I was acutely aware all day of the apparent shrinkage. Sitting in my desk for the later classes made me feel like I was barely big enough for my feet to touch the floor, and I was getting more and more anxious that something was happening to me. I resolved to talk to my mother about it when I got home, maybe schedule an appointment for the next day with our family doctor, but I was met at the front door by Sarah, decked out in her best Vampira outfit.
“You feeling okay?” she asked and then realized she was looking down at me. “You got smaller!”
“I did, I guess,” I said somewhat sheepishly. “I don’t suppose you know anything about it?”
I’d all but forgotten about our encounter last night, worried more for my own well-being, but the silence that followed drew my attention back to Sarah, who was looking at me with a combination of fascination and guilt.
“Wait, you do know something about this.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly, pulling me into the loveseat with her. “You came in at a bad time.”
“Look, I’m sorry I saw you naked or whatever, but it was an accident.”
“I know that,” she said. Even with her white-painted face and very red lips, I could see the face of my sister beneath the makeup and she did look genuinely sorry. I just wasn’t sure what she was sorry for. Yet. “You know I practice magick, right?”
You could hear the ‘k’ in the way she pronounced the word. A bunch of hipster bullshit if you asked me, but she was serious about it.
“Yeah,” I said, drawing the word out as I turned it into a question.
“I was in the middle of a channeling ceremony when you came in. Basically, I had harnessed the power of a particular earth deity and-”
“You know I don’t believe in any of that, don’t you?”
I saw her eyes flare again with anger, then she calmed. “Whether you believe it or not, you got both barrels of an earth goddess on the back of a dumb wish I made.”
“Which means what?”
She took a breath to steady yourself. “Before I answer, I want you to know that I’m doing my best to fix it.”
“What did you do?”
Another steadying breath. “You’re turning into my little sister.”
I laughed, hard. “That’s ridiculous!”
“Really? And your long hair and shorter height?”
That shut me up. It would explain everything. The feeling in my gut came right after interrupting Sarah’s magickal whatever. Everything else followed that. It was a stretch, but…
“So, let’s say I did get smacked with your whosits, so what do I do now?”
She shrugged, twisting her hand sin her lap. “Make the best of it, I guess. The problem is that when you change, the world sorta changes with you.”
“Which means?”
“The more you become my little sister, the more the world will treat you like that. I’m the only one who would even remember you weren’t a boy.”
“Great!” I finally exploded. All the anxiety and worry had built to now and I was standing flailing my arms, screaming at Sarah, telling her how irresponsible she was and how angry I was and then I just started to cry. I couldn’t help it. These big, wracking sobs just started coming out of me and the next thing I knew Sarah was hugging me, patting my back, and I realized that I was eye level with the surprisingly large breasts I hadn’t even known were there the day before. I’d always been a hair taller than her and now I was barely up to her chin. Just how small was I going to get?
“Better?” She asked once my breaths topped hitching. I hated to admit it, but I did feel better. I hated how short I had become and I hated the fact that I seemed to be constantly pushing hair out of my eyes, but otherwise it wasn’t so bad.
“How young a sister did you make me?” I asked as my tears dried.
“I don’t know. I mean, when I said it, I was probably thinking of a pre-kindergarten girl, but that doesn’t mean that’s what’s happening. You could just be shifting into a girl’s frame more appropriate to your age.”
“So I’m going to stuck in the body of a child?” I asked, still sniffling.
She bit her lip, searching for words that would take the edge off, but she resigned herself to a shrug that didn’t instill much confidence in me.
“I’m going to my room,” I said, moving past her toward the stairs.
“About that…” she said, but I was already on my way up to my room, willing myself into a temporary deafness so I could just focus on the footsteps ahead of me.
I gasped when I opened the bedroom door and saw a room that was mine in shape, but the décor had changed dramatically. Where before there had been posters from sci-fi moves I liked and models of a few of the robots I liked to build from model kits, now there were posters of bands that were comprised of pre-teen boys and the walls beneath them had taken on a soft rose color. Who am I kidding? The walls were pink. Just like the comforter on my bed and the pillow cases and the dress that was hanging on the back of my closet door.
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