Judith hesitated for a minute. She only knew of the room she was in, the kitchen to her left, and the foyer in the north. She thought carefully about her next move. She thought going to the foyer would be a death sentence - she'd be caught immediately. And if she was caught, she and her friends would be unwilling guests of Golgotha Hall for... well, probably forever. Until their captors got bored of them. "What are they even going to do with us?" she thought to herself. "I'll bet they probably do something like s-"
No no no. She corrected herself. "Can't start thinking about that or you'll never get out of here. Think... positive thoughts."
She began to walk towards the kitchen. She never noticed how uneven carpets were at normal size. At less than a foot tall (she wasn't yet sure exactly what her new height was), each footstep was like walking on a dune of sand. Or maybe trekking through mounds of snow. Either way, her footing was insecure, and each step seemed like it took much more effort to take one step after the other. She could have used snowshoes, for sure.
She froze, feeling the same chill she felt earlier when the Abner woman first appeared to take her group. She strained her ears, and heard, around the corner in the kitchen, the sounds of people entering the kitchen from another room. Lights slowly flickered on, and Judith heard what sounded like glasses clinking. Something was being pored.
"Ohmygod I bet they're drinking blood" Judith thought to herself. She went white when the thought occurred to her that it might be human blood... from her friends? She hoped not, but she didn't want to find out.
She instead ran towards the other side of the room... which opened up to the Foyer. She peeked around the corner and looked for any sign of an Abner or other malevolent being that might wish to do her harm. She glanced at the imposing doors to her right. She wished she could easily just... open them up. She looked again, trying to see if there were any rooms - and there were a lot of doors and corridors around the corner from the foyer - that might be a suitable hiding place, or contain some kind of useful provision that would help her rescue her missing friends.
She saw one door that was open. Well, not open. Open every-so-slightly. Unlike most of the other doors, this one looked... old. There was very, very dim lighting on the other side of the door (so much that one could not really make out what was inside of it). Judith gulped. She probably couldn't make it there in time... but the room she was in now provided no cover, and, from what she could tell, wouldn't have many useful resources for her. There was no way she could get in any of the other rooms, or fit beneath the doors... and unless she moved, she would eventually be found. No point in trying the stairs either - they could certainly be climbed, but it would take hours. Someone might spot her and grab her. Or worse, step on her.
She breathed out and steadied herself. She'd probably only have one shot here, and she had no idea where she would end up. She hesitated, and then took off running as fast as her tiny legs could carry her when she heard the sound of creaking from up on the second floor of the foyer. She prayed that nobody was watching her scurry like a rat on the floor as she ran. She was in a heightened sense of fear as she ran - she barely even processed just how large the foyer seemed to be as she sprinted. She couldn't hear anything, except for her heart pounding and the sound of her shoes smacking the stone of the foyer.
She finally reached the door and ran in. She stumbled as she slowed herself down, and got down on one knee as she caught her breath. God, she thought. This room was musty. The floor was coated with dust, and every breath she took in reeked of mold. It smelled like an old library in here.
When she finally caught her breath, she looked up in the dark room. Oh. It was an old library.
The entire room was made with old cobblestone and brick, it looked like. In fact, the library looked a lot like something out of Hogwards, Judith thought to herself. She would have liked to hang out here when she was a teenager. She appeared to only be in an entranceway, where there were several old books on displays in front of small bookshelves with their covers proudly displayed, with statues scattered throughout the hallway.
She approached one of the bookshelves and examined the cover. The book was certainly taller than her, by perhaps three or four inches. It was a big, thick tome, that appeared to be hundreds and hundreds of pages stacked on top of each other. She imagined the book tilting and falling on top of her. It would surely have made quick work of her. The cover seemed to depict some dark, ancient scene. The art almost reminded her of early medieval art (which she learned about in class at Yale), but... that couldn't be right. She decided it was probably some modern recreation. But, then again, the Abners literally just shrunk her. Anything could be possible. The scene itself appeared quite violent - a man dressed in all black with a sword was in the process of impaling an unarmed soldier. The top had what appeared to be a sentence written in old Greek. Judith had sort of slept through her ancient Greek classes, but she caught one word - history.
She glanced back at the door. Should she risk going somewhere else? No. Too risky. She turned back towards the hallway and began to advance into the first chamber immediately ahead of her. She stopped to look at the statues nearest to her, one on the left and one on the right. On the left was a woman dressed in a veil, holding in one hand a knife, and in the other, a snake. More old Greek on the pedestal, in front of her feet. She recognized none of the words here. Too advanced. The other statue featured a man, though this statue appeared more modern (and had what appeared to be a plaque transcribed in vulgar Latin). The man was dressed in a bourgeois style from the 17th century, it appeared. In his hands he held a book with one hand, and in the other, a knife. Judith only recognized one word from the Latin - consume. She didn't want to know what this one said, she decided.
She kept walking in. The chamber opened up, and all she could see to her left and to her right were rows and rows of bookshelves, as high as the ceiling was (which was quite high). She was... awestruck. She wondered what kinds of texts were hidden in these shelves. Such knowledge and stories must have been stored there. She felt like she did the first time she mentally transported herself to Hogwarts, or to all of the times she spent in the school's library after class to read fantasy books, imagining herself someplace else, far away. For a moment, she regretted trying to become "normal". If she had known such wonderous places such as this existed, she would have been a little more comfortable being her weird self. At any case, she had to tell her online friends about this place. They would love it (if they weren't the size of a doll, that was).
Her wonder was short-lived, however, as, suddenly, out of nowhere a titanic woman walked nearly silently out of one of the aisles. She had a mountain of books in her arms, and was not able to see over them. Her foot crashed down with force right in front of Judith, who let out a tiny scream as she looked up at the colossal woman before her. The woman, not expecting to hear anything, jumped, sending the books in her arms tumbling to the ground around Judith, who huddled in place with her hands on her neck, afraid of being crushed by the falling books.
When the book falling stopped, Judith peeked through her open fingers at the giant woman, who had begun the process of collecting her books. She hadn't noticed Judith yet. The woman had her hair cut in an odd haircut - like Siouxie Sioux's hair crossed with Madonna's, and was wearing a purple and black blouse (emblazoned with patterns of roses and skulls), a black pencil skirt, and ballet shoes. Like the others, she had ghostly pale skin, and had dark brown eyes. She looked to be in late thirties or early forties or so (though, in Abner years, that could have been hundreds!). She looked quite good for her age, and looked like a librarian of some sort. She reached for a book near Judith, accidentally running her hand across Judith's tiny hair (and pushing the tiny girl over in the process).
The giant looked down, shocked. That didn't feel like a book. When she saw Judith, her eyes became wide, and she said:
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