Perspectives

Chapter 23

Piper was sure she must have crossed paths with a black cat or walked under a ladder recently, because her usually shitty luck had taken on an entirely new level of awful. Either that or the universe was just out to get her. What other explanation could there be for the long series of unfortunate events that had befallen her? Not only had she gotten stuck in a gigantic alternate dimension, but she'd got stuck in it with an asshole giant guy who didn't think it important for her to attend a meeting concerning her own future. And now after her daring escape from the dresser, she had a giantess maid to contend with.

The maid had been dusting for several minutes, at least that's what Piper assumed she was doing, it wasn't like she could see much from underneath the dresser. Heavy footsteps thudded towards her and she gasped as the maid walked right up to the dresser, her simple brown boots staring Piper right in the face. They remained there only briefly before moving back to the cart in the middle of the room. 

"I get out only to get trapped somewhere else." Piper grumbled, settling down against the wall with her legs crossed under her. "Just my luck."

Just then, Piper heard the click of a button followed by a whirring sound, as though a machine were coming alive. "Shit, shit, shit!" Piper hissed. She had completely forgot about the likelihood that the maid would be vacuuming the room. If the maid vacuumed under the dresser, as any good maid would do, Piper could get sucked up! Then, Piper saw the maid's feet pass by. Piper scrambled up to her feet and hurried to peer under the right side of the dresser to see the maid enter the bathroom and shut the door behind her. But if the sound didn't belong to a vaccum, then what? 

Cautiously, Piper crept towards the front of the dresser, staying tucked behind the front right leg as she peeked out. Over by the bed, roving around of its own accord, was round device that would likely be no taller than five inches relative to a giant. Piper smirked, so giants had robot vacuum cleaners too. She had never seen one in action before, but her mom had always said she wanted one. Although, Piper expected the ones here would be a lot more advanced. 

While Piper didn't think the robotic vacuum would be much of a threat to her, she figured she should get off the floor anyway, the ground didn't seem to ever be a good place to be around giants. The question was, where to go. Climbing up anywhere that didn't have something for her to hide behind would definitely be a no-go. She also had to make sure she didn't start climbing up something that would take too long and end up leaving her exposed when the maid returned.  Piper eyes scanned the room, landing on the maid's cart of cleaning supplies. 

The idea forming in her head was risky and probably ill-conceived, yet sometimes the crazy plans were the ones that worked. Besides, she'd never exactly been the poster child for good decision making. One only needed to look at her school record to know that.

Piper could practically hear Kalen's voice in her ear disallowing her from doing it, telling her she would end up getting herself spotted, injured or killed. With that thought, Piper sprinted out from under the dresser. 

Careful to dodge the busy robotic cleaner, Piper made her way to the supply cart at top speed. Once she reached it, she wasted no time in hauling herself up onto the bottom shelf amongst the bottles of cleaning products and a yellow bucket about as tall as she was. Piper fell down against a bottle of window cleaner, panting heavily as her body recovered from the all out sprint she had just pulled. She had always been more of a strength person than an endurance person. 

The sound of the bathroom door opening was Piper's signal that rest time was over. She jumped to her feet and quickly ducked behind one of the many towering bottles surrounding her. Piper cringed when she saw the maid's hand deposit a bottle of cleaner right next to her, thankfully pulling away afterwards.

"Vac, estimated time until job completion?" Piper heard the maid ask from above her. 

"Estimated time until job completion is 4 minutes and 7.4 seconds." A polite male voice replied, the voice of the robotic vacuum Piper assumed.

While hanging out on a cleaning cart hadn't been quite what she'd had in mind for her act of defiance, it was all she could really manage with the maid in the room. It was definitely better than staying locked up in that drawer all day. When the maid left the room, Piper would just have to discreetly slip off. It was more than just a little bit risky, but it also just the sort of thing that would piss Kalen off once she told him about it. 

Piper heard more massive footsteps and then a repeated pounding that rattled the cart on which she stood. She peeked around her cover to see the maid repeatedly tapping her foot in thought. It was still mind blowing how such a seemingly simple actions could have such an effect on someone Piper's size. 

"Did she want me to get all new sheets or just make the bed..." The maid wondered aloud. "I should probably ask." But before she could get the chance, the bedroom door flew open with a sudden bang. Booming footsteps pounded into the room, sending chills down Piper's spine. And then more footsteps as someone else arrived.

"Sir, I accept fault. I gave Miss Shaw access." Came the voice of Kalen's assistant, Natali.

"I gave clear and direct orders for no one to have entrance into my room." Piper took in a sharp breath, that voice was unmistakably Kalen's. He'd returned from the council meeting. "And how did you have access, only my parents have the override code--" 

"The Baron did grant me the override code, sir. He requested that I see to your quarters being cleaned." Natali admitted, her tone cool and composed even in the face of Kalen's apparent anger. 

Kalen released a heavy sigh. There was a short moment of silence and then, "The fault is not yours then. However I do ask that you leave my room immediately." Piper could plainly hear the frustration in his voice.

Piper heard Natali's heels clicking against the floor as she silently left the room without argument. There was panicked scrambling sounds coming from the maid as she hurriedly ordered the robot vacuum to shut down and then rushed to place it on the top shelf on the cart. 

"Miss Shaw, you didn't open any of my drawers did you?" Kalen was trying to sound calm and unconcerned, but Piper could tell he was frantic, wondering whether or not she'd been found. 

"Y-your drawers, sir? No, c-certainly not!" The maid stammered nervously. 

"You're free to go then." The relief was evident in Kalen's voice. 

It was just as the cart lurched into motion that Piper realized that she needed to get off the thing and quickly if she didn't want to get trapped outside of Kalen's room. Luckily, the maid was dragging the cart from the front of it, meaning Piper could jump off the back, but her window was closing, she had to do it now. 

Without wasting another second, Piper dove off the back of the cart, tucking herself into a clumsy roll to ease the impact. She heard the cart trundle away with the door shutting behind it as her roll slowed and she landed flat on her stomach. With a sigh of relief Piper opened her eyes, only to be met with something huge right in front of her face. She tilted her head back, looking up to see an enormous figure towering over her. Two gray rage filled eyes stared down at her.