Junk mail was a regular occurrence at Alex's house. Fliers, ads, scams, and the occasional magazine the previous owner had never canceled flooded the mailbox weekly, only to be nonchalantly tossed into the trash as she entered the kitchen for her morning coffee. Today, though, something new was mixed within the papers. A small package - about the size of a smartphone box - fell out onto the floor before Alex could throw it out with the pile. Picking it up and taking a closer look revealed almost nothing; no return address, no company logos, nothing but plain black box held closed with a small strip of tape.

Opening it was probably a bad idea. At best, it was probably some scam trying a new strategy to get the best of someone's curiosity. At worst, well, who knows what could be inside. When Alex shook the box, she couldn't feel anything move around inside, and it couldn't have weighed more than half a pound. It seemed like the kind of box a watch or small electronic would come in.

Alex's curiosity got the best of her eventually, though. Slicing open the tape and lifting the lid off the box revealed something interesting: a small remote sitting in a foam mold. On the remote were only two buttons, a set of arrows pointing up and down like volume controls. Like the box it came in, no company logo adorned the remote. Looking closer, it was surprisingly well built for such a simple device. The shell and buttons seemed to be metallic rather than plastic, and the thing had more weight to it than you'd expect.

Someone's replacement remote must have gotten mixed up in the mail somehow, Alex thought. The completely unmarked package certainly made that an understandable mistake. She removed the foam from the box to find a manual, or anything that would give away what the remote was made for. A remote with only two buttons was surely for something pretty specific. Under the foam, though, there was nothing but a small business card-like looking piece of card stock, with a few words written in cursive printed on it.

"Use with care."

The slightly ominous note was no help in figuring out what the remote was for, but it sent Alex's curiosity into overdrive. Slipping the back panel off revealed space for 2 AAA batteries, which Alex filled with some spares from the hall closet. With the batteries in, a faint blue light pulsed to life behind the two buttons, and a slight "whirring" noise began emanating from the device, like a computer that was slightly overheating. What the hell kind of remote was this?

The news was playing on the TV. Standard slow news day things, mostly politics Alex didn't care much about mixed with feel-good stories and a preview of the weather for the week. The remote didn't have any obvious way to sync it to a TV like an old universal remote, let alone instructions on how to do anything like that, so Alex just pointed it at the TV and hit the up arrow, expecting it to turn up the volume or something.

A flash of light filled the room for the second or two that Alex held the button down, followed by the sound of electric sparks spitting out of the remote. It was as if the ceiling light had turned on then immediately burnt out, all from the tiny device in Alex's hand. She jumped backwards, almost tripping over her cat Dusty who had wandered into the room and was now sprinting into the kitchen. Alex went to check on the cat, but froze when she looked back at the TV.

Something was different. Not the volume, the channel, or anything normal like that, the TV itself was different. It was bigger. The 55 inch screen could now barely fit the stand it was on, it had to be at least 70 inches now. Alex blinked and rubbed her eyes, convinced she was just seeing things, but it became increasingly obvious that the TV had actually grown.

Alex didn't know how long she stood there staring, but she didn't snap out of it until Dusty walked his way back into the room, the cat walking up and sitting himself in front of her to check if his owner was OK. Alex responded by pointing the remote down at the cat, pressing down on the down arrow for a split second. The thought of whether or not this could hurt Dusty didn't even cross her mind, she 'needed to know' if this remote was really what she thought it was.

A second flash filled the room, slightly shorter than the last, but this time Alex didn't jump. She watched closely as Dusty shrunk down, the large cat suddenly barely larger than he was as a kitten. He flinched a bit at the light, but otherwise seemed totally fine, staring up at Alex the same as he had before, then jumping up onto his cat tree and settling down for a nap. It was like he didn't even notice.

In her shock, Alex dropped the remote. Before she could catch it, it hit the ground and another flash fired out from the device as it bounced. As she shielded her eyes from the light, Alex became overcome with an odd feeling of vertigo. She opened her eyes to the exact sight she was afraid of; she was shrinking, and quickly.

Alex wasn't particularly tall to begin with, standing around 5'3" on a good day. Now, though, she had lost at least 4 inches, and showed no sign of stopping. The world grew and grew around her, the tables and counters creeping closer and closer to her face as the shelves and ceiling moved away at equal pace. The feeling left a pit in her stomach that was unlike anything she had ever felt, as if she was falling in a dream that she couldn't wake from. All she could do was watch and hope it stopped.

Luckily, the process stopped before she was to small to function, but Alex couldn't be more than 4 and a half feet tall now. Dusty looked at her (looked 'down' at her) from his cat tree, seemingly not concerned about his now child-sized owner. The remote was on the floor a couple feet from her, and Alex reached out and grabbed it. It felt larger and heavier in her hand.

"Use with care."