The young woman walked briskly, leaving Ben and Jenna to occupy their time with more general chitchat while being engulfed by body heat and the sounds of regular breathing and a steady heartbeat. The woman had kept a firm hold of the bundle the whole time. Ben contemplated how this would look to yet another imagined third party... a young woman carrying home her shopping, bag at her side and magazines against her chest supported by a hand. It would be so 'every day', so mundane as to draw no attention at all. There would be nothing visible to suggest she was carrying two shrunken people amongst her purchases, she would seem so normal and uninteresting to anyone she passed... unless of course someone found her attractive, sneaking a glance or two in passing. Even then, there would be nothing to give the captive's presence away. They might as well not even exist. Ben shuddered at the idea that he and his girlfriend were now so insignificant. Jenna did her level best to keep Ben from getting too worked up over it, utilising the now relied upon hug for their mutual reassurance.
After no more than fifteen minutes, Jenna and Ben felt some new movements from the woman. They saw below them that she had placed her shopping bag on the ground. The bundled up couple were jostled slightly, their position now allowed them to see that the shoulder bag had been brought round to the woman's front. It was immediately below them now. Through the layers of plastic at their feet, they watched the bag open, revealing a jumble of personal effects as she proceeded to retrieve a key from the chaotic contents. There followed the sound of a mechanical click and a lightly creaking door in need of some oil. The woman pickup up her shopping bag again and entered her home.
The magazine bundle was deposited onto a worktop in the woman's kitchen. Ben and Jenna were able to angle themselves enough to view the woman turn her oven on then go about emptying the shopping bag and stow the items away. She disappeared around a corner for a moment, returning with what appeared to be some kind of frozen ready meal in her hands... the freezer apparently being in an alcove around the corner. The woman removed the packaging as needed and then placed the meal in the oven.
She stepped out of the room briefly, returning after seemingly making herself more comfortable. Her jacket had been removed and she had undone the top few buttons of her blouse. She seemed visibly more relaxed now. Her stride and posture had also changed, suggesting she had removed her undoubtedly aggravating formal footwear in favour of something more recreational.
Jenna and Ben watched as she pulled a bottle of something from the fridge, open it and begin swigging from it. She stared towards the bound couple, but wasn't quite looking at them. Explanation came suddenly as the tiny couple were dazzled by bright artificial light. They were apparently resting in front of a TV. The woman had used a remote control to activate it and now the contained couple were bathed in the flickering light from the changing images. Their ears were filled with sound from its speakers, but the volume wasn't so great as to cause discomfort.
For the next three quarters of an hour the couple had their attention divided between the gigantic TV beside them and the equally gigantic woman going about various kitchen related tasks. The meal had cooked through after about thirty minutes and she was just now tidying up after eating it.
With her kitchen activities concluded she switched off the TV, grabbed another bottle from the fridge, then scooped up the magazine bundle and walked through a short hallway into a much larger room. She flopped down heavily onto a particularly plush sofa, with Ben and Jenna coming to rest with a thump beside her on the cushions. They looked up at the woman, watching her body's movements as she settled into a comfortable position. More artificial light and sound appeared from another TV, though this one was well across the room. Ben and Jenna couldn't see it this time, as the woman's weight had caused the cushion to lean slightly towards her. The top edge of the bundle raised enough to obstruct their view.
With the woman now close by and no longer occupied with miscellaneous tasks, they were both now thinking about actually trying to get her attention and, hopefully, assistance. Just as they were about to try to wave their arms or something of that nature, the woman placed her drink down on a side-table and turned towards the magazines.
Without hesitation or ceremony, she lifted the bundle up and pulled open the glued flap of cellophane at the top of the publications. She removed the magazines in one motion. The cover of the top most one sliding effortlessly over Jenna and Ben's backs as it withdrew. They remained in their polythene bag at the bottom of the now spacious cellophane packaging, but only for a moment as the woman reached back into it to fish them out. Her hand wrapped around the couple and gently lifted them clear.
The sensation of being held in this manor was so alien to the couple that they forgot their previous train of thought while they absorbed what their senses were conveying to their overwhelmed minds. The woman's grip was firm enough that they felt secure from falling, but soft enough to be considered not unpleasant. They were bought up to the woman's face and regarded closely, being rolled over onto their fronts briefly as she inspected their tiny forms.
The clear polythene did nothing to hide the couple's modesty, leading to both suddenly becoming very aware of their nudity. Ben and Jenna instinctively tried to conceal their respective private areas with their arms and hands. The woman seemed satisfied after a few moments, proceeding to place them down on the cushion beside her. The shrunken partners looked back up towards the woman. She had the three magazines resting on her lap and was shuffling them until settling on the gossip one. She began flicking through the glossy pages, completely ignoring the couple.
Jenna was the first to voice what was on both of their minds after being handled. The woman had had plenty of opportunity to engage with them, talk to them... do something to suggest she recognised them as people. All they saw in her expression was the intrigue one would exhibit for a new trinket before then placing it on a self to be forgotten about. Ben and Jenna felt a very real chill run down their spines... they were not going to be helped by this woman, nor probably by anyone else on this world. They really were seen as a commodity. The couple came close to tears in that moment, the only thing preventing the waterworks being the embrace they had fallen into to try to stifle the sickening despair now threatening to lock its icy talons around their hearts.
They stopped paying much attention to the environment outside their polythene prison, choosing instead to simply hold each other close. They barely noticed the woman's occasional shifts in her seat, though they did register the shadow passing over as she placed the gossip magazine, now finished with, on the sofa beside them. Ben and Jenna spared only the briefest of glances for this, before going back to gently rocking back and forth in each other's arms. Soon stress took its toll, causing them to slip in and out of consciousness.
Time passed by, its flow uncertain and unfathomable to the captives until Ben and Jenna were sufficiently disturbed to rouse them from their stupor. They regained some semblance of emotional control as they became alert once more. Their attention was quickly drawn to the woman still sat beside them, due to the contemplative murmurs they could hear her making. She had at some point finished perusing the fashion magazine, it now also lying beside them, and was now solidly half way through the pages of the main magazine. She was deeply engrossed in whatever she was reading, her hums and murmurs indicating that she was both intrigued by and liked whatever was printed on the glossy pages.
Ben and Jenna felt a new weariness as they watched. The woman cast glances their way often enough that the couple felt it highly likely that the contents of the pages related to them. The tone in the woman's indistinct vocalisations slowly took on one that both recognised with growing certainty... arousal. The woman seemed to be becoming excited by what she was reading. This hypothesis was reinforced visually when the woman lifted a hand to adjust her blouse over her breasts, leading the couple to notice her nipples straining at the fabrics containing them. The bulges proved to be a dead giveaway as to her state of mind.
She flicked another page over, seeming once again to find more to fuel her growing excitement. A moment later she turned her head fully towards the polythene clad couple, looking directly at the pair with a mixture of desire and an almost predatory resolve displayed in her expression. She looked them both over for a few seconds, then suddenly stood up to her towering full height. She placed the open magazine down where she had sat, then turned and strode out of the room.
Ben and Jenna checked that they were on the same proverbial wavelength as one another over what they just saw. They had no idea what had gotten the woman riled up, nor what she was now off and doing. They only just began to speculate when their discussion was cut short by the footfalls of the woman as she came back into the room. She held in one hand a pair of scissors and a clump of thin nylon cord. In rapid uninterrupted movements, she pickup up Ben and Jenna with her free hand, placed them in the middle of the open pages of the magazine, flipped the magazine closed over them and then picked up the publication.
Ben and Jenna felt her walk for a short distance, the motion then changing to include repeated bursts of upward acceleration. Ben guessed that she was taking them up some stairs. Jenna simply agreed, but chose not to share her own suspicions. There was only one likely destination for a young woman who had just excited herself while reading something appealing... her bedroom. Jenna felt that she knew what to expect, at least to a point. This woman was likely going to continue from where she left off in the living room, only within the more intimate sanctum of her bedroom. It was a decision she herself had made on several occasions when enjoying the odd evening alone. This woman wasn't alone, though... and Jenna felt her unease grow as she knew that she and Ben were going to be involved in activities to come.
She should have felt panic, or at least intense concern, but the earlier emotional overload seemed to have rendered her unable to process any feelings stronger than her current level of unease. She stopped herself from sharing her suspicions with Ben, though. He tended to be more sensitive to stress, and she didn't want to risk undermining his mental state... especially when they could not avoid the source of the stress. In a relatively calm state, they both waited again for what was to come.