Vignette #7 - The Longest Journey

It must have been days. Maybe even a week at that point.

Toby was not completely sure; he had lost track of time. Nonetheless, he spent all of that time wandering naked upon this massive expanse of a suburban house's floor. Everything around him stretched out for miles; even reaching the next room proved to be a long process requiring constant breaks and rest, risky acts in such a dangerous environment.

His body was exhausted, as was his mind. His stomach growled like a hungry lion, and he preferred not to think about what he had to consume to keep himself hydrated.

The house was empty and eerily quiet; nothing but the sounds of the occasional passing car interrupted his weary thoughts. The owner of the house was absent, likely off at her place of employment and otherwise living her own life, while Toby himself struggled to survive and escape.

At present, he stumbled across the wooden floor of the house's front hallway, its door looming high towards the sky-light ceiling above him. It must have taken him days to come this far from the back bedroom, but he had finally reached what could have been his escape from this gigantic prison. Unfortunately, he also noticed that there was a small step leading up to the door. However, for him, this "small" doorstep was the height of a three-story building, and he had no hope of climbing such a steep wall.

He sighed. This way was no good, and after it seemed like he had finally obtained his freedom. However, he knew that there was a second exit: the backdoor via the kitchen. He had no other choice; it was time for yet another long journey. Luckily, the entrance to the kitchen was relatively near, to his right after turning around. Still, at his size, it would take hours for him to reach it.

Might as well start now, he thought.


The light of the sun shining through the curtained windows in the living room to his left had since shifted in the time he started his trek towards the kitchen, perhaps two or three hours worth. From what he could tell, it appeared that it was the late afternoon. Which meant that it was soon time for the owner of the house--and the cause of his current pitiful state--to return.

His slow, tired gait had not given him much headway towards his destination at all. There were actual bugs that could crawl faster than he could currently move; such a thought made him feel even more pathetic. A human could not outpace an insect? How utterly ridiculous! But then again, so was the idea that anyone was even capable of reducing him to such a state before he experienced it firsthand.

Soon, he heard familiar noise from beyond the door: the sound of a vehicle pulling in and parking, its door opening and then closing, the honk of the horn confirming that it had been locked. Then, approaching footsteps followed by the metallic sounds of the doorknob being fiddled with.

There was no mistaking just what was about to happen next, and the door swung open to confirm it.

Valerie had returned.

The young and pretty Asian woman closed and locked the door behind her as she walked inside, her footsteps like thunder, her eyes focused dead ahead and seemingly unaware that a minuscule man was on the floor near her.

Luckily, her passing feet--clad in red flats--were well away from where he presently stood, and she went on towards the back, covering the distance in seconds what it took him days to travel.

Toby was relieved for once; he had had many close calls--including that very morning--which threatened to reduce him to a mere stain on the bottom of her foot, but he managed to avoid each of them. He did not know if he was just lucky, or if it was an act of cruel mercy on part of fate, but any chance he had at survival was one he would not pass up.

As he continued his long trek, his mind once again thought back to the night that changed everything. It was a typical Friday night, and he had just left his friends to "explore the joints", though he and his friend knew that he was simply seeking a young lady whose bed he would be sharing that night. Though by his own admission, he's not the best-looking guy around, with his plain features and untoned body, and while he struck out more than he would have liked, he usually eventually found someone willing to put up with him for the night.

That night, Valerie was that person, or so it seemed. Perhaps that such a pretty young woman was interested in him should have been the first warning, but as they say: "Hindsight is 20/20." Besides, he had never succeeded in landing an Asian woman before, despite having a mild attraction towards them, so he jumped at the chance at bunking with her.

Things seemed to be going fine even well into her bedroom. He had even completely stripped of his clothing, from head to toe. Needless to say, he was ready and eager to engage in relations with her.

But at that moment, everything changed.

~~~

Valerie snickered, before covering her mouth with her hand and starting to giggle. It seemed as if her attention was focused on his crotch.

"What's so funny?" Tony asked as he stood aside her bed. "Hope it's not what I think it is."

"Well, I'm just used to bigger guys," she said as she reclined on her bed.

''Bigger guys'? How much bigger can she take it?' He thought, and then spoke, "Look, it may not be as big as some guys', but it gets the job done."

"Hmm... I wonder," she said in a patronizing manner.

"I'll prove it to you," he said as he approached her bed.

"Whoa, hold up!" Valerie held out her palm. "I've changed my mind."

"Oh, come on!" Toby exclaimed. "Don't pull the rug out from under me!"

"Well, I'm having another idea, and I think it'll be fun, at least for me."

"Really? What do you have in mind?"

Valerie chuckled, before she pointed at him. Then, a bright flash of light briefly blinded him, leaving him confused as to its source until he realized that a drastic change was occurring to his body: it was shrinking. Indeed, the room around him expanded at an astonishing rate, with Valerie herself well out of his line of sight, the bed rising above him, and leaving him staring into the darkness underneath the bed.

Toby was stunned still, but once he fully took in what had happened, he gave in to baffled rage. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?" He yelled up towards the bed.

Valerie's head peeked out over from the bed. Her dark eyes scanned the floor, as if they were trying to locate him, even in the darkness of her room.

"Oh, damn," she said. "I think I may have overdone it this time. My mind kept saying the word 'tiny', and I guess the spell listened."

"CHANGE ME BACK NOW!!!" Toby shouted.

"...Hm. Are you trying to talk to me? I can't hear you if you are. Wow..."

"DAMMIT, YOU BITCH!! CHANGE ME BACK!!"

"Well, whatever. You're not my type, anyway," she said in a matter of fact manner. "In more ways than one."

Toby gnashed his teeth in anger.

"Tonight was a waste." Valerie sighed in disappointment. "...Oh well. Might as well get ready for bed."

Her head retreated from view, only for it to be replaced by the soles of her bare feet seconds later, which both then fell towards the floor, and towards him. Toby screamed and bolted behind him, attempting to save his own hide from meeting such a grisly fate.

As luck would have it, he just very narrowly avoided being flattened by her right foot as it landed on the floor with a deafening thud. The shockwave that her footfall generated still managed to knock him right off of his feet, however.

"I wonder if I crushed him?" Valerie wondered aloud as she exited the room. "I couldn't even feel it. I guess I'll check my foot in the bathroom."

Toby was left glaring in anger at the doorway in the distance, his body shaking in both fear and rage.

"S-she did that on purpose!" He muttered to himself. "Fuckin' psycho bitch!! GAAAHH!!"

~~~

Ever since, Toby's existence has only consisted of two things: surviving and escaping.

Even leaving the bedroom was an ordeal, especially with the repeated risks of being crushed under Valerie's passing feet. The same rung true with the hallway. He was so tiny that he was unable to escape her path in time and had to hope--and pray--that he would come out of their encounter unscathed.

The easy solution would be to walk against the wall, where it would normally be much safer from the giant woman. However, that also posed its own risk: the two of them were not the only ones inhabiting the house, as Valerie's house was currently also home to a mouse. He had seen the rodent scurrying about many times, and from his own experience, mice tended to stick to the walls as they wandered about due to their poor eyesight.

Even at his size, it was possible that the mouse could smell him and then make a meal of him. Toby wanted to lessen any chance of encountering it, and that meant staying away from the walls, and thus, in Valerie's path. A catch-22, if he ever saw one.

Valerie knew about the rodent; Toby had heard her vent her frustrations about it, though he was not sure what measures she was taking to be rid of it.

His long journey towards the kitchen continued on, trying his best to focus on his ultimate destination as opposed to his possible demise via a handful of ways. Though the sounds of approaching footsteps from the distance interrupted his concentration.

"Oh boy..." Toby mumbled as he nervously watched the back hall's entryway.

Sure enough, Valerie reemerged from within, having shed her workclothes for a tanktop and shorts. Her bare feet carried her across the room, making her way towards the kitchen--the very kitchen that Toby was struggling to reach--in seconds. Again, she appeared to be completely incognizant of his presence on the floor. He had since been wondering if she was aware that he was still alive, or if she had assumed that he had died in some way. Or perhaps she had forgotten about him completely. Whatever was the case, she did not seem concerned with him at all and went on about her own business as if he was never there.

Inside, he could see her open the refrigerator and pull out some sort of beverage, as well as wrapped food. Soon after, he could hear the microwave being activated--no doubt to warm up the aforementioned food--as she poured herself a cup of the drink. Watching this made his stomach howl; his mouth watered as much as it could just thinking of even getting a scrap of that food for himself, and the cold drink would be a vast improvement--and much healthier--over what he had been drinking.

After pouring her drink, Valerie walked to the left side of the kitchen, further back inside and out of Toby's sight. He heard her sigh in a rather annoyed tone, muttering something about a "trap", before she returned to the microwave. Soon, the appliance rung to signal the completion of its heating process, and after she took both her cup and the plate of food in both hands, she sat down at the wooden table, propped her smartphone on its stand, and began to indulge herself in her small feast, her hands shifting focus between her silverware, her cup, and her phone. Occasionally, she would chuckle at or comment on something she observed on her phone.

Toby did his best to block out everything from her end to focus squarely on his journey.

To his left, he saw the furry grey invader dart from the living room and rush towards the back hall, staying against the walls as it did so. Valerie appeared to be completely unaware of this short event.

His legs felt like jelly, having been in constant movement for hours on end. He wanted to take rest, but he knew that as long as she was up and about, doing so would be highly dangerous, leaving him completely vulnerable--moreso, at least--to Valerie's walking about. No, he would have to tough it out, at least until she went to bed for the night.

Eventually, Valerie finished her meal; she stood up from the table and carried her plate and cup to the sink. There, she rinsed off both pieces along with the silverware and then place them into the sink.

"I'll get these later," Valerie said to herself. "...It's a lot in here, though."

Afterwards, she turned around and after retrieving her smartphone from the table, went to exit the kitchen.

Her gait was taking her right in Toby's direction.

"Not again...!" Toby complained.

Despite the fact that she was walking at a regular pace, she was still moving so fast, and he was so tiny, that he had no hope of escaping her path. All he could do was hope that he once again escaped this unknown encounter unscathed.

She drew closer, looming over him like a mindbogglingly-huge skyscraper, so much so that it was almost dizzying. The floor shook more violently with each approaching step, and soon, he found himself looking up at the pale sole of her foot.

"No!!" Toby screamed as he instinctively went to run in the opposite way, but it was no use. Her foot came down with a deafening crash around him.

...However, he quickly found that--in another show of fate's cruel mercy--her foot fell in such a way that he wound up in the space between her big and second toes. Just as quickly as her foot came down did it lift back up, and Valerie continued on across the hall into the living room.

Toby's heart was racing as he fell to his bottom. Once again, he had survived an encounter with this unhinged, giant woman. He hoped that his luck would continue to hold out, at least until he managed to earn his escape from this domestic prison.

From the living room, he heard the sound of the television emanate through the air. It sounded as if some sort of sitcom was currently airing, going by the witty dialogue and the tired-but-true laugh track. He had gotten used to this; just about every day after work, she would flip on the television after a short meal and spend a few hours inside. Perhaps not the most productive thing, but after a long day at work, he could hardly blame her.

He did the same thing after working his own job. He wanted to escape so he would be able to do so again.

With a deep breath, he staggered back to his feet and continued his long journey towards the kitchen, wherein the final long leg of his trek would begin.

With the passing of the hour, Toby has finally crossed into the kitchen of Valerie's small home. As he staggered inside, he looked around at his surroundings; the kitchen itself was rather unremarkable and--dare he say it--on the small side. However, at his size, it was still quite massive. It could perhaps take another day at least for him to walk through it and reach the back door.

Said door was quite a ways away to his left, and as he attempted a closer look at the door's bottom, he could see no sign of a doorstep like there was at the front door. Indeed, it appeared that this would be his one shot at freedom, and he had to do whatever it took to get there unharmed. That hinged on Valerie staying as far away from him as possible.

He sighed tiredly. His legs were all but spent at that point, and so he needed to rest. However, it was far too risky for him to do so while Valerie was awake. ...Not that his position was without risk to begin with. Regardless, he had no choice but to tough it out until he was sure that Valerie had retired for the night, when he too would take a well-needed rest.

But first, he had to answer nature's call. ...And quench his thirst.


Hours had passed as the blue sky outside transitioned into a beautiful orange and then to darkness soon after. The crickets outside had started to chirp profusely, and nearly all outdoors activity had ceased. The kitchen itself was mostly shrouded in darkness, with the light from the living room's lamp across the hallway providing a small bit of illumination into the room. Through all of that time, Toby kept up his walking, his speed having been reduced tremendously due to fatigue. He felt as if he was about to pass out, and indeed all he wanted to do was collapse onto the floor and fall into a deep slumber.

The sudden rumbling from behind quickly snapped him out of his stupor, and he turned around just in time to see Valerie heading right towards the kitchen from across the small hall. Toby shuddered and watched anxiously, dreading just where her path would carry her; he had managed to make some distance between him and the doorway, but he was still not out of harm's way.

The floor shook with each step as the passing young giant loomed overhead. Her left foot stepped down dangerously close to Toby--enough so that he could feel a slight gust--before she walked on and headed to the sink. Toby sighed yet another breath of relief as he watched her recover her drinking glass. After rinsing it off, she opened the refrigerator and poured herself another glass of that sweet, red beverage that made Toby lick his lips with covetousness. She stood there and consumed her drink, fiddling around with her smartphone between sips. A part of Toby wondered if she knew that he was in the kitchen with her and therefore was teasing him, but he quickly put such superstitions out of his mind. If she knew that he was in there, she more than likely would have ended his life that instant.

Toby decided to do his best to ignore her and continue with his own journey, when a startled shriek from the giant interrupted his own thoughts.

"Ah, that stupid mouse!" Valerie blurted in frustration as she looked towards the bottom of the wall across from her. It seemed that she had caught sight of her other unwanted inhabitant, though it had since disappeared behind the stove before Toby could spot it.

"Ugh, why the fuck hasn't it gotten to that trap yet?" she complained. "I think it ran past it, too." She took another sip from her drink. "If it's not dead tomorrow, then I'm going to have to try something else. Maybe a glue trap, or something."

Valerie finished up her drink, and after rinsing the cup off with water and putting it back into the sink, she then exited the kitchen, her footsteps shaking the floor as she passed. Upon departing, she reached out for the wall to her left and flicked off the lights, leaving the kitchen--and the micro-sized Toby--shrouded in darkness. He listened as the thunder of her footsteps faded away, until he heard the sound of a door shutting in the distance.

"Oh, thank god..." Toby muttered to himself, as he fell to his knees. It was the end of yet another long, tiresome day; Toby knew he still had a lot of work ahead of him, but at least the goal was within sight. Perhaps within the next day, if he really pushed himself, he would finally have his freedom.

Of course, the outside world may prove to be much more dangerous, but at least he would be all but safe from Valerie, and from there, all he had to do was find one of the neighbors, get their attention, and inform them of Valerie's antics. Then, it would be game over for that crazy woman.

But for the moment, he focused on getting his first good rest of the day. As he laid down on the cool, hard floor, he exhaled a tired sigh as drowsiness quickly took hold of him, and he soon drifted off.

~~~

A loud snapping sound roused Toby from his hard slumber. He was not sure what the source of that sound was; did he dream it, or was it something in the kitchen that triggered it? Come to think of it, he could not recall having any sort of dream; it was all a dark space between his sleep and his awakening.

After wiping his eyes and yawning, and once his brain in turn awoke, he deduced that the noise he had heard was the sound of the trap that Valerie had set up going off. Either it had finally caught its mark, or the mouse safely activated it with no harm to itself; he could not be certain of the truth, as mice were known to not only safely trigger traps, but also escape even after being caught by them.

As he slowly staggered to his feet, he took a look around. The otherwise quiet kitchen was bathed in the light of morning twilight, with birds chirping in the outside world beyond the walls. The room carried a bit of a calm, almost-serene air, and for a split moment, Toby had nearly forgotten about his perilous predicament. His eyes focusing on the skyscraper-like closed door off in the distance brought him back to reality.

After relieving and quenching himself, he began that day's long trek. Now seemed like an excellent time to start, as it sounded as if Valerie had not awoken yet. "Alright, let's go," he said to rouse himself.

Even with the night's rest, his legs and feet still ached in fatigue. Toby did his best to keep pushing his body as far and as fast as he could physically muster, even if it felt as if his legs would dissolve at any moment. Indeed, he caught himself stumbling every so often, before he regained his bearings and continued on.

As time passed by, twilight giving away to daylight, Toby wondered what day it was: It had been days since he had been trapped inside of Valerie's house. Was it Saturday, a full week since his terror began? He could not hear any activity from Valerie from deeper inside of the house, meaning that she was not going in to her job that day. He thought upon all of the things he had missed in that week: his job--of which he no doubt had lost by then--his friends, and his family, particularly his father's birthday; his podcasts, the TV shows he was following, playing Call of Duty on his Xbox One after work, even just relaxing in his own, soft bed and eating and drinking actual food.

His desire to get back to those things reinvigorated his drive to escape, to get out and bring Valerie to justice.

With the end of this leg of the journey in sight, he pushed himself even harder than before to reach it as fast as he could.

He panted heavily, but did his best to bear it as his legs went beyond what he had in him to carry him to safety.

Soon, however, he heard the sound of a door opening, followed by distant footsteps, and then another door closing.

"She's up now..." Toby muttered. Indeed, it seemed as if Valerie had finally awoken. She would prove to be a constant danger; he hoped that his luck in her unaware presence would continue to hold out until he reached the end.

He did his best to ignore the machinations of the mad Asian woman as he focused on his own task at hand.

A good several minutes passed, before he heard the door open, and then footsteps again. This time, the steps seemed to be drawing closer to the kitchen from the back. As frightening as it was, Toby expected this to happen eventually: that she would enter the kitchen for breakfast or something to that effect. Luckily, he had wandered rather far away from the doorway at that point, and was drawing closer to the point at where the stove stood, so there was no danger of him getting tread upon by her entrance.

The footsteps grew louder and more thunderous, until Valerie did indeed walk into the kitchen. She donned the same lounging attire as the previous night, as she made a beeline towards the refrigerator.

"Yeah, just stay away from me," Toby anxiously said, his attention drawn to her behind him as he continued to walk forward.

This time, Valerie opened the freezer and pulled out some sort of breakfast roll. She opened its plastic wrapping, and then put the entire package into the microwave, dialing the time and then starting the appliance. Then, she turned around and walked towards the kitchen doorway, as if she was about to leave the room.

"Oh!" she said, just as she had reached the entryway, turning her head towards the stove to her right. "Let me see if that trap actually worked."

With that, she shifted her direction towards the stove. ...And towards Toby.

"Shit!!" Toby blurted as he mustered the strength to scramble out of her way. However, her approach was far faster than he himself could manage even while running. The floor vibrated with greater intensity with each step of her bare feet, each one like thunder beating across the wind.

Valerie loomed almost directly overhead, her eyes focused ahead on the stove and not on the floor directly below her. In his rush to escape, Toby stumbled on his ankles and wounded up tripping on the floor. He attempted to pick himself up... Just as he noticed that a dark shadow had surrounded him.

"No!!" He looked up, just in time to see Valerie's pale sole falling upon him. His heart sank in his chest; it seemed that his luck had finally run out. "NOOOO!!! Not now-"

~~~

Valerie walked across the kitchen, making her way toward the stove. Or, to be more specific, she was targeting the mouse trap that had been set up aside it against the wall for days. She had been rather annoyed that the rodent had avoided the trap for so long, even with the bait set up. At that point, she was prepared to buy glue traps if she had remained unsuccessful in exterminating her unwelcome guest.

She peered over the stove, looking towards the floor.

"...Gotcha," she said with a proud smile. At last, the trap had worked; the grey-brown mouse had been slain, its neck broken by the trap's metal frame. "I'm glad that's over."

Of course, now she had to clean up the mess. She decided to do it after eating her food; it's not as if it was a particularly messy kill, so all she needed were some gloves.

Suddenly, she was reminded of the guy she met last week, the rather boring, average, small guy, whose name she had long since forgotten. The last she saw of him, she had shrunken him to such a small size that she could not even hear him in the bedroom, and she had long since lost track of him. She wondered what became of him, but she quickly deduced that he was dead, either by starvation, crushing, or--maybe--eaten by her furry kill.

She smiled at the dead mouse. "Maybe some good came out of you after all."

The microwave dinged, and she turned around and went to retrieve her breakfast.



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