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I awoke in the morning to the door bell ringing. I was still groggy, so I looked to my alarm clock next to the bed to check the time. It was 6:30 in the morning. It must have been one of the girls and they forgot there keys. I walked out of my room, and looked around. It didn't appear as if anyone else was home. Aruna had practice and I hadn't seen the other girls since going to the pool yesterday. Agitated I walked to the security cameras to see who it was. The bell rang again. As I analyzed the screen, I noticed this woman was not any of the girls. It was the woman who saw me from the pool! What was she doing here? There was more knocking and ringing. Come on lady, leave me alone. Her persistence was clearly not going anywhere, so I decided to take action. I had after all decided not to hide from the world any longer.

I locked in security codes that would track a gps located in my watch in case she tried to steal me. There were a couple assistants in the government who knew how to access the info in case I went missing. I pressed the intercom button after finishing with the codes and greeted her, "Come in!"

I buzzed the door to unlock it and she cautiously opened the door peering in. I left the security camera room and hid near some furniture, watching her as she entered the living room. She was actually very beautiful and decently tall. Her complexion was light yet ethnic, and she had log black hair to go with her young face and dark eyes. She was very skinny and looked almost like a model with her nice perky breasts and long legs. I continued watching her as she sat herself on the couch, placing a notebook on her lap. I decided it was time and she didn't appear very threatening so I showed myself, walking to the center of the living room.

"Hello, I'm Vick, what brings you here today?"

Her face wasn't as surprised as I expected it to be, but she keenly observed me as she responded, "Hi I'm Asha. I live down the hall a few apartments. Yesterday, I saw you as you came up the elevator, do you remember?"

"Yes, of course I do. You were a bit aggressive with your hello." I said honestly.

"Yes, sorry about that, but I was actually really hoping to talk to you. I actually already know who you are."

I was very curious now about who she was but at the same time a bit nervous. Maybe she was a stalker after all.

"What I'm about to tell you will be both overwhelming and also very much classified. Are you prepared to hear it?"

I nodded my head, saying nothing else.

"Okay, this may sound crazy, but I swear it's true," She began. "I know you think you were a lone experiment and you are the result of a careless government. To some degree that is true, but in another sense it was very much intentional. You were a part of a program that was researching mechanisms of weaponizing the ability to shrink things. Or more specifically: people. It had more uses than you think."

As she explained various reasons for shrinking people, I was lost in my thoughts as I became indignant with my origins. My attention was brought back to her as she explained who she was.

"My mother's job was to research the genes involved in our size. We needed to be able to know and alter genes before they could weaponize the project. After years of research, she came up with a list of genes that she thought she could alter to form a still proportional but much smaller human being. Unfortunately the more she thought about it, the more wary she became of it. Was it fair to create such a thing and create a person in the name of research who would struggle throughout the rest of his or her life? She finally rationalized that maybe she could just fix it by then researching ways to grow subjects. For various reasons, this became much more complicated and unsuccessful than its opposite process. For this reason, she vowed to not create a shrunken subject, but the government was already too invested. They fired her and continued the project anyways, giving birth to you. Ever since then she had been digging to find where you lived and what exactly happened to you from the project. Unfortunately I think the government caught wind of her search, and ordered an assassination on my mother."

She took a moment before continuing, " I was so relieved to find you were normal when I finally discovered your location a week ago, but saddened that my mother was the reason you were like this and she was unable to right her wrong. I'm not sure you believe me, but I wanted to come and apologize in person to you."

I was absolutely in shock of what I had just heard and almost had no words to say. I looked to Asha and then back at myself. An inner fire began to build as I thought about my life. How could she? This is all her mother's fault. As I neared lashing out at her, she mentioned one more thing.

"I knew an apology wasn't going to be enough so I've spent years developing a growth serum to return you to normal. For you and for my mother."

She pulled out a vile and showed it to me.

"I haven't been able to test it on a subject yet, but I think I was able to successfully alter my mother's previous work. I'll get you a glass of water and you can try it now."

She hurried to the kitchen grabbing two waters before returning. She handed me the vile and my water before sitting back down. I took a moment to breathe in and calm myself.

"I know this is a lot, so take your time. Is there a restroom that I can use in the mean time?" She asked.

I pointed to the hall, still unable to speak. She walked to the bathroom and shut the door. How could I trust her? A woman in her late 20s creating a solution to a top secret project for the government seemed crazy. There was only one way to find out.

I grabbed the vile and emptied its contents into the glass. I stared at it thinking about the future. It had already been a hectic week, and now this weird shit happens. I began drinking the water. The bathroom door opened as I finished the last of the water.

"Good. You're brave Vick, you know that. It should only take about 10-15 minutes for the effects to occur. Just relax."

She picked up her glass and began drinking the water, creating small talk in mean time. I watched as she sipped at the glass. Slowly the remaining contents began to dwindle until finally there was nothing left.

"I'm gonna go lay down for a bit." I said.

"Sure, just do it somewhere where you can grow." She replied. "I'll come check on you in a bit."

I walked away, quickly detouring for the security camera room. I watching through the camera at Asha, waiting for something to happen. I stared intently at the screen for several minutes. Nothing was happening. She was a liar. I was almost ready to walk into the living room when I noticed Asha slumped in the couch, her eyes slowly closing. I hurried out to the living room again where I witnessed an incredible event. Asha's body was transforming, but unlike her claims of growth, her body began to shrink in size. I watched as she continuously lost inches from her body, causing her to fall to the floor as the process continued. After a couple minutes everything calmed. Asha's body was motionless. Was she dead? I walked next to her and listened for signs of life. She was still breathing, just unconscious. I took it upon myself to drag her to my room. She was definitely small, but compared to me, she was still huge. Probably 2 feet tall still and she was heavy too drag despite her petite frame.

We finally made it to the bedroom, where I laid her on the floor next to my bed. She was too tall to fit in the bed but at least she was safe in here. Hopefully the girls wouldn't be back for awhile so I could figure out what to do next. Asha's eyes began to flutter as she began coming back to reality. She started coughing and looking around.

"What happened, Vick? Where am I?" She asked.

"You're in my room."

She stood up, and noticed we still weren't the same height.

"Ok well you look just shy of 4 feet tall, but at least that's still progress." She said laughing.

"Yeah. Progress." I repeated unsure of how to tell her.

"What's the matter, Vick? You should be excited, we can get you back to normal height if I just get back to the lab and make more." She said optimistically.

"Asha, I didn't grow, you shrunk." I said bluntly.

Her smile immediately dissipated and a look of worry overtook her face. She looked around again, finding clues that confirmed my claim. Her breathing quickened and she became visibly frustrated. Before she could lash out at me, the front door opened and a voice rang out.

"Hello! Anyone home?"

It was Aruna again, she must have just got back from practice. Shit, this just made things worse. I could see Asha's eyes look to the door in hope. I knew what she was thinking and it wasn't a good idea so I shot up to intercept her. Before she could make it to the hallway door I slammed into her with all my weight and said as quietly yet firmly as I could, "Wait, no! That's not a good idea."

She immediately grabbed me by the throat and slammed me against the wall, my feet now several inches off the ground. "Don't lecture me about good ideas."

She let me go, and I slumped to the floor coughing and nursing my back. She ran out of the room, and I could hear her as she yelled to Aruna.

"Please, help! I need your help! I just need to make a phone call and for someone to take me back to my lab." Asha pleaded.

I winced in anticipation of Aruna's reaction.

"Well hello, you must be a friend of Vick. Come on into my bed room and we'll take care of you." Aruna said deceivingly.

I listened as they walked to her room and the door shut behind them.
Chapter End Notes:
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