-From Inside the Box-

Trinity breathing was heavy. Her head turned from each direction, trying to discover a way out, even though she knew it was an impossible task. She struggled against her restraints, a small plastic strip that bounded both of her hands and feet together, like a real doll that you would buy from the toy store.

“Brian! Let me out of here!” She screamed her lungs out as she couldn’t to struggle, bruising up her wrists and as she pulled and tugged. “Jasmine!” She yelled. “Don’t do this! You can have Brian, I swear, just don’t do this!” She cried her eyes out.

Her breathing increased as she tried her best to kick and thrash about, knowing that her end would be soon enough at hand. “Oh my god...Oh my god.” Her mentality began to break. “This is not happening, this cannot be happening, what the hell did I do?” Tears continued to stream down her face as she couldn’t to struggle against her fate.

“I didn’t even do anything…I didn’t do….Anything.” She continued to cry. Her tears were wasted as the sound of thuds continued to make its way towards her.

Trinity’s heart pounded faster and faster, matching the eager stomps that were approaching her. Fear had long since set in as the shear anxiety took over her completely.

Her face turned to her left and saw nothing but a cardboard wall. She then turned her face to the right, in hopes of seeing some type of way out, but her eyes met another cardboard wall that surrounded her. She frantically repeated the process, before the truth finally set in…There was no way out.

Memories of what Jasmine said to her beforehand played through her mind.

-Flashback 1-

“Don’t get so frustrated yet sweetie, I haven’t told you the best part.” She leaned back into the seat as Brian’s arm wrapped around her. “Brian came to me and told me that he wanted this to happen. For me to use this thing on and just toss you out in the street somewhere, like garbage. How does it feel to know that that’s how he sees you? He even wanted me to put the lid on the box and just step on you like I didn’t see you. I got to say though; I didn’t really go for the idea until I actually thought about it.” Jasmine began to imagine. “I mean what better way to do in your competition, then stepping on them like their nothing but mere trash that people were too lazy enough to put in the trash can.” She laughed as tears began to stream down Trinity’s eyes. 

-End of Flashback-

“Trash…” Trinity repeated the word that Jasmine used to describe her. “I didn’t do anything but try my best to make Brian happy, and now I’m trash for it.” She sadly spoke to herself. “…Trash.”

-Flashback 2-

Jasmine…Ok you win, I don’t care anymore, and you can have Brian, but please don’t do this ok. I’m still a human being. I’m….I’m still a person…Don’t….Don’t you think…This is…going a too far?” She tried to get Jasmine to listen to reason, but Jasmine discarded her words. 

-End of Flashback-

“I hate you….” She sniffed as another stomp was heard. “I hate you…” She repeated, her tears still streaming down her face as she closed her eyes and a vision of the good girl that was appeared in her mind. “Brian….”

“Thud…..Thud……Thud.”

“Jasmine….”

“Thud…Thud…Thud”

“I hate you…” She repeated her voice cracking a bit as her face was soaked from her water strained eyes. “I FUCKING HATE YOU!” She screamed at the top of her lungs as the box quickly caved in on top of her.

………………….

“AAAAAHHHHHHH!” Trinity shot up, breathing heavily, sitting up on what appeared to be large bed. She quickly felt her body up and down and realize that she was fine. “Huh? What the…” She looked down at her arms and legs and saw that they were bandaged up, with a few bandages wrapped around her waist as well.

“What….What…Where the hell am I?” She asked herself as she looked around the standard size room that she was in. The bed had a Blue, White comforter set that she was lying on. The walls were white, and the carpet itself looked normal enough; a large flat screen TV, a few gaming consoles followed by a couple of boy posters of superheroes, anime and games.

“Well for one thing, I can say that it better than being inside the box.” Trinity said as she placed her hand on her cheek and realized something instantly. Her hair, her hair was brushed back and neatly tied up in a ponytail. She looked down at herself again and saw that she wasn’t wearing that long dirty white dress that Jasmine and Brian had put on her. Even her small sized feet were covered with little doll sized multicolored socks.

Her chest was covered in a seemingly new doll sized, T-shirt with a pair of Barbie blue jean shorts. “This is too weird…” She added as she slowly decided to stand up, but soon fell back down to her butt. “Ok maybe that was a bit too soon.” She sighed.

She quickly curled herself up, folding her legs to her chest. “Where am I?” She asked herself, she wrapped her arms around her legs and began to think as she looked around the room again. “I’m still small, but how am I alive?” She questioned the thought. “I could have sworn that Jasmine would have killed me, at least that’s how she sounded.” She added as she continues to talk to herself as she tried to piece the puzzle together.

She moved her limbs around a bit, finally realizing that nothing were broken, a bit bruised, but nothing was out of place. “I can still move my arms and legs without any problems, so I guess that’s a good sign.” She spoke as the sound of the bedroom door, opening quickly caught her off guard as she nearly jumped out of her skin as she quickly turned her head to see a large (To her) male into the room, with a few grocery bags in his hands.

He appeared to be soaking wet as water drenched from his clothes. He had dirt on his face and dark Brown hair was ruffed up, messy would be lightly putting it.

He had a simple Grey fleece hoodie jacket, that was hanging off the side of his body and his pants appeared to have muddy shoe prints all over them, and some on his white shirt. The boy appeared exhausted as he quickly closed the door to his bedroom and leaned against it, not realizing that the doll sized girl had awakened in his room.

“Man… What a day?” His blue eyes had long since lost their color as he slumped down against the door, dropping the bags of groceries that he held on to the floor beside him. “Why does this keep happening to me?” He asked himself as he lightly slammed the back of his head against the door, sighing heavily.”…Life…Sucks.” He closed his eyes for a second, before reopening them and spotting the small girl, staring at him from his bed.

“Oh shit.” He quickly jumped up, nearly tripping over a few things that were discarded on the floor. “You’re awake.” He followed as he bumped his head on a nearby shelf. “Ah…Shit.” He cried as he instantly placed both of his hands on top of the sore spot that he hit.

Trinity looked at him and lightly shook her head at the entrance that he made as he walked over to her.

“I see you’re alright, I was hoping the bandages and stuff would have been enough to help you out.” The boy told her as he knelt down in front of the bed, eying her a bit.” Yea, it looks like you’re good. You can move right?” He asked as her as Trinity hesitantly nodded her head in response.

“So um….Yea, ummm. My name is Daniel, Daniel Grayson.” He introduced himself. “Some people call me Dan or Danny for short, so um, you know, you can call me whatever you like.” He gave her a weak smile as she continued to stare at him.

Daniel eyed her for a second as well, but then started to feel the embarrassment of being a fool as he slightly rubs the back of his head at the awkward moment. “So I guess you can’t really talk huh?” He stated as he looked around the room, finding the bags that he left on the floor. “Oh I know.” He quickly ran to pick them up. “Hey are you hungry or something? I know your stomachs got to be empty and…”

“Daniel, you said…” Trinity spoke slowly and clearly, stopping Daniel in his tracks as he bent down to pick up the groceries that he had dropped.

Slowly turning his head towards her, he nodded his head. “How did you get like that?” She asked him, pointing out his messy features. “What happened to you?” She questioned him again, the tone of her voice seemingly bland and emotionless as she stared at him.

Daniel continued to look at her before looking at himself for a second. “Oh this…It’s nothing, really.” He laughed it off as he looked at her. “I should be really asking you the questions though.” He said as he found a chair in front of the TV, seating himself in it, still looking at her.

“How did you get this…You know…Small. It’s not every day you see a doll sized girl lying around in the back of a club somewhere.” Daniel slightly smiled, trying to make the situation less awkward.

“So you found me in the back of a club.” Trinity repeated, her mind quickly falling back to the events that took place before.

“Yea, you were in a box and pretty banged up.” Daniel spoke up again. “I’ll admit, when I first found you I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t even know if you were still alive or not; but I took a chance with it.” He ended.

Trinity looked up at him with a stale face. “You seem pretty calm seeing someone at my size.” She pointed out. “Aren’t you scared I may be diseased or something?” She added as Daniel still kept a small smile on his face.

“Nah, well…At first I freaked the fuck out actually.” He admitted. “When I found you, the box was all banged up, like someone stepped on it or something; but the only reason why I looked in the first place was because the lid was half way off and your head was sticking out, plus you looked too real to pass up. So I checked you out.” He finished, and then realized his mistake.

“Wait, not like that.” He assured her quickly. “I just wanted to make sure you were real or not, because you know…You looked too real to be a doll, even though you’re the size of one.” Nervously laughing a bit, he quickly tried to continue on with his story. “Since you were real and all, I couldn’t just leave you out there and you looked like you really needed some help. So I brought you back here.” He summarized as Trinity kept her eyes locked on him.

She couldn’t help but continue to look him up and down, looking at the bruises on his body, along with the mud stained foot prints all over him. “Where is here exactly, and what were you doing in the back of the club?” She followed up with another question, trying to grasp the situation.

Daniel looked at her for a moment, his smile slowly fading away until his a serious, but gloomy stare. “This is my apartment. I’m a freshman in college; plus, I’m new here. So I don’t know where everything is exactly. “He began, slowly dragging his eyes to the floor. “This is my first time in Miami, let alone Florida.” He continued to explain. “I’m only 19, so I’m kind of nervous about everything, I don’t have any friends or family here so…There’s that.” His voice showed no sign of excitement as he continued to speak.

Trinity continued to listen to him as he took a deep breath and resumed. “I went to the club just to make some friends, but you know what they say. “Never go to the club by yourself.” Man that sure is an understatement.” He let out a sad laugh. “I was basically thought that I could try to find a crowd that was a good fit for me, but that was a mistake on my part.” Another sigh followed his sentence. “You were out for a few days, but the night I found you, I was basically jumped and thrown around.” He shamefully admitted.

“They took most of the money I had, yay me for standing up for myself and I was tossed in a dumpster, out back where I found you.” He truthfully spoke. “The reason I’m like this now…Is…Well, I don’t have the best luck with people.” He lightly gritted his teeth. “I ran into the same people again today…And well….You see what I look like.”

Trinity looked up at him and felt a cringe of sympathy for Daniel. She too was in a similar situation, well maybe not similar but she was treated just as bad, if not worse. She couldn’t help but turn her head slightly, tearing her eyes away from his appearance.

“I’m not that big on violence, so I don’t really stand up for myself like everybody else can.” Daniel stated. “I’m just that guy that nobody notices and pushes to the side.” He tore his eyes away from her as well. “I know…You don’t have to say, I’m pathetic.” He lost himself in his own pity as Trinity brought her gaze back towards him.

“Thank…You.” She spoke after a moment of silence. “I appreciate you, helping me when you did and….I’m sorry that this happened to you.” She added as she looked up at him and gave him a small smile herself. “You’re not pathetic, just bad luck I guess. It’s something we both have in common, believe it or not.” Trinity said depressingly.

“Yea, I bet your height doesn’t really work for you.” Daniel responded back as Trinity nodded her head.

“I wasn’t always like this though.” She replied, looking up at him again. “I was actually taller than you, but…Somethings happened and some people are just…” Trinity was about to finish her statement, but she found the magnet that Jasmine showed her before she tossed her out. “Hey…Where did you get that?” Trinity asked the spark in her voice returning.

Daniel turned his head and saw the magnet sitting on his desk. “Huh? Oh you mean this thing?” He reached over to pick it up and looked it over. “I saw this right beside the box you were in; I thought it was yours or something.” He truthfully told her as he saw that small smile on Trinity’s face grow wider as she eyed the object in his hand.

“Is it yours?” He asked her questionably.

“Oh…it is now.” Trinity smiled continued to widen as her eyes fixated on the object in question as Daniel continued to look down at Trinity, giving her more a questionable look as time passed on.