Not A Toy 061

She was shrinking. Maisie knew.

She had been affected enough by the machine to know, she had walked into this room at five feet and two inches and that had been steadily stripped away from her, and it was happening again. There was a faint tingling sensation where the beam had weightlessly found her body, followed by a sudden light-headedness, not dissimilar to vertigo as her mind tried to make sense of the change that was travelling across her body. It was happening at a slower rate compared to when Maisie had fired the beam at herself; then it had been almost instant, but now she could feel it taking its time.

The vertigo was soon accompanied by a sense of crumbling inward, the world seemed taller, larger, and further away. Maisie tried to ignore it, but she could see her own hand shrinking in front of her. 

No! Keep running, just keep running! She told herself.

Yet her eyes travelled upward and saw just how imposing the room was becoming. She had thought she was small before - she was realizing that she didn't fully grasp what 'small' meant. Her pace slowed for a few steps as she shrunk smaller and smaller...

No! Just keep moving! You've got to get away from her!

Maisie cast a glance over her shoulder, she could see the redhead rising from the floor. The tiny graduate remembered how quickly she could cross the room, she would be able to catch up to her in an instant! Maisie gritted her teeth and just looked ahead of her, her body went into a full sprint, her heart was racing, sweat beaded on her skin, and she did her best to ignore the sensation that each step she took was progressively covering less ground.

Had she stopped shrinking? She couldn't be sure now, she didn't have time to think about any of that! She was so small - so helpless! Was there any advantage her new size offered her? Panic wrestled with desperation, as she tried not to think of the looming giant on the other side of the room.