Bullied and Bailed

Chapter Thirty-Three | Bullied and Bailed

Danger. It can be a relative term or one that is thrown around playfully among friends and co-workers. There's danger in everyday life, hazards that could hurt you a little or a lot. Physical. Emotional. Mental. There are different types of danger that are all around at all times.

There is, however, true danger.

It's one of those circumstances where you know it if you've felt it.

That's where Parker was.

He was in danger, and he knew it.

Every fiber of his being was electrified, using every ounce of energy he had to break away from his captor. This girl, whoever she was, obviously had no intention of listening to him.

She had already disregarded his free will and autonomy, and he had a bad feeling things were only going to get worse. So, he fought. He splashed and kicked in his metallic prison. He rummaged through his bag when there were moments of calm and found the one thumbtack he brought with him, but nothing else would help protect him.

He needed so much more, but this would have to do.

Parker decided he needed to wait for the right opportunity to use his weapon. Chances were he would only get one chance to use it.

The terrified teen fretted he wouldn't know when that moment was, and he didn't have long to think about it. The violent jostling intensified before suddenly stopping entirely. Completely surrounded by darkness, Parker braced himself as the bottle suddenly tilted to the side and then upside down in rapid succession.

Disoriented, Parker sputtered as he inhaled some water and leapt back onto his feet as fast as he could. He knew the girl was going to try and get him out of the bottle, so he tried quickly to find his footing on the lip of the container.

Sadly, he wasn't fast enough. Because of the slick surface and the quick twisting motion of the cap which knocked him off balance again, Parker found himself falling. It was only a few inches, but it was enough to make him hit the hard surface wrong and topple to the ground. He winced and pulled his legs close, involuntarily running his fingers over them to make sure they were still there and intact.

It was sadly the wrong move.

Being all balled up gave his captor time to sweep him off of the edge of the counter and scoop him into her waiting cupped hands and contain him, covering him with her other hand. Parker immediately thrashed as hard as he could, but he couldn't move. He couldn't even reach the pin he had in his bag. All he could do was be contained in darkness as he felt himself being carried from where he was to someplace new.

The next time he felt free, unstifled air, he was falling again. This time, he was falling into a glass fishbowl with no way out. He yelped as he hit the ground hard on all fours propped up on the balls of his feet and leaning forward on his hands, but he didn't hit it hard enough to sprain or break anything. Parker reoriented in an instant and whipped around in time to see the girl's face leaning close toward the fishbowl.

He felt so exposed. He felt small. Nothing felt right.

He stiffened his jaw and stood up slowly, fearing any sudden move he might make. His heart was racing, but his mind was racing faster. What was going to happen to him? What was this girl going to do? She hadn't listened to reason before, but would she now?

"So, what are you exactly?" asked the girl. Her distorted finger inched closer and tapped on the glass, making a horrible hollow dinging sound that sounded like the toll of deep bells. It made Parker shiver. To him, it almost sounded like the bells were tolling for him.

It was ominous.

It made him shrink back.

Parker felt like tears were starting to well up in his eyes. He was shaking from head to toe. What was he going to say? What should he say? Based on what the other Borrowers said, he should keep quiet and not say anything about who or what he was. He technically had already said too much.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" The girl's hand suddenly reached into the bowl. She reached forward and poked Parker harshly on his shoulder. He winced and shied away. Parker whipped around and tried backing away, but the slope of the edge of the bowl left little room for him to maneuver. The girl grinned and began spinning her hand all the way around Parker, making him spin around and around until she knocked him off balance.

She laughed as Parker hit the ground and, without a second thought, grabbed his leg and hoisted him up into the air. Parker's arms flailed involuntarily as he kept trying to keep his orientation right. If she dropped him, he didn't want to land square on his head.

"You don't have a tail or anything. You're not a mouse. You're not a human. You're… whatever you are. Are you a doll come to life like Toy Story?" asked the girl. The blood was starting to rush to his head. Everything was getting fuzzy. His world was spinning faster and faster.

But suddenly something in him steeled. It was impossible to describe, but he knew this feeling before. It was same kind of instinct that came to him when someone was approaching. It was the same kind of instinct that kept him focused now.

It was the same instinct that suddenly rose up inside of him and made him feel courage in the face of danger. Though he was still terrified, Parker somehow felt his instincts would keep him on his toes and help get him out of this.

They had to.

Parker didn't have a choice.

He needed to get out of there.

This was his shot.

As the girl swung him back and forth, Parker timed his strike just right. He reached into his bag and grasped the pin he had stowed away. Swinging forward, Parker drew his shoulders up toward his knees and closer to the girl's fingers. With all of his might, he plunged the end of the pin into the girl's finger.

The girl howled in pain and Parker suddenly found himself free falling, but this time he was ready. Parker spun in the air and landed on his feet. He tumbled forward and started running as fast as he could across the desk. Parker wasn't sure how he was going to get down, but he knew his body would react the way it needed to.

"Ow! You little wretch!" the girl snarled. Parker sensed it before it happened, and he was ready for it. A massive hand came swinging down at him. Parker managed to stop dead in his tracks as the hand crashed down on the desk, shaking the ground beneath him, before he darted around it and headed for the back desk leg.

If he could just get there, he could slide down. Maybe he could just hide behind the leg or slide down Matrix style all the way down. Parker's arms pumped faster as he willed himself forward. If he could just ge-

*WHAM*

Parker didn't have time to react this time. With his back to Rachel, he failed to see that she had thrust her hand forward from where it was on the desk. As easily as swatting a fly, her hand collided with Parker's back and threw him forward. He threw his arms up, but it didn't stop him from slamming into the wall hard.

Parker actually felt himself bounce off of the hard surface dividing this girl's room from the rest of her house before falling back and whacking his head hard on the hard wood surface. He winced and clenched his jaw as he tried to recover, but it wasn't fast enough.

"Gotcha!"

The girl's hand descended onto Parker, pinching his hip hard between her thumb and index finger. The whiplash alone from her lifting him off of the desk created an agonizing pounding in the back of his head. He felt the bruises starting to form on every inch of his body, and he hated that some of them would be in the shape of this girl's fingerprints.

"You're gonna pay for that you little twerp. You stick me, and I'll stick you right b-."

"Rachel! It's time to go to your lessons! Get down here now. We can't be late again," called some other older female voice. This girl, Rachel, rolled her eyes before stomping over to a nearby table with a clear tank on top of it. She lifted the lid, glowering at Parker, before tossing him inside.

He landed hard on his bruised side and ground his teeth together as he looked up past the glass to the girl's face.

"Stay there, and don't wake him up. Make too much noise and he'll come after you; and I won't be around to save your butt no matter how much you plead. Maybe you'll be more willing to talk when I get back. See ya' twerp." With that, Rachel snagged some kind of bag off of her bed and vanished out of the door to her room.

Escape was now the priority. The top of the cage wasn't fastened completely, which was a good sign for him. The gap was only an inch or so wide, but it was going to be enough. It meant he had a chance of getting out if he could just maneuver up to the edge and slip out. With his pin gone, he needed to use what was around him.

Parker finally had a second to look around at what was going on around him, and he immediately felt himself chill in fear. There was a heat lamp above him, scorching the ground below. His surroundings consisted of sand and a few rocks, on very large rock sitting in the corner with something curled up inside. Parker could just barely make out orange-yellow scales, which was enough for him.

He needed to get out of there – fast.

This Rachel girl was some kind of sadistic monster in the making, and Parker refused to be her first victim. The Borrower teen pushed himself to his feet and cautiously began sifting through the sand. Little bits of insect legs brushed against his fingertips, making him want to hurl. Little rocks and pebbles were nearby, but nothing big enough for Parker to climb onto.

He shifted his weight silently across the sand to the nearest big rock and tried to leverage it. The rock wasn't a real one, if Parker was right about his geology, but it was still too heavy for him to lift on his own. The teen was determined to try though. He couldn't just sit there and do nothing when he was in a cage with something that was obviously carnivorous.

Parker decided he had no other choice but to stack the smaller stones and mix them with the sand around him. From there, he planned on ripping the cloak around him into strips into a possible line with his pack attached. The hope was that it would get caught on the exposed ledge and let Parker climb out.

It was a gamble, but he was determined to make it work.

It had to.

Parker got to work immediately. He stacked as many small rocks as he could by the edge of the cage and filled in the gaps with sand. The pack was nearly empty, but his water container would hopefully be enough to wedge itself in between the cage top and the wall.

Hands trembling, he unfastened the cloak and began tearing at the fabric from one side of the base to the next since it was the longest. The sound of the ripping, however, was much louder than he thought it was going to be. It was also a lot tougher to tear than he thought. It was a durable material, and Parker's exhausted muscles shook violently as he tried to tear the cloth.

He was almost through the first strip when he heard it.

A massive shift in the sand.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up on end. Everything in him screamed that he was in danger.

Heart hammering a hole right through him, Parker dared to look back over his shoulder and was met with two massive yellow-brown eyes that seemed to glow from the interior of the rock crevasse mouth. Unblinkingly, the thing simply stared at him before moving its head in a weird jerking motion. Parker knew it was getting a better view of him, and he didn't like it.

Parker whipped around and grabbed two of the small rocks he had stacked up in the corner of the cage, moving slowly and hoping this thing couldn't detect him if he moved slowly.

That's when it moved out of its slumber hole. One massive, clawed hand emerged from the shadows and into the heat lamp light. The rest of its body soon followed, revealing a bearded dragon. Parker knew this from his science classes. It was an omnivore, which was the worst part about it.

Shaking in his shoes, Parker stayed still and crouched by the corner of the cage. He hoped it wouldn't see him and that Rachel would be back soon to get him out of this mess. Parker knew if he tried to continue his work now, it would get the creature's attention and undoubtedly it would come after him.

He felt like he was in Jurassic Park with the tyrannosaurus rex looming nearby. The line of it not being able to see him if he didn't move ran through his head.

Sadly, a bearded dragon was not a t-rex.

With a few more bird like movements to it's head, jerking from side to side, the reptile marched forward like an unstoppable tank and was heading right for him.

His heart leapt into his throat. The infinitesimal teen, rocks in hand, braced himself and threw the rocks at the critter's face. One throw. Then the next. Parker had just barely managed to grab two more rocks when the thing sped forward and lunged at him.

Parker's nimble body leapt out of the way, tumbling in the sand and spinning right in time for the thing to launch itself at him again. This thing was twice the size of Parker, but he knew it wasn't nearly as big as it could be. It was a baby, probably a new pet just sold, and Parker knew it was probably his only saving grace at the moment.

He managed to dodge a few more times, kicking sand up into the thing's face as it looked at him, a cold calculating look in its eyes. It was the look of survival, but the way it looked like it was grinning made Parker choke on his emotions.

This thing didn't care about him.

This thing didn't know him.

All it knew was that it was hungry, and that Parker looked like nothing more than prey to it. Tears threatened to well up in Parker's eyes. How could someone be so cruel to someone else? He was a person! He was a living, breathing being. He wasn't any different than a human despite his size.

Then, it happened.

As Parker moved to dodge again, his timing was off. It was him getting in his head, and that momentary distraction was enough for the bearded dragon to gain the advantage. Parker tumbled a little too soon, and the thing was waiting for him. Sand kicked up into Parker's face as the bearded dragon lunged forward.

In one lightning motion, it had snagged Parker's left arm in its mouth. The teeth ground into the soft flesh of Parker's arm as it jerked its head, tossing Parker with it. He cried out in pain and flailed, slamming the rock into the thing's eye. It didn't relinquish its grip though.

Quite the opposite.

It tightened it.

"Ow! No! No! Let me go! Help!"

Parker's entire body was trembling violently. Panic had a death grip on him and there was little else he could do. He yelled as he began pounding the rock into the thing's nose and eye as it readjusted its grip again. The scraping teeth against his left arm had undoubtedly found purchase and would not let him go again.

It thrashed again, tossing Parker in the sand and away from the gash Parker made right below its eye. The motion threw Parker off balance and had him pinned in the sand. One of the claws came up and began pressing against his leg as the immense lizard's jaws snapped again, dragging part of Parker's shoulder further into its mouth.

"No! Please! Someone, help!" Parker knew pleading with this thing in an empty room wouldn't do him any good, but it was better than just rolling over. Parker let go of the rock in his hand and kept it on the mouth of the creature, shredding his palm against the needle like teeth. He felt its wet tongue flex again, making Parker sick to his stomach.

The next lunge would be it. Parker knew it.

As he continued to thrash, he felt blood pumping in his ears. His vision was blackening. Parker knew he was moments away from being gulped down by this unfeeling lizard, and there was nothing he could do. That bully of a girl had claimed her first victim, and Parker was ashamed it was him and that it had come to this.

He choked on a sob as he continued to thrash in the lizard's grip. No matter how fast he sucked in air, it was not helping his darkening vision or the pain in his body.

"What the… No!"

Parker craned his neck to the side and glimpsed a new female figure through the rippled and smudged portion of the glass. In two steps, the girl had closed the distance between herself and the cage and had ripped open the mesh top. The looming hand came right for him, but Parker couldn't shy away from it; nor did he want to at the moment.

The girl pinched the back of the bearded dragon's neck and gingerly wrapped her fingers around Parker's entire body. He was completely suspended, encapsulated by warm, fleshy fingers.

"Let go you nasty lizard!" the girl scolded as she pinched a little harder. The teeth ground into Parker's arm tighter, making him shout in pain. Then, barely a moment later, the lizard let go of Parker's arm and scurried back into the rocks where it continued to glare at Parker and this new girl menacingly. Using her other hand, the girl snagged Parker's things as she carefully lifted him out of the cage.

Parker's panic didn't end now that he was out of the cage, however. Now instead of being in a glass cage, he was in a cage made of flesh and bone. A human's grip had never felt like a dangerous place until now, and it had all changed in a matter of a few hours. His heart continued to hammer a hole through him, and his hyperventilating breathing made him gasp in little wheezing bursts.

The girl was muttering something under her breath as she spun on her heel and headed quickly out of the room. Each step brought a new nauseating sensation over Parker as he was whisked away from one bedroom, down a set of stairs, and into another bedroom.

Out of desperation, Parker began thrashing in this new girl's grip. Every second Parker became more frantic.

Get out!

Get out!

Hide!

Parker's body felt like it was acting on its own as he tried prying the girl's fingers off of his body, but to no avail. The pads of his fingers merely pressed and slid off of the girl's index finger that was wrapped around his chest.

"D-don't! J-just l-let me go!" Parker shouted. The rules of Borrowers not speaking to humans was out of the window at this point.

"Hey… hey there, little guy. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." The girl spoke in a gentle, soft tone. It reminded Parker of the way his mom always spoke to him, but that was only one thing that caught his attention.

The voice sounded familiar.

The girl's hand rotated as she continued to speak. "I know you're scared and everything else, but you're safe. I'm not going to tell anyone or expo… oh… my… gosh…."

The moment Parker saw the girl's face and she saw his, Parker felt his stomach drop into his shoes. There was no denying it. He knew this girl. He'd know those green eyes anywhere; and she recognized him too.

"Parker?"

The Borrower teen's vision swirled. Pinpoint vision overtook him as the girl's name escaped his lips right as his consciousness faded.

"Lyn?"