He could see nothing.

Despite climbing up as far as he could, hanging onto a massive tree trunk of a hair, Henry couldn't make out which direction to go from his vantage point above the “forest”. It wasn't simply because of how almost incomprehensibly vast the forest was, though that very much did not help matters. Even though it was the beginning of the afternoon (or at least, he thought it was), and the sun had been high and bright for them while in the purse, the world around him seemed darker. It was if a dimmer switch had been turned all the way down to the lowest point it could before outright turning the light off. Making out anything in the distance was all but impossible.

He was becoming more intimately acquainted with the going ons of his mother's body than he had never wanted to. Climbing her dirty feet, trekking across her rumbling belly, navigating her boobs, getting a whiff of a dank cavern of morning breath, getting trapped in her underwear (and other happenings that he would forever have to suppress in his memory), crawling under filthy shoes, experiencing a giant belch, and now climbing a forest of hair and dandruff. He had known that his mother suffered from dryness and flaking, the evidence was often visible on the shoulders of her darker clothes, but it had never seemed that bad. Now, however, he couldn't tell if really WAS that bad, or if his diminutive size made it appear that way.

When he made his way down, his siblings simply watched him silently, as his father fumbled with the radio.

“Any luck?” Richard asked.

Henry shook his head. “Can't tell which way is which. Everything's too big, but...it's weird...everything's darker somehow. It's the middle of the day, yet...”

“It's because we're so small.” Sammy spoke up. “Our eyes weren't designed to see light at this size. We're lucky we can see anything at all, let alone even hear. We probably wouldn't even hear her voice. She's so...gigantic that her voice would be way too deep. We might feel her words, but...”

“Are we going to be stuck like this forever?” Jenny blurted out.

Nobody answered. The truth was, their only method of unshrinking them was held by their mysterious captor. And they had no way of knowing that he had any intention of following through with his promise. Being stuck at their previous size had already been an unfathomable nightmare. The past two days had been nothing but a series of catastrophes that they were lucky to even survive. But now...there was no telling how much smaller they now. If they were able to encounter their past selves from mere hours ago, Richard suspected that they would tower over them. Of course, not as much as the matriarch of the family had.

“What do we do now?” James asked. “We can't just stay in here? Who knows what's crawling in her hair...”

“There's nothing crawling in her hair.” Richard replied. “She may have dandruff, but she doesn't have lice, for God's sake.”

“Maybe not, but, she might have dust mites or something in here.”

Richard didn't replied. He hadn't thought of that. Mites. Microscopic bugs. How big would those things be now? Christ, he remembered being afraid of whatever was lurking in the lawn last night, but now he was worried about what tiny creature might be lurking in his wife's fucking microbiome.

“Okay!” The radio squawked suddenly, causing them all to jump. “You all have been hanging around this one spot for over an hour. Get moving!”

“Has it really been that long?” Sammy asked, a look of surprise on her face.

“Yes!” The Voice barked. “And it's getting old!”

“Wait, if it's been an hour,” James said. “How have we not fallen off.”

“Because she brushed her hair and then sat her fat ass down on the couch,” The Voice explained. “I guess she's wants to look good for the TV? Or maybe it's just because she expects you all home later...”

“We're trying to get to find a way out of her hair,” Richard said. “If you're bored of us being stuck, then tell us which way to go to get to her ears.”

There was a pause, and Richard thought his challenge would go answered. But he was surprised.

“You know, I really SHOULDN'T give you directions,” The Voice said. “But, with how small the lot of you are, I'm actually really curious if you even CAN get her attention anymore. Besides, you've all lasted this long so I guess you've earned some special treatment.”

“Gee, thanks.” Sammy sighed.

“Head towards your left, Richard.” The Voice replied, and Richard felt a strange unease at his name being used. Till now, their captor had not referred to any of them by name. “It's a little bit of a walk but you're closer than you've realized.”

“What!?” Richard turned to Henry who looked back at him, dumfounded.

“Don't feel bad.” The Voice quipped. “As I'm sure you noticed up there, Henry, it's pretty tricky finding your way around at this size. Now...you wanted my help. You got it. Now move.”

With no other options, the group began to set out, but before they did something stopped them. Richard more sensed it at first than saw it. It was strange. As Sammy had said, it was hard to see in the dim world around him and, much like a blind man, his other senses were forced to work overtime. He felt something big moving, could feel the presence of something above him. When he looked up he saw something massive hovering over them. He was able to identify it when what little light there was gleamed off the whiteness of the French tipped nails as they lowered. All of them watched, frozen in place. If they were coming down on top of them, they were screwed. There was no time to move. But, once again, luck was on their side.

The nails burrowed through the forest of hairs, sounding like an immense beast lumbering and tearing through trees. Richard, lost in a sudden state of calm lucidity, waited for a loud symphony of noise but it didn't come. Though he could feel the ground begin to shake violently, and could hear nearby trees ripped from the ground, he heard more of a low rumble rather than a din akin to a nuclear bomb. More flakes were launched into the sky, causing a new cascade to fall around them.

“GO!” Richard cried.

The family ran. Flakes began to rain from the sky. Some gently fluttered toward the ground, while larger and heavier ones pelted them like hail. It was impossible to see through the thick forest to see where they were going or to see where the nails were digging. At any moment they could be ground to pieces from the scratching.

Then, just as the Voice had claimed, the forest suddenly ended. And, with all the confusion, none of them were prepared.

The ground simply vanished beneath Richard's feet. He could hear Jenny screaming as the rest of his family plummeted along with him. Even here, the lucidity somehow returned. While he could only see maybe twenty feet ahead of him (or whatever “twenty feet” was at this size), he saw a wall of what looked like flesh. He also saw a few hairs. Two days ago, he recalled vividly, he had grabbed some of these exact same hairs when his wife awoke while trekking across her face to try reach her ears. Now that they were the size of tree trunks, grabbing one as a life line was all but impossible. How far would he fall? The body was no longer a mountain but a whole planet. In any case, it began to seem like this would really be the end.

And just as that thought entered his mind, fate yet again laughed at him as his descent was abruptly cut short as his body landed atop something. Groggily, he raised himself to see he was sitting on a long, black horizontal cord. Of course, it wasn't a cord. It was a hair. He turned his head to see another “cord” sticking out perpendicularly to his own. His family landed atop this one in a fashion that was almost reminiscent of a cartoon. Immediately, he knew he had to try and make his way to them. He looked around for another hair to grab to see if he could swing over but could not see one. Eventually, his gaze turned down, and when it did, he felt his blood run cold. He couldn't see all of it, but he saw more than he would have thought possible. Perhaps it was the light reflecting off its slippery surface that illuminated the area enough, he didn't know. But, of course, the globe sized eye didn't move, did not acknowledge his presence in the slightest. The iris, rather than looking like a solid, beautiful shade of green, now looked like fabric that was torn to pieces. The pupil expanded and retracted as micro adjustments happened. Richard could see faint lights dancing in the dark pit. Images from whatever was on TV?

Richard grabbed the walkie.

“You son of a bitch!” He yelled into the radio. “You said her ears were this way!”

“Oh, were you looking for her EARS?” The Voice replied gleefully. “I could have sworn you said eyes. You were a little staticy. My bad!

“You son of a whore!”

“Yeah, yeah,” The Voice said. “Save it. It's more fun this way. I mean, think about it, pal. You're a microscopic speck on the human face right now. Think of all the little expressions the face makes. All the smiles, frowns, raised eyebrows...all of those. The skin is alive here. More so than the rest of the body. It's fascinating. You can feel all the inner workings coming together to make up the most important part of our social lives. Heck, they say the eyes alone are windows to the soul. How about it, pal? You see her soul down in there?”

“You know goddamn well I don't!” Richard roared. “You lying sack of shit!”

“Normally, I'd remind you of how much worse I can make things for talking to me like that,” The Voice replied casually. “But, I don't want to distract you from your company.”

“Company? What-?”

Jenny screamed.

Before he could turn all the way to her, he caught something in his peripheral. Inching towards him, crawling along the long length of hair, was something that Richard could only describe as a monster. It appeared to be six legged, he saw that immediately. It's body was hairy and resembled the same tannish gray color of the flesh around them. It had a fatty body, but was carrying a long, tail like body behind it. The creature's tiny eyes were staring directly at him as it approached.

“What the fuck!?” Richard cried.

“It's a demodex!” The Voice laughed. “An eyelash mite. Pretty common. Lives inside hair follicles. Fun fact, at night, they come out and mate. That's right, these bad boys fuck each other on your face at night while you sleep!”

Ignoring the laughter bellowing from the radio, Richard began to slowly crawl backward, traveling down the shaft of the hair. The mite followed, never taking its gaze off Richard, who turned his head and saw that another demodex was doing the very same thing with his family on their lash. He had no weapons and knew that he would eventually run out of eyelash to retreat on. All he had was the walkie, which vibrated in his hand as his good friend continued his hysterical giggling.

Wait! The walkie!

Just as the demodex began to bear on him, Richard stabbed a finger on the buttons on the radio. Miraculously, he managed to fumble the flashlight on, and he immediately pointed the light towards the creature. The mite recoiled, turning its head away from him, hissing softly (dear god, he could actually HEAR a tiny creature like this HISS). Richard continued to slide away from the creature, mentally preparing himself to use the radio as a bludgeon if he had to. He turned his head and opened his mouth. He meant to call for Henry's attention and attempt to toss the walkie to him to ward off their attacker. But before any sound came out he yet again felt the “ground” beneath him simply vanished.

He felt his body not only fall, it was pulled down as the lashes whipped downwards, speeding his descent with them. When the top lid met the bottom one, they came together with a very low boom that was almost inaudible but powerfully felt. With another burst of air, accompanied by spray of water, the family was launched forward, barely falling between the lashes. Once again Richard wondered if this was finally it, but once again death refused to take him from this never ending nightmare. This time their fall was short. Richard felt his body land in a pile of something wet and slimey. Kicking and struggling, he lifted his hands and tried to wipe his eyes, but his fingers were also coated. At first he thought it was just the skin's natural oil, and he was not entirely wrong, but the sweet scent that assaulted his nostrils (almost literally so) made him aware.

He was lost in a sea of his wife's make up foundation.

The screams. He could hear the screams. Jenny, of course, but also Sammy and James. Shaking his head vigorously, he managed to fling enough of the gunk off his face to finally open his eyes. Frantically searching, he finally saw them above him, stuck like flies on paper to the skin. A small hair, even on this scale, lay flat against the flesh, buried in the foundation, only its outline visible. Light danced in speckles of the make up.

“GUYS!” Richard yelled. Some of the goop went into his mouth. He gagged at the taste and spat it out. When he regained himself... “DOWN HERE!”

One of the heads, he couldn't tell whose saw him and began to squirm their way to him. Firmly affixed to the flesh by the gunk, they could still slide, if slowly their bodies down towards him. He began to make his way up to them. As he approached, he saw that Jenny was in the lead, barely making out her face and eyes through the make up splattered all over her. Richard reached a hand out to pull his youngest daughter towards her. She reached out, but immediately retracted.

Then she screamed and pointed.

Richard turned and saw something moving in the paint below him. While he couldn't see them very clearly, he saw the six legs working as it moved their fat bodies towards them. These ones were different, they didn't drag long backsides with them, but he could tell they were the same species. He raised a hand to fling whatever slime off the radio...only to realize that he no longer held it. His hand went to his belt. Nothing.

The radio was gone.

“MOVE!” He screamed.

Like an olympic swimmer trying to swim in a vat of thick mud, Richard paddled his arms frantically. Jenny's screams and Henry's frightened swearing rang in his ears. He could hear the small but quick paddles of the six legged monsters behind them. But he didn't dare look back. He had stared death in the face so many times, but somehow all the events that should have killed him seemed preferable to this. This wasn't being instantly squished, this was being eaten alive. Vaguely, his mind was cast back towards Friday, when he had fallen into the cereal bowl and then the massive cavern that had been the mouth. Even getting swallowed up by that seemed better. Maybe he would have drowned in the milk or saliva or gotten quickly crushed by the teeth before actually descending and melting in a vat of stomach acid. But now he was dealing with a creature that was his size and would probably tear him to pieces while he vainly struggled, ripping his intestines out and feeding on them in front of his horrified family before they too became dinner.

There was a small hair in front of them, glued to the skin as the other was. Richard reached up and grabbed it. It was slimy but Richard remarkably got a good enough grip on it to pull himself upward faster than he could crawl. He heard his family grunt as they followed suit. The only thing he could pray for was that the monsters chasing them wouldn't be smart enough to do the same.

They kept moving. Richard knew that he had no idea where they were going. Up? Down? Sideways? Visibility was still remarkably low, despite the shimmering foundation that they were slopping around in. But, even worse, they had lost the walkie, their only connection to the man who had brought them to this hell in the first place. What if the walkie was the way their captor was tracking their move? If that was the case, with it gone, even if the Voice was serious about actually unshrinking them, it would be impossible now. Richard had toyed with the idea of pitching the thing to be rid of that insulting, derisive voice...but now he wished he could hear it so he could cling to the slim hope that maybe, MAYBE, the promises made would turn out to be true.

That the promise that the evening, which was coming in mere hours (if they could survive that long), would finally bring salvation...