Andrew awoke to a pounding headache, one that hurt his frontal lobe so much that he could hardly open his eyes. Ringing filled his ears and an aching pain washed over his entire body preventing him from standing up.

"What the fuck happened to me?" he thought out loud. He was unable to gather his thoughts to figure out how he found himself in this position.

Using one hand to shield his eyes to prevent light from worsening his headache, Andrew used his other hand to steady himself as he attempted to stand up. He stumbled forward, still off his balance from the constant pounding in his head. Falling on his side, his body ached even more than it did previously. As he lay on the cold floor he tried to trace his thoughts back to where he may be and how he may have gotten here. Andrew opened his eyes to scan his new surroundings. The light blinded him momentarily, but as he regained his vision he found himself in what appeared to be an almost infinitely large room. The room was enclosed by four large walls, which stretched up for miles, taller than any building he had ever seen. The rest of the space was littered with enormous structures, too far away and distant for him to make out. The light was sourced from glowing structures along the ceiling. The ground beneath him was smooth and hard against his skin. The distinctive feeling of icy air-conditioned air washed over him, giving him goosebumps.

Andrew tried to rationalize these surroundings, but was unable to. He had never been in a space as expansive as this and the sheer enormity of the objects within it were unlike any human structure he had ever seen before. It appeared such that the room was devoid of any life.

"Am I dead?" Andrew thought to himself. "Maybe this is what happens after death."

As he scanned his surroundings, he observed a pair of large olive green objects in the distance. The bottoms were a thin layer of white foam and the top was a canvas-looking material. Andrew's heart began to race as he read the label of a tag at the middle of the shoe.

TOMS.

At this point, the foreign environment began to make sense. He wasn't in some far off land. He was in a house. The only problem was, he was the size of an insect. Judging by the size of the shoes, Andrew figured he stood at about 5 millimeters tall, insignificant compared to a normal sized human.





Monica sat impatiently in her final class of the day, eyes focused on the clock at the side of the lecture hall, she had spent her entire day in classes. What kept her going was the knowledge that it was Friday. She had only been back at school for one week from after her summer break, but the excitement of being off at school had worn off. She looked forward to unwinding at home before spending the weekend catching up with friends. Unfortunately, Monica’s relaxing weekend would not begin right away, as her parents had drove into town to visit her for the night. Her hometown was only six hours away, so her parents would occasionally make the drive down to visit her. Monica didn’t mind their visits, as they would bring food and buy her groceries from her hometown that were not available in the part of the state that her college was. She wasn’t, however, looking forward to hearing them go on about her grade point average and the importance of her academics. Being Indian-American parents, they held very high expectations of her and she appreciated the chance to get away from them while at college.

As the professor concluded the lecture, all the students got up and exited. Monica packed her notes into her bag and swung it over her shoulder, exiting the hall. She began her journey back home, where she would begin cleaning the house in advance of her parents’ arrival.

At this size, Andrew knew that he needed to be careful. Every decision he makes would have a direct impact on his survival, so careful forethought was of the utmost importance.

“What do I even do? I could look for somebody to help but I don’t even know where I am. I need to get out of this place and to somewhere that I can get help” he thought to himself. “A normal-sized person probably wouldn’t even notice me on the floor… maybe I need to find some place safe to come up with a plan.”

Andrew didn’t even know what the setup of this house was. He felt like a rat trapped in a maze, helplessly lost in an environment without an escape route. Realizing that standing around would not do him any good, he decided that he should explore the surroundings to find a better place to seek refuge. Looking around, Andrew was able to analyze his immediate surroundings. Behind him was a wall. Upon it hung a painting or picture - it was hard for him to make out what it was from his angle. He followed the wall with his eyes to find that it met with another adjacent wall about 50 feet away from him. This other wall had a large window, shutters closed blocking out most of the light, except that which trickled in through the spaces between the window slats. The wall on the opposite side of the room had a large couch up against it, and directly in front of it was a table. It appeared as though he was in a living room of sorts. Generic living room furniture filled the rest of the space, every object of which was of an enormous scale compared to Andrew.

Looking back along the wall behind him, he looked to see the giant pair of green TOMS shoes. Behind it was an even larger navy blue structure he recognized as being a backpack. It appeared to be one of the popular Herschel retreat bags. It was laying on its side, the flap opened and its contents exposed to Andrew. He marvelled at its contents - schoolbooks and an enormous water bottle lay inside. At his new perspective from 5 millimetres tall, even the simplest of items could be looked at in a new light. The wall of a kitchen counter extended past the backpack high above, Andrew recognized this based off of the appliances he could see on top of it.

From his observations, Andrew was presently in a living room of an apartment, attached directly to a kitchen likely with a bedroom and bathroom somewhere connected to the kitchen. Considering there was a giant backpack and pair of shoes on the ground, the inhabitant of the house was likely around. Andrew knew that if he felt so dwarfed by the giant household items, he would feel this even more so around a giant human. He decided that if he were to survive, it was essential that he avoid contact with such a person. Andrew looked across the room to the couch. There was a gap between it and the floor, approximately 10 centimetres high. He decided that this was likely the safest place he could hide among all of his immediate surroundings. With that, he began a long trek along the hardwood floor, praying that he make it to the other side before the giant arrived.

Monica fumbled around in her bag for her keys, feeling around the bottom blindly as she fought the wave of tiredness from her day. Fishing them out, she unlocked her apartment door and walked in. Closing it gently behind her, she walked down the hallway. Her apartment was small, having only a single bathroom and bedroom, and attached kitchen and living room, but it was big enough for her. She passed the doors to her bedroom and bathroom, walking straight to her kitchen. She continued along into the living room. Laying her bag down beside the wall-attached island separating her kitchen and living room, she slipped her feet out of her shoes and neatly placed them on the ground. Looking down, she could see her sweat glistening as footprints left on the smooth ground. A long day of classes had caused her feet to moisten, as was common when wearing canvas shoes. Monica walked to her bathroom where she decided to shower before her parents arrived.