The girl Alex woke up next to was too tanned to be his girlfriend. 

His aching head pounded as memories from the night before flooded back to him— the partying, the fight with his girlfriend Maria, and her leaving while he stayed at the club. Maria was too childish when it came to vacations, she’d prefer carnivals to clubs and early morning to late nights. This was Alex’s first time in Spain since being legally allowed to drink, he should be partying, not doing kid stuff. 

“Usually I’m the one trying to leave before the other person wakes up,” said Alex. He didn’t remember the name of the girl he slept with, but she rushed to clip on her bra and throw a ripped shirt over her tanned body. “Isn’t this your room though?” 

“Not in the next 20 minutes.” The girl spoke with a thick Spanish accent, and Alex remembered why he liked her. She picked a shirt off the ground and threw it at Alex. “We have to check out in 20 minutes, vámonos!” 

Alex struggled to sit up in bed. He’d never experienced a hangover like this before. “Do you have tylenol or something?” he asked as he pulled down his shirt. 

“Tylenol?” The girl clearly didn’t know what he was talking about. She stepped off the bed and started shoving clothes in a duffle bag. “If you’re hung over, I have something way better that you can take.” After finishing with her clothes, she pulls out a small plastic baggie from a side zipper. 

Inside the baggie were two pills— one big, and one so small that Alex almost didn’t see it. The girl pointed at the big one. “Take this when you’re somewhere safe. Take the second when you uh, want to come up?” She seemed confused on how to say what she wanted to in english, but threw the bag at Alex. 

“What does this do?” asked Alex. 

The girl stood up and hurried to the master bathroom. “Trust me, you want to be surprised. Keep the second pill in your pocket after you take the first one. It’ll take uh, one half hour to kick in. Now get out of here.” She exited into the bathroom to pack.

Alex groggily pulled up his shorts. He wouldn’t survive the walk back to his hotel with his head splitting like this. Opening the baggie, Alex grabbed the big pill. While pulling it out, the second, smaller pill spilled onto the floor.

“Shit.” Alex muttered, scanning the ground for the pill. He popped the big one in his mouth and swallowed it with his spit. He continued looking for the other pill, but it was too small to see. 

“Screw it.” The second pill would take Alex down from whatever high the first pill gave him. He needed a good excuse as to why he never returned to his hotel room last night, he could tell his girlfriend that he was drugged and couldn’t find his way back. He was no stranger to cheating on Maria, but she didn’t need to find out this time.

The pain was already dwindling as Alex stood up and left the bedroom. In the room’s common area, his fling’s roommate sat on the couch. Trash and belongings littered the room like she didn’t have to leave in 15 minutes, and she took a strong rip of a bong that caused her to cough up smoke for several seconds. 

“Ayy, congratulations on last night.” The roommate placed the bong on the coffee table. “I heard yous mojando el churro all night long from that tiny second room. That bed was made for a child, I barely had any room to sleep.” She ripped her bong again. 

Alex rolled his eyes and navigated through the mess on the floor. He remembered the roommate putting up a fuss last night about being kicked into the other room, he didn’t want to deal with her fake nice girl attitude. 

The fluorescent light bulbs in the hallway brought back Alex’s soaring headache. Where was he exactly? Not only where in Valencia was he— he hoped he was still in Valencia— but where was the hotel’s exit? He navigated down the stairs, but at the ground floor he struggled to find the main lobby.

             10 minutes had passed since he started looking, and he worried about the drug kicking in before he knew which way his hotel was. He wasn’t good at talking to strangers sober, but I was better than staying lost. He approached a bell boy who was carrying a cart with two different sized suitcases on it. 

              “Excuse me,” said Alex, “Where can I find the exit?”

The bell boy flushed red. “Sorwy, no ingles.” He grabbed his cart and hurried away. Of course the one person Alex could find didn’t speak english. 

Alex knew enough survival Spanish to survive in Spain for the week, but he was blanking on how to say exit. Maybe he’d ask for the outside instead. At the end of a hallway was a big empty room with tables and chairs. The sign was in Spanish, but he made out enough to understand it was a place for eating. 

The room was currently between breakfast and lunch, so nobody was inside. Alex’s headache was becoming unbearable under all the bright lights. He'd be better off waiting until the drug kicked in to continue asking people for directions, somebody has to know a little bit of english. 

He sat down at a table in the room. His stomach felt sick, but was it the pill or did he need to puke? Checking the clock on the wall, the pill should’ve taken effect by now. Maybe he should text his girlfriend and ask for help, but then she’d be wondering why he was at a random hotel. 

It didn’t matter anyway, his phone wasn’t in his pocket. He could’ve lost it at any point last night. After another 10 minutes passed, Alex figured the pill would never sink in. He grumbled, standing up from the chair he sat on.

And his feet didn’t hit the ground right away. It was a weird sensation, but one he wrote off. The room seemed bigger, too. Alex held his head. It did feel a little better than before, if he were tripping that would explain the room getting bigger. He must’ve been hallucinating.

But Alex didn’t feel high, even if the walls were expanding. As he walked, his strides felt shorter, but he didn’t feel anything different in the way he walked. He approached the glass door, the handle was a lot higher up than he remembered. As he went to turn it, he saw his reflection through the glass. 

The room wasn’t growing, Alex was shrinking. 

Alex struggled with the door, pulling it instead of pushing like he was supposed to. He saw himself dwindle in size in the reflection before bursting out of the room. This wasn’t just some trip. He needed to find somebody to help him, and fast. 

Navigating the hallways, a Spanish woman wearing a sundress walked down a corridor. She didn’t look tall, but Alex only came up to her hip as he approached. Alex pulled at her dress. “You have to help me. I took a pill and now I’m shrinking.” 

The lady pulled her dress and slapped his hand away. “La gente necesita enseñar a sus hijos a respetar.” She continued walking towards what looked like the hotel’s pool. 

Alex looked around him. He could knock on one of the doors, but he shrunk so fast if he picked the wrong door and somebody who only knew Spanish answered that he’d be nothing by the time he tried the next door. He had to go somewhere populated with enough people that somebody had to speak English. 

Alex rushed onto the pool deck. A lifeguard blew his whistle at him as asked ran to the pool’s deck. “Help! Somebody please, I need help.” 

Nobody answered him. Most people stared at him like he was an annoyance, some muttered under their breaths in Spanish. Couldn’t they see he was shrinking? Why wouldn’t that sound alarm bells? 

“Regresar a casa, gurir estupido.” A teen boy pushed Alex into the water. People cheered and the lifeguard’s whistle blew as Alex sunk into the pool. 

This wasn’t good. Not only did nobody seem to speak English, but he was shrinking rapidly in the deep water. The girl he slept with was definitely from Spain, this hotel must’ve been for natives who didn’t want to deal with tourists. 

Alex emerged to the top of the pool. He struggled to doggy paddle. The sign said the pool was only 2 ½ feet deep, he was shrinking faster. The people around him were mostly his age or younger, but they already towered over him.  As he swam to the ladder, adults and children alike banged into him, shouting curses and other words Alex couldn’t decipher. 

A large wave hit Alex that almost knocked him under the water. A couple feet away, two twin girls splashed water at him, laughing and taunting. As Alex continued to shrink the splashes became too large, and it forced him back under the water. 

Alex slammed into leg after leg as the current swirled him around. He finally caught a lucky stroke as a cannonball wave splashed him right out of the pool. He clung to the marble side wondering how he was still alive. 

People walked around him, wet footprints being left behind in the intense heat. Laying next to one, Alex barely came half way. He had to be only 4 or 5 feet tall. Getting somebody’s attention now was impossible. 

Two choices came to Alex’s mind: one was to run into the streets and hope to find somebody there, and the other was to go back inside the hotel to look for the pill he dropped. The first would certainly cause his death under an unaware bystander’s shoe, so he ran into the hotel before he ended up flattened under somebody’s wet sole. 

His breathing slowed down now that he was safe inside. People didn’t seem to roam the halls much, and Alex made it to a stairwell without running into anybody. It took him several minutes to climb up a single step. He wasn’t exactly the strongest, but surely grabbing onto a ledge and pulling oneself up was harder than it looked on tv. 

320 was the room Alex had spent the night in. All he had to do was get there before house cleaning swept the room and the pill would be gone forever. He was in a race against the clock, but his tiny body made travel difficult, and it took almost an hour before he reached that floor. 

Tired, Alex pushed himself forward to room 320. He stuck his hand under the metal door, but he was still too big to fit under it. He cursed, laying on the ground and looking under the gap. 

Feet walked around inside. Alex couldn’t make out what the woman was saying, but she was definitely complaining about something. Maybe the mess— housekeeping had done a poor job of cleaning the room. Most of the trash was picked up, but there were still crumbs and items under the couch and the room reeked of weed. 

If housekeeping didn’t clean under the couch, maybe they didn’t clean under the master bed either! The pill must’ve been there. At the corner of the door Alex noticed a hole big enough for him to squeeze through. Things were finally looking his way. 

Alex waited until the woman exited into the master bedroom to squeeze through the hole under the door. He was big last time he was in this room just over an hour ago, but at this size he noticed the room in better detail. The carving in the wooden coffee table with somebody’s initials, the torn couch cushion, the air conditioner that roared from above, and how long each strand of carpet actually was. 

Roaming through the common area— which took maybe 5 steps to get across before— was an enlightening experience at only 4 inches tall. If Alex wasn’t afraid of being stuck that size forever, he might actually enjoy the experience of being this small. 

A door creaked open. Alex froze. To his right was the door to the second bedroom, the one the roommate complained had a bed too small for an adult to sleep in. Alex hesitantly cranked his head, and saw a girl who couldn’t be older than 10 walk out from it. She whistled to herself, checking out the room she just moved into. 

The girl was definitely from Spain, but Alex couldn’t tell if she lived in Valencia or was vacationing there from another area. She fumbled about the room, checking out the tv channels before staring at the weird hotel paintings on the wall. She tilted her foot down so her toes could feel the carpet beneath her pink flip flops, and it was only another few moments before she saw Alex. 

She shook her head, just as annoyed as everyone else who saw him “¿Por qué los hoteles siempre tienen bichos?” she asked. 

Alex was too frightened to move. If he stood still enough she might just mistake him for trash and leave him be. She looked so young, as most kids do, but this was the first person Alex really got to look at from his current size. She stood like a skyscraper, and her slender body made her movements look more monster than human. 

She approached. Alex scanned the room, but couldn’t make up his mind on where to hide. The girl’s ten toes grew massive as they approached in the flip flops, and soon all Alex could see were her ankles and lower legs. The feet stood there like they were in contemplation. A look up at the girl’s face revealed it was actually a moment of disgust. 

The little girl raised her foot up. Alex fell on his back and began screaming as fragments of dirt fell from beneath the rubber sole. “No, no! I’m not a bug.” He cowered, turning his face from the little girl’s foot. He didn’t open his eyes again until he heard the foot fall back on the floor. 

He opened them slowly, just in time to see the child lower to her knees and press her face right up to his. “Este bicho puede hablar inglés. ¿Eres una persona?” Her warm breath rolled over Alex. Her lips guarded large off white teeth sharper than knives. Several were still baby teeth, and one was missing from the far back. And her tongue looked like a predator about to pounce. “Are you a person?” 

“You speak english?” asked Alex. The fear in him settled. For whatever reason, he felt safer now that he could talk to somebody, even if the bright look her eyes made was off setting. “I was shrunk by a… magic object. I think the thing that will grow me back is in this room, you have to help me find it. It's in there.” Alex pointed towards the master bedroom.

“That is mi madre’s room, she no like it when I go in there.” The little girl extended a giant finger and poked Alex in the stomach. If he weren’t still sprawled across the floor she would’ve knocked him over. “I’m Nerea, you have a name?” 

Alex wasn’t sure if she was asking or telling him. “Alex. Nerea, get your mom and show me to her.” 

“You e’say my name funny.” She poked him again, this time hard enough to make him grunt. “You have a tiny family?” Alex was not here to play 21 questions with a giant child. Kids are so frustrating to talk to. 

The master bedroom opened, and the girl’s giant mother walked out. Seeing his chance, Alex jumped up and waved his arms. “Hey!” 

Nerea spurred from the floor. The back of her heel rammed into Alex and knocked him over. She stomped her left flip flop onto him, stepping on him. Alex was worried she was going to crush him, but it seemed like she was only trying to hide him. 

“¿Con quién estás hablando?” The older woman asked. Alex tried to squirm out from under the rubber sole, but Nerea was stepping too hard on him to budge. 

“Nadie mamá, solo un bicho.” Nerea responded. “Está aplastado ahora.” Nerea twisted her sandal back and forth. It wasn’t enough to hurt Alex, but dirt rubbed into his face and his cheeks were pulled in awkward directions. 

The weight increased as Nerea bent over. Her fingers slipped under her flip flops and wrapped around Alex. Nerea pulled off her flip flops and brought Alex with them. “Voy a llevar mis chanclas a mi cuarto.” 

“Sólo mantén la voz baja.” Alex heard her Mom say as Nerea shut the bedroom door behind her. Nerea dropped her flip flops and held Alex in her hands, a wide smile poking at her cheeks.

Nerea sat down on the twin sized bed and pet Alex’s hair with the pad of her pointer finger. Alex was overcome with anger at how Nerea was treating him and for not showing him to her mom, but blowing up at her would only make things worse. 

“Lo siento about the dirt.” Nerea licked her thumb and dragged it down Alex’s face. Alex fidgeted, moving his face around to try and avoid the thumb, but the bigger digit overcame him. 

Is she really using her spit to clean the dirt on my face that’s there from her flip flop? Alex sighed, trying to remain calm. Nerea pulled back her thumb. “That wasn’t nice, Nerea. I asked you to show me to your mom and you stepped on me.” 

“I e’said sorry.” She responded in the way a kid who isn’t actually sorry would. “Will you play dolls with me first? I’ll help you after.” 

Alex was reluctant to respond. His girlfriend gave him a lot of grief over it, but Alex never liked kids and hated playing with them even more. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have many other choices. He’d entertain her if it meant getting what he wanted. “Sure, I’ll play dolls with you.” 

“Really?” Nerea asked excitedly, jumping off her bed so fast Alex’s head spun. She pulled a couple tissues from a tissue box and laid them on the floor. After grabbing some paper clips from a drawer, she settled them in the middle of the tissues. 

Nerea laid on her stomach on the floor behind the tissues. She held Alex’s upper body with two fingers, and with her other hand she grabbed his legs and forced him into a sitting position before roughly sitting him on the napkin. Alex turned red with anger, he could’ve easily sat down himself. 

This brat is using me like an actual doll. How humiliating… 

Nerea started speaking in Spanish again, too. She spoke so fast and with such a thick accent that Alex didn’t pick up anything she was saying, but he could decipher what kind of game she was playing. 

She fiddled with the paper clips and spread them out against the rim of the tissues. Nerea was pretending to have a picnic with Alex as the only actual guest, though as she played Alex figured she had an imaginary guest there too. 

Things were less embarrassing as time went on, though Alex was beginning to lose patience. He played along when Nerea raised a paper clip to his mouth by pretending to eat it— something Nerea always giggled at— and tried not to lose his temper when Nerea would shake him to indicate he was the one speaking. 

Despite the humiliation, it did feel good being the reason the girl was so happy, and at times he found himself enjoying her company. He was so scared when he first shrank, this was a nice change of pace. 

“Oi! Alex, want to play house with me?” Nerea dropped Alex and turned towards the still full suitcase near her bed. She opened it, and started dropping clothes on the floor as she looked for something. 

Alex was dumbfounded. He just spent almost an hour pretending to be a doll at some picnic, it was time she helped him. “What about showing me to your mom?” 

“I told you, madre no like when I go into her room.” Nerea continued to sort through the bag. After a moment she pulls out a beaten down rag doll bigger than Alex. One of its button eyes was missing, and several stitches were missing down the seam. “Are you ready to meet your esposa?”

Alex couldn’t rebuttal before she grabbed him. She shoved him against the rag doll’s mouth and made kissing noises for them. 

The door swung open. Nerea’s mom stood in the doorway, scanning the room. Alex wanted to scream to her, but the anger in her posture only made him freeze. 

“¿Estás jugando con muñecas antes de terminar de desempacar? ¡Desempaca, ahora!” Madre slammed the door shut.

Nerea was less intimidated than Alex was, who clung onto Nerea’s hand for emotional support. Nerea only pouted. The little girl’s mom was scary, maybe Alex didn’t want to go to her for help. 

“I’m sorry doll Alex, we can play later.” Nerea lowered Alex on top of her pillow, placing the rag doll next to him.

Nerea ignored him as she went to unpack, shoving her crumpled up clothes into a drawer. As Alex watched the child move, he wondered if she had any intention of actually helping him.