wish to be smaller

Forest's fingers remained firmly closed around Melody's form. "It's nothing. Just a new…..doll….like with new AI tech in it…..it’s just glitchy.”

Derek's nostrils flared slightly, as if catching a scent. A strange light entered his eyes, making Forest’s neck hair stand up.

"That's not a toy," Derek said with disturbing certainty. "Open your hand."

Melody's cries grew more dramatic. "Please help me! He hurts me!"

Forest felt a prickle of annoyance and anger. Sure…. technically he was keeping her as a prisoner, but he never hurt her….he could have considering what she did to Ana…but he never did. 

"She's lying," Forest said, his voice hardening. "And frankly, this is none of your business, Derek."

Derek's smile didn't waver, but his eyes narrowed. "Come on, Forest. Be a gentleman and let the little lady go. I'd be happy to take her off your hands."

Something in Derek's tone—something hungry—made Forest's protective instincts flare despite his annoyance with Melody. Something felt deeply wrong with Dereks reaction.

"I said no." Forest stood abruptly, stuffing his hand with Melody still clutched inside into his pants pocket. He felt her squirm against his thigh through the fabric.

Derek straightened, his smile fading. “What's to stop me from telling everyone in the office that you've got a tiny screaming woman in your pocket?"

Forest scoffed. "And who would believe that? They'd think you've lost your mind." He gathered his bag and got up. “You now what, I think I’m going home early, not feeling well.”

Forest pushed passed Derek and headed for the exit.

Derek stood watching him, that predatory gleam still in his eyes, his tongue darting out to wet his lips in a gesture that seemed more animal than human.

In the elevator, Forest sagged against the wall. His heart hammered in his chest, and sweat beaded on his forehead. When the doors closed, he pulled Melody from his pocket and held her at eye level.

"What the hell was that?" he hissed.

Melody's defiance had returned, her tiny face flushed. "I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"An opportunity? To do what? Get yourself—" He stopped himself from saying "killed" and instead said, "To get yourself into an even worse situation? You have no idea what you almost did."

"Worse than being your prisoner?" she spat back.

Forest huffed in annoyance. “I don’t need to deal with this.” He stuffed her back into his pocket. He ignored her indignant squeak. The elevator doors opened, and he walked towards the lobby, then out the door into the cool afternoon air.

His car waited in the parking garage. Forest climbed in, locked the doors, and sagged against the steering wheel. Only then did he pull Melody from his pocket again.

"Do you understand what almost happened back there?" he asked, his voice strained. "Derek isn't the hero you’re looking for. The way he looked at you—like you were meat."

Melody crossed her arms in anger. "I can take care of myself," she said.

“No that was a death wish. This all would be so much easier if you’d just tell us the cure for all this.” Forest pressed.

“And I told you! THERE IS NONE!” Melody yelled at him.

Forest glared down at his tiny captive. “I can’t believe that.” He then dropped her into one of his cup holders and started the engine.

Forest drove with one eye on the road and one on the tiny woman in his cup holder. He felt a boiling anger. There had to be a cure. There had to be.

*I need to clear my thoughts….get some fresh air.* He thought to himself.

******

Forest parked his car beneath a gnarled oak tree. The small park had seen better days.

No children played here anymore; no elderly couples fed the pigeons. It was perfect—a forgotten corner of the town where a man could have a private conversation with a five-inch woman without raising eyebrows.

He pocketed his keys and sat on the bench, wincing as it creaked beneath his weight. He glanced around once more, confirming their solitude, before reaching into his pocket.

Melody squirmed against his fingers as he extracted her, her tiny limbs flailing in protest. He held her at eye level, his grip firm enough to prevent escape but gentle enough to avoid harm. Her miniature face was flushed with anger, her diminutive features contorted in a scowl.

"What," Forest began, his voice low and taut with controlled anger, "were you thinking, sneaking into my bag, the whole Derek thing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Melody glared at him, her tiny arms crossed over her chest in defiance. “Duh, are you stupid, If I can’t be free, I’d rather die.”

Forest narrowed his eyes at her. “You know….if you’d just tell me the cure, I don’t care what happens to you.”

Melody let out a hysterical laugh. “And it won’t matter, because nothing will work! This is permanent! If I did make something up, you’d know when it didn’t work!”

Forest shook his head. “I don’t believe you. But in the mean time, don’t be throwing yourself at the nearest human, I’ve been good to you. Did you really think Derek was going to help you? Did you see the way he was looking at you?”

"At least with him I had a chance to escape," Melody said, her tiny chin jutting upward.

Forest let out a laugh. “I don’t think you’d have escaped, you can’t even escape me.”

“Just you fucking watch! I will one day, even if I have to die trying!”

Before Forest could respond something massive erupted from the undergrowth. Forest barely registered a blur of motion before a heavy weight slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling backward off the bench. His head struck the ground with enough force to send stars dancing across his vision, and his lungs emptied in a painful whoosh.

Above him loomed a nightmare—a creature with the general shape of a wolf but proportions all wrong. Its snout was too long, its limbs unnaturally extended. Amber eyes burned with feral intelligence as jaws opened, revealing teeth designed for tearing flesh—teeth now aimed directly at Forest's exposed throat.

He threw up his arm in desperate defense, and the creature's teeth sank into his forearm instead. Pain lanced through him, white-hot and immediate. The beast's weight pinned him to the ground as it shook its head, trying to tear the flesh it had captured. The metallic scent of blood—his blood—filled Forest's nostrils.

With a roar born of pain and terror, Forest drove his knee upward into the creature's belly. It released his arm with a snarl, backing up just enough for Forest to roll sideways. As he moved, he became aware of a critical absence—Melody was no longer in his hand.

In the violent tumble from the bench, she had been thrown free. Forest's eyes darted frantically across the ground, trying to locate the tiny woman. A flash of small movement caught his gaze. Melody lay on her side, struggling to stand.

The wolf-creature had seen her too. Its head swiveled with unnatural speed, those burning eyes fixing on the tiny moving figure with predatory focus.

Forest watched in horror as the beast's attention locked onto Melody. Its muscles tensed, preparing to lunge.

Forest threw himself at the creature just as it sprang toward Melody's tiny form. His shoulder connected with the beast's flank, diverting its trajectory. They tumbled together in the dirt, a chaotic tangle of limbs and snarls and pain.

Forest wrapped his arms around the beast's middle, the beast felt hot, almost fever hot, as if the creature burned from within.

They rolled across the ground, the creature snapping and snarling, Forest grimly holding on. The creature twisted suddenly, its spine contorting in a way no natural wolf could. Forest found himself beneath it again, those jaws descending toward his face. Forest had managed to place both feet on the creature’s abdomen and pushed upward. The beast was propelled over his head. It landed with a heavy thud several feet away, momentarily stunned.

Forest rolled to his feet in one fluid motion. Adrenaline sang in his veins as he located Melody, still prone on the ground where she had fallen. Without hesitation, he lunged forward, scooping her tiny form from the dirt. His fingers closed around her protectively, perhaps too tightly in his haste, but better bruised than devoured.

As he straightened, Forest got his first clear look at their attacker, now also back on its feet. What he had initially taken for a large wolf revealed itself as something far more disturbing. The creature stood on its hind legs, its proportions a nightmarish blend of wolf and human. Its forelegs, ended not in paws but in something closer to hands, with elongated fingers tipped with vicious claws. The creature's chest was broad, covered in thick fur, but its waist narrowed in a decidedly humanoid fashion.

Forest's mind recoiled from the implications even as it supplied the word: werewolf.

The werewolf snarled, its eyes, fixed on Forest's closed fist, burned with hunger.

The werewolf advanced another step. Forest turned and ran.

Forest risked a glance over his shoulder and immediately wished he hadn't. The creature loped after him. It was gaining on him fast.

The car grew closer with each desperate stride. Forest fumbled in his pocket for the keys, nearly dropping them as his blood-slicked fingers closed around the metal. Behind him, the werewolf's breathing grew louder, a wet, ragged sound punctuated by growls.

The werewolf was gaining. Forest could feel its presence at his back, could almost sense the moment when it would spring upon him. He veered suddenly to the left, a desperate evasive maneuver. The beast overshot him, its momentum carrying it several yards past before it could turn.

Those precious seconds were enough. Forest reached the car, yanked the door open, and threw himself inside. His hand, still clutching Melody, knocked painfully against the steering wheel. He heard her tiny yelp but couldn't spare the attention to check on her. The werewolf had recovered and was charging toward the vehicle.

Forest slammed the door shut just as the creature reached him. It threw itself against the driver's side window with enough force to rock the entire car. The glass cracked, a spider's web of fractures spreading outward from the point of impact.

Forest jammed the key into the ignition. The engine coughed once, twice, before roaring to life. The werewolf rammed the window again, the cracks spreading further. One more hit, Forest realized, and the glass would shatter completely.

He threw the car into reverse. The sudden movement dislodged the werewolf momentarily. It fell back, then immediately gave chase as Forest swung the car around, shifting into drive.

In the rearview mirror, Forest saw the werewolf in pursuit, its loping gait covering ground with terrifying efficiency.

Forest pulled onto a road leading to a more populated neighborhood. Forest's eyes darted constantly to the mirrors, searching for any sign of their pursuer. A flash of movement at the edge of the road. The werewolf had followed them, but it hung back now, lurking at the periphery of the populated area. As Forest watched, it slipped into the wooded area lining the road.

“What the fuck….what the fuck…what the fuck.” Forest kept mumbling.

While keeping an eye on the road, he dropped Melody into the cup holder, then reached to his passenger seat to grab his spare jacket. He awkwardly wrapped the jacket around his bleeding arm. He slowed his car down while doing this. He drove a few more blocks before feeling it was safe enough to make his way home. He’d need to get his arm looked at…..he could go to the hospital but didn’t know what to call this…a dog attack maybe? He decided to go home first. Treat it there….then go in if it got infected.

Hollow just knew fate was fucking with her.

She had already abandoned her child and what does it do?

Drop another on her lap.

Hollow pushed the human hand aside and knelt by the male borrower. She placed two fingers on the side of his neck.

*Yep, nothing. * Hollow thought.

She next gathered the crying boy into her arms. She held him close. She felt her guilt swell inside her belly.

*I’m So sorry……I can’t help him. I can hardly help myself. *

Hollow knew she should just leave. Let this human take care of the kid. It clearly knew them. Hollow shuddered at that thought. It felt wrong to leave the kid with a human, it was unnatural. But to be lost in the wilds was hard, especially with young. And she had just left her own flesh and blood behind and that was when she knew the path.

*Just let go…..you can’t help.*

But as Hollow moved to set the little boy down, he gave a cry of pain.

Hollow’s eyes where drawn to the source of the pain. The boy had an angry gash on his ankle.

This gave her pause.

*I can at least help with that. I have to take time to gather supplies, so I might as well take time for that. *

Hollow managed to crawl into one of the many abandoned suitcases. Many of them had been busted open during the plane crash. She pulled and dragged a long red scarf over to where she had left the boy, by the human. She used a dagger she had made from a shard of glass and fabric. She cut part of the scarf into strands, some to use as bandages and some fabric to be used as a blanket.

She then dragged the dead borrower off the human--pushing him off the edge. She then dragged the rest of the scarf over the body --The ground was far too frozen to bury anyone.

Now all she had to do was find food, start a fire and stay warm.

*I’ll decide what to do in the morning. *

Next ch: Coming soon