Eventually, through a lack of stimulation mixed with raw exhaustion, you fell asleep. Your slumber was not a restful one, plagued by nightmares woven from the horror of your new existence.

You dreamt of running, of boots and shoes larger than houses crashing around you as huge women sought to crush you like a bug. Your flight took you to the edge of an abyss, a dark chasm that shifted and morphed until it took the shape of a woman’s mouth grown large to swallow a city. You fought to regain your balance upon her bottom lip, staring across the maw to a landscape made of familiar features; a mountainous nose, two hungry eyes as big as the sea.

You recognised them and screamed.

In response, the tongue below you moved, sending you falling ever downwards into the slavering mouth. You closed your eyes, trying to block out the horror of that endless pink mass reaching towards you, saliva running down it like rivers across a mountain range.

When you landed, it was on something warm and soft and dry. You opened your eyes to see her looking down at you, your housemate and protector. She was massive, though less so than you remember. Her thumb rose next to you, her fingers arching behind your back. Her thumb nail had been at head height just a second before though now loomed over you. Around you the world was expanding, the smiling woman growing larger with each passing second.

‘Don’t worry’, she purred, ‘I’ll look after you. You can be my pet.’

Instinctively you turned to run though you couldn’t say to where. Already her hand stretched out in every direction, the shadows moving as she slowly began to close her hand into a crushing fist.

‘You can be my slave.’

You stumbled, falling across her palm as the world span around you. In the sky, her face and shoulders grew to the size of a country, then a planet. You ran across a landscape of her flesh, endless and barren as the unfathomable woman continued to grow.

‘You are nothing.’

Her hand tilted, dislodging you and sending you screaming through the air. Her body was everywhere, her shapely breasts, the sliver of midriff above her jeans, her hips, her legs, her boots.

Her foot was already rising, dominating the sky as it turned day into a night of black rubber. Her laughter was like thunder, like the sound of two planets colliding. The ground rushed up to meet you, her foot following to obliterate anything left.

You hit the floor with a crack loud enough to wake you.

Another snap followed it, the elastic noise of tearing rubber. You swung in place, an arm dangling free from the long coil of cables that held you. Your body was damp, a mix of her saliva and your sweat. You shivered, freezing in the slight breeze that rocked you back and forth.

The world was different.

Below you, only a relatively short drop, a huge white kitchen tile span in place. You could see the crumbs of food and scuffs of mud as clear as your own hand. Bile rose in your throat as you were slowly turned upside down, the tile becoming your ceiling.

You twisted in place, looking up at your feet. A strand of gum entangled them, the end of a long line that had slowly lowered you from the main wad high above. You flailed your free arm.

At this distance you could survive the fall you were sure. Still, the coils that bound you had hardened over the hours, trapping you in a tough and rubbery substance.

Her words rang in your ears, twisted by the memory of your dream. Could you really trust her, either to protect you or her judgement?

You looked at the gum that glued your arm to your side, your thighs together, that matted your hair and enclosed your neck. Would she have really done this to you if she had your best interests at heart?

You looked around the room, trying to judge the time. She would be home in a few hours, drunk and with you at her mercy. You tried to recall if she had ever mentioned Shrinkys before, if you had ever seen her bring one home. You shook your head with frustration. What could you do?

The strand of gum that held you groaned again, your light weight pulling on it as it grew thinner and thinner. Should it snap, your decision would be made for you. Better to take control, to hide away, to think. If she truly wanted to help you, she would not punish you for spending time hidden and alone while you composed your thoughts and planned.

The bindings that held you frayed as you started to swing back and forth. With each movement your tether stretched, lowering you further to the floor. Despite the great discomfort that gripped you, you pushed onwards, feeling the line give as you pulled upon it.

With a final snap, you were released. At the top of your swing the stretched gum broke, leaving you to sail through the air. The now loose gum slapped around you, binding your legs tighter than ever before. You landed heavily, unable to brace yourself for the impact. Pain exploded through you, tearing up your leg as you felt your ankle twist.

Your cry of pain was lost in the darkness of the apartment.

Immediately you realised the danger of your situation. You pulled yourself into a sitting position, wincing as the pain rose again in your leg. The tile was cold beneath you, freezing the spots where your naked flesh appeared through the swaddling gum. You pushed at your constraints, a futile gesture. It had only grown harder with time, the now stale scent of her saliva ever present in your nostrils.

Somewhere high above, lost in the darkness, a clock ticked. The sound was unnaturally loud, each second reminding you of your predicament. In your current position, half way between the table and the stool, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Should someone enter the room and sit down, their path would clearly cross your own. It would not be an encounter you survived.

Despite your injury and the shards of agony it spat, you needed to stick to the plan. You needed to reach your room, to hide, to think. Luckily your room was the closest to the kitchen, less than 10 feet. At your current size it would be a challenge though not one that was insurmountable. You couldn’t know how late it was, how long you had until the room filled with drunken revellers. You needed to move.

With herculean effort you dragged yourself forwards. The tile was smooth, offering very little purchase. The same adhesive properties that kept you bound within the gum also dogged your progress, sticking to the tile as you tried to move across it.

Bound and prone as you were, to an onlooker you would resemble a mere maggot. Your shuffling movement across the tile compounded the image. You tried not to dwell on the idea as you inched forwards.

It took twenty minutes to clear the tile, though you would have sworn it more like an hour at least. Your arm burned from exertion, the pain in your leg a dull but persistent throb. Behind you the stool rose like a monolith. You turned to focus on your task, edging forwards. The next tile took half an hour to cross, the third forty minutes.

Now the stool seemed a little further away, a new obstacle impeded your progress. The rug, a red four by six expanse of fibre, stretched out like a forest. To enter would mean entrapment, the bonds that held you would surely tangle against the fabric, fixing you in place. Should that happen you’d be helpless, hoping that whoever entered took care to watch where they stepped.

It was unlikely.

With a groan of exhaustion and frustration you heaved forwards, looking out across the flat tiles to where the rug ran alongside the couch. You followed its march across the horizon until your eyes fell upon a strip of darkness. Beneath the couch was an endless black expanse, a shadow world haunted by dust and detritus. To one so greatly reduced as yourself it was a haven. In that space you’d be able to hide amongst the dirt and forgotten things, safe from the pounding feet and curious fingers of the giant beings that ruled your new world.

You looked behind you, back at the tower like kitchen stool. You determined your position as being roughly halfway between your starting point and the destination you craved. Determination set upon you. Despite the ache in your muscles, the cloying weight of the gum and the pain in your leg, you would press on. If that first tile took twenty minutes, the next would take fifteen. You gritted your teeth and pushed forwards.

Though you would not have known it, fourteen minutes later your fingers closed about the edge of the tile and dragged you over its edge. Panting, you rested a moment, pain and endorphins fighting for a hold on your body. You closed your eyes, sweat slicking your body. The gum trapped the heat, making an arduous task even more difficult. You turned, angling your body so that the tile that once froze you could now provide some relief.

Your ribs were pressed against the ceramic when you felt the first tremor. It came through the floor like the fluttering of butterflies, gentle against your skin.

Your eyes snapped open, wide and wild. ‘Fuck!’ you cried with a hoarse voice, ‘no, no, no.’

You were on the move immediately. How many tiles lay between you and safety? Was it two or three? The pain in your leg was forgotten, nothing but a minor bite in the face of impending doom. The ground fluttered with increased strength beneath your arm as you hauled your raw body across it.

‘Fuck,’ you repeated as you crawled, ‘just a little further.’

For your considerable limitations, the speed of movement was remarkable. You were a quarter of the way along the tile when you first heard a voice in the hall. By the time the key turned in the lock, you were almost beyond the first third.

The door swung open like the sky itself tearing apart, letting loose a torrent of light that cascaded into the room driving back the darkness.

She stood for a moment, alone and silhouetted against the light behind her. From your position on the floor she seemed more massive, more powerful and more terrible than ever before.

Her first footstep jarred your bones. She flicked the light on with a switch, illuminating the world.

The ground shook as her second step landed, emitting a low boom that rumbled across the floor. Her attention, so high above, was on her phone.

A single swing of her leg covered more distance than you had managed in your entire exodus. The ground quaked with the impact of her passing, her laces hissing through the air as she strolled into her domain.

Upon the tile you wriggled and squirmed faster than ever. This you soon abandoned, instead flailing your arm and screaming her name as she drew closer. Your lungs burned with the force of your yelling, your mouth tasting of blood.

High above, she remained oblivious. In seconds she filled the sky and caused the earth to shake so hard you felt sure it would split. The leather of her boots creaked like a ship’s rigging. High above, her hips swayed in unsteady rhythm, the movement made clumsy by a night of cheap liquor. Her top had begun to ride up, revealing more of her flat stomach.

Two tiles away from you, her foot exploded onto the floor. The sole of her boot was thicker than you were tall, splattered by grey and brown mud. The force of the impact caused your tiny body to skip, clattering roughly against the ceramic. She was close enough now for your voice to carry, you were sure of it. 

Your eyes roved past her cropped leather jacket, to the face illuminated by her phone. Louder and louder you screamed, fighting to get out of her path; knowing that within seconds she could be upon you.

Her lips were twisted into a smirk, her bright eyes roving across the screen of her phone. Slender fingers gripped it, heavy with silver rings.

You sobbed and called her name as the face disappeared. In its place loomed a shadow, a cloud of black rubber caked with brown mud and stones. In that moment you realised your helplessness; the futility of your kind, of Shrinky’s trying to resist the will of the humans that literally walked above you. She had decided your place and your disobedience would cost you your life, whether she knew it or not.

Your final seconds passed like an eternity as you watched her careless boot grow larger with proximity. You screamed, screamed and screamed: her name, pleas for your life, for her to see you, for her to save you.

The crunch of bones, the compression of flesh and the squelch of blood rang into your ears for a split instance before the blast of her footfall deafened you. Your ears rang, your eardrums shattered as you looked at the wall of filth encrusted rubber that bisected you.

The tip of her shoelace whipped through the air, almost taking the head from your mangled body. Blood pooled around you, leather growling as the ball of her foot took her weight as easily as it had taken your legs. Beneath her, what remained of them were turned to dust, flesh and blood mixing with the gum that helped seal your fate.

You vomited, coughing up blood across your chest. Weakly, your free arm tried to fend her off, to free yourself, flailing uselessly. The world around you was a maelstrom of movement, the impact of her footfall being felt through your bones, silent beneath the ringing in your now deafened ears.

You could only watch as the foot in front of you began to move, rising into the air. You journeyed with it, the gum adhering you to the side of her boot. You had become one with it, pushed into the tread of her shoe as though your life was worth nothing.

Vomit once again trailed behind you as you were flung to the air, more bones breaking from the impact of her step. The force knocked you unconscious for a split second, long enough to discover yourself mid-air when you woke. Again you were slammed into the floor, your free arm snapping backwards revealing a shard of bone.

Somehow you managed to raise a scream, to cry out despite your broken ribs. You held no hope of discovery now, she was too high above you to notice a ragged insect at her feet. Now you could do nothing but exist and endure, your life tied inescapably to her thoughtless steps.

In the heavens, the vast woman dropped her phone onto the table. Her head swam, she was tired, she was drunk. She ran a hand through her hair, steadying herself against the furniture. For a fleeting moment she thought of her housemate, as far as she knew still stuck in the same place as she had left them hours earlier. If the temptation had been there to check on her charge, her prisoner, it was not strong enough to spur her to action.

Instead she strolled to the couch and fell heavily above it. Crossing her legs, she loosed the laces and slipped off her boots, using the toe of one to lever the other off before letting them thud onto the carpet.

The night had been long and enjoyable though it was wondrous to free her aching feet from the boiling confines of her boots. Her black socks, pulled a third of the way up her calves, were damp with sweat.

She leaned back, stretching her arms across the back of the couch. Perhaps she had been too hasty in dismissing the idea of keeping her newly shrunken housemate? It was not uncommon to have one around and she had heard that they gave great foot massages. She probably wouldn’t even have to register you, apparently the government barely checked anymore.

She shot a quick glance at her boots, realising for the first time how badly in need of a clean they had become. Another task for her housemate maybe? They were small, so small, but what they lacked in size they made up for in time. If it took them all week working non-stop to obey her command, well it was not like they had anything better to do. Besides, it would help them earn their keep.

A smile crept across her face as she contemplated your fate as a potential servant, a pet, a slave.

You could only watch, mad with agony and dizzy from blood loss as she rose from her seat and stepped over you. The glimmer of hope you had felt when she looked down at you, stuck to the side of her discarded boot, faded as she moved away.

The boot had fallen on its side, forcing your battered body into in an upright position. The ruin of your lower half was lost to the mud, the cloying filth wet with your blood.  Your face was a slab of bruises from where her movements had battered you, each step slamming you against her boot or the floor below. Through one eye, the other closed and swollen, you watched as she stepped over you, her footfall shaking the boot as her sock clad heel slammed down in front of it.

Through a mouth of broken teeth, blood dribbling down your chin, you let loose a feeble plea for help. She was already at the far side of the room, the door to her own bedroom ajar. She turned for a moment, her eyes casting across the living space as though she could almost hear you.

With a smile, she flipped the switch and left; leaving you alone in the dark, nothing more than an insect crushed against the sole of her boot.