Jen and Gabby (working title)

Chapter one

It was early in the morning, right before sunrise. The house was dark, all the humans living within were asleep, just hours away from waking. This was it, she thought. She looked at the floor of the living room through a tiny vent in the wall. She pushed the vent open, and stepped out, removing the mask over her mouth to prevent dust intake. She quickly moved across the living room, past her massive surroundings, and briefly hid under the couch, before dashing to the kitchen area. From a human perspective, she would appear as a speck moving across the surface. She ran fast, taking a lot of breath out of her, as she only had the assumption that no humans were awake to catch her, and not the comfort to slowly walk, leaving her open to be seen and killed. Upon making it to the kitchen and hiding inside a cabinet, she leaned against the wall and internally wondered why her species was designed this way. She had two legs that she could run with and two arms that she couldn't. What cruel, idiotic god would design a four-inch-tall being with only two legs? Mice and rats have four legs, the front two can be used to grab stuff. Bugs have plenty of legs, why would tinies be stuck with two? It didn't make sense given what she had to do regularly for survival. After catching her breath, she decided to focus on the task at hand and begin climbing the inside of the cabinet. The cabinet was attached to a set of three draws, all on top of each other. She used some string attached to a fishing line to climb up the first draw, the second, and the third, which she got inside. She maneuvered her way past and through the objects in the drawer, and got to the edge. She used a sewing needle to pry the drawer open from the inside, before climbing out and onto the kitchen counter. She looked around, much higher than she was before. On top of the counter, there were various options of food around. She thought carefully about what to take. There were some fruits, bananas, and apples, but she couldn't take those back to the hideout. They were too big, and they would leave peels and cores, attracting bugs, and mice, or being evidence to the humans. There was a loaf of bread contained in a plastic bag, but she didn't feel like going through the struggle of opening it, as it would waste too much time, not to mention if she ripped a hole into the bag, the humans would notice, and either know of her presence or think it was mice or some bug, which would be bad either way. Obviously, she couldn't take any actual food back with her. Luckily, she spotted a small, plastic bag with gummies in it. From what she knew, it was from the human children who lived in this house. They brought these packs of gummies to school to eat as snacks. It was small enough to be easily carried without weight being an issue. She grabbed the bag and put it in between her back and her bag, which was tied against her, and slung over her shoulder. She took out her fishing hook and hooked it to a cardboard box sitting on the counter. She pulled on the string, making sure it could hold her, and slowly climbed down the counter, hanging onto the rope and slowly making her way down. She hugged the rope carefully, trying not to slip, walking backward down the side of the counter. She reached the kitchen floor, finally letting go of the string, before pulling it with all her strength, causing the hook to fall. As she reached down to pick the hook up, she felt vibrations on the floor. Footsteps, she thought. One of the humans must be awake. She looked around for a hiding place, and went back inside one of the kitchen cabinets, leaving it open by a crack by sticking her sewing needle through the door. The vibrations got closer, as she saw a large shadow pass her. Barely poking her head out, she saw the ankle of one of the humans facing away from the cabinet and towards an open refrigerator. She recognized the pants of the human belonging to the mother. Holding her sewing needle, the tiny stayed in the cabinet, waiting for the human to go away. She closed the door and covered her mouth as the human closed the refrigerator door, walking towards the counter that the cabinet was under. The tiny person held her breath as she was inches away from the human's leg, only separated by the thin wood door of the cabinet. She heard the sound of liquid pouring into a cup. Then, she heard the woman walking back to the refrigerator and putting something away. The tiny peered out of the cabinet as she watched the woman walk out of the kitchen. After a moment, the tiny stepped out of the cabinet and looked in the direction the vibrations went. The woman was holding a cup of coffee and going upstairs. As the vibrations got quieter, the tiny ran back into the living room and ducked under the couch again. She pocketed a penny that was under the couch, before running back towards the vent and going inside. She put her mask over her mouth and nose as she made her way back home.