Facing A'Tuin

Scheduled post!

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Air drifted across her bare legs, causing her to draw her pink jacket tighter about her neck. Millie stood with her arms crossed, staring through the bars at her colleague. Iva sat sneering on the other side of the barrier, chin resting on the coiled fingers of her fists, elbows on her knees. Iva’s expression was vindictive, patronizing, her massive green eyes flickering with a cruel glee as she wagged a cup in space.

It was Millie’s, one of the personal effects Millie had with her when the nightmare began. Carefully, Iva opened the door and reached across the threshold. Setting the cup on a small shelf before slamming the door shut and sitting back. 

“There you go!” Iva purred, fixing her headband. “It’s important to stay hydrated, little one.”

Millie fumed, glaring up at Iva. She moved towards the cup, slipping in the loose downy coconut fibers and wood chips lining her prison. Drawing close to the narrow steel shelf clipped to the bars of her cage.

Nearing the shelf, she craned her neck. Looking up and up at Iva, she seemed nearly twenty feet tall. Her lean frame was menacing even in her costume. She wore a gray and white one-piece bathing suit, with a long false tail sewn into the seat, gray fingerless gloves, and a headband, complete with two false ears. Reaching for the cup, a shadow crossed over her hands. Loud creaks, snaps and bangs assaulted her from all sides. Millie squealed, tumbling backwards, as Iva cackled. Her enormous fingers looped around the bars before her. 

“Iva!” Came a voice. The sound booming in the distance, echoing through the gargantuan room beyond Millie’s enclosure. While scrambling to her feet, Millie saw a figure emerge from behind the wall. A tall curvy woman with wavy red hair. “Bad girl!”

Her tormentor flinched, curling in on herself and releasing the bars of the cage. Her face twisting and shifting from expression to expression while her cheeks slowly turned marble white.

The enormous woman smirked, leaning against the wall. Millie could hear the drywall creaking from her tabletop prison. “Stop messing with the newbie, unless you’d like to join her in there.”

Iva’s body tensed, and her face locked on the even larger woman’s. “N—no! I’ll be good…” Her voice weakening, fading almost to a whisper even to Millie’s ears.

The curvy woman approached, Millie’s eyes widening as she watched the titan come into focus.  Heart racing as she stood, glaring into the face of her captor. 

“Ooh, still so spicy! I knew I chose well.” She sang, reaching out and stroking Iva’s head. Even Iva was utterly inconsequential next to her. “Isn’t that right Iva?”

Pouting, Iva glared down at Millie. “Yes.” She whined, enduring the fingers stroking her scalp.  

The woman paused; Iva’s headband shifted almost imperceptibly on her head. “Want to try that again—Kitten.”

“Y-yes! Yes Miss Mira!”

“Good girl.” Mira answered, resuming the light petting. The massive skull shifted slightly, peering down her nose at Millie. “And you…little mouse, I want to see you on that wheel.”

Millie sneered through the bars, mincing her way through the soft terrain to retrieve her cup. She could feel Mira’s eyes on her as she walked, as she climbed into the clear plastic wheel mounted along the wall of her prison. 

“Good mouse!” Mira sang, spinning on her feet and striding out of the room. 

Sipping her drink, Millie seethed. Stepping forward the wheel began to turn. Looking around she watched Iva glowering at her while climbing off the table, in an instant she couldn’t see the bully at all.  She had been here for days, shrunken and trapped, without even a clue where she was. The only thing she knew for certain was that she was on her own.  Even if people were looking for her, they wouldn’t be looking for a three-inch-tall woman.

If she could be trusted, Iva herself had been trapped for six months. This Mira was clearly capable of hiding her indefinitely. As the dark smudges of her sneakers rolled down the pane of plastic in front of her, her heart felt heavy, like it was threatening to sink to the pulpy floor of the cage. “How am I going to get out of this?” She sighed, trudging along.