Morning time brought no more answers than last night did, only headaches. Emily was the first of us to wake up and so appointed herself as my personal wake up call. My cave was pushed up against the wall and right next to her bed. So all she had to do was lean down from her bed to speak with me. As I was lying on my cloth bed I heard her gentle voice from above.

“Peter,” she said softly. “Peter, time to wake up.”

But after spending most of the night dreaming about everything I had gone through up until now I was in no mood to get up now, regardless of the time. Unfortunately for me Emily was persistent. A loud THUMP resonated from the roof, Emily had struck the rook of my Cave with her hand. I bolted up in my bed looking up at the ceiling.

“Peter! Wake up!” she called down.

Joseph was now panicking and scurrying around, as well as up, the room making clicking noises. But I just grumbled and laid down, trying to bury myself underneath the folded piece of cloth that was my blanket. From outside the tinted Bat Symbol window I could see Emily’s feet touch the ground as she got out of bed. From where I was on the second level of the Bat Cave I was about eye level with her shins. I watched from underneath the blanket as Emily lifted one bare foot and tapped it against the roof of my Cave.

“Fe! Fi! Fo! Fum!” she called down, tapping on the Cave with every word. “Wake the hell up you lazy bum!”

In frustration I sprang out of bed, grabbing whatever object was closest to me, and stuck my head out of the nearest window. “Is it too much to ask for a little sleep!” I shouted. “Don’t make me throw this at you!”

Emily just looked down on me from above with an amused expression on her face. Then her mouth suddenly fell open. “Peter,” she said as she got down on her knees. “Where the hell did you get that from?”

“What the fuck are you- . . .” It wasn’t until then that I realized I was holding the journal from last night. Which means it wasn’t a dream. I spent all of last night writing down everything that’s happened to me since I’ve been shrunk. A glance back at my bed showed the clothes were still there as well. All that was there were a few T-Shirts, jeans, underwear, and socks. As if I didn’t loath doing laundry before, now I have to learn to wash clothes by hand.

“Give me a minute,” I said to Emily. I walked over to my bed and unfolded one of the shirts. It was a white T-shirt with the Beatles logo on the left side that was supposed to represent The White Album. The clothes smelled fresh and felt comfortable when I put them on. Maybe I don’t know where these came from but I could sure as hell still enjoy them. And if I’m going to be small for a while I was going to need clothes anyway. And I was not about to let Emily go clothes shopping for me at Toys R Us.

Just as I was unfolding the other shirts to get a look at them a necklace fell out from one of them. I recognized it, mainly because I was wearing it right before I went to sleep and woke up shrunken. The necklace belonged to my grandmother originally. It was a family heirloom that she brought over from Italy when she immigrated in 1947. From what she’s told me the necklace has always been in our family and is said to date back to ancient Rome. The necklace itself is a gold coin on a metal chain. On the front side of the coin is an animal’s head. But the coin is so old no one has been able to figure out exactly what animal it is. On the other side of the coin is an inscription in Latin, the language of the Romans. Non est spes ejus, et non vult oblivisci. I’ve tried looking up the meaning of it a few times but I’ve yet to find a good translation. Every online translator gave me a different definition for what the inscription means so I gave up.

As I held it thoughts flew through my head. The most prominent one was ‘Could this be what made me shrink’. I stood there considering it until I ultimately decided it wasn’t. If the coin had shrunken me it would have been on me since I’ve arrived. But then that lead to a whole other slew of questions. Where did these things come from? Did whatever shrink me send these clothes? There was definitely something important that I was missing. If I could just put some pieces together maybe I can find a way to make myself normal sized again.

“Peter,” Emily called. “Are you done yet?”

I filed those thoughts away for later, I’d figure it out eventually. “Yeah I’m good,” I answered. Once I was dressed I went over to my two Dixie cups, took my morning piss, and washed my hands in the second one. The journal I left on my bed so that I would have a way of documenting my adventures. After hefting my staff I climbed onto the roof, Joseph proceeded to follow me without any show of effort, the little jerk.

By the time I was done Emily had likewise washed up in the bathroom and gotten dressed. Today she wore a white tank top and blue jeans that were rolled up to her calves. Just like yesterday she remained barefoot, thank you God. Her eyes widened when she walked close enough to get a good look at me. “Where the fuck did you get clothes from! And they’re a perfect fit too!”

I shook my head. “I have no idea actually. I found them last night but I was so tired I didn’t even pay them any mind. When I woke up I thought it was a dream or something.”

Emily knelt down in front of my Cave and held her hand out, palm up. “Mind if I take a closer look?” she asked.

I nodded to her and then looked down at Joseph. “Follow me Joseph. You’re going to be alright, I promise.”

Joseph made a few clicking sounds before reluctantly following me onto Emily’s massive hand. She slowly lifted us up to eye level so she could inspect my new clothes. “I don’t remember you ever owning a shirt like this but it seems like something you’d wear. That’s pretty freaky.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But at least they’re comfortable.”

Emily moved her hand away from her face a little so we could talk without being too close. “And you have no idea where they came from?”

“No idea yet,” I replied.

“And they just appeared out of thin air?”

I nodded.

“That’s . . . that’s scary.”

“You have no idea,” I said dryly.

Emily cast a worried glance at the Bat Cave before looking back at me. “How about we move on to a less creepy subject? I have good news.”

I shrugged. “Ok, what is it?”

“I don’t have work today and nobody else is home today. You know what that means?”

I shook my head.

“We’re going shopping,” she announced.

My eyes widened in fear. I’ve only been small for three days and in that time I have yet to leave this room. Hell, I never thought I’d actually be ready to leave this house. And she’s talking about taking me shopping like it’s no big deal and has already been decided. Judging by the fact that I was standing in her hand it probably was already decided.

But that doesn’t mean I was ready. “Uh . . . . sho-shopping?”

Emily nodded enthusiastically. “You need some furniture for that cave.”

My heart started to pound harder. Great, she’s taking me to Toys R Us. What would happen if a little kid finds me and thinks I’m a toy? That’s when my brain started to show me images of little girls forcing me to play tea party and little boys trying to smash me with action figures. Dick move brain, dick move.

“Don’t get you’re skirt in a twist,” she smirked. “I never said we’d have to leave the house.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make me feel better or worse, so I just looked at her cautiously. “Then where are we going?”

Emily grinned. “Where else?”

*****

Yup, you guessed it, Emily’s basement. Well, actually Emily's crawl space. If you don’t know what a crawl space is think of it as a basement that’s too low to stand up in. The door to the crawl space is about two and a half feet tall, the entire space itself is three feet high so you have to ‘crawl’ on your hands and knees the whole time. That is unless you’re me.

Once Emily opened the door she Joseph and I went in with her proceeding right behind us. I have to admit, the crawl space was a great idea. Plastic containers and cardboard boxes on either side of me formed a hallway to walk down. Once I reached the center of the crawl space the hallway of boxes opened up allowing me a view of the many other things stored inside. This place had everything. Cardboard boxes of books, pictures in frames, old paintings, extra tables and chairs, workout equipment, VHS tapes, records, board games, and toys. A lot of toys.

Seriously there were action figures of all kinds of superheroes, transformers, Lincoln Logs, Legos, pirates, knights, and dolls. It was all so big that it was like Emily had a city in her own house. And I walked into that city, staff in hand and pet ant at my side, like a traveler ready to explore. Emily lumbered behind us on her hands and knees until she reached the center where she sat down. Her one leg was stretched out in front of her while her other leg was bent with her knee to her chest. Once she was seated Emily began to rummage through containers.

“I should still have some old doll house furniture somewhere around here.”

While she spent her time looking for furniture I went on to more important matters, exploration. With the way the containers were stacked it wouldn’t be that hard to climb up them, but I wanted to walk around a bit first. While I was doing just that I came across an old mouse trap that was still set and loaded. The trap was a little bit longer than I was tall but it wasn’t the size that scared me. The metal bar that was still set could slice right into me if I was ever trapped underneath of it. I enjoyed that image of being caught in a mouse trap for a minute until a worse thought hit me: for there to be mouse traps there must be mice.

Not wanting to find out I turned around and began looking through some old toys. These were a bit older than the Bat Cave. There were some original Power Rangers action figures, Hot Wheels cars, and toys from Toy Story the movie. I walked over to an actual size Woody doll with a plastic guitar in one hand. Sure the guitar was plastic and the strings were made of actual string but I’ve been playing guitar since I was ten and I was curious. Of course the strings made barely any sound when I plucked them but that didn’t stop me from trying out a few chords. Joseph made two clicking sounds that could have either been applause or cricket noises.

“Hmph, everybody’s a critique,” I said to myself. So I tossed the guitar aside and went over to another box.

A small container of figures had spilled out on to the floor. There where knights, pirates, vikings, samurai, and soldiers from different war eras. Each one of them where about as tall as I was and weighed about as much as a store mannequin. I folded my arms over my chest.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked as I cast Joseph a side glace. He responded with a few clicks and I nodded. “Then let’s do it.”

So one by one I began to assemble each plastic figure into rows, ten figures wide and ten figures long. It took a little while but Emily was too busy collecting furniture to notice. About halfway through I looked over and saw she had found a bed, a table, a few chairs, and was still searching. A few more minutes later Emily sighed and put down the container she had been looking through.

“Well I found a few things you might enjoy. You want to come over here and try them out?” she asked. When I didn’t respond Emily looked over her shoulder and saw what I had been up to. I stood at the head of a platoon of 100 figures, my staff in hand and Joseph at my side. I faced the figures and put on my best Scottish accent.

"Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"

Then I turned towards Emily and pointed my staff at her. “Attack my countrymen! Attack!”

Of course nothing happened and I ended up just standing there pointing at Emily like an idiot but I’m pretty sure I had earned an Oscar.

Emily on the other hand laughed out loud as she clapped a bit for my performance. “Well done, very nice performance. Now clean that up and help me look for some things for your Cave.”

I smirked at her. “You can clean them up after I finish them off.” Then I turned towards my plastic army and began fighting them. Technically I just knocked them down with my staff but I sparred a bit with them as well. Every one of them was carrying a weapon of their own and I pretended to fight them a bit before knocking them over. It probably looked a lot more stupid to Emily but to me I felt like a warrior. In the end I stood in the middle of a battle field, paint and plastic carnage littered the ground as far as the eye can see.

All of a sudden Emily’s thumb and index finger plucked me from the battle field and placed me on the ground by the bed she found. It was just a typical plastic doll house bed that could fit perfectly into the Bat Cave.

“I know it might not seem comfortable but with enough cushions it’ll work.” she explained.

I looked up at her and nodded my head. “Thank you Emily.”

She smiled down on me. “And I picked up a few things you might like.” She reached a hand behind her and scooped up a few unseen objects. She brought her hand around and dropped them in front of me. Two of them were plastic swords that I could probably mount on the Bat Cave walls for decoration. A plastic Bat-a-rang that must have belonged to the Bat Cave play set originally. There was also a plastic lamp, and I don’t mean a typical living room lamp. This was an old fashion lantern that would hold candles for light.

“I thought I could cut off some wax and a wick from a real candle and you could make one. You remember how right?” she asked.

I nodded. We had once taken a field trip in elementary school to a colonial style house that was now used for historical recreation. They taught us things like writing with a quill pen, making candles, and cooking using old fashion methods. All you have to do is take long wick and clamp it to a rod. Afterwards you have to keep dipping the wick into a vat of melted wax repeatedly. After each dip the wax hardens and you dunk it again until it builds up and becomes thick enough. All I would have to do is replicate that on a smaller scale. I picked up the lamp and eyed it thoughtfully.

“That’s a pretty cool idea but what about fire?” I asked.

“I thought of that,” she replied. “We keep matches around the house in case of power outages. I’ll cut up a few and leave the pack in your Cave. That way if you ever need to see in the dark or scare off bugs you can strike a piece of a match head and light up a candle.” She shrugged. “Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to find you something you can use as a fire pit.”

I walked over to Emily’s right foot, her toes flexing, and hugged her ankle as best as my tiny arms could. “You’re the best Emily.”

She smiled down at me. “Aaaaw, why thank you.” I could feel her toes wiggling behind me as I hugged her.

All of a sudden Joseph began clicking rather quickly as he flailed his front legs in the air. During the spider incident that meant he was warning me of something. I looked around but couldn’t see anything among all of the boxes. So I tried to follow where Joseph was gesturing to until I finally spotted a pair of beady eyes in a shadowy ally between two boxes.

“Peter?” Emily asked. “What’s wrong?” She hadn’t seen it yet.

I held up a hand to forestall her as I slowly walked towards the eyes. The mouse in turn stepped out and into the light. It was small, as mice usually are, it came up to my stomach in height. The overall body shape reminded me of a small bear, a small front with a thick lower body. It’s nose sniffed at the air rapidly. As soon as it stepped out of the shadows I heard Emily gasp. “Oh my God,” she squeaked. “Peter! Get away from it.”

I just held a hand up as I kept walking closer towards it.

“Peter!” she urged. “Get the hell away from that thing! It could bite right through you!” I saw the shadow of her hand move over top of me, probably to pick me up and carry me away from the mouse.

“Emily stop,” I said firmly. “I have to do this.”

“Do what!” she exclaimed, but I noticed her hand stopped moving.

Do what? I actually didn’t know. What I did know was that I could run into this thing while Emily isn’t around one day. And when that day comes I need to know I’ll have some chance at taking care of myself, I can’t always rely on a bigger person. All I wanted to do was just approach the mouse without any show of fear and pet it. If I could show the thing that I was afraid of it and the mouse had no reason to fear me then I’d have one less thing in this house to worry about at night.

It worked for all of about two seconds. I reached my hand out and the mouse pounced at me. By pure survival instinct alone I jumped back and out of its reach. Then, without even thinking about what I was doing or why, I spun 360 degrees to my right and swung my staff as hard as I could across the things face. I felt a solid SMACK as I made contact with it. The mouse squealed out in pain before turning around and running back into the shadows. My first instinct was to run after it right then and there, but I sank to my knees as the shock of the situation wore off. I had just fought a giant mouse . . . and won!

I heard Emily echo my sigh of relief and I turned to look up at her. Her hand rested on her chest as she took in deep breaths. “Don’t . . . ever . . . do that again,” she panted.

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” I said with a smirk. “I’m the one who hit it.”

Her face lightened up as she smiled down on me. “That has got to be the single coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I mean if I were in your shoes I’d never ever leave my room. But you’re fighting spiders and mice!”

I returned her smile. “Thank you.” Coming from Emily that meant a whole lot to me. Joseph scurried over to me and I bent down and pet him. “Now let’s get out of here,” I said. “Before anything else shows up.”

*****

By the end of the day Emily and I had gotten the whole Bat Cave set up with my new furniture. Now I have an actual bed along with a table to eat my meals on. I spent the rest of the day making candles the old fashion way. Now I had about five of them to use in my new plastic lamp. And for the finishing touch Emily gave me her old iPhone 4 to use for entertainment. She placed it in my room in front of the Bat Symbol window, I dubbed it the Bat Computer. Using the YouTube app I was able to find instructional videos made by people who knew how to actually wield a quarter staff. These would definitely help me out in situations like today.

Speaking of which Emily also came up with another great idea. She brought up a kitchen knife and suggested I use it to sharpen the plastic Bat-a-rang she found. It’s still made of plastic but now I’ve got an actual sharp weapon I could use if I ever need a knife. I only sharpened the wings and left the center blunt so I could have a handle to grip it with. If this keeps up I’ll turn into a combination of Batman and Les Stroud from the show Survivor Man.

As the day was ending and Emily and I were getting ready for bed she peaked her eye in through the window.

“Hey Peter?” she asked.

I walked from my new bed over to the window so that I wouldn’t have to speak to her eye. “Yeah?”

“I’m going in to work tomorrow afternoon. You sure you’re going to be alright without me here tomorrow?” she asked. “Would you want to come with me for the day?”

I stared off at the ground a bit as I pondered that. Emily worked at Barns&Noble, a book store. I love reading and it’d be fun as hell to explore but I just shook my head. “One day,” I assured her. “But I don’t think I’m ready to leave the house yet.”

She nodded. “Ok. But just remember you can call me now that you’ve got my old phone, it hasn’t been disconnected so it can still make calls and stuff.”

I gave her a thumbs up. “Thanks Emily. And don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Good night.”

“Good night,” she whispered.

I walked back to me room and sat down on my new bed. The folded cloth made it pretty comfortable and it was big enough to serve as a queen sized bed to me. Just as I sat down I grabbed a piece of match that Emily had cut for me, struck it against the match pack and lit my first candle. I set the candle in the lantern and put it on the floor. Then I took out my journal and proceeded to write down the day’s events as they have just been described now. The only difference was in the last few lines I wrote:

Early this morning I hit my first wall, metaphorically speaking. I was afraid of something like this happening. If it hadn’t been for Emily I don’t know how long it would have taken me to even get out of bed. Other than that it’s been three days without taking them and I’ve held off alright. I just hope I find a way to return to normal size soon before I take a turn for the worst.