“Oh god damn!” Adam gagged, covering his nose, eyes shut tight against the burning fumes that surrounded him. He had awoken to an unfamiliar sight. Walls surrounded him, high, and with a texture that looked like something out of an alien design. The floor was wet and spongy, a bright pink that he could barely look at. And then he took his first breath, and the smell ripped him apart.

            “Hell,” he spat, calming down, the initial shock of the scent dissipating. He couldn’t place it immediately, though it did have a familiar quality. He could only imagine something had happened in the office; maybe a pipe exploded. A sewer pipe, probably.

He pushed himself into a sitting position, looking around. This wasn’t normal. There was light above, some great white source of it so far away it might as well have been the sun. It reflected harshly off the bright pink floor and walls, the glare making it hard to make out details. Whatever he was sitting on looked meshed, woven over and under itself. The walls were the same, like it had been made of giant fibers. To his left the room continued, a high ceiling casting the rest in a long, dark shadow.

It all looked so familiar, yet so massively horrifying. So impossible. Where did he know this from? A movie? A Book?

He pushed himself up, taking a few steps towards one of the walls. It was only when he stumbled that he realized the floor was not all one material. When he looked down he found faded black marks, huge, looping around and back to each other. He struggled to read them, even jumping to see.

Odd, it almost looked like the letter “a.” And then, slowly, the pieces started to fall into place. The floor underfoot, the meshed walls, the great cave, the writing below. The smell. Oh god, how could he have not recognized the smell?

Mrs. Brook’s shoe. He had fallen in, shrunken, no bigger than a bug.

In astonishment, amazement, “Fuck.”

“Erin?” Mrs. Sledge called, fear slowly creeping into her voice as she looked around the immense stretch of flat earth. She was still in the hallway between her office and her assistant’s desk, that much was clear from the portrait hanging on the wall thousands of feet above. That image of the former president of the hospital, that smug grin, that mocking look. When she had taken over the position she had wanted it thrown out. Now she was almost glad she hadn’t. It was the only way she could accept the reality of things.

“Erin!” the middle-aged woman screamed. She had been walking for hours and still she had made no progress. That stupid painting still towered over her, only now it was slightly off center. Maybe in all this time she had moved a full foot. God, she must be tiny.

She was about to scream again when she saw movement in the distance; a shadow rose up from behind a low wall. Quickly, unimaginably quickly, the being moved around the corner, steadily coming closer to the shrunken woman.

“...Erin.” Was all that Mrs. Sledge was able to say as the image of her assistant came into focus. The young girl was acting the way she always did. Happy, smiling, unconcerned with whatever stresses the day had been throwing her. Her steps were light and quick, her ponytail bobbing behind her rhythmically, her strides long. Normally Mrs. Sledge thought she was a cute little thing, a good employee. Now, she was a titan.

The president could do nothing but watch as the girl lifted her foot, the sole of her flat hovering over her former boss. Her shoe was new, cleaned to the point where there was barely even a hint of discoloration. Even the sole was well cared for, a solid piece of unforgiving material that only had a few traces of lint, a curl of hair, a speck of dust, adhered to it.

And then her foot crashed down to the earth, slamming onto the hardwood floor, crunching and crushing the nearly microscopic creature so unlucky as to have been under it. And then, simply as that, there was a tiny smear of red to blemish the otherwise flawless underside.

Adam groaned as he dragged himself over the lip of Mrs. Brook’s shoe. He wasn’t sure how long he had been climbing the walls, but at least it had been easy going. The woven fabric had provided him ample hand and foot holds, and his muscles almost seemed stronger at this size.

Even when he jumped off her shoe he landed without injury. A fall comparable to that of a large building onto unforgiving tile, and he barely even felt jarred. Perhaps this wasn’t as bad as he thought.

He started walking towards the door to Mrs. Brooks office. So far he didn’t have a plan, didn’t know what he was going to do about things. How would he get big again? Should he try and find help? Should he even bother?

The more time he spent at this size the more he enjoyed it. The world was huge, filled with interesting things that he had never even dreamed! Mrs. Brook’s shoe was like a temple, her office bigger than the largest buildings in the world. Why couldn’t he enjoy himself a little?

By the time he made it halfway into the larger room outside that initial feeling of adventure had diminished. Every so often he could see the shadow of a creature moving just out of sight, or feel a tremor under his feet so powerful it made him want to collapse. Quickly he was reminded of what could happen at this size. He could explore Mrs. Brook’s shoe for as long as he liked, but he could also be trapped in it, suffocated and crushed once the woman put it back on.

The thought almost made him freeze.

Crushed to death under her sole… or worse. Maybe he wouldn’t die when she first slipped them on. Maybe he’d be trapped under her flesh, forced to breath in the toxic fumes that emanated from her sweat soaked sole for hours and hours as she grinded him into a paste. Running on the treadmill, yoga, weights… he’d be under her for every second of her workout. Drowning in her foot sweat. Crushed under her weight. Suffocated by the fumes. Smeared into a bloody stain, like the bug he was.