All Ned could see through the clear walls of his new prison was the vast bedroom of Brittany's parents. Beyond the wooden plane of her mother's dresser, the unfathomably large pieces of furniture turned hazy, like skyscrapers on a foggy day. Sharing the space with the wrongfully imprisoned man was the jewelry the enormous blonde woman had spilled out across her dresser.

Most of what he saw strewn out in front of him were plain and uninteresting pieces. Cheap rings, necklaces, and bracelets that were probably made to look nicer than they actually were. They came in all shapes and sizes, and Ned began to realize that some of the rings were probably sized for either the woman's smaller fingers or her toes, and several of the bracelets might have been anklets. He sighed, looking out at the more ornate jewelry box that sat on the far end of the dresser and wondering what gaudy but no doubt expensive things the woman kept inside of it.

Leaning back against the glass, he instantly squirmed, the sun had shifted its temperature from too cold to too hot over the course of a few hours. Moving away from the rays of sunlight that came in through the windows, Ned began to worry his entire body would become sunburned by the time Brittany's giant father returned home. Slumping down in a limited patch of shade, Ned brought his legs close to his chest and wondered what was going on in the huge world beyond.

He had heard the gargantuan matriarch leave but she had returned some time later, her voice echoing through the house. The lack of another voice told him that she was at least alone, probably on the phone, but even that had died down before being replaced by the vague sounds of a television. His stomach growled as he imagined the giant woman casually seated on a couch, watching a lazy soap opera while leafing through a magazine or scrolling through her phone. Despite trapping him, she got to continue enjoying her day off.

Meanwhile, Ned knew his wife and son must be worried sick wondering what happened to him. They were no doubt already calling the police or putting up fliers or something. They had to have, the tiny man told himself, but he then began to wonder if it would be any use.

Brittany had considered him little more than a slave, and his hope that her mother would be more rational had been squashed the moment he watched the disgust play across her face. Ned had never bothered looking at any articles explaining why giants should fear shrunken people, in fact until that woman started calling him a pervert he wouldn't have believed they existed. Then he thought back to the countless posts and message boards he had scoured.

There had been some people excited by the prospect of being smaller. He remembered a few young men champing at the bit to look directly up a woman's skirt, but people like that were the minority and a minority that wasn't worth caring about when there were literally people imprisoning the infected for no reason. Or worse, Ned languished from within the mason jar, to enslave them or punish them over perceived slights.

The front door of the house thundered open and then shut with a mighty boom that even Ned could hear. The tiny man instantly stood to his feet as he heard a distant and angry basso fill the house. He could hear Brittany's mother reply though the words were a mystery, followed by the sound of giant feet pounding across floors and then up the stairs.

As they neared, their voices became clearer, “... and he was just standing there in my closet staring up at me. I'm telling you, Michael, he's a disgusting little pervert.”

“Jennifer, just calm down and let me handle this,” the man's voice, Michael, was deeper and more powerful than anything else Ned had heard since he shrunk.

Before the giant even came into view, the shrunken man was trembling, but as he walked into the enormous bedroom, Ned immediately fell to his knees. Jennifer, Michael's wife only came up to his muscular shoulder, and the blonde woman was trailing after him and clearly annoyed that he was ignoring her. The man himself was surprisingly fit for his age, a stark contrast to the perpetually out of shape man his wife had trapped, with a well tailored suit that neatly fit his strong frame. As he neared and the whole world seemed to shake, all Ned could see directly ahead of him was the impressive bulge in the giant's slacks.

Stumbling over as he craned his head back, Ned already found himself stammering an apology as the mountainous man stood directly over him. A firm hand wrapped around the mason jar and shook it while a bemused smirk played across the handsome face of the immense man. Ned was slammed into the opposite wall before he flopped out across the floor, dazed by a casual flick of the giant's wrist.

“Jen,” the large man grunted as he looked from the pathetic shrunken creature to his wife. “Come on. This is why you made me leave work early?”

The blonde woman looked up at her husband, a fire in her brown eyes as she shouted back, “He was in my closet, Michael!”

“And look at him,” the gigantic man replied with a laugh, shoving the mason jar into his wife's face. Ned's stomach rolled as he watched her face wrinkle in disgust while her husband continued, “What do you really have to be afraid of from something this big?”

“It's not like he's some little bug,” she pouted, the anger subsiding.

“I don't know about that,” the huge man replied as he bent down.

Ned looked around in a panic, shouting and screaming as the world shifted around his glass prison. The wall became the floor and the tiny man started sliding down the slick glass, his hands scrambling to find anything to hold on to. At the last second, he latched onto the lip of the jar, but one rough shake from Michael threw him the last few feet to the ground.

Aching from the fall and terrified, Ned found himself standing between two pairs of gigantic feet. Directly in front of him stood Michael's shining black leather shoes, and he saw his own tiny distorted body reflected in them. Turning around, the shrunken man found himself staring into the dark purple trainers of Jennifer, her weight shifting back and forth as she watched the tiny man far below. A shadow passed over his head as Michael rested a hand on his wife's shoulder, “Look at him down there, honey. Does that really look like a man, or does it look like a little bug? Hm?”

“Well...” the woman trailed off as she looked down at the trembling Ned. “I guess he is pretty small,” she laughed softly to herself as she looked back at her husband, “Do you really think he looks like a bug?”

Michael's laugh filled the air before he cast his gaze back at the floor, “A very ugly bug.”

Ned found himself slowly crawling away from the huge man as his eyes darted from his billboard sized face to his expensive shoes. Without warning, Jennifer's running shoe crashed down next to him and tossed his tiny body to the ground.

The blonde woman smirked, “Oh, I bet he didn't like that.” She bent forward, “Did you, little guy?” Ned whimpered and tried to get to his feet as he watched Jennifer lift her huge foot into the sky above him. “Well I didn't like finding you in my closet,” her foot dropped with frightening speed and Ned unleashed a terrified screech.

Air whipped past his ears as the sneaker slammed down a few inches from him, making his teeth rattle inside of his own skull. The laughter of the enormous people bounced off the vaulted ceiling of their bedroom while Ned took deep shuddering breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. He still couldn't move as a dark shadow descended from the sky, and Michael's surprisingly soft hands scooped him up off the carpet before dumping him back into the mason jar.

The tiny man sat in the jar, sliding about as the giants walked through their expensive home, chattering and joking about how pathetic he had looked at their feet. It wasn't until the jar hit a vast granite counter top that he found himself jarred back into his new horrific reality.

“You're not going back into work are you?” Jennifer asked as Michael stood above the tiny man, and cracked open a bottle of beer

“No, no,” he shook his head before taking a sip. Ned cowered back against the glass as a meaty fingertip hit the lip of the jar before gently pushing it back and forth. To the huge man it probably didn't look like he was moving the container, but to the tiny man imprisoned in it the world was practically rolling. “We still need to figure out what to do with this little thing.”

“Mm,” Jennifer placed a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to face her. Ned watched as her fingers played with his tie, smoothing it out and delicately centering it before she asked, “Do you want me to fix you something to eat then?”

“A sandwich sounds great, hon,” he lowered his lips and kissed her softly on the forehead. She smiled and turned toward an enormous fridge, at which point he slapped her on her bountiful buttocks. While Jennifer squealed with delight, Ned found himself becoming more and more afraid of the gigantic pair.

Michael had barely reacted to his presence and as he stared up into the man's face, he couldn't read what the giant was planning. Worse, the man had more than just a simple calming effect on his wife. With just a few words and a few flippant demonstrations of power, Ned had gone from a dangerous interloper to a pathetic bug that was barely worth her attention.

Thick fingers invaded his world, and Ned tried to squirm away before a light chuckle reminded him he was trapped. Michael's thumb and index clamped down on his chest and lifted him into the immense world of their family kitchen. Ned watched the top of the line appliances and professional design scheme blur past him before he was dropped onto a large wooden table.

Michael, sans jacket, sat before him. A mountain with rolled up sleeves and a tie neatly tucked between his buttons. His hands fell down on either side of the shrunken man like walls of flesh before the giant himself lowered his head toward Ned, and spoke, “Let's talk, little man.”

Beer-laced breath washed over the shrunken man as he tried to stammer out a reply, but he only managed a soft pathetic squeak.

“So, how did you get into my house?” The rich basso rolled over Ned, and all the small man could do was tremble as he watched a sandwich the size of a truck get set down before the giant.

His stomach rumbled, and Ned couldn't help but lick his lips as he watched one of Michael's hands wrap around the bread, nearly crushing it in his grasp.

Following the shrunken man's gaze, the huge man laughed, “What? Do you want some of this?”

Ned nodded fervently while his tiny stomach roared.

Michael took a massive bite, and chewed vigorously before washing it down with a swig of beer. Waving the sandwich down before the tiny man, Ned found his senses overpowered by the stench of meat, cheese, and mustard flowing into his nose. Michael snorted, “You should be thanking me that you're not inside this sandwich, you shrunken piece of shit.”

The tiny man froze in place as he watched the hefty sandwich rise up into the air, only for the giant to take another bite. As he watched Michael chew, it finally struck Ned not just how small he was in comparison to people but to everything else. Brittany's shoes were like cars to him, bedrooms were unfathomably large caverns, and sandwiches were something he could easily be slid into.

“Now,” the giant laid his huge hands down on the table, and Ned watched as both he and Jennifer leaned over his small world. “How did you get inside my house? And you better be honest, little man, or I will eat you.”

“I-I-,” Ned stammered as he watched the man take another bite to emphasize his point. All Ned could do for several long seconds was watch the man's jaw move, before finally he swallowed and his whole gullet shook at once. “You-you-your daughter, sir,” he added the 'sir' almost reflexively.

Michael might have gone gray but it made him look more like a silver fox than an elderly man. In fact, Ned doubted the man was older than him at all. If anything, he might have been a few years younger.

“My daughter?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I told you he was a pervert,” Jennifer whispered angrily, and her finger poking her husband's oversized bicep.

“S-sh-she ki-ki-kidnapped me,” the tiny man stuttered as he tried to shout up at the giants. As he told his story, Ned found a few shreds of confidence, “I shrunk while walking my dog, and I was walking to your house to get help when she got home from, from cheerleading practice.”

A large smile crept across Michael's huge face while Ned struggled, “She almost stepped on me but I managed to get her attention by jumping up and down, and then, then, she told me that she would call my wife if I...” Ned found himself fighting tears as he spoke, while the giants above him were clearly amused by his plight, “If I, I cleaned her cheerleading sneakers for her. So I-I-I did, and then, then she trapped me in a shoebox.”

The whole world shook as Michael's palm slammed down onto the table, the gigantic father roaring with laughter. He slapped the table again and again as he laughed, the sound drowning out his wife's giggling and the tiny man's pleas. The giant's mountainous torso continued to shake as he calmed down, his wife gently patting him on arm to help soothe his fits of laughter.

Ned struggled to his feet, and gazed up at the pair as he clasped his hands together, “Please, this is very serious. Your daughter kidnapped and tortured me, and then your wife put me in a jar like I was some kind of bug. Since I've been here, I've almost been killed three times, and you have continuously treated me with complete disrespect. If you don't want a lawsuit-”

“A lawsuit?” Michael thundered, cutting him off in an instant, “And who's going to represent you, little man? The Lollipop Guild?”

Another round of laughter filled the air above him, and Ned was forced to listen as Jennifer breathlessly echoed the last question several times before they finally settled into silence.

“These are very serious crimes,” his voice cracked from the stress of shouting so loudly.

“Well, then,” Michael replied digging a phone from his pocket and setting it on the table. “By all means, call the police and tell them everything we've done to you.”

Ned's eyes went wide as he watched the giant's finger unlock the huge device for him. Trembling, the tiny man stepped forward, and gazed at the screen and its generic background. He hovered his hand over the phone icon for several long seconds before finally slamming it down against the screen. Tears welled in his eyes when nothing happened. He smashed his hand down again and again, then he tried both hands, before finally he started jumping up and down while screaming in desperation.

Michael's hand smacked hard against him, and sent him rolling across the table.

He lay there, blinking back tears and sucking in sobbing breaths as the giant lifted his phone up and laughed. Michael turned the phone around to show him a locked screen, “It does that when it's been inactive for a while.” Sliding his phone back into his pocket, and popping the last of his sandwich into his mouth, the massive man continued, “I don't think there's going to be a lawsuit, little man. In fact, I think my daughter had a very good idea about what we should do with you.”

“No, please, no,” Ned muttered quietly as he pushed himself onto his feet. He looked from the emotionless face of the gigantic man before him, to the slightly concerned glances Brittany's mother cast in his direction.

“If we're all being honest, there's not much people in your situation can do for society anymore,” Michael's huge fingers wrapped around Ned and lifted him high into the air, directly in front of his face. “You can't do any sort of meaningful work. Hell, you can't even interact with normal people without it being kind of pathetic. So I'd say it's just a matter of time before all of you shrunken little shits end up in this situation.”

“Please, I'm begging you, don't do this!”

Michael rose from his seat and carried Ned back to the mason jar, before delicately placing him down on the floor. “I think it'll be good for you, and for Brittany, going forward if you both learn your proper place in this post-shrinking disease world. Eventually, everyone with the disease will end up like you. Slaves and pets to people like me,” he squatted down so that Ned was face-to-face with his gargantuan features, “It's inevitable, little man.”