Micro Series: Carly's Apartment

In 2022, the world saw a massive change happen, a virus that mostly affected young adults shrank a small percentage of the world’s population to random sizes, varying on 1 inch or smaller, some cases even microscopic, some have speculated there are Micros (as the afflicted people are called) too tiny to see that live and die among us. When the shrinking began, odd stories caught many people’s interest, stories of people abusing, kidnapping, and even torturing Micros that had been friends or even family before shrinking. They caught my interest as well, and I set out to capture these stories, interviewing those that were willing to share with me, and in the process, I learned that I had contracted the same virus. My days were numbered and I took the necessary precautions. A small speaker system that could help me be heard more easily, A localized drone that could track me and capture footage, and a miniature laptop to provide me with a way to share my story, so that the world might learn what life is like for our Micro counterparts, now that I am among them.

I woke the next day, still shaken by my interaction with Inaya, mainly due to having my entire assumption of her character flipped on its head. I wish I could say i'd learned from the experience, but as you'll soon see, I didn't.

I had slept in my car, my funds nearly depleted, and I found a gas station, where I used the bathroom to clean up and change. I was using every single belt loop now, and it wasn't enough anymore. I bought a cheap and unappetizing breakfast, getting to my tip toes to place my money on the counter, the middle aged woman behind it seemed amused, and everyone that came in seemed to all understand that I was close to being nothing more than a bug. I looked at them in turn as the stares and whispers followed me back to my car, how many of them wouldn't hesitate to scoop me up and take me home with them? Or were they hoping for an opportunity to play exterminator and snuff me out beneath a masculine work boot or feminine high heel?

My heart was pounding as I got back in my car. The drive to my family's home was still far, did I dare drive? What if I shrank on the road? I could cause a crash. My prayers were seemingly answered a moment later.

My phone got a notification, I inspected it and smiled:

Carly: Hey! I saw u mention you were visiting Inaya, u should come by and see me 2 if ur in the area! :)

Carly was from the same job where i'd met Inaya, she'd been there a bit longer than I had when I started and was essentially a shift leader, the bridge between the regular hourly employees and the manager. I loved working with her too, just like I had Inaya, and admittedly I had a bit of a crush on her, but she was out of my league for sure. I considered her offer. Inaya had been my first hope, a place to stay that meant I wasn't sleeping in my car, the prospect of a warm bed and hot shower had almost tempted me into becoming a servant at Inaya's giant feet after all, but...Carly was different. I knew she would be. She wasn't like Inaya, and her apartment was close.

It's funny how our brains work, now that I knew the real Inaya, all my memories of her changed to support the new image of her in my mind. Carly's image was still pure and untarnished for me. For now.

"Hey! You made-oh, oh wow you're...um..."

"Smaller?" I provided. I was standing at the top of a small flight of stairs leading up to Carly's apartment door.

"Well...yes..." She had a guilty smile on her face, and I returned an honest one, to show there were no hard feelings. "Sorry."

"It's fine, really, how are you?"

"I'm good! Really good, come in please!"

I follow her inside and look around. It's a nice place, well decorated, cozy. 

"So...I guess you're not staying with Inaya then?" She asks as she goes through her fridge to get us each a drink. 

"What!? Oh, uh-no...no i'm not."

"How come? I've been taking to her a lot recently, catching up and stuff, she seemed really interested in your little documentary thing, she was excited to have you stay over for awhile".

I don't know why, but I don't tell her the truth. "Well I guess I just felt weird about it, she's an older woman so...I don't know". I shrug.

Carly smiles indulgently and hands me my drink. "Well, you're welcome to stay here if you want? I'm a bit younger than her if that helps?"

"Thanks Carly, i'd appreciate a shower and a bed, hell, even a couch would be nice at this point".

"Oh yeah, that's totally fine, you can have the spare room! Only, I need to shower right now, i'm actually about to get ready for work!"

"Oh, shit! Sorry, I didn't realize-"

She waves her hand dismissively, "No no, it's fine! Really! I just need to use the shower first, once I leave for work it's all yours, kay?"

I nod. She finishes her drink and heads off to her bedroom. I finish my own and after leaving the glass in the sink, I go to the spare room. The bed looks comfy, but there aren't any sheets or pillows. I head to her bedroom door and knock. "Carly? Hey, are you decent? I need some sheets and pillows for the bed". No answer.

I crack the door, "Carly"? I hear the shower running and I risk a quick peep, and inside, on her bed, is a spare set of sheets, neatly folded, and a nice, fluffy pillow lacking a cover. "She's always thinking ahead" I say with a grin. Carly's kindness is a nice change.  I gather up the sheets and pillow in my arms and-

My head splits open. My lungs fill with something, not like water, it's unimaginable. It's pressure, and pain. My body feels hot, like the blood in my veins is boiling as it courses through me. My joints and muscles lock one moment, then the next they're jelly, my legs crumple beneath the weight of my own body and I fall forward, my ears ringing.

***

I awake in a daze. Laying in my side, I stare at the wall and wait for it to stop looking so blurry so I'll know when it's safe to stand up, but it never does. Small lights seem to float around me, and I eventually sit up. I'm in a vast blue desert, and I watch the lights dance around me some more. This is a nice dream...

Not a dream.

Reality sets in. The blurred walls won't return to normal because they can't, they're miles and miles away from me. The desert beneath me is cloth, fabric under my feet. A blue bed sheet stretching in every direction. The lights are particles of dust in the air, glowing as they catch light, invisible to normal people, but for something as small as I am, they're everywhere.

It happened. Oh my god it finally happened.  I shrank. The first thing I try to do is figure out how small I am. Judging from the mountainous pillow to my left, I feel like I must be borderline microscopic. I must be a speck.  I panic, and it takes me a few minutes to calm myself. 

"Okay, okay..." I say aloud to myself. "First order of business, get Carly to notice me, she should be out soon, I hope". As if on cue, I hear the shower shut off.  I start running. Against the blue backdrop beneath me, I hope to be noticed, I can't be that small. I run for a solid minute, and it feels like I made no progress, the edge of the bed is no closer. The bathroom door opens and I brace myself. 

Carly isn't Carly anymore, not to me.  Her footsteps shake the ground beneath me. Her movements seem slowed down ever so slightly, something to do with how our brains relate motion to things large than our own comprehension I guess. I start jumping and waving, but I stop as she approaches, an absolute colossus of a woman, her face is so high up that her features are blurred slightly. Her thighs and legs which are closer are shown in exquisite detail, every bump and hair on her skin is visible to me. I forget what I'm supposed to be doing in the face of this world ending giant approaching me. I feel nothing  anymore except awe. Awe and fear. 

"CARLY!!!" I scream at the top of my tiny lungs, louder than I've ever shouted in my life. Nothing. She turns and my sky is replaced by two giant orbs of flesh. Her ass cheeks are eclipsing the light from above. I guess I get why they call it 'mooning' now.

I scream as they descend, sure that i'm about to be obliterated beneath my friend's giant ass, before the ground beneath me suddenly shakes and lifts. I feel myself flying backwards, weightless, before I land, bouncing several times on the hills of fabric that make up her bedspread. I stand shakily. Carly sitting down had sent me flying halfway across the bed like I was nothing. I'm about to start shouting for her again when she swivels around, her headphones are in as she taps away on her phone. She's coming towards me, laying down.

This time around I hunker down, gripping the cloth between my fingers for dear life as she impacts the bed. I feel my teeth rattle as my brain bounces around inside my skull, but I stay put this time. When the bed settles I stand and turn, my jaw dropping. 

The landscape had changed, the distant walls had been replaced by Carly's supple chest. Her breasts weren't overly large before, but now? I fight with myself to stop staring and start shouting again. My voice goes hoarse as I jump and wave, but her headphones are in and blasting some nameless pop song I don't recognize. I need to change tactics. I need to climb her. 

Her chest is out of the question, as tempted as I am despite my situation, the climb is to vertical, i'd never manage it. I start walking, circling around her side until I reach my destination minutes later, the waistband of her lacy blue thong. I always thought the over designs on women's 'sexy' underwear were ridiculous, but now i'm eternally grateful for them, they make amazing handholds for someone of my size. Hand over hand, I make the climb, terrified that any moment Carly will need to get up for work, sending me tumbling down miles below to the carpet. 

I'm at the top now, the rolling hills that make up the ass that nearly crushed me stretch before me. Again I have to remind myself to stay focused, keep my mind on the mission: get Carly's attention. I climb the slope of her right cheek, the little hairs and goosebumps helping me along the way. When I reach the top I'm blinded by the sunlight beyond. 

Here we go.

 start jumping up and down, stamping my feet into her ass flesh as hard as I can. "Come on Carly, come on!" I growl, putting anger and frustration at my situation into each stomp. She continues to scroll social media on her phone. "Damn it!" I fall to my knees and plant my face into her soft ass cheek. My mouth opens and I sink my teeth as hard as I can into Carly's ass cheek. In another time, this might have been enjoyable, surely I'd fantasized about it at some point, but this was different. It was my final cry for help. 

"Ow"!

I hear her voice boom, deeper and slightly slower than normal, but still recognizable. She twists around to look at the source of the pain and I wonder what she sees. Nothing? A speck of lint? Or maybe...

"Ugh! Stupid bug".

Her arm reaches back and I see her hand, like something out of a science fiction story, a hovering UFO making it's way to me. 

"No....no no NO! Carly wait! It's me! It's Jake!" My heart is thudding in my chest but I spring back up to my feet anyways and begin to jump and wave, praying she'll know the difference, that I won't just be a red stain on her ass. 

The hand freezes and her eyes narrow.  She stares for a few moments as I stand there, sweat running down my forehead, meeting her gaze. Her eyes change to confusion.

"Jake?"

I fall to my knees. I feel like crying. I wave again one handed his time. "Yes, it's me! It's me Carly!"

"Oh my god Jake, that's you isn't it"? Her hand descends again, but gently this time, two fingers extended to pluck me up. Her fingers are rough. I was expecting as much, even with the best intentions and effort, her fingers are too large in comparison to me for it to be any different. I wince as I'm picked up by my extended waving arm. I feel my shoulder pop as the room blurs by me. 

Carly climbs off the bed and lowers me into her other hand. I'm grateful for the release in pressure on my arm as I fall into the soft warm folds of her open palm. I stand after a moment, her giant eyes staring at me in disbelief. 

"Wow Jake you're so....so tiny!"

I shrug, but my insides are squirming. I had been so close to being squished, confused for a bug. 

"Like, really really tiny! I didn't know Micros could get this small! I almost squished you!" Her statement ends with the beginnings of a slight chuckle and I watch her closely.

"God, it's kind of cute really....sorry, you okay?" 

I nod, exaggerating the motion so she can see, I also raise my hand and give a thumbs up. 

"Okay, good. You are seriously tiny Jake, god I just wanna...."

Her fingers return suddenly without warning and my arm is pinched between her fingers again. I feel the ground beneath me leave and I'm flying again, closer to her face. I watch as her features become clearer, small hairs, droplets of water leftover from her shower, individual pores on her forehead.  The features disappear as I'm raised high above her face.

I kick and scream, squirming as i'm suddenly miles above everything with nothing beneath me but Carly's face far below"Carly? Carly! What are you...?"

I watch in horror as her tongue leaves her mouth, snaking along her lips, coating them in a sheen of saliva that glints in the light, her eyes are focused on me, like a predator stalking prey. 

I'm not human anymore...

Her mouth opens far below and I see the pools of spit collect beneath her tongue as she salivates at the thought of devouring me, strands of it travel from her lower teeth to the roof of her mouth. Her large pink tongue swirls in the pool of saliva, eager for it's meal.  I start to lower.

"CARLY!? CARLY STOP! STOOOOP!!!"

I kick and scream and flail as best I can, all pointless. I feel the urge to piss myself as her hot breath suddenly comes up from beneath me in waves. My eyes brim with tears, and not because of the pain my arm. I hear the clicks and squelches as her tongue continues to roll beneath me in her cavernous maw. Tiny sounds to anyone but me, including the echoing gurgle escaping from the back of her throat, signaling the hungry monster below at the end of that dark, fleshy tunnel.

This is it? This is how I go? I barley even lasted 30 minutes as a Micro. Has she done this before? She seems so calm, so accepting of her role in this. My family, they won't know what happened. Would they even care...?

"Ahhhhhhhh~" I hear her say for dramatic effect.

I shut my eyes. I can't look. Her hot breath is all around me, I can smell the remnants of her breakfast mixed with minty toothpaste. Just make it quick Carly, please.

"Kidding!"

I'm back on her palm, shaking, looking up at her in confusion.

"I was just kidding, relax Jake! I'll take you home, it's no trouble!"

"Wh-what? You're not....you're gonna take me home?"

She frowns down at me. "Sorry little guy, can't really hear you, but look, I'm sorry if I scared you, I was just messing around, you know? Like those psychos you interview? Anyway, I should be able to take you home after work. I'll just take you with me, since you're so conveniently travel sized now!"

She laughs to herself, setting me on a bedside table as she dresses for work, before plucking me up again and placing me safely in her purse in a clump of tissues. Her purse smells like spearmint, it's dizzyingly strong, but I don't care, I can't believe my luck, she's taking me home! She's not keeping me! I never hoped in a thousand years that i'd get this lucky. 

"Hang out in there till we get to my work okay Jake? God, the girls are gonna love you, I swear! They're always talking about Micros and stuff these days, I've told some of them about your project too! I know watching me give manicures and pedicures might sound boring, but I'll do my best to entertain you...