Illegal Immigrant [12/03/2023] CH19+20 [Important Subscribestar Update]

[Mee]

On 5/7/2020 at 2:45 AM, Sarah Penguin said:

Thanks!

On 5/7/2020 at 5:48 AM, Panther Cub said:

... I have a sneaking suspicion that something bad's gunna happen to Dawn, and Katherine and James will have to come to her rescue. Also, fairly certain that the something bad that happens will include Dawn overstaying and thus having no way to get home...

Well, surely nothing bad has ever happened in the Diaper Dimension, right? But well, maybe if something "inconvenient" were to happen...hm, well, who knows?

On 5/7/2020 at 10:38 AM, Sky Hooves said:

I don't think Dawn will be getting back to her dimension anytime soon... if at all...

Universe is a crazy place, so who knows? Wait and see! Thank you for the comment!

On 5/7/2020 at 10:48 AM, Cya said:

Either that or Stacy sells the group to an ohpranange and Dawn goes through a machine. On the other end of the machine, you see Katherine looking through a window, ready to "adopt" in a more "civilized" way only to see poor Dawn in a crawler diaper and bonnet. XD

Wouldn't that be justice in its own twisted way! Poor Dawn, but yay for Katherine? Meanwhile, James as the neutral. Then again, maybe for him it's happy wife happy life.

On 5/7/2020 at 4:24 PM, littleTomás said:

So good! I can’t wait to see how things unfold ? Please say the next chapter is coming soon!

Hm. Unfortunately, I do not think "soon" really applies anymore, but since it's all figurative, let's say soon is now! So to answer your question, yes! It's coming soon! Thank you for commenting and being so invested!

On 5/7/2020 at 4:36 PM, Shotgun Diplomat said:

I have my fingers crossed for a happy ending for Dawn. I always doubt that it will happen, but I always hope that it does. 

"Happy" is certainly a matter of perspective. I think by now that it goes without saying that the Diaper Dimension is filled with many different views, often polarizing as to what "Happy" might be considered. Thank you for the reply!

On 5/7/2020 at 5:32 PM, the diaper mike said:

 I think Dawn going to miss them but I hope it ends well to everyone

I'm sure Dawn will remember their fonder qualities in moments of...stress with other Amazons.

On 5/17/2020 at 10:38 PM, AbyMatt said:

Call me crazy but I don't think that littles tour guide service is on the up and up. I hope Dawn writes them a strongly worded letter.

YES! Right? How do these things even stay in business?! Definitely the people on these sorts of tours are the ones adventurous enough to bite on what looks like spam mail. Honestly, you could argue anyone taking up on a advertisement for Dimensional travel to be deserving of whatever it might involve.

On 5/17/2020 at 10:41 PM, WBDaddy said:

Because that will surely correct their behavior.   

Of course! Amazons may be written off as monsters for babifying adults, but they aren't savages that discard letters!

On 5/18/2020 at 4:00 PM, Traycie said:

I suspect the only writing Dawn will be doing in her immediate future will be with finger paints on an A3 sheet of butchers paper as Dawn's baby daughter.

Hmm. The possibilities are endless. However, she is an English major, so maybe she'll find an opportunity to take up writing? Likely if she makes it out of this; definitely an interesting story to tell.

On 5/21/2020 at 2:09 AM, UwUuser said:

I love this chapter,what will happen with Dawn? Keep updating for I know >///< 

(Sorry about inglesh)

Hey, thank you so much for leaving a comment! Absolutely no worries at all about the language barrier. I'm always excited to read the comments from readers and it's always fascinating to read from international users! Thanks and I hope you continue to enjoy reading!

On 10/5/2020 at 7:02 AM, Tracey said:

Very pleased to read that you haven’t abandoned this story Mee, now that Dawn is back with her Tour Guide we are on a cliff hanger, will we see a rerun of the days events or is there another plan in place or will Dawn again find herself taken by the same dominating Amazon but this time unable to be rescued by James and Catherine. Now that would be an interesting outcome and a great storyline for development.

Thanks for your efforts, you write an interesting tale that keeps the reader hooked for more!

Traycie

 

Yes! Not abandoned! Just...delayed! It's difficult to make an exciting comment on your predictions without implying any sort of thing down the road, so I'll keep it at expressing my joy for you being so invested in the story. Thank you so much for that!

On 10/7/2020 at 8:46 PM, PravidaUser said:

Cant wait to see Dawn in diapers!!!

 

Hey now, who said anything about diapers? Not all is guaranteed in the Diaper Dimension! Course, that works both ways, so diapers are still very possible...

8 - Home Again

“Dawn? You-houu~, sweetheart?” came the voice of a woman who was likely not so sweet, rather, one who was simply so saturated in it that the very word itself became toxic. In other words, Stacy had nudged Dawn’s shoulder, the girl who had been lost in thought as she stared back at her reflection trapped in a glossy wooden panel.

Stacy wasn’t worth the words, nor the iota of trust Dawn had left for Amazons, crusting at the deep dark bottom of her chest cavity. The best she could give was a blank look.

“Hm?” Stacy angled her head, moving her hand atop Dawn’s head. “What’s wrong, honey?” The sudden shift in gesture was only a mere step behind the Little’s reflex to step back. She’d been dumb enough to let two crazy hormone-driven giants that had eyes for her hold her, dress her, and parade her around like she was their property. Like hell she’d even come near a line of affection close to that ever again, especially with a complete stranger.

“Please just take me to my room...” Dawn spoke lowly, just managing to keep her breath in order.

She could hear a snigger above her ears, one from the same person that had just tried to touch her.

“Of course! Only after you give me a big smile, though?” coaxing and cheery as she was, Dawn wasn’t sharing the mood. Thus, instead of a smile, the deathly line her lips already formed arched into a soured frown.

They’re all the same… Projecting, controlling, seeing everything how they want to…!

“Maybe some tickles are what we need then. Huh? Huh?” and with each coo she inched closer and closer, faster than Dawn’s backpedaling, to the point where the woman’s wriggly fingers did just touch Dawn’s sides.

“St-- DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!” She was going to shout ‘no’, but that was before Stacy had actually crossed a line. She quite screamed, falling back on her bottom and kicking her feet. Stacy did stop, looking a slight bit surprised, even sharing a look with the woman behind the desk.

Stacy then sighed, “Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to adopt you...”

“Well, not expecting tantrums is being a bit too wishful,” the employee chimed in, chuckling a little herself.

Their small-talk existed just outside the girl’s realm of influence, who was coming to terms with her small outburst. Unlike the James and Katherine she held so much ire and disgust towards, Stacy, the just-as-worse, had absolutely no reason to be lenient with her, nor hold back. Such a crucial fact that would have made for a better forethought rather than after, had Dawn stuttering over her trembling self.

“W-wait, no--! I-I didn’t mean that...it’s just, I was...” And unlike before, now the Amazon before her shaped a smug grin on her face. She had no simple admonishment, but instead something ulterior.

“Excuses are no good, especially if they’re not going to have an apology to go with them.” Stacy leaned in a bit closer whilst the small girl had herself planted bottom-first on the floor. With each inch given, so was her composure out the window. Suddenly a sail with no wind, she could only watch as the shark swam closer.

“Now,” the lack of distance intensified the authority. She could practically see herself in the reflection of the Amazon’s glossy lips, and even more feel the whisper of warm breath on her skin.  “Didn’t we talk about bad words not being allowed while you’re here?” Her brow was raised, and even bent over she still assumed her hands on her hips.

After today, feeling like a millenia ago, Dawn did recall some inkling of a mind-boggling briefing once they first arrived in this dimension. It was a strange list of rules and requirements, and one such oddity was the forbidden use of ‘naughty’ language.

Under no circumstances will the use of adult language be prohibited. This includes but is not limited to swear words, derogatory terms, potty words, as well as swear phrases, including disrespect toward authority figures, colloquially termed as “back-talk”.

“B-but...but I...” She had all the thought and reason she could ever need to at least say something, but the commanding stare from Stacy was enough to melt it all entirely.

“There is zero tolerance for bad behavior, Dawn,” Stacy tutted, taking the girl by the hand and standing her upright. Dawn was too frazzled to do anything. It was the thought of what was to come that petrified her the most, and it was showing.

“Honey, now,” Stacy just didn’t manage to choke down her small laugh as she patted the statue-esque Dawn’s head. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

“I-I’m sorry...” Dawn murmured under the weight of her own worries.

“Hm? What was that?” Stacy with her sickly, condescending smile, leaned in just a smidge closer.

“I’m sorry...” Dawn said again, now upgrading herself to a whisper.

“Sorry for what?” Just the etches of white were starting to peek between her red lips.

“Sorry...” her eyes drifted to the skies, yet the face of a deity stared back at her, drowning the girl in its absolute shadow, blinding her for just long enough to slip her hands from the reigns and fall back off her pegasus into the depths below. Where this world deemed her to be. “Sorry for saying fu--”

“Don’t, repeat that?” Stacy’s voice made a sharp incision, deftly stopping Dawn’s tongue in its track. Her expression hadn’t changed, yet you couldn’t mistake the authority and annoyance masked in her tone. “I’m sorry Stacy, for breaking what rule?”

It wasn’t a cold sweat this time. A warm, bead felt as if it’d begun to accumulate at the top of Dawn’s forehead, right underneath her hair. She was feeling a new kind of warm and frustrated that was the worst complement imaginable to her reddened cheeks. Stacy’s expectant stare hadn’t left and nor did her proximity change.

Every moment felt like battering humiliation. Each encounter was another opportunity to shape her into something she so desperately didn’t want to be. “Sorry for saying a...a bad word...” And even still, what to her was a fleeting gesture or run-of-the-mill, an infraction as harsh as swearing from a Little probably held the weight of the world in measures of impurity for an Amazon. Or at the very least, Amazons forced the image and perceived significance of it.

“Awh!” The desk worker fawned, still a spectator to the public shaming, “Look at how worked up you’ve got her! She’s already in tears...”

As much as Dawn wanted to call bull, she was too busy wiping away the inklings of tears she did in fact have. “I-I’m not… Just, look, I’m sorry! I’m sorry for swearing, okay? Please! Just let me go back to my room, okay? I’ll be good! I just want to go home!”

Stacy finally leaned back some, rearing away with a thoughtful breath. “Normally, when I hear something like that, it’s an express ticket back to the hotel and you’re off the tour, you know?” As if it wasn’t clear, Stacy had been notorious for sending many-a Portal Little back to the hotel early for breaking some sort of rule on the tour. Not only that, but to drill the severity of breaking the rules even further, you essentially become a child disallowed from the class field-trip for breaking the rules. And given such harsh rules, a few offenders are naturally inevitable, hence the few Dawn did remember being sent back to the hotel. But, to finish the thought for Stacy and spare Dawn’s ears, they both knew a punishment like that didn’t hold water since they already were at the hotel and essentially on the last day of the tour.

Dawn was smart to not be wise. Speak, even, lest that be considered anything remotely close to back-talk. She was scared. Scared more than she’d been while with...those other two.

“But still, a pottymouth is a pottymouth...” she tapped her finger off her hip, as if trying to decipher the answer inside her head.

And the more this pointless charade went on, the more sour the feeling was in Dawn’s stomach. It made her sick knowing that something diabolical was to come. The impending doom was enough to make her cry again. She couldn’t help it. Amazons are so terrifyingly capable through both their own strength and sickly enginuity. Was this it? A simple swear word that did her in? Next thing she’d know, Stacy would be pulling out the diaper right then…

“S-s...oap...” Dawn whimpered, sniffling.

Stacy stopped her pondering, raising a curious brow. “Hm? Soap?”

Dawn quietly nodded. “I-I’m really sorry...”

“Oh!” Stacy ‘aww’ed’ in some twisted form of adoration as it looked as if she’d genuinely given the tearful girl a smile. “That’s a great idea!” She snickered, sealing the deal with a fist planted in her palm. “That takes guts, little munchkin,” she chuckled, already swooping the yelping girl into the air. “But I can tell you want to show that you’re sorry.”

“Wow, I’m really impressed!” The worker nodded with just as much enthusiasm. Dawn shrunk further and further into herself. Completely bashful and utterly disgusted with her own cowardice. The only thing she could think of as salvation was to dig her own grave. Go out on her own terms. If only then, she might be able to come up with an idea that was bad, but not bad to the level of these sadistic giants…

Dawn hiccuped with a quivering frown as she nodded, meekly playing along to their “compliments.”

“There’s a bathroom down the hall by the elevators,” the worker pointed with a rosy smile. It was the first time Dawn had seen her so happy. It wasn’t corporate this time, likely because Dawn’s own demise resonated with something primal in both giantesses.

“Perfect! We’ll get that mouth of yours squeaky clean. Then we’ll apologize properly,” Stacy assured with a firm squeeze on the girl’s bottom. Surely she knew what was underneath the pants, if it wasn’t obvious already.

A horrible thump struck her chest with each step they took. Dawn knew what was to come, and assuming there were no tricks, the face value was terrible enough already.

“You know, I was thinking how to punish you, but I definitely didn’t think of an idea like this!” Stacy confided, looking almost giddy. “What-with you being such a pottymouth, I figured we might as well make you look like a potty-pants too!” She shared a laugh with herself on that, then subsided into a reminiscent sigh. “Of course, then we’d have to find you diapers… This gets to the point in its own way though! And we’ve arrived!” An outstretched hand swung open the door to a checker-tiled bathroom, one wall lined with a long counter of sinks and a matching mirror.

In its reflection Dawn could see herself, locked in the carrying arms of Stacy, who looked happy as could be in the mirror. Dawn, however, looked much more plagued with trepidation, as if about to throw up. And to think, had this, her “brilliant” idea not hatched, she’d be off to legitimate diapers instead...

It was happening a mile a minute. Suddenly she was sitting on the counter, between two sinks, and right behind her, a gargantuan soap dispenser. “Can...” she looked behind, then back at Stacy. Desperate, pleading, “can I...” her voice was thick as the reality started to sink in. Her eyes were glossy as Stacy started to look confused. “P-please! Don’t make me! I-I’m sorry! I promise I won’t do anything bad again! Don’t make me eat soap!” She started to wail as punishment itself breathed down her neck. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t be punished. It was disgusting and beyond demeaning!

Stacy turned her head some, “Are you saying you’d rather diapers then?” she asked a genuine question, devoid of any rhetoric that might make you think otherwise.

“No!” Dawn shouted back, a mess of tears and sniffles. “J-Just...please! Forgive me this once! I’ll be good, so don’t punish me!”

“Dawn!” Stacy exclaimed, as if chiding with a good friend, “I only went along with this because I thought you wanted to show you were sorry!”

“I-I do!” Dawn cried, lurching forward.

“Well, how can I know that?” Stacy shrugged, easing her back. Even now, she still had something of a smirk.

“B-Because...because I...” Dawn was lost, the emptiness was in her eyes. The worth of her word meant nothing. She had to in some way show she was sorry… To apologize. To be punished…

“Because, nothing...” Stacy hushed, running a hand through Dawn’s hair. Dawn was breathing quickly, trying to keep herself intact. “Shh, shh...okay, come on now...let’s be mature about this...”

Dawn could barely react. She was suddenly being embraced, but it wasn’t soap in her mouth, so she wasn’t opposed. Anything but that felt like paradise right then. She could even feel herself starting to breath again…

“And...good...” Stacy stepped back, satisfied. “We’re a big girl, right?”

“Bi…?” Dawn only half-caught it. “I...I’m an adul...”

“Right, a big girl,” Stacy smoothly talked over her, smiling with a nod. “And big girls know how to face the music.”

“But I’m...”

“So, let’s just do a little something first...” Stacy stepped in again, taking a hold of Dawn’s waist. The Little was too afraid to kick, terrified that she might invite the sadist back into the room. Her large thumbs hooked into the waistline of her stretchy pants, pulling nice and slow as the pants came down her legs, accompanied by a gasp from Stacy.

“What? Pull-ups!” She made direct eye-contact with Dawn. “And not big girl panties?” Stacy shook her head with a feigned uncertainty. “I don’t know, Dawn… The only big girls I know wear panties,” she gave Dawn’s padded front a light, crinkly pat. “Not these, hun-bun.”

“Yeah, but that’s only because--!”

“Well, but they’re not diapers either...” Stacy continued, pretending to ponder, yet Dawn had become too shaken to realize it was a full-on act. “Babies definitely wear diapers, no doubt about it...” she nodded, solidifying her key logic. “But pull-ups? Hmm...well, you tell me Dawn?”

“Wha...what? But, I am telling you!” Dawn sat herself on her knees, pressing a hand to her chest. “I’m an adult!”

“An adult? With those?” she accusingly pointed at the underwear. “Definitely not. Big girls don’t make stuff up either... So really, I guess all that means is...”

“Big girl!”

“Huh?” Stacy asked. “One more time? What’d you say?”

“B-...” Dawn looked crestfallen, defeated. “I’m a big girl...”

“Oh! Well, I guess that could be true...” she considered. “You’re in pull-ups, but I guess that means you could be out of them any time soon. Diapers or panties…” she muttered a bit lower, “But, who knows? There’s more to it than just potty training...” Once more she seemed to drift, alluding to Dawn’s “bad behavior” from before, hence Dawn’s panicked input.

“I-I am though!” Stacy looked her way again. “I...I am...” She was unfortunately smart enough to know exactly where this went. “I...” she wiped her eyes again. “I can prove it.”

“Well, if you say so,” Stacy encouragingly nodded. “Big girls take the initiative, after all. So, go on,” she gestured with a hand and an eager smile. “Show me how sorry you are!”

Her hand beckoned to the beast behind Dawn, bolted into the wall. A large rectangular, plastic box with rounded corners with a faint red light projecting from underneath it. In reference to Dawn, the dispenser was massive, likely storing a whole gallon of hand soap…

She felt the knots in her stomach battle already with squeamish hiccups.

“You can’t get any soap if you’re so far away, silly!” Stacy laughed as an open palm cupped Dawn’s lightly padded rear, forcing her forward. Whether she liked it or not, she was well within arms reach of the dispenser now.

I’m actually washing out my own mouth… She was still beside herself whilst things only became worse and more jarring. Yet her hand stuck forward, as if she were preparing to wash her hands. But she wasn’t. Not even close.

“I-Is...is it safe?” She turned her head back to Stacy, who seemed to lose a little glow in her smile once she could see Dawn was starting to delay the spectacle.

Stacy sighed, already turning in place. “If it’s too hard, there’s always diapers, you know?”

“No!” She didn’t even consider the alternative. “Please! See?” and out her hand went, illuminated by the sensor light and the mechanical noise of a dispenser releasing its contents. She could feel the lukewarm, viscous substance pool into her hand. It was translucent and had a very “clean” smell, not to be confused with anything positive-sounding like “wonderful” or “lovely”. Just industrially clean… It reeked of chemicals. Right then, after getting her serving size, the mere thought of putting it in her mouth made her gag.

Her palm was already filled quite well, considering it was likely more of an Amazon sizing. Despite having the shakes, her hand more or less hung there, suspended by the stress and anxiety of her own imagination.

“Hmm...” A nothing but judging mumble came from above and behind Dawn’s shoulder, from an all too familiar face. “You did say a very bad word… We should be extra safe to keep that pretty mouth of yours clean, shouldn’t we?”

“B-Bu...” there was a sunken look in her eyes as Dawn wordlessly confronted the Amazon, still holding the soapy substance in hand. Her speech was broken, and you could hear the fragments of composure left in her tone sink through the remaining pitfalls.

“Come on,” Stacy urged with a matronly tone as she gently pushed Dawn’s filled hand back in by the elbow. “A little more won’t hurt...”

There was a painful twist in her chest and a reactionary whimper as more liquid seeped into her hand. So much that it was leaking between her fingers. Overflowing soap in hand, she’d never known how much a simple hygiene product could embody such a terrifying, skin-crawling abyss. It was incomprehensible. Somehow, all this soapy muck was going to enter her body…

“Turn around too, I need to see it. To see that you’re apologizing properly?” This time she didn’t do it herself, although Dawn was sluggish at best in doing so. The hand holding her demise had practically become stone with how still it was. The entirety of her right half had gone numb, at least mentally so.

“P...” she sputtered between her lips. “P-p-blease!” It was better than diapers, but that didn’t mean this was any good either. She just...she couldn’t! The very idea of what she was about to do was inconceivable. She’d barely even prepared herself. With how quick Stacy had been, Dawn had but a minute to realize that her own spur-of-the-moment idea was manifesting at such a shocking speed. And because she wasn’t ready, all she could do was beg. Beg and grovel. Wasn’t this what Amazons liked to see, anyways? Littles crying? Belittled? Suffering? She was giving every morsel of it on a silver platter, so maybe it was enough to convince Stacy. Maybe--

A large finger quickly and forcefully shot itself between Dawn’s lips, opening her mouth just a little wider to compensate. Her tongue brushed the appendage, tasting something wet, almost gel-like, but couldn’t misplace its terrible taste, already feeling the bubbles begin to foam. She could feel it dripping down her lips as the finger slipped itself out, coated in hand soap, leaving behind a nice dressing of chemical hand product in Dawn’s mouth.

Wordlessly she looked at Stacy, seeing she was the one to have done it. She already reached for a faucet and washed her finger, sporting a somewhat annoyed look.

“Sorry, I got a little impatient,” she sighed, looking again at the bewildered girl. “See? Now you know what it tastes like. Not good, huh? Think of that taste whenever you think of using bad words, because that’s what it feels like.”

She felt violated. Never had a stranger inserted themself into any of her orifices, especially a giant trying to force soap down her throat. Regardless, the taste was vile, just as bad as she’d expected. It was so terribly unpleasant and she tried so hard to lick all the corners of her interior mouth to somehow get rid of the sickly aftertaste. It felt like a thin layer of muck that’d bonded with her own saliva, covering the roof of her mouth, like it was permanent. Every stroke of her tongue would catch more of the everlasting suds. It was bitter, almost metallic; utterly disgusting.

Dawn tried to gag but she couldn’t throw it up. There was simply too little of it to try and she couldn’t convince her body. It was stuck inside her and she was bawling.

“You know if you swallow it while the taste is still in your mouth it’ll go by a lot faster...” Stacy whispered in a clear voice, gesturing Dawn bring the pile of soap in her hand even closer. Dawn wanted to look at her with anger and hatred, but she was too busy crying over the terrible taste and trying to fathom how she was going to consume so much more.

There was no saving grace. No last-minute interruption. In all her moments of suspense in this dimension there’d always been something to cause a surprise or complete upset. But not now. As reality had once again backed her into a corner, there wouldn’t be a third party this time.

“Dawn,” Stacy tapped her foot. “As much as I’d like for you to dilly-dally, the world can’t stop just because you said a naughty word. Either we can do this now or skip to the diapers, then we move from there. Your choice, sweetheart.”

Your choice. Prove yourself. It’s your fault.

And more and more as the pressure grew, she watched as the soap-filled hand came closer and closer, her face grimacing the more she looked. That terrible aftertaste was still lurking in her mouth. She’d be sanding off the top layer of her taste buds just to forget this feeling. She couldn’t count on Stacy making empty threats which is why she couldn’t hesitate. What’s more, of everything, this absolutely was the very last thing she wanted to admit, but even Stacy wasn’t totally baseless saying that she’d be better off eating the soap fast…

Her mouth was smothered by it, pressed close by her palm. Her body moved faster than her own disgust could prevent it as the liquid soap was pressed against her open mouth. She could feel it hit her tongue, the back of her mouth. But it wasn’t perfect. The viscous gel now coated her teeth  and was dripping from her bottom lip, heavy droplets striking the countertop.

Dawn winced and her face scrunched, once again doused in that terrible, metallic taste. Her tongue tried to move it down to swallow it faster, but the substance only spread and clung to untouched surfaces. Her mouth had practically become a swamp. She was messy all over and she could barely keep herself steady.

“Mmmm!” Stacy cheered, burning with a fire behind her eyes. “Isn’t it so yummy?” Stacy chuckled, wiping her finger underneath Dawn’s dripping chin. “Native from here or not, all you Littles sure can be messy eaters,” she laughed some more.

She wanted to curse. She wanted to scream. But her mouth was filled with soap and she was currently dealing with the consequences of “being bad” in the first place. New tears left her eyes, all for a new reason. This time she’d truly been put in her place. Checkmated, as she helplessly swallowed a generous helping of soap, only to find so much of it was still slowly trying to creep down her esophagus. She didn’t deserve this. It was a stupid rule to begin with. This Amazon was being cruel for the sake of just because.

Then by some miraculous cause her body finally did object. Dawn had visibly seized once her gag reflex triggered, and out went a helping of her recent “food” with more foreign substance.

“Uh-oh!” Stacy mockingly cried, “guess you went a little too fast, huh?”

Dawn had been looking down with her hands planted on the counter, struggling to keep herself straight. There was a terrible burning sensation in her throat as an everlasting drip ebbed from her lips. She could feel the tiny amount of bile still sitting inside her as she coughed, yet it stayed dormant.

Her body was no longer her own once Stacy helped her sit upright. Then came the sordid act of Stacy turning Dawn around to face the mirror.

A mess would have been putting it lightly.

Beyond her reddened eyes and flushed cheeks, random strands of hair stuck to her face and the corners of her mouth, glued to her skin by an excess of soap. She couldn’t tell whether it was more soap above her mouth or snot leaking from her nose. It could’ve been both.

Her shirt had ample amounts of staining, dark splotches dotted all around, accompanied by a cold adhesive feeling to her skin. Her entire look was deranged and she was certainly feeling the part as she looked lower. Her pants were still bunched around her ankles and her underwear was a horrid spotlight in its own right.

Her pant-- no, her pull-ups, she second-guessed herself with a quiet, teary laugh, seemed to be the only part of herself that had avoided a wardrobe malfunction. And just beyond the tiny beast in the mirror was the glowing prim and proper giantess who did all of this to her.

Watching the mirror’s reflection, Stacy leaned her head in close enough that the two faces were side by side. “Tell me,” with two delicate fingers she separated one of Dawn’s hairs from her skin. “What do you see?”

Stacy continued to keep that same calm and collected look, whilst Dawn’s madness continued to bleed into reality.

“A-...an--” she stopped herself short to cough, feeling as if her throat had been shortened, dried and clogged. “A-an a-adul...”

“Dawn, honey...” Stacy set a large hand on the girl’s back, visibly shocking her as she jumped, her own surprise leading to more whimpers. “I know we didn’t just do all this to make the same mistakes again, right?” Either it was rhetorical or Stacy stopped caring for answers, because she continued to speak. “What do you see?”

“M...me.”

“Uh-huh?” Stacy nodded on, as if there was more to the tale.

“Look...I’m sorry, so...”

“That’s right, you are sorry,” Stacy replied, not letting her finish. “Proved it, too. Who proved it, Dawn? Only little kids in baby diapers make up fibs when they break the rules. But you’re not like that, right?”

“No...”

“I agree,” she glowed, giving Dawn a pat on the rear. “So! Tell me, what are you?”

“A…” She could feel herself choking on the very phrase itself. It was another vile substance she’d either been forced to swallow or expel.

“A big girl.”

“There we go! That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” she showed the girl some physical affection then took to grabbing a wipe. “I’ll clean it up this time since I’m in a good mood, but try not to vomit in the future...”

Kill me.

 

---

Dawn felt conflicted about whether to cry tears of joy or still sulk in her own depression once she got back to the room. A large and grotesque hook she’d been hanging from since this morning had finally been freed from her flesh once the door shut. Truly, without exaggeration, she was by herself this time.

The atmosphere was refreshing, crisp and cool. She glanced at the Amazon-sized body mirror and could see her raggedy self, still covered in crusty soap, snot and tears.

“Sh...” she grimaced, looking at herself. “Shower first...”

Taking advantage of one of the room’s multiple step stools, Dawn pressed down on the door handle and leaned forward to push it open, nearly losing balance on her miniature ladder.

The hotel in all its aesthetics was impressive, but only from an objective standpoint. Those feelings started to become skewed once someone like Dawn, a Little, tried using it. Considering that independent Littles were seeming more a minority in this dimension, it made sense that public services catered to the larger masses instead. The Amazonian room had been cheaply retrofitted to service someone of a smaller size on the fly.

The only indicators of a Little staying here were the multiple step stools dotted in various spots, including the least subtle aspect, the bars lined on either side of the bed. Not crib level, but certainly guardrails to prevent you from rolling off. It made sense to avoid injury, but Dawn couldn’t shake the sinister aura they gave after being what she’d been through today.

She couldn’t have thrown her pull-up against the wall any harder if she tried. At least the shower tub had a Little-sized detachable shower head.

A downpour of hot water instantly relaxed the muscles and literally washed away her scars. Layers of grime dissipated under the downpour of warm water. Excess amounts of soap, old and new streaks of tears, snot, and even pee…

She scrubbed, and scrubbed, harder than she’d ever scrubbed before. So hard that you just might think she was trying to shed her skin. No matter how many times she’d rinse it would never fully come off. There was always something unsightly and an ugly reminder. She scrubbed, but it wouldn’t come out. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fit a bar of soap in her own head to wash away the trauma. She couldn’t even look at soap the same way again.

It was after the fourth cycle she relented, figuring it was either all in her head or persistence just wouldn’t do.

She glanced at the discarded underwear with simple apathy, feeling no responsibility owed to it than someone as beaten and tortured as she was would feel. After all, it was her last night, so why nitpick over leaving a clean room behind…

All there was to do was bide her time and find some way to burn through it. Despite the prison bars on it, the bed did look inviting. She was certain to sleep well that night. But at least she could reminisce about home for at least a little bit. It didn’t get service here but at least she could browse some pictures on her…

She forgot.

Her phone was gone. Since this morning. Since that monstrous pig wrenched it from her along with her pants. It didn’t offer much utility to have it considering she couldn’t communicate with it, but she at least felt “equipped” to have it…

Her contacts, photos, personal information, social media accounts, conversations, all of it. All of it was gone. She at least had her freedom; a shot out of this dreaded world, but she’d be leaving this place a lesser being than when she’d first entered it… Travel is supposed to be enlightening, isn’t it? The only worldly experience Dawn could attest to was supposing that it wasn’t always worth looking beyond your own horizons.

Trying to compress her overwhelming grief and annoyance into a single sigh, she climbed the stool and deposited herself onto the freshly-made bed. Stark naked.

By the way the bed was clean and the footstools were orderly, Dawn could tell the maids had been through again… Unfortunately there were no “Do Not Disturb” signs in this dimension. She looked all over the room for one on the first day and even called the front desk, but to no avail…

She watched the corner formed between the painted wall and ceiling lost in her own thoughts when a flash of imagery almost caught her eye. She’d been suspicious, turning her head some, but gave it no thought until the black-screened tv wasn’t so black and displayed a moving picture.

“Hi there,” a disembodied voice spoke from the tv. Dawn looked at the screen with scrutiny. It was a slideshow of hotel scenery, fading from image to image. “Thank you for choosing to stay at our hotel chain Vineyard Stays. Our hotels offer a wide variety of--” The spokeswoman didn’t have time to finish before the screen blinked back to black.

Dawn with the tv remote in hand muttered to herself, “Weird...” She’d taken to putting a hand between her legs, just to block out a view of her delicates, but seeing as it was only a tv…

Yet the more she stared at the blackened screen, catching the faint blurry echo of herself in the screen was enough to incite some kind of mild paranoia.

“Suitcase...” Dawn quietly muttered to herself as she crawled across the expansive bed and back over to the safety rail. Climbing down the Little-friendly steps she walked back around the bed to the other side for a change of familiar clothes. And once she did round the corner of the bed, she slowed to a stop. She blinked as she stared.

Her suitcase wasn’t there. Not where she had left it. Not where it had been the entirety of this freaky wonderland vacation.

It was the disbelief, confusion and fear that gave her an awkward walk to the empty space. She was a Little in an Amazon’s room, but that didn’t make it easy to misplace an entire suitcase, sized for a Little or not.

Dawn’s heart started to race as she turned her head, trying to figure if it’d just been moved somewhere nearby in the room.

It wasn’t by the coffee table. It hadn’t been somehow stuffed in a drawer. Not in a cabinet. Not in the closet.Not in the bathroom. Not in the trash bin. Not even in the mini fridge.

Dawn was making a light jog all around the room, feeling more worried with each avenue of explanation leading to a chilling dead end.

Then, a moment of brilliance struck her as she looked back at the bed. Obviously it could have been slipped under the bed! Almost instantly her pent-up worries were fastly dissipating as she near giggled at her own silliness. Walking over to the bed she lifted the cover, met with a new surprise.

Wood. Instead of the bed having any accessible bottom, the bedframe was supported by wood paneling on all three sides, save for the one obscured by the wall. Meaning, the last place where her suitcase could have been in the room’d just been ruled out.

“You’ve gotta be kidding...” Dawn kept her voice low, yet it trembled. She’d put herself through so much turmoil, stress and disaster trying to get back to the one pseudo safe haven she had in this dimension, and even that had been compromised. What was she supposed to do now? As much of an inconvenience it was to lose her clothes, what meant oh-so-much more was the last of her identification. Her passport. Her dimensional visa. As she tried to keep her emotions in check, sitting naked on the floor, a grave and terrifying conclusion was reaching her mind.

Without any kind of papers, who was to say she was a Portal Little and not a native?

She stumbled back into the bathroom, never thinking that she’d be glad to find her ordinary shirt, bra and worst of all, stretchy pants. The pull-up was skipped over without hesitation however, sufficing for a commando approach for as grave of a situation as this.

Dawn climbed back up the stool onto the Amazon-sized bed, crawling over to the nightstand with a phone sat atop it. She raised the phone to her ear, bothered by how large it felt compared to her size, yet pressed on the given digits for the front desk.

There was a silent hum as the phone rang for a few moments.

“Hello! This is Candace with the front desk speaking!” A rosy and chipper voice suddenly spoke from the other end of the line. The sound came off loud enough for Dawn to flinch as she held the phone an inch from her ear. “How may I be of service?”

“H-hello...” Dawn started, rubbing her ear and trying to level her anxiety. “I...uhm, my name is Dawn and I’m in room 305...I just came back to my room and I can’t find my suitcase...”

“Room 305?” The employee asked to confirm. “Let me see...” She went quiet over the phone, and each moment of silence meant a unit of time had passed with Dawn’s fears still yet to be squashed and for her chest to ache even more with her troubled heart.

“Oh!” The employee exclaimed. “I understand now... Yes, Dawn S. from the group that’s touring from Terra? The Portal Littles?” The way she asked her question, or maybe by the way it sounded, despite being seemingly sweet and attentive, it felt...off-putting for the girl. Yet in the end, maybe it was paranoia.

“Y-yes...” Dawn slowly answered back.

“Perfect! Well, hm...losing your suitcase is a bit of an issue, huh?” She seemed to speak much more patronizingly now, as if this weren’t an exchange between customer and concierge, but rather a schoolteacher and a charge without their homework.

Nevertheless, fear was a powerful agent in getting Dawn to stomach just about any passive humiliation at this point. Having the ability to get home mattered much more than seeking a dignified response for what Dawn dearly and desperately hoped was a minor issue. “I-I swear; I looked for it everywhere in the room and--!”

“Well, let’s retrace our steps,” the woman said in a sing-song kind of voice, “where do you last remember having it, honey?”

“In my room!” Dawn whined over the phone. She could already tell that it was going to be like pulling teeth just to get anything close to progress with this Amazon. “Please! I’ve searched everywhere! I think one of the maids took my luggage, or something!”

“Now, Dawn, stealing is a very serious accusation,” the Amazon slowly explained over the phone. “Are you absolutely positively sure that you didn’t misplace it by accident? Why don’t you go look again just to be--”

“YES!” Dawn did shout this time. “I’m positive! Please! My bag has my passport and visa in it! I need that stuff to leave this dimension!”

There was a pause over the other end of the line. Dawn’s heart sank. Did she upset the Amazon? Was she mad now? Her heart felt ready to burst as she was already reliving the experience with Stacy in the bathroom. What if this Candace woman came up to punish her for yelling? What if it was worse than a soapy mouth? What if--?!

“I see.” The woman then spoke again, sounding still upbeat, though closer to neutral than Little-friendly peppy. “I can promise you honey that we will do the best we can to find your belongings, but I need to double-check with you. You really think that someone stole your things?”

“Yes!” Dawn replied, much more mindful of her volume now.

“Alrighty then,” she said, and Dawn could hear the smile from the other end. “I’ll officially log your complaint! It may take a little bit for our internal investigation to be complete, but I promise you’ll be taken care of in the meantime. Can you describe what your suitcase looks like?” 

“It’s mainly turquoise, with a black trim...” Dawn said.

“Turquoise, black trim…” The woman muttered to herself, sounding as if she were writing it down. “Is there anything else I can do for you, honey?”

It was a little surprising that the woman planned to do what Dawn had hoped for. An Amazon was listening to her. Sure, maybe obligated by the responsibilities of her occupation, but cooperation nonetheless. “N-no...that’s all. Uhm...thank you.” Dawn said.

“Of course, sweetheart!” Yet she couldn’t shake that tone which talked down to her. “Thank you for staying with us, and I hope the remainder is to your satisfaction! And not to worry; I’ll inform your tour guide, Stacy, about your current situation!”

“Y-you are…?” Dawn asked, slightly surprised. Maybe she could grasp the potential formalities in place, yet the only thing she wanted from that terrible Amazon was distance. Yet if experience taught Dawn anything, direct pushback only seemed to make things worse for her in this dimension. “I...I see...okay, then. Thank you...”

And she hung up the phone, exhaling a deep sigh as she felt the need to cry. In the span of one day she’d been kidnapped, re-kidnapped by a different couple that tried seducing her into becoming their permanent baby, force-fed soap by her own tour guide, robbed of her phone, and now potentially every other thing she brought with her to this dimension.

What unnerved her the most was an extreme sense of powerlessness. Constantly, for anything to ever progress now, it seemed that her only options were to either let the Amazons around her do as they pleased or for herself to do what they demanded of her. Even now, left without the last of her belongings, she was physically incapable of taking any direct action to find her things. She called herself an adult, but what agency did she really have? All she had was this “system” to trust in, truly screwed if the legislation itself decided to turn on her.

With that being the end of her thought exercise, left on such a grim, paralyzing note, she did feel her eyes begin to water as she laid back down on the bed that was far too big for her. She stared across at the window she could only reach to put her hands on the sill of, much less summon the Amazonian strength required to open it.

Hope being the last thing she had left to combat any obstacles thrown her way now, Dawn managed to give herself some time to sleep despite the cesspool of negative emotions she was encased in.

“Dawn...Dawn?” A familiar, unwelcomed voice jostled her shoulder as the girl moaned and groaned.

She opened her eyes and could see out the window. The sky was blackened and the stars were in the sky.

“Dawn?” The voice said again, speaking above her.

The girl turned her head and felt a jolt in her chest once she saw who it was.

Looking down at her with a complacent smiling face was the terrible Amazon, none other than Stacy.

Dawn quickly rolled herself across the bed, moving with such urgency and with fear that the only thing which stopped her from going off the other end entirely were the safety rails added on the edge.

“My! Someone must’ve had a bad dream, huh?” Stacy chuckled, yet no matter how cheery she looked, Dawn witnessed first-hand  just what lies beyond her mask. This was the first time Dawn had ever found this woman in her room unannounced. It’s not a matter of possibility, Dawn would expect she could, considering the hotel staff only let the Amazon tour guide handle their room keys. That being said, being woken up by an Amazon that punished you the last time you saw her was an easy scare.

Taking audible breaths, and trying not to incur this woman’s wrath, Dawn ignored her desires to scream, shout, object and criticize.

“What...what are you doing in here?” Dawn asked, feeling her hand grasp one of the bars behind her.

“Mm...” Stacy pressed a supposing index finger on her lips, glancing back at the door. “Well, I had knocked earlier, and after getting no response I figured you were taking a nap… Guess I was right!” She chuckled, leaving Dawn’s question no more answered than it was a sentence prior.

“Okay… Did you need something?” Dawn said, trying to rephrase her question.

“I think it’d be better to ask if you need something?” Stacy grinned, as if a matter of losing one’s legal identification were worthy of light humor.

Her counter caught Dawn off guard for a moment, mostly inciting confusion, but the conversation she had on the phone with the employee jogged her sleepy memory. 

“Y-yes...Someone took my luggage from my room.”

A cheery look on Stacy’s face suddenly dropped, morphing into concern and worry. Yet with the woman’s theatrics, it only made Dawn feel more sick as the act and emotions appeared as grossly forced and fabricated.

“Oh no!” Stacy laid a palm against her cheek, mouth hung agape. “All your things?”

Dawn nodded with a gulp, already stressing just from acknowledging the predicament.

“Maybe you just misplaced it?” Stacy passively commented. “You’ve been so busy and distracted with all the fun things going on...”

“No. I checked everywhere in the room...” Dawn said, yet again giving up on her protest as to being an adult rather than a child.

“I see...that’s a very serious issue, Dawn.” Stacy said, as if the girl at her wit’s end had not known this already.

Yet as terrible as this Amazon was to her, being the authority figure that she was, Stacy was the only person Dawn could ask a burning, heart wrenching question.

“Stacy...” Dawn struggled to voice the words, too paralyzed to face the potential truth. “I-if, if they take a little longer to find my stuff by tomorrow, I can just go back later, right? I mean, i-it wouldn’t make sense if--”

“Oou.” Stacy interrupted, making a brief, crude noise that matched her furrowed brow. “That is something, isn’t it?”

“What?” Dawn willed herself to ask. “Wh-what does that mean?” She couldn’t be implying what Dawn wanted to believe was ludicrous, right? They wouldn’t just bar her from going home if she missed the portal that she was scheduled for? They’d just send her off on the next one! It couldn’t be legal; preventing someone from going back to their own dimension. The more and more Dawn talked herself into it she fastly tried to believe that she undoubtedly would go home regardless of the outcome. And yet, what terrified her so much was how it all seemed to be contingent on others that made the decisions for her.

What bled her dying hope even further was the less than stellar look Stacy was giving, even through what exaggerated lens she expressed herself through.

“Honey, if you don’t have your passport or visa, that means you won’t be allowed to use the portal to go home,” Stacy explained quite simply.

It felt like a ton of bricks that rained from above.

“W-well...once I get them back, I can go home?” Dawn added, desperately searching for something to cling onto.

“Assuming the hotel finds your belongings before tomorrow, yes.” Stacy nods.

Each answer she gave only seemed to exist in hypotheticals and general statements. It was as if she seemed to avoid acknowledging a terrible, terrifying alternative that even Dawn wanted to believe wasn’t true.

“But, once I do get them back, even if it’s later tomorrow I can still--”

“No, you can’t.” Stacy says.

An eerie silence wafted throughout the room as Dawn wordlessly stared at a certain-looking Amazon.

“Why...why not?” Dawn’s voice trembled.

“Your visa is only approved for travel between when you first came, sweetie, and when you’re supposed to leave tomorrow. After tomorrow at the time you’re scheduled for, your visa expires and then you won’t be allowed to travel back to Terra.”

“B-but I...” Dawn’s voice quivered. “I-it’s not my fault…! I didn’t lose them, they were stolen!” Dawn pleaded, as if Stacy were the one who could solve her problems.

This couldn’t be real. It was a fantasy. All a bad dream. All she needed was a mere moment of observation to realize just how fictitious this all seemed. Some random spam mail had managed to convince her to travel to another dimension, filled with giants that are infatuated with treating normal people like perpetual babies. Nothing about it made sense and neither did this, so all Dawn could find was less places to grip herself onto reality.

She wasn’t really here. She wasn’t being talked down to like a child. Her phone, passport and visa weren’t missing. She was going home. She wasn’t stuck in a dimension of giants. Absolutely not.

“Dawn?”

The girl gasped as she felt Stacy’s hand on her shoulder. A soft touch from a woman that coated her mouth in soap.

“They’ll find my stuff, right?!” Dawn started to weep. “I’m gonna go home! Th-they...they can’t just keep me here because somebody stole my stuff!” She sniffled, feeling her chest rise and fall. And above all else, what hurt Dawn the most right then was Stacy. She made a small frown, as if to offer meager amounts of sympathy. From Dawn’s perspective, Stacy scantly seemed to offer much condolences at all. If she thought at all like that woman Katherine, she might even think of her being stuck here as a solution rather than a problem. Another Portal Little saved from their own demise.

“They’ll do their best, honey...” Stacy briefly rubbed Dawn’s back.

Dawn sobbed, trying to hold herself together. She tried to tell herself that she needed to be prepared for whatever might happen, yet that seemed impossible when faced with every obstacle possible.

“Of course,” Stacy exhaled, staring off at the door, “I suppose it’d be difficult if your bag was hidden?”

Dawn sniffled, barely taking stock in her words. Hidden? What did it matter if it were hidden or not?

“Whoever took it’s probably long gone, now...” Dawn hiccuped, erring on the side of pessimism with little hope to be found.

“Mm...no, they’re not.” Stacy said. Like that, her words cut through the atmosphere.

“How would you know…?” Dawn asked, clearly fueled by suspicion now. Her gaze slowly turned up to Stacy, who looked as rosy as could be.

“Dawn, honey, do you know what the word ‘quota’ means?” She smiled down at her.

“Qu-quota…?” Dawn mouthed. What did a quota have anything to do--?

“Quota means a certain number of something you have to do or get,” Stacy explains, likely willfully misinterpreting Dawn’s tone. “You see, Dawn, even us Amazons can get a teeny bit upset!” Stacy explained, annunciating her explanation with squinted fingers in front of Dawn. “When you said that naughty word in the lobby, you very much needed to be punished for it, but I suppose I may have gone a bit further than I normally would have… I was upset with you, you see.”

The longer Stacy went on to speak, the more confused Dawn felt. She came here to discuss your missing luggage is what you figured, yet why was she trying to relive the very recent past? It was obvious as could be that swearing pissed her off. Need she explain that any further?

“I-I apologized...” Dawn muttered, now feeling afraid for any kind of retroactive punishment Stacy might figure on the fly that should be warranted.

“Yes, you did,” Stacy nods to herself, “and you showed me how sorry you were. I forgive you for that.”

But what did any of this have to do with her luggage?

“My job as a tour guide is very important, Dawn,” Stacy said, “It’s my job to keep all you chickadees accounted for the entire time you’re under my care! For example, if I were to take you all out to the park across the street, but one of you stayed behind at the hotel and I didn’t know, you understand how that would be very troublesome for me, don’t you?”

“I...I guess…?” Dawn shrugged.

“Good!” Stacy nods, approving her piecewise digestion of the nuggets of explanation. “So, can you also understand how troublesome it might be if...say, one of my little chicks were to be adopted by an Amazon while we were outside, then come back as if nothing ever happened?”

Dawn wasn’t looking at her right then, staring forward as well. Yet in that moment Dawn could feel a chill up her spine, prickled by all the goosebumps along her arms and hairs sticking up.She could feel two piercing eyes above her, staring down on meager prey with its carnivorous fangs.

“Dawn?” Stacy said in a crisp, neutral tone. Everything felt so acute in that moment, Dawn could hear the separation of the Amazon’s very lips before she even went to speak.

“Dawn, you were marked as the last Little for my quota.” Stacy said. “I figured you had been adopted when one of the other Littles came and told me you’d been grabbed.”

She knew? She knew about this morning; her being taken? And yet she didn’t do anything about it? Dawn wanted to ask why in the hell no one came to rescue her, but Stacy continued. And as she did, Dawn could hear the annoyance and pissed-off attitude begin to bleed into her chipper voice.

“I’m supposed to be one Little shorter than I am right now. This nest has one too many chicks in it, Dawn.”

And then, Dawn could feel the mattress shift as the Amazon leaned in closer to her, so close that she could feel the woman’s breath as she spoke in a low whisper, directly into her ear.

“You’re supposed to be adopted right now.”

[Panther Cub]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! The new chapter! And, oh no! Please let Dawn escape that terrible Amazon's clutches! Hopefully Katherine and James will be able to help!

[Tracey]

The plot thickens. There is a quota to be filled and perhaps the Guide has a kickback arrangement where an underhand payment ensures that she has her group in the right place for the prospective mother to pick the baby of her dreams  out of the nest and whisk them away to a new life. Like what happened to Dawn. If that is the case then we can expect to hear a knock on the door shortly and the beast of a woman who had absolutely no trouble overpowering Dawn originally standing there ready to reclaim her prize... this time with what clearly is a diaper bag slung over her shoulder, a footed sleeper sticking out of the bag, a stroller to prevent another escape and another injection to keep keep her quiet.  If James and Katherine change their mind and come back for Dawn all they are likely to get is a quick glimpse of is the girl securely strapped in a rear facing car seat as she is driven away to the adjoining town for her first night back in soggy diapers and a crib with a no nonsense Momma. 

[BabySofia]

I'm really hoping the cavalry comes in here! James and Katherine are definitely the best parents she could land. I don't see any way she ends up back home now...

[Panther Cub]

51 minutes ago, BabySofia said:

I'm really hoping the cavalry comes in here! James and Katherine are definitely the best parents she could land. I don't see any way she ends up back home now...

Me too!

[PravidaUser]

Omg theres no way that can be real,another welsome chapter, what will happen with dawn? Did Katherine come to help?I just can't walt to see 

(By the way, I'm very afraid to be rude in my comments,write in englesh is not too easy for me)

Ps:thank you very much for this new chapter,realy, I'm true glad for this

[SGTbaby]

What a twist! Great chapter and glad it is back!!

[bje]

@Mee I recently began to read this story and just finished chapter 4. I am impressed at how good you tell the story so the characters become living and the reader understands the situations and feelings. I am so looking forward to continue to read about Dawn's further tribulations in the diaper dimension in the next chapters. Please continue to write while I read the next 4 chapters here. ?

[WBDaddy]

Indeed, you did a spectacular job, particularly with this chapter, of conveying raw, tangible fear over being on the razor's edge.  Looking forward to more!  

[crono]

So glad to see you back. Your stories are always a joy to read. Haven't read the latest chapter, but I will be in just a moment.

Edit: Just read it. Love the cliffhanger with Dawn. Cannot wait for the next chapter 

[Arendeth]

Thanks for the chapters, hopefully she can escape the guide.

[Panther Cub]

1 hour ago, Arendeth said:

Thanks for the chapters, hopefully she can escape the guide.

YEAH! Based on the title, I think that Dawn's only recourse is adoption with Katherine and James. But they seem like they would try to do right by her... within this society's reasoning.

[AbyMatt]

Seems like Dawn is really stuck now. She might have to choose which gilded cage to live in, assuming Stacy is going to even let her choose. I suppose she could pick someone else to take her place but then there would be paperwork. I'm surprised any of the littles get to return home after their tour.

[Mee]

9 - The Hotel Room

Stacy stared at Dawn for as long as each syllable of the Amazon’s grim sentence sunk into her consciousness.

What was she supposed to say in response? Did she even hear her properly? Dawn remained quiet yet her pupils were dilating as her panicked mind was at a total loss of how to communicate with her body.

Stacy finally gave the Little some distance though as she huffed and puffed, crossing her arms.

“Do you have any idea just how much trouble you’ve caused me?” Stacy asked in a much plainer voice. Dawn was still at a complete loss, which in some way visibly irked Stacy. She clicked her tongue as she stood from the bed.

“I have spent this entire week taking care of all you Littles. I make sure to keep you all accounted for, I take you to your rooms, I take you on tours, I help you cross the street, remind you to use the potty…!” She sighed, continuing her rant to a petrified girl.

“You see, munchkin,” she said, sounding far less sweet than the pet name implied, “I fill a quota for each and every tour. It’s important that for every odd sum of you Portal Littles that a few ‘happen’ to go missing. Does that make sense to you?”

Dawn had no words. She knew Amazons were less than stellar people, and certainly Stacy had far less merit than even the disappointments like James and Katherine, but this was a new low. A new terror and fear that somehow existed beyond what unsightly persona she already had.

“When I was told you’d been taken I marked you off, thinking that was that. Yet here I was, thinking you’d been adopted by a proper Amazon, not some kind of unicorn that lets you go.” Her eye just barely twitched, as if to visibly indicate her disbelief. “You were in a pull-up!” She exclaimed, postulating that the science most certainly did not agree with the outcome. “Honestly...” She groaned tiredly as she paced, “In the past three years, nothing like this has ever happened before…!”

Dawn nervously watched her, trying to think of a way to speak or somehow poise her response or question in a way to avoid setting her off. The atmosphere was downright unnerving. Finally. She’d found it. Rock bottom. A scenario so bad and so inescapable that she’d crack her nails just trying to scrape past this bedrockian demise. Her last bastion that already was a burning siege had collapsed entirely as Stacy herself seemed to reveal her ulterior motive. What made Dawn’s throat hot and tingly with bile though was her nonchalant attitude.

Stacy walked to and fro as if it really were a simple workplace blunder; robbing a person of their belongings and alienating them in a foreign dimension. Where was her humanity?

She left a few fingers on her chin as her gaze focused on the nonmaterial. “Portal Customs is likely voiding her papers as we speak...” Stacy muttered under her breath, yet not enough to at least give Dawn more cause for concern.

“A-ah...I-I’m sorry!” Dawn blurted out, barely even recognizing her own words. Her hurried pleas felt off the cuff, yet the farthest thing from her rational mind. “I-I...I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble! P-please! Let me go home! I promise I won’t tell anybody! Please!” And tears rolled down her cheeks, without any kind of alternative that could so much as spark in her brain. Forget the anger, the distrust that stunk so heavily from this Amazon’s craftiness and malicious intent. Even if Dawn was a mark for her personal agenda, it seemed to matter so little when she was the very key to getting home.

Stacy turned her head at that. “Sorry? If you were sorry, honey, you’d be marching that bottom out of this hotel to find someone else that’ll adopt you.” She paused to let the suggestion set in. “Well?” She left a hand on her hip, coincidentally leaving herself out of the way between Dawn’s line of vision and the door.

It was easy to infer by what she meant, yet naturally it was absolutely out of the question for Dawn. But because she absolutely wouldn’t throw herself to the wolves, and by consequence could not “apologize”, she sniffled as it meant further upsetting Stacy, the one person she desperately needed to stay on the good side of.

“P-please, th-there’s...let me do something else! I...I gotta go--”

“Why do you even want to go back?!” Stacy whined, seeming to find Dawn’s wishes simply outrageous. “Terra is hardly the kind of society ours is? Our technology is better, less carbon emissions, better education...it’s undeniably better to stay here! You remember all the tours, right?”

Dawn hiccuped. She didn’t want to reason. She didn’t want to debate. She just wanted her things back, yet Stacy rambled like Dawn was an inconsolable child she could only talk at, not listen to.

Stacy gave her an annoyed look, finally devoid of the cheery, cushy tone she’d given the past week, as if she finally ran out of fuel for pleasantries. “I’ll make it easy for you. I want you gone. I don’t care how you do it, but to me you’re just another Little needing to be put in their place.”

“Wh-what?” Dawn stuttered on eggshells. “I-I’ll be gone! To-tomorrow! Please, please! I’ll go back to my dimension and I’ll never tell anybody!” She sobbed as she begged. “I-I don’t even need my luggage back! J-just give me my visa, my passport…!”

Stacy came in very close, leaning her face in, leaving a mere few inches between hers and Dawn’s.

“Even if I gave them back to you, they would be absolutely no good, honey.” The finality seemed to have restored some glow to Stacy’s face, in exchange for sapping the rest of it from Dawn’s. She sighed with a smile. “I won’t go into much detail, since it’s not an easy subject for a Little to handle, but when people like me add our chicks to the ‘quota’,” she said with added enunciation, “the people that I work for talk to some more important people, and they let other people know back in your dimension that you’ve returned safe and sound!”

It wasn’t complicated. But it was, hence Dawn’s teary confused look. Returned? She’s far from anything close to being returned.

“B-but I haven’t gone back…?”

It was like honey to the Amazon’s ears. Her smile drifted farther from her once agitated expression. “No, that’s right, you haven’t.” Stacy nodded, easing back into her patronizing tone. “But the people in charge of the portals say you have! That means if anyone looks for you, the very last place you were seen was coming back from this dimension!” She explained with softened enthusiasm. “From there, a few more people extend your footprint back home a little bit to muddy the waters... But really, telling you anything at all is already far beyond what you need to know...”

Disappeared. Stacy was right. The explanation was near unfathomable.

“Wh...why…?” It was the only question. It could amount to so much in return, yet a gut feeling from Dawn told her that there would be meager crumbs of explanation. What was this already? Conspiracy? Collusion among officials between both dimensions?

Stacy gave Dawn a distasteful frown. “I really don’t think any more explanation is all that necessary… At the end of the day though, you’re good for this dimension, and in exchange you get a better life here. Win-win, right?”

It wasn’t a win. It was so, so far from it. But Dawn didn’t argue the semantics, not when it was an accessory to a life-changing misfortune.

“And before you ask anything else, if you’re wondering why we’re even having this conversation, it’s so we don’t have to deal with any misunderstandings for tomorrow,” Stacy grinned, “After all, I can’t have a native Little getting on a bus meant for Portal Littles?”

Dawn whimpered at that, gritting her teeth. She wanted to refute and argue, but what proof did she have?

“Really, though, staying with that Amazon insane enough to actually let a Little go probably would have been in your best interest.” Stacy chuckled. “Have fun trying to find a golden goose like that again!”

Another crushing blow. Dawn wouldn’t exactly consider James and Katherine ideal if she were to legitimately be stranded in this dimension, yet they did have their edge over some of the other deranged Amazons she’d seen this past week, including the very one that came very close to successfully kidnapping her this morning.

And with each strike, Stacy seemed to be finding her stride once again. “Oh well! Again, I only took you back in the lobby because it’d be better to avoid any confusion. It’s not the tightest-lipped secret as to what goes on, but no questions are better than any at all, right?” Stacy seemed to give a genuine smile, which only hurt Dawn more. “So, to make it clear, once I leave this room, we do not know each other.” Stacy said as she sat back down on the bed.

“To me you’re nothing more than a silly Little spouting stories. If I see you in that lobby tomorrow when all the other chicklings are going home, I will not hesitate to flag you as a lost Little in need of protective services, understood?” And her inviting stare was anything but compassionate. Menacing, cold and laced with venom. It was an outright threat.

Dawn slowly nodded. What else was there to do at this point.

Stacy sighed with relief, seeing that the last nail had finally been hammered into place. “Good, as long as you understand, you’re free to do as you please!” She paused to admire the imaginary roses. “Well, actually, I would call it more like going out on your own terms...” And with little left to the imagination, Stacy did not hesitate with a quick hand on Dawn’s pants and yanking them off completely.

“H-hey!” Dawn cried, reaching out for what was so high away, stripped of her last set of pants. They were designed for toddlers, yet it was a shred of dignity more than complete nakedness.

“No underwear underneath?” Stacy mockingly commented. “Last time I checked, you were in a pull-up...” She stood up from the bed, folding the small pair of pants and holding firmly onto them. “You’re free to do as you please, Dawn, but I need to make sure you at least land where you’re supposed to. No Amazon in their right mind will let a half-naked Little walk out of a place like this in anything less than a diaper, barring any weirdo Amazons like from this morning… But, lightning never strikes twice! And by that point it’ll mean you’ve been claimed, which is in both of our best interests.”

She’d certainly put Dawn in a tough spot. She was a mouse in an empty field, stalked from above by countless hawks. A pantless Little screamed immaturity and checked every box to put her in her place.

“So...well...” Stacy looked around the room as if she’d misplaced something. “I think that’s everything on my end?” She gave Dawn a quizzical look as if she were fishing for a similar response. “Worst case scenario, the maids will find you tomorrow past checkout time and deal with you then. Either way, you’re not my problem anymore.” Stacy turned on her heel and went for the door.

Dawn was silent. Mute. Broken. She could call Stacy back and try to plead for some kind of chance, yet by the way the Amazon put it, things seemed to be out of her hands. Even still, that didn’t stop her from rubbing it in.

With a wave of her fingers Stacy grinned from the doorway. “Toodaloo, baby-boo~!” Stacy cooed as she closed the door. She was gone. Dawn’s pants were gone.

Her luggage was gone. Her phone. Her passport. Her visa. Her identity. Her dignity. Her modesty. Her sanity. Her livelihood. Her safety. Her boyfriend. Her family. Her home. Her dimension. Her everything.

Dawn tried to stand, but even she didn’t know what for. It felt governed by instinct at this point. But she fell right back over. Either the strength had left her or she’d realized just what a fruitless endeavor it would be. She could kick, scream, cry, shout, but none of it mattered when her sphere of influence had already been locked in a box sealed from the outside.

This was it. She’d finally arrived.

The void.

---

The next hour led her into the late of night, leaving her legs tired as she shakily stood on an overturned plastic bin that was balanced atop a steady foot-stool. Between her crying fits she peered through the peephole to her door, watching through the fish-eye lens view an exaggerated view of the hallway.

What seeds of hope she had left were mere figments of imagination by this point, yet Dawn hinged onto what small items could even still be conceived. Each and every time there was a passing face, Dawn would flinch and nearly fall off her sloppy tower at the sight of some grotesque Amazon. Fear didn’t even describe it anymore. It was absolute terror now.

Dawn stood, naked from the waist down as there was a slight chill on her bare bottom. It was the equivalent of gushing blood in shark-infested waters. Seeing the many giants pass through sent her imagination to haywire levels, petrified by what they would most certainly do if they found Dawn right then in the state that she was.

But she wasn’t peering through the peephole just to shave years off her lifespan, but instead to find the one other kind of person she might be able to get through to.

A fellow Little. She likely had other comrades on this floor, but the hardest and most difficult bar to clear for that to happen was sheer luck. To catch a Little walking in the hall seemed next to impossible the more she thought about it, which is why she tried not to.

It was a hotel that serviced Littles, but only through cheap adaptations. Everything was Amazon-sized, including the door to every room, so why bother walking through a hotel that’s a physical exercise for you to navigate? What’s more, every other Little from Earth was likely packing their bags. That alone made Dawn uneasy. Everyone but her would be going home. Going home without her unless she could have one thing go right tonight. It was late, even less reason to see a Little out and about, and limited by her peephole, given she couldn’t go out there half-naked, just about every card in the deck was against her.

Failure was approximately guaranteed, and even Dawn in her most rational state would consider this all to be a pointless, tiresome endeavor. She was on the cusp of single digit hours from being between now and when Stacy and the others would leave on the bus. She wouldn’t be on that bus and she wouldn’t be going through the portal home.

Instead, she’d be waiting in this room, hiding from the maids that would inevitably find her, diaper her and send her off to who in the hell knows where. Did they have places like orphanages for Littles here? Dear God, she did not want to think about it. Her mind was in a crossfire of trying to pray and think of some means of escape, while also being attacked by her own morbid imagination of simply how much worse things will become.

Her stomach growled as she tried not to squirm. She hadn’t eaten all day, and despite being in a hotel with room service, there was hardly a chance of making use of it. It went without saying that the risk was far too high in having someone deliver food to her room, lest the Amazon employee do something to her right then and there. She was exhausted, hungry and worried. She knew that she needed to keep fighting, as futile as it felt, but her body was reaching another hard stop.

And in the midst of her hunger pains and obscured view, she caught a glance of a small passing brown head of hair. The head had come and gone by the time Dawn fully processed it, lagged by her body’s withdrawal. But when it did hit she scrambled to get off the bin that was on the stool, toppling over entirely as she fell on her side onto the floor. Her one small fortune was not falling on the wrist that she’d already done something to from earlier. It hurt, but what hurt so much more was thinking of a fate that left her trapped in a dimension as demented as this.

Dawn stood with a burst of energy as she tried to ignore the pain, hopping off the ground to jump to grasp the handle to the door and swing it open. Gluing her lower half to the inside of the door, she leaned her head out into the hall to catch the distant figure.

“H-hey…!” Dawn started in a half-whisper, pleading for the stranger’s attention. They were short. No, not short. They were Dawn’s size. Normal sized. But small they were as was their range of hearing, because Dawn’s voice had gone unheard.

“H-hey!” Dawn said louder this time, bleeding with desperation. Modesty was a forgotten practice in the face of extreme duress.

And for once her prayers had been answered. The person stopped and turned their head with a quizzical look.

Both Dawn and the stranger exchanged looks of surprise.

“D-Dawn?”

“Hea...Heather!” Dawn shouted, overtaken by a wave of emotion. She nearly ran out into the hall to meet her, yet was frozen still by the draft on her bare skin.

Heather fully turned around this time to walk back to Dawn, slowly transitioning into a small jog.

“Dawn!” Heather exclaimed again with a wide smile. She had a small laugh of disbelief, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Y-you’re okay!” She exclaimed, stopping right in front of the door.

Dawn only offered a meek smile in return. “Y-yea....mm...” Shestarted to reciprocate, but quickly lost the joy in her voice as it couldn’t have been farther from the truth. She hadn’t been any more okay since this morning. She’d simply found a new danger to be snatched by.

“How?” Heather asked. “I-I...I ran to tell Stacy as soon as it happened this morning, but...she said not to worry about it...” The look on her face now shifted to one of gloom. But it lit up again as she said, “I can’t believe you escaped…! I’m so happy for you!”

“H-Heather, I...” Dawn started, choking on her tears. It was a wild mix of emotions that she was feeling. Heather had tried to do something. She did try to get her help this morning. She did the only thing she could do was tell an Amazon. It wasn’t her fault that it happened to be Stacy, a woman who very much counted on Dawn’s disappearance. Heather was a good person, and this entire time Dawn had been talking herself into having animosity and speculating the worst. What’s more? She was planning to put a friend into a position where she might be adopted against her will. It was all a sham in the end, yet it didn’t change Dawn’s intentions despite her cruel assumptions.

“What’s wrong?” Heather tilted her head, stepping closer to the door. “You’re back now, okay? We’ll all be getting out of this freaky place tomorrow. You need to tell me how you escaped!”

Dawn sniffled with an ugly cry as she shook her head, drowning in irony.

“A-a-ahm...I’hm n-not sure if I can go home…!” Dawn sobbed.

“What?” Heather asked. “Why not? We’re all leaving tomorrow...Here, let me come in?” Heather came closer to the door.

Dawn wanted to give words of caution, or try to prepare Heather for the objective weirdness regarding her state of dress, yet she stayed teary-eyed and silent as she did let the woman in.

“Let’s just sit and...” Heather quieted down as she walked in, turning to see Dawn’s naked lower half. “Dawn…?”

The room still looked a bit out of order. The trash bin Dawn was standing on laid on the floor on its side, the closet and dresser drawers were still haphazardly open from Dawn’s fruitless search for her luggage, and the bed was still ruffled and wrinkled by her sleep and Stacy’s visit.

Heather quickly averted her gaze, turning back to the hall. “Uhm, how about I wait while you get dressed? Sorr--”

“No!” Dawn spoke with pure, instinctual desperation as she grasped Heather’s wrist. Even if she looked deranged and nearing her last mental brace, and even if it wasn’t just how she looked, but how she truly felt, the suggestion alone of Heather showing a sliver of leaving now would shatter Dawn’s hopes into smithereens. Heather in this moment had become nothing less than Dawn’s very lifeline. “You can’t leave me! Please stay; I-I need help and I don’t know what to do! I’m scared…!” Her voice started to quiver as its pitch heightened with her heartbeat.

Her hysterics seemed to be telling as they were off-putting, it seemed.

“O...Okay, Dawn,” Heather gave her a seemingly stand-offish look. “Look,” she softened her expression, “I promise I’ll stay, but let me wait out in the hall while you get dressed?” She started turning, but Dawn held onto her wrist, tugging back firmly.

“You don’t get it!” Dawn sobbed. “I don’t have any clothes…! I don’t have anything!”

“...What?” Heather gave her a full look of confusion after the words hit in full effect. “You...already packed them?”

“Noo!” Dawn whined, finding with each misunderstanding that more explanation was required. “I don’t have any of my clothes! I don’t have my phone, my ID, my passport, my visa…!” She started to work herself up more and more with each confession and truly started to emulate a toddler’s meltdown, only it was with serious and damning cause.

Now Heather was raising an eyebrow, but she didn’t tug away. It seemed that she was beyond the point of total misunderstanding as she stepped farther away from the exit, though closing the door behind her. It was enough to loosen Dawn’s tension if by a little as her arms fell at her sides like clumps of mud.

“Dawn, what happened to you?”

The look on Dawn’s face scrunched up with a question like that. Even she couldn’t confidently answer it. Today had warped her mind and transformed her in ways she couldn’t even imagine up until now, much less draw a line from start to finish. She remembered the events themselves. Vividly. But, to consider how they made her feel and to make her so vulnerable to reach this point...it seemed impossible.

She wiped a tear from her eye. “I’ll explain, but please...please don’t leave…”

Heather nodded her head, walking deeper inside the room, passively observing the state of it.

She turned her head back while near the bed. “Is it all right if I sit up here?”

Dawn nodded in response, beside herself with a hand clutching her other arm. She did squeeze her legs together somewhat to give herself some sense of modesty, yet it’d been violated so many times today, it felt pathetic to think that she was already slightly numb to the embarrassment.

Heather via the Little stool climbed onto the bed, sitting along its edge as she shuffled a bit to the side to make room for Dawn. And finally being a bit more conscious of herself, Dawn took the opposite end closer to the headboard where she could slip her lower half beneath the comforter.

Dawn didn’t wait for Heather to prod first. “When I was kidnapped this morning on the sidewalk...” She felt physically ill just from trying to recall that hefty Amazon, “that Amazon took my pants and underwear, but I also had my phone then...”

“But how did you get away?” Heather asked, which would be the inevitable bridge from Dawn’s story.

“...I didn’t. Two different Amazons stopped her apparently. I was drugged.” Dawn spoke with a disgusted voice. Amongst everything that happened today, she’d never felt so violated. “Those two saved me from her and spent the day getting me new pants,” she opted to ignore the point on pull-ups. 

“Then why are you here now?” Heather, once again, asked in advance what would presumably be Dawn’s next explanation.

“A...a lot happened when I was with them,” she kept it extremely brief, “but they brought me back here. It was starting to look like they were gonna kidnap me though...” If it wasn’t known by now, her opinion on the matter was a flurry of anger and unease. If it were to be equated to a near-death experience, Dawn was still trying to find her grasp on what was still tangible and stable. Naked and afraid, that meant she had little to recognize.

Heather continued to be an interjection at every point. “So that doesn’t explain your luggage and stuff, though?”

Just for a moment, Dawn’s nervousness and fear managed to subside for her to feel a tinge of annoyance by Heather’s listening ability, or rather her patience. But only a moment, as Dawn doubled down back on the severity of her situation.

Now for the bombshell. “Stacy took them.” Dawn said, letting the heavy words drop before her open mouth.

“Stacy did?” Heather asked rhetorically. “Why?”

“Because of this morning...” To think that one of her most unexpected feelings right now would be regret. Naturally she needed to reach this point to even have a chance of going home, yet she started to imagine herself the fool for working so hard to get back to a place that had long left her behind. “Stacy is just like every other Amazon. She just wants us to ‘disappear’ and wind up being stuck in this God awful dimension!”

The accusation left Heather with a slightly stunned expression, looking unsure of how to proceed. “But...then why are there so many of us left? Wouldn’t we all be ‘missing’ by now?”

Even to Dawn that weak defense seemed ridiculous to even conceive. Heather wasn’t a college student, but to figure something like this shouldn’t take any critical thought… “It’s because it’s supposed to seem insignificant. If only a few people from an entire bunch go missing, it’s easier to cover up than losing the entire tour group, right?”

“I guess...” Heather said with a crease in her brow. “So Stacy wants you to ‘disappear’?”

Finally, having reached a meeting of minds Dawn nearly smiled if the matter weren’t so vile. “Yes! An hour ago Stacy came to my room and told me everything. She took my bag and all my stuff because she plans on making me stay here. She’s not letting me go back to Earth!” And as she went back into the meat of her explanation, she started to sound audibly more upset. “And finally, she took my fucking pants!” Dawn seethed, yet the ability to swear without a passive comment or direct punishment gave her a small sense of glee. Alternatively, it soured the sense of thinking her given rights as an adult were now privileges and not freedoms.

Heather left the silence for a bit before speaking. She wasn’t entirely quizzical anymore. “She took...everything?”

“Yes,” Dawn wiped a tear from her eye, “If I don’t have my passport and visa, I’ll never be able to go home!” As she said this, an even deeper pang of worry recalled Stacy saying that things were already in motion beyond her. What if somehow her visa were invalidated now, or she was specifically on a list to not be allowed travel, or was removed from one that was permitted? The possibilities for failure were endless, and a gaping void that if she stared too long into, would consume her entirely. “Please, Heather...I don’t know what to do! Please help me!”

Now Heather looked a bit disturbed. She shuffled a little on the bed, clearly uncomfortable with the story and thinking of its many details. “Did Stacy ever say anything about me?” She asked.

“What?” Dawn was caught off guard, expecting to focus on herself. “No, she didn’t. You’ll be fine! Heather, please! You’re the only person I have!” Dawn begged, praying dearly. She didn’t know a single other Little-- person, on this tour. Amazons were naturally out of the question, so that really left just Heather.

Heather seemed to look a bit more relieved, who took a small breath. “Dawn...I asked Stacy this morning to help you…? When you got taken…?” She was avoiding eye contact, looking around Dawn, or nowhere near entirely.

“Y-yeah…?” Dawn agreed, but what did that change? That was then. This is now!

Heather briefly scratched her cheek. “D-Dawn...I wanna go home, too...”

“Yeah, me too!” Dawn practically shouted. What was she even getting at?! Why couldn’t she give a straight answer? “I-I just need your help to think of something...something so I can maybe get my passport and stuff back… Please!” Why was she acting so strangely?

Heather still looked away. Straight ahead. “Look, I uhm...I really feel for you, but...” her answer started in the form of action, as she started to slip off the bed, onto the stool and to the floor.

“Wh-what?” Dawn’s voice cracked as Heather moved. “N-no, Heather, please…!”

“I wanna get to go home too, Dawn...” Heather turned her body to face Dawn, yet she rubbed her arm and looked to the floor. Sounding nervous and afraid, she said, “I want to help, but what am I supposed to do...?”

Like a punch to the gut, reality as twisted as it was gave Dawn an expectedly sick feeling. She still slipped out of the bed, having next to no concern for her lower modesty at a time like this. “H-Heather...” She even forced her hands into Heather’s, interlocking fingers as she tried to get her to look.

“It’s just...” Heather’s voice trailed as her fingers left the interspaces between Dawn’s. “What if she threw your stuff out already, or something…?”

“She didn’t! She said so! They’re probably in her room!” Dawn countered. Please, whatever it would take, if she could get Heather on her side, it’d feel like there was a modicum of a fighting chance left. “What if...what if we snuck in--”

“You want me to sneak into her room?” Heather interjected with a tone of disbelief.  “Dawn, like...I get that you’re in trouble right now, but why should I have to risk my wellbeing, too?”

Dawn wordlessly stared at her. She was right. Heather had no obligation. Dawn was begging for her to jump into the shark infested waters with her, all for just maybe getting out, or otherwise giving the sharks two meals instead of one. But there was no comfort in objective reasoning. Dawn didn’t want a reason for why she shouldn’t get any help. It was a time to be selfish and desperate.

“Then…then could you just help me out? Be a look-out or something? Just while I--”

“What if she catches me, though?” Heather said, implying further risk for herself. “Dawn, look, I’m really sorry, but this is…--”

“How can you be fucking sorry if you’re not willing to do a DAMN thing to help me?!” Dawn angrily shouted. She sniffled as she wiped her glossy eyes. “Don’t you get it? If I can’t get my stuff back I’m stuck here! Stuck in this horrible, twisted dimension! Are...aren’t we friends?”

Some of her words and maybe attitude had caused an apparent shift in the atmosphere. Her next attempt had the exact opposite effect.

Heather gave her a look bordering on disgusted. “We...like, met just today?”

The further refusal made her wince as she tried other tactics. “I have a family! I have a mom, a dad, a boyfriend...I go to college!”

As incompatible Dawn was making herself with her hastening meltdown, Heather was clearly starting to look more and more uncomfortable. After all, what was there to say?

“L-look...I’m really sorry, Dawn, but I should probably go...”

“No!” Dawn’s gaze shot forward at that. “You can’t! Just...just please help me a little! Help me think of something! I can’t stay here, Heather!” Her last gleam of light was fading and her world was crumbling.

“I...uhm...I gotta finish packing...” Heather murmured, incidentally making a comment that stung more than it was supposed to.

Dawn stumbled and fell to her knees, practically groveling. “Then pants! Give me a pair of pants at least, please! If I walk outta here like this, somebody’s gonna catch me!”

“But...what if Stacy somehow finds out I gave you a pair?” Heather asked, sounding nervous. “What if she knows that we’re talking right now? I...no offense, Dawn, but I don’t wanna end up like you...”

Dawn grit her teeth. It had felt like this was destiny, so why, why did it end so poorly? Was it just to mock another attempt to save herself?

“...Ad-adopt you…! The...the Amazons who brought me back, th-they wanted to adopt you!” Dawn proclaimed, hitting her last-ditch effort.

This did stop Heather in her tracks. “Wh-what?”

A glimmer, if you could even call it that appeared in Dawn’s eye. “Y-yeah! The ones from this morning...who were talking about your ass? They’re the ones who rescued me! They brought me back because I agreed I’d let them meet you! But I didn’t! I tricked them! Because we’re friends!” Dawn gave her a trembling, inane smile with tears rolling down her cheeks. It wouldn’t have been a knowing lie had Dawn not spoken to James in the lobby. In other words, she was lying through her teeth. Anything to get help…

“...Did...did anybody even take you back here?” Heather asked, a sudden switch from awkward, distant sympathy to accusation and distrust. “I...I don’t even know if that’s true, Dawn. I really need to leave now...” And so, her “friend” had hurried to the door, blessed with just a few more inches to reach the handle on her toes than Dawn could.

The smile had faded, drooping into a frown as murmurs and emotional sputters escaped from her agape mouth. Dawn was a decrepit, sobbing and wailing mess as Heather opened the door back into the hall. Just over her cries she could hear a fleeting “Good luck,” and finally the shut of the door.

That was it. She had no cards left in the deck. No ace that ever existed, nor a plan B that was ever made. Heather, the final face to turn to had abandoned her, rathering she save herself than stick her neck out any further for someone she barely knew. The worst of it all was that Dawn could understand it. She could justify the action and in a different life likely do the same. But like her thought process before, she didn’t want to hush her tears or find an explanation as for why it was expected that she would have no help.  She wanted a savior, not the reason for why it wouldn’t come.

Her stomach ached and her wrist complained just as much. She felt hot and frustrated despite wearing only her bare skin, and wanted nothing more than this all to be some terrible fever dream that would end in her waking up in her bed. At home, on Earth.

She quieted down a little, closing her eyes as she laid on the floor, staring up at a ceiling that felt three times too high for what was reality. Her chest rose and fell, slowing down the rate and increasing the quantity of air, breathing as she avoided yet another panic attack.

Then she opened them.

Nothing had changed. It was the same hotel room in the same dimension with the same half-naked girl victimized by it all. The idea of thought, movement or speech seemed like moving mountains by now. And so, Dawn continued to lay there. Her throat was dry and she was sore all over. Nothing left to do other than let the time pass.

---

The sun would never seem to rise on the endless night of misery, as Dawn had scarcely moved from her spot. She very well could have been the corpse to a crime scene awaiting its chalk outlining before being seen by the coroner.

She stopped caring about the passage of time and in that block of unknown minutes or hours lost, she hardly even considered how to better her truly hopeless situation. Whether she tried to climb out of it or just accept it, she’d fall just as deep all the same. A sinkhole didn’t discriminate to its contents.

Maybe she could flood the bathroom, and consequently the entire hotel? Just leave the bath running… It hardly did much for herself, but at least it left the chance of stunting everyone else’s chances of going home to the realm of her own deranged idea of possibility…

But then again, it probably wouldn’t. Maybe the sick and twisted Amazons were smart enough to account for that; Littles playing with water. Maybe the bath had a sensor to prevent overflow, or a personal, hidden camera in the bathroom of every Little’s room that kept them from mischief… By now, she was willing to believe in any outlandish thing that seemed to make it worse for herself, because that’s all it had been thus far.

As dead inside as she felt, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as soon as there was a knock on her door. Who could it have been? A debt collector for the pants she owed James and Katherine? Stacy back with another bottle of hand soap? Maybe hotel staff to tell her to check out early.

Whoever it was, it was most certainly the end for Dawn. An Amazon would refuse to leave as soon as they knew a Little was in here. No matter the initial reason they’d want to “check on her,” or “make sure she has everything she needs,” and she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t have pants, nor underwear, to which they’d be happy to rectify the latter with disposable underwear.

The discarded pull-up was still in the bathroom last time Dawn checked. Was it better to wear than nothing at all? Debatable, yet both equally as incriminating without anything to go over it. Hopeless, everything was…

There was another knock. She’d forgotten someone was there in the process of thinking about the person that might be there.

“Dawn?” A male’s voice called from the other side. Receiving the voice with curiosity would have been a bit too much to say, yet Dawn had at least expected it to be a female that would bring her demise.

They knocked again. Dawn didn’t scream. She didn’t cry or wail. She merely thought to herself what a run it’d been. All the struggle and fuss just to end up in a place she’d always be, no matter the means.

So she sat up, standing and walking to the door. Figuring that they would get in regardless, whether by having Dawn let them in of her own accord or them finding a staff member to let them in, she went quietly. Finding the energy to hop off the ground, she lazily grasped the handle, slipping off of it, then jumping again for a better grasp.

Dejected was the best description for Dawn’s expression. She was letting the burglar into her home and couldn’t care less. Finally with purchase, partly dangling, she used the parts of her feet close enough to the ground to walk the door partly open before letting go.

She didn’t bother covering up. She stood there in her half-naked splendor like it was a badge of pride. As prideful as someone so depressed could be, hands hanging by her sides.

Lightning struck twice.

It was easy to say that probably nothing by now could incite a reaction from Dawn that was anything but despair. Yet she now stood corrected.

“Do you...always answer the door like that?” James gave her a curious look, standing right before the Little who held a shocked expression on her face.

Dawn was wide-eyed. “James…?” She took a step back to make way, yet stumbled on her heel and fell on her bottom. She finally pressed her knees together as emotion flowed back into her brainstream.

“Would you prefer if I gave you a second to change…?” James asked before stepping in. He didn’t fully look away, but he kept his eyes up. While Dawn didn’t complain for a few reasons, she was still trying to drain her expectations that truly believed this confrontation to be the end of her adult, independent being.

Back on her feet, she started walking back to the bed, finally putting a hand on the crack of her backside. “N-no, it’s fine...come in. Why are you here? Isn’t it late?”

“Very late,” he shut the door on the way in. “Almost didn’t expect to find you.” Yet he did. But why did he.

Of all people, the last Dawn would expect to find on the other side of her door was James, maybe Katherine as a close second. After James’ confession from the lobby, Dawn was incredulous, but eventually seething. She wanted nothing to do with him nor Katherine ever again. Being toted around as a potential baby-to-be was plenty enough to burn the bridge between them, and Dawn made it explicitly clear. So despite all the cruel things she said to him, why was he here?

But before chasing that line of thought, a new worry crossed her mind. What if he was here to collect, screw the idea of consent and just outright take her? By now it didn’t take anything at all to know that it’d be pointless to try and resist.

“I get what this is.” Dawn said tiredly. Maybe it just wasn’t hitting her yet, or she stopped caring.

“You do?” James asked. “I guess that makes this faster, then. Just a second...” And as he mumbled and seemed to move around, Dawn merely laid in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She tried to steel her heart, preparing for the worst and most likely, a horrid diaper.

No crinkling of an unfolding garment, however, which meant the other thing: a cloth diaper. Why she even thought of the alternative was beyond her and enough to self-loathe even more. But, even that theory fell limp once she felt something small be tossed next to her on the bed.

The lack of things done to her in such a vulnerable moment hardly matched the tempo this was all supposed to be. Despite it seeming so vile to admit, Dawn partly resonated with Stacy’s ranting; what was wrong with this Amazon?

Dawn turned her head to find a small rectangular device. A strikingly familiar one. It was her smartphone.

“Th-this is...” Dawn had already sat up, stammering as she found that it was still powered and wasn’t some fake. It had the same password and same fingerprint identification. Amazons couldn’t seamlessly replicate technology from her world, right?

“It’s the real thing. To the best of my knowledge.” He added his second statement with a tone that threatened to chuckle. Given Dawn’s personal context, even in the short time she’d been apart from James, life had become a setting far too grim for there to be any humor.

It certainly was her phone. She recognized all the recent photos, albeit that was her only test, given a lack of service in a different dimension. Sufficient nonetheless, however the novelty lasted but a few seconds once the newly added piece fell into the full picture. What silver lining was her phone without a passport or visa? A phone was less than a crumb of hope if it didn’t lead to any of her other belongings. At best she could have photos of her identification on her phone, yet her overflowing sense of pessimism hardly believed in that route should she even have the photos.

“How did you even get this?” She asked, yet the curiosity was just about gone entirely. “How did you even find me?”

James kept a friendly expression, yet Dawn sensed an almost touchy vibe from him.“The phone is one thing, that is something that might upset you… As for finding your room, you may not like how I did it.”

“I don’t care.” She answered plainly without another thought. She’d already been beaten and battered so much and her time left as a free person was audibly ticking. “Just tell me.” She left James this morning feeling angry and betrayed. Those things hadn’t disappeared by any means, but call her overdramatic because they felt so insignificant in the face of her own mortality.

James nodded his head, though took a brief glance around the room. Whether he had an opinion on the state of the room or not, he didn’t vocalize it. Instead, “Is it okay if I take a seat on the bed?” In other words, sit next to Dawn.

She didn’t readily reply. Instead she stared at him blankly, trying to dissect the intent, weigh anything that may not have been considered, or…

James made a sudden move, causing Dawn to jump a little. “Actually, this stool here doesn’t look too bad,” he said as he pulled over the Little step stool Dawn had been using by the door. It seemed grossly undersized compared to James’ size, but neither made further mention of it.

“So, the phone, your phone...” He put his hands together as the explanation came to mind. “I didn’t realize until later on that we had your phone the entire time. Please hear me out when I say this before you react, but I think that Katherine kept it a secret so that we could focus on--”

“--She didn’t keep it a secret,” Dawn curtly corrected him, “she outright lied to me. I asked her about my stuff and she lied. She said they were gone.” And there was the devil in the details. Intentionally leaving out certain facts was different from contradicting them entirely. 

As fair and neutral as James may have outwardly seemed, he was more than likely leaning in Katherine’s favor and willing to cut her slack, given their marriage.

“I guess what I mean is that I think my wife had good, honest intentions. I don’t want to argue about that. I didn’t want to make you angry.”

“I’m not angry.” Dawn said, though essentially lied. She wanted to appear civil, yet it probably looked silly, given her claims of the sky being green despite the very blue look on her face.

“I found your phone in Katherine’s purse by chance on the drive back home. I haven’t talked to Katherine about it yet, but I took it while she was sleeping in the car.”

“So you went home, found my phone, then drove back here just to give it back?” The lack of belief was beyond evident in Dawn’s voice.

James did nothing but shrug. “I told you not all Amazons are as bad as you think?”

There was a burning desire to follow up with that by asking about her pants, but she didn’t. Despite James being who he was, beyond his Amazonian tendencies, Dawn still stuck by the notion that he was the most upstanding giant she’d met here. Even as an enemy, Dawn would believe in him on account of his morals. That, and if he were willing to tell her about a phone, why omit something about clothes?

Rather than trying to meet him in the middle, Dawn skipped the “grand revelation” and moved things along. “That doesn’t explain how you found me.” Maybe she was being unfair. After all, he did say that they were two separate explanations. No, she definitely was being unfair. She just didn’t care, whether she had respect for him or not.

“No, it doesn’t,” he gave a small nod, even behind his neutral expression, somehow showing reluctance through his eyes. “When I asked at the front desk about you, they were reluctant to give out information on you, but...” He slowed the pace of his words. Dawn started to scrutinize the look on his face. Was it discomfort? Hard to believe James had any of that. Particularly any Amazon when it came to Littles. “They were a bit more helpful when I lied, saying that I changed my mind and came to adopt you...”

“They just told you? That’s all you had to say?” Dawn asked in half-disbelief, yet it quickly became self-realization that she was the fool for thinking Amazons had reasonable standards. Of course her information was publicly available when it involved servitude in diapers.

“I don’t plan on doing that at all, though,” James assured her, and Dawn did believe him, yet her respect for him fell even more into question with such a devious tactic.

James stood back up, bending his knees a little to get the comfortability back in them from sitting on a Little stool.

He sort of stared at Dawn for a few moments. No words were exchanged, just silent thoughts running through both party’s heads. Though from Dawn’s perspective, it was beginning to become unnerving.

James spoke, but the tone had shifted. Maybe it was familiarity that somehow set him apart from any other Amazon as of late, but a familiar kind of intimidation came rushing back. “Dawn? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Her words failed her for a moment. She felt the intimidation, but it wasn’t a stranger’s kind. It felt authoritarian, like a...a parent that knew their child was up to no good. “Wh...what?” She could only merely reply.

“I know you weren’t expecting me, so I guess if we ignore that you answered the door half-naked, which you probably shouldn’t do in the future,” Dawn took that as a jab, “you didn’t make any attempt to get changed after the fact?”

Dawn wanted to reply with some sort of argument, especially to criticize him for making such a big deal about her being half-naked, but of course it was unusual. It was a sign of something. What’s more, did Dawn even want him to know what was happening? It was her seemingly certain demise once the sun came up and her last lifeline had fallen through. Why did she need to bother giving a spectator a recap?

“Dawn?” James lifted his brows the slightest bit, “You can talk to me, you know?”

And the look on her face only became more flustered. She felt caught in a way despite doing nothing wrong. Why couldn’t he have just up and left after giving her phone back? Sure, she was grateful, but he hadn’t earned an explanation.

But he didn’t seem to fish for one any further. Not because he’d given up, but because now he started to step around the room.

“What are you doing…?” Dawn asked in a shy, reserved voice. As she turned she kept the comforter bundled in a way to mask her lower half.

He was pushing in one of the drawers Dawn had left open while looking for her luggage. “Tidying up,” he explained. “Not sure why, but I guess I’ve always been fond of a neat and clean kinda room?” He chuckled.

For a brief moment Dawn felt less than in that regard, as if he were passively judging her character. “That’s because I...it’s messy because I was looking for something...” She didn’t mean to tell him that much, yet the lack of sleep and exhaustion on all fronts seemed to have loosened her filter.

“Oh yeah?” He chatted as he continued to clean the room for her. “Look for what? Whenever Katherine misplaces something on a trip we have to turn the whole resort over...”

The follow-up made her realize her blunder. Why was she even trying to be secretive?

“N-nothing...” She poorly dismissed it. “Don’t you have to go now?” She knew he was working, somehow feeling annoyed that she bothered to remember anything about him or Katherine.

“I will, I just wanna clean this room a little bit...” He said casually and readily, yet he did seem absorbed in the process.

“That’s what the maids are for.” Dawn said plainly. “You can go now.”

James stood back up after setting the trash bin in the corner by the TV stand. “If you insist,” he chuckled again. “I’ll just tell one of the maids to swing by--”

“NO!” It was next to an almost involuntary response. Dawn’s hands fiercely clutched the fabrics of bedding around her as she audibly breathed. A deranged look awoke in her eyes as she became a shivering, cornered animal. Her plea had sounded so pained as she was already welling up with tears.

James looked surprised by such an answer as he cautiously came over and took a seat on the bed. Dawn couldn’t even look at him as she tried to control her emotions.

“Dawn, what’s going on?” He asked.

“It’s...it’s nothing!” Dawn tried to shout, but the words came out shaky. She took another deep breath. “I’m fine...so leave already. But don’t tell anybody about me...” She couldn’t have made her troubles more obvious if she tried.

“No.” Was the response.

Truly husband and wife, it seemed that even James could only abide so much before biting back.

“Leave! You gave me my phone, so fucking leave already!” Dawn tearfully shouted.

“Take a breath, Dawn,” James said with a cautioning hand.

“Get out already! GET OUT!” Dawn shouted, standing up to appear more to his size when he sat. She was blubbering, but still defiant.

“Dawn, you’re making a lot of noise...” James continued to say in a calm voice.

But Dawn continued to shout and stomp, seeing right through James’ attempts to rationally speak with her. The only thing that got her to go quiet and limp was a knock on the door. Both turned their heads, yet in Dawn’s eyes she was seeing a ghost. She stumbled forward and bounded across the bed, going as far as to slip right off the edge and onto the floor.

“Dawn!” James had spoken with concern, but turned his head back to the door.

Dawn was in a fetal position as she sat against the bed frame, trying to pretend like she didn’t exist. She was losing it. Trying to kick out an Amazon only seemed to make more swarm. When would it end?

She was too busy and trapped in her own head to hear the door open.

“Yes, hello?” It was James answering the door for her.

“Hello...” The woman sounded like she was trying to look past James for something. “I’m sorry if this is the wrong room, but I’m the next one over; I could’ve sworn I heard some girl throwing a tantrum in here?”

Dawn’s nails started to dig into her skin.

She could hear James making an apologetic laugh. “I’m sorry, could you hear that? My daughter’s always difficult when it comes to bedtime; I’m very sorry for the noise...I promise, you won’t hear another peep from us.”

There was a chuckle from the woman; the forced pleasantries of conversation amongst strangers. “Oh so that’s what it was! I heard there were a bunch of Portal Littles staying in this hotel, so I thought one of them was about to need some discipline...”

“Oh, really? I didn’t know there were any in this hotel.”

“So it would seem...” her response sounded opinionated and disapproving. “But I’m sorry to bother about the noise! Make sure to remind your daughter that throwing tantrums is what a Little would do!”

“Haha, trust me, I will!” James said as he closed the door.

Dawn turned to look up at him as he rounded the corner of the bed.

“Can we please not shout anymore?” James asked. “From the looks of it, that’d be more for your sake than mine.”

Quietly, Dawn nodded her head. Undeniably, he had saved her.

---

“She...she took my fucking pants!” Dawn said in a distressed, but much more indoor voice as she poured out to James. “My passport, my visa, it’s all gone. All my luggage...”

James quietly nodded. “Up the creek and without a paddle?”

It hardly felt like the time for analogies. “If you feel like minimizing it, sure.” She said bitterly. But finally with someone who might give her some insight into this twisted dimension, “She can’t just do that, can she? Take my stuff and strand me here? Can’t I call the police?”

She was expecting a resounding ‘yes’, but the expression on James' face only became more contemplative. “It’s not as cut and dry...”

“Cut and dry? Why the hell not?!” Dawn raised her voice, but looked remorseful almost immediately as James gave her a look with regards to the visit she just had. “Wh-why...why would it be difficult?”

“Dealing with Littles complicates the laws here, Dawn,” he started to explain, “Unfortunately laws regarding Littles here have been black and white for a long time, not so much in your favor, and only until recently are courts even starting to consider what’d be called a grey area.”

“This is theft though!” Dawn countered. “Little or not, it should be pretty black and white!”

“Even if the police believed you,” James paused to give Dawn a warning signal with his hand, seeing that she was ready to bite right back at that remark, “which isn’t what I’m saying personally, but what the cops might do, the entire circumstance you’re going through is pretty much unheard of...”

“But she said that she does it regularly!”

“Then that explains why this is as abnormal as it is,” James responded, giving an answer Dawn could just barely swallow. “Our society has enough trouble as it is with Littles, let alone Portal ones. I don’t even think that our laws have official recognition of Portal Littles, Dawn. You technically are as much of a Little as a natively born one.”

Dawn gave him a speechless stare as she laughed insanely, sitting back down. “Unbelievable...everything in this dimension is just designed to stand against me? She can just take away my home and livelihood and get away with it?”

James obviously didn’t want to be the one to tell her that, and it showed by the hurt expression he wore, which is why he stayed silent.

“My god, I really am stuck here...” She stared off in disbelief. It felt strangely fine to say out loud, yet that only meant she somehow wasn’t feeling the full force of it yet.

“Dawn...” James exhaled before continuing, “I can’t just leave you here.”

Dawn gave him an incredulous look, as if he had the gaul to say such a thing. “Why? Because it’s so convenient for you now?”

James finally frowned a little. “No, because you’ve said it yourself. You’re stuck here for the time being and your tour guide left you in this room so that you’d be adopted by some stranger. I’m not letting that happen.”

His assertiveness was unexpected. Up until then James had been lax and a cooperative listener. Since when did he take the initiative?

“Yeah, sure. You’re funny.” Dawn quite plainly shut him down. She wasn’t being adopted by anybody. Outside her own head though, maybe it was having that brief moment of safety under his presence that fueled her ignorance into thinking there were any real options left.

“Dawn, if you don’t come with me, what else are you going to do?”

“I’ll figure something out.” She said without a single forethought in mind. Whatever her alternative or lack of one was, it didn’t change her extreme reluctance to going with James.

“Figure what out?” James pressed further. “If there’s going to be any way to figure this out, Dawn, you don’t have enough time to do it here. Please, just let me take you back to the house where you can--”

“Are you kidding?! They’re leaving for my portal back home tomorrow!” Dawn whined. “I can’t go anywhere! If I go back to your house I doubt there’ll be any time to get back here in the morning! Besides,” she then gave him a much more scornful look, “did you expect me to just forgive you two after everything you did to me?”

“Everything we did…?” James raised a brow. “What do you mean by that?”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “You’re joking, right? You practically apologized to me when you carried me into the hotel this morning!”

“Whatever I did say, I meant by how everything turned out, not what me or Katherine tried to do for you. It was all in your best interest.”

Dawn scoffed. “Uh-huh, yeah, sure.”

“You really don’t believe me?”

“Says the guy married to a woman that lied about having my phone?”

Apparently that crossed a line. James used a stern tone with a look of tried patience. “By now I would’ve been expecting a genuine apology from you. After everything Katherine and I have done for you today, you’ve only acted like a spoiled brat.”

“Spoiled? Don’t you even--!”

“You were being adopted by a stranger before we intervened!” James said plain as day. “Would you have rathered that we let you go?”

Dawn’s tone started to grumble into an angry response, yet the solid fact caught her tongue. “Y-yeah, well, that doesn’t excuse everything else you did to me!”

“Taking you back to the hotel?” James said with genuine confusion. “Buying you clothes? Trying to give you medical treatment after you injured yourself from running away?”

Dawn furrowed her brow. “Well...you said I didn’t owe you anything for the clothes! So it doesn’t count!”

James’ look of fury seemed to have sputtered at that point. With a sigh he said, “If you’re going to argue off of common courtesy and good manners, there’s nothing left to talk about. I don’t think all Littles need to be treated like children, but you’re starting to make me think otherwise.”

The...the nerve of him!

“Get out. Get the fuck out.” Dawn angrily pointed to the door. “I don’t need any more of your help. Not after all the bullshit you’ve put me through. Yeah, thanks for saving me, but fuck you for trying to get anything else out of me!”

“I think it’s time to leave, too.” James said as he stood up. “But not without you. You’re coming with me.”

Dawn grew even more agitated. What was he not getting? “And to think, I actually thought you were a half-decent Amazon.” Dawn frowned. “I’m not leaving. Go away already.”

“I’m trying to help you, Dawn. Please, Littles in a situation like this don’t get this kind of opportunity...”

“Yeah, well even if they did, I bet they’d at least have enough self-respect to refuse.” She crossed her arms. “Christ, this is just some petty attempt for you to try and ‘adopt’ me because it’s convenient for you now, isn’t it?”

“I already said...Katherine and I wanted it to be consen--”

“Well you have my consent for nothing.” Dawn coldly cut him off.

James was quiet for a bit longer as he seemed to be breathing, and staring. “...I’m starting to lose my--”

“--patience,” Dawn finished for him. “Me too. Now, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Bye-bye,” she casually waved her hand.

Nothing happened for a moment. James’ look didn’t change, and he continued to breath, but he quickly moved forward.

“Fine, I tried to do this the mature way.”

In a simple motion he hooked his arm behind and around Dawn’s waist as she was swooped into the air.

“W-wait, what?!” Dawn yelped as she was lifted up with such speed. “Wh-what the fuck are you doing? Put me down!”

“After all that profanity and tantrum you just threw?” James gave her his own look of disbelief. “No. We’re leaving, and that decision is final. Be upset if you want, but this is for your own good.”

Dawn tried to press away, but even if that were possible with Katherine, which it wasn’t, that by extension only meant she was currently trying to press on cement walls with how firm James’ Amazon muscles were. His firm grip on her was iron.

“Put me down! Let me go!” Dawn raised her voice as he turned in place.

“Whine all you want, you’re not being put down.” James said with a scolding voice. He bent over to pick up Dawn’s phone. “Is there anything else in the room that you need? This is the last time we’re gonna be in here.”

“No it’s not! I’m not leaving, so let me go!” Dawn growled as she slammed her fists against his chest and kicked her feet against his side, but it was like shooting a water gun at the sun.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then,” he left it at that as he stepped with her into the hall.

“What are you doing?! I don’t have any pants!” Dawn complained and criticized, left with only her words as viable tools.

James ignored her as he carried her down the hall. It was falling in place for Dawn very quickly. She was going to be taken from the hotel. She’d miss her chance to go with the others back to the portal. Her chance to even get to the window of escape was already slipping.

“H-help...” Dawn whimpered quietly, then started to shout. She shouted even louder than the first time she argued with James. “HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!”

“Dawn, that’s enough of that!” James tried to tell her to stop, but she kept screaming.

“I’M BEING KIDNAPPED! HELP!”

James continued to walk, but to Dawn’s glee a door did open, a room next to hers.

“Oh? Oh! You’re from the room right over!” It was an Amazon woman who was rubbing her eyes.

James did turn around to face her. “You’re the...oh, jeez, I’m so sorry for waking you up...I know I promised the noise wouldn’t happen again...”

“Well, what happens happens,” the Amazon woman shrugged it off as her vision adjusted to what was in Jame’s arm. “Oh! And is this the little troublemaker that kept me from sleeping?” She got a better look at Dawn, then shifted her expression. “Oh...she’s a Little?”

“She is,” James said, “and we were just leaving, actually. And to be honest with you she’s not even my daughter; just someone I figured that I’d do a favor for, but quite frankly she’s being a brat about it.”

Dawn frowned as she kicked and struggled. This James didn’t sound like the one she was at least complacent with before. Sure she was being pissy, but he was being an ass right then, too.

Something made Dawn feel off though once James finished his sentence. Not about what he said, but how it seemed to make the woman feel.

“Is that so…?” The corners of her mouth raised. “Well, I think you’ve certainly been patient enough with her? After all, tolerating a single tantrum I think is already being generous to these little troublemakers.” She leaned over to boop Dawn on the nose and it left the girl fuming, yet that only seemed to incite more intrigue from the woman. “Since you don’t have any real obligation to her, why don’t I take her off your hands?” She smiled at James sweetly. “I’ve actually been meaning to adopt!”

Dawn’s look of fury turned into one of horror. This woman was trying to adopt her on the spot? Even...even if James was mad, he wasn’t insane, right…?

Apparently even James wasn’t expecting the gesture. “Well, I appreciate it and all, but...”

“And look!” The woman continued to insist. “She is butt-naked! Heavens...it’s a good thing I’ve been carrying a diaper in my purse...” She muttered as she turned her head back into her room. “What do you say, though? I’ve always wanted to be a Mommy, and I’d love a little girl that needs discipline!”

“J-James...” Dawn turned her head up to him. “P-please...”

Even James seemed to have a heart. “Miss, thank you for offering, but I think I’m gonna keep a hold on her for now. Sorry, we’ll get out of your hair.”

The woman’s look wasn’t so pleasant, as if she’d just been cheated out of a shiny gem.

“Really? So you’re just going to be a bother through and through? Fine. I’ll just call the front desk to complain about all the noise that unadopted Little has been making. See you in diapers soon, sweetheart!” And with a chuckle she went back into her room.

“What...what the fuck…?” Dawn said at a loss for words.

“That’s what’s waiting for you if you stay here,” James said not as a threat, but an honest warning. “Besides, she just said she’s going to call the front desk. Dawn, we can’t stay here. You can’t stay here.”

“But...but I can’t just leave…!” She was starting to tear up. That strange encounter sobered her hatred for James, and even his own bothered attitude.

“Dawn, look at me,” James lifted her up to face him clearly. “I promise you that this won’t be the end. We will do everything in our power to get this figured out, but please, we can’t do it here. One of the worst things that can happen is us staying and LPS gets involved. If that happens I can’t protect you.”

“LPS? What even is that?” Dawn wiped her eyes.

“I can explain later, but it’s something you don’t want to deal with.”

Time was obviously running out, and thanks to some random bitch that fuse was now running significantly shorter.

Dawn looked away for a moment, as if she couldn’t believe herself what she was considering. “You...you promise?”

“...Cross my heart.”

“F...fine…! Let’s just go already!”

James needn’t another word to walk to the elevator.

Dawn laid limp in his hold as her final decision seemed to have sapped her entirely. She likely just made the most life changing decision she would ever make. It was induced out of pressure, danger, and severity, but it was her choice nonetheless.

As they rode the elevator down, they would soon begin to travel farther from the hotel. Farther from the bus that would collect all the Portal Littles. Farther from the Portal station that would take her back to Earth. Farther from her life as she knew it. Closer to a future of uncertainty.

What have I done?

[kerry]

This is such a wonderful chapter, Mee! I've been wondering how you'd manage to get James back, and you did it brilliantly. It is surprising that Dawn herself didn't realize that this was her only chance, but I suppose she's not exactly at her best atm. Thanks so much for giving this—which could easily have been two or three chapters—to us all at once tonight. ?

[BabySofia]

Not going to lie, I hoped Heather would sacrifice her spot for Dawn... but that being said this is as good as it's ever going to get for the poor girl. James might even legitimately be willing to try and get her home... but diapered baby girl I'm guessing is her fate. At least she'll have a nice daddy! 

These tour companies are out of control... ?

[Panther Cub]

OMG YES!!! I have been WAITING for the next chapter! And yay! Dawn IS going with James and Katherine! I know it's not what she wants, but they are the best possible option for her!

[Moon3ye]

Let's be realistic, she will not return to her dimension. And I wouldn't have helped her either. I'm not going to risk my freedom for someone else's, at least not in this dimension.

[fargoth]

3 hours ago, Moon3ye said:

Let's be realistic, she will not return to her dimension. And I wouldn't have helped her either. I'm not going to risk my freedom for someone else's, at least not in this dimension.

Dawn could have at least asked Heather to contact her family/friends back home to tell them what happened to her. Maybe in the slim hope of a rescue, but more likely to uncover the conspiracy and as a warning to others.

[TheJ]

You have put Dawn's desperation into words in a beautiful way. Thank you for the new chapter! 

[TerranV]

Been waiting on an update for this one! 

Can't say I blame Dawn's distrust of James and Katherine. They were trying to adopt her just as any other Amazon even if they were being nicer about it. 

Still looks like she hasn't much of a choice and it definitely could be worse.

[Traycie]

An outstanding update Mee, while it would have been good to see the brute from the opening chapters make her reappearance the encounter with the woman across the hall as James was carrying her to the lift has introduced new risks for Dawn, a possible foster Mommy and the threat of involving LPS?

An offer to take little Dawn off James's hands... “Is that so…?” The corners of her mouth raised. “Well, I think you’ve certainly been patient enough with her? After all, tolerating a single tantrum I think is already being generous to these little troublemakers.” She leaned over to boop Dawn on the nose and it left the girl fuming, yet that only seemed to incite more intrigue from the woman. “Since you don’t have any real obligation to her, why don’t I take her off your hands?” She smiled at James sweetly. “I’ve actually been meaning to adopt!”

Dawn’s look of fury as the woman tried to adopt her on the spot.

James's surprise at the offer and his initial hesitation to decline it.

Dawn being butt naked and the woman's offer ....

“And look!” The woman continued to insist. “She is butt-naked! Heavens...it’s a good thing I’ve been carrying a diaper in my purse...” She muttered as she turned her head back into her room. “What do you say, though? I’ve always wanted to be a Mommy, and I’d love a little girl that needs discipline!”

The woman's veiled threats when James eventually declined her offer ...

“Really? .... Fine. I’ll just call the front desk to complain about all the noise that unadopted Little has been making. See you in diapers soon, sweetheart!” 

Will they get past the front desk unnoticed after the woman's threat, especially with Dawn butt naked? Or will Dawn have to submit to being diapered by the receptionist or her arch nemesis Stacy in the same bathroom where she had to eat liquid soap earlier that same night before she is allowed out of the hotel?

The scene about to unfold in reception has a number of different possibilities including the woman from the hallway turning up with someone from LPS claiming that James isn't intending to adopt Dawn and that she has stepped in and claimed her ... that would also see Dawn begin her travels farther from the hotel, bus to the portal station and earth than she even imagined.... her first stop would be with a non nonsense LPS Foster Mon while the dispute over her ownership between James and the woman from the hotel was sorted out. Now that would be an interesting development with some serious conflicts for Dawn to manage as she promptly put back in diapers and treated as a toddler while stuck with the LPS fostermom. Either way she can't ride naked in the car seat....

[SGTbaby]

Thank you for the update! Awesome development of being forced to staying and James taking charge. The next few days will be fun!

[AbyMatt]

Another amazing chapter! Dawn is really on a rollercoaster here. I hope she realizes how lucky she is that James showed back up instead of getting caught by the maid. Also I hope Dawn sees Heather again, either when they both get back to Earth or as a playmate.

[Traycie]

That is a distinct possibility after Heather would have been observed on the hotel Cameras going into Dawn's room and the TV in her room, that Dawn was suspicious of but promptly forgot about when she lost her pants, recording their discussion clearly for Stacy.

With Dawn spilling the beans to Heather and the secret of the missing tourists now out of the bag there is no way that Stacy will allow Heather to go home with that information. She now needs to ensure that both little girl's stay put in Liberteria.

Maybe that will also entitle her to a bonus payment for exceeding her little quota!

If that occurs perhaps the woman in the adjacent room will get her wish after all and Heather is destined to become her little girls in diapers. 

With all of this suspense perhaps the diaper dispenser and change table in bathroom off the hotel foyer might be getting pressed into service sooner rather than later!