Jake Miller lay on his handkerchief bed as he dreamt of a time before his life became ruined. Several years ago he had contracted the notorious "shrinking virus" which had since then systematically reduced him over time until he was his current height of 1/4 an inch. The world was definitely and lot different to what he remembered it being.He lived with his mother, father and 8 year old sister who, since she was 5, had dealt with the idea that her brother was getting smaller and smaller. Being a child, she quickly adapted to the notion and now didn't even remember when he was ever taller than her, only knowing him as the tiny little man whom she played with.
However, for the past few months he had been a bit too small to play with, something his parents found out when they discovered him half dead in his sisters curled up fist, and had since then been completely isolated from the world. His mother wanted to keep him around for as long as possible but Jake didn't know what she was going to do when he shrank so small the eye could no longer see him.
In order to keep him safe his mother had bought several simple things to make his life much easier, but also far more restrictive. Firstly he was to be located on a small plastic disk the size of a quarter so that people would always know where he was. He slept on a disk, was transported by disk and did any and every activity on a disk. This prevented people from accidentally crushing him because if a disk was present on a table or counter than Jake was surely on it.
The worst thing about being this small, however, was his ever declining relationship with his little sister, Casey. He had began his shrinkage when she was only about 5 years old and before that time they didn't really have much of a connection. Afterall he was almost an adult and she was a little girl. He was never mean to her and always looked after her like an older brother should but none of this really stuck with her five year old mind. As he got smaller she quickly forgot his past and only remembered him as a 'shrinker'.
The worst scenario Jake could think of would be if by the time she's his age she completely forgot about him and fully moved on with her life. It would seem like he never existed as he gets wiped from the history books. Even his parents would find solace in his absence and simply focus more of their love on Casey and so in the end his life would be meaningless.
It was 8 oclock in the morning when Jake heard a low rumbling coming from his surroundings. He was currently located in his parents room on their dresser cabinet, sleeping on a tiny bed made especially for him which in turn was on a plastic disk. His mother had moved all of his tiny belongings into her room so that she could "Keep a closer eye on you, of course" as she had said. Jake obviously objected to this, demanding that he wanted at least a bit of privacy in his final days but he was in no position to argue.
The low rumbling was a sound that Jake was familiar with, seeing as it was his morning wake up call. His mother was getting out of bed and, just like every giant human, made deep rumbling noises whenever she moved that could only be heard by people of his size. Common movements like placing feet on the ground or breathing deeply sounded like distant earthquakes which had become an incredibly surreal experience for Jake as he now new what insects must hear.
Getting out of bed, Jake looked out into the expansive room and watched as the tremendous form of his mother made her way across the room to his platform. This was the worst experience for him as she would often wake up with horrible morning breath which would blow him away like a tornado of halitosis. Of course he hadn't the heart to tell her this as she often got very distraught when she found she had done something to hurt or upset her "fragile" son. It was just easier to deal with it.
"Good morning, Jake. Did you sleep well?" She asked in her ritualistic fashion. She asked the same questions every morning as if a formality, even though it was obvious he couldn't answer at his size. Maybe it was her attempt at making him feel like people still cared what he had to say or what happened to him.
Jake did his usual wave to her which she probably didn't see before she left for the bathroom. He collapsed once again on his bed as he counted the seconds before she came back out. This is what his life had become, waiting on everyone else to help him live because he couldn't do anything for himself. A routine set in marble which was unchanging and boring. He could barely even remember when he was able to walk to the kitchen without an escort.
Ten minutes later his mother walked out of the bathroom dressed in her morning clothes with a towel wrapped around her wet hair. Approaching the cabinet housing Jake she looked down on him as he clutched his bed for support from her movements. As per the schedule, it was now time to go down stairs and have breakfast before he would be forced to have a bath under the watchful eyes of his mother.
Jumping off his "sleeping disk" He moved over and climbed onto of the "Transport disk" Before his mother picked it up and whisked him into the air. Communication between him and his family was virtually non-existent as his small size made it impossible to actually speak loud enough for them to hear. He would get the occasional "Hello", "Good morning" and
"Good night" but not much more than that, making him feel more isolated and alone than ever despite being under constant watch by others. And this morning was no different as she carried him downstairs and into the kitchen as if he was an everyday item rather than her own son.
"Shit, where ...?" His mother said, searching her pockets and looking down on the table before walking back upstairs. She had obviously just forgotten something and decided to retrieve it, leaving him down here where any number of things can kill him.
"Well" Jake said to himself, looking around his flat disk. deciding that he had a bit of time (And she wouldn't even notice even if she were here) Jake decided to get off his disk and walk around the giant table.
Being incredibly small, the disk was about a metre off the ground to his perspective but that was easily jumpable. The question was, what was he going to do now that he was off of it. There wasn't anything he actually could do at his size, he simply wanted to escape that annoying disk for once. However, he would wish he hadn't when he heard a series of stomps coming downstairs.
Fearing that it could be anything he instinctively retreated back to his disk for safety but found that he had ventured too far from it. There was noway he could make it back there before the stomping was ontop of him. To make matters worse the vibrations were causing him to be physically thrown, making movement impossible. Looking behind him he soon saw what the loud noise was: his sister.
It had been a while since he had actually seen his sister up close like this as he was often shrouded in his mothers over-protective care. However, now he had the freedom to fully interact with him without anyone stopping him and he would like to do that before he truly shrunk down to nothingness. However, approaching his goliath of a little sister was his worse mistake as not only could she not see him but she was also sitting at the table right next to him with a book.
A book? How could that be harmful? Well, to a normal person it wouldn't but to a person who was a quarter of an inch it had the power of a hurricane. As soon as she slapped it down onto the table a wind was sent towards him that felt like an atomic blast and swept him off his feet hundreds of metres into the air (to his perspective of course). Now he was just another particle of dust floating in the breeze and was unable to control his decent or trajectory. This wasn't good as he was now being carried along with the wind towards the closest source of suction: His sister.
Or more specifically her mouth which was breathing in and out at a steady pace and was gradually drawing him closer and closer. His sister, who was reading what looked like a picture book, didn't even notice her older brother flying around inches from her open gob.
"Casey!" He screamed as he tried to swim away from her "Casey!"
Maybe she did hear him because she suddenly turned in his direction looking for something for a few seconds before turning back to her book. This was all it took, because in those few seconds she was facing him her mouth breathed in and he was sucked in with the force of a giant vacuum cleaner. There was no nothing stopping him from entering her mouth to his inevitable doom.
Her lips came closer and closer as they grew to terrifying proportions. Jake didn't realize just how big she was as the distance between them had masked her true size. But as he now inched further he realized why she hadn't noticed him at all even after he past the terrifying boundary separating the outside world and his sisters mouth.
The smell which infested her cute mouth was nothing he had ever experienced. If he thought that his mothers morning breath was retch worthy than he now knew that it was far worse when you were inside a mouth. However, this smell didn't plague him for long before he was shot into the side of his sisters cheek and trapped within the sticky saliva which coated it.
This was the worse situation he had ever been in, and not only because it was at the 'hands' of his unaware little sister. Jake had obviously learned how to swim but now he was slowly drowning in the heavy liquid of his younger sister's saliva which was far to thick to move in.
Was this how a bug felt when dropped in a cup of water? He flailed miserably trying to stay above the surface but his efforts were in vain as the spit was simply too heavy and the shrinking virus had taken a serious toll on his muscles.
But this wasn't even the worse thing that was going to happen to him this day. As he sunk down beneath the surface the entire world seemed to shift and shake as he felt himself and the saliva around him begin to move. He didn't know it at the time as he was slowly losing oxygen but his sister was naturally and absent-mindedly swallowing as humans do every minute of the day.
He was now trapped in a natural action of the human body, unable to stop it or affect it in any way as he was carried to the back of the throat and swallowed without a second thought. Only moments later his mother came back downstairs to prepare breakfast for her children only to find that the disk was empty with her daughter sitting innocently next to it. After being questioned for a few minutes his mother searched every inch of her daughters clothing being searching the floor and table, finally coming to the conclusion that she would never find him .
If only she knew that he son was currently travelling down her daughters throat along with her saliva then she might have been able to save him. Well, probably not, but at least she would have had some assurance as to what happened to him. Jake, at this point, was being deposited into his sister's stomach where the saliva washed off him in the liquids already present.
As she had not been eating, digestion had not began yet occurred but Jake did find it far easier to move now that he was no longer being restricted by the disgusting slobber.Looking around he couldn't see a thing and the constant thudding of Casey's heart could be heard all around him. Muffled voices could be heard outside but none of them were distinguishable and it wouldn't make a difference even if he could understand them. His first thought was to try and escape Casey's stomach otherwise he would meet a death far sooner than he had initially expected.
This was going to be a problem as the stomach was ginormous and in a constant state of movement. He wouldn't be able to go anywhere even if he ran as fast as he could as he would simply be carried back with the motion of the stomach. The other reason why he wouldn't be able to escape was that the entire atmosphere of his little sister's stomach was depleting him of all his energy and life.
There was very little oxygen in the stomach and it was heavily diluted by all the acidity that was in there. It was incredibly hard to breath let alone try and make an escape. Combine this with the suffocating heat and Jake found it fairly difficult to stand up for a period of time let alone do anything exhausting. This would soon be a problem as the stomach seemed to be carrying him towards something liquidy.