The bell on the door of the antique dealer let out a chime as a young lady who looked to be in her late twenties entered the shop. Dressed in a sharp suit, she was clearly not just your average browser.
Naomi Hines knew she had to find some good deals, especially now that her life wasn't exactly going in the direction she wanted it to. She still had a few contracts for decorating a couple of well-to-do homes, and was hoping those would provide her with the income she needed to start over. Her new apartment wasn't exactly fancy, but it was enough for her and her cat Tessie, and at this point that was good enough. Moving up and down the aisles purposefully, Naomi jotted down the items which looked promising, hoping to strike a deal with the proprietor if she bought enough items. After a good deal of haggling, Naomi finally managed to get most of the antiques at a decent price. As she was about to arrange the delivery locations, a strange stone flask caught her eye. It looked like something that belonged in a museum, with odd carvings that looked like renditions of animals in odd positions.
"You only have authenticated materials here, right?" Naomi eyed the shopowner suspiciously. "I don't need any clients finding out that I bought off a dealer that dealt in black market goods."
"Ma'am, I assure you, everything here has been procured through proper channels with full and proper ceritifcations!" the proprietor protested.
"What about that?" Naomi asked, pointing at the stone flask. "That looks like it's been swiped from a dig."
"No, no, ma'am, that actually came through an estate sale! The previous owner had purchased it from another collector, but it's been passed around so long that no one actually knows where it came from originally. In fact, although we have had it appraised by several archeologists, none can definitively trace it back to any known civilization. Therefore, no nation or people have a cultural claim over it. However, the appraisers have all agreed that it is at least 4,000 years old," the owner quickly divulged the truth, worried about his reputation. Naomi squinted at the flask.
"How much?" she asked.
"Well, considering how good of a customer you are, I'll let you have it at just around what we paid for it," the shopkeeper said unctuously, eager to be rid of the strange object without too much hassle, pulling it off the shelf and handing it to Naomi.
"There's something in it," Naomi said, feeling something slosh around as she held the flask. "Did you put something in there?"
"No ma'am, something must have leaked into it," the shopkeeper frowned, then hurriedly took it back, dumped the liquid out into a sink at the rear of the shop, and returned with the cleaned flask. Naomi frowned, but then shrugged and took the flask.
"Did you miss me?" Naomi smiled as she entered the bare-bones apartment which she had just moved into, hearing a loud meow from Tessie. Walking over to the bookshelf, she placed the flask on one of the higher shelves. She didn't have a customer she could pawn it off on now, but it could decorate her new home for the moment. Curious about the new addition, Tessie climbed up to the shelf and began sticking her paw in the top of the flask as though she were trying to catch something inside. "Stop that, Tessie," Naomi called as she headed to her bedroom.
An hour later, the doorbell rang insistently, then gave way to determined knocking. Naomi looked out the peephole, then sighed. Finally she opened the door.
"Look, Steve, it's over!" Naomi scowled at the relatively handsome man outside. "I don't want you here, and I don't want you disturbing the neighbors."
"I just want to talk," Steve wheedled, his hands up. "Do you really want to do this out here?"
"Fine," Naomi backed up after a minute's hesitation and let Steve through the door. However, the minute the door shut behind him, Steve grabbed roughly Naomi by the arm.
"Did you think you could just walk out on me like that?" Steve growled at her.
"Let go!" Naomi struggled and tried to pull her arm out of the vise-like grip, which only seemed to irritate Steve further. Tessie hissed and took off for the bedroom. The cat had never liked Steve in the first place. Furious, Steve whipped Naomi back and pushed her up against the bookcase, slamming her into it.
"Nobody disrespects me and gets away with it!" Steve snarled, not noticing the stone flask teetering on the edge of the shelf above his head. As he shoved Naomi up against the bookcase again, the flask finally went flying, upending its contents, and odd-smelling liquid, all over Steve. Naomi, luckily, had been backed up against the shelves and out of its trajectory.
"Aaaaaaaaah!!" Steve howled as the liquid covered his face and shoulders, dripping down. Falling to the ground, Steve writhed in pain and clawed at his eyes as Naomi looked on in horror. "It's burning!!" Steve screamed. However, Steve's cries were not what held Naomi in place. Before her eyes, Steve was...shrinking? In fact, it was like his body was being compressed. That wasn't all, though. His hands were changing shape, and so was his face. Soon, his pants had fallen off, but the changes showed no sign of stopping. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only minutes, a small form clawed its way out from inside Steve's shirt. "MREOOOOOW!!!" the tomcat yowled.
"S--Steve?" Naomi whispered in disbelief. The tomcat looked dazedly up, then started crabbing backwards. Rolling over, it tried to stand on two legs but flopped over. Flailing and crawling, it made it to the front door of the apartment, but could not reach the doorknob, let alone turn it. Still in shock, Naomi took a few steps toward the entrance to keep an eye on the tomcat, which finally noticed her approach. Letting loose another yowl, it panicked, and, managing to get all four paws underneath it, streaked into the open bathroom door. Reacting without thinking, Naomi slammed shut the bathroom door, locking Steve-turned-cat inside.