One night, in the summer before senior year of high school, Kat Reyes saw a purple meteor streak toward earth, and land in the back forty. She walked out to it, through the dirt and grass, to the smoking purple crater. In the center was a beautiful glowing rock about the size of a marble. She touched it, and saw two parallel universes - hers, and one identical to it, and all the space in between. When her eyes stopped glowing and her hair drifted back down to her shoulders, she looked at the stone in hand and said, “Ok…”

***

That summer, Kat practiced for days on end, in the back forty with nobody around, opening portals.

Kat always had an expression that looked both sad and pissed off all at once. She was a bit short, and of average weight and build. Her face was round, with full lips and somber dark hazel eyes with long lashes. Her hair was long and straight and brunette. She often wore oversized t-shirts that almost turned into dresses, with short shorts and sneakers. Her voice was low and soft. When she was happy, there was a touch of valley girl. When she was mad, it was flat and patient. Often she spoke to people like a parent admonishing a young child. 

At first the portals were only so small she could put her finger through. But the other world was real, she could feel it. Eventually she could fit her whole hand into her portals. The first thing she took was a rock. She poured over every detail, comparing it to the original rock on her world. She could not find any difference.

Then she practiced changing the size of the exit-portal in the other world - she could make it bigger, and her hand came out that much bigger. It was a bizarre, dizzying feeling. She would grab a rock, pull it through, and now had an identical but smaller rock than her world’s. The inverse was true - she made the portal smaller on the other side, and took a tiny pebble that turned into a boulder in her hand.

She practiced taking rocks for days, building piles of them in the back forty. But by the end of each day, the rocks from the other world were gone. They simply faded from existence. She took a video on her phone to prove to herself that she wasn’t crazy. Interestingly, the video evidence remained intact, though the rocks did not.

The same was true of organic matter. Flowers and insects also faded away. It did not seem to matter the material or the size. After roughly half an hour they began to destabilize.

She practiced portal placement, testing the limits of her range. The farther away from her, and from each other, the harder they were to produce. Also the larger the portal, the harder it was to maintain. But she kept practicing, and improving her skill. She was getting a tan from being in the field so much. 

It was one day she was practicing with bugs that her phone rang. It was Jess.

“Hello?” She said. “What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing’s wrong with me, what’s wrong with you?” Jess said. 

“Why are you calling me on the phone like a boomer?”

“Because you haven’t answered my texts in weeks, bitch! I was beginning to think you died or something.”

Kat finished her practice by snapping open a portal in front of a large, moving spider, and releasing it into the other world at the size of a chihuahua. “I’ve been… working on something.”

“I haven’t seen you all summer, what are you ‘working on’?”

“Video stuff.”

“Are you making movies without me?”

“No. I haven’t filmed anything yet.”

“Well let's film some! We haven’t done it in forever. I could use some extra cash.”

“Okay. Come over tonight.”

***

“I have a plan,” Kat said to Jess. They were sitting on her bed. “I need you. I need to know if you are in.”

Jess had shoulder length, wavy brunette hair, a diamond shaped face, Roman nose, and green, smoky eyes with high-arched brows. She was just shy of being tall and thin, but was not quite either. Her smile was wide and showed off big, perfect teeth, and her voice, though fairly low-pitched, rang clear and loud like a bell. She usually wore tight shirts with jackets, torn jeans, and sneakers.

Jess studied Kat intently. “What’s going on? You’re like, really serious into this now.”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Kat. It’s just stepping on bugs and stupid toys and houses. Why are you suddenly intense about it? What happened?”

Kat sighed. “Jess, you’re my best friend. I love you. I need you to be with me on this, ok? I’ll tell you everything. And I’ll show you.”

Jess stared into her eyes, frowning, searching for truth. “I love you too,” she said eventually, sincerely. “Tell me.”

***

“So you’re saying you can open portals to an alternate dimension?”

“A parallel dimension, yes.”

“And you can change the size of stuff?

“Basically.”

There was a very long silence while Jess rubbed her eyes. She took a drag on her cigarette and exhaled out the bedroom window. Eventually she said, “Okay. What are you going to do with this ability?”

“Keep making videos.”

There was  another long silence, this time as Jess stared into Kat’ eyes. There was hesitation, but ultimately there was acceptance of her friend. Even if she was crazy. “Keep making videos?”

“Yeah. Keep making videos.”

“…Of what, exactly?”

“Same thing we’ve been doing. You, stepping on …stuff.”

“You said ‘stuff’ weird. What am I stepping on now?”

“Well. You know those ‘giantess’ videos we made?”

Jess continued to stare at her. “…The ones where I step on toy cars and… clay people?”

Kat walked over to a drawer and pulled out a small cardboard box. Out of the box she took another object out. This she held it out for Jess to take.

Jess took it gently, and inspected it. A tiny car. A 1980-something Thunderbird, dusty yellow. She studied it very closely. She turned it over, and the glove box inside opened and poured out objects. Papers with print too small to read fluttered out. She spun the tires. They resisted, because the car was still in park. She turned it over again and gave it a light squeeze. The metal bent like tin, and the windshield safety glass crumbled into sand. Softly she said, “It’s so real…”

“You know it’s real. Toys don’t do what that car just did. Don’t you recognize it?”

Jess’s eyes widened. “It’s that abandoned car that’s parked on Hearth Road.”

“No. This one is from the other world. Ours is still there.”

“…Ok. So, you want me to step on real cars?”

“Real cars. And…?”

“And… real…?”

Kat nodded.

“Stop.” Jess sounded incredulous, but a little excited. “Are you serious, Kat?”

“Look in the trunk.”

Jess used her thumbnail and popped the trunk, breaking the latch. Her eyes widened. “Oh my God who is that? Are they real?”

Inside the trunk was a tiny man, with a piece of black electrical tape wrapped around him like the strip of seaweed around nigiri sushi.

“Kenneth.”

“Kenneth? You shrunk Kenneth?”

“Kenneth 2. Not the real Kenneth.”

Jess closed her mouth, which had become agape. “Prove it. I need to see the real Kenneth.”

***

Kenneth 2, laying taped up in the palm of Jess’s hand, stared in shock at Kenneth 1, who was playing street hockey. 

Jess looked from Kenneth 2 to Kenneth 1, back and forth.

“Satisfied?” Kat asked.

“I guess so.”

“Do you want to step on him?” Kat asked.

Jess turned to her friend. She said nothing, but her face blushed. Her eyes were pleading, and she was biting her lip. In her hand, Kenneth, who had just realized what had been said, turned over to look at them in horror.

“He said some pretty mean things about you in school,” Kat continued.

Jess nodded slowly.

“Like, really mean things. He called you a whore and said you had sex and that you were bad in bed, even though you never fucked him.”

“I know, Kat. I know what he said,” Jess replied, through gritted teeth.

“Oh wait,” Kat said, touching her hand, which had tightened around Kenneth to almost a fist. “Let me get my phone ready. Shoot, I left the good one at the studio.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and squatted, setting it to video mode. “Okay. Ready.”

Jess opened her fist and stared at Kenneth, who squirmed in her hand. Slowly she lowered him to the concrete. This was starting to feel like a dream. She tilted her hand and tipped him gently out, where he rolled off and continued to squirm. She stood up, and felt lightheaded and dizzy. There were so many thoughts and questions spinning through her mind, but they were distant and she couldn’t grasp any of them. All she could focus on was Kenneth, at her feet, looking like a worm. 

“Whenever you’re ready,” Kat said patiently. “Remember, it’s just like stepping on a bug. Don’t overthink it.”

Jess stared for some time, how much she didn’t know. Her brain went numb, though her heart pounded in her chest. She lifted her shoe, slowly, and held it over him. Was she really going to do it?

She put her foot down and mumbled something.

“What?” Kat said.

“Take the tape off his mouth,” she said quietly.

“Oh, good idea.” Kat propped the phone up on a rock, and using her fingernails, carefully peeled the tape off his mouth.

Jess heard him screaming, like a squeaky little mouse. She couldn’t make out any of the words. She thought that maybe hearing him speak would put some sense into her, convince her to call it all off, that it was all wrong. It didn’t. Instead, she knew for certain she had to do it - will do it.

She lifted her shoe again, stood gracefully, and lowered it slowly. She watched Kenneth wriggle, listened to him scream. He looked like an inchworm, but he was a human being. He was trying to get his counterpart, his other self playing basketball across the street. She kept lowering her foot, slowly, until she couldn’t see him anymore, and stopped only when she barely felt the tiny little bump of resistance under her sole.

She paused there for a while, and struggled one last time to bring a coherent thought to surface. But instead she listened to that feeling, that hunger deep within her.

She pressed down.

She felt Kenneth crush beneath her foot, saw his blood squirt out like a ketchup packet. She stood there, and shifted her weight forward slightly, then back. She lifted her foot carefully and saw the red splatter that had been Kenneth. Saw his body all crushed flat and his insides all stuck to her sole, and his blood soaking into the concrete. She could almost make out his face, all squashed flat and covered in brains. “Fuck,” she whispered.

“Got it. Time to go,” Kat said, shaking her. 

Jess blinked. She didn’t know how long she had stood there, but Kat already had her phone stashed and was walking away. She looked down again. Kenneth’s remains were still there. She quickly scraped her foot along the concrete, wiping his guts off, and took one last look at the tiny crushed body before following Kat.