Middle School Miniature

Chapter 14, Mr. Snuffles leaves

Max went the entire day, so far, without hearing anything about Amelia. 

It's almost like she didn't even exist to begin with. Even in band, she wasn't called when the teacher did attendance. Her normal seat was just there, empty like people didn't see she was gone. The thought of the strange and now tiny girl wouldn't leave his mind and kept him distracted in all of his classes. Not that he was the perfect model student in the first place, but even his friend Nate commented on his 'out of it' mood. She was just so.. he struggled to voice what it was to himself.

Max slowly convinced himself to focus on what he was doing in class and he mostly forgot about the small girl by the sixth period, at least until the announcement blasted out at the end of the day.

"Good afternoon Eastwood!" Rang the principal over the intercom, "A quick announcement before we leave today. The student Amelia Adair recently disappeared yesterday so if anyone has any information about her please report it to the main office as soon as you can. Have a great rest of your day." Then the bell chimed and the class erupted into noise as everyone got up and left.

Max followed the stream of classmates into the chaos of people and made his way over to his bright yellow, top locker. In his mind, he was debating on what he should do. There was no way he could go up and say that Amelia was a few inches tall staying in his room. No one would believe him, and if anyone did, Amelia would probably be taken to labs and government facilities. No, he couldn't do that to her. Also, he couldn't admit it but, he didn't want her to leave so quickly.

Max instead decided to write a vague message on a sticky note to fulfill her wish to make her parents not worry about her as much.

I am safe ~Amelia

He stuck the message, very secretive-like, on a wall near the office and went to catch his bus for a well-anticipated weekend.

The bus had barely stopped when Max raced off, skidded over his driveway, and hopped onto the stairs in front of the door. Yanking open the door, flying through his house, he stopped in front of his room within seconds. 

He carefully and quietly went into his room setting his backpack down in an attempt to catch the tiny person in his drawer, off guard. He saw his cat slumbering peacefully on his pillow and noted not to let the cat see Amelia, because Mr. Snuffles wasn't the friendliest cat towards a mouse.

Max put his hand on the handle of the drawer and pulled it out suddenly, expecting to find the girl off balance and surprised. Or possibly angry about his decision this morning to leave her in the safety of the drawer.

What he didn't expect was an empty drawer. Well, a sock-filled, but empty of tiny persons, drawer. He dug through the socks with the hope of finding a hidden tiny.

"Amelia?" Max asked with his normal voice, slowly growing louder, "Come out, this isn't funny. Where are you?!" He searched, growing worried.

He sat down on his bed, waking the cat, and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm not crazy." Max told himself, "She just escaped. They even announced she was missing." To himself, he thought, she was probably just hiding nearby and was ready to give him a piece of her mind.

Mr. Snuffles stretched lazily, got up, sniffed at the pillow, and jumped off the bed. Strutting out of the room with tail curling upwards, Mr. Snuffles left, probably hoping to be fed on the early side today.

With the cat gone, Max laid his head on the pillow intending to chill and wait for Amelia to reveal herself, but heard a small cry of pain. He shot back up and carefully lifted the pillow. She was lying there half awake and gasping for air.

---◇◆◇---

After an hour or two I was feeling numb. I convinced myself to sleep for short periods, but it seemed I was waiting forever. When I tried to move by grabbing onto the sheets or pillowcase, the cloth just pulled toward me instead of pulling me out. I had lost hope of escape. I didn't want Max to treat me like I was helpless, but I had to face the fact that I was. Breathing was starting to get harder and despite my attempt to make space for air with my arms, I began to slip into unconsciousness when I heard banging. Voices. No, one voice. Max. He was home. Home? The rope around my waist was imprinted on my skin.

The weight on me lifted and I shifted on my side to stretch out for the first time in hours. Then I was crushed under an even heavier thing. My still recovering gut flared in pain, crying out unconsciously as my head took another dive toward darkness.

As suddenly as it started, I could breathe again. Sweet, fresh, air flowed around me and I gasped. Faintly, I could feel the giant hand gently roll me onto the other hand. I felt gravity's pull as I was lifted.

I felt so dang weak. I, I couldn't be like this.

"Max," I called out with a soft voice. I'm not even sure if he could hear me. "Put me down." Nothing happened for nearly a minute, other than Max moving around. The hand I was on tilted sideways and I slid onto cloth, my hands gripping weakly onto the skin to slow my sliding.

I forced myself to sit up and open my bleary eyes to look at the face of the giant. His face, it was an image of panicked concern slowly turning into annoyance.

"Hey," I said tiredly, not even caring about his warring emotions. "Did you say anything to my family?"