Darkness reigned supreme in Spencer's world. With the cloudy night, not even moonlight could help supply the dust mite sized boy with any sight. All he knows is that he is incomprehensibly tiny, lost at the base of the living room carpet, and no one has any clue. Sitting in the darkness, he began to shake. He was unsure if that was due to fear, or the cold air from the A/C. He concluded it was a mixture of both. Having shrunk out of his clothes didn't help him much either as he rubbed his arms with his hands, trying to warm up.
A large part of him just wanted to lay down at the base of the thick carpet strand, that was at least one hundred feet thick, just to try to get some sleep, and hope this was temporary. However, he just could not. The adrenaline pumping through his veins was far too great to let him lay down and rest. He got up onto his feet and just walked; aimlessly. The twisted fibrous floor proved difficult to navigate, but he continued on. What else was he to do? The meandering hills of fibers were endless as he pressed on for what felt like hours in the dark. His journey came to an abrupt end when he hit his head on something hard, knocking him onto his ass.
"What the?"
Rubbing his head, he got back up to inspect what he collided with. Extending out his hands, he felt up at the rough surface that is dug into the carpet and extending out far out of reach. The faint smell emanating from it felt familiar. Continuing to inspect whatever this object is, he could tell it was positioned like an angled roof, acting like a shelter. It was at that moment the adrenaline began to wear off. Having found a place within the carpeted forest to lay his head, he got down onto his back, pressing up against the weird shelter's wall. Doing his best to snuggle into the fibers to keep himself warm, it took him no time at all to doze off.
---
A quake woke Spencer up from a deep sleep. Quickly sitting up, not only did he find that he was still super tiny, but some light began to seep through the thick carpet canopy. Another quake made him get onto his feet. Someone was awake, and that meant he had to get back to trying to get someone's attention. With each foot fall, he could both hear and feel the rumbling shockwaves, no matter how far away they were. Both his mom and sister's feet were nearly a mile long in length and nearly two thousand feet wide. It would be no surprise feet that large to Spencer would produce an earthquake with each step. Walking out from beneath his shelter, he finally got to get a good look at it now that there is ample amount of light. His jaw dropped once he realized what it was.
"That red paint... This is mom's toenail?!" he yelled. Stretching out for hundreds of feet was a single toenail clipping from Allie's big toe, snuggly buried at the base of the carpet. "I really just took refuge under her clipping.." he said with astonishment. Another quake brought him back to reality, making him turn his attention to the carpet strand he is at the base of. There were various sizes of fibers making up the carpet stand. Some were far too large to shimmy up, but there were a few he could easily grasp. Taking hold of one, be began the arduous climb.
Something Spencer took notice of immediately was with his diminutive size, he felt much lighter than he normally does. Being somewhat athletic, he was finding the climb to be easier than expected, yet he still had to scale hundreds of feet worth of carpet. Another he took notice of was the rhythm of the footsteps. They seemed to be... slower than normal. With each step, the thud sent a jolt through the carpet strand, messing with Spencer's grip. His heart began to race as his fear began to rear its ugly head again. As he neared the top, the canopy began to become far more denser as all the strands mashed together. Squeezing through a tight opening, his climb was unhindered. After ten minutes, he reached the very top.
Spencer's eyes went wide as he remembered how big his house was last night as he made a mad dash to his mother's feet. This time, however, golden sunlight flooded in through the windows, allowing him the opportunity to get a real good look at his home from the perspective of a dust mite. He found himself in the middle of the living room, away from the couch and the coffee table. Everything was so massive, spanning for miles in either direction. Now that he was at the top of the carpet, his heart sank as he knew it would be nigh impossible to capture anyone's attention. And that feeling amplified when he saw Gina walk into the room.
As it was still early in the morning, the petite orange-headed girl was still only wearing a long, pink pajama shirt as she shuffled through the house. Her hair was a mess as she just awoke from a rough night of sleep. She turned the corner of the hallway to enter into the living room. Of course, in Spencer's perspective, she was all but petite. She was absolutely, incomprehensibly titanic. She was at least fifteen miles away, yet she was all he could see as her pink soles reveal themselves with each, earth shaking step.
It was at this moment he realized why the footsteps seemed slower, and it was because they were. At his size, time was slowed to half speed, something he didn't pick up on last night. Despite this fact, the amount of distance she could travel with her mile long feet did not matter in the grand scheme of things. All the tiny boy could do was watch in shock and awe as his titaness of a sister walked directly towards him, as he clenched hold of the fabric as her foot falls became more intense. In only seven steps, she was already over top of him.
"GINAAAA!" he screamed, as her right foot stepped down a half mile away. The force sent a shockwave that threatened to throw Spencer back into the carpeted forest. Not just that, the sheer weight of his sister pushed down the floorboard, as the ground beneath him collapsed down tens of feet, taking him down with it. Every unnoticeable detail from the simple act of walking became increasingly clear to Spencer how destructive it can be. Her gigantic left foot roared overhead, rumbling through the air. The thundering it caused was so loud that he couldn't even hear himself scream. He watched as her toes, her arch, and ultimately her heel fly over, seeing every minute detail of her sole, and every speck of dirt embedded on it.
As her heel plowed into the ground, once again releasing a cataclysmic quake, a new danger presented itself to Spencer. The amount of air displaced from a single step from Gina's foot created a devastatingly powerful vortex that easily overtook him, launching him into the air. He had no control of his body as the vortex was far too powerful. Being flung towards the wall of her pink heel, Spencer was expecting to crash right into it. What he failed to realize during his predicament was that she already took another step with her right foot. As he approached her heel, it lifted as took off again, only to add further strength to the pull of the vortex.
Spinning wildly out of control, Spencer felt his consciousness begin to fade from all the insanity. Everything became a blur as he had no choice but to accept that he had no control as to what is transpiring. He chose instead to focus heavily on trying to not pass out as he has no idea what would happen if he does. Trapped in the air stream, he ended up following his colossal sister to the couch, where she collapsed onto her stomach on the soft cushions. The air current's strength diminished as Spencer arrived at the base of the couch, crash landing on top of the carpet.
Though he came to a stop, the world around him was still spinning. Had he had anything to throw up, he would have. The past half minute was absolute hell. Regaining some composure back, he looks upwards two miles above to see his sister's legs dangling over the edge. Spencer was already exhausted, physically and mentally, and he's only been awake for less than fifteen minutes. No plan, no idea came to mind as he could only stare at her legs that are so far out of reach.
A few moments passed by before either of the two moved. Familiar rumblings caught Spencer's attention. Observing his surroundings, and on the other side of the coffee table, he could see his mother's bare feet and legs walking towards his location. The closer she approached, the further back he had to crane his head back to see his near seven-mile-tall mom, dressed in a pair of denim shorts and green tank top. As she spoke to Gina, her voice boomed with authority, echoing through the atmosphere, her words hanging on twice as long.
"Hey, stop hogging the couch," she said, pushing her daughter's legs away off the couch to free up a spot.
As Gina repositioned herself, turning herself around to sit on the couch, her mountainous sized feet slammed down a half mile away from Spencer. "Oh shiiiiiiit!" The forceful impact tossed him into the air, and he found himself plummeting back down into the carpet. Grasping at every fiber, he attempted to control his descent, sliding and tumbling all the way back down to the base. Licking his wounds, he stumbled back to his feet, severely annoyed he will have to climb back out again.
Grasping at the carpet fibers, he began climbing up again, cursing under his breath with each pull. But after only a couple minutes of climbing, he heard a weird noise. It sounded like something being viciously scraped, with the added sounds of crashing, and it was becoming increasingly louder. Then a shadow flew overhead and the entire carpet strand he was hanging on shifted violently, practically falling over, ripping the fiber out of his grasp.
"What the hell?!" he screamed as he fell back down again. Though his fall wasn't nearly as long or painful, it took him a moment to get back onto his feet. The shadow continued to loom overhead, and all the carpet strands were shifting all over in unison. "W-What is going on?"
THUD!
"Woah!" he yelled, as he heard something crash beside him. Then it was followed by another thud, and another. In fact, it almost began to sound like falling rain, but with hail instead, with the horrible scraping noise up above acting like rolling thunder. With what little light he had, he saw a giant flake, comparable with the size of a giant stone. Shifting his gaze upward, he found what was going on.
Up above, Allie was sipping her coffee while non-chalantly rubbing her soles against the carpet, back and forth, feeling the carpet slip between her toes. With each stoke of her foot, negligible sized loose flakes of skin were scraped off, raining down to the base of the carpet below. And smack dab center of her mile long sole is her dust mite sized son. Hundreds of giant skin flakes rained down with each stroke.
All Spencer could do was run for safety, wherever that may be because he sure as hell isn't able to run out from underneath his oblivous mother's foot. Screaming and covering his head with his arms and hands, he ran towards the base of the nearest building sized carpet strand. Granted all the building sized carpet strands were practically collapsed with each thrust, the very base was sturdy and didn't give, offering Spencer ample space to take some form of cover. Diving into cover, he continued to protect his head with his arms, as he listened to the severe storm happening around him. All he could do was wait until his mother felt satisfied as she also occasionally clenched the carpet strands between her toes and tugged on them. After a couple minutes, she lifted her feet up off the floor, and sat them onto the coffee table, as she finished her coffee.
Slowly, Spencer emerged from his hiding spot, walking back out into the open. Through the tiny gaps in the canopy, he could see his mom's calves hanging up in the air a couple miles up. Looking around, he assessed the surrounding area from the storm it just went through. Various sizes and shapes of skin flakes densely littered the ground like snow, and many were embedded in the carpet strands. The whole area now had a peculiar smell. Not just that, now that he's taking time to observe, he could see rock sized pieces of dust clinging to the carpet. Granted he was still larger than specks dust, he only further sank his heart into despair about how tiny he is, and whether or not he could ever be discovered and rescued.
Something else that caught his attention was a boulder sized crumb. His stomach instinctively growled upon seeing it as he hasn't eaten since last evening. Even though he knew the danger of his mother's feet still loomed up ahead, he had to try to eat. Approaching it, he concluded it was a crumb from a potato chip. Putting his hands onto it, it was tough to rip off a piece. He chose instead to slam his heel into it, and a small chunk broke off. He let out a sigh of relief, worried that he may not have the means to eat it. Picking up the chunk, he went to take a bite, and could only scape off the surface. Disappointed he could bite off a piece, he was at least happy to have something in his mouth to eat, even if it was stale.
After a few frustrating minutes of trying to eat the crumb, a new noise echoed through the depths of the carpet. A cold chill ran down Spencer's spine. It's one thing to know what dangers he faces as it pertains to his titan sized family, it's another to not know what else lurks in the darkness with him. Jumping up onto his feet, he looked all over. The sounds of clicking and tiny thumping grew in volume and intensity. Then the source appeared.
Fear struck Spencer's core. Hundreds of massive grizzly bear sized dust mites stampeded into the area, looking to feast on the buffet of skin. The hulking sized bugs surely made their presence known. The long mandibles that protruded from the large, hairy, brownish chiton shell filled the tiny boy with a sense of dread as he couldn't find the strength to move. More and more appeared, overjoyed at the potent scent of flakey food. Like a cleaning service, they picked away at the copious amounts of skin, using their mandibles like hands to feed it into their mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Slowly but surely, the growing pack of dust mites continued to make their way towards Spencer. He finally found some power to move as he slowly backed away, but he almost immediately tripped over a giant flake of his mom's skin, fresh from her heel. Closer and closer they got, crunching away at their food. He wanted to scream, his mouth agape, but his lungs couldn't push any air out, to his luck. A faint memory came to light back when he was in biology class when they were learning about allergies. They went into detail about dust mites, from their known anatomy, and the allergies they can cause to humans. Something that came to the forefront of mind was that dust mites have no sight, unknown if they can hear, but have a very good sense of smell. And he just happened to remember that he too was made of flesh, a dust mites preferred food, as he looked at his hand.
Just as he came to that realization, the closest mite shifted its attention at him, its mandibles twitching. It was bewildered to have smelled a new, powerful scent of skin; the aroma intoxicating. Ignoring all the flakes at its many feet, it lunged towards its morsel. Finally, Spencer let out a scream as he dove out of the dust mite's way, narrowly avoiding its grasp. He finally felt energy surge back into his legs as he got up and made a mad dash away from the horde. His scent wafted around the area, perking the interest in many more mites. They too decided to follow the new delicious scent, abandoning their current meal.
Spencer was far too terrified to look back as he heard the growing sound of the herd stampeding behind him. It was hard for him believe the situation he finds himself in. Being near microscopic, chased by a ravenous horde of dust mites in his own living room carpet, all at the feet of his mom and sister, obliviously unaware that he is so. He ran maniacally through the vast forest of carpet fibers, all freshly coated with his mom's foot skin. Even in his frantic state, he managed to not trip over the uneven terrain. It didn't take a genius to know if he tripped now, he would be immediately swarmed and torn apart.
Tears were streaming down his face, believing this was end. He had no other plan than to run from these giant beasts. Up high in the heavens, the booming voices of his mom and sister began to erupt. Gina had been sitting crosslegged after Spencer fell back down below, and was already repositioning her seating again, bringing her feet back down onto the floor ahead of where Spencer is running towards. The seismic thud threw every loose flake of skin into the air, and also nearly throwing her mite sized brother to the ground. This disturbance perturbed many of the dust mites as nearly half of them broke off their pursuit, running away from the source of the quake. Through the many tiny gaps through the canopy, he could see the mountainous foot of his sister. That's when he finally formed a plan.
If the simple movement from her feet are enough to scare off dust mites, then he could only hope that by reaching her foot and grabbing hold that it will be enough to frighten them all away. With newfound energy, he doubled his efforts to outrun those that are still on his tail, desperate to chew him to bits. His heart was pounding fast and hard, from both exertion and stress. Up ahead as he fell underneath the shadow of her foot, he saw a carpet strand sitting at an angle below her big toe, leading right between her toes. The scent of the atmosphere changed as the smelly, sweaty aroma from Gina's foot strongly flooded the forest. By the time he leapt onto the carpet strand, his eyes began to sting.
Many more dust mites fled as he ran up strand, directly under the arch of her big toe. Without warning, the gargantuan toes began to flex, which was both a blessing and a curse for Spencer. As Gina's toes clamped down, it nearly threw him off over the edge, but it spooked off even more mites. Grasping with all his might to a loose fiber, he pulled himself back up to continue his ascent. Looking back, he saw a single dust mite remaining.
"Damn it! Leave me alone you bastard!" he screamed at it.
Escaping the underside of Gina's big toe, he was rapidly coming towards the end of the strand, resting against the side of her second toe. He wasn't sure what to he would do if this last mite doesn't break away by the time he reached the wall of her toe. There would be no way he could climb fast enough to escape it. All he could do was keep running.
Even after another minute of chasing, the skin eating beast was still on him as he reached her toe. He looked up the steep wall of flesh, getting a good macro look of her skin details. Every imperfection was made clear, something one would not notice when normal sized. Pressing his back against her toe, he trembled as he watched the dust mite draw even closer. It slowed down as it approached, like a beast sizing up its prey, depsite the fact it has no eyes. Its mandibles twitched in excitement from the potent scent Spencer if giving off, also basked in Gina's scent. Turning around, Spencer saw a large dried piece of skin flaking off from her toe. Looking back at the encroaching dust mite, he quickly grasped the chunk of skin. Putting all he had into pulling it out, he tore it free just at the mite lunged at him. Bashing the mite in the face with it, the beast was discombobulated. Surprised by the attack, the dust mite turned and fled down the carpet strand, disappearing in the shadows.
"Haaa... Haaaa..." he breathed loudly. "Fucking hell..." He leaned back against Gina's toe, completely exhausted. It was hard to process the ordeal he just went through. Never before in his life had he ever faced a life and death situation. And having just survived it, he wsa deathly afraid to back down into the carpet. And right now, he could make the attempt to climb onto his sister in an effort to get her attention, but even he knew how risky that was. A several mile climb on his constantly moving sister would be nigh impossible. Even a brush from her hand, clothes, or hair would be enough to snuff him out. The entire situation seemed hopeless. His black-pilled thoughts were interrupted by the booming, echoey voices from up above.
"Hey," Allie said to Gina, "Don't you have a shift starting in a half hour?"
Gina's sleepy eyes went wide as she looked at her phone's clock. "Oh shoot!" she yelled, sitting straight up.
Her realization spelled doom for her micro brother. The entire mountain of her foot quickly lunged forward, causing the strand Spencer was on to rub up against her foot between her toes. Spencer found himself plastered to a thick film of oily foot sweat, finding himself unable to move. Though it was very concerning he was firmly trapped, it also was blessing in disguise as Gina promptly stood up and rushed back to her bedroom. She quickly threw off her pajama shirt, found a bra to put on, and put her red work shirt on. Knowing it was going to be another hot day, she put on her pair or stirrup leggings, sparing Spencer from a prison sentence.
From his vantage point, he could hardly see anything as the thick sweat had firm hold on him. Every movement was jarring, even it was all at half speed. He could only hope to keep down what little he ate earlier. As she slipped on her skirt, the harsh movements continued as she made her way back out into the living room.
"I think I should be able to make it if I go now," Gina said to her mom as she moved towards the front door.
"Hope it won't be too busy for you," Allie said as she approached her daughter.
As Gina put on her hat, she turned towards her mother, and gave her a hug. "I hope so too."
At the feet of the two oblivious women, Spencer was screaming. "Mom! Gina! Please hear me!" He knew what was coming. "Mom! Stop her!" he pleaded. But unsurprisingly, he cried fell on deaf ears. Feeling himself being raised into the air, Gina began slipping her foot into her open-toed pump. "HEEEEEEEELP!" he screamed as the light around him diminished as he entered into her footwear. Much like her wearing her stirrups, the pump being open-toed would help him not burn alive between her toes. But even then, being plastered to her moving feet was going to be a nightmare. He would almost prefer facing the dust mites again.
With both pumps on firmly, Gina walked out into the sweltering, summer morning heat to go to work.