The next day Alicia showed up in the morning, before Sebastian surprisingly. As the lights turned on she came over and unlatched the front of my cage, looking at me with a brilliant smile. "I did like you said!" she exclaimed, setting me down on the table and going to put on her lab coat. "Yesterday I talked to him after work, and we ended up getting dinner together!"

"Good for you," I told her, returning her smile. As I expected, that was enough reply for her to keep talking about it.

"It was really nice! We talked about interests besides work, and I found out that he had a niece. Who knew? Anyways, he actually smiled at me, I think he may like me after all! At least as a friend. And I can live with that. At least, for now." She kept chattering as she dug in her purse, but I couldn't hear any of it since she was practically under the table. When she resurfaced she had a thick tome in her hand, and she set it on the table next to me with a large thump.

"I brought you the book," she explained, and I walked around it with interest. "I can see why you would like it, I mean when I think about it you're practically in the same situation as Gulliver was in the second story… do you think it could tell your future? That would be crazy, wouldn't it? Anyways I hope you like it, I had to dig it out of my closet and-"

I let her continue babbling as I examined the book, knowing that eventually she would talk herself out. Standing on my toes I read the cover. Yep, it was titled 'Gulliver's Travels' all right, just like the strange dream girl had said. I paused when I reached the author's name: Jonathan Swift. The same surname as my mother's. What a really weird coincidence. Then again, this entire idea was pretty strange; I mean, I asked for this book because a girl from my dreams told me to. Call me crazy, but it probably wasn't coincidence.

Thinking that it was a really long book to read, and remembering what Alicia had mentioned, I flipped to the second story and decided to read that one first. The cover was heavy, but with a bit of exertion I managed to open it, and after that I grabbed pages by the handful and pulled them to the side until I had reached the correct spot. Seeing that I was going to read, Alicia made some remark about letting her know if I needed anything and started texting people on her phone.

Usually I'm not that big into reading; no time for it, it's not really practical, and I never was very good at it. But this story… this story I read all day. At first I was a bit discouraged; it seemed to be just some guy going sailing, very boring stuff. However, it got interesting quickly. A normal man stuck in a world of giants- now that I could relate to! It was actually kind of creepy how well it fit: being found by a man cutting outside, his only friend being a young girl, getting taken away and scrutinized by scientists and philosophers. All of it matched, albeit seeming really old.

Some parts made me wince, hoping that they would never happen to me. Like the part with the monkey made me want to throw up. But I totally understood where he was coming from, especially when he talked about his frustrations. Being exhausted from having people look at him everyday, feeling like nobody really respected him as a person, that the only worth he had was intrinsic; I most definitely had felt all those things in the course of my time here. And it was nice to know that I wasn't alone: even if it happened hundreds of years ago, somebody else had been in my situation. That made me feel like a little less of a freak.

It took me a couple of days to finish all of it. When Sebastian returned from his break he was a bit confused about why I was reading, but since it didn't interfere with any of his schedules he didn't seem to mind. So I spent a relaxing few days in the lab, reading the enormous book as Alicia tried increasingly to win Sebastian's affections.

When the story started becoming more about governments I got bored, but forced myself to read to the end. I wanted to know how he got back home, because God knows I had no idea how. Besides, it had been really similar thus far. Who knows, maybe Alicia was right and it could give me a glimpse into my future.

When I reached the end it was the evening of the third day, and Alicia was just about ready to leave. Finally, I read the last words.

And decided that Gulliver had really gone crazy.

What if that happened to me? I didn't want to get carried off by a giant bird and have everybody back home think I was a lunatic. That's a horrible ending. Besides, I don't think I could get home by crossing an ocean… there had to be another way. Then again, if the choice was between staying here and losing my sanity, I may just want to stay. Just maybe.

"Here," I said to Alicia, closing the book with some difficulty. "I just finished the second story, and that's all I really wanted."

She smiled at me and tucked the book away in her purse. "Glad I could aid you. Did you like it?"

I shrugged. "It was good enough. I didn't really care for the ending." She picked me up and put me back into my cage, but before she left I had to ask her a question. "Hey Alicia?"

"Yes?"

"You guys don't happen to keep monkeys in this lab, do you?" Probably a strange question, but I had to ask it anyways.

Her face lit up. "Actually, yes, we do! How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," I muttered. Great, now I could add 'being-breastfed-by-a-monkey' to my list of worries. Maybe reading that wasn't such a great idea after all…

Alicia left, the lights turning off after her. By now I had organized the blankets they gave me into a somewhat-organized bed, and I was able to find it in the dark with ease. I lay down and pulled the blanket up to my chin, hoping desperately that I wouldn't have nightmares about monkeys. Of all the things Swift could have written…

I didn't dream at all, however, and the next days progressed as normally as they could have. Sebastian had me take some IQ tests, which I expect came back sub-par, and other than that I spent most of my time just talking with the two of them. Alicia liked to ask me about things back in my own world, despite the fact that Sebastian thought I was making it all up. I told her about my family, my job, Cali, etc. Where I lived and what it was like. I spent whole hours describing things to her, despite the fact that things in this world seemed to work exactly the same.

I was in a perpetual state of being observed; even when I was saying or doing the most meaningless things, it was all logged into Sebastian's notes. Everything from my favorite color to my birthday was taken into account, for what purpose I had no idea. Still, as far as physical tests went, they were few and far between.

Once they filled up a sink for me, so that they could assess my swimming ability. Another time they gave me some tools and material and asked me to make things with my hands. This I was fairly good at, being in the habit of doing just that in my factory job. Every day there was something new to do, and yet I found myself listless and impatient. Even when Alicia was talking to me I felt insignificant, just something to pass the time with. I was alive, but I wasn't really living, and I was really starting to feel the difference.

On the other hand, Alicia and Sebastian seemed to be living more. Almost every morning they would come in together, sharing a smile, and later I would hear from Alicia about what they did the previous evening. Once I caught them holding hands as they walked through the door. It was obvious they were developing a strong emotional relationship, and rapidly. But the more attention they paid to each other, the less thought they gave to me, which became rather inconvenient.

The problem with my condition was that none of them took me seriously in any way. I was inconsequential, of as much importance as the equipment they used. And so, they didn't think anything of doing more… personal things around me.

One evening I was sitting on the lab table alone. Both Sebastian and Alicia had left to go take care of something, and I was just thinking to myself. Suddenly, the door opened and they stumbled in, attached to one another by a passionate embrace. Shutting off the lights with the manual switch on the wall, Sebastian grabbed Alicia's neck and they started making out (rather seriously, I might add). They moved to the table and he laid her down on it, almost crushing me in the process.

"Hey!" I protested, scrambling out of the way. "Get a room you guys!"

They paid me no heed, still kissing madly. Alicia started ripping off Sebastian's jacket as he started taking off her shirt. I knew where this was going, and I didn't want to be right here for it. Sebastian spared me a glance, as if wondering whether or not he minded that I was seeing this. "It's watching us," he told Alicia, between breaths as they continued doing whatever they were doing.

"Then take care of it," she whispered, her eyes closed in bliss.

He smiled at her and kissed her again. "With pleasure," he replied and, taking an empty coffee cup from the table, flipped it over and covered me with it.

"Wait!" I yelled, but the sound just rebounded off the ceramic walls and came right back to me. I tried in vain to lift the edge, but to no avail. "Come on, let me out!" I pounded the edges of the cup only to succeed in bruising myself. Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that I was stuck here until they decided to let me out; and, having seen enough to know what they were planning, that probably wouldn't happen for quite a long time.

Despite the fact that I could still hear almost everything from inside the coffee cup, I managed to doze off at some point in the night. When I woke up I was curled up at the bottom of the cup; they must have flipped it right side up again sometime.

I heard Alicia swearing, and soon the cup was tipped over so that I fell out of it. "We're so late!" she exclaimed, talking not to me but to Sebastian. "The meeting with the boss starts in five minutes!"

"Well, get the collar on it and we can go," he replied, sounding equally rushed. Before I had time to react, or even to fully wake up, Alicia's fingers had swooped down and forced a thick metal collar around my neck. Picking me up she thrust me into the same cage they had brought me in, and I swung violently from her side as they ran out the door.

Tumbling from front to back in the small container, I tried desperately to get the collar off. No matter how hard I pulled or how many directions I pulled it from, it refused to budge. The entire exterior was smooth, and I could hardly grab it much less remove it. Feeling panicky and rather disoriented I crawled into a corner, trying to think through these events and get my mind straight; a rather difficult task given the current turmoil.

Suddenly we stopped, and by peering out the front of the cage I could see that in front of us was an unopened door. Alicia and Sebastian were fidgeting with each other, and I could hear things like, "Your hair is messy, let me fix it," or "Let me straighten your collar." Eventually they deemed themselves presentable, and Sebastian rapped smartly on the door.

"Come in," a voice called from behind it, and when the door opened they walked inside. Alicia set my cage down on a desk, behind which sat a rather overweight man in a very expensive-looking suit. That was about all I could see, as the roof of the cage prevented me from gazing upwards any further. "Ah, so this is the little thing I have heard so much about," the same voice said, and soon a pair of pudgy hands were opening up the front of my cage.

Standing up I slowly walked out, and looking up saw that the man wearing the suit was looking at me with an interested little smile. Behind me Sebastian coughed, and asked, "Would you like our report now, sir?"

The man, who was obviously their boss, began petting me on the head idly. "Well, you see," he said slowly, sounding casual, "there has been a change of plans."