Little Problems

Escape

You're gonna have to go outside eventually, he said. The outdoors isn't so bad, he said. You'll regret it if you don't, he said.

I remembered every word. Both from Isaiah and his devilish counterpart. Low growls escaped my throat. "Isaiah, when I get back, I'm gonna punch you in the face and lock you outside and make sure you don't go back in until you've learned your lesson, you son of a-"

"Miss Nikki Ellidy," the giant lynx in front of me spoke in a disapproving tone of voice. "I understand your anger. But clearly this mess is on you since you're the one who fell for the tricks. Hasn't your father taught you better than to speak foul language?"

"Why didn't you kidnap Isaiah?" I spoke. "This was only my first time outside. He goes out all the time."

"Unlike you, he didn't wander too far ahead," the lynx spoke. "And I thought Dr. Ellidy's daughter knew better than to go outside at a size like that regarding the dangers of the outside world. Or is your dad not here for you this time?"

"How do you know my dad?" I questioned as I narrowed my eyes at the kidnapper. "How do you even know I am?"

"That kind of information is classified," the lynx glared. "Everyone has their own way of knowing things that are less known or are things they shouldn't have knowledge of."

"Well, why did you kidnap me?" I questioned, putting my hands on my hips. "I'm just a three inch eight year old. I'm not quite sure I have exactly what you want."

The lynx chuckled. I rolled my eyes. This wasn't the lynx from before. Just another complete stranger I never even knew. With pale brown fur, golden eyes with red circles underneath them, purple eyeshadow, and long black hair, tied back by dark purple beads.

"Despite what it seems...Nikki Ellidy," the lynx spoke again. "You do have something. Your size change...I know you don't know what caused it, but that doesn't mean it's natural. You simply weren't born that way. And people don't just randomly become tiny, and they don't just randomly wake up and find out they've shrunk at the same time. Something caused your shrinking, Nikki, and whatever or whoever it was, caused while you were still dead. Unconscious."

"You're not wrong,"  I said as I placed a hand on my chin. "I did suspect that whoever had shrank me and my friends had done it behind our backs. But....I still don't understand. How are you gonna get that kind of information if me, Mercury, or even Isaiah don't know how it happened?"

"I think a true scientist would know, Nikki," the lynx smiled as she gave off a smug face. "Certainly, you woke up in a laboratory, right? Surely, whoever originally owned the place had left some...clues behind. After all, when a mishap happens, there's always evidence left behind."

I thought for a moment. "Well... you're right. We did wake up in a laboratory, and everything just points to the theory that we were just science experiments. However, since Isaiah reads too much comic books and watches too much TV, he thinks we're in some fantasy world and wants to believe magic is the real cause."

The lynx chuckled. "For someone who ventures out into the real world so many times and comes back alive, he doesn't seem very smart."

"Tell me about it," I rolled my eyes. "I mean, the clues are right there. It's obvious that we were just successful or failed experiments. Maybe a victim of nuclear reaction possibly."

"You're one clever girl," the lynx purred.

"Thanks," I said, then I frowned as I looked at the lynx in front of me. "Who...are you, exactly? Why do you want this information so much?"

"You can call me Phage, everyone does after all,"  the lynx chuckled. "As for the information, I'm afraid that's just classified. I don't call the shots, Nikki. I follow them."