Chapter 1

Two years. That’s how long I must be missing by now. Nobody knows where I am and what happened to me, except for one person: the girl I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life with. I never thought I would be spending my days with her in this particular way though…

My story starts when I was 19 years old. There was nothing really noteworthy about me; I was going to college and regularly spent time with friends and family in the weekends. One of these weekends changed everything. While attending a party thrown by my best friend, I noticed how one of the guests continuously intrigued me. A girl of around my age was sitting in the garden, talking with one of my friends and enjoying her drink. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her when I noticed her, you could say it was love on first sight. Her straight, dark blonde hair hung over her right shoulder and along her back while a soothing, late-summer breeze tugged at it in a gentle manner. When I saw my friend stand up and headed inside, I knocked back my drink and stood up to inquire about the girl that piqued my interest.

“Jason, hold up. Is that girl outside your new girlfriend?” I casually asked with a playful smile.

“Girlfriend? No man, that’s my niece, Ida.” Jason laughed. “Haven’t you met her yet? I could introduce you to her if you’d like.”

“Oh, well… Okay, I guess?” I answered, not expecting what Jason proposed.

“She’s very chill, I’m sure you’ll like her.” Jason said while signaling me to follow him.

After standing up and stepping outside, a knot formed in my stomach. I suddenly got nervous when I was about to meet this gorgeous girl, which was not very surprising in hindsight. I took a deep breath and straightened my posture before Jason started speaking with Ida to introduce me.

“Hey Ida, I want you to meet someone. This is Alex. Alex, this is Ida.” Jason spoke as he took a step back to let us shake each other’s hand.

“Hi Ida, nice to meet you.” I said with my friendliest face, trying not to squeeze her hand too hard.

“Hi Alex, nice to meet you too.” Ida replied while shaking my hand in a gentle and elegant manner.

“I’ve known Alex since middle school, I’m sure you two will get along. Anyway, I’m heading back inside for another drink, I’ll speak to you both later.” Jason said before leaving Ida and me alone.

“So, uh… what do you do?” I asked, still trying to calm my nerves.

“Well, I’m sitting here, enjoying my drink and the party, you know.” Ida answered with an almost smug smile.

“Ah, yes, I see...” I said a little caught off guard. “I meant in your daily life, actually.” I quickly added after a little sliver of uneasiness made me look down at the ground. I noticed Ida’s shoes; a pair of relatively worn, black Vans. I briefly glanced at her ankles before realizing I was still having a conversation with this girl, I couldn’t just stare at her shoes.

“I work in a clothing store downtown. I took a gap year after high school to save up some money.” Ida replied after letting out a little chuckle. “What about you?”

“I’m in college studying human resources, so nothing special really.” I answered, feeling my nerves finally calm down.

What followed was a night-long conversation. Before we knew it, the party neared its end and without hesitation I asked for her number and if she wanted to hang out the next day. She happily agreed and when we both went our separate ways home, I couldn’t believe I felt a sense of chemistry between us two.

The day felt long, very long, before I would go out to pick up Ida in the early evening for our date. As I made myself ready, a strange and hazy feeling swirled through my head. No idea what it could have been, I paid it little mind and headed out to Ida’s house. I was hoping her parents wouldn’t answer the door as I didn’t really feel like meeting her mom or dad on our first date. With a mix of confidence and excitement I knocked on the front door, only to be overwhelmed by a sudden wave of physical discomfort; the hazy feeling was back, accompanied by dizziness and an unfamiliar pain in my muscles all over my body. I started to panic for a few seconds before my vision went completely dark and I passed out.

I wasn’t unconsciousness for long, I think, as I opened my eyes just a few moments before the front door I knocked on was being opened. I barely had a moment to understand what had happened to me when a strong flow of air sucked me past the doorstep into the hallway of Ida’s house and threw me down on the floor. Disoriented, I took a quick look around and noticed how everything was much… bigger. I was still not able to get the bigger picture at that time.

“Huh? Alex?” a female voice loudly echoed around me.

That was when I got the bigger picture. I turned around and almost passed out again when I saw Ida. She wasn’t the girl I met the day before: a slim, relatively short girl. What I saw was a girl the size of giant, looking taller than a mountain. She stood in the door’s opening looking outside, obviously confused as she looked around to see who knocked on the door.

“I-Ida…” I mumbled in utter disbelief and shock as I tried to slowly stand up.

A chilly sensation crept along my body before I noticed how I was completely naked. In the far distance I saw Ida kneeling down and picking up what seemed to be my clothes. She must have been even more confused at that point. When Ida closed the door and turned around, I quickly became aware of the fact I was right in the middle of the hallway. Heavy tremors shook the floor and my body when Ida took a step in my direction, her giant shoe crashing down with the force to destroy an entire city block, from my perspective at least. I started running toward the closest wall, hoping to make it in time before I would find out how fragile my body was at my new size.

“Whose clothes are these? And where is Alex? Is this some kind of joke...?” Ida’s voice thundered through the air with a questioning tone.

Another tremor almost made me lose my balance when Ida took another step, coming closer at an incredible speed. My muscles felt like they would rip themselves apart and my breathing became heavier and heavier as I ran for my life. When I couldn’t run anymore, I jumped forward and fell down on the floor with my eyes pointed at Ida’s feet. The Vans she was wearing were the same as the day before, only being a thousand times bigger. I watched as the giant girl took another step on her path forward, the bottom of her shoe menacingly coming down toward me. I cowered in fear and closed my eyes, expecting this to be the end. I had no idea how I ended up in this situation and my life was about to end beneath the Vans of the girl I had a crush on. An ear-deafening bang followed after I felt my body become weightless. I opened my eyes and saw the extremely large shoe standing right in front of me. I had no time to either fear or admire the gigantic piece of footwear as the following displacement of air blew me away from Ida’s foot. With a rough landing I fell on the floor and sat up to watch Ida’s gigantic form walk away into the living room.

“Fuck… This must be a nightmare…” I quietly said to myself while catching my breath.

The loud, banging footfalls of Ida’s shoes hitting the floor slowly faded until they stopped altogether. I was still sitting on the wooden floor of the hallway and took the chance to take in my surroundings and try to make sense of this situation. Shrinking to the size of a bug was something I heard of before in stories that were widely considered to be hoaxes, but now it seemed they were actually real. That was also all I knew; I had no idea how to reverse the shrinking or what I should do at that moment. After slowly getting back up, I hesitated a short moment to venture deeper into the house. I couldn’t just stay in the hallway and wait for an opportunity to go outside, that would certainly become the death of me. Scared and still a little confused I walked toward the living room, hoping to get a shot at getting Ida’s attention.

“I hope this will work out, I need her help.” I thought on my way across the vast, wooden floorboards.

With only being an inch tall, the trek to the living room was a long one. Immediately I noticed Ida sitting on the couch, texting on her phone. Her now giant size didn’t detract from my crush on her, so I made a short stop to admire her. I liked what she was wearing, even if it was just a casual combination of a sleeveless shirt and short, tight jeans. The Vans that almost crushed me earlier were lying on the floor, with Ida’s sock-clad feet now exposed. I felt so small as I quietly watched Ida, mesmerized by our difference in size.

“Ida… I’m so sorry to disappoint you like this… I just hope I can get your attention so I can explain and make it right.” I softly spoke as if I was talking to the colossal girl.

I realized she probably hated me at that moment after I never showed up for our date. The thought gave me some determination to continue and make her notice me. With my chin up I set out toward Ida’s feet but it didn’t take long before I hit a wall. Not just a physical wall, it was a wall of… smell. When I came close to one of the kicked-off Vans, the air became thicker and noticeably smellier. The shoe had landed on its side with its large, gaping mouth pointing straight at me. I noticed before that the shoes weren’t that new anymore and were pretty beat up, making the dark interior of the footwear look even less inviting. Yet there was this strange fascination with the fact that it was Ida’s shoe. The air around the shoe was filled with a strong and stuffy smell of rubber and sweat, though it also carried hints of something sweet and corny. For a brief moment I hesitated to continue on toward Ida’s feet or if I should take a closer look at the massive Vans.