Paul was in a state of disbelief, he didn’t know what to say or do at this point. Taking in all the information, he still needed time to process everything. Paul stood up, turning his gaze away from the city below his apartment and walked over to the front door, maybe someone in this building could explain what was going on. Opening the door he examined a furnished hall with decorative tables and lamps with vases filled with fake flowers. He imagined this place was similar to that of a hotel or apartment building with how it looked. Turning his gaze he walked right across the hall over to his “new neighbor” only hoping that someone had to be home. He knocked. Patiently waiting he finally could hear steps walking across hardwood toward the door.

“One second, be right there!” Said a feminine voice from behind the door. After patiently waiting for his neighbor to show her face, Paul began to grow anxious about the question he would ask. Where was he exactly? What had his sister done? Why is she addressing the city as if she’s their God, or rather Goddess? Was he really micro sized in a city underneath her toenail?! The door finally opened snapping Paul back to his supposed reality where he was greeted with a surprisingly pretty girl in the door way.

“Oh hi! Im Kayla, I don’t believe I know who you are.” She said with a timid look on her face.

“Hi, my names Paul nice to meet you, Im from across the hall I was hoping you’d be able to help me.” He said with worry in his eyes.

“Oh! You must be one of the new move ins! Please come in, ill help you as best as I can.” She said, opening the  door further greeting her guest. “So…” she said plopping herself on the couch, “first of all welcome to Big Nail City, im sure you’re toe-tally taken back by your surroundings but you’re in luck because im one of the many designated greeters in the city. Im here to answer any and all questions that you have and help you adjust to your new surroundings.”

“Oh well thank you, its very nice to meet you again I hope you can help. I guess I should start with what is this place? And how did I get here? And how is this all possible?!” Paul said frantically as his anxiety reached its peak.

“Okay okay, first of all relax, everything is okay. This is Big Nail City just one of many micro sized cities underneath the big toenail of our city’s handler. As time went on in the world the population began to expand too quickly, so we ran out of space for living in the normal sized world. With new technology, buildings were built and shrank to the size of only a few inches alongside the people who live in them. Eventually the cities were populated and shrank even further and placed in various spaces on handlers persons’. Such as this city, everyone and everything here was shrank to a nano size, placed in an impenetrable casing and place under our handler’s big toenail. Its pretty crazy, but not as bad as it might seem.” Said Kayla as she motioned over to a stack of pamphlets that Paul could only guess held more information about all of this. “New move ins are usually people with little to no place to go but others enjoy being in these places as opposed to the normal world for their own reasons, but those people pay rent with the money they earn from our own little economy, no pun intended.” She chuckled.

“So let me get this straight, everyone here was normal sized, had different reasons for not having a place, signed up to get shrunk, and moved in under the toenail of giant girl?” Paul said more confused than ever.

“Precisely, we get our food drop offs every so often, our handlers live in their own normal-sized communities for the job’s accountability and for the safety of everyone here. We get our water from the sweat pools around the city and distill it so that it becomes drinkable again, we don’t have to worry about being crushed or the weather thanks to the protective dome over the city, its nearly invisible but its there. All new arrivals are assigned a place to live whether it be rent free or paid, we also get assigned jobs, and while we do our own thing here our handler is able to do as she pleases. The only downsides to living on her is like she said, she’s getting her nails done so we may just have a little loss of light, but other than that its not so bad. The dome also provides sound protection from the outside world so even if our handler goes to a club, we can’t hear it.” She smiled and put her hand on Pauls knee in an effort to comfort the increasingly confused man.

“Wow, I don’t know what to think. A whole nano sized city underneath my sisters toe nail, I always wondered what she did for a living but this is something else.” He said, looking down in disbelief.

“Wait our handler is…your sister?” She said in confusion.

“Yeah, I didn’t have a place to go so I went to her apartment to stay the night, next thing I know I woke up across the hall and here I am watching her face address the city.” Said Paul.

“Ooooh, okay, well the TV’s are the only way she can actually talk to us, other than that only the city mayor can contact her, maybe you’ll get a special privilege since you’re her brother, maybe you can talk to her.” She suggested, shrugging her shoulders.

“Maybe, I don’t know how I feel being the size of a dust mite under my little sisters nail, I want my normal sized life back.” He said with determination in his voice.

“Yeah…about that…” She said with a grim tone. “Theres no way to grow back.”