Hide & Seek

Chapter 3
Something's Rotten in the State of England

Chapter Description: John puts all his trust in Abbie, but who is in on his regression?

III

Abbie could feel her heart pounding in her throat. She was now responsible for saving a little boy, who wasn’t really a little boy, from the psychotic woman who had made him little in the first place. This was not what she signed up for as a little temp work to save up for her European tour.

Abbie found Molly Dunn sitting at the reception desk reading Mother and Baby magazine. The slightly older woman looked amusedly up at Abbie and asked, with a hint of exasperation, “What’s wrong now dear?”

Abbie hated that patronizing tone, but she had more important matters to deal with. Of course she’d look ridiculous if she told Molly the truth, so she decided to go with a tack that she was sure would get results. “I think one of the children is being abused at home, you need to call the police immediately.”

Molly dropped her magazine and sat bolt upright at this news. “Which child?” she demanded.

“Johnny Grey.”

As she said this Abbie saw something unexpected, something that chilled her to the bone, it was the hint of a smile on Molly’s lips. It was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Perhaps it was just a nervous tick, maybe she had imagined it. But whatever it was, it worried Abbie more than ever.

Molly picked up the phone. “I’ll call the authorities right now, but I want you back in there watching the boy. We don’t want any more harm to be done.”

Abbie nodded and returned to the playroom feeling still more disquieted. Why hadn’t Molly asked what had made her suspicious? Had she already known the answer? Abbie looked around the playroom with a new awareness, wondering if there were others here like Johnny. She saw he was still seated on the floor with the other toddlers, looking pensive. She still needed to get him an outfit that wasn’t covered in teddy-bears so she turned down the side hallway and went to the back room which contained nappies, wipes, medicine and spare clothes for the children.

As she exited the room, clothes in hand, she paused and stared long and hard at the door across the hallway. Written in large black letters was the word ?Private’. It was the only room she had been specifically told not to enter and there had been no satisfactory explanation given as to why. Abbie looked back towards the playroom; there was no one nearby, no one to see if she just took a peak. The door was unlocked.

The room was dark and Abbie stepped in slowly so the door wouldn’t creak. She felt around for the light-switch, and then in a flash the room was illuminated. She closed the door softly behind her and gazed around the room. It wasn’t at all what she’d expected. It looked like the back room of a pharmacy or a lab. A metal examination table sat at the centre of the room and around the walls were files and cabinets full of pill bottles.

She walked over to a refrigerator sitting on the left side of the room. Opening it she found small bottles of what looked like children’s cough syrup. Upon further examination though it turned out to be something far more worrying. The bottle bore the words “Restoration Agent A162” and the directions, printed in tiny lettering on the back of the bottle, warned not to give to persons affected by ?permanent mental regression.’ There was no doubt in her mind. This was something to grow somebody back up after they were shrunk, regressed. There was only one conclusion Abbie could draw; the nursery was in on it. She pocketed one of the bottles. Then she closed the fridge and took a fresh look around the room. The thing that most caught her eye was the open safe in the far corner of the room. Was it open because they only locked it at night? Or had they just been using its contents to do something to Johnny? She had to know what was inside.

Abbie knew she was racing against time as she went through the contents of the safe. By now they would be getting back to Johnny and noticing she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. If they found her in here... she didn’t want to think about it. The safe turned out to contain all kinds of sensitive documents: birth certificates, immunisation reports, passports, medical records. Everything looked brand new, hot off the press. They were creating false documents for new people, new little children that they were making.

Abbie stood up and threw down some of the documents on the examination table, leaning on the cold metal surface. She wiped the sweat from her brow, it was cold in here, yet she was sweating bullets. What had she stumbled upon? It was then that she looked up and saw it. Just above the door was a security camera with a little red light all lit up. They had her.

Only one thought now consumed Abbie’s mind; she had to get out of here, out of this nursery, out of this city, out of this country. She needed to get home. Of course she couldn’t just leave Johnny to his fate. She’d have to take him with her. Abbie sifted through the documents looking for the right one. Finding one close enough she grabbed it and ran. There was no sense in covering her tracks; they had her on tape. Surely someone was standing right on the other side of that door with a syringe or worse.

But there was no one there waiting to regress her to toddling infancy. The hallway was empty. As quietly as she could Abbie slipped into an equally empty staffroom to collect her coat and purse, then returned to the clothing room and grabbed another outfit for Johnny. She turned to leave the room only to feel her stomach drop as she saw that her way was blocked. Molly Dunn was standing in front of the door smiling malevolently and shaking her head. Abbie froze. Had Miss Dunn seen the surveillance tape, or was that being fed to some recorder somewhere? Did she know that Abbie had discovered the nursery’s secret? Abbie stood as still as a statue while Molly slowly closed the door behind her and addressed the frightened Kiwi girl.

“My goodness dear, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she told her, seeming genuinely concerned.

“No, I just...um...” Abbie struggled, trying to find an excuse.

“Relax Abbie, the authorities will be here soon. I know discovering abuse can be very troubling. That’s why you need to leave it to me and the regular members of the staff. We know how to handle these things,” she assured.

“Of course, that would be best,” Abbie agreed, feeling elated that Molly was unaware of Abbie’s discovery.

“I want you to go work with the toddler group now. They’re about to have their juice and biscuits. Oh and as long as you’re getting new clothes, I think you should wear this.”

Abbie watched as Molly pulled out a fuzzy pink bundle of clothes which she shook open to reveal that it was in fact a single item of clothing. She was holding a large set of pink footed pajamas. Large enough for Abbie. Abbie was intrigued by the pajamas, she could swear she actually felt their fuzziness from across the room. Slowly she found herself moving towards Molly and the sleeper she held in her outstretched hands.

“That’s right dearie, come put on your lovely pajamas and then you can go and have some juice and biscuits,” Molly coaxed.

Feeling increasingly fuzzy, Abbie was excited by the possibility of sweets. Eagerly she reached out and felt the fuzzy pink material of the sleeper. A delightful tingling filled her fingers and seemed to travel up her arms and deep into her head, filling her mind with lovely images of playing on the soft carpet with her dollies, eating sweets and feeling all warm and snuggly in her pink footed pajamas.

Miss Dunn stroked her hand through Abbie’s hair and it felt lovely. Abbie couldn’t help but grin as she hugged the cuddly sleeper against her face. “What a good girl you’re being. Now why don’t you sit on your bottom and suck your thumb while Miss Dunn gets you dressed in your special jammies. Then you can play with the other children and have some very special juice, made just for you,” Miss Dunn directed, tapping her playfully on the nose.

Abbie nodded dutifully, letting John’s new clothes fall to the ground. Of course she wanted to be a good girl and do as she was told. She couldn’t help but giggle childishly as Miss Dunn tapped her nose. She got ready to sit on her bottom as directed when the door was flung open, slamming into Miss Dunn’s back and sending both her and Abbie tumbling to the floor, the pajamas flying free of Abbie’s arms.

The hard landing jolted Abbie out of her stupor and for the first time she became aware of the soft music playing from somewhere in the room. It sounded like a lullaby of some kind. Free of the sleepers and Miss Dunn’s influence Abbie could feel her senses returning to her. The nursery nurse who had burst through the door was now trying to help Molly Dunn back to her feet, desperately apologising, “I’m so sorry, I hadn’t realised you’d found her already. You need to see the tape, she’s taken...”

Abbie had no more time to listen, she needed to get out of there. The doorway was wide open with no one to protect it. Seizing the opportunity and without time to rescue John’s new clothes, Abbie jumped up dashed through the open doorway, racing up the hall and into the playroom.

She saw Johnny sitting on the floor where she left him and she knew what she had to do. They had just tried to regress her, she had no doubt that her ?special’ juice contained something to shrink her down to Johnny’s size. The only option now was to get as far away from this place as possible.

She rushed over to the boy. “John, we gotta go now mate!” she told him.

But Johnny just gazed innocently at her, removing his thumb from his mouth to point at a scribbled crayon drawing and announcing, “Made a pwetty picture.”

“Oh god Johnny, not now,” she gasped. She saw that his smock had been removed and the teddy bear on his overalls was once again visible.

“There she is, stop her!” a voice cried from across the playroom.

There was no time for hesitation. In one motion she scooped the small boy up and ran for the fire door at the back of the room. She had no idea how far ahead of her pursuers she was as she pounded through the door, setting off the alarm. She ignored the biting cold of the winter air and dashed down a flight of stairs, then raced down the alleyway, her knees nearly buckling under the strain. The entrance to the Tube was just around the corner and Abbie clamped her right hand around her wriggling three-year-old’s arm while she dug out her Oyster card with her left. Once they were beyond the ticket barriers they joined the first train available, creating space between themselves and the nursery school staff in the best hiding place possible, the London Underground. She had no idea if the staff members were slowed by the dozens of small children blocking their way or if some other twist of fate intervened in her favour, but as she rode through the underground away from the nursery she knew she has escaped, for now.

To Be Continued...