Bird in a Gilded Cage Shrunk in an airport chapter 14 by Louka31

You awaken from your lovely dreams to find yourself completely enclosed by dozens of towering metallic bars all around you. Aside from the bars and what seems to be a dim light directly above you, the entire world appears to be a jet-black void of nothingness. Still partially divorcing your mind from the amazing sensation of flying through the clouds in your dream, your initial reaction to the situation is pure, unadulterated confusion.

"Urgh... w-wha..." you groan groggily, summoning the enormous energy needed to pick yourself up off the cold, smooth floor and gaze at the enclosure currently trapping you. "...bars? Wait, how'd I end up in jail?" The dreaded thought of being arrested last night and facing a completely unknown set of charges puts a knot in your stomach, especially since you had basically never run into trouble with the law in your life. Sure, you had collected a speeding ticket or two on the freeway and received a few noise complaints while hosting ragers after finals week, but certainly nothing serious enough to ever get you thrown in jail. You don't even feel hung over in the slightest, so you rule out the possibility that you might have been blacking out while drunk.

Before you can worry any further about what you may or may not have done last night, however, you rub your bleary eyes and look a bit closer at your "prison cell." Your heart pounds faster and faster as your eyes travel up the tall, slender bars of your prison and make a number of alarming discoveries along the way.

Unlike any cell you've seen before, the vertical bars are arranged in a perfect circle around you, penning you into a small area with an approximately 15 foot radius. Rather than the typical city jail's drab steel bars, these bars are a glittering golden color, twisting themselves into ornate, arabesque patterns at various levels inside the cage.

As you crane your head to look almost completely vertically, it appears that the bars come together into a gently sloping dome high above you, most likely over 100 feet in height. And worst of all, you cannot find anything even remotely resembling a cell door, with the golden bars maintaining their seamless enclosure in every direction -- the only break in the bars you can see is a small, heart-shaped panel around 50 feet in the air, which appears to be latched firmly shut.

With a start, it all pieces together instantly in your mind into one horrifying conclusion. You're not in jail at all. You are now locked inside a gigantic antique birdcage. And you remember exactly who must be responsible for kidnapping and trapping you in this mortifying situation.

"HELP!!" You scream at the top of your lungs, out of sheer panic more than anything. "SOMEONE, ANYONE! GET ME OUT OF HERE! THIS LADY KIDNAPPED ME AND--"

"Hehehe." Before you can even finish your tiny plea, a dainty, yet overpowering feminine giggle completely drowns your voice out. You've come to know that sound exceedingly well in the past few hours of this terrifying day. That was the same giggle that had cheerfully mocked you when your hands had slipped against the purse's leathery walls, sliding all the way back to the ground and watching the zipper securely seal your fate. You knew you would be in deep trouble if you let the gigantic woman lull you to sleep once she had locked you in her purse, but this was worse than you could have possibly imagined.

"Good morning, sunshine!" the woman's delighted voice chirps. "Wake-y, wake-y! How's my darling little pet enjoying his beautiful new home?"

You're too horrified to even squeak a syllable in response. And, after a moment of taking in your surroundings again, you also realize you're not entirely sure where your captress currently is. Your surroundings outside the birdcage remain an inky black, and you do not see her (admittedly gorgeous) mocking face in any direction. You reason that after locking you in the cage, she must have covered it with a dark linen sheet to ensure you would stay blissfully asleep for a while longer. Just like taking care of a pet canary, you think miserably to yourself.

While the reprieve from having to look your new... mistress in the eye as she taunted you was a small comfort, it was not to last long. With a rustling of fabrics, the dark sheet surrounding your cage begins to rapidly roll upward, causing brilliant light to flood into your enclosure and temporarily dazzle your vision. You can only make out the vaguest shapes of gargantuan objects in the distance beyond your cage, which you assume must be furniture of some sort.

"Awww, you just look sooo cute in there, it's downright criminal!" Her sweet, infantilizing voice seems to surround you from every angle, combining with your unadjusted eyes to make you feel dizzy. "Come here, little birdie! Come say hi to Mama!"

All you want to do in that moment is to get as far as humanly possible away from this deranged woman. Unfortunately, the sturdy, gold bars of the birdcage appear more than capable of putting a quick stop to any attempted escape. Furthermore, with your eyes still adjusting to the light and her voice echoing all around the cage, you can't even determine where she's standing. You try to run away from the source of her voice, but your unadjusted legs quickly collapse after you uselessly spin in circles.

The woman giggles pityingly at your bewildered appearance, sending you for another dizzying spin around the cage. "Don't be scared, sweetheart! Mama's over here!"

Finally, your eyes begin to adjust to the opulent, sprawling master bedroom housing your birdcage. And with that, you can spot your delighted mistress...