The Help. (Patreon)

[CW: Existential Horror]

I couldn't tell you how long it'd been since I'd shrunken. The days pass so slowly now, the sun is up for what feels like weeks, and nights are a blanket of darkness from which there is no relieve. This must be how insects live their lives. When everything around you towers above you like skyscrapers touching the heavens, it all moves so.... slow.

Mind-numbingly so.

It isn't without its benefits, however. With days that stretch into infinitum, the owners of the home I've taken residence in are gone for ages, leaving me to scavenge what I can from their leftover food scraps, the many goods they keep within their pantries, and whatever else I might come across to drag away into the little nook I've fashioned into my home.

A single cracker could last me weeks now, a thimble of water is enough to make it through the month. Or... at least what has become the 'months' to me. It could very well be that I've been in this state no longer than three days. A week? Perhaps more than a day had yet to truly pass. I try not to dwell on these ideas too often, lest the passage of time ravage my brain with its inescapable, insistent ticking forever onwards. Little I can do about it now. 

After all, my supply is low.

I have a small morsel of food left, and my water supply dwindles, and the rising of the sun tells me I will soon be left alone once more. I feel the ground quake beneath me; common around this time of day. It often wakes me from my sleep. Voices that boom like thunder rumble throughout the walls, footsteps cause dust and debris to jostle itself free from the many corners of this home in which they hide. 

I am not unlike dust in that way....

I leave my corner of this endless home and venture towards the kitchen. The trek will take hours, but it is safe. The owners keep no pets, and my run ins with other--no...-- with insects are rare, though have been growing more frequent. I carry with me a needle with which to defend myself should a spider take interest in making me its next meal. 

I slip beneath the crevice between the door and the hardwood flooring and army-crawl through. I pull away the dirt and dust from my body and continue down the ever stretching hallway. I walk.... and I walk............... and I walk............................... the journey causes my mind to dull, it leaves me with nothing but my own thoughts, most of which focus only on survival now, and the strategizing of what I would do if I were to run into danger. Very little else warrants thoughts nowadays, and what thoughts I do have are pure survival instinct.

Perhaps I am not unlike an insec--

*Rumble*

I freeze.

*Rumble*

This makes no sense. This can't be. The owners are gone. I heard them leave, I FELT them leave. No one could--

*RUMBLE*

I am standing in the open hall, eyes focused on the large kitchen door in horror as I feel the steps approaching me. Whoever is in this home has come in through the kitchen. As I watch the doorknob turn, my knees nearly give out in fear. There's nothing I can do, I'm a sitting duck. I can't run fast enough to escape this person, can I? Perhaps they won't even notice me? Is it an intruder, they'll likely be far more interested in the house's valuables than something like me--

*CREEEEEEEAK*

The doors hinges send a horrible shivering down my spine as there, in front of me, a being of cosmic proportion towers in front of me. My encounters with the owners were scarce, always at a safe distance so that I would never risk my life were they to turn the wrong direction while I eavesdropped. I never truly took in just how gargantuan these people were...

Ah... A maid... they hired a--

My eyes widen in horror as I look upwards. I've always imagined I would feel dirty were I to look up at the lady of the house. My small stature ensures I would have to look up the skirt or dress she so often enjoys wearing, and I can't help but feel as though I were some perverse imp simply for existing at this size. And yet, that worry has washed away from me instantly. No, my eyes were not met with whatever this maid may flaunt beneath her skirt, but a much more terrifying visage.

Her eyes.

The two of us had locked eyes, and with that came a nausea unlike anything I have ever experienced. This person--no, this thing--was staring directly at me, wearing a plastic smile that shook me to my core. It wasn't just her sheer size, there was more to this. There was something fundamentally wrong with her that pierced my soul and sent me spiraling into madness. This aura she emanated bathed over me like a sea of dark water, engulfing any hope or light in my life and extinguishing it with the pure dread that was the shadow she'd shrouded me in.

Her eyes lit up as she gazed upon me, with her smile spreading ever so slightly across her mouth, one whose size left me pondering what emotion it conveyed. Was it a genuine smile of curiosity, or was it the cruel smile of a child eager to tear the wings off a butterfly? Whatever the smile was, I would discover its nature whether I wanted to or not.

"Ah. I know what you are~!"

Her voice shook the world, causing my knees to fail me as I collapsed to the floor in terror and awe at the sheer boom her voice carried itself with. Her body slowly bent forward, her hand coming out from behind her back and lowering to meet my position.  I could do nothing but watch as this hand inched closer and closer towards me, prepared to usher me into whatever fate this woman saw fit. As the shadow of her hand engulfed all that is or might ever be, the only thought I was left with was...

No. I am even less than dust....