He woke to the sound of his own heartbeat. Shit, what time was it?

He scrambled for his watch but couldn’t find it, he’d taken his clothes off in the night. His head swam, how was he this disorientated? A huge yawn split his face. He rose to a sitting position, cradling his head in his hands.

Sofia’s promises rang in his head, his new life stretching out endlessly before him. How could this be happening? How could this be real? The thumping feeling answered him.

It pounded like a drum, the sound of his heart physically shaking him. He felt hungover, though that was impossible, he hadn’t drank in weeks.

He looked to the door, standing wearily. It was lost in the grey of the room, everything so grey and muddled. His head was like soup, the drumming pulsing through him.

Standing, he reached out for the dryer and missed, landing heavily on the wooden floor. He groaned with pain, quickly silencing the noise lest Sofia hear it and punish him for it. Lying on his side he looked across the room.

It was wrong.

He scrambled to his knees. Everything was wrong.

The door was behind him, that was wrong. It was also a thousand feet tall.

Fuck. It had happened, it had finally happened.

He looked around, his vision finally clearing. He was in the hallway, an endless massive hallway.

His mind raced, his heart beating ever louder within him. What was he going to do, what should he do? He tried to remember what the pamphlet said, what the first steps were? He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe, he was starting to panic.

All the while there was the endless throbbing. Boom, boom, Boom!

It exploded like a bomb beside him, falling out of the sky in a mass of darkness. He was thrown from his position, skidding across the wooden floorboard. There was pressure all around him, the world buzzing as though a thunderstorm had broken out above him.

Bells rang in his ears, his teeth chattering as he pushed himself up with his hands. In front of him was an impossible wall of rubber and fabric, a Nike swish the length of a yacht.

Sofia had paused outside the closet door, debating whether to open it. No, he wasn’t stupid. If her breakfast was ready downstairs, her pet would be on the other side of the door as instructed.

He looked up, his lips trembling, a scream in his throat as she stood over him.

Her foot was the size of a transport vessel, easily fifteen or more car lengths long. The grips were deep and industrial, easily capable of turning the earth beneath her weight and obliterating any life unfortunate enough to be caught by them.

His wide eyes tracked upwards; across laces that were thicker than he would be wide, even with his arms outstretched. In the gloom, the brilliant white of her gym sock shone out like a beacon. Beside it the pale pink of her skin rose smoothly into the sky before disappearing into the leg of a pair of black lycra shorts. To see that high, just to the top of her legs, required him to angle his head so far backwards he fall backwards onto his ass.

What little sound that made was lost on the vast titaness that filled the world above him.

Only now could he fully understand why so many of his fellow affected, the ‘Shrinkys’, were struck dumb the first time they saw another person. His thoughts were like fog, his brain trying to take in how such a massive creature could possibly exist. Not for a second could he fully appreciate that it was he that was smaller, that the gigantic woman above was just Sofia at her normal height.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to piss himself with fear. He wanted someone to take him away from this. Despite the terror that rocked his bones, he kept quiet. Never had he ever considered he would be so small.

In his mind, he had always thought he would be the size of a doll, of a mouse maybe. Four, five inches tall. Ridiculous of course but able to function somewhat in the new world. At this size though, how could he survive? He must be barely half an inch tall, this was madness.

He forced himself to keep quiet, to keep still. In Sofia’s mind he was already a toy to torment, at this current size he would be no more than a bug to her. What were the odds she would help him, if noticed? More likely she would just flash him that smirk, that fuck you smile and wave him goodbye.

If that’s what she decided, there would be nothing he could do to stop her. He’d be unable to outrun her, to fight her, to resist her. Those terrifying treads would fill the sky above him and start to descend, with the deliberate slowness she spoke of, until they caught him. Then it would be all over.

He knew she would draw it out, to make him suffer as a hundred tonnes of her flesh pushed down, compressing him between wood and rubber. There was no doubt he would die slowly, each bone breaking as first his legs were liquefied, then his hips and finally his torso bursting like a grape.

He could picture her twisting her foot gently, snuffing him out, removing all trace of him beyond a faint stain. Above it all she’d be smug, in control, all powerful. That bitch.

He wrapped his arms around himself to stop the shakes. Sitting in place, he didn’t dare move or make a sound even as her foot began to lift. The ground rumbled as she moved, shuddering through his naked body.

The huge toe of the running shoe moved towards him as it sailed up into the air. He watched with eyes dark with mad terror as the rubber sole swept over him. Each detail, the huge rubber grips with their vicious treads, was seared into his mind. He saw stones pitted into it, larger than his head. Scuff marks, grey with dirt, dotted the surface. Clearly here was a pair his tongue had not yet caressed, Sofia would have punished him if she found such imperfections in a shoe he had already attended.

The idea almost made him laugh aloud. It was ludicrous, insane. The woman, this unfathomably huge being, which stood above him, whose shoe he cowered beneath, would no longer see him worthy of punishment. At his current size, shrunken down to insect proportions he knew the cold hearted creature would treat him as such. Extinguish, extermination, annihilation, obliteration; these were the words that entered his head as Sofia’s massive foot passed overhead.

He scrunched his eyes shut, trying to block out the image and the madness it roused as she stepped over him, the rush of her movement tearing at his hair. The boom of her foot connecting to the floor almost deafened him, shaking him in place as she moved further down the hall. The effect of her simply walking was like a metrological event, a vast unstoppable storm passing through the heavens as she made for the stairs.

He stayed still for what felt like forever, though likely no more than half an hour. Below he heard the gigantic creature navigate the house, call him a mother fucker as she found his tasks undone and her breakfast unmade. Only then did he move, running for his life towards the skirting board.

He dreaded her returning, coming the stairs buoyed by rage, tearing open the door to find him gone. If she worked it out, if she started looking for him, it would be all over.

Fortunately, her desire to maintain her goddess like body outweighed any punishment she had planned and after a tense ten minutes she left the house, the door slamming loudly behind her.

Alone, he was left to think. 

He would have to get to Abi, that much was clear. At normal size her door was only ten feet away from him, a matter of steps. At his current height the journey would take longer but it was far from gruelling.

He ran through what he was going to say to her as he walked, replaying the scenario over and over in his head, mouthing the words.

The door was in front of him sooner than he realised, stretching up into the sky. It was closed, the gap beneath it and the carpet too narrow for him to crawl through; even small as he was. The tiny man paused, thinking carefully.

It was nearly 6.45, Abi would be leaving her room for the bathroom at 7.10am. When she did, he would have to be noticeable, he would need to be out in the open.

He had stood in place, right in the centre of the door for about ten minutes before realisation dawned on him. Idiot.

He raced back towards the door frame, the scenario clear in his mind. Abi would leave her room, expecting him to still be in the utility closest. Would she notice a tiny human, waving at her from the carpet? Would she instinctively look down or would she walk through the middle of the opening, her unknowing foot sweeping forwards?

If that were to happen he would be finished as easily as if Sofia had caught him earlier. Abi’s single step would push him instantly into the wooden floor, destroying him instantly and completely beneath her weight.

He tried to remember the training, the tips on the pamphlet. Stick to the corners of rooms, stand against pale colours, try to stand out, try to be heard, try not to be crushed underfoot.

These words were repeated like a mantra until the huge door opened, revealing the titaness that dwelled within. For the second time that morning he had to steel himself against madness.

Abi was barefoot, each toenail painted with black varnish. Her legs stretched upwards into the heavens before disappearing into the pair of black shorts she slept in. Yawning, the sound like thunder, she stretched; drawing up the HIM t shirt she wore and revealing her flat stomach. Her hair was tied into a messy bun, a fist rubbing sleep from one eye.

He screamed her name louder than any word he had shouted before, jumping and waving his hands.

She stepped forwards, the impact of her bare foot almost knocking him from his feet. As expected it collided with the floorboards in almost exactly the spot in which he had once stood. She ware barely awake, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.

‘Abi,’ he screamed, ‘Abi, I’m down here!’

She had to notice him, he prayed to any god that was listening, she had to.