Darkness

Her breath sucked in.

"This can not be happening," Alisha thought to herself, her eyes blinking despite the fact she knew blinking would do nothing about the darkness. Her chin went up, her hand went up, and she tugged at the string hanging from the ceiling that she'd used to turn on the light before.

Nothing.

She pulled again.

Nothing.

She pulled again, again and again, only nothing.

Except, each time she pulled, she felt a little shorter for some reason.

"It must be the darkness playing a trick on me.

Alisha sucked in a deep breath. She turned and faced the door before yelling rather loudly. "This isn't funny, whoever you are!" She waited, hoping for an answer, her lips pushed together, worried that nobody would hear her, that nobody would rescue her from—

"Oh, right. The closet isn't locked." Alisha reached out, looking for the doorknob, smiling when she touched the cold metal and turned—

The knob refused to turn all the way as if the door was locked. Alisha stared, in the darkness, as the doorknob, which was preventing her from getting out of that dark room. Taking a deep breath, she banged on the door with her fist, the pounding on the wood painfully echoing in her ears, yet she knew she needed to get out. "Hey! Let me out already."

It sounded as if she were getting quieter rather than louder. "It must be the darkness playing a trick on me." Alisha took a deep breath, touching the back of her head with both hands. "Oh, come on! This little trick of...."

She slipped. Alisha slipped and fell backward, hitting her head on the shelf despite not seeing anything to slip on in the closet. Her eyes blinked, this time in an attempt to deal with the pain as her body crumpled to the floor. There was that pulsing pain in the back of her head while the darkness enveloped her, and no matter how much she strained her ears, she couldn't hear anything.

She thought it a good idea to open her mouth for some reason. "Hey! I'm..." Her eyes clamped shut. "Okay. No yelling. Yelling hurts the head. Just rest for a bit and hope that headache goes away. Perhaps someone will find you; I mean someone...." Her eyes opened, slightly confused. Alisha spoke aloud, softly, to not aggravate her already throbbing head. "Someone else is in the house."

A cold shiver ran down her spine. Shifting her body, she slowly pulled her knees up to her chest, letting her chin rest on top while her eyes closed. Even without the light, it was easier just to keep her eyes closed. Of course, if someone were cruel enough to sneak into her home, break into her home despite locking the place tightly the night before, it was doubtful that person would want to save her anytime soon, yet there was also that thought in the back of her head. "Why? Why me?"

Alisha let out a sigh, nodding off, wishing that this wasn't the exciting thing to happen in her life. Her mind was in a fog, her head in pain, while she waited for something to happen.

And it did.

For some reason, her head stopped throbbing the next time she opened her eyes. It was still dark, and she was likely still locked in the closet. Letting out a deep breath, she started to stand up.

"Oh!" She spoke in a soft voice. "Head not hurting doesn't mean you're not going to experience some form of—can't think of the word for it. Get a grip on your bearings. It's not as if—" As she felt around, her hand hit the string from the light, making her squeak out. "Wait. Did I shrink?" A hand clamped over her mouth. "Oh my gosh. My voice. I sound younger. In fact..."

She felt younger. No, it was more like she was having some out-of-body experience because the body she was in was not her body. She was now a short person, still female, and—she sucked in a deep breath, her fingers reaching out for the shelf which was no longer behind her but beside her, as she turned. She paused, realizing that there were, in fact, items on the shelves.

Alisha sucked in her breath, attempting to fill around again, only to find herself tripping and falling flat onto her face, though not on the floor. Instead, she fell onto the cot. Slowly, she pushed herself up, filling the pillow and the blanket as she maneuvered into a sitting position.

"Harry Potter?" she muttered, wondering if there were any toy soldiers that he'd collected, only to brush this aside. "Cupboard under the stairs, cot, tiny body. But why? It's not as if magic exists. Someone had to purposefully locked me into the closet. They must have—they must have drugged me! And I have a majorly bad trip."

The cot and items on the shelves could be explained away by the fact someone was trying to throw her off, even possibly hold her prisoner in her cupboard, which was why they'd now provided her with a cot, as she was expected to live there from now on. This also meant that there was no point in yelling, as the closet was probably at just the right location that the neighbors couldn't hear, and given her lack of interaction with any of said neighbors, they wouldn't bat an eye.

She let a sigh, waiting for what would happen next when she heard the door turn.

There wasn't the sound of a key going into the lock either, but someone turned on the light, possibly replacing the light bulb. She blinked, her mouth twisting into a frown as her eyes dilated, and she attempted to see whoever it was that had opened the door. The person—

She thought at first the person standing there, keeping her hostage in her own cupboard wouldn't say anything, but then a woman said, "What are you doing in here?"