The device began emitting a low hum again. Julia and Wiktor momentarily stopped struggling and looked into each other’s eyes with confusion and disappointment, silently accusing one another of childish irresponsibility.

“Amazing. You’re even dumber th--” Wiktor would have finished his sentence if not for the fact that he suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving Julia flabbergasted and almost causing her to drop the thing after making her briefly lose her balance.

“What the fuck just happened?” she asked herself out loud. The other girls finally moved a bit, trying to get a better view of the place Wiktor was standing at just a few seconds ago and still expecting to find him hiding somewhere. Julia unconsciously hugged the device, afraid of losing control over it again; she remembered it was running and looked at the display, now lit-up.

“Module inserted,” it read.

“What module?” Julia asked and checked the socket. “There is no module.” She felt blood rush to her head, making her dizzy. “Do not fucking tell me.” Julia turned towards her friends for a moment, her mouth open in bewilderment, and then looked back at the interface; she started pressing its buttons frantically.

“Julia, are you alright?” Zosia asked, followed by Ewa: “Where’s Wiktor?”

“He got-- he’s inside the fucking device! He put his fingers in the socket. That’s why I told him not to do that! Wiktor, you absolute moron. Everything was going fine until he decided to come in. What do I even do now?” Julia felt like she had just started a fire and was desperately searching for a way to put it out before it got out of hand.

“What do you mean he’s inside?” Martyna asked.

“It must have mistaken him for a module when he pressed the power button. The modules, they store the robots that are actually used during the process. I thought it was like data, but no, it actually miniaturizes the thing and puts it back in the removable case when you’re finished. So how do I get him out if there’s no case?!”

“So he… got shrunk?” Martyna smirked as she glanced at the device.

“Yeah he got shrunk -- what’s with that smile? You think it’s funny?” Julia was having none of it, not until her brother got back safe and sound.

“I mean…” Martyna replied, alluding to the fact that the two definitely did not like each other, not since the time he reported her for smoking in the bathroom.

"Oh, shut up," Julia cut the conversation short, regretting that she even bothered explaining the situation to Martyna.

“Hey, c’mon, let's think this through,” Zosia attempted to defuse the situation. "Do you have an instruction manual? Maybe there’s a way to contact support?”

“I do, but I left it at home. So there goes that.” Julia sight and fixed her eyes at some undefined point in the distance. She spoke again after what felt like a minute but was probably just a few seconds. “I’m gonna have to call my mom.”

The gang did not speak up, knowing full well that their friend was about to get in some serious trouble; there was no point in trying to cheer her up and she didn’t need anyone’s sympathy right now. Julia took her phone out of her pocket and began to walk slowly towards a more private place behind a row of lockers, wanting to deal with this matter alone. Before disappearing, she told her friends to watch over the device.

As Ewa and Zosia creeped up behind her to eavesdrop on the conversation while still remaining outside her view, Julia dialed her mom. Martyna crossed her arms and stood back, not knowing what to do, but feeling like it would be very inappropriate for her to just leave.

“Yes, honey, what is it? I’m a bit busy,” Julia heard her mom's voice through her phone's speaker, just as she started to worry she wouldn’t pick up.

"Hey mom, uhh, can I ask you something? It's about your nail device."

"Well… sure; but why?" Julia's mother replied after a brief pause. "Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

"I am at school, mom. Please don't be angry, but I kinda borrowed it."

Martyna heard her friend talk, but she wasn't listening to her words; she instead decided to use google and try a bit of troubleshooting, hoping that someone had already had to deal with this kind of issue. She quickly managed to find a forum dedicated to the device, but the only complaints related to modules mentioned them breaking down sooner than expected. Martyna read the replies; in one of them, someone explained why the accelerated wear and tear shouldn't be a surprise and described the engineering principles behind the device.

Armed with newfound knowledge, she approached the machine-turned-prison, temporarily discarded and abandoned but still running. She brushed it gently and reservedly with her fingers, as if to break the touch barrier and ease herself into going further. The small screen was still displaying the details requested by Julia; it showed a scanned 3D model of Wiktor, frozen in time and stuck in the same pose he was last seen in, next to a message saying “module unknown.” Martyna turned around and looked at Ewa and Zosia; they were busy trying to listen to the phone conversation. She sat on the bench, next to the machine which she then carefully picked up - just to set it down on the floor in front of her, with the chamber facing her directly.

"I DO NOT remember giving you permission - in fact, I s p e c i f i c a l l y requested that you not use it while I'm away! Let alone take it out of the house behind my back! What were you thinking?!" Julia's mother was understandably upset, but that wasn't the end of bad news for her - she had yet to hear about what happened to Wiktor. "Why are you calling me anyway? You'd better not have broken it!"

Martyna untied her converse sneakers and discarded them in a hurry, gleaming with mischievous excitement. Nobody was paying any heed to her, the phone call proving to be an unrivaled attention-grabber; she saw a window of opportunity for a payback, and she was determined to make sure it didn't go to waste. Martyna took off her pink-colored socks in two quick swoops, then stuffed them into one of her shoes. To avoid unnecessary contact with the cold floor without making it difficult for her to keep balance, she only rested one of her heels, the other foot remaining suspended in air. Only for a brief moment, though, since she quickly proceeded to curl her toes and insert her legs into the chamber through its rubber-sealed openings. Martyna’s long feet barely fit inside - after all she was a quite tall young woman who tended to make the boys at school feel a bit awkward just by standing near them - but she was perfectly comfortable and the plastic lining felt nice and refreshing on her bare soles.

“You did WHAT?!” The voice of Julia’s mother boomed through the speaker of her phone as the girl prepared herself for another round of scolding.

It wasn’t easy to use the device without the assistance of another person, but Martyna had to make do. She leaned heavily forward and looked at the interface and the display upside down. The device must have recognized that its chamber was no longer empty as it now displayed a message about its readiness to commence a new painting session, still asking, however, for one final parameter to be specified.

“Tem-po-ral-mul-ti-pli-er…” Martyna whispered to herself while slowly reading the flipped text. It took a second or two for the words to start making sense, but she recalled seeing them before in the forum posts she was just browsing, with one of the users clarifying their meaning. Having noticed that the appropriate knob was set to seconds, she decided to check what the maximum value would be.

“Six nines…” she found out. “A million seconds - that would be… about… oh, eleven days or so,” the calculator in Martyna’s phone gave her the answer instantly. She bit her lips, feeling a rush of excitement at the thought of getting back at the entirely powerless Wiktor in such a personal and humiliating way. She was pretty sure Julia wouldn’t mind her brother being taught a valuable lesson on why it’s not a good idea to meddle in the affairs of other people, not after the trouble he just got her into. All things considered, the only thing that was about to get hurt was his ego - she understood that nothing bad would really happen to him; if the device was dangerous to humans, it wouldn't invite them to stick their hands or feet inside.

Martyna confirmed the settings and pressed the start button, still almost folded in half while trying to reach the console on the other side. She didn't want to waste any more time. The familiar low buzz could be heard again as she straightened up and raised the toes of one of her feet slightly. She could swear she saw something appear inside before it turned into a blur.