Wonderland (Toy Tf)

     It was just before noon as a red headed girl was hurrying her way through the mall. Walking quickly past the few people who were wandering the stores that early, she slowed down only as she felt her phone vibrate in her jean pocket. "Hey Jess, make sure you have a gift for Mel ready for tonight, ok?" With a light sigh, she slid the phone back into her pocket and walked on. It was the whole reason she was there in the first place, and with only a half hour before needing to get back to work she didn't have time to waste.    "I should of never pushed this off so long," she thought as she scanned the store windows for a decent gift. It wasn't her fault, between college and a demanding job after class and on the weekend, she had barely and time to herself, let alone time to go shopping. Hell, the stress from it all had already lost her a few pounds off her already slender frame. But that didn't change the fact that it was her niece's 8th birthday and she didn't have a thing for her. Out of the corner of her eye though, she spotted a store she had never seen before. In the middle of the strip of shops where there was once a vacant lot was now a festively decorated store with a brightly colored sign over the door saying "Wonderland Toy Shop." Perfect.    

    As quickly as ever, Jess walked along the 2 main viewing windows that adorned the shops outer wall, taking a second to look in. The polished wood display shelves were covered with all manor of things; there were board games, rag toys, and everything from model trains to some barbie dolls, but there was no time to admire all of the little details of the shop. Glancing down at here watch, Jess giggled to herself with the image of the March Hare in her mind as she walked through the doors of Wonderland.     

Upon entering the store, her eyes were met with the sight of a women only a little older than herself sitting behind the counter reading a book. As the bell atop the door rang, girl looked up from her story, unveiling a face with shoulder length black hair and piercing blue eyes. Smiling, she greeted her with a "Welcome to wonderland, need help finding anything?" With a quick smile back, Jess replied "Oh, thanks but I'll be fine." With that the girl looked back to her book as Jess turned away and looked at the store she had only glanced at through the window and was taken back. "Wow," she said under her breath as she took in the sight. 

The store looked like something straight out of a book! Hanging from the ceiling there were all kinds of suspended toy airplanes, hot air balloons, and marionettes, along with signs signaling what toys were in each aisle. The walls were covered with various designs matching up with the contents of the toys near it; there was a picture of treasure island near a barrel of toy swords, another of a table adorned with exaggerated amounts of supplies for a tea party near some rag toys, and even a mural of a safari near a pile of various stuffed animals. Even the aisles carried with them a chaotic sense of order upon the wooden shelves and the contents within them. Walking through it all, there was almost a sense of mystery that wouldn't be felt if the store was kept open and orderly.   

   Snapping out of the initial trance, Jess's mind focused once more to the task at hand as she glanced down at her watch. "Only have another 20 minutes, this isn't the time to get lost in this place." Looking up, she realized that she had wandered to the far end of the store in her stupor, and as she looked up at the sign above her, she tilted her head a little. "Huh..." While other signs that lined the ceiling simply stated "boardgames" or "electronics," the one above the aisle in front of her was dubbed "The rabbit hole."   

The contents of the aisle were if anything simply greater extremes of the store around her. The toys that lined the shelves were along side one another but there were no set rows of one certain brand. There were all kinds of mismatched toys there; a knight stood guard at one end of a shelf with a stripped plush cat laying at its side, which had an old jack in a box next to it as well. The array of toys went on like that all the way to the back of the aisle where a large mirror stood in the corner. The whole scene looked like something out of a old world antique shop, but nothing like the set up of anything typical by todays standards. "Well," she thought as she lifted one of the toys from the shelf, "with all this there's bound to be something Mel would like." But as she glided her hand along the shelf as she walked, her options slowly dwindled. "I doubt she would be to interested in any of these," she thought, but quickly her hand bumped into something soft on the counter behind her and she turned to look. With a smile, she picked the toy up; it was a stuffed horse.      

    The little toy was just that; little. Slightly over 1 and a half feet long, the soft toy sagged on the shelf as it lye there. As she picked it up, the stuffing inside of it gave away a little as its soft plastic hoved feet dangled below. "Wow, detailed little thing, aren't you?" Jess whispered as she looked closer at the miniature details the in the toys fabric and stitching. All of a sudden, a sharp noise broke her focus and she dropped the horse as she turned to see what it was. In a second though, she realized someone had just left the store and caused the door's bell to ring. Bringing her focus to the now limp toy on the floor, she kneeled down to pick it up, but stopped as she noticed something strange. "What the hell?" She muttered as she glanced at the anomaly.      

   Now looking towards the ground, she stared at her legs. Her sneakers that once resided on her feet were no more as she now stared down at a strange pair of tan cowboy boots that ran up her shins and wrapped around her jeans. Genuinely confused, she sat down onto the carpeted floor and with a slow motion she went to remove the boots. Upon pulling though, she was only met with resistance. "What the heck is going on here?" She thought as she now pulled harder, but she was met with a quick jolt if pain in her leg. Cringing a little at the pain, she moved up her leg and tugged at her jean pant leg, but even the end of that remained unmoving from the inside of the boot. Even more concerning, she then felt her leg, which was noticeably softer then it should be.     

     Trying hard just to grasp the situation, she laid back against the shelf and nervously stroked her braided red hair and laughed a little. "How fitting, I'm going mad in wonderland." She sighed a little, but then her attention was pulled in another direction. As her hands caressed her braid, something felt very off "Oh great, now there's something wrong with my hair to?" she moaned. Pulling her hair into view, she was shocked to see that her typically fine hair was pulled into thick strands and was now an unnatural bright red. "Is that,.. yarn?"      Now shocked more then anything, Jess had to make a decision. "Forget this god forsaken store, I need to get out of here." Reaching down to grab the horse toy and starting to stand up, there was a sharp tug on her back that pulled her back down to the floor. She started to say "For the love of," but stopped short. As she turned her head to see what pulled her down she was shocked to see a large plastic ring caught on the bottom of the shelf connected to a now taunt string leading into her back. "Christ, I really am going mad." She reached down and hesitantly unhooked the ring and let it slowly retract into her back. With that, she heard in a happy, high-pitched voice "Hi, I'm Jessie!" come from some where in the in the aisle, but with a little shock and clasping her mouth she realized she had said it!      

   "This is all impossible" she thought. The idea had already crossed her mind but not it was undeniable. "A doll. I'm somehow turning into a doll. Either that or the stress has finally got to me." She had to call someone, she reached down to her jean pocket for her phone but where her pocket was now only a patch of extra denim as a design. "Of course," she grimaced, "that'd be to easy." Now at least a little calmer, Jess tried her best to think of something to do when the picture of a black haired girl popped into her head. "As good a start as any I guess." If anyone knew what was happening to her it'd be the girl in the front.    

     Now standing up, Jess stood on wobbly legs as she stood up and balanced herself. "Probably a good idea not to draw to much attention," she thought as she made her way to the back path connecting the aisles as she passed a tall mirror. Gazing at the reflection, she was amazed. The girl that stared back in the mirror still had the same face, green eyes, and red hair (more or less) as the girl who walked in but for every thing that stayed the same there was something different. The first thing that caught her eye was the fact that she was obviously smaller then before. Prior to it all, she stood at a solid 5' 7", but girl in the mirror couldn't of been any more then 4' 5". "Great, I'm shrinking now to," she thought, but then she glanced back to the mirror to further examine the changes. The white sweeter she had walked in with had now thinned out into a lacy, cuffed, white shirt with an almost western design to the top half of it. Shifting her gaze down, her jeans had changed now to. The pants now hugged her legs, and going along with the western style of the shirt, the front of the jeans now sported a cow skin patterned pair of chaffs. Turning around to look at her back, the pull-string still resided in the center of her back just below where her braided hair reached, which now had formed a yellow bow keeping it together. "Well at least theres a theme to all of this madness. Better keep moving before it gets any worse." With that, the dollified girl began to make her way back to the front of the store as quietly as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was freak out one of the few people in the store.    

   Making her way back near to the door way along the back of the store, Jess peered out from behind the first aisle that was filled with all kinds of stuffed toys. Looking at the space in front of her, she was relieved to see only one other person in the store besides the girl who was still buried in her book. Ducking back behind the aisle Jess started to think to herself. "Its not like times on my side here, but that guy should leave or at least move before all this gets any worse then it is." Glancing back out at the boy, who was glazing down at something on the aisle shelf himself, she gasped as she realized that he was moving her way.   

    "Oh shit oh shit," she thought as she pulled her head back into cover. "What if he sees me?" Scrambling to find a hiding space, he heard him slowly advance closer at a relaxed pace. Mind racing, one last idea crossed her mind. Glancing down at herself, she saw she was barely over 3 foot now, and with a running jump she barely got herself upon the shelf as the man turned the corner.  

    Now along the back wall of the story, Nat glanced around at his surroundings. "This really is a cool store," he thought. He now found himself in a section filled with all kind of rag toys, but as he turn his head something on the shelf next to him caught his eye. Upon the shelf, there sat an toy that stood out through the pile of toys; a red-haired cowgirl doll. The toy had on a button-down shirt with an western pattern of red and yellow up on her chest. Lower, there was small belt around her waist that help up a pair if jeans, only visible until the top part of her thigh, where a pair of cow skin chaffs covered the rest of her legs, which were dangling limp over the edge of the shelf. With her head slightly tilted to the right, a bright smile and a pair if green eyes adorned her soft plastic face. Picking up the doll around her back, Nat mumbled "damn, detailed little thing aren't you?" The toy in his hand looked so real he wouldn't be to surprised if it got up and walked out of the store right now. Out of a fleeting sense of curiosity, he poked her chest and felt only the slight resistance of stuffing. "Huh," he didn't really know what he had expected, but with that he slipped the doll into the shopping basket at his side.     

    She knew it was impossible, but Jess felt a heavy heart beat unnerve her as it rocked her stuffed chest. Now sitting in the basket, Jess swayed lightly from side to side as the man walked, all while her mind raced to think of a way out. "Maybe I should just tell him, he seemed a little doubtful that I was a doll in the first place when he was...holding me." With that she shook a little mentally, the idea of being held like that was weird, but what unnerved her was that she was kind of liked it.All of a sudden though the movement stopped. As she felt the basket set down upon the floor, she heard Nat say to himself "Ha, well it's only fitting," as he knelt down, picked something off up the floor, and placed it in the basket as well. It was the same horse toy as before, only now Jess could ride it if she wanted to. At that point, Jess knew he had to tell him unless she wanted to stay like this forever. She began to try to stand up, but as she waited for her body to react nothing happened. "What? No!" she tried again, but to her shock she was completely immobile; just a cowgirl doll in a basket leaning limp against her horse.  

    Before the emotion of it all could even set in, she felt the warm grasp of the man's hand wrap around her again, hoist her up, and sit her onto the store's counter next to her horse. "Hey, nice taste in toys. You buying these for your daughter or something?" She heard the girl say. "Nah, I'm a bit of a collector," he said motioning to Jess, "and that doll is really something. Really stunning detail." With a little smirk on her face, the girl now pick up Jess and examined the doll. After flipping her around and looking at the bottom of her feet, she looked back to Nat. "Sorry, I'd love to sell her to you but it looks like her tag fell off. I can't sell her if I don't know how much she's worth. The owner could wright up a new tag, but he won't be in until at least tomorrow." A little disappointed, Nat asked "Well can't you name a price?" But shaking her head, she replied apologetically "Sorry, store policy. You can just come in tomorrow afternoon and pick her up then, alright? Just ask for Alice." With a slight sigh, Nat agreed and walked out of the store without even mentioning the horse toy.       

     Now alone in the store, Alice leaned onto the counter and looked at the doll before her. "Sorry about that, I couldn't sell you to a collector now could I? You spend all your time stuck with a pole keeping you in place!" Shocked at the igknowledgement,  Jess quickly responded with a "Wait, you know?!" But covered her mouth out of a new shock when she realized she could move once more. Setting the now animated doll down on the counter, the Alice explained lightheartedly, "Of course I knew! You think someone can just be turned into a toy in this store without me knowing?" A bit taken back, the comment, Jess exclaimed "So you did all this to me?!" Motioning down at her now stuffed body. "Of course not, the store has a certain magic to it that can has this effect on people." The girl said with a slight chuckle as she rested her forearms on the counter. "I'm just here to help the new toys-to-be." A bit calmed down now, Jess looked up to the girl and ask solemnly "So does that mean I'm stuck like this?" Looking compassionately down at the toy, she reached down and picked her up with a strong hug. "Don't act so sad about it! You'll love being a doll! You can feel it can't you?" She did. From the hug the rag doll felt everything she had liked from Nat'a grasp 100 times; the warmth, the security, more then anything all the stress of her life just melted away. Lowering her hands back to the counter with doll in hand, Alice said once more, "Trust me, you'll love it. Oh! I'd almost forgot!" Reaching down behind the counter, she brought up something hidden in her hand. "Honestly, what's a cow girl with out a hat?" She gently placed a red, white laced cowboy hat upon Jess's head and tapped it lightly. "And one more thing," proclaimed Alice, "you'll be able to move when no ones around, but for the rest of the time you'll just be limp, ok? We wouldn't want you going crazy now would we." With that the rustle of people outside the shop brought both of them to attention. "Wait!" Jess chimed with a sudden burst of distress, "Will I ever be human again?" Glancing down knowingly, Alice said smoothly "Give it time, I think you'll like things better like this way." With that, Alice tapped Jess on the head once more and she collapsed limp onto the counter, right before a teenage girl and her younger sister walked in. Propping the smiling cowgirl doll up upon her horse and setting them on the counter,  she asked the two of them "Welcome to wonderland, need help finding anything?"       

1 year later: 

   "Woooo! Ride 'em cowgirl!" Jessie exclaimed as her pull string retracted into her back. She rode upon her horse, now named Rocket, as she sped around the Great Plains in pursuit of a group if bandits. In reality, she was just being rushed around her room by her owner, Mira, as she barely stayed set upon Rocket's back while Mira held her down. Mira had gotten Jessie for her birthday last year, but even at age 10 she remained her favorite and played with her every day. To her relief, even her owner's teenage sister hung onto her old favorite toy, an old stuffed raccoon, so it didn't seem like the kind of family to just toss their toys away after puberty.   On top of that, Jessie was always the hero in playtime, usually rushing off to save Mary, an indian rag doll of Mira's, from pirates, bandits, aliens, or what ever she thought of that day. After a long imaginary battle between her and the bandits, Mira lifted Jess off her horse and up to some of the other toys that were being held captive in an over-turned box. Jessie, now embracing Mary after saving her along with all of the city's money, which was little more then a pile of change, now rode off and were set upon Mira's bed where the play continued. 

     "Miranda! Time to go out to dinner!" Yelled up Mira's mom, and with that, she gave her toys a quick hug before running out of the room. After a minute of waiting for the sound of a car pulling away, sprawled out cowgirl doll sat up with a real smile upon her face. "That was great!" She said happily, and upon saying that the her back was brushed by a soft surface. Lucky for her, some of wonderland's magic had rubbed off on Rocket as well, and now Jess had a companion in the form of stuffed horse at her side. Rushing up to her, the two of them played a bit more themselves, incorporating Mary as the damsel in distress once more. Soon after, they all trotted back to the bed and climbed aboard. With a sigh of content, Jess leaned back against a pillow and snuggled up against her horse and even Mary, who lay there as still as ever. She lye there thinking of the great times she had, all of the things ahead if her, and even a little of her old life that just helped to put it all in retrospect. She knew she had gone far down the rabbit hole, but she didn't care. She was happy.