“Breathe, child, breathe,” she said in an accent I couldn’t quite place, but definitely European. Scandinavian, maybe? I took a deep breath and noticed my burning lungs and clenched fists. I took my first breath after at least two minutes.

“How did you find me?” I said weakly.

She drove down the road calmly but just a tad fidgety. “You aren’t the hardest person to find. Besides, using 1234 Main St. as an address? Even you must see the obvious flaws of such an idea.”

I nodded and mentally groaned. I’d forgotten to change my address ever since I forged a parent’s signature on my registration form.

She cleared her throat, but I refused to talk anymore. I was afraid to know what was going to happen.

“You must be wondering why this is happening,” she said, mirroring my thoughts exactly. I barely squeezed out a nod.

“All will be answered soon. Relax, Arthur.”

I shifted uncomfortably in the seat and rubbed my left arm, right where I had sliced it open on one of the odd jobs I took up to make some money a few years earlier. A tic, you could call it, for when I was nervous.

She pulled up at a pretty little house with a small garden outside. It looked a bit like an English cottage.

“Let’s talk inside,” she suggested coolly. I followed silently but couldn’t help but notice a tiny maze, maybe about 5 inches tall. It was a strange but cute thing, covering the entirety of the garden floor. I shook my head. The pointlessness astounded me.

I walked in, and as the door closed, I heard a faint but definite click. I tugged at the handle subtly, hoping against hope that it wasn’t locked; no such luck. There wasn’t even a lock visible inside, and I began to feel my nerves short out. DEFCON 3.

The dean took a seat at her dining table and gestured for me to do the same. She took out a test tube with a light blue liquid in it and poured it into a coffee mug, looking at me all the while.

“it’s an energy combination I created a few months ago. Would you like some coffee?” June asked. 

I didn’t dare refuse, and she lifted the mug with the liquid in it and walked into the kitchen. I barely noticed, being far more preoccupied with the automatic locking door and curiosities around the house: a tiny ledge that seemed to stick out an inch or so out of the wall at about 5 feet off the ground, a large aquarium filled with little furniture and tiny sets of clothing, and inside a glass cabinet, a collection of miniature medical instruments at the application end and normal-sized at the other. I couldn’t help but feel that she was a freak for Ken dolls.

She walked back with the mugs and handed me a cup. She then leaned over, and I started to notice that she was actually kind of young, not passing 40 years old. She was well-shaped and quite pretty for a woman her age, but something about her carried this hard scientific look. I sipped at the coffee nervously, not really caring about the slight metallic taste.

“Arthur, let’s promise not to lie at all to each other, yes? It will make things easier for me and you,” she said in a professional tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, realizing I didn’t even know her name.

“My name is Dr. June. For our purposes, you may call me that, and that only.” She coughed lightly and sipped at her coffee, and I instinctively mimicked her.

“you have been… selected for a special test. You have no family, correct? No parents, siblings, extended family?” I barely managed a yes.

“Do you believe you will be missed in the world if, say, you were to disappear?” she asked coolly, flipping through some papers on a clipboard.

“I, uh, don’t think so?”

“Are you aware of the metal object in your pocket and its purpose?”

I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out the tiny slab Kayla had given me earlier. Did she have X-Rays somewhere in the house? In her eyes? DEFCON 2.

“Answer the question, Arthur,” she said in a clipped tone. 

“I don’t understand why you’re asking this,” I said quietly, her glare and look of controlled anger stripping me of any fight. I picked the mug up and drank more, the metallic aftertaste growing with each sip.

“I’m waiting.”

“No,” I said shyly. She flipped back to the first page in her notes and cocked her head at me.

“Finish your drink,” she smirked. I did as I was told, shivering under her cold eyes and sinister smile.

“Now, we really should wait a few minutes, but I’m really not in a patient sort of mood," she said. Before I could even recognize what was going on, she plunged a needle into my thigh and pumped a red liquid into me.

At that, I kicked back and made for the door. Whatever was going on here, I wanted to be a thousand miles away from. But in my wild rush to escape, I forgot about the lock.

“Come now, I wouldn’t just let you run off that easily! There’s no fun in that,” she cackled, getting up slowly and tracing my steps.

After literally running away and being locked in a house, seeing her calmly following me set my mind at DEFCON 1. I reached a window and clambered out, but something... something was NOT right. My clothes were growing around me!

I ignored it and leaped out of the window, crashing into the maze.

“Urgh!” I groaned, hitting a spigot with my ankle and collapsing to the ground. “That’ll leave a mark, Arthur,” she called after me, leaving the window sill and opening the door.

I jumped up and was about to dash again when…

“What in the hell…?” The maze was now up to my knees! I leaped over the walls of the maze, making a dash towards the fence that encircled her home. Halfway there, I tripped over the hedges that made it up and landed on top of the maze. As I got up, I saw it was UP TO MY WAIST?

I spun around and saw Dr. June walking outside and watching me from the path that cut right through the maze.

“No… no, this is just wrong! No!!!” I whipped around… but this time, I saw nothing but shrubbery.

I ran around in it, completely panicking. This was not normal! The endless rows of perfectly trimmed hedges confused me. My heart pounded in my ears, my breath shortening to near hyperventilation. I turned corner after corner, bumping into the walls, feeling my mind begin to shut down to its most primal instincts. Fight or flight? If only I could fly...

I sensed that the growth around me had stopped. The maze towered over me, at least twice my height!

KREEEEEEE KRKRKRKRKR!

The chirping of a cricket! Far too loud, downright deafening!

“Oh, My God!” I shrieked, staring into Dr. June’s attractive but positively humongous face, smiling down at me. I quivered in fear and backed away slowly. She laughed, her body just slightly slower, her breasts heaving with each breath. Unlike all the movies I’ve seen with giants, her voice was only a little deeper but made her following words petrifying.

“Well, well, well… are you ready to be experimented on, Mr. Brenner?”