Warning to sensitive readers: Some violence, including death, occurs to the some of the participants in this story. Read on if you dare.
The stillness of the mountain night was shattered by the sound of a sledgehammer shattering the door to a cabin not far from the Appalachian Trail. A "flash-bang" detonated followed by "POLICE-SEARCH WARRANT". The sole occupant of the cabin, a meth manufacturer, grabbed up his 9mm Mac-10 and opened fire on the agents. A young firebrand of an agent, William Delaney, or "Skip" as the other agents called him due to his young age of 23 and becoming a crack narcotics agent in only two years on the force, returned fire with his 5.56mm M-4 assault rifles. The firefight lasted but seconds and the meth maker was heading off to meet his maker. As the smoke settled, the agents began their search of the property. One of the agents entered a room with strange equipment and computers, but errant bullets from the firefight had cut and broken wiring and circuitry, leaving it a smoking and crackling pile of scrap. Skip went to the room in the farthest reach of the shack, passing through a room containing terrariums filled with lush plants and one of the terrariums also had an occupant, a snake about 18 inches long. As he began to search a room, he noticed several terrariums, some seemingly empty, others holding more lush plant life. One of empty terrariums had a crumpled up rag on the bottom. Skip lifted the rag and to his shock and amazement, he saw a young lady about 19 years old wearing ragged clothing and was a mere 6 inches tall !!!! She screamed as she looked up at his hand descending into the terrarium and scampered on her hands and knees to one of the corners, curling up in a tight fetal position, fearing her demise was at hand. Skip used his most soothing tone of voice, telling her that no one was going to hurt her. Using his thumb and forefinger, he gently nudged her from the corner of the terrarium, then slipped his other three fingers beneath her and scooped her up into the palm of his hand and out of the terrarium.
Skip asked her name, to which she replied "Heather". He asked her how she got so small and what was she doing here? Heather was starting to regain her composure and slowly began to relate what she had gone through for the last month. "My friends, Bob, Tony and Joni were hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was getting late and we were looking for a place to spend the night when this guy called out to us. He identified himself as "Magic Mike", being a "friend to the thru-hikers" (Trail Magic is a term used for food, water and other items left by locals for thru-hikers to take alongside the Appalachian Trail) and invited us to his hostel for dinner and a place to sleep. We took him up on his offer, as we had numerous times over the last 4 months the group had been hiking and he led us to his cabin (shack), gave us time to wash up then set up a nice dinner of beef roast, potatoes, green beans and rolls, along with some wine. After dinner, he offered to let us use his shower facilities, then showed us the bunkroom where us could spend the night." During the night however, the powerful sedative Magic Mike had put in their wine took affect and they were all deeply unconscious. One by one, Mike carried them to another room of the shack and laid them on a steel table. You see, Magic Mike was actually Michael Percy Thorton, the son of Professor Jake Thorton, the billionaire microbiophysiologist, who had perfected the matter miniaturization devise after being arrested for the Dark Web selling of shrunken women. The government thought it better he work for them than rot in prison, so his crimes were buried by the bureaucrats, and he made a large fortune working for the shadow government. Mike had stolen the devise, while working for his father and disappeared from the Bayou Country and settled in the mountains of West Virginia under a false name, making meth to support his meager lifestyle. Each of the hikers was miniaturized to a height of size inches, more or less, and placed in empty aquariums in the back room. He put Bob and Tony in one and Heather and Joni in the other. He dropped in some towels for something to sleep on and some doll clothes that he had purchased during one of his rare trips to town. "When we awoke, we were terrified and in disbelief as to what had happened to us. Magic Mike took care of us well, considering, feeding us cooked ground meat and diced vegetables and fruit several times a day, but he never stopped to talk to us, to tell us what had happened to us. After about a week, Mike walked into the room without the food bowls, but with two empty pickle jars. He reached in the guy's tank and grabbed Bob by the back of his T-shirt, lifting him out of the tank and depositing him into one of the jars. He turned to the girl's tank and reached inside. Joni and I, having seen what happened to Bob, began to scream and run around the tank, dodging Mike's attempts to snatch one of them up. He finally trapped Joni in a corner and used the tips of his fingers to force her away from the glass. He wrapped his tree trunk sized fingers around her, his thumb and index finger curling around her chest just below her breasts and the other three finger wrapping around her left leg, leaving her sitting astride his middle finger like straddling a log. He lifted the screaming and struggling girl out of the tank, seeming to be enjoying her writhing in his grasp quite a bit, and dropped her into the other jar, then picked up the jar containing Bob and walked out of the room. He returned a few hours later and dropped a visibly shaken Joni back into the tank containing a despondent Heather."
"When Joni was able to talk, she told me what they had endured. Mike put her, still in the jar into a terrarium filled with lush tropical plants. Then he opened the jar with Bob in it and dumped Bob out of the jar into the terrarium. Mike then sat down in a chair and cracked open a beer as if he was getting ready to watch the big game on television. Bob ran to Joni's jar and tried to open the lid, but obviously, was unable to do so. He began banging his fists on the terrarium glass, screaming at Mike to help them. What Bob didn't know was that the commotion he was making had aroused the third current occupant of the terrarium. He never heard it coming until it shot its leathery head out of the foliage and took hold of Bob's left leg. The Eastern Hognose Snake, the size of a giant anaconda to Bob, coiled its body around his, slowly squeezing the life out of him. Joni watched on in horror as Bobs legs slowly stopped kicking, twitched a couple times, then went limp. The snake then proceeded to swallow him whole, headfirst. The last Joni saw of Bob was his feet slipping into the snake's mouth. Mike then picked Joni up out of the terrarium, and dumped her back into our cage."
"The next week was same as the first, then Mike walked in again and grabbed Joni out of her and Heathers cage and put her in one of the jars. He walked over to Tonys cage and picked him up also and put him in a jar, then walked out of the room. A few hours later, he dumped Tony back into his cage, but Joni was not returned. I didn't have to ask what happened to Joni......"
Then she looked up at Skip, her face growing pale and tears welling up in her eyes. "Six days ago, I was the one left in the jar............"
How this story ends and what becomes of Heather is up to the light or darkness of the minds of you, the readers.
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