Sam was woken up by the sound of Jasmine getting up.  Yawning she sat up only to be surprised to see Nick sitting on the side of the doll bed.  He looked completely worn out.  Worried Sam touched his shoulder causing him to jump slightly and then relax.  Worry was etched across her face as she noticed how distressed he was.  Nick let out a sigh as he rubbed at his eyes.  Before he spoke he reached out and held onto Sam’s hand with the bracelet on it and started to let his powers flow into it.  When he was done he dropped his hand.

“Nick are you alright?” Sam asked still worried.  “You don’t look so good.”  Nick nodded his head as he rubbed at his eyes.  Sam gasped, “Did you stay up all night?”  Nick yawned and nodded.  “Why,” Sam asked perplexed at why he would do something so stupid.

“Because I had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen soon and needed to know what it was.  So I stayed up and looked into the future.”

Sam just gasped at him for a few seconds try to think of what to ask next and came up with, “You can do that?”

Again Nick gave off a worried aura and nodded.  “I can, but I hate doing it.”

“Why,” Sam questioned.  If she would love to see the future and to know what was going to happen next at any point in time.

“When you look into the future what you see is usually what might happen.  For example if I knew there was a car going to hit me, I might be able to dodge it.  Of course that would just change the future and affect what you just predicted leading to a worse future like jumping out of the way and getting hit by a bus or someone else getting hit by the car instead of yourself.  Probably the worst part would be when you view the future you never see the whole picture.  It’s like having a puzzle laid out and someone painted the entire puzzled one color except for a few pieces.  It’s almost impossible to put the whole thing together.  That’s why it takes forever to get a rough idea of what will come.  By then usually the future is now and can’t be changed.”

“Oh,” Sam said disappointed knowing the drawl back to seeing the future, “So what did you see.”

Nick shook his head, “I’m not really sure what I saw.  This Friday… there were a lot of images of buggies and giants doing things.  Things like,” Nick took a deep breath to steady himself, “that time we were trapped in that club that buggies were tortured in.”

Sam shivered, “You mean when we were eaten?”

Nick nodded, “I don’t know if we are there or where it is but … what I saw was sickening.”

“You don’t think Julie would…” Sam trailed off horrified at the possibility.

Nick gave her a grim look, “I don’t know.  I think we should just avoid her completely until Friday passes in a few days.”  Almost as if on cue Jasmine walked into the room looking for some shoes.  She quickly put them on and was about to leave.  Then Nick just remembered that it would just be them and Julie.  “Jasmine, do you mind if we tag along?”

Jasmine paused halfway out the door and stopped to consider this.  “Are you sure?  I need to hurry and take Danny to school and then Macy to daycare then I’ll just be running errands all day.”

“Yeah it shouldn’t be too bad,” Sam added. 

Jasmine was still a little sceptic but shrugged and picked them up.  “You guys haven’t had breakfast yet, I mad eggs and bacon,” Jasmine said as she carried them out to the kitchen for them to get some food before they all left.  Jasmine put both Nick and Sam into her purse for safe keeping, but as soon as they were in the purse did they start to regret it.  Due to their size everything in the purse was either about the same size or bigger.  When Jasmine started to move her purse swayed with her shifting the contents in it around.  One second Sam and Nick were next to some lipstick and eyeliner and then suddenly everything moved and now they were up against Jasmine’s phone.  It was possible the longest 20 seconds from the kitchen to the car before everything calmed down.

“Are you ok,” Sam asked Nick.

“I should be asking you that,” Nick laughed.  Nick rummaged through the mess and found Jasmine’s phone and used the display light to see the contents of purse.  Makeup items were everywhere along with a giant looking wallet that held Jasmines money, cards, and ID.  There was spare change scattered all over the place that luckily didn’t hit them during the twister of material that flew through the purse.   Using the phone and a pack of gum Nick set up a small barricade that he hoped would protect them from another whirlwind of junk.

“Now what,” Sam questioned.

“I guess we just wait till Jasmine needs something from her purse.  Then we let her know about how dangerous it is.”  Feeling unbelievably tired Nick blinked his eyes multiple times but due to the darkness of the purse he couldn’t help but start to drift asleep.  “I’m just going to rest my eyes wake me up when the car stops,” Nick told Sam.

Sam held onto him as he went to sleep.  It wasn’t long before Jasmine pulled up to Danny’s school to drop him off and then drove away.  It was a short while later before they must have gotten to Macy’s daycare because Jasmine turned off the car.  Sam woke Nick up when Jasmine picked up the purse.  Just as the purse started to move and fling object everywhere like a tornado on the loose, Nick held up the phone while Sam held onto the gum pack.  The barricade worked wonderfully as the object bounced off the semi-wall that they constructed.  Now all they had to do was wait until Jasmine opened her purse and to get her attention, whenever that would be.

There was muffled sound which meant that people were talking.  Nick could only make out a few words like a greeting and some friendly chatter about how each other were doing.  Luckily during this time Jasmine’s purse wasn’t swinging and they didn’t have to worry about being hit in the head with her eye liner.

As minutes passed by Nick and Sam waited for something to happen, even if it meant Jasmine moving again.  Suddenly out of the blue there was a loud ear piercing noise that emanated from the phone that Nick and Sam were holding onto.  It started to vibrate and play a song to get the owners attention.  Suddenly the purse jerked through the air and there was the noise of a zipper being moved.  Light flooded the dark pouch that held the phone and other valuables.  A giant hand reached down from the sky and started to rummage around for the source of the noise.  Nick and Sam had to duck before the hand accidently crushed them.  Finally the hand found the troubling device and grabbed it.

“Excuse me, I need to take this,” Jasmine told the other person she was talking to as she turned away and started to pull out the phone.  As Jasmine pulled the phone out, both Nick and Sam held onto the device.  They were quickly pulled through the air unnoticed by Jasmine and the lady she was talking with.  Sam tried to hold on, but the phone was too slick and the momentum caused by Jasmine forced Sam to start to slide off the phone.

“Nick,” Sam cried out horrified at what was going to happen… she slipped.  A look of terror was etched on her face as she started to fall.  Nick didn’t even think twice as he jumped off to follow Sam as she fell through the air.  Nick grabbed Sam’s hand and wrapped himself around her to protect her from the impact with the ground.  As they were about to hit the ground Nick was able to see Jasmine walking further away taking the call.  Then there was the sudden pain as he landed on his back.  The pain was immense as he bounced on the ground and slide across the tiled floor and under a padded chair. 

“Are you ok?” Sam asked worried.  Nick just let out a groan as he released her and rolled onto his stomach to let his back breath. 

“I’m sorry Veronica, I have to go, something came up.  I’ll be back by 5 to pick up Macy.  See you soon sweetheart,” Jasmine said as there was the sound of her giving a kiss goodbye.  Nick saw Jasmine’s shoes quickly hurry away as she left the daycare.

Nick and Sam looked at each other both with the same troubled expression. “What do we do now, wait for Jasmine to come back looking for us?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt she will look for us here.”  Getting up and stretching his back so it wouldn’t be as sore, “Our best bet is to stay with Macy and get picked up when Jasmine returns.”

“Then we better hurry cause there she goes,” Sam said looking out from under the chair.

Macy was being carried away by an older woman and into a room down a hallway.  Nick peered out and saw that they were in a bright yellow reception room with a desk with no one behind it.  It must be a really big daycare to have a fancy reception room like this.  There were more chairs in the room and two hallways one off to the right and one to the left.  Macy was heading down toward the one to the right.  Not wasting anytime Nick grabbed Sam’s hand and said, “Come on.”  They quickly ran out from under the chair and up against the wall and after Macy.

As they turned the corner they looked down a hallway and saw Macy in a pink outfit being carried into a room at the end of the hallway.  The women, Veronica, opened the door and went inside.  The door was open just a crack.  Nick turned toward Sam and told her to jump onto his back quickly.  When she was on he said, “Hold on tight.”  She squeezed her arms and legs around him.  “Tighter,” He warned her causing her to squeeze even tighter and to burrier her head into his back.  Sam looked over Nick’s shoulder and watched as he sprinted across the hallway.  Sprinting would be the wrong word for it, it was more like he flew.  It most have been a 5 mile run but it took Nick less than 5 seconds to reach the door.  Sam felt the air rush past them as if the air was trying to pull them apart. If she didn’t hold on tight like he told her she probably would have fallen off his back before she even knew what happened.  When they reached the door Nick seemed to be out of breath and need a second to catch it.  Sam was worried that he was pushing himself too hard.

“Ok, we need to hurry there’s no telling when the door will be closed,” he told Sam as he let her off his back and in front of the door.  Quickly Nick peeked into the room and checked to see where to go and if anyone was looking.  Before he could analyze the situation he heard thundering footsteps approach the door.  “Damn,” Nick said quickly, “Come on,” He told Sam grabbing her hand and quickly passing through the doorway just as the door was being closed.  They both stood absolutely still and up against the wall as the figure of a young woman walked away from the door unaware of the two newcomers she locked into the room.

“Nick…” Sam whispered in fear as they both looked upon their new surroundings.  Nick held his breath as he looked out into the room.  There were 5 young women, all around the same age, about early 20’s very late teens.  The room was filled with little children running around and playing.  The children all ranged from Macy’s age to 4 or 5.  There was about 12 children (including Macy) in the room and most of them were playing with toys or running after one another.  There was a baby gate in the left furthest corner where Veronica was heading to carrying Macy toward.  She handed Macy to the women and was saying something that Nick couldn’t make out over the noise and turned to leave.  She opened the door right next to them and left after closing it, again locking them in the room with the children and the daycare workers.  Macy was put into the pin with 2 other children that were the same age as her. 

“What do we do,” Sam asked staying completely still hoping that no one noticed them.

Nick glanced around and hoped that he came up with something quick, when suddenly there was a loud smashing sound forcing Nick to look over to the wall to their right.  A toddler, about 5, tossed a toy truck into the wall and had it smash into pieces.  He let out a victorious sound of delight as he ran away looking for something else to break.  An upset worker went to pick up the pieces and throw them away so a child wouldn’t swallow a piece by accident.

Nick didn’t see anything and knew it was a matter of time before they were discovered by either the workers or one of the children.  Nick spotted a toy chest that was a few inches out from the wall and a perfect spot to hide, and possibly the only place to hide. 

“Sam, over there,” Nick said gesturing there.

Sam was bewildered, “There is no way we can make it.”  The chest was literally across the room.  They would have to traverse either to the left along the wall pass a counter, turn the corner pass by a door to another room, and come up to the play pen with the young children before reaching the toy box.  Or they could head to the right where the worker was cleaning up the wall.  “How are we going to make it?”

Nick put his finger up to his mouth to show silences.  He took three deep breaths and then Sam felt a weird feeling, like a chill running up and down her spine constantly.  She gave Nick a puzzled look and waited for him to explain as he seemed to be catching his breath after this.  “They can’t see us if we don’t move fast or talk.”

“Are you ok ,” Sam asked as he looked ready to pass out anytime.  Nick put on a comforting smile nodded and held out his hand for Sam to grab hold and follow him.  By the time they shimmied toward the corner of the room closest to the daycare worker, she was done cleaning up and left.  No one noticed them as they worked their way toward the toy box.  Suddenly Nick felt a gust of air in front of him and immediately a loud sound as the air was filled with broken toy pieces of a GI Joe toy.

“PETER!” One of the day care helpers shouted as the same child who broke the truck ran toward the toy chest to get another toy to possible break again.  Nick didn’t move an inch as the angry worker walked toward them to pick up the pieces.  “I’m going to hurt that child one of these days,” She angrily growled as she picked up the parts.  When she got all the pieces picked up she looked up as she was about to stand when she looked dead center at Nick.  Nick didn’t even breathe as he waited for something to happen.   “What the,” She whispered curiously and reached out toward Nick.

Just as she was about to poke Nick in the chest someone called out, “Christy, I need your help.”

Turning her head she called out, “Coming.” When she turned back she had a puzzled look on her face. “I must be seeing things,” She muttered as she stood up and walked away.

“Nick?” Sam asked as her hearted started to slow down from the point of almost exploding.

“My powers must be fading faster than I thought.  We need to hurry.”  Nick didn’t let any time waste as he and Sam went as quickly as they dared toward the toy box.  They made the last corner and were just a straight shot to the chest.  Nick relaxed when they were almost there.

“Nick,” Sam whispered to him “I think we should hurry,” Sam warned him.  That weird feeling she had was starting to disappear, most likely meaning that whatever Nick did was starting to wear off.  They were probably about 20 yards away from safety but they were in the dead open for anyone to see them.  Sam looked out toward the dozen of kids out in the room and noticed a girl sitting down with a Barbie in her hands look right at them.  Sam held her breath as she watched the kid smile and started to get up.  “Faster,” Sam warned Nick as she watched the girl close the distance with an alarming speed.  Sam and Nick dashed toward the toy chest as the kid was right on top of them.  Nick in one quick motion picked up Sam and tossed her forward then dived behind the chest just in time as the child reached out and missed them. 

“Come back,” The child pouted and started to reach into the crack in a vain effort to get to the buggies.  Nick slide deeper into the crevice to escape the probing fingers.

“Sorry,” Nick apologized to Sam as he helped her up.  “You’re not hurt are you?”

“No,” Sam replied as she got up.  “Can you warn me next time you do that?”

“Hopefully there won’t be a next time,” Nick replied.  Suddenly there was the sound of something being dragged across the floor.  Nick sharply turned around to see the little girl trying to move the toy chest away from the wall.  It budged ever so slightly but it was enough to give the girl hope in catching the two little creatures. 

“Keep moving,” Nick told Sam as they headed toward the other end of the toy chest.  They reached the other side and peered out to find one of the workers standing in front of them.  They stood in the shadows waiting to see what was going to happen.  Suddenly there was another screeching noise from the child moving the large chest.

“Cassy, what are you doing,” The giantess said as she went over to the other side and picked up the girl who let out a whale.

“No I want them!”  She started to pout.

“What do you want?  Did you drop a toy back there?” She asked setting the child down and looking behind the toy box.  Nick and Sam held their breaths and stood still.  The giantess went to pull the toy box away from the wall to get the toy for the little girl.

“I didn’t drop a toy,” She replied still upset she was pulled away from her finding.

“Well stop messing with the toy box then or I’ll put you in time out.”  The little girl let out an angry noise and stomped away back to her dolls mad.  “Her parents need to teach her how to behave,” the giantess said to herself as the daycare worker walked away to go pull apart to kids from fighting over a toy.

Nick put his back up against the wall and slide down to take a seat.  Sam took a seat next to him and took his hand.  “Get some sleep, you don’t look so good.”

Nick shook his head no, “There’s no telling what might happen next I can’t…”  Sam squeezed his hand tighter to stop him. 

“We’re safe here,” Sam said reassuring Nick.

“Just a quick one, I mean it.  I just need a few minutes…” Nick was already asleep before he could finish.  He leaned his head up against Sam’s shoulder and still held onto her hand.  Sam was enjoying this moment.  Not the part where they were trapped in a room with giant children and daycare workers that would kill them if caught, but being together with Nick.

Nick heard a loud noise and quickly woke up panicked and nervous that something bad was about to happen.  A quick look around calmed him as he and Sam were fine.  “What was that,” Nick asked.

“The kids are just playing,” Sam told him calmly making him more at ease.  As if to prove that Sam was telling the truth the noise was heard again and this time Nick knew what it was.  It was the sound of plastic hitting the ground like if someone dropped a toy.

“How long have I been asleep,” Nick asked as he started to stretch.

“Not too long.  How do you feel?”

“Like a million bucks, well maybe more like a thousand.  Anything happen while I was asleep?”

“Well they took a nap and just had lunch,” Sam filled Nick in.

“Wait lunch and a nap… how long was I asleep?”

“A couple of hours,” Sam told Nick but quickly added, “You really seemed like you needed it and besides there wasn’t anything happening so I figured you could use the sleep.

Nick let out a sigh, “Thanks.  Your right I was pretty tired.  Alright,” He said as he started to stand up and helped Sam up off the ground.  “Let’s see what time it is,” Nick peered out into the daycare to see the children playing with toys or tag just like before he went to sleep.  He spotted Macy who was in one of daycares laps being bounced up and down playfully while playing a patty cake game with the adult.  He saw a clock above the door that they came in from.  It said it was about half past 12:00.  “We have another 5 hours till Jasmine comes and picks up Macy.  So all we have to do is wait it out and we’ll be fine.”   No sooner did Nick tell Sam this did her stomach growl.  She gave Nick a sheepish look and apologized.  “Don’t be,” Nick told her as he made 2 sandwiches appear in his hand. 

They finished their sandwiches and started to talk about what they would do when they get back to their own world.  Sam wanted to know if they could do something that normal people would do, like watch a movie or go out and eat.  “I could take you somewhere you always wanted,” Nick told her as they sat huddled together.  “You always wanted to see France or some other European country.  We could go if you want,” Nick posed the thought. 

“You mean… you can take me anywhere?” Sam asked in awe.

“Well I mean it doesn’t have to be on Earth.”

Sam seemed shocked, “You mean you could take me out there.” She pointed up into the sky.

“If you want, I could show you things that no one could have imagined.  There is a planet that has multiple gravity wells so the water there doesn’t flow but float in streams in the sky.  Planets that have no suns but planets that glow and produce light instead.”  Nick then seemed a little guilty and looked down at his feet, “I mean we don’t have to if you don’t want to…” Nick trailed off.  After putting her through all this maybe he should try and act more normal, she deserves it.  He looked up and saw the amazement on her face. 

“That sounds incredible, you been to all those places?  I never considered going somewhere else,” Sam replied as she looked astonished at the possibility of seeing things that no one else has seen.

Cheered up at her response, Nick told Sam, “First we need to get out of here.”

“So what do we do now?”  Sam asked.  Nick was about to say something when he let out a groan at his stupidity.  “What?”

Nick laughed, “I can’t believe how stupid I have been.  We don’t need to wait, I should be able to teleport us back to Jasmines house or back to her purse using your bracelet.”  Nick laughed again, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

Smiling Sam stood up, “So we can leave?”  Nick got up too holding her hand.

“Yeah, just give me a second to teleport us out.”  Nick closed his eyes and started to concentrate.  “Almost…”

Sam was so relived at their escape that she never even noticed what was happening.  One second they were in the safe shadow of the giant toy box then there was the loud sound of something being dragged across the floor and they were blinded by a bright light.

“See I told you there were buggies behind it,” a child jubilantly shouted.

“You were right Cassy,” The delighted daycare attendant told her.

Nick’s concentration broke with the sudden distraction preventing him from teleporting them to safety.  There was barely anytime for Nick to react as the giantess reached out and grabbed the both of them.  Nick quickly wrapped himself around Sam protectively as the crushing force of the hand bared down on him.  Sam let out a surprised cry of alarm while Nick let out a cry of pain as he felt his bones starts to bend.  Nick pushed out ward on the hand’s wall with all his might to keep from being crushed with Sam, sadly this giantess never picked up a buggy before because the pressure kept building to a deathly grip on them.  In the few seconds that she picked them up she already put enough pressure to cause Nick to start blacking out.  Nick heard a sickening snapping and crushing noise.  Suddenly his right arm went limp.  Quickly Nick shifted so his foot would push off where his arm was but his legs were starting to give out.  With a battle cry Nick put as much strength as he could into keeping the walls from collapsing. 

Suddenly the walls removed their pressure and Nick with Sam in a protective embrace went tumbling down into a clear plastic bowl on top of a counter.  Nick hit the plastic hard and passed out.  Sam quickly recovered and looked at Nick who was unconscious.  She tried to wake him but stopped when she noticed the blood from his arms and legs.  There were puncture marks where his bones were poking out.  Sam quickly tried to treat Nick as the giantess called out to the others.

“Hey guys check this out,” the other daycare attendants came over one at a time to see the prize the other one had.  “I found these two hiding behind the toy box.”

“I told you I saw them,” Christy said as she approached to look at them.

“So now what,” said the youngest of them.  “Are you going to keep them Lilith,” She asked with a hint of desire in her wording.

Lilith looked back at the youngest one and replied, “Well I don’t know, we don’t get off till about 6.  I was going to eat them soon.  What did you think I was going to do with them Tammy?”

Before Tammy could replied she was interrupted by Christy, “Hey that’s not fair I found them first!”  This woke up one of the toddlers from a nap who was still sleeping and started to cry.

“Way to go big mouth,” Said the oldest looking one.  She went over and picked up the toddler and started to calm her down. 

“Michele,” one of the children who was playing called out to the oldest day care worker.  “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Letting out an aggravated sigh she called out to Lilith, “Can you help out instead of looking at them.  Besides I don’t know why you’re all upset that she found 2.  Today we got a new supply of buggies,” Michele said pointing above their heads at a cabinet.

Christy quickly opened it up and chuckled, “So that’s why they were in the room.”

Before anyone could stop her, Lilith reached up and dipped her hand into the giant pretzel jar looking container and grabbed a buggy and tossed it into her mouth.  She chewed the buggy up and swallowed letting out a yummy sound, “Oh their good.”

“What are you doing,” Tammy asked.

“What,” Lilith asked innocently.

“Those aren’t for us.”  Lilith just waved it way as she walked away to help separate two boys fighting over a toy.  Shrugging, Christy reached in too and grabbed one.  Following Lilith’s lead, Christy walked off after eating the buggy.  “Great now there are two less,” Tammy grumbled to herself as she closed the cabinet door locking the 30 or so buggies away again.  She looked down at the two in the bowl and decided to leave them there instead of putting them away with the others.  Besides it wouldn’t be long till snack time anyway…

disappointedly