Sprite in the Dark

I’m an idiot I’m an idiot I’m a stupid goddamn idiot dumbass‒

His thoughts ground to a halt when the human finally moved, one large hand lifting from his side to rub at his eyes. If Chase had anywhere at all to hide, he would have taken the opportunity to duck out of sight. Instead, he awkwardly started to crawl towards the opening of the bag, shouldering against one of the fallen oranges. It moved a bit, only to bump up against more of them and generally be a nuisance and an obstacle. One of them had fallen right into the opening he’d left, but if he could just get past that he’d … be out on the counter and still very much in trouble.

Not that he had a chance. The human finished his attempt to brush the hallucination away. Seeing that Chase had moved, he took a step into the room. “Hey!”

He didn’t shout. He didn’t really need to. His voice was deep, powerful, easily louder than any sound Chase could manage. He stood over six feet tall for sure, built broad like he had a cliff somewhere in his ancestry. Chase froze as a large shadow crept over the counter and engulfed the produce bag.

Chase shuddered in spite of his usual attempts to stay optimistic. There was not much he could say about this one; after a series of close calls, he’d run out of luck. He was a thief, caught in the act.

He looked up, some kind of excuse on his lips. But though he opened his mouth to try to talk himself out of his predicament, only a faint squeak came out. The guy was just ridiculously, unfairly big even for a human. Even if Chase was at an equal scale, he’d be more than a head shorter than this guy.

A hand appeared in Chase’s periphery. He’d seen these hands plenty of times, once or twice coming dangerously close to his hiding place. Even the smallest finger outclassed him. Chase hadn’t worried about the human’s hands so much before; before, the guy didn’t know he was there.

Now, the human wouldn’t take his eyes off where Chase was trapped while he reached for the bag, and Chase couldn’t take his eyes off that hand. When it reached the opening of the bag, he drew in a rattling gasp and balked away. The hand didn’t dive into the bag after him, instead brushing at the edge of the mesh where Chase had worked it open over the course of what must have been an hour.

“Huh. You really almost got away with one of these, didn’t ya,” the guy muttered. He nudged at one of the oranges, the one Chase probably would have rolled into the walls if he’d had just ten more minutes to work with the stupid bag of produce. Now it was just another barrier between Chase and freedom.

Looking back up at the guy, Chase debated on whether he should answer. The smart answer was no, absolutely not. He should not let on that the guy could potentially coax answers out of him. At the same time, there were a thousand and one cheeky responses he could offer to that expectant look.

He landed somewhere in between both options, holding both hands up in an exasperated shrug. He sure did almost get away with one of the stupid oranges. And now that he had failed that, his fate was in a human’s hands.

As if the thought had prompted it, the human tried to reach into the opening of the bag. Chase choked on a noise of surprise to see those huge fingers pushing aside fruit in an aim to get to him. As he scrambled away from the opening, the hand just kept coming. It didn’t exactly fit in the opening, but the mesh simply crumpled before it, shrinking Chase’s available space as it did.

Eventually, he found himself pressed against a pile of giant oranges, his heels uselessly digging into the countertop, when that enormous hand reached him. It was an awkward squeeze for the human, but it didn’t stop him. Giant fingers and a thumb flanked Chase on either side and he thought his heart would come bursting right out of his chest. He slapped at the huge palm before him, panicked moments that probably felt like barely more than a flutter of movement. A couple fingers managed to snake behind him, dragging him forward.

He switched his strategy, grabbing at the mesh as it passed him by. His grip was nothing compared to the inexorable push of a giant hand, and though he wasn’t being moved quickly he found the mesh ripped from his grasp as he moved.

He was almost at the opening. Then there was nothing at all between him and the ridiculously giant man he and his sister had been basically stealing from since he moved into the apartment. Chase’s nerves ran wild and his heart pounded.

As soon as he was out in the open, he lost his nerve at last. “Okay okay okay! You got me! Good job, man!”

The hand, only partially wrapped around him, stopped without lifting him off the counter. The human looked shocked. “Dude … what?”

“Yeah, y-yeah,” Chase said, shifting subtly where he half-lay against a couple giant fingertips. “I’m a real hooligan, a rascal, I’ve heard said. I was definitely planning to steal one of these oranges. But y’see, I didn’t, so what if we just forget this ever happened and move on with our lives!”

Rather than give the man time to ponder his rambled words, Chase sprang into action. He and Minnie had grown up often having to sprint for cover, having to leap over and around strange obstacles.

Chase took advantage of the human’s momentary bewilderment. The hand had yet to close fully around him. Once he slipped down an inch and rolled away from it, it missed its chance. He hit the counter sprinting.

He could cover a decent amount of ground in a few seconds. Chase was proud of the work he and Minnie had done to build up their stamina for runs like this. Granted, they’d never practiced with a human actively trying to catch them, but if Chase could pull this off, they wouldn’t need a repeat. He’d take notes and they’d never revisit them if he had his way.

The human blurted something in surprise, startled by his sudden scurry. His other hand loomed in close. Chase dove forward in time with his heart doing a flip, rolling with the impact while the side of a hand barely brushed the back of his shirt.

“Oh, that was SO cool,” he shouted as he righted himself and pushed to his feet. He was definitely going to have to brag about that one‒

Three steps later, something yanked at the back of his jacket. “Oh sh‒” was all he managed to say before he was hauled off his feet and all his forward momentum came to a stop. He kicked his legs and tried to twist free of the sturdy canvas jacket, but a broad palm appeared beneath him and he stopped; he did not want to fall into that grasp.

The human only held him a few inches off the countertop, but both of them paused then, Chase breathing heavily and staring up at the man with a mix of fear and disappointment and the man staring back with open astonishment.

If I had a nickel for every time Jacob caught a tiny person because the tiny person got tangled up in something, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice! 🤣