I closed my eyes, hoping it was all a dream. But no matter how many times I blinked, Sydney was still there and still big, and I was still on the floor of my living room, still shrunken. After placing me again on the ground, the massive girl spoke clear: she wanted me to lead the way through my house, in order to reach the kitchen and her beloved snacks. So, I started walking, still dazed by the perspective caused by my new size, and she followed. My normal speed, however, was ridiculously slow for someone a thousand times bigger than me, and Sydney didn’t feel like waiting all the night for me: “How about you get a move on, slowpoke? I’m sure that even for your size, you can go faster than that. It would be really sorry for both of us if I were to accidentally step on you because you couldn’t keep the pace”. I felt like the threat was not far from being reality in that situation, so I immediately started running. I was still slow for her, but at least I was faster than before, and maybe I could avoid the disaster. I exited the room and went through the corridor, with the giant girl playfully following me. I was leading the way, but I felt far from safe, hearing her thunderous steps behind me, following me at a worryingly close distance. One single miscoordination of her steps and she could hit me hard as a train and send me flying across the corridor with my spine broken. So I constantly looked back in fear, hoping not to see a wall of black foam ready to strike me. At my size, it was a long journey across my house, and by the time we arrived, I was exhausted, having run for the equivalent of 5 kilometres with no breaks, whereas it was nothing more than a brief stroll for the massive girl at my back.

I turned to her, but before I could do anything, Sydney overstepped me with a single, wide stride and entered the room before me. Following the smell of hot popcorn, the girl opened the microwave and took her snack with a grumbling stomach. “Whoops, that must’ve been my belly. You really had to bring these the first time I asked you”, she complained, pouring the popcorn in the large bowl I had left on the counter. In that moment, she spilled by mistake a handful of popcorn, and one fell off the counter, right before me. The giant snack was almost as big as me, and if wasn’t for a short distance of a few centimetres, it would have hit me. The giantess noticed and looked down towards me: “Are you going to eat that?” she asked. How could I? The thing was literally bigger than my stomach. “More for me, then! Five-seconds rule…”, she said, picking it up from the ground and tossing it into her mouth. Knowing that she was eating something my size felt somehow ominous, and she knew the effect it had on me. No doubt she was trying to show off how big she was.

She then proceeded to open every single cupboard she saw until she found what she was looking for: “Gummy bears! I was sure you had some candies stashed away somewhere!” she exclaimed, snatching a colourful package out of the cupboard. She hoarded the snacks as if it were a priceless loot and, with full hands, she was ready to enjoy herself for the rest of the night with my food. But what about me? For the whole time, I had been thinking what I could do. Maybe that was the perfect time to escape: burdened by the snacks she was carrying, there was a slightly major possibility for fleeing away without her catching me. But I would be far from safe: I would still be small, trapped inside my house with her. Even if she didn’t manage to catch me, eventually I‘d need food and water, and I certainly could not survive forever with the crumbles on the floor. No, I had to get back to normal: if I reached my phone in the living room without her noticing, I could deactivate the application that shrunk me. I needed to get back there and find a distraction. Sydney was known for being constantly absent-minded, she’d probably forgotten it by then, I thought. I just needed the right opportunity. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud: Sydney’s massive food landed before me. “I’m ready, now. We can go”. Tiredly, I turned, and I was about to start another run before she spoke again: “No, no, no, I already waited enough for you the first time. I know the way now, just climb on my flip-flop and I’ll give you a ride. I’d pick you up, but my hands are full. And I’m sure you’ll like being carried around by my foot better”. A cute giggle and a wiggle of her toes accompanied her words. “Wouldn’t that be a little dangerous…?” I tried to protest, but my words were lost, as she was already looking at the bowl of popcorn with a prying gaze. I had to comply, despite how much I hated the idea. I walked to the foam sole of the massive footwear, atop of which five, towering toes were resting. I barely reached the edge of her flip-flop and pulled myself up with some effort. I clumsily tumbled between the toe-separator, bouncing against her big and second toe. The truck-size digits wiggled just a little bit in surprise: “Oh, you’re already aboard? Let’s go then” she said before she casually started walking back to the living room.

She didn’t mind too much having something my size around while she walked. No, actually I’m sure she liked it, having me completely at her mercy, nothing more than lint between her toes. During the brief travel, she occasionally looked down, checking if I was still there. I’m sure she was trying to hide a smile, even if I didn’t see it: in that moment, I was far too concentred on my situation to notice. Comprehensively, I had never rode a foot before, and I wished I never had to. Going up and down at a very high speed, with a feeling of vertigo that comes to an end only with a tremendous impact on the ground, while being bounced around the toes of the selfish, bratty girl that has shrunken you down and took over your house in a matter of seconds is not a pleasant experience, trust me. I just closed my eyes, held on tight to her big toe, and hoped for it to be over soon. When she finally stopped, we were back in the living room, and I was about to throw up. Sydney noticed it, and her eyes widened in panic: “No, no! If you have to do it, don’t do it on my foot!”. Hastily, she picked me up between her fingers and indelicately dumped me on the tea table as fast as she could, as if I was about to explode on her hand. The abrupt movement didn’t help at all, but eventually I managed to keep my dinner in my stomach, even if barely. Meanwhile, she observed me, curious about the outcome of the situation, but when she saw I was going to be fine, she sat down on the couch and turned on the TV as if nothing happened. Sydney put the bowl of popcorns on her lap, then sighed in relief. “Finally, now that’s life…” she said, idling flipping through channels again and again. Then, her eyes locked on me. “Speaking of which… What was that you were about to do before we left?” she asked, looking at me with a half-smile. “So? No clue? No clue at all? Maybe this will help you refresh your memory”: she kicked off her flip-flops and put one of her mountain-sized feet on the table right in front of me, joined shortly by the other. “Do you remember now? I was about to receive a nice foot massage” she said, giggling. Her feet were simply… enormous. The smooth surface seemed to go on forever above me: if I really had to comply, I had no idea where to start from. “Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you want to back out! This is a dream come true for you, after all. And I want to remind you that, at your size, you’re in no position to discuss. So, why don’t you help this giantess relax for tonight?” she said, wiggling her toes in anticipation.

I gulped, and eventually approached her foot. I started massaging the heel, the only part I could reach at my size. Her bronze-toned skin was even softer than it looked and, even if I hate to say it, in that moment I thought that Sydney’s feet were almost… cute? But then, remembering to whom they belonged, I immediately whisked away the thought: she was the enemy! I couldn’t let her have that victory, she already had too much power over me. As if she wasn’t crazy enough. So, I reluctantly carried out my duty, while she kept giggling from the couch. I couldn’t expect everything to go fine, of course: not even two minutes later, the giantess shifted her feet to look directly at me. “Tell me, since when are you blind? Can’t you see that my feet go on even up the heel? When do you plan to massage the rest of it?” she said, annoyed. “How am I supposed to do that?!” I shouted, trying to be heard “I can’t even reach your sole, let alone the whole foot”. “Well, climb up, then!” Sydney replied, absentmindedly. She put her feet back in front of me, indicating that the discussion was over. I looked up at the imposing mountain of flesh before me. I had never scaled anything in my life, and she expected me to climb her? No way, it was suicide: if I were to fall without any kind of security, I could get seriously injured, or worse. After a few moments, not feeling me on her skin, Sydney spoke up: “What’s the matter, I told you to start climbing!”. I explained my situation, even if I doubted, she would ever listen to me. “Oh, you’re such a coward, that is so typical! Now listen up: You. Won’t. Fall. You are not that clumsy, you can do it!”. It was a weird way to cheer someone up, and it didn’t exactly work on me. “Besides, in the unlikely possibility of you not wanting to obey me, I remind you that, hypothetically, you could end up under the bottom of my foot or, perhaps, flushed down the toilet. It’s not certain but… I’m the one in charge here, after all, so… who knows what I could do?”.

She couldn’t be serious, right? I wasn’t so sure anymore… But it was more than enough to convince me. I rushed towards her right foot and started climbing her sole. She wrinkled it just for me, to make my ascent easier, but I was still panicking. Sometimes, I looked down and saw the abysmal distance between me and the ground below. I tried not to think about what would happen if I were to slip on her sweaty wrinkles. One single false step would have been enough to betray me.

Finally, I arrived on top of her foot. I was completely out of breath, and I collapsed between her big and second toe: her massage would have to wait. I realised how far I had got: looking down, the surface of the table seemed to be miles away, and the tight space between her toes was like a passage between two peaks. I turned towards Sydney: her eyes were lost on the flow of images of the movie she was idly watching, while chewing lazily some snacks, mixing candies and popcorns. Did she realise I was still on her foot? If I had fallen, would she have noticed? Suddenly, her eyes sparkled, noticing me. Her lips curled in a mischievous smile, as if she had just had an idea. I was about to get up when she abruptly scrunched her toes, trapping me between the spongy walls of her skin and knocking the little air I had left out of my lungs.