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Author's Chapter Notes:

This is an updated version of a story I started a long time ago. If it seems familiar, that’s why. I used the book Save the Cat by Blake Snyder to outline this, so I feel that this version will turn out a lot better than the earlier version of this story.

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Chapter One: A Strange Day Has Found Her

The ocean front home in Matheson county on California’s central coast was immaculate. It had a large two car garage, and was one story spread over a large parcel of land. On the other side of the road in front of the home was a park that ended at a cliff, and the Pacific Ocean gleamed beneath it.

Heidi Hayes was a 13 year old junior high school student. Her parents were saying goodbye to her as they went away for their anniversary in Las Vegas for the weekend.

“I hope you’ll be okay by yourself this weekend,” said Violet Hayes, the girl’s 35 year old mother. “You’re 13 now, you should be old enough to take care of yourself.”

“I’m more than ready to be on my own, mom!”

Heidi’s parents hugged her and got in their new car and drove off. Heidi closed the door behind her, and got on her cell phone.

“Kelsie? My parents are gone for the weekend! I have the house to myself! We need to come up with a plan so I can become as popular as Nicki Nolan!”

Kelsie was at her home a few blocks away. “You’re one of the prettiest girls at our junior high school! I don’t understand why you’re not popular already.”

“I know!” Heidi replied.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

“Kelsie? Someone is at the door. I’ll call you back later.”

Heidi opened the door and saw a girl in a prom dress with a backpack on.

“I’m your grand daughter, I’m from the future! You have to let me in and talk to you, both of our lives depend on it!”

Heidi let the girl in and closed the door. They sat down on the couch in the living room. The girl in the prom dress grabbed a device that looked like a weapon out of her backpack, and set it on the couch.

“This is a neutrino dissimilator, it can shrink people and objects. Place your hand on the device!”

Heidi did as the girl urgently advised her to do, and the girl pushed a button in the gun.

“It is now locked onto your unique chromosome pattern! Now, only you can use this device!”

“What is this all about?” Heidi asked.

“Tonight, two men will try to break into you home. If you say ‘object’ the neutrino dissimilator will shrink any weapon in their hand if you press the trigger. I have the ratio set to one over seventy-two, that will reduce a six foot tall man down to an inch tall. There are other ratio settings, you can explore them after you’ve shrunken the intruders. If you say ‘person’ the ray gun will shrink the person and whatever they’re wearing. The assimilate setting will restore a shrunken person or object back to normal size. If you re-enlarge a shrunken person with a tinier shrunken person inside their stomach, they will both be restored to normal size and the bigger of the two shrunken people will have their guts ripped open!”

The girl pulled out something that looked like a small cage. It had plastic and metal walls that had rectangular holes in them. 

“This is a cage that works with force fields. As long as it is turned on, no shrunken people can escape from it. Here is the remote control for it.”

The girl turned it on, to show Heidi how it worked.

“Why are you dressed like you’re going to the prom?” Heidi asked.

“I didn’t want to risk coming back to this time dressed anachronistically. If people saw the styles of clothing people in my time wore, it would attract attention.”

“You said something about this saving both of us. What did you mean by that?”

“My coming back here is a pre-destination paradox. If I hadn’t given you that neutrino dissimilator to shrink the intruders, you would’ve been killed tonight, and I would’ve never been born!”

“That’s incredible!” Heidi replied. “But how did all of this come about? How did you gain the abilities to travel through time and have a shrink ray gun?”

“My mother married a guy who became president of the United States. Back during D-Day in World War Two, a time traveler gave some time machines and neutrino dissimilators to the United States government. Ever since then, the president and his family and the vice president and his family have all had shrink rays to protect themselves. I was sanctioned by the U.S. government to come back here when they found out about your situation.”

“My daughter will be First Lady?” Heidi asked.

“Yes!” said the future girl. “Oh, there’s one more thing! This has a neural stimulator built into it, if you press this button, it will stimulate the gag reflex in a person’s brain if they swallow a shrunken person. It will make them vomit them up!”

The girl got up and left. “Don’t forget anything I’ve told you!” 

Then she exited through the front door, and was gone.

Heidi locked all of the doors of her home, and stayed up watching late night television and drinking hot chocolate. She had money to order pizza, but was afraid of opening her door. She fell asleep just after midnight with the shrink ray pistol in her right hand, with the television still on.

Two intruders, a black man and a Latino, approached Heidi’s home by the stealth of night, about an hour and a half after midnight. The black guy went to the security system and looked at it.

“Dolliver, give me your switch blade for a second,” he said to the Latino. He clicked it and the blade popped vertically up, and he cut a wire leading from the security box to the power source inside the garage. The lights on the security box went out. He handed the switch blade back to Dolliver.

“How did you know how to do that?” the Latino asked.

“I used to work for this security company, this is the K-83372 model, it’s an older model. I couldn’t do this with the newer ones. Do you know who lives here?”

Dolliver looked at his black accomplice quizzically.

“Violet Hayes, the best defense attorney In Matheson county! She’s bound to have a safe or something in here!”

The two thugs climbed through a window. They headed toward the living room where Heidi was sleeping on the couch. Heidi, who was paranoid because of what the time traveler had told her, was jolted awake by noises in the house. She grabbed her neutrino dissimilator and said ‘object’ and pulled the trigger. The gun in the black guy’s hand shrunk down to a minuscule size.

“What happened to my gun?” the intruder asked. “Did you switch it with this toy version? How did you do that?”

The Latino pulled out a switch blade, and activated it. The blade popped up vertically. Heidi aimed and pulled the trigger, and the switchblade shrunk instantly. Heidi said ‘person’ then pulled the trigger once while aiming at the black intruder, and he was instantly reduced to about an inch tall. She aimed at the Latino and pulled the trigger, and he was also reduced down to an inch tall.

Heidi collected them and placed them in the cage and activated the force field. She set the cage in her bedroom. They were powerless to escape. The Latino backed up and ran forward at full speed into the force field, but was repelled back with a lot of force.

Heidi stood there and watched them within the cage. “I have a cat, but I want to swallow the two of you myself eventually! You’re living on borrowed time!”

To Be Continued!
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