Cupcakes. Cupcakes are the reason why Joe is dead. If I hadn't forgotten to bring Monie her cupcakes this wouldn't have happened. My actions led to the death of an innocent. It's my fault.

Matt is still crouched over. He is nearly done puking. I finished before him. Poor Matt. I don't want to know what he's thinking right now. He can only be thinking of what he's gonna do to Monie if he gets back to normal. The thing is, Monie has no idea she just killed someone. She is completely oblivious to the fact that we are an inch tall. How can anyone see us without really looking at the ground?

Matt is finally finished puking. He stares at me with sad eyes. I don't know how close their friendship was. I shouldn't ask at a time like this. But we do need to hide. We can't stay in this corner for much longer. If we do, we take the risk of being mistaked for bugs.

"Matt. We have to move." I say.

"Could you give me a minute?" He says with anger in his voice. "My best friend was just squished by a giant 9 year old girl. I'm still trying to grasp the concept of us being shrunk."

I leave him be. Joe was his best friend. I know how I would feel if Dave was crushed like that. "I'm sorry man but we have to move. You can stay right here if you want. I am gonna move towards the kitchen. "

"Are you crazy? Did you see what happened to Joe?" He asks.

"I know but I have to find the others. A lot of people were caught in that blast. We might find them in the kitchen. I'm gonna walk by the walls instead of out in the open." I tell him.

"Alright. I'll meet you there. Be fucking careful." I start walking close to the walls. I look at Joe's gum infused remains one last time before leaving.  Something feels different as i'm walking. Earlier I could barely walk on the carpet. The fibers kept trapping my feet. Now, I can walk almost normal on the floors.

Am I getting bigger? I certainly don't feel bigger. Maybe whatever this is is starting to wear off.If I really am getting bigger then all I have to do is survive. Survive long enough to grow back to my normal size.

I am at the last stair. All I have to do is climb down using the fibers just like I climbed up. I turn with my back facing the stair. I bend down and grab the carpet with my hand. I make sure to have a firm grip. Then I move my legs off the stair placing my feet in the carpet. From there I gradually move each hand and foot down, closer and closer to the bottom.

When I finally hit the bottom, I take a deep breath. That was the easy part. The hard part will be getting to the kitchen without Monie stepping on me like a bug. For a normal sized human being, the distance from the staircase to the kitchen is six steps. For me, it's "I'm screwed".

I am going to have to do this the fastest I can. I move away from the path. I start running as fast as I can towards the wall next to the kitchen entrance. My chest is starting to burn. I must start doing cardio exercises after this. 

Uh oh! I can feel myself in the fall. Only I'm not floating, i'm falling! My face lands on the soft carpet. I turn my head to see that my foot is trapped in the carpet fibers. Fuck!

I pull and I pull but to no avail my foot does not release. Then I can hear the thunderous sound of footsteps coming my way. I'm out of the pathway but what if Monie walks my way instead of the other way.? I pull even harder because of that thought. The footsteps are getting closer. I can't get my foot free. It's about to be a repeat of Joe. 

Then I get lucky. Monie walks back into the kitchen. I have time now. I finally, with one last pull, with all my strength, get my fucking foot free. I jump up and run as fast as I can to the wall. With my back against the wall I peek around the corner like a spy.

Monie is nowhere to be seen. I carefully move into the kitchen. I mind my surroundings. Next to me is the fridge, followed by the dishwasher, then the sink, then a bunch of kitchen cabinets. On the other side is the stove with more cabinets and the pantry. A lot of food was left on the cabinets. So were empty and full bottles, half empty bowls, pieces of food lying everywhere. The kitchen was a mess. The best way to survive is too hide underneath all these. I can't jump out in the open until i'm sure Monie is upstairs. 

So I begin my search for the others. I search under the fridge first. The darkness scares me. I don't know what things are hiding in there. It scares me too much so I don't follow through. I move to the dishwasher next. There's nothing. The dishwasher is designed to have a space for the door to open. The kitchen cabinets don't have enough space for us to hide.

I know what this means. I am gonna have to look on the other side. It's what I didn't want but knew that I was gonna have to do. But then someone popped out from underneath the pantry. I couldn't recognize who it was from this distance. Wait what was this guy doing. Oh shit! He's running my way.

It was the worst timing anyone could have. As the guy made it halfway, Monie walked straight towards him. I could see the guy stop. He put up his hands and yelled, "NOOOOOOOOO!"

But there was no stopping Monie. The same foot that stepped on Joe, stepped on this guy. There was no gum or soft carpet underneath the guy. Just a hard floor. His body was completely crushed into a red spot on Monie's sock. Each step she took left a faded blood spot on the floor.

Monie kept looking from one side to another. I knew she was looking for those cupcakes. All of this could have been avoided if I brought her those cupcakes. Monie crossed her arms, stomped her foot, and headed straight upstairs.