Chase slammed into the side of whatever dropped around them and bounced back with a surprised groan. He landed on his back on the floor and pushed himself up with his hands, shaking his head after running full tilt into something for the second time in so many hours. At least whatever he'd hit was soft this time.

Then, he caught up to what had happened and scrambled to his feet. He was so hasty that he bumped into one of the zhi ren, but didn't even apologize before rushing forward again and putting his hands out. He couldn't see except for the weak light leaking around the bottom of their prison, but he could feel the slick fabric walls.

He was trapped.

His breathing quickened and Chase pushed against the wall in front of him before turning around to survey the space. Most of it was pitch black, but the light around their feet enabled him to at least see that they were in a roughly room-sized space. Light reached in like it was desperate to cover the floor, but simply couldn't get past the edges of the bag. Locked out while they were locked in.

Trapped hopelessly in that space by strangers. People who Chase had no reason to believe Jacob had noticed at all. Why would he? Who would be here at this hour?

"H-hey! Let us out of here, y-you shits!" he yelled. By Chase's reasoning, there was no reason not to speak to them. He was already caught. He was already in deep trouble. His heart pounded and his eyes stared around near-blindly.

Not only that, he'd gotten everyone else into trouble too. He didn't even know what these guys would do with him. He nearly dug his inhaler from his pocket, but had a notion of them jostling him enough to lose the all-important bit of plastic, so he held off until it was a matter of desperation. "Let us go!"

Ed let out a breath at the sound of the little voice coming from under the camera case, ignoring Harry's squirms to right himself after being yanked down, attached to the case. That voice meant he wasn't hallucinating.

There really were tiny people under the camera bag.

"Harry," Ed said, keeping one hand pressed over the camera bag. "This is it. This is our ticket to the big times. We are going to seize the moment."

" 'Cause tomorrow we might be dead," Harry repeated back, his mind finally clinging to their motto, what would Buffy do?

"And this is our moment." Ed shifted in place, and Harry squirreled his way out from the camera case strap so he didn't pull the bag up off the tiny people trapped under it.

Harry flattened himself on the ground, the EMF reader long since forgotten by his side. One hand was held at the ready. "Okay, little dudes. We're not gonna hurtcha, we just want to get you out from under that. So… no biting."

Ed started to tilt the bag up, just enough for Harry to sweep his hand under it, groping for the tiny people hidden underneath.

Jade let out a startled cry, while Gold released a string of curses instead. Chase was in the way when the two of them turned to try to dodge the hand sweeping at them, and in the end they all stumbled and fell over in a tangle of limbs and a flurry of surprised Mandarin words. Chase tried to push them away from himself and scoot backwards, but they were as confused as he was. He blinked against the light splashing in, framing a monstrous hand reaching for them.

It wasn't as big as Jacob's hands, and not as worn. It didn't make a difference at all. It filled their vision and loomed closer and closer, long fingers grasping inescapably for them.

Chase's already-shallow breath caught when that hand easily settled over them. Enormous fingers forced them together and coiled around them, and Chase couldn't help but think about how much smaller the three of them were, even compared to Sam and Dean. One hand scrabbled uselessly at the floor as he attempted to writhe away, but he was gathered up anyway.

One of his arms was pinned between Jade and Gold, but luckily their paper forms didn't cause him more than mild discomfort. As the three of them lifted from the floor, Chase winced and squirmed. Gold joined him, but Jade merely tensed up.

"Let go!" Chase demanded again, even as more light reached them. His voice was tight, much tighter than the pressure around his body might indicate. He pulled his arm free in the transition from trapped under a bag to trapped in a hand, but it was far from enough to push himself free.

"Dude, put us down! " he demanded, though his voice was much weaker than he wanted it to be. Two faces, unfamiliar and warped to frightening by their size, loomed close and stared at him. "Put us down or I might just bite if it'll get you to chill for a second!"

Ed and Harry both stared in unabashed awe as Harry pulled his hand out into the light. "Sweet mother Mary," Ed murmured as he hastily adjusted his black-rimmed glasses on his face to see them better. "Don't crush them," he warned Harry, watching the tiny struggles. "We don't want them getting hurt at all, now do we?"

Harry nodded, his dark eyes wide as he brought his other hand up to cup around the trio. Tiny hands, the smallest hands he'd ever seen, pushed against him in surprise but couldn't offer any real resistance. He caught a glimpse of one surprised little face before sealing the three of them in between his hands. It gave them more room to move around in, but kept them secure in the darkness. "T-this, is this real?! " he stuttered in disbelief as he could feel the tiny little movements against his fingers.

Ed nodded. "It's real, now we need to calm down, get our focus back and relocate to somewhere private." Though they hadn't had to break into the building themselves (this time), that raised the likelihood of someone else stumbling over them. "Don't worry, little guys, we've got a safe place for you, okay? No one has to get bit, there's plenty of food when we get there, and we can all just calm down together."

Chase's expression was stuck somewhere between fear and complete bewilderment. He almost didn't believe what he'd heard, but his focus was half on the loud words and half on the hands closed around them. They barely had room in their improvised confinement.

Everything from the sound of the two guys talking about taking them away to the close quarters began to overwhelm Chase, bit by bit. He could feel the heat from the hands around him and the pulse thumping just beyond the layer of thick skin. He was too small and frail to have any chance of pushing the hands open, though it didn't stop him trying. He was stuck, along with Jade and Gold.

If it weren't for the zhi ren, Chase might have given into the panic surging in his veins and squeezing his lungs already. Jade remained calm, if uncomfortable, while Gold pushed at the hands as much as Chase did. But they weren't terrified.

Chase was. He wouldn't be ashamed to admit it. He was hearing the very real possibility that he might disappear in these strangers' possession, never to be seen by his friends again.

"Guys," he began again, pausing to take several rapid breaths that just didn't satisfy his lungs. His voice, when he spoke again, carried exhaustion and fear with it. "This is a mistake, just let us go!"

"Nope, no mistake," Ed responded, flipping the camera case over and tilting his head at Harry so he knew what to do. "You don't have to worry at all. We're professionals. Been doing this for years now."

Harry lowered his hands down into the large bag, opening his fingers up once the tiny people were within the walls. The cushioned space was meant to keep the DSLR safe, considering how costly such a piece of equipment could be for two ghost hunters on the road without a network TV show behind them, and it should serve well as a place to keep the people they'd discovered.

Once his hands were empty, Harry snatched his hands back, holding them close to his chest. "T-that's just… oh my God! Now what?"

Ed zipped the top of the camera case, keeping a calm face on. "Now we head back, regroup, relax, and see if we can make these little guys famous."

By the time the brothers dove behind cover, it was too late to go back.

The camera case slammed down over Chase and the zhi ren, cutting them off from Sam and Dean in such a complete fashion they might as well be in different worlds.

At their size, there was nothing Sam and Dean could do to rescue the others.

Sam skidded to a halt halfway past the first box, dragging Dean to a stop with him as he realized what had happened. "Chase!"

Realizing what Sam intended to do, Dean reacted instantly. He grabbed Sam's shoulder, hauling him back before he could dart back into the open to try and save their friend.

Dean slammed Sam against the side of the cavernous walls they were hiding in and covered up his mouth with a hand.

"Not a word," Dean hissed, his voice as low as it could go. "We go out there, we're as good as caught. We can't help him."

Sam's hazel eyes stared accusingly out at his older brother, and Dean had to force himself to ignore it. The expression on Sam's face dug in the guilt, how they hadn't made sure their friend was following right behind them. Spotting Sam frozen in fear had galvanized Dean, but Sam wasn't the only person he was watching out for.

"We can't get them back without Jacob," Dean said in a hush, keeping his hand over Sam's mouth to muffle any outbursts. In the distance, he could hear what the two humans were saying. The only bright side around was that they didn't sound like they were about to hurt anyone…

But they were planning on leaving.

Dean let Sam go at last, watching him warily to be sure Sam wasn't about to dart away anyway out of sheer stubbornness. Sam's mouth was thin, but he nodded his understanding.

Chancing one last look out at the humans trapping their friend, Dean beckoned Sam. "C'mon." He turned and started to run, and Sam's familiar footsteps started up immediately, following his older brother.

"Let's get Godzilla."

Chase toppled over in the dark. The cushioned surface beneath his worn out shoes swayed just enough in the guy's grip to keep him from regaining his balance. The best he could do was sit up on hands and knees to crawl towards a corner of the bag. It was pitch black around him, and he could hear Jade and Gold moving about as well with their characteristic paper rustling.

"Professional or not, I think I prefer the quiet life," he shot back. Professional what, Chase had no clue. He didn't need to get it to understand what the other chilling words meant.

We can make these little guys famous took on a much more unsettling meaning for Chase, knowing what he did about Sam and Dean and the others their size. If he ended up on that camera the strangers were carrying around, he could get everyone this size caught. It'd be easy. He shuddered at the memory of how helpless he'd been in those hands moments before. Helpless then, and helpless now, all because he was small.

It was a stark contrast to walking onto Jacob's hands. Jacob had waited for him to step on by his own will. There had never been a sense that he'd trap Chase or Sam or Dean in his fist. Never. Chase trusted his friend, but he didn't trust these guys.

Gold called protests out at them, using phrases that would surely make the kidnappers blanche if they understood them. Chase was too short of breath to yell anymore. He finally drew out his inhaler to take a slow dose of the medicine within before stowing it again.

He tried not to think about what he'd do if it ran out before he could get away from these guys.

Jacob, Sam, Dean ... sorry, guys.

A/N:

Always Listen to the Professionals

But of course, Harry and Ed are hardly professionals ;)

Next: July 5th, 2023 at 9PM

Adding in this author's note for all my followers here, and will keep it on all chapters going forward:

If the worst happens and fanfiction shuts down, you can find all my stories on both archive of our own and deviantart, posted under the nightmares06 account. You can also find our story tumblr, which contains a ton of information and answers that are only posted on that site, along with artwork for the stories and future plans we have. That can be found under the brothersapart tumblr account. I can't put links in chapters, but googling "Brothersapart tumblr" should bring it right up!