Noel walked into the living room.

“Welcome home honey.” Maudie said with a grin on her face, as if she had done something villainous.

Maudie and Noel had been childhood friends since they were six. Now, they were roommates. While it’s normal for friends to live together in the early stages of their adult lives, some people would find it strange to do so with someone of the opposite gender. They didn’t care about the way people looked at them. Although having thought about Maudie as a woman a few times, Noel never made a move on her. Maudie knew about his feelings, being very good at reading clues. She liked to toy and tease him from time to time.

Noel sat down in the couch facing the one Maudie was sitting in. In-between them there was a small coffee table, Maudie’s feet resting on it. As he put his medical results on the table, Noel couldn’t help but look at her soles. They looked soft and slightly dirty, she took good care of her weapons.

“So, how was your doctor’s appointment?” The girl asked.

He responded with a slightly depressed tone. “Fine, I guess.”

“What was it for anyway?”

Noel didn’t react and continued to stare at her foot.

Maudie’s grin got wider. “Why are you glaring at my feet like that.”

“I don’t know,” He answered. “maybe cause of the dead body that’s plastered against it.”

“Oh dear,” She says in a fake overacting voice. “I guess I have accidentally stepped on someone.”

It plagued the world, a disease that could shrink a full grown human down to one inch. Five percent of the population was susceptible to it. Noel knew about Maudie’s evil behavior towards victims of the disease, but never spoke about it before.

“Cut the crap! You’re barefoot, and you don’t walk around in the streets like that. You’re not a hippie.”

Maudie rolled her eyes. “Ok, I took her home and stomped on her a bit. Not my fault she couldn’t take it.”

“You know that is murder, right?” Noel barked.

“It would’ve been murder if she was still human. As soon as she shrank she became a bug, And you know what I like to do with bugs. Gotta say, it’s pretty fun to have a bug cry and beg before you kill it.”

Maudie wiggled her toes. She seemed proud of her kill.

The body of a blond young woman covered in blood and guts, bend and broken, Stuck to the foot of his best friend. The image would come to haunt his dreams that night.

Noel turned red. “A human is a human no matter the size, and you are sick!”

Maudie’s grin turned in to a concerned look, she realized she might have struck a nerve. “Hey, calm down. I just don’t see how a one inch tall creature can still be considered ‘human’.”

Hearing that last line, Noel’s anger turned to tears as he got up and ran to his room, leaving behind his medical results.

Maudie looked at the coffee table, she finally realized. Maybe she wasn’t that good at reading clues after all.

An eight year old Noel walked up to his friend Maudie. She was killing ants in his backyard, wearing a white children’s dress. He gave her a carton of apple juice and looked down at her feet.

“Why are you hurting those ants?” He asked.

The little girl smiled continuing to stomp on the little things. “Because it’s fun.”

Noel put his hands on his hips in a sassy childish manner “Mom says it’s bad to hurt any of god’s creatures.”

“If god didn’t want us to hurt them, then they wouldn’t be so small.” Maudie said. “I think god made them tiny, just so I can squish them.”

Noel turned around as he heard his mother call for him. He went inside and entered the living room. A twenty-one year old Maudie smiled at him. The boy sat down in the couch facing the one Maudie was sitting in. In-between them there was a small coffee table, Maudie’s feet resting on it. He couldn’t help but look at her foot. He could see his own body sticking to her flesh. One of his arms moved. Beaten and barely alive, the tiny version of him struggled, as if there was still hope left.

He could hear the words of his best friend echoing through his mind “I just don’t see how a one inch tall creature can still be considered ‘human’.”

Noel almost screamed as he woke up.  Trying to catch his breath, he hugged his legs, put his head on his knees, and started sobbing. Afraid to go to sleep again he decided to wait till morning.

At the first sign of daylight Noel left his room and went downstairs. He grabbed a bottle of milk and some caramel flavored cornflakes. Before he even sat down at the kitchen table, Maudie had already entered the room. It was as if she had waited for him to get up, just in case he would try to avoid her. They hadn’t said a word to each other since what happened the day before. She sat down at the table.

“Good morning.” She said.

Noel didn’t answer and started preparing his breakfast.

Maudie stared at him and tried to start a conversation again. “You look like shit. Couldn’t sleep?”

Her friend looked at her with a sad, troubled face. He wasn’t the only one though. Maudie had been up all night as well, but not because of nightmares. She had been lying awake thinking about all the things they’ve been trough. The thought that her best friend soon wouldn’t be human anymore, It broke her heart.

Maudie grabbed the milk and cornflakes, and started filling her bowl. She looked at the cereal box and smiled.

“Hey Noel,” she said “Remember when you had a loose tooth, and we were eaten caramel blocks. You said it hurt too much to chew, so I chewed them for you and fed them to you like some kind of mama bird.”

Noel’s eyes were fixated on the cornflake pieces floating around in his milk. His depressed face didn’t move a muscle.

Maudie got nervous and her hands turned into sweaty fists. “We were such disgusting kids, weren’t we?”

Still not getting a response, she got up without finishing her breakfast. As she was about to leave the room, Noel broke his silence.

“Are you going to kill me when I shrink?”

Maudie looked at him, not knowing what to say. To Noel each second without an answer felt a stab in the chest.

“I’m still going to be me.” He said.

“No you’re not!” Maudie yelled, almost crying. “You’re going to be a bug, and I don’t know what…” She stopped mid-sentence and walked out. “I’m leaving for work, I’ll see you when I get home.”

Noel sat there, paralyzed. He had to come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t trust his best friend. He got up and went to the living room to pick his phone. He had to call a family member, a different friend, anyone; anyone who wouldn’t kill him. As he reached for his phone he felt a series of electric jolts run through his body.

“No, not now, not yet!” He cried as he blacked out.

“A psychopath is an egotistic person with a lack of remorse and empathy.” Noel whispered to himself as he walked through the valley that was once his living room.

He was wondering if that description would fit Maudie. Serial killers always start out hurting smaller creatures, and the same could be said for her. It was hard for him to think about his roommate that way. She had always been a bit of a bully, but seemed to have a good heart.

“Maybe she has rules.” Noel theorized to himself. “Rules not to hurt people, and her definition of what makes someone a person is just messed up.”

Noel pulled up his sleeves. He wasn’t going to wait around for Maudie to step on him. He gathered everything he could find; a broken toothpick, a used tissue and some crumbs. With the tissue and toothpick he build a little hideout underneath the couch, where he would hide his supply of crumbs.

After a long day of work he could hear the front door open. Noel could hear Maudie taking off her shoes, and felt a slight vibration on the floor with each step she took.

“Noel, we need to talk.” She said as she entered the living room. She froze when she saw his clothes next to coffee table.

“Fuck!” Maudie yelled. “Why did you have to shrink so soon?”

She carefully searched through his clothes trying to find him. “Where are you?”

The young woman looked around. “I just want to talk.” She said.

Noel didn’t know what to think. Did she just request a short talk before she would start hunting him? Maudie had always been honest to him, so he decide to trust her. As soon as he walked out from under the couch. He realized she probably didn’t think of him as ‘him’ anymore.

Maudie’s eyes fell on her tiny friend, and at this moment Noel couldn’t turn back.

She smirked. “Bug or not you’ll always too gullible for your own good.”

She walked over to him. Noel’s heart raced as he looked at the giant being that was his best friend. Her feet landed on either side of him. They didn’t look soft anymore. Noel could smell their subtle stench, as he looked up at her legs. the shape and texture of her skin, so much bigger.

“Come on, aren’t you going to beg?” She asked.

Not planning on giving her the satisfaction Noel yelled up at her. “Your feet smell!”

“Which one?” She asked as she placed one of her feet on top of his little body. “This one?”

Her friend screamed as her cold hard skin pressed him against the ground.

Noel tried to talk to her . “How can… you be so… This morning… you were crying.”

“I was crying cause I was going to lose my friend.”

“But… I’m still…”

“Ow, just shut up already. You’re a bug now.” Maudie slightly twist her foot.

“Can’t I… be both?”

She takes her foot off him. “You don’t get it do you. Look at me, you are nothing compared to me. Our power difference is too big. Rules of nature bug. You died when you shrank.”

Maudie blushed a little. “You know you should be thankful your attractive friend is doing the job, could be worse.”

Thinking this might be his last chance to confess Noel screamed at the top of his lungs “I’m in love with you!”

For a second Maudie hesitated, surprised and caught off guard. She raised her foot over him one last time. “Just die already.”

Noel couldn’t believe her cold-heartedness. He knew she had it in her to crush him, but not this way, not with these words, not with this indifference.

Blood filled his mouth as his ribs broke. The tiny guy cried as he took his last breath of foot odor before the pain ended and everything faded to black.

To Maudie it was simply a step and grind. She always loved this part, but this time she wasn’t smiling. She had just lost her best friend, and in her mind it was the disease that killed him, not her.