Devious Dani

During the ten minute car ride James only lost a couple more inches, both times he feared Dani was going to veer off the road such was her excitement, but thankfully complete disaster was averted. The judders James was experiencing weren't running to any kind of exact schedule. Sometimes the gaps were longer than others. Although that bought James more time at least, the relatively delayed shrinkings were almost even more cruel since they would give him a brief hope they had stopped before abruptly destroying that hope.

"So what's the plan? Get you dressed then go and find that witch and ask her very nicely to remove her curse?" Dani asked as the approached her place.

"I guess. I can't think of any other way to fix this" James sighed.

Dani, it turned out, still lived with her parents. That wasn't too surprising considering her age, spiralling rent prices and the fact she had enough space to hold onto old clothes purely out of sentiment. Thankfully nobody else was home right now to explain his near nakedness to. Dani parked her car as close to her front door as she could the opened the front door so James could leap out of the car and into the relative safety of the virtual strangers house in double quick time. From there Dani quickly led him up the stairs to her room.

"Okay, wait here. There's a box of my old clothes in the attic. I just need to grab them and a few other bits. I won't be long."

James was left alone to take in Dani's room. Although clearly a young adult she did seem to live a little like a child. As well as posters of boy bands on her walls she still had a large dolls house at one end of the room and the kind of pets James got given to look after as a kid - a goldfish in a bowl and a hamster in a cage not far from it. This was a large room with an en suite bathroom in big house within an affluent neighbourhood. James could see why Dani would rather stay here than pay a thousand pounds a month to rent a shoebox.

Dani arrived back with a large box full of clothing on top of which rested a large bag of popcorn and a bottle of soda.

"What did you bring the snacks for?" James asked curiously.

"Oh, they are mostly for me. We're going to be here a while" Dani smiled before reaching into her pocket, taking out a key and locking the door behind her in one swift, perfectly executed motion.

"Hey!" James naturally reacted to the betrayal he had feared by running over to Dani and trying to snatch the key back. She responded by giggling gleefully and holding her hand up high where James couldn't reach, now matter how hard he jumped.

"Just to let you know, this is only turning me on more. I'd stop jumping and relax if I were you"

James reluctantly did as he was advised, realising there was no way of him getting the key, and stopped attempting to. Perhaps he might be able to reason with the girl. Dani nodded in approval and placed the key on a shelf that she could reach but James most certainly couldn't.

"I'm sorry James, I'm honestly not a bad person but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I just can't help myself. If you want to get out of here you are going to have to do every single thing I tell you to."