“We haven’t even been in here for ten minutes. Where the hell are you going to go? What exactly do you think you’re going to accomplish?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I can find someone to help us.”
“You might be one inch tall. You have a better chance of being stepped on.”
“Maybeyou’reone inch tall, but I was six foot two. That has to make me taller than just one inch.” Trey went to the wall with the gap at the bottom and crouched on his side.
Catalina leaned a shoulder against a wall, watching him go, trying to fake aloofness as though she didn’t care what he did and wasn’t at all worried about him. “Fine. Go get help. I’ll wait for you here.”
He gave her one last winning grin before saying, “Don’t worry, babe. I’ll rescue us, and then we’ll seeabout more kissing.” He then slid between the gap and was gone.
She was alone.
Being by herself was what she’d been asking for this whole vacation. Except once Catalina had it, she didn’t like it much. Unsettled, she began to pace. Catalina shouldn’t go to him. She should stay put. Wasn’t this the standard advice given to people who were lost? If this was the one spot in the world that could transform them into something tiny, then it had to be the exact spot with the ability to make them normal height again. She was playing it smart and took a seat on the ground, determined to be content with her decision.
It only took for her husband to make anoofsound somewhere outside the walls, like he had fallen or gotten hurt, for fear and anxiety to pierce her gut, sending her scrambling to her feet. What if something happened to him? How would she even know if it did? Their phones didn’t work. She was going to let him go out there and risk getting stepped on or eaten by a giant spider while she remained here fiddling with the straps of her bag? Granted, her decision to sit here was the wisest one, but between her and Trey, she was the one who took care of spiders in their apartment because he’d always had an extreme phobia about them. If he saw one, he’d freeze, making it easy for a spider to capture him and bring him back to a web lair where he’d be feasted on by a bunch of baby spiders and—
“Trey!” she yelled, running to the gap. “Trey!” She slid under the wall opening, frantic to find him.
“What?” He popped up, completely fine, and wasn’t far from the edge of the platform she was on, standing on one of the synthetic haystacks, which she realized was the low pile of hotel carpeting.
“God, you scared me.”
“Miss me already?” Trey started trekking away from her, jumping from one carpet haystack pile to another, like he was rock hopping on a river.
She carefully slid off the edge of the platform and was surprised to find the carpet pile holding her weight, and she didn’t sink into it like quicksand. Cat followed his lead, going after him. “No, it's just… What if there are spiders out there? You know, you don’t do well around spiders, and you’re just…” She panted for breath from this exertion of energy and her large bag weighing her down. “…six foot two packed into something very small.”
She stopped to take a breather, putting her hands on her hips, calculating how much distance was between them and the booth in case they needed to return in a hurry. They stood beside a silver pillar, which she guessed was part of a single chair leg. There were four of them evenly spaced out and a larger platform overhead on the pillars.
His carpet hopping paused as he turned to face her. Some of the cockiness dissipated from his features, his tanned skin turning pale. “Oh… Well, I’ll just stay away from dark corners. It’ll be fine.” He didn’t look fine at all, his eyes darting about, his posture on edge.
And then came the worst sound Catalina had ever heard in her life.
Chapter 8
Trey
The screech piercing the air had to indicate something bad.
Was it a spider?!
True, he’d never known spiders to make any noise, but maybe it was too hard for a six-foot-two person to perceive such sounds. Once he became considerably smaller, it had to be possible for him to hear all kinds of noises he’d never experienced before. With the subject of spiders in the forefront of his panicked brain, he couldn’t help but yelp out of his skin when a ball of dark fur and limbs suddenly jumped onto the edge of the booth’s platform they had earlier climbed from. He was ready to pass out on the spot, which would have ruined his plan to be his wife’s hero and save the day. Being tiny already sucked balls. Was this what everyday living was like for his petite wife?
“Oh my God. Is that a…monkey?” His wife pointed in the direction of the unknown animal.
There was a brief moment of relief, knowing a spider wasn’t about to attack and devour him, followed by confusion. “Wait. Are there monkeys thissmall?” He must have missed those sections at the Los Angeles zoo.
The animal beat its arms on the platform, screaming again, before jumping onto the carpet and loping toward them, closing the distance a lot faster than Trey was comfortable with. It certainly made his own athleticism less impressive.
They could make a run for it, but there wasn’t any obvious place to hide, especially one not also easily accessed by the animal. Screaming, Catalina raced toward Trey, slipping behind him and gripping his arm as if using him for a shield. Now that spiders were out of the picture, his courage returned. If he had to act as a shield to protect Cat, this was exactly what he was going to do. Although he became more nervous the closer the agitated animal got to them, appearing larger than he expected.
It stopped a few yards away, continuing to make angry noises as it pounded its fists against the floor in what appeared to be an intimidation tactic. Trey went to school with bullies and was familiar with this dance, which had led to a bloody nose on more than one occasion. This creature was about three feet tall compared to Trey’s new height and covered with dark fur. It had arms like a bodybuilder and was scarier than any school bully he’d ever encountered before.
“Hey, monkey,” Trey said, raising his hands and hoping it could be reasoned with if he acted friendly and non-threatening.
“That’s a chimp,” his wife hissed in his ear as she continued gripping the back of his shirt.
“What?”
