Gus layed on his bed, his whole body throbbing in pain from being made up of cancer. As he sat there, dying, he pondered life as only Augustus Waters could do. He thought about his parents, he thought about his friends, mostly, he thought about Hazel. He wondered what she'd do after he died, how much longer she would live, and what she would be like after his death.

  Just then, his door opened. "Hazel Grace?" he said, "No, it's just me", right away gus recognized who it was. "Ahh my favorite, and only blind friend." Isaac struggled to get in at first but found his way past all the medical equipment and sat down. Before a word was mentioned about Max Mayhem, Isaac cut in, "gus, you understand what it's like to have hardships and have the very ones who say they're going to be there for you, leave. So I've come to you, because I need advice. Monica won't return my calls, she wouldnt even come to visit me in the hospital after I had my surgery. What's my problem man, why did she do this to me?"

  Gus was angry. Angry that Monica was a bitch, angry that his friend had to go through this, and especially angry cause he felt like there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. However, hiding his anger, he tried to answer Isaac the best he could. But secretly, he was trying to plot revenge. Later on Isaac left, and Gus kept thinking. He suddenly had a flashback and remembered something. Slowly, pressing through the almost unbearable pain, he made it up off his bed and over to his closet where he found a box. The box was given to him by a “mystery doctor” of sorts a few years back when he was in the hospital for the first time. The night before he was scheduled to leave the hospital, a doctor whom he had never seen before paid him a visit. The doctor came in and gave Gus this box. He said, “you’ll know the right time to open this box.” Gus being tired from all the tests they had run on him that day didn’t question the doctor. He took the box and hid it under his bed, picking it up before leaving the next day.

  As he remembered that night, he thought a lot about what that doctor could’ve meant. Finally he decided it was the right time, and he opened the box. Inside, there was some strange looking device, and a note attached to the top. He pulled the note off and read it. “Augustus Waters, inside this box is a device capable of wonderful and horrible consequences, all of which are reversible. However, please use it wisely.” Strangely, the note wasn’t signed, dated, and the handwriting looked very generic. Still unsure but now more intrigued than ever, Gus knew he had to figure just what in the hell this thing was. The device itself was very basic, a plastic body housed a basic red switch on top, and what looked to be an infrared laser lined the top. Flipping the switch, a strange cracking noise struck his ears, but something far more incredible crossed his eyes. The lamp that was standing on his dresser, at which the device was pointed at, simply disappeared. Gus couldn’t believe it, and walked over to examine the scene. Upon further inspection, he realized that the lamp hadn’t disappeared, rather it had shrunk by about 50 times. He pointed the device at the lamp again, however, this time he flipped the switch in the opposite direction. There was that cracking noise again, and right before his eyes, the lamp reappeared in the same condition, only this time in the right size.

  Completely amazed at what he had found, Gus did what Gus would do and began playing around with this device, shrinking things down and then making them appear again. He did this for a couple hours until a sickening thought hit him harder than any cancer pain ever did. For the first time he began to realize the true wonder, and danger this device was capable of. But something still didn’t seem right. He kept reading that note and going back to that night, trying to think of a reasonable explanation as to why he would be given such a strange device. He remembered what the doctor said, “you’ll know the right time to open this box.” Then without batting an eyelid, some more insidious thoughts began to cross his mind. Putting the device back in its box, and the box back in his closet, he thought aloud, “I think it’s time to pay Monica an unexpected visit.”