✅ Younger Than You Think?

Parking Lot

This chapter is dedicated to my newest supporter on Patreon, Kiel. Thank you for your support!
I'm sorry it's a little short, but the nature of this story means it suits smaller chapters than most of my work.

Iriña felt movement. Somebody was holding her, carrying her. That wasn't too unusual, she wasn't tall enough to reach a lot of things, and she was used to being helped. But normally she had some idea where she was, or why. She also couldn't remember where she had been a minute before, which was terrifying. Her memory was supposed to be incredible, they all said she was a genius. And she was sure that if she followed it back long enough, she would have a single unbroken thread of events including all her attempts to grow up, having fun with her parents, and countless nights of studying.

Now there was a gap. She didn't know where she had been five minutes ago. And worse than that, she wasn't even sure what was the last memory she had. It was like a kite string that had snapped, and now there was no way to grab on to what had come before. She was dizzy too, confused, which was a sensation she wasn't too familiar with.

She forced her eyes open, and looked around, She next to a car, parked up with hundreds of others. It looked like it could have been grey or green, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. There was illumination, but they were parked far away from it. She didn't recognise the people with her, a man and a woman. But she could see that they were lifting her out of what seemed to be a toddler car seat, the ones with an absurdly high number of straps and buckles to hold her in place. The man was holding her now, and the woman's hands grabbed Iriña's from behind, slipping something over them. Straps like the ones on the seat looped around her shoulders, and across her chest. As she struggled against them she could feel somebody buckling her in again, even pulling one strap up between her legs.

Where was she, and why was she here? She had no idea. She knew she shouldn't be here, but that didn't tell her much. And she was already sure that there was no way she could fight these people. She spat out what felt like a pacifier as soon as the woman pushed it into her mouth, and that gave her a moment of panic even if she wasn't sure why. She was used to being treated like a baby, just because of her size, and normally she would be more irritated than afraid. Had something happened to change that?

A car door slammed, and a third figure joined them. A skinny teenager with no real distinguishing features, feet scuffing along the ground and hands in pockets. Then they were heading for a long, low building in the gloom. Iriña gave up struggling and allowed them to carry her. All she could do now was look for clues about where she might be, and try to call back some memory that might explain what had happened to bring her here.