Not A Toy 060

Maisie's knees quivered as she watched Jenna plummet out of sight. 

She heard a very faint squeak and then the woman who was going to be her interviewer for a job here, vanished as she was dropped inside a woman's bag!

Maisie wanted to scream, but that would reveal where she was. She couldn't suffer the same humiliating, ridiculous, and terrifying fate as that Jenna woman - she just couldn't! Maybe the stranger would just forget she was here? As that panicked hope reached her mind, it was stunning how quickly this redhead had gone from potential savior to someone Maisie hoped would forget her - even shrunken as she was.

It was all a foolhardy hope though. Sophie barely missed a beat as Jenna was secured, she twisted on the spot and retrieved the device from the floor, and Maisie wondered then if she should have tried to make some kind of mad attempt for it. Any wish that Sophie would forget Maisie was dashed as the scientist went to one knee and seemed to search about her surrounds.

Maisie had succeeded somewhat. Sophie couldn't see the missing girl - the younger of the pair. She rolled her eyes at the disappearance, the last thing she needed right now was a game of hide and seek! Why were these two being so difficult?! 

Well, the answer to that was somewhat obvious, she supposed - but that was more due to a lack of understanding on the dwindled womens' part than anything else, right?

Now, where was she? Sophie calmed her brittle nerves as well she could. The door was shut; there was no way out of here. Her eyes darted about the room, wondering if she had somehow gotten underfoot.

Maisie took retreating steps backward, it seemed Sophie didn't realize where she was immediately - one boon to being this small. She tried to sneak away, fearful that the clap of her shoes on the wood would give her away instantly, but realized due to her reduced weight, she made less noise with each step.

One. Two. Three. Four. Each stride took her further from the searching woman, it was fear and dread that spurred the tiny graduate, and only a part of her mind was trying to decide on what her options were; was there any way out of this room, this situation?

Before any logic or reason could prevail within her mind, Sophie's own impatience got the better of her. The giantess realized she was thinking 'too big', and put herself in the mind of someone much smaller. Naturally, she lowered herself and peered beneath the table meant for small children.

Maisie gasped as the two knees crashed into the floor and the face of Sophie came into view, darkened by the gloom beneath. 

"There you are!" Sophie said, sounding exasperated.

Maisie's instincts took control, and the tiny woman dashed between the chairs, her heart racing at the sight of the device. That thing was responsible for so much of her distress this afternoon, she couldn't bare to become its victim once again.

"Go away!" Maisie cried, her voice squeakier than it would have been. The request non-sensical and lacking conviction.

Sophie's jaw tightened, the tiny girl was fleeing and already out of reach. The scientist was stressed. Anxious. Irritated. Impatient. Without giving it much thought, she raised the device and pulled the trigger. It whirred to life, the beam leaping across the room.

Maisie yelped as light filled the space beneath the table, her pace quickened like she had heard a starter pistol. The girl narrowly avoided the beam and it crashed instead into one of the stools. She could hear the faint grinding of the stool's legs against the floor as it was dragged inward, smaller.

Sophie slammed a fist to the ground, her irritation rising. "Hold still! Why are you both behaving like this?!"

Maisie was clear of the table, and the room opened up above her, where could she go?! There had to be a way out of this! Perhaps she could... 

Then, she heard that whirring again - if she could zig-zag her steps then maybe...

It was too late. The light flashed behind her, and the graduate glimpsed the beam striking her lower back.

Maisie didn't know what to do - what could she do? She knew there was no time for decisions. What was going to happen was already happening, she could feel it. 

She could only keep running.