Rodential Housing: The Tour

Chapter 4

“Are you all right?” Marianne asked.

“I’m fine,” Alexandra assured her again. “I’m literally indestructible now.”

They were sitting on Alexandra’s bed in the dollhouse. The girls had left for school about an hour ago, and their mother had left to go shopping not long after. With no humans remaining in the house, Marianne had taken the opportunity to come visit Alexandra so that they might see each other in the daylight this time. Alexandra appreciated getting to look at Marianne’s face, even if she appeared particularly worried. She had grown increasingly concerned as Alexandra had described her adventure with Audrey yesterday.

“I was thinking more about how you were doing emotionally,” Marianne clarified. “I’d be losing my mind if I was stuffed inside someone’s boot for the whole day.”

Alexandra chuckled and said, “It wasn’t fun, but I’m okay. Really.” While she had been telling herself this all day, only now, having said it out loud, she began to doubt it.

Marianne sighed. “Want me to stay with you today?”

Alexandra shook her head and said, “It’d be safer if you stayed out of sight. There’s no telling when the mother will be back, and we can’t let her catch you.”

“Why don’t you come visit the settlement, then?”

“I will once you guys get all set up. Right now, I’d just be in the way of the construction.”

“Then, what are you planning on doing for now?”

Alexandra looked out of the dollhouse to the vast bedroom outside. “I thought I’d go exploring around the house,” she said, now thinking twice about the plan. “Maybe I could learn something about the girls. I might even find a way to get the little witches to use more magic. Who knows? It would be nice to have a little more magic in the air. We could have that orb charged up in no time. And then, we’ll both be human.”

Marianne sighed again. “I don’t want you taking any unnecessary chances. Please, be careful.”

“Of course,” Alexandra replied, putting on a smile. She leaned in and kissed Marianne. They shared a brief hug, made awkward by all the excess breast flesh between them. Then, Marianne said her goodbyes and left. Alexandra watched her go, feeling glad that there was someone out there to feel concerned about her.

Alone now, Alexandra stared out at the giant world outside, feeling trepidation at the thought of leaving behind the relative comfort of the dollhouse. In here, at least, she felt as though she fit in. As small as she was, everything around her was her size. In here, she could almost forget for a while how little she had become. Out there, though, there would be constant reminders of how much she had shrunk. Still, she knew she could not hide in this toy home forever. She would need to explore, eventually. And so, she made her plans for where to begin her journey around the enormous house.

***

Alexandra set out after a quick freshening up and having some breakfast. She took a little while to give Esme’s bedroom a proper survey. Besides the toys scattered on the floor and a bookshelf with a number of picture books, there was not much of interest there. She had not expected to find much, but this room was the most familiar place in the house to her, making it an easy place to start. Now, she would need to head out into the unknown.

The colossal bedroom door was shut, but she knew the gap was just high enough for her to squeeze through. It was a tighter fit than she remembered, however, making her wonder if she had put on a little weight since the last time she escaped Esme’s room.

Standing in the cavernous hallway beyond the door, Alexandra felt some trepidation about proceeding, but she steeled herself to go on by planning a route from room to room.

Her first stop was Celia’s room. Dodging dust bunnies in the hall, Alexandra could smell the room before she even reached the door. Maybe it was her mouse nose being super sensitive, but the odor of herbs was overwhelming. Pungent and fragrant all at once, the room radiated with a wild mixture of smells, like a heat lamp of odors. It was a daunting challenge to get close, but Alexandra was not ready to turn back at the first obstacle in her way. Taking care to breathe through her mouth, she crawled beneath the door to enter the older sister's room.

The odors were even more potent and concentrated inside, and their sources were immediately evident, with bundles of herbs hanging from the ceiling and book-filled shelves. Drawers and jars contained even more organic matter, some vegetable, some animal, some of indiscernible origin. Mushrooms were growing in a mostly drained aquarium, and various plant pots were positioned on a table in front of the window, with a whole garden of different herbs growing in them. On the girl's desk were a variety of alembics, glass phials, and mortar and pestles. Some phials seemed to contain mysterious liquids. Potions perhaps? Alexandra wondered. Might there be something there that could help speed along the process to becoming human again? It was unlikely, she knew, but what harm was there in a quick search?

Alexandra climbed up the edge of the comforter on Celia's bed, finding the process of surmounting human furniture to be almost second nature to her now. She crossed the bed to where her desk was immediately adjacent to it. After a quick jump across the narrow gap, she was on the desktop amongst the potion-making gear and phials.

Celia had carefully labeled everything with stickers and written descriptions. There was one phial labeled “grow” beside another one labeled “shrink.” One had just the word “frog” written on it, leaving Alexandra to wonder if this was meant for a frog or if it would transform someone into a frog. Another phial was labeled “sleep.” When she went to walk past it, though, she stepped in a small puddle beside the phial, a few drops that had spilled from it, maybe?

As Alexandra shook her bare paw to dry it, she had her answer as her head swam and she felt herself getting dizzy, losing her balance and collapsing onto the desktop. She thought about escaping back to her dollhouse, but her eyes had already begun to droop before she even sat up again. She felt too drowsy to move or even think clearly. Before she could do anything, sleep had overtaken her, and she sank into oblivion.

***

Time passed. Alexandra tried to wake up, tried to move, but her body felt like it was made of lead. She drifted in and out of dreams, sometimes dreaming of being a human man again, other times relaxing alone with Marianne, enjoying her company. After some time had passed, Alexandra sensed movement, but it was a distant, uncertain impression. It was only when she sensed coldness beneath her, that she felt herself regaining consciousness.

The cold, flat surface beneath her might have been ice, only it was not painfully cold to lie on. “G-glass?” she asked, blinking her eyes open. As her eyes adjusted to a bright light above her, she realized that she was indeed lying on glass. In fact, she was surrounded by it on all sides except for above her. A disc with a hole in the center of it capped the glass cylinder that contained her. After she managed to sit up, she made sense of the situation. She was trapped inside a glass jar, one just big enough to contain her mouse body comfortably. Realizing that she had just become another specimen in Celia's collection of jars started her panicking. She stood up and tried to reach the lid of the jar above her, but the jar was just a little too tall for her to touch the top of it without jumping. There did not seem to be much chance that she would be able to twist the lid open on her own. She was truly trapped in here.

“Help!” she shouted towards the hole in the lid above her, hoping that she might be able to get Esme's attention.

Alexandra heard footsteps approach the room from down the hall and watched hopefully as the doorknob turned. Her stomach dropped when the door opened, revealing Esme's older sister standing there, looking both disgusted and angered.

“C-celia,” Alexandra said, hoping to placate the girl witch that approached her. “I can explain.”

Celia stared down at her with disdain, listening without replying. The girl was considerably taller than her little sister, who already seemed gigantic to Alexandra. She swallowed and tried to make some reasonable excuse for having been found passed out on the girl's desk.

“I was looking for a way to make it up to you for how Esme had been annoying you,” Alexandra said, searching for a way to spin this situation to her advantage. “I thought I might find something in here that I could use to help you… somehow.”

“You're not a good liar,” Celia said at last.

Alexandra cringed and replied, “I… I wasn't…”

“You sneaked into my room like a little thief. I ought to have chopped you up into little pieces.”

“I'm sorry.”

“You aren't,” the witch said, picking up the jar, holding Alexandra up to her disgusted face. “But, I'll make you sorry. I'll make both of you sorry.” She unscrewed the lid of the jar, and picked up another phial, popping a cork off of it before pouring a potion from it onto Alexandra's head.

“Ah!” Alexandra cried. “W-what are you doing to me?”

Celia said nothing as she screwed the lid back on the jar. She just smiled and watched Alexandra as the mouse felt something happening to her body. She looked down at herself, realizing that she was growing, stretching the doll dress she was wearing to the breaking point. At the same time the jar seemed to be contracting around her, the glass getting smaller and smaller.

***

Esme arrived home on her school bus not long after her sister did.

She hurried up to her bedroom to see her favorite toy, her special pet.

Celia's door was shut when she passed it, but it opened when Esme entered her own bedroom. She set down her bag and peeked inside the dollhouse.

“Alexandra?” she said. “Where's my little friend?”

There was no sign of the mouse in the dollhouse. Esme scanned the rest of the room and paused when she spotted a jar on her desk with some dark substance filling it. Although the contents were a mystery, she immediately recognized the jar and knew who must have put it there.

“Celia?” Esme said as she cautiously approached her desk, not taking her eyes off of the curious jar. “What's this thing on my desk?”

Celia listened, smiling, but did not reply.

Cautiously, Esme picked up the jar. Turning it around in her fingers, she nearly dropped it when the flattened rat's face came into view. She shrieked and her trembling hands set the jar down on her desk. Stepping back from it, she shouted, “Celia! What is this thing?”

Standing in her own doorway, Celia chuckled and replied, “Oh, don't tell me you don't recognize your furry ‘little friend.’”

Celia squinted at the jar, realizing what she was seeing now. Inside a rat had been compressed to fill the whole interior of the jar, squished into a perfectly cylindrical shape. There was only one being in the house that could be molded in that way.

“Alexandra?” Esme asked, lifting up the jar again, horrified at the ugly disfigurement of her beloved pet. Fury filled her, setting her eyes glowing red. “Celia!” she shouted marching out into the hallway. The witch sisters locked eyes, Celia's irises glowing a cool blue in contrast to the younger girl's red.

“The vermin was nosing around in my room,” Celia stated. “It should count itself lucky that it didn't poison itself before I found it. You should be thanking me. I made sure it would be too big to squeeze under my door again, as a way of protecting it.”

“Turn her back!” Esme said, her hands trembling with barely constrained hatred.

Celia shook her head. “It's your pet,” Celia said. “I'll have nothing more to do with it, unless it wants to trespass in my space again. Though, I have traps set up for it now, so I would warn against trying that again if it values its life.”

Esme was mad, furious, but she knew she would need back up to counter Celia. “Mom!” Esme shouted, marching downstairs, still holding the jar. “Celia is picking on me!”

She met her mother in the hallway, showed her the jar and the rat, and explained her sister's cruelty.

Her mother sighed and said, “It's your pet, and it should not have been wandering in your sister's room. Celia’s punishment is justified. You have no recourse with me. What's more, you are not to start a feud with your sister over it. The matter is settled for now. Understand?”

“But-” Esme protested.

“Do you understand?” her mother said, her eyes glowing a vibrant yellow.

Esme groaned in frustration and grunted, “Fine. I understand.”

“Good,” her mother said, her eyes dimming back to normal. “Now, trouble me no more until suppertime.”

Her mother left Esme standing alone in the hall, the girl's eyes watery with frustrated tears. “She'll pay for this,” she muttered. “I'll get her back… somehow.”

***

Celia's door was shut when Esme returned to her own room and shut her own door, restraining her fury just enough to keep from slamming it. She set the jarred rat down on the desk and hopped onto her bed, turning her attention away from it to focus on pouting.

Alexandra just stared out of the jar, having been unable to do anything but watch and listen to the family drama. It had been somewhat amusing to witness Esme's frustration. It was almost worth being a rat to see the little witch humbled. Still, being trapped was not fun. All the time she had been in the jar, alone with her thoughts, she had started contemplating the implications of her somewhat immortal existence. She considered what might have happened if Celia had just put her away in a drawer instead of on Esme's desk. There would have been no way to escape. Esme may never have found her. Celia might even forget about her, leaving her trapped until someone bothered to empty out the drawer. What if she had just been thrown in the trash? She could have ended up buried in a landfill, possibly forever. Death would have been a welcome option in such a case. In fact, there seemed to be quite a few fates worse than death that were possible for her now that she lacked the ability to die. Marianne had warned her to be careful. Now, she wished she had been.

Alexandra decided to just put those dark ideas out of her mind. There was nothing she could do about it now. Afterall, why worry about things she had no control over? She would do her best to get through this. For the mice and particularly for Marianne, she would persevere. Esme would let her out, eventually. Then, they would figure something out.

***

After a while, Esme grew bored with pouting and went to eat dinner. Later, when she returned to the room, she turned her attention back to the jar and her pet. Rotating the jar in her hand as if she hoped to figure out a simple solution with only a careful inspection, she gave into her frustration and twisted open the lid.

The rat smell made her wrinkle her nose, but she persevered. Reaching in her finger and thumb, she gripped Alexandra by the scruff of her neck, and pulled the dark furry mass up and out of the jar, leaving the remains of her shredded doll dress behind. The rat kept the cylindrical shape of the jar, its pinkish tail coiled around where the bottom of the jar was. Esme set the jar down on her desk and lay the rat down beside it, searching for where Alexandra’s limbs were flattened within the fur.

“I don’t care what mom says,” Esme told Alexandra, as she peeled free and straightened the rat’s tail. “I’m getting her back. She won’t get away with this.”

Alexandra felt that the girl might actually be showing some concern for her well-being, but she soon realized that Esme likely just saw harming her pet as a personal affront to her. 

To the little witch, Alexandra only mattered as a possession, not a creature with feelings and thoughts and a worth of her own.

As the girl straightened the rat's limbs, she said, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I’m doing something.”

Once, Alexandra’s head was freed, she felt life and mobility returning to her body. She inhaled and sighed as Esme set her down on the desk. It took a minute to get her paws and tail moving again, but soon enough she felt alive again. However, it was only then that she realized another problem.

Alexandra attempted to thank Esme, only to discover that she was unable to speak, her mouth producing only inarticulate squeaks instead. Sitting up on her desk on her hind legs, she looked down at her body and realized that she was no longer anthropomorphic. She was just an ordinary rat now. Again, she tried speaking, but all that came out was another shrill squeak.

She tried to signal to Esme that she needed help speaking, clawing at her throat with her fore paws. Esme saw and recognized the problem. Her eyes glowed a faint green for a moment, and Alexandra’s throat and tongue seemed to loosen up.

“Oh!” she said, “T-thank you.” Her voice still sounded shrill, but it was a relief to be able to form words again.

“Why were you in her room?” Esme asked. It was the angriest Esme had ever sounded when speaking to Alexandra.

Alexandra cringed and tried to think of a good excuse. “I thought there might be something you would want in her room,” she said, figuring that the girl would appreciate her pet attempting to benefit her somehow, even at the risk of aggravating her older sister. “I doubt she lets you in there, so I wanted to snoop around for you.”

Esme seemed unimpressed.

“I owe you so much for taking me in as you did, and I wanted to show my appreciation somehow. I don't have much else I can do to help you, but I can sneak into places you can't.”

After a moment of consideration, Esme said, “I see. That was… nice of you, I guess. But, look at you. What am I gonna do with you now? I might be able to reverse her curse after a while, probably not soon.”

Alexandra recognized an opportunity to have some more spells cast in the house, and a plan formed in her mind. “Could you at least make me more human-shaped again?”

“Yeah,” Esme said. “I think I could.”

It was time to stir the pot. “If you do, you'll need to find something for me to wear,” Alexandra said and smiled. “I think I know where you could find it.”

***

The next day, Celia was in a rush to get cleaned up. It was the night of the big dance, and Celia wanted to look her best to impress the boys and embarrass the girls. She had carefully laid out her brand new navy-blue dress on the bed with her best shoes set on the floor before heading to the bathroom for a shower. It was sure to be a wonderful evening.

As the warm water cascaded over her, she pictured what a great time she would have. This would be her first proper dance, and she had been preparing for it all week. Her mother had even given her permission to put on makeup. She looked forward to feeling a little more grown up as she got out of the shower and started drying her hair.

With her towel wrapped around her chest, she hurried back to her bedroom. However, she discovered a problem when she arrived: her dress had disappeared.

“Esme!” she shouted, knowing that there could be no other culprit. “Where is it? I don’t have time to play around with you.” She marched across the hall to her sister’s closed door and pounded on it.

After a pause that was a little longer than seemed necessary, Esme swung open the door and stepped up to her sister. A malicious grin spread across her face.

“My dress?” Celia said, tapping her bare foot impatiently.

“Oh?” Esme said, pretending to be surprised. “Were you planning on wearing that? I thought you had just tossed it to the side.”

“Where is it?”

Esme stepped aside and gestured toward her desk. “Alexandra needed something to wear,” she explained.

Celia spotted a doll-sized woman standing on the desktop. Despite her feminine figure, it was clear she was not an ordinary human, her body covered in dark fur all over aside from her worm-like tail. Then, there were her pointed nose and round ears, which were distinctly rat-like. The small rat woman wore only a doll dress… a navy-blue doll dress.

“My dress!” Celia shrieked, running up to little Alexandra to get a closer look. Sure enough, she was wearing a miniaturized version of the dress Celia had left on her bed. “You shrank my dress and put it on that filthy rodent?”

Esme grinned and replied, “It was easy using that shrink potion you left sitting on your desk.”

Celia’s eyes glowed a faint blue as she stared down at her little sister. “You stole from me. You thief.”

Esme’s eyes glowed green in response as if to warm her sister away from attacking. “You ruined poor Alexandra’s dress. You owed her another one. She can give this dress back to you later after she’s turned back into a mouse girl, again.”

For a long while, the girls just stood, eyes locked in a staring contest. Neither one seemed to want to make the first move, maybe due to their mother’s admonition against feuding.

Celia relented at last and marched out of Esme’s room, shouting “Mom!” down the hall.

Esme walked over to her desk to sit in her chair and wait for the inevitable arrival of their mother and Celia. Esme and Alexandra could hear a muffled conversation happening downstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps traveling upstairs and down the hall.

The girls’ mother appeared in the doorway with Celia standing behind her, still wearing only her towel.

“What’s this I hear about you taking your sister’s dress?” their mother inquired of Esme.

Esme explained her reasoning again, pointing out that a dress was owed and would be returned, eventually.

Their mother and the two girls stared at Alexandra, who felt more vulnerable in that moment than ever before. She kept her mouth shut, though, knowing that she had no real say in what would happen next. This was a dispute for the witches to settle on their own terms.

“I said this matter was settled before, didn’t I?” their mother asked, staring at Esme with accusing eyes.

“You didn’t know about the dress before,” Esme replied. “Something was owed, still.”

Their mother stared at Alexandra and the dress for a moment, then back at Esme.

“Fine,” their mother said. “The rodent can wear the dress. But, this is the end, now. Understand?”

“What!?” shrieked Celia, her towel nearly slipping off of her.

“I understand,” Esme replied, ignoring her sister’s outrage.

“It’s over,” their mother said, turning to Celia. “Find something else to wear for tonight.”

Celia clenched her fists, her eyes sparking blue for a moment. Then, she turned and stomped back into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

“Take care,” the older witch said, turning back to Esme. “Making enemies with any witch is dangerous, even if she is kin.”

Esme shrugged. “I didn’t start it, but I’m not letting anyone push me around.”

Their mother nodded, apparently approving the sentiment. Then, she walked out of the room and headed back downstairs. Esme shut her door, not wanting to tempt Celia’s rage again. Then, Esme and Alexandra waited until they heard Celia leave her room and head downstairs and out of the house. When they were confident she was gone, the two shared a relieved laugh together.

***

That night, after all the witches had gone to sleep. Alexandra lay in her now undersized bed, waiting for the arrival of Marianne. She had quite a story to share with her girlfriend. However, as midnight passed, she grew worried and wondered if something might have gone wrong for the mouse.

A man’s voice spoke out of the darkness. “May I enter?” he requested.

Even in near total darkness, Alexandra recognized the wizard mouse entering her dollhouse bedroom. She sat up and asked, “Where’s Marianne? Is she alright?”

“Worry not,” the wizened mouse replied. “She was feeling nauseated and was not up for making the trip here. Most likely it's just a bit of food poisoning, nothing too serious.”

“Oh,” Alexandra replied, feeling simultaneously disappointed and concerned. “Should I come see her?”

“Not looking like that,” the wizard replied. “She had a scare involving a rat when she was a girl. Best not to let her see you looking like this.”

Alexandra nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I understand.”

The wizard took a seat on the bed and said, “It would seem that you’ve become a magnet for the little witches’ magic.”

“I guess,” she replied, looking down at her rat-like body and new dress.

The wizard nodded and said, “We might use that attention to our advantage, you know?”

“I have been trying to get them to cast spells.”

“Good,” the wizard said. “That has helped accelerate the charging of the orb. However, you could do even more, if you are willing to put up with some… discomfort.”

Alexandra hesitated a moment before replying, “If it means turning Marianne into a human sooner, then I can put up with whatever.”

“Good,” the wizard said. He walked to the window and waved out of it, seemingly signaling someone on the floor below.

Seconds later, a mouse that Alexandra did not recognize entered the dollhouse bedroom carrying a sack with obvious caution and care. The wizard opened the sack and pulled out the faintly-glowing purple orb from within it.

“You want me to keep it with me?” Alexandra asked.

“Not with you,” the wizard explained, “in you.” He and the other mouse approached the bed on either side of Alexandra.

It took her a moment to grasp what the wizard had planned. “Oh” was all she could think to reply.

“Open wide,” the wizard said, opening his own mouth to demonstrate.

***

Despite being larger as a rat woman and having a body capable of stretching into any shape, it was still a struggle to stuff the orb down Alexandra’s throat. However, working together, the two mice eventually got it shoved all the way down into her belly, where it rested like a full meal in her stomach. The two mice then departed, confident that they had just improved their situation. 

Doubtlessly, the orb would be absorbing much more magic here when spells were cast on Alexandra than it would be up in the attic. Nonetheless, she was not thrilled at the prospect of having something so large stuck in her gut for the foreseeable future, especially after  she eventually returned to her smaller mouse-woman shape. Already, she found that the discomfort it caused was making it difficult to fall asleep.

Still, for the sake of Marianne, she would do anything. She only hoped her love would get well soon so that she could see her again.