. Half drunk and stumbling through the hallway, her shoes fell mere inches from Andy as she dragged her latest fling behind her. They were giggling and whispering about something. He caught snippets of the conversation. Mentions of 'feeding' and 'seeing how many they could fit' falling from their lips like poison. Each step from the pair bounced him, aggravating his bruised body and broken ribs.

  He tore his eyes away from the pair, curling up into the fetal position. Silently begging them not to notice him. There was the sound of Rachel slipping the key into her lock. Easily moving what should have been thousands of pounds of wood with her delicate fingers before slipping inside. Her date following close behind. With one final click of her lock, the hallway fell silent. He slowly looked up. Gazing down the seemingly endless hallway. There wasn't a human in sight. Andy was free.

  Whatever entity that had decided to save his life had a cruel sense of humor. Sure, he was free from Rachel, but he might as well be a mouse in an open field. His wrists and neck were still bound together. His battered and bruised body forced him to move even slower than he already did at his size. Even breathing was a struggle. But his escape had brought with it fresh determination. So he did the one thing he could, he kept moving. Continuing to hobble down the hallway in search of somewhere to hide. A hole in the wall, a small crack he could slip into and rest. None were to be found in the barren hallway. Even at his size, the doors on either side stood like imposing monolith that he couldn't slip past. They went almost all the way to the floor, the last bit sealed with a bit of rubber. But even if he somehow found his way inside one of the other apartments, what then? He'd escaped Rachel, probably the only one to manage it so far, but now he'd either starve or get crushed in the hallway by someone passing by. Or obliterated when a human opened one of those doors.

  Andy had stopped to catch his breath in preparation for another sprint across a door when he felt the familiar booms of footsteps approaching. However, even as the floor shook, the hallway remained empty. Realization dawned on him seconds before the door suddenly swung open. The great monolith swung inward, displacing thousands of pounds of air. Knocking him off his feet and dragging him towards the entrance. He croaked out a scream as the massive boots of the human came into view. This was it. He was going to be found and crushed just for the crime of being small. The sole of the boot passed overhead. Dirt and rocks rained down, showing the fate of everything that fell beneath their thick treads. They crashed down, his ears rang from the explosion of sound. But he was alive. The human above him had simply stepped out, missing him by mere inches. What to him was a cataclysm even was a simple step to her. Her black skirt swayed around her hips as she continued on her way. The boots twin flying over him with her next step. 

  That danger had passed, but he wasn't safe yet. The door had begun to move. Swinging closed much faster than he could have moved out of the way, even on his best day. Dodging under or to the side was out of the question. There was only one direction he even had a chance of surviving with. He sprinted for all his life towards the inside of the apartment. 

  The chances of him making it past the threshold were still slim. He felt the air swirling around him as it caught up with him, accompanied by the sound of it dragging on the carpet. Just as it caught up with him, he planted one foot on the threshold and launched himself into the air. He felt hard wood connect with his back, launching him once again. For the second time that day, he found himself flying through the air. Only this time, he crashed into something soft. The fuzzy ground broke his fall while the door sealed shut with a resounding boom.