I wanted to play it cool in front of Amina. I didn’t want her to see how astonished I was by all this. I wondered myself how the hell she could be so calm about the situation. She just killed a girl 30 minutes ago after all! While we walked to the Starbucks I tried to keep composure and play it cool. Amina kept asking me what was wrong. She was seeing right through my fake calmness. The Starbucks was full. For fuck’s sake the world is literally shrinking and people still love to pay for their overpriced coffee. If it wasn’t sure already, it confirmed how damaged our survival instincts were. One long wait and a 6 bucks’ coffee later, we sat down. I stayed silent for a moment. I didn’t want to open the conversation. I wasn’t feeling so good. The mix between the sad emotions I was feeling on the inside and the good ones I was showing to Amina wasn’t working out well for me. She finally opened the discussion hitting the perfect point:

“You didn’t know right?”

“What’s that?” I said, completely taken by surprise by the question.

“You didn’t know about what was really happening? I wasn’t either before a few days ago. I hit me in the face when I went back outside. When the fear dissipated.”

She looked sad. Like if the Amina I knew faded away in front of my eyes and had been replaced by another person. Still beautiful but without the attitude. I felt like I didn’t need to play it cool anymore in front of all that honesty. What she had just said was sincere and honest. She didn’t hide her emotions. It was like no one was around.

“I spent the last 12 days trapped in my apartment, scared of going out. Honestly, now that I’m here, I even wonder what made me go out. I was watching the news and after the fucked up affair with Anna Einhardt calmed down, I thought things were going back to normal. The news channels weren’t speaking of shrunken people getting crushed anymore. For me it was like this whole situation disappeared. You know like the Ebola crisis. They spoke about it for days and just like that it disappeared and things went back to normal.”

“Well it’s basically the same thing here. Except..”

“Except the normal we knew had changed.”

“Exactly. Journalists stopped screaming breaking news everytime someone was crushed because to this point it wasn’t news anymore. Honestly I don’t even know how it came to this. People told me that after the story of the crushed girl in Berlin, others started to do the same to the shrunken people they were finding. And as the Berlin Police didn’t prosecuted Einhardt, it became quite “normal”.”

“Isn’t there anyone complaining? Saying how barbaric the situation is?”

“There are a few organizations that have been created here and there but nothing that can really change the situation. Don’t forget that it’s almost impossible to track the shrunken victims. I’ve seen many people shrink in front of my eyes. It’s fast. One moment they are in front of you and the next they are smaller than your toes. You can’t do anything about it. They are no cure. And it’s not like you can bring them to the hospital for help. There are many stories about doctors and nurses keeping the shrinkies for themselves.”

“For themselves? What do you mean?”

“Oh I keep forgetting you don’t know a lot.  Well there have been a lot of trafficking recently. People realized they could do basically anything to tinies. It’s not like they can defend themselves or say no. There is a market for shrunken people. The other day, a girl stopped me on campus and asked me if I was interested in buying a tiny. For only 50 bucks I could buy someone.”

“Why would you buy someone?”

“Well some keep tinies as slave and make them do anything they want. Others just want the rush of adrenaline that comes with crushing them. Others just keep them as pets and are proud to show them around. In either scenario it’s very humiliating. But as I said, no one will raise their voices against the problem. Basically because it’s not considered one.”

“You know a lot of people who shrunk?”

“Well yeah. There’s like 30% of the class who disappeared out of thin air. There are either kidnapped, crushed or scavenging to survive at the mercy of everything surrounding them. I’m sure Alexia had just shrunk when I crushed her. She was probably calling for help if she was this close to my feet. But I really couldn’t hear her. Or at least not in time.”

“Amina you don’t look that sad about having crushed Alexia. She was annoying but she didn’t deserve to die.”

“Well big deal! That’s gonna change things then. You do realize that crying or shaming myself about it won’t change what happened? It’s not like she’ll be back, big and strong, if I feel regret. It was an accident. She was the size of a bug. I couldn’t avoid it. It may be sad but I won’t cry over it, that’s for sure. And it’s not like it’s the first time. Tiny people try to get help all the time and get crushed as a result when they are not seen. It wasn’t the first time I crushed someone. It’s not a good thing but if they just throw themselves under my shoes I can’t help them.”

While Amina answered my last question I felt something cold in her voice. She felt beat by the situation. She knew she couldn’t help the situation so she accepted it.

“I’m not telling myself I crushed Alexia, I’m just telling myself she killed herself by getting under my sole. It helps you know. With around 30% of the population being an inch tall, you have to find yourself excuses to continue living. Either that or you spend your days crying because of the guilt you feel.”

I thanked her for taking the time to tell me all this. It wasn’t pleasant but I least I knew what was happening in the world. We parted and I decided to go back home. This morning was enough for today. I was beat too by what I just learned. I was walking on campus when I saw a girl from a Master program talking to her feet. Talking to her feet? No in fact she was talking to a tiny woman down at her feet:

“You better kiss these flats now bitch or I’ll crush you quicker than you need to say “shit”. Is it understood?”

The tiny form down on the floor was cowering at the giant feet and kissed as much as she could. It was a terrible sight.

“Feeling good Emilie! To have your bitchy mouth at its place.”

Emilie? Was that my friend? I felt anger suddenly rising inside me. Enough was enough. This situation couldn’t be normal. It was just too bad and barbaric. My friend Emilie was not going to kiss that brat’s feet while fearing to be crushed. I rushed to the giant blonde torturing my friend and pushed her:

“The fuck you think you’re doing bitch?”

The blonde girl stepped back 3 steps almost falling down on the ground.

“What the fuck dude, are you fucking mental? Get the fuck out of here you pussy.”

“That’s my friend so fuck off and go see if you’re dumbass friends shrunk down while you were away.”

“Oh poor Emilie is tortured so you are defending her as a white knight protecting the poor shrunken people? Fuck you man”.

I didn’t have time to react. Mostly because I couldn’t believe what she had done was possible. As I was kneeling to take Emilie with me, that piece of shit of a girl did the most horrible thing I had ever seen. Emilie was looking up to me, a relieved expression on her face and suddenly this sight was replaced by a foot in a black flat with blood splashing all around it. The sounds and the sight were unbearable as she grinded my friend under her sole. A mix a bones cracking and blood squirting. I didn’t react. I heard her laugh and call me a little bitch. She lifted her foot and left. There was nothing left of my friend Emilie but a red stain made of blood, organs and bones. She never saw it coming. I didn’t either. I felt broken. I was broken.