Despite the fact that darkness of the purse was far better than the rank depths of the trashcan from the night before, Richard still found sleep hard to come back. They had managed to clean the make up off with dribbles of water leaking out of the old bottle, drying off with old Kleenex that had been buried in here three winters ago. The dust and dirt were the worst. As the morning light came up, it revealed a fine, steady cloud of dust residing within the leather confides of the purse. Even better, the old hairbrush, one that she had kept since she was in elementary school and adamantly refused to part with, was also in here with her, its bristle coated and clogged with mats of thick brunette hair and dandruff. The latter was piled under the brush in a small, snow like dusting. Richard found himself having to blow his nose on the old tissues as the sneezes became too frequent. But at least he didn't have to hold back gags from the odor of the place.

The food, what little that could found, was also better, though how much so was debatable. Cracker crumbs and old M&Ms, and other lost candies that had been down here for who knew how long, but at least it didn't smell rancid. At least they had, by some miracle, made it back inside the house, away from the vast jungle that was the backyard. Things could have been much worse had they been forced to spend the night out there, they were lucky they hadn't been attacked right away after escaping the trash bag. All things considered, relatively safe and actually fed, Richard felt almost a shimmer of hope somewhere deep inside him.

Furthering that feeling was the strange silence from the radio. The Voice hadn't spoken up to heckle them with cheesy and snide comments since last night. The past couple of days had been filled with jabs and threats. Why go silent now? There was no way to tell time, but the sun had been up for several hours now. Richard estimated it had to be close to 10AM. He was beginning to feel a temptation to say something into the radio to try and see what their good “friend” was up to.

“He hasn't said anything.” Henry said, walking up behind his father who stared at the walkie.

“Nothing yet.”

“That's strange.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I mean...he's never been shy before.”

“No, definitely not.”

“You think something happened to him?”

“I don't really care, honestly. After everything he's put us through, I hope he rots. No matter how all this ends...I hope he fucking rots.”

“Yeah...but I hope he waits till after he's unshrunk us...”

This was actually a rather poignant point. If something had happened to the host of this ludicrous game, they were likely going to be stuck at this puny size. Several times the Voice had implied that he had been shrunk as well, stating that the experience had put things into perspective. Was he shrunk now? Was that how he was keeping an eye on them? No matter where their misadventures landed them; the trash, the yard, and even in his wife's underwear, he seemed to know where they were at all times. But not just them. He kept clear tabs on Evelyn's movements as well. But where was he? If he was shrunken, he had to be somewhere in the house. If they could find him, perhaps they'd be able to force him to undo their tiny stature. That is, if they could get to him before he made things even worse.

Richard's thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly became aware of a growing, rhythmic sound. By now, he was used to hearing what the familiar sound of footfalls were like at this size that there was no mistaking them.

“Sounds like she's finally up.” Richard said.

“Should we get out of here?” Henry asked.

“No. Go grab the others. She won't leave her purse lying on the floor. There's at least a chance we might be able to get her attention. If nothing else, she'll put us somewhere up off the floor.”

“Good point,” Henry nodded. “Actually, even if she doesn't see us at first, she goes to her purse often enough. Eventually she'll see us if we hang around enough.”

“Exactly.”

As the sound of her steps grew louder and louder, Richard guided his family to the hem of the purse. By the time all of them dug their grips into the leather, the purse itself began to vibrate with the footfalls. Richard could actually identify the shoes, a pair of black low heels that she often wore around the house. So when the shoe in question landed before the fallen purse with a deafening boom, he wasn't surprised in the slightest. He tensed, his hands clenching the leather, waiting to be scooped off the floor. But, instead, massive fingers lowered into view, accompanied by a series of reports as joints and knees popped as the body squatted. The french tipped nails dug into the dried pink goop on the floor, scrapping some of it up into the nails. Then, they gently prodded the broken glass of whatever tube they had been in that were crushed last night. Even at this size, Richard recognized the familiar sigh of exasperation his wife had uttered a million times.

Then, the hand reached and, despite knowing it was coming, Richard was almost caught completely off guard as the purse was hoisted off the ground, almost losing his grip. Seconds later, the morning light was cut off as the face loomed over, the eyes peering directly towards them. The hair was a little frizzy, but otherwise neater than he'd seen all weekend. The eyes were tired and still a little red from the night before. The skin was clear, foundation clearly applied to hide the circles under her eyes, pink lipstick also was evident. Richard could smell the shampoo, and he immediately knew what was going on here. It was not the first time by a mile, not even close. She had just gotten up, bathed, had done her make up and was about to do her hair before realizing that her favorite hairbrush had been misplaced. Of course, she knew where it'd be. Often when going out, she took it with her to keep her mane immaculate, as her friends were often playfully envious (at least they claimed as much) of her brunette hair.

“MOM!” James and Jenny both cried, waving up at the eyes with desperation. “MOM! DOWN HERE!”

The eyes drew closer as the face leaned in, lids narrowing as she focused on something. The shimmer of hope he had felt early suddenly mushroomed into a roar, and he too waved his hands at the massive face. A moment passed. The nose exhaled, a warm breeze blowing against them. The eyes blinked. A loud sniff. Then, the whole expression of the face instantly changed into something of a wince. Before Richard could even begin to wonder what was happening, he was being blown back into the leathery abyss by a massive and sudden gust of wind, a new roar being vocalized as the spray of saliva and mucus came shooting from the mouth and nose. The dust from the purse had affected her as well.

He landed on a pile of something soft. Vaguely, it felt kind of like a bunch of loose hay. The world around him jolted as the purse was dropped heavily. Up above, he heard another loud sneeze, though it was now muffled, most like going into a sleeve. As he sat up, wiping the slime from his face...

“HA! So close!” The Voice suddenly squawked. Something was definitely wrong this time though. Not with the Voice itself, but rather with the walkie. The words were nearly lost in squeals of static and feedback. Richard, despite knowing his need of their “friend”, found himself still missing the blessed silence of earlier. “Maybe next time...” This time the screech of feedback was so loud that the words were completely lost and Richard winced from the sound.

Wait...feedback.

That only happened with walkie talkies when...

Richard instinctively whipped his head around. Behind him was his family. Henry was ripping Jenny from a field of thick hairs (Richard saw what they were immediately), while Sammy and James attempted to clean their own eyes from the gunk that had just been sprayed onto them. They were surrounded by long beams that towered over them, all wrapped with the hairs that held Jenny in place. Had the circumstances been different, he would have realized the danger they were in. But when he caught sight of someone else moving behind one of the columns a good twenty feet from Henry, he lost focus.

“YOU!”

Henry met his father's eyes for a moment before whipping his own head around. Richard was already up on his feet by the time Henry pointed. His vision was blurry, with snot and spit seeping down from his hair and rolling into his eyes, but he saw the figure turn. Richard was practically about to pass Henry before the young man could even get it in gear, but when he did, he sped ahead of his father.

“Come here, you son of a bitch!” Henry roared.

Richard only had one instance where his vision was clear enough to actually see what he was chasing. A man, clearly. His back was turned, but he was dressed in black and had black hair. Something was strapped to him, a shoulder case perhaps? A knapsack? He didn't see it clearly. And he saw very little else.

It was as if a camera with a powerful flash had gone off. Richard was blinded and immediately tripped. For several moments, he rubbed his eyes. The bastard was HERE. He had glimpsed him! Had he and Henry been just a tad faster they could have tackled him. Maybe Henry was still going after him, but they had to act fast. They all knew what he was capable of.

When his vision finally cleared, he realized he had no idea where he was. At least not at first. His mind's first guess was that he was standing within some lunatic's idea of a highway. It seemed as if he was surrounded by dark roads that weaved in all different directions without any regard to rhyme or reason. Then, he thought he was in a nightmare version of a forest, with deformed tree trunks and vines warped and overgrown in all directions, wrapping around everything. It wasn't until he craned his neck upwards, seeing the massive columns jutting out from the “vines” that he began to remember where they had been.

“Dad!” Richard turned his head and saw Henry stumbling towards him.

“Did you guys get him?” Sammy's voice. She suddenly ran into view, followed by Jenny and James.

“Does it look like I got him?” Henry snapped. He turned to Richard. “Did you see where he went? We can still catch up to him!”

Richard didn't reply. He only looked at his oldest son for a moment before looking up towards the sky. His family joined him. Jenny screamed.

The face was back and something was different. It still loomed, was still massive, but...it now seemed....distant. Further away. The walls off the purse, too, seemed to stretch higher than they had a moment ago. And it was snowing. Not really, of course, but the balls of dust looked like large snowflakes, gently landing all around them. Up above, the nose wrinkled, and a low, muffled sound fluttered in the air. Earlier, the sneezes and breaths had been loud, sometimes booming, but now their volume had somehow been diminished. Not only that, the quality of sounds seemed how reduced, as if being broadcast on an old, worn out intercom. A hand was raised, rubbed the underside of the nose briefly, and then reached towards them. Richard thought the fingers had been large before, reminded of the legendary Kraken and its massive tentacles. Now, as they extended into the dark abyss of the purse, they made the Kraken look like a shrimp. The swirls of the fingerprints were reminiscent of deep striations weathered in large boulders. The air whipped and tore at them from the sheer movement, blowing his family off their feet, plunging them deeper into the forest of massive hairs, now thick enough to serve as tunnels for cars. Flakes of old dandruff were shook loose as the fingers grabbed the the immense hairbrush they were trapped on, it appearing big enough to be a hundred times the size of a cargo ship. These flakes rumbled and dropped like boulders in an earthquake.

Then, the brush was lifted out.

There was a ride at an amusement park that Richard had gone onto with his family some years ago. You got inside this machine only for the whole thing to spin at such a speed that you were literally pressed against the wall. It was like being inside the spinning thing that astronauts train in to simulate the aircraft taking off. Richard could not lift his arms and felt that the pressure of the “take off” might flatten him. He was still able to see however, and what he saw was the face at first come closer but then they sailed over it. The pressure slackened for a brief moment as the ascension stopped. Then, the entire world flipped over, and Richard and his family felt their bodies begin to fall, only for the descent of the brush to catch up with them, again firmly pinning them as it went. Richard saw a new forest below them. One of very thick, giant, and slightly frizzy brunette hairs. From this vantage point, he could see the white specks dotting the massive mane. Despite how beautiful her hair was, Richard knew she often struggled with dryness and flaking.

When the impact happened, the pressure pinning him abruptly disappeared, and Richard began falling, hearing Jenny's shrill screams along the way. This was immediately drowned out as the immense brush began to glide through the “forest”. Massive “trees” were tugged along with the towering bristles, some being ripped out from the skin as they ensnared the brush. Skin flakes were thrown into the air, only to come pelting down again like giant pieces of hail. Richard ran. He didn't know where he was going to go, but he only knew to run. As he ran, Jenny appeared in his peripherals, and he snatched her arm and pulled her along with him. He then became aware of Henry next to him, carrying Sammy on his back with James aside him. A large piece of dandruff painfully landed on Richard's shoulder, causing him to stumble for a moment before being pulled back up by both Jenny and Henry. The skin was, indeed, dry and frail. Richard could feet parts of it indent and begin to chip off even under his puny weight.

Soon the bristles moved away from them, making their way through the rest of the hair. Though they were still pelted with falling debris, Richard and them could finally stop to catch their breath.

“Well, this just got a lot more interesting!” The Voice suddenly spoke up. Richard noted that the walkie too sounded oddly muffled and somehow distant.

“You shrunk us again, didn't you!?” Richard yelled into the walkie. “You were in her purse the whole time, weren't you!? You were right there with us!”

“I only fell in their after she sneezed,” The Voice replied calmly. “To answer your first question, yes. Didn't really have a choice in that, did I? With you two charging after me. Imbeciles, both of you. Despite everything you've been through, after all that I've put you through, you really thought you could just come at me like that and not face the repercussions? You brought this on yourselves!”

“N-No!” Jenny wailed. “Ho-How small are we now!?”

“Let's just say this...” The voice answered. “You're all now part of her microbiome. I'd be careful if I were you...mites can be nasty critters if you run into them.”

“Oh, Christ...” James moaned, burying his face in his hands.

“So what happens now?” Henry asked, his eyes wide.

“Oh, nothing has changed.” The Voice said. “The game is still on. Only now...well, I guess you could call it Hard Mode now. Should be interesting to say the least. I've never shrunk anyone else to this size. Look on the bright side...today's your last day! You just have to survive till this evening!”

“How are you even going to be able to unshrink us when we're this goddamn small!?” Henry barked. But the Voice didn't reply. “Fuck! Now what?”

“We need to find her ears.” Richard replied, reclipping the walkie to his pants.

“Is she even going to be able to hear us now?” James asked. “I wasn't even sure she would originally...but now.”

“I don't know.” Richard admitted. “But it's literally our only option. I don't like the idea of being microscopic, and if there's even a glimmer of a chance that we'll be able to get out of it fast, I say we take it. We've already been through a lot these past couple of days. We might as well keep going.”

“Do you really think he's going to unshrink us?” Jenny asked in a shrill voice.

“I don't know.” Richard said again.

“If it's her ears we're going after,” Henry said. “We need to know where they are.”

“Do you think you can climb up to the top of her hairline?” Richard asked.

“I can try.”

“Good,” Richard nodded. The massive bristles of the brush reappeared in the sky. Fortunately, they did not come back down on top of them, but still landed close enough that another flurry of flakes came down on top of them. The sounds of the hairs being torn through, and literally being torn out occasionally, filled the air. “Then let's make it happen. We need to get out of here before we get lost.”