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A single bird chirped loudly in the mid afternoon day, the leaves of the tree it perched on swaying gently in the breeze. Bugs of all shapes and sizes scattered the grounds below, most chirping noisily to pass the time. A pair of squirrels ran through the garden, playing joyfully.

            And where was Tyler during this beautiful day? Enjoying it outside, playing one of the sports he was so skilled at? Perhaps walking around town with his friends? No, he was inside getting destroyed in video games.

            “K.O.!” the game shouted as Chloe, cute as she was deadly, won yet another brutal victory. She jumped out of her seat, shaking her petite posterior in a dance of victory.

            “Beat ya, beat ya!” she sang happily as Tyler sunk lower into the couch.

            “I told you I sucked,” he said bashfully.

            “What was that? Game seventeen?”

            “Eighteen,” Tyler corrected.

            “Ha! Eighteen games in a row!” she started strutting about. “Fine,” she said after a few more minutes of mockery. “What do you want to do?”

            “I don’t know, go outside?” was Tyler’s response. He had been cooped up in this house for almost a week now, housesitting for his friend, Katie, while she was away on a soccer retreat. Chloe had stopped by every once in a while to keep him company, yet it was still boring works.

            “Ugh, you mean with all the bugs and dirt? No, I’ll pass.” Chloe walked out of the living room, disappearing behind a wall before Tyler could say another word.

            “Well what then?” he called after a few seconds of silence. There wasn’t an immediate answer. Then Chloe came back, her flowing blonde hair cascading around her shoulders, a small, silver object in her hand and a devilish smile on her face.

            Tyler instantly recognized it as the legendary, quiet illegal, minimizer. “Wait!” he shouted, memories of his last experience with the machine coming into his mind. He couldn’t deny that he had enjoyed the encounter, but he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of going through that ordeal again, possibly with a worse, bloodier outcome.

            “Oh, not on you,” Chloe immediately answered. She turned her gaze to the machine, flipping a switch and making it hum. Her fingers went to work on the plethora of buttons. “I’m thinking we shrink some stuff. And, maybe, if the opportunity arises, a person.”

            “I’m not shrinking anyone!” Tyler shouted, amazed his friend would even think of such an idea. Then he remembered what had happened when Chloe found him shrunken last time, and the idea didn’t seem so strange.

            “Why not?” Chloe asked, tapping frantically at the buttons. “I mean, we aren’t… were not going to hurt them or… or anything.” Her thoughts were diverted by the damned controls. Flashing lights and screens of text that filled the entire devise. She didn’t have the time or the patience to find out how to work this thing.

            “Still, I don’t really…”

“Why not?” she asked, error message after error message blocking the screen. “And why doesn’t this just work!”

“I just don’t like the idea of…”
            “Oh screw it!” Chloe shouted as she slammed the devise down on the table. She turned on her heels, her head practically steaming. She had no patience when it came to technology. “I’m getting a sandwich, you think of something.”

            As she stormed off into the kitchen, she missed the bright ray of blue shoot from the little metal tip, sailing across the room, striking the poor, soon to be little, Tyler.

            “Really?” was all he could say before his body contracted to a size of only two inches.

            He wasn’t sure what happened immediately after that, but he knew he had fallen onto the couch. He stumbled about aimlessly for a second, holding his groggy head, mumbling uncontrollably. His delusional state was cut short, however, by the long tumble he took after stumbling off the couch edge and the impact of his skull on the ground below.

Chapter End Notes:

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