Back home

If Maggie expected her father to heavily punish Janine for what she did, Edgar uttered no comments about the whole incident or not questioned his stepson swollen eye. He only explained Janine told where to find them, shoving a blue plaster to pass over the swelling onto Jake hand. Moreover, her elder sister was nowhere to be found.

- I can’t believe he just left us and went back to the lab!

- He is busy because he works hard to provide for you and your sisters.

- For US – Maggie corrected – You are also his son.

Jake stopped on the way to the kitchen and turned to face his sister that was right behind. Usually only Kate did this kind remarks about his stand on the household. 

- What? Something in my face??

- No… just thinking how Nate is the luckiest bastard alive.

- Shut up and give me the plaster so I can apply it already – her tone could be of annoyance, but the blushed cheeks denounce Maggie’s true feelings.

- Since we are alone, why don’t you give the sneakers a rest?

- But…..

- C’mon! You know I don’t mind your piggies company. Enjoy the carpet beneath your feet a little.

On that moment the girl had an idea, a wish actually, that she remembered.

- Ok. Wait here. I have to pick one thing upstairs. – Maggie does a mad rush to her bedroom and shut the door after passing. Jake can’t help laugh at her obvious excitement before continue his way to start applying the blue gooey.

………………

When Jake came to, his body felt strange, lighter, as if he wasn’t wearing any clothes.

“That’s odd. I don’t remember taking my clothes off”

Everything was shrouded in darkness, but the boy could tell he was no longer home by the surface that felt nothing like carpet. He tries to move forward and fell the environment.

- What is this? Seems like… Cotton??”

Suddenly, light starts pouring in through a hole that seemingly materialized out from thin air. But then Jake realizes Janine is there sustaining the passage with her right hand.

- Hurry!! – She screams stretching her free hand to him – Before she comes back!   

- What? What are you talking about? –

Upon stepping outside from wherever he was in, Jake saw himself staring at what appeared like a forest of red trees, except those straight red things without leaves or branches or roots could never be considered trees. “So we are most certainly not in a forest”. But what really got Jake’s attention was a giant glass structure right in front of them that eerily resembled the flask containing the blue plaster.

- Janine… where exactly are we? – He asked not taking his eyes from the flask.

- No time to explain – She panted, clearly making a huge effort to form the phrases – We gotta get out of here before she comes back.

- Before who comes back??

BOOM

The ground, no, the entire world shock with a loud thud.

BOOM

Another one.

BOOM

- No… it can’t be…

It was. Earthshattering steps for him and Janine but a simple walk down the stairs for the now humongous Maggie.

- This is a dream!! Another nightmare!! – Jake try to convince himself although, deep down he knew the truth.

In the dream, he was small, but now Maggie body easily towered over 500 meters. Janine shouts and waves, desperately trying to get her sister attention despite knowing how the effort is.   By comparison, they should look like nothing more than sand grains in her path.

Maggie had changed into a white swimsuit, walking straight to their location until she was directly over them. The blonde giantess prepare to take another step, her enormous sole casting a shadow over Jake and Janine. Jake is still in disbelief, unable to move or look away, but Janine grabs the boy arm and runs faster than she ever did.

BOOM

They evade certain doom under Maggie colossal toes, but only by millimiters. The foot fall rises a small typhoon that send the two tines flying away. Both teens scream at the top of their lungs as they roll under the sofa.

Several seconds pass without nothing happening. The constant shockwaves came to a sudden stop.

“She must have stopped moving” Jake thinks .

He tries to lean on his arms to get back up when he spots Janine beside him. Blood clearly leaking from the girl forehead.

- Janine!!

Without any warning, thunderous roars fill the place, shaking everything down to thecore. Although indiscernible at his current size, Jake immediately understood that those horrible deep sounds were words. Maggie was speaking, probably asking why his clothes where on the ground and calling for him.

- JAKE. JAKE! WHERE ARE YOU?

Soon the shockwaves started again, but, this time the epicenter seemed to be moving farther and farther away with every loud thud. They were safe for the time being.

……………….

Janine remembers five years prior, the time she spent as a high school freshman. She was top of her class and dated the most handsome hunk you can imagine. She was also top notch in sports, being the ace of the track team. Long story short, she was a better version of Maggie and Kate in one. The scene changes to her room. The sun is setting  and she is doing some aerobic exercises when her father yells for her to come down.

Maggie is already sitting in the living room, but, surprisingly, her eyes weren’t glued on the phone screen. Little Kate was also, looking at something with a worried expression.

- Oh Janine, you are here. Come meet Jake. He will be living with us from now on.

“Right, this is the first time we meet Jake. Kate at the time didn’t like him one bit. If I am not mistaken she said he seemed… what was it?”

- He seems dirty.

“Yes. That’s what she said. Then I scolded her…”

- Kate! – “She shows me the tongue so I hit her head” – Sorry about it. She is just a silly brat.

“And went to give the boy a hug. Gosh. Now that I remember it, I must had been covered in sweat. So embarrassing, but I didn’t want Kate commentary to get to him. He was actually a pretty cute boy, with the messy hair and emerald eyes”.

The scenario changes again. Janine is still in the living room only alone this time. Laughs echoes in the walls. She tears up. Her chest hurts. Suddenly the sealing of the house is ripped off and her father face appears flanked by Kate and Maggie, who stare down laughing.

- You are finally going to make something useful to me, my failure of a daughter.

Janine screams before everything fades away and she open her eyes.

- Thank God! You woke up!!

Jake hurriedly push his older sister into a hug, but soon regrets his action as the feeling of her bare boobs remind him that they are both fully naked.

- Get away from me you pervert! What is going on?! Why are we naked?

- You don’t remember? We shrunk down to some millimeters and you saved me from being squashed by our sister.

Her memories come back in flashes and Janine cry while holding her kness tightly – We’re screwed!! We’re going to die like insects!!!

Jake had to agree. Their situation was far from good. The air was stale, full of dust and, above all else, at their current size it was just a question of time before they ended up in the menu of some ant or killed by their own family.

- Listen, Janine, I need you to stay calm. I left my cellphone on the sofa. I am going to climb up there to get it.

- What?! No!! It’s too dangerous! What if Mega-Maggie comes back??

“Mega-Maggie? Incredible how she unintentionally managed to strike a joke out of this mess”.

- It’s all right. The Mega… I mean Maggie went to her room quite some time ago. I don’t think she will come down any time soon. Besides, this is our best chance to get help. If we stay put we will just starve to death.

- But how do you plan to climb the sofa??

- Don’t worry. Stay here and watch. I have a plan.

For the next thirty minutes Jake submerged in between the carpet bristles, rolling in dirty until he judged his entire body was filthy and sticky enough.

- Ok. It’s now or never – Before initiating, he looked at the sofa then back at were Janine was standing – If I die… please don’t give up.

From Jake perspective, the sofa could very well be considered the biggest skyscraper in the world, only made of leather and sponge. The climb took him what felt like hours, not to mention he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. So, although happy for reaching the top successfully without meeting any trouble, the boy was virtually wasted.

If he knew what was coming, he would never have stopped to rest, even for a second.

…………..

Kate thanks Zoey and her father for driving her home from the football train before opening the door. She was forced to skip the team get together afterwards because Maggie called saying Jake had gone missing.

- All is probably a big misunderstanding from the stink blonde – she speaks to no one in particular before opening the front door – Speaking of stink uff I am not one to talk also – she continues the monologue while sniffing her left armpit.

The coach was demanding more of her with every training section, what meant she always ended up drenched in sweat, especially on the nether parts. Usually Kate would shower right away after the training, but, because of the story about Jake, she didn’t had time even for a change of clothes, coming home with the red shirt with white stripes and black mini shorts of the team still disgustingly sticking to her body.

Tired and sweaty, the first thing Kate does is take off her soccer cleats and stretch her legs on the sofa.

- Ah! This is heaven – The girl blissfully declares adjusting her butt on the cushion.