It had been weeks since the ‘incident’ rattled the entire globe. The projected numbers for those affected by this strange and weird illness were in the millions, perhaps billions. Some scientists, the ones who weren’t affected, argued that this type of ‘sickness’ was not something they even thought could exist. From all around the world, from the United States to the islands of the Maldives reported people getting squashed as though some force had perfectly stepped on them. Then, people realized what was going on. While most were being flattened like a pancake or dissolved in a horrible death, some had a much more cruel fate. They were brought down to the size of an inch tall. But what was most frightening to the ones who discovered this, was that if the tiny person were to perish, another person would suffer the same exact fate. Even though they were people, the scientists killed them in horrific ways to confirm their theory and they’d wait until something in the news would come, reporting the deaths for that day. But sometimes, they didn’t have to look far as occasionally, one of their assistants would be killed. They soon narrowed down the radius at which both the shrunken and regular-size person would be affected. It was local meaning a person in France won’t be affected if a shrunken person from Japan was killed. It was based on the city. For every shrunken person, there was a regular-sized person that was tied to them.
And this is where Candis’s and Samantha’s story picks up. Was it fate or some cosmic coincidence that forced them to be together if or when this situation was ever figured out. See, a couple of months before, the two girls had gotten into an extremely heated argument after they confessed their love for the same person. Neither one of them wanted to talk to each other and they seemed contempt with not speaking to one another, even at their work. That was until the day came where Candis would find Samantha tiny on the break room table after not seeing her for quite some time. Realizing this was her best shot to get rid of her former friend, Candis was about to take off her shoe and squish Sam like the bug she was now. But, she couldn’t. Looking at Sam’s tiny left arm, they saw the remarkable symbol of two interconnected souls. Sam celebrated until she realized she’d be stuck with Candis, possibly the worst person that could not only find her but to also be the one who was set to protect her.
Sam sat on Candis’s nightstand as she waited for her to return, still depressed that this had been her life. Candis had been surprisingly nice to her, leaving her food as well as water when she left every morning for work. She also left the TV on with Sam’s favorite show, even if the star of the show had been shrunk. It made her forget her predicament, at least for the few hours it was on before it turned into trash TV. After that, Sam tried her best to not break down crying as she constantly had to remember that she couldn’t do the things she wanted to. Hanging out with friends required constant supervision by Candis, hell even the most mundane things like drinking water made Candis anxious out of fear Sam would end up drowning herself.
Sam wasn’t dumb. She knew this act of saving and protecting her would drop the second Sam either grew back to normal height or this bond they had would go away. Candis had already wanted to swat Sam into nothing more than a bloodstain when she first found her at this size and she only changed her tune when they shared a forced bond neither one wanted. At the very least, Sam could enjoy her time away from Candis every time she went to work. It gave some freedom away from her overprotective guardian.
Candis, on the other hand, wanted to pay for being a jerk to her former friend. She had been the one who started the argument in the first place and this was her best shot to fix the relationship she ruined. It wasn’t Sam’s fault. She was only reacting to how she was. The moment she found the tiny Sam, she thought she could just step on her and claim she thought it was just a bug but when both of their arms glowed a bright blue, she knew she was her protector. It was then that Candis was forced to protect her former friend turned dependent. So, every morning since she found the tiny Sam, Candis woke up every morning at seven am to cook her and Sam’s breakfast. Remembering all the times they would hang out before the fight, Candis would always go out of her way to please the tiny girl in any way she could by only making vegetarian-style meals for her. Sometimes, Candis would get a thank you from Sam but other times when presented the food, Sam would just look out the window and sigh, ignoring her protector. Even though she felt discouraged to keep trying with Sam, Candis never gave up with her. After all, if she were to die, Candis would go as well.
As Candis walked home from work and up the stairs to the apartment, she worried about Sam’s health as her protector noticed she had begun to eat less and less. All these weeks Sam had been wanting to leave the apartment and see her ‘real friends’. Saying that Candis should just let her go outside every once in a while and maybe see if her parents were still alive and kicking. Sam would even say that whatever happened between them, that it was behind them and that this torture was becoming too much. But Candis wasn’t hurting Sam, at least not on purpose. The only reason she had avoided bringing Sam outside to meet her friends and family was that they too had been affected by this. Sam’s mother and father had been tied together like their bond but unfortunately, Sam’s mother had not noticed her father screaming as she sat down on the chair he was on. A few minutes later, her mother had suffered the same fate. As for her friends, most if not all of them had managed to avoid being shrunk. But their other halves had been swallowed up by either another person or a wild animal because a few days after this event started, they dissolved into nothing but a puddle of blood and guts in the middle of a shopping mall. Candis couldn’t just tell Sam that everyone she held dear had been shrunk or killed. It would break her heart. So she kept quiet about it as best she could.
Sam stared out the window as she heard Candis began to open the door. She didn’t bother to turn around as she heard the door open and her calling out her name. “Sam! I’m home!” It was a bit loud but it was to get her attention. If Sam was on the floor, she’d hear this and run to the place where she normally would be. The nightstand. “I brought your favorite drink! Mango-Jango!” Sam couldn’t help but smile as she heard the name of the drink she loved so much. Before all this, she’d get one every chance she had. It was her crack, an addiction of hers. But now, Candis only got them for her if she remembered. Making the act of getting one sort of special to Sam.
Sam turned around and saw Candis walk into the room, kicking off her work shoes as she set the cold drink by the small girl. “Thank you, Candis.” Sam soon began to climb the small cup to get into the sugary drink. As Sam reached the top, she looked over at Candis who was massaging her sore feet while sitting on her bed. She sighed, wanting to at least fix things as it had been silent between them for most of the time they’d been bonded. Candis had always tried to start conversations with the tiny Sam but she’d just brush her off. But getting her favorite drink put her in a good mood. One well is enough to actually have a conversation with her giant protector.
“Hey, how was work?” Sam asked as she looked over to Candis as she pulled off her socks, letting her tired feet relax and air out. “Is Katy still there?” Sam was talking about their mutual friend who had been the one to get them together as friends in the first place. Candis blushed as Sam spoke to her in a genuine manner since well, before the fight.
“It was good, a little tiring but good. Yeah, she’s still there. She asked about you the other day. She asked if you were doing alright, asked me if she could visit you sometime and I told her maybe. Just depends.” Candis looked at Sam who leaned her head back and rolled her eyes. “What?”
“Depends on what? All I do all day is sit on here all day, waiting on you and what have I been asking for since the moment you brought me here? To see if my friends are alright.” Sam looked at Candis and saw only rage as she desperately wanted to know how her friends were. But constantly being denied by Candis to go out led to some obvious frustrations. “The only reason you do this to me is because you’re only watching your own skin. If there wasn’t a bond between us that if I die, you’d die too, you would’ve just squished me the second you found me.”
“Sam…” Candis looked over at her small friend as she thought of something to say to her. Anything to calm her tiny friend down but nothing came to mind. Candis watched Sam as she slid down the cup to get down. What seemed like the two friends warming up to each other after what seemed like an eternity, had quickly turned sour. The small girl then walked to the bedroom nearby slowly, hearing Candis’ footsteps following close behind as she opened the door for her. Sam looked up as she spoke with malice that bored a hole deep in Candis’ heart.
“Just leave me alone Candis, just come back when dinner’s ready.” Sam was very cold with what she said, even if she knew Candis was just looking out for her. But to her, Candis had been nothing but an overbearing mother for the small girl. Like she was Rapunzel and Candis was the terrible mother locking her in her tower. It made her upset as she sat in the same place she always did. But then something in Sam changed. She felt remorse. Sam would always wake up to a nice meal that would last her all day, made fresh by Candis. She didn’t ask her protector to treat her like this, getting her a meal every morning, making sure her favorite show was on, bringing home her favorite drink. And as she watched Candis walk out of the room, she leaned against the mango drink she’d begun to drink.
“Candis…” Sam whispered as she watched her friend leave the room. A lump in her throat formed as she began to feel terrible from what she told her one and only friend in this world now. “I’m sorry.” Sam began to sit down as she spoke to herself in the quietest voice she could. “I’m sorry for overreacting, for being such a bitch to you. You didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. I know you’re only doing the best you can with me and just looking out for me... and maybe you can be too much to bear but I want to say I am grateful you found me.” The words that came out of Samantha’s mouth were straight from her heart. She wanted to apologize to Candis but couldn’t. After all the things she’d done for her, Candis deserved at least to hear the words both of them knew needed to be said. But keeping her trapped here made things difficult. Sam’s only way of knowing what was going on outside was the window and occasionally the TV but even that was censored. Not by Candis, but by the media itself. To lessen the blow of seeing people be flattened like a pancake, melted or just plain ripped in half by unseen forces, after the first month of this, the news stopped reporting on the death tolls and tried their best to imagine that this ‘plague’ or ‘death wave’ was nothing more than a trend that would last no more than a few more weeks. To Sam’s knowledge, she’d been trapped in Candis’ apartment for about three months and Candis had never mentioned
As Candis walked out of her own room, she gently shut the door as small tears flowed down her face. It seemed as though they were just beginning to bond once more but she said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Seeing her friend turned enemy at this size broke her heart every day she looked at tiny Sam. Sometimes, Candis completely ignored the possibility of if Sam were to die, she’d go too. It wasn’t like that to Candis. Deep down, Candis put her tiny life in front of her own because it was her own fault this started. And life putting her in charge of Sam made her feel as if the universe was telling them to revolve their past mistakes. But their egos got in the way of that.
Candis sat down on the couch, turned on the TV to watch whatever was on. And it just so happened to flip to the news station. Candis would occasionally watch the news to see any developments on this crisis. Most of the time, the anchors would just talk about the deaths that day but today, they were reporting on something different. They spoke of a cult of masked individuals that would abduct those affected to perform terrible experiments on them, possibly wanting to cure this madness. As soon as Candis saw what these cultists were dressed like, she was beyond frightened as she looked at the artwork before her. They wore a black mask with red, white, and yellow stripes swirling around the center of their face. It wasn’t the first time these types of cults or whatever had shown up in the news but it was the first time they’d actually broke the law with abducting those affected as well as their protectors if they showed a bond.
Candis assumed that these were merely desperate people thinking of ways to avoid being killed when it was out of their control. But those who lived this long, had already found their guardians and their tiny people. Candis was one of the millions who had been fortunate enough to get the ones she had to protect right away, these desperate people must’ve been driven by anger over losing their friends and family to this. Looking for a cure for this, closure knowing no one else would have to suffer as they did. Or, perhaps the cult's motivations were more sinister than searching for a cure. Some surviving scientists believed that if the protector were to be killed, the shrunken person would return to normal. Even if it was unconfirmed that it was true, people gravitated towards this as a means of escaping the nightmare. Kill the protector, the shrunken person gets their life back. At least, that was the rumor circulating around.
“What a load of bull.” Candis whispered to herself. It was all lies to spread hysteria to the masses. “People are already on edge and they say this?” Candis acted as though Sam was right beside her, as she waited for her response. But it never came. Candis just sighed as she brought her feet up to the coffee table. It was a long day for her and she wanted desperately to at least talk to Sam again but out fear of her being hurt, Candis pushed her further away. This just made her want to end this whole thing and kill Sam as painless as possible and pray she didn’t go to hell for what she did. But she didn’t want it to come to that. She loved Sam even if things weren’t the best. “Why can’t we just get along again goddammit?” Candis lifted her foot up and slammed it back down on the table, resulting in her hearing a small yelp down at her heels. “Sam? Is that you?” Candis brought her feet down to the ground as she saw the small person who she almost stepped on. It wasn’t Sam, to her knowledge, she was still in her room. This girl was brand new. How she got in their apartment was beyond Candis but she was willing to help. “Hello, sorry I almost stepped on you. I didn’t know you were there.”
The girl was shaking, it seemed like she had been starved for several weeks. She was scared and rightfully so. Everything about her existence was out to kill her so it seemed logical that she tried to find some form of safe haven. Which just happened to be Candis’ apartment. “Please, help me. I can’t go on much longer.” The girl fell on her hands and knees as Candis tore off a bit of a piece of bread that she’d given Sam to eat this morning. It wasn’t much in the ways of flavor but she figured the girl wouldn’t mind. “Thank you, thank you so much, Goddess.” The girl began devouring the small bread piece as Candis was left dumbfounded by what the girl called her. She had no idea that the shrunken people would call the regular people that now towered and killed them accidentally on a near daily basis would call them ‘gods’. Although to them, anything would be considered a god.
“I’m sorry little one, I’m just here to help you, I’m not a goddess. I’m just Candis. What’s your name?” Candis smiled as she leaned in close to the girl. “Who’s your other half? Why aren’t they protecting you?”
“It’s Ajah, and my better half just left in this apartment block. He just dumped me here and told me best of luck. So I’m sorry for breaking into your home, mistress Candis. I hope you can forgive me. Please, let me make it up to you by giving you a massage. Please miss Candis, I beg of you. Let me make it up to you.”
“Uhhh, I don’t know about that, maybe later miss Ajah. I still need to take care of someone else. I can take care of both of you, just be nice to her. Alright?” Candis then got up from the couch and walked to the bedroom door. She gently knocked on the door and waited for a response from Sam. “Sam? Are you doing ok?” Candis soon opened the door and saw the small girl sitting on the bed with her head down. “Hey, are you still upset Sam? I was about to start making dinner. Anything you’d want to have?”
Sam just sighed as she turned around to see her guardian in the doorway, waiting for her response. “Yeah, I guess. How about some grilled cheese for me, please?”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll have that ready in a few, Sam.” Candis began to close the door slowly as she retreated back out until she heard a small call out from Sam.
“Wait, Candis. You know I do appreciate what you do for me, right? Even if I don’t show it, I do appreciate you. I’m sorry I snapped at you, I didn’t mean it.” Sam turned around as she looked Candis in the eye and she couldn’t help but begin to tear up. “Thanks for being my friend and protector.”
“And I’m sorry for not letting you leave the apartment. How about tomorrow we go to the park? Get you to see the world again?” Candis then saw a smile on Sam’s face when she heard those words.
“Well, it’s a start. Thanks Candis. I appreciate you.”