Dr. Volpe paced back and forth in his office, impatiently waiting for Madison’s sedan to pull in through the security gate at the lab. He knew she was hiding something (or someone perhaps) but couldn’t tell exactly what. She was the only one in the lab last Friday when there was a spike in energy readings from the portal unlike any other readings from tests in the past and provided evidence of items coming though of everyday lab items, just reduced in size, and yet, she denied seeing anything unusual or strange. She had mentioned leaving around 7pm but the security report mentioned the gates opening for someone to leave at 10pm, right around the time of the energy surge. He also could sense something was off when he visited her apartment on Saturday, as if she was nervous about something they might find. He couldn’t let go of the thought so he decided to send his private security team members out early in the morning to scope out and break into her apartment after she had left to investigate in depth. If she was hiding something of this magnitude, he had to know. It was groundbreaking and he needed to show his board of trustees some type of progress in order to retain funding.
“Just hold until I can confirm she has arrived and in the lab, I don’t want any issues with this you understand?!” He snapped as he peered out the window while on the phone with his security member. He paced anxiously for a few more minutes, not once thinking if this was a bad idea or wrong, but only thinking about the results of the search. She had finally arrived and pulled in through the gates. He watched her park, exit her vehicle, and grab all of her belongings from her car before heading towards the main entrance. He stared as he could see, even from his office window above, her curvy figure approach the main doors.
“Alright. You’re clear. Make it quick and quiet. Remember, if anyone asks, you’re both just some plumbers sent in by the building to check on a minor issue. Report back anything you find as soon as possible” Volpe said in a whisper and mischievous tone before hanging up and walking back to his desk.
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Madison pulled up to the security gate and flashed her badge to the guard. She was on edge, not knowing what was in store for her today at the lab after the surprise visit from Dr. Volpe over the weekend. She thought he had bought everything she had said, but then again, he was a snake and a creep, so she couldn’t be for sure. She gathered her items and walked with a hurried pace to the main entrance, eager to get the day stared and over with already. She could have sworn she noticed Dr. Volpe up in his office window looking out over the lot, and more so at her, but as she looked up at that moment, she just saw the slight motion of blinds instead and brushed off the thought. She had to act as is nothing had happened and there was nothing to hide, or else she risked her own, and more importantly, James’ safety if they were to suspect anything. She walked with a heightened pace to her desk, ready to work and go through the mundane work of the day. She fully expected Dr. Volpe to make an appearance to her office at some point during the day, just unsure of when.
She sat down, logged in, and got to work answering emails, scheduling meetings, and reviewing data and information from their prior tests, and more importantly, from the Friday evening event. Her heart sunk when she saw the email from Dr. Volpe sent out company wide stating that the portal was active and potential contact was made Friday. She visibly jumped when a co-worker and good friend of hers, a man named Luke Wilson, knocked on her door while entering. He was one person she could truly trust and rely on in the office. While everyone else seemed to have their own secret agenda or narrative to advance their career and brown nose Dr. Volpe, Luke simply was there to do good. He had always agreed with her on her stance with Dr. Volpe, that of him being a scumbag, but also, just was an overall good person who would listen and talk to her about anything. He worked as an analyst along with her as well, and was there before her arrival, helping her get adjusted and learn the ropes of the job.
“Sheesh Maddi, it’s just me” he said with a laugh, as he watched her expression fade back into a relieved smile. “Just stopping in to see if you saw the report and news; I know you stayed late Friday, so did you see the portal fire up?!” He asked excitedly.
“Uh… no, I didn’t see it unfortunately” she lied, deciding to keep the secret to just herself. She didn’t want to involve him in anything that may be dangerous for the time being.
“Dang, that would’ve been awesome if you were! Did you see the email? Apparently the portal was activated later Friday evening and recorded a higher than normal reading in energy!” He said excitedly.
“Yeah I see that now, and was promptly visited at my apartment, on Saturday morning mind you, but none other than Volpe and his goon squad” she said with a roll of the eyes.
Luke’s face dropped “shut the fuck up…. He seriously stopped by? Why? Just because you were working later on Friday? I mean its big news but that doesn’t make sense!” He said in shock.
“Yeah, I was caught off guard too. He and his goons looked around and even investigated some intimate clothing as well” she said with disgust.
“Wow…. I mean if I were you I’d go to HR, but then again, even HR would side with him it seems like. I’m sorry, just brush it off for now and push through until this project is complete, then you can get out of this hell hole” he said, trying to comfort her.
“Yeah, I know, I’m just playing it cool for now, but as soon as this project is done, and I get my pay, I’m out of here” she said with hopeful optimism “so I’ll deal with whatever for the time being.”
Luke and Madison continued chatting about their weekend and how boring it was (even though hers was far from it), they were interrupted by none other that Dr. Volpe. He had his normal snake like grin on his face as he walked in. “I need you both to come with me. We need to review this information in detail, together, to figure out what happened.”
Madison and Luke looked back at each other and gave a mutual understanding look that they both knew this was gonna be a long and difficult Monday ahead, grabbed their items, and followed out behind Dr. Volpe towards the lab.
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The security guards hung up the phone and pulled their white utility van into the lot in front of Madison’s apartment. They scoped out the surrounding units and saw no activity in or around them, so they decided to get out and get on with their task. As one guard kept slight watch, the other guard began the process of pick locking her door, in a manor that indicated this wasn’t the first time he’s done something like this. Dressed in repairmen jumpsuits and sporting tool belts to fit their cover, they worked at the door, attempting to get in.
James heard as they worked on the door handle. He has started running towards the couch for cover, but stopped himself before making it there. He knew that they would have to unlock both the door and the dead bolt, which would give him some time to make it less suspicious than it was. He doubled back towards the house as fast as he could. His adrenaline was pumping as he was in pure survival mode. He ran first towards the remote that lay on the ground next to the house. Madison had left it there incase he wanted to try to change channels or volume. He jumped with all of his might on the power button, and successfully was able to turn the TV off. He thought having the TV on, with no one home would be one suspicion, but now he had to figure out the house. He obviously couldn’t move the house, but he could hide the evidence of food and water inside. He ran in and with all of his strength, push and flipped the cap of water over out on the floor of the apartment to not make it so obvious that it was left out for “something” to use. He then grabbed the food crumbs left by Madison and ran out with them, tossing them on the floor around the table and house to make it look as so Madison was just a little sloppy and some remnants of food dropped from the coffee table along with the cap.
At this point, he heard them accomplish the door knob, and beginning their attempt on the dead bolt. He looked around at his options for hiding. He could either run to the couch and attempt to hid behind the legs from their view if they searched there, which was more likely to happen than not and didn’t give him a lot of hiding options. Run to the TV stand and attempt to get behind it and somehow inside of it, which if he was successful, would give him a great hiding spot, but if unsuccessful, left him vulnerable behind it with no where to hide. His third option was to run towards a dirty laundry basket that sat against the wall to his left. It was about the same distance to the basket as it was the TV stand, roughly 2 football fields or 200 yards at his size. It would offer him the best chance to hid in some clothing and keep hidden from whomever was attempting to break in. He made his mind up; the hamper it was.
James made a dead sprint for the hamper. He was happy that all the years of working out and staying in shape was paying off. He also couldn’t help but think that the adrenaline had something to do with his speed as well. The other night priors run was out of fun and games with Madison, this was for life or death. As he got closer to the basket, he noticed his toga start to become loose on him, but he couldn’t do anything to help that, he had to get to the basket. He heard the dead bolt latch unlock. They had managed to unlock it all and were about to enter. He guessed he was about 50 yards away from the laundry basket at this point as he felt his toga come loose at the shoulder and fall to ground behind him, leaving him sprinting butt naked in his birthday suit to safety. There was nothing he could do about the toga at this point, hopefully they wouldn’t notice it.
The 2 guards had successfully unlocked the apartment. They looked around real quick to make sure there were no watching eyes, before entering in. Once they had confirmed the coast was clear, they slowly entered the apartment unit. James heard the door creak open slowly just as he made it to the laundry basket. He jumped up and in through one of the open slots on it into Madison’s dirty clothes. He turned back to catch a glimpse real quick of the intruders as they entered. They were sporting repairmen jump suits and tool belts as well, but he could tell, they were there for more insidious reasons. He turned back into the clothes and started digging through it all to get deep into it to avoid detection. He found it a little more difficult than he originally thought, climbing through gaps of heavy clothing articles. It was almost as if he was in an obstacle course for adults, only this wasn’t fun and games. He couldn’t help but notice the smell of Madison stale sweat and body odor on the clothes as he crawled deeper into the pile. He passed socks, shirts, pants, bras, and even panties, each with a distinct smell from where they were worn. He felt himself hit the bottom of the hamper and decided to work his way into a sock hole to keep himself extra hidden. The smell was overwhelming and began to cause his nose to burn ever so slightly. He also couldn’t help but notice of how hot and stuffy it was in all of this clothing. He tried to catch his breath to reduce his oxygen intake, but found it difficult with the lack of fresh air. It was better than the alternative though as he felt more secure and hidden within here than being out in the open and exposed.
The guards walked in and closed the door behind them quietly. They panned around the room to make sure it was all clear. “Alright, I’ll stay out here, you go towards the room. Look around for anything unusual the boss said and if you find something very out of place, give him a call right away, otherwise take photos and leave it” the one henchman said.
“How do we know if something is unusual or not when he won’t let us know what we should be looking for?” The other man questioned back.
“I don’t know, just look around for anything that seems out of place in a young woman’s apartment, I don’t make the requests, I just get paid to follow them Jesus man. And remember, don’t touch anything or take anything, we gotta make it seem inconspicuous” the main henchman retorted. The other man slowly made his way back towards the bedroom, while the main guy stayed out in the living room area to investigate. James could hear their bickering back and forth, muffled through the clothing in the hamper. He then heard and felt ever so slightly the footsteps of the one man head away, but could also feel the steps of the main man walking towards him into the living room.
The main henchman immediately saw the doll house sitting in the middle of the floor and went to look into it. He noticed food crumbles and some water spillage on the floor around the table and wondered if Madison and girls in general were really this sloppy in their own homes? He carefully picked the house up and noticed how detailed and realistic it actually was. It definitely wasn’t a normal doll house where little girls could play Barbie or Polly Pocket in, but it had insane wooden detail on the outer trim, realistic furniture inside, and it was well built. He didn’t see however any doll or figurines to go with it when he opened it up. He placed it on the table and took pictures of it to document and send back to Dr. Volpe. It wasn’t totally unusual, but he felt it was important to showcase. Once he had the home back together and on the floor, he noticed an oddly shaped and small piece of cloth on the floor between the home and a laundry basket. It looked as if it was an old rag tied up in a fashion to make it into a toga for a doll or figurine no bigger than his middle finger. He picked it up and saw the knot tied at the shoulder and back portions of it and found it extremely odd. He snapped a few photos of it and decided to actually take this, since this seemed something particularly out of place and something that she wouldn’t realize is missing.
“Hey, check it this out!” His other henchman said with a loud whisper and shocked expression, as he held up a bra that could have been worn as a hat on his head. “Jesus Christ man, I didn’t know she was this stacked” he said in awe.
“For fucks sake man, what did I say about touching things and moving them! Put it back now where you found it!”
The second henchman brushed off his berating and walked back into the bedroom still staring at the bra in his hands. The main guy shook his head in annoyance and continued looking around where he found the piece of cloth all tied up. He noticed it was right before the laundry basket on the floor in front of him and couldn’t shake the thought of their being a doll house, a small toga piece of clothing, and yet no doll around to utilize it. He did work for Dr. Volpe who works with high tech equipment and he even heard rumors about some type of portal. Could this be related? Could there be miniature people running around now? He decided to look into the laundry basket to check, just to be sure and figured, she wouldn’t notice any clothes moved around in a dirty laundry bin.
James could feel as the man took a few steps closer till he was right next to the basket. His heart was pounding as he felt the basket get picked up and moved across the room to the table. The henchman carefully set it down on the coffee table and began to light sift through the clothes, looking for any sign of an other worldly miniature life-form. He carefully moved around dirty t shirts, gym shorts, socks and other articles of clothing. He was also stunned when while sifting, when he came across one of her bras in the bin. It was true, the cup size was larger than any of his hats! He had to look and see what the size was. He turned it over and looked on the tag and his jaw dropped when he saw it. “Jesus… 32G?!” He said in amazement.
James could feel clothing above him move around from the man searching. He felt it stop for a moment, only to hear the man read out her bra size aloud. “Scumbag going through her personals” he thought to himself. He’d imagined himself as normal height compared with this man, and entering into the apartment in the midst of their search, to run and tackle and stop them from invading her privacy. It enraged him to think they were looking at her panties and private wear. He was snapped out of the daydream when he felt the man continue his search as he neared the bottom the basket. He felt the shirt next to him get picked up and tossed aside and then felt the clump he was sat in get lifted next. His heart felt like it was about to pound our of his chest as a blast of fresh air came rushing into the sock he was hidden in. He could see just slightly out of the hole and saw the leg of the man holding him as he was sat on the couch. He hoped and prayed that he wouldn’t be looking into any socks and just more so around. He gripped the fabric tightly and prepared himself to be flipped around as the man investigated.
He looked at the clump of clothes in his hand now for any sign of anything out of the ordinary, asides from the bras from her impressive bust. He started to let articles fall that he had looked at, including a t shirt, some panties, and shorts, and was left with a few socks and sports bra. He started to look at the socks in detail, slowly moving them around in his hands, and peaking into them out of curiosity. James could feel his giant fingers brush against him as he moved them around. The creep had an idea as he held these items in his hand and quickly looked up to make sure the other man wasn’t around. James’ motion around was halted for moment. He wondered if he had been clear and was about to be put back down. In an instant however, he felt a violent motion upwards and into something that brushed his body. He instantly knew what was happening when he felt a rush of air being pulled by him as the scumbag henchman held the clothes to his face and inhaled deeply to smell her dirty clothes. James could feel the mans nose pressed right next to him and the air being rushed by him as the man took a few deep breaths in. He was furious and wanted so badly to fight back. After he was done smelling her clothes, he began to look in each sock for shits and giggles. One by one he investigated the socks, until there were only 2 left. He lifted the one up containing James and began to feel around in and open it up. James saw his 2 giant digits begin to open the foot hole and thought this was it, he was a goner. He closed his eyes and tucked himself into the fetal position, hoping he wouldn’t be seen.
*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*
The henchman froze and turned towards the front door. The other man poked his head out of the bedroom at the sound as well. They both paused a moment, hoping that it was a mistake.
*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK* “Hello? Excuse me gentleman, can you come help me?” an older sounding woman cried out as she tapped on the door again.
Both henchman shot up and looked back at each other. The one from the bedroom ran back in to re-organize everything he had touched and then made a bolt for the kitchen, opening the cabinet under the sink, to make it look as though they had been working as hired plumbers. The henchman holding the laundry dropped it all in an instant back into the basket. James felt the free fall motion occur as his stomach came up into his throat. He couldn’t help but scream out in terror at this feeling. All of the clothes fell back into the hamper, asides from one sock… the sock containing James. Instead of landing into the basket of laundry, the sock that James was nestled into, fell right past the basket and coffee table, and fell all the way to the floor. He landed with a hard thud against the floor, only cushioned slightly by the sock he was in. He was dazed and confused, and couldn’t tell which way was up as he fought to grab hold of the fabric around him. The henchman quickly moved the laundry basket back to its spot, and moved towards the front door. He noticed one sock still on the floor between the couch and coffee table and decided to kick it under the couch in a lazy move to cover up his actions as he moved towards the door to answer.
James’ world was once again sent into a whirlwind as he tumbled across to floor from the kick in the sock and under the couch. He was dazed from the fall, clinging onto consciousness, but with this final blow and the aggressive motion and trauma to his body from the kick, he slipped into unconsciousness when the sock came to rest under the couch.
The henchman answered the door to find a little old elderly lady knocking. “Excuse me gentleman, I saw you arrive to work here, and was wondering if you could come help me with my sink as well. It won’t drain or anything for me. Please I’ll pay you cash” she pleaded.
The two henchman looked back at each other and both had the same look in their eyes. They knew they weren’t plumbers but also knew she didn’t know the difference and could make a few extra bucks out of her.
“Sure thing ma’am, we’re all finished up here anyways” the main man said, as the second man closed up the cabinets and shut the lights off. The two of them closed the door behind them, leaving the apartment the way they had found it, or almost the way they’d found it.
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Dr. Volpes’ phone buzzed as he sat in the data room with Madison and Luke. It was from his security team members and contained some photos in a message. It read:
“Nothing too odd, just a creepy doll house and some doll clothing” along with the photo of the doll house and the tiny piece of cloth used to cover James’ body. He looked in detail at the house and clothing and became even more suspicious of Madison. The clothing wasn’t your typical doll clothing and appeared too small for any doll he’d had seen before. He knew something was up and messaged back:
“Good work, we’ll have to keep an eye on her. For now, head back and ditch the outfits.”
He looked back at Madison and Luke and stared intensely at her, seeing if she had any social cues giving up a secret. She looked up and saw him staring creepily at her and fought with all of her might to muster a half assed smile in return, before looking back down. She could feel his eyes upon her, and not in his normal sense of checking her out, but in a much more evil sense, as if he knew something about her.
“I uh.. I gotta excuse myself to the ladies room” she said to break the tension and get out of the room. “I’m not feeling to great at the moment” coming up with a lie to excuse herself for longer than normal.
“Ah, go right ahead, I believe we’re finished here anyways” Volpe said with an almost sinister tone. Luke looked up in confusion, as if he was a movie villain addressing them.
Luke and Madison gathered their items and began to leave, but Dr. Volpe couldn’t help himself from digging more at Madison to try and make her react in a way that was a giveaway and show her that he had power above her.
“And oh Madison, I was just curious, my niece wants a nice doll house set for her birthday coming up, but I have not the slightest idea on where to get one. You wouldn’t happen to know where I could get one, would you?” He said with a snarling grin as he shot daggers from his eyes to hers.
Madison felt as if she was going to faint and get sick all at once. She could feel her heart rate skyrocket and sweat form on her head. Her heart sank at the words he’d just asked. She couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. Why would he have asked that? Did he know she just got one? Could he sense she was hiding something. She fought hard to come up with a response to give, but couldn’t. She felt his eyes piercing into hers, searching for any clues she might be giving away. She fought with all her might to act normal, but feared it was already too late.
“Oh yeah! My niece goes to a place in the mall. They have a ton of realistic and nice sets as well as Barbie sets too!” Luke interrupted.
Madison saw Dr. Volpe annoyingly look towards Luke and reply “ oh, thank you” before returning his eyes to her. She took that moment to compose herself an settle herself down.
“Uh.. yeah, thanks Luke, I was just about to say that. I grabbed one this weekend to hold onto for a family member” she responded, attempting to cover up any knowledge he may or may not know.
“Very well. Thank you, you both may leave” said Volpe as he turned away from them.
“What was that all about?” Luke asked as they rounded the corner away from the data room.
“He was staring so intensely at you, like almost interrogating you. You okay?” He asked her.
She was still fighting back the sensation of fainting and getting sick. He had to have known something. Was James safe, did he find him?
“Uh yeah, I don’t know, I guess he’s having a worse Monday than us” she responded.
“Yeah tell me about it, well I’m gonna head back to my office, I’ll see you in a little for lunch, sound good?” James asked, without the slightest idea that Madison was struggling.
“Yeah sounds good. I’ll see you soon” she responded half heartedly as she entered her office. She sat down at her desk and began to panic slightly. He clearly knew something was up, but she wasn’t sure of how much he knew. All she could think about was getting back home to James. To make sure he was okay and even there. This was about to be the longest and most strenuous day of her life so far, and it was only 10am.