Hannah stood in front of the mirror looking over every inch of her face to make sure her makeup looked absolutely perfect.  Tonight was her anniversary, and her husband had something special lined up for the occasion.  He’d recently gotten a huge promotion at work and was splurging a little to get into a fairly exclusive restaurant.  Reservations had been made about three months in advance.  They both wanted this anniversary to be extra special.  After all, they would have to move to the Houstin branch of the company, so this would be the last anniversary they’d spend in their home in Nebraska.

Hannah was dressed to the nines tonight.  She wore her favorite black dress that fit her slim form tightly.  She’d gotten it as a gift for their fifth anniversary, so she felt it was only appropriate.  Her tall high-heels boosted her modest 5’4” height almost up to a 5’6”.  She wished she was a little bit taller and full-formed, but her beloved Johnathan loved her just the way she was.  All the more reason to make tonight extra memorable.

She hopped into her car, and just before her keys entered the ignition, she felt her entire body start to tingle.  Her vision started to flash.  She had heard about this on the news, but she had assumed she lived far enough away that it wouldn’t affect her.  There hadn’t been any reports of people going missing outside of Iowa.  She tried to fight it.  She didn’t want to disappear.  But there was nothing to be done as she passed out in the driver’s seat of her car.

When Hannah woke up, she was laying on a tile floor.  Thankful to still be alive, she got to her feet and started to look for help.  But the more she looked around, the less sense things made.  She seemed to be in a giant foyer.  Impractically large doors lined each side of the open space.  It was almost as though the doors were designed with a medieval aesthetic in mind, but this foyer wasn’t particularly well decorated, and what little was around was distinctly modern.  She wondered why excessively large archways were chosen for this place, until she got her answer in the most unpleasant manner possible.

One of the doors swung open with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for such a large door.  But what came as even more of a shock were the people leaving through it.  Two unfathomably large creatures stepped out.  Their features were very similar to humans, but at sizes unthinkable for humanity.  Even in her heels, she doubted she would be able to see over their shoes, even if she craned her neck as far as it would go.  What was more concerning, however, were their inquisitive eyes gazing down directly at her.

“Look, Ralph!  Another shifter.  Let’s bring this one back to the labs.”

“Give me a second!”

One of them pulled a spray can from his pocket and held it in front of Hannah.  She tried to run, but she quickly found herself engulfed by a thick cloud of gas.

“Hold your breath for just a second, Mandy!”

Hannah also tried to hold her breath.  But the gas quickly filled her lungs as she passed out for a second time.

When Hannah woke up, a firm hand was wrapped around her torso.  She struggled in vain against her captor’s grip, but couldn’t loosen it even a little.  That was when she got her first real good look at her abductor.  He was freckled, with short, black hair and a smallish button nose.  He wore a pair of thin-rimmed glasses and a lab coat.  She became even more panicked as they entered a college lab.  Counters and shelves were lined with glass tanks, all labelled, and all filled to the brim with naked humans no bigger than herself.  Her heart rate rose astronomically.  She didn’t know why she was here or what experiments were being conducted, but she feared the worst.  The giant gentleman took her over to an empty tank.

“Okay, little shifter.  Let’s see what we’re working with.”

Ralph adjusted his grip on the shifter.  He grabbed a pair of scissors, which made the shifter squirm rapidly in his grip.  This was always his favorite part of doing this capstone project.  He brought the scissors to the bottom of its dress and started to slice it open.  The shifter started panicking and crying, trying to get the scissors away from her dress, but he had dealt with stronger, more stubborn shifters in the past.  With two fingers, he blocked her arms from holding onto the dress.  He finished his cut and peeled the dress off like he was taking off a coat.  Seeing her in just her underwear was incredibly stimulating.  

“You know, my cute little shifter, it’s a pity Mandy was with me when I spotted you.  You’re exactly my type.  I probably would have taken you home.  Just think of the fun we could have had together.”

Hannah really didn’t want to think about that.  She attempted to focus on anything but the giant figure with a pair of scissors between her breasts cutting her out of her bra.  There was another scientist in the room glaring disapprovingly at the one holding her.  She stood about a head taller than the one who captured her.  Her blonde hair was braided into a ponytail, and her glasses had thick rims.  Hannah figured this must be Mandy.  She looked pleadingly at her, hoping she would step in.  And surely enough, she did.

Mandy was losing patience with her boyfriend Ralph.  She thought that doing this project together would bring them closer, but it only shone a light on the more perverse aspects of Ralph’s personality.  And she’d had very high hopes for this project too.  When the shifters had first arrived, they were seen as dangerous pests and exterminated en masse.  But as it became clear the scientific potential of these creatures, the need to capture them for experiments grew.  Thus, Mandy had wanted to do her senior project on the best method of caring and maintaining them in captivity.

And things would be great if her jerk of a boyfriend didn’t keep feeling up the specimens.  She was disgusted with Ralph’s sexual fascination with the shifters.  Even if they did look somewhat similar to people, it didn’t change the fact that they were bugs first and foremost.  And even though she would never admit it to herself, she was somewhat jealous of the shifters taking Ralph’s attention from her.  The latest subject in particular had really become a nuisance.  Her boyfriend wouldn’t stop talking about her.  Mandy had enough.

“God, Ralph.  It’s a pest, not a human.  Quit ogling it, bug fucker!”

“Come on, Mandy.  I’m just having a little fun.”

Ralph turned to Mandy, and seeing the rage in her eyes, quickly turned back around and hurried up with his work.  The shifter, now stripped of her clothing, was placed in the holding tank.  He grabbed the label maker and punched in the information on this shifter.

“Subject 107 Found April 5th 2015 Food Category 3 Heating Category 2”

Hannah wasn’t sure what any of that meant, except that apparently she had gone back in time in addition to transporting god-knows-where at only the size of a bug.  She looked around, and noticed most of the bugs at least seemed to be well taken care of.  She didn’t know what was going to happen to her, but it seemed like she would be okay for at least a little while.

As Hannah analyzed the tanks to see what information she could glean, it seemed that the split on food and heating categories wasn’t very well mixed.  There seemed to be more Food Category 3 and 4 than for categories 1, 2, and 5.  There only seemed to be a few Heating Category 4s, and the rest were a split of 1, 2, and 3.  She found that odd, until she began to examine the subject number and find dates closely.  

The earliest subject numbers were Subjects 53, 54, and 56.  All were found February 24th.  None of the subjects before then were still alive.  Furthermore, the newer people tended to be about even as far as categories were concerned.  But the longer people stayed in these conditions, the more the effects of the heating and food situation became clear.  Hannah looked into Subject 104’s case.  Despite having only been there for about four days, the poor young boy was already in shambles.  A heating lamp baked his body until it was a deep red as he vomited the foul food he was given.  He wretched and wretched until he finally passed out.  After a while, it was clear he had stopped moving for good.

Though Hannah’s conditions weren’t the worst, she certainly wasn’t going to stay to see if things would get worse.  She had to run away.