Miniature

Chapter Twenty-Four: CARTER

[ A/N: OMG LAST CHAPTER!!! NOOO MY BABY IS ALL GROWN UP. There will be a signing off note posted after this chapter.]

I hit my head in the car, and I guess it conked me out. Because when I wake up, I am in my mother's palm, and she's leering down at me.

"Hello, Carter," she says.

"W-where are J-Justin and H-Hannah?" I demand, trying to sound forceful but failing miserably because of my stupid stutter.

"Oh, you'll be seeing Justin soon enough. As for the girl, she's in a similar predicament."

I ponder the sentence a moment, and then the answer hits me full force.

"Y-you ch-ch-changed her?!" I shriek. "Y-you sick, t-twisted, m-maniacal - "

"Uh-uh-uh, Carter," my mother tuts. "I wouldn't be calling someone who can crush you like an any names. But if you want to die, then proceed."

"Y-you would k-kill your o-o-own son?" I ask.

"No, but I have no use for you. I'm thinking.... A pet shop? I hear the ones in Seattle are lovely this time of year," she laughs.

I HATE pet stores. They keep us locked up with dogs and kittens and birds and fish like... Like we're some type of ANIMAL, or something.

"But not yet, Carter. Not just yet. I have something I wish you to witness - the effects of the Pied Piper serum."

"Y-you're going to i-inject me w-with a c-chemical and th-then ship m-me off t-to a p-pet store?" I question, confused.

"No. The Pied Piper serum was injected into every Miniature ever created - except for you and that girl. It causes them to lose all of their memories, basically becoming mindless robots that will let me test things on them without resistance. The Pied Piper but is because it will also activate a homing beacon that will bring them flooding to this lab."

Every Miniature.... Every one except me and Hannah... That means....

"Justin!" I gasp. He's at risk for the formula! Before I can react, my mom plops me in a jar and screws on the lid. She sticks me in her pocket and walks briskly, causing me to be rattled back and forth, smacking into the sides of the jar.

My mother is talking to someone, but I can't make out any words beside the occasional "Pied Piper" because the sound is muffled by cloth and by glass. Then she whisks out my jar and plonks it down in front of a cage.

And inside of the cage, wearing nothing but tight blue boxers and covered in dirt, is Justin.

"Carter!" he yells, his voice muffled.

"J-Justin! Justin! J-Justin!" I yell, pounding my fists against the glass. From the corner of my eye, I can see my mom press a button and Justin collapses like a rag doll.

"Justin!" I sob.

"The serum has been activated! Let us see if it worked." My mother sounds almost.... gleeful, like she's a small child on Christmas receiving a dolly. I didn't know my mom could sound like that. Coming from her, it almost sounds evil.

Justin stirs, and then he opens his eyes. He sits, then gets up, standing rather stiffly.

"What is your name?" my mother asks.

"I am Experiment 7456," Justin responds. His voice sounds hollow, monotone, unnatural. I don't know what the creature before me is, but it cannot be Justin.

"What is your position?"

"I am a Miniature, lowest class to tread upon the earth."

"And your purpose?"

"I am not a person, even though I may wear the clothes of one. I am an animal, and I was made to serve my Master. Master is always right. I have no opinions; I have no thoughts. If I defy Master, I will be killed without mercy." Justin recites all of this in a flat voice, like it's been drilled into his head since he was conceived.

"Justin?" I plead.

He turns to look at me, and I am afraid. Because his normally bright blue eyes are now dull and lifeless. They are cold, steely, unmoving. They are dead.

This is not Justin. The real Justin is gone, replaced by this strange version.

"Very good," my mother says. She snaps her fingers, and three men in suits appear.

"You! Take this Miniature and put him in the storage room. You monitor the inflow of Miniatures, and make sure they are all accounted for." The two guards she's instructed nod curtly and turn on their heels to go. I notice their dead eyes and realize that they must be under the control of the serum as well.

"And as for you, put this - " she picks up my jar and shakes it " - in a box and ship it to a pet store in Seattle. Everything is going exactly according to plan."

I bury my face in my hands and sob as the man takes me away, because even thought Justin is here, in a sense he is also gone. I just watch my mother kill my best friend.

[A/N 2: This is the end. *sobs violently* there will be an acknowledgements posted with the title and date of release for the sequel. And @Chestnut28, I can't post it until you make me a cover! Check your email - not your inbox! Signing off, ~ Mollie xxxxxxx]