Troy's life was a symphony of sameness. Days merged into each other as he pushed paper around his desk, yearning for a drop of excitement to ripple through his monotonous routine. His fascination with the idea of shrinking had been a constant thread throughout his existence. From his earliest days, the notion had held an almost hypnotic allure. It was an obsession that never quite relinquished its grip on him. Then, during a particularly deep dive down the internet rabbit hole of this fascination, he chanced upon an ad online—one that held the promise of the unimaginable: a watch with the power to shrink its wearer. Dismissing it as sheer absurdity, Troy couldn't resist purchasing the novelty, envisioning it as an interesting collectible to put on his desk.

Weeks of waiting and finally a box was on his doorstep, Troy carried it inside and set it on the coffee table next to a bag of camera equipment borrowed from and waiting to be returned to his friend Mark.

"Damn," Troy thought to himself, looking at the bag. "Mark will be here any minute to pick that up."

He pushed that thought to the back of his mind and began opening the package. He could show Mark the watch when he got there, and they'd both have a laugh.

Cutting through the tape and getting his first look at his purchase, Troy was immediately surprised at the apparent build quality of the watch. This definitely didn't look like a toy. He picked up the instruction manual with a large bold "WARNING" written on the cover, but who reads the manuals? Not him, that's for sure. With a laugh, he tossed the manual on the floor. "I promise not to choke on small pieces or suffocate in the plastic bag."

His curiosity turned to excitement, his obsession fueling his decision to give the watch a shot. Though he held no hope that it would actually work. He strapped on the watch and pressed the one and only button on the side.

The first sensation was that of being on a drop tower at an amusement park. It was as if the floor just wasn't there anymore. Then the world around him shifted and changed, expanding around him at an alarming speed. Troy's heart raced as he looked around, now standing on the floor next to his coffee table. The room he knew so well had transformed into a sprawling landscape. The chairs he once sat in were now towering structures, and the carpet beneath his feet felt like an endless desert.

Troy's grin widened as he took in the grandeur of his surroundings. He laughed with exhilaration, "It worked!" he shouted in triumph, but then, his laughter faded as he noticed the sheer size of everything.

"All right, this is great, but I should really change back before Mark gets here to pick up his stuff," Troy thought to himself.

His elation turned to a mixture of confusion and concern. The watch only had one button. In his mind, the only logical explanation was that it must be multi-purpose. He pressed it again, expecting to return to his original size. His blood ran cold when he felt the drop tower sensation again.

The world pushed away from him like an expanding balloon as he once again dwindled in size. When it finally stopped, the carpet around him was at chin level. Troy collapsed and began to hyperventilate. How was he going to navigate this colossal environment? How could he make himself known to his normal-sized friends, who had no idea what had happened to him? Thoughts like these raced through his mind when he remembered the instruction manual.

He sprang to his feet and turned, looking for the book, and there it was just under the coffee table, inches from him if he had been normal size, but a yards away on his current scale. It didn't matter though; the writing on the front was easy to read, each letter the size of a car, it might as well have been a billboard. "WARNING: Prototype for study only, effects irreversible, do not use."

Troy's heart sank as he read those words. Irreversible. He was stuck like this. Fear surged through him, and he collapsed once more, caught in the grip of a full-blown panic attack. As his thoughts continued to spiral, thunder shook his universe, three loud booms coming from the direction of the front door. Shortly after the sound of jingling keys reached his ears, followed by the creak of the door opening. Mark entered the apartment, his footsteps creating tremors that Troy could feel through the floor. Marks target, the bag of camera equipment, was placed on the coffee table, putting Troy directly in his giant friend's path.

Troy's heart pounded as the tremors grew stronger. He realized Mark was getting closer and when he finally turned the corner from the entryway and strode into view Troy's heart felt like it was going to stop. His brain could barely process the scene. That was Mark, his friend, his friend that was 2 inches shorter than him normally, his friend that now stood taller than any building he could imagine, his friend that was heading right for him!

Mark approached the coffee table, and Troy watched as a giant black and white high top swung directly toward him. He saw every detail of the shoe's sole, bits of dirt and debris easily larger than his current stature jammed in the rubber's crevices. The shoe landed with a massive quake and a blast of air that knocked Troy off his feet.

He couldn't survive alone in the vast apartment, and he knew it. Desperation coursed through him, as he spotted the shoelace hanging down within Troy's reach. Without hesitation, Troy lunged and grasped onto it, his tiny fingers wrapping around a thin loose thread of fabric.

Mark's gaze swept over the apartment, his eyes narrowing as he looked for Troy, unaware that his friend was fighting for his life below him. Troy frantically climbed the shoelace, cursing himself for never exercising, his tiny body trembling as he fought to hold on, his fingers aching with effort. He reached the top of the shoelace just as Mark's shoe lifted again.

Mark sighed in frustration, oblivious to the tiny figure clinging to his shoelace. "Troy, where are you?" he muttered, his voice tinged with annoyance as he walked around the apartment.

Troy's heart pounded as he gripped on for his life to the shoelace, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He was determined to survive, to get Mark's attention, to get back to normal size somehow.

Checking the apartment and finding no one, Mark assumed his friend had just gone out. He grabbed his bag, turned and walked out of the apartment, unaware of the tiny passenger clinging to his shoe.