I circled the room, keeping an eye out for an alternate exit. On my third sweep, I had to admit that things looked bad. As far as I could tell, there was only one way out, and there was no way in hell I was squeezing my hips through it.
I knelt on the ground and tried to twist the tiny knob. And wouldn’t you know it, that sucker wasn’t only too small to fit through, it was locked.
“How does he expect me to get out of here?”
I scanned the room again, and when my eyes landed on the table, I jerked back.
Something had changed.
Now, a small, gold key gleamed up at me from between the tiny bottle and teacake.
“Curious.”
I tilted my head and made my way to the table.
The key wasn’t the only thing that had changed. The bottle now bore a label I was positive hadn’t been there before, and words had appeared on the top of the teacake.
I picked up the bite-sized dessert and read it. “Eat me?”
My attention went to the bottle’s label. “Drink me?”
I uncorked the bottle and sniffed. It didn’t smell of any poison that I knew of, but that probably didn’t mean much. I was in Faerie, poisons could be totally different here.
I moved on to the key. It wasn’t labeled, because duh, it was a key, but this time, I noted its positioning, right between the cake and the bottle. The cake and the drink were probably tools to help get me out of the room.
“Should I try one first? Or both at once?”
The liquid in the bottle suddenly glowed.
I picked it up. “I can take a hint. Bottoms up.”
I tilted the bottle back and took a sip. Right away, my insides contorted, and a sense of being wrapped in saran wrap came over me. It was uncomfortable, the most constricting sensation I’d ever experienced.
And then, suddenly, I began to shrink.
“Holy shit!” I screamed.
I blinked and lost three inches, and it was only a breath later that five feet seemed like a dream. After thirty seconds, I was no taller than the table, and by the end of a full minute, I was toddler sized.
My heart rate thundered as everything in the room got progressively larger.When is this ever going to end?
Finally, I stopped shrinking when I was about four inches high. The bottle I held was now as tall as me, and the weight of it nearly knocked me over.
I scrambled to right it, spilling a little in the process. Once I found my feet, I blinked, taking in my new world.
I nearly winked out of existence!
Shaking off my nerves, I strode over to the door, and turned the knob to exit the room.
The handle clicked to a stop, and my stomach sank as my stupidity set in.
I’d left the key on the table. The table which, at my diminutive size, now resembled a mountain.
“This is fucking delightful,” I grumbled, stomping back to the table and examining the legs.
After a brief study, I concluded that I could probably climb them. The issue would be getting atop the surface of the table. I scratched my head, unsure the maneuver would even be possible.
“Knew they should’ve sent me,” a high-pitched and prideful voice shot through me.
