Carl ran into his inner office and slammed the door shut, too frightened to wait around for a response.
Ben, answering the summons, walked into the outer office, but saw no one. “Huh,” he thought. As he looked around, he saw the tray with the loaded syringes of serum.
“I wonder,” he thought, looking in the mirror. He wasn’t bad looking, he thought, but age was starting to creep up on him. He thought about his weekend at Throb, the hot new gay club. He’d been trying to work the room, but got no bites except for one breathless young twink who insisted on calling him “daddy”.
“I’m 38,” he said softly to himself, “but in the gay world I might as well be 80.” He eyed the syringes.
“I saw what happened to Carl. And what happened to the janitor and everyone. Eighteen would be fine, twenty-one would be perfect, sixteen… well, not ideal, but at least it’d only be two years before I could have fun again. And in two years I’ll be 40, and the dating pool will shrink even further.”
He picked up the syringe. “Maybe I’ll get really lucky.” He gritted his teeth and plunged the needle into his arm. He grimaced as every nerve in his arm lit up like it had been set aflame.
“Oh, my God,” he groaned. “No one told me it was painful like this! But I have to watch.” He staggered over to the full-length mirror, tore his shirt off, and dropped his pants, so that he was left in his boxers and socks.
The serum was already working its magic. Ben watched as his hairline started to inch forward. The slight pudge he’d been unable to shake started to shrink down as he descended in age. His beard, which had taken a long time to grow in fully, became patchy as small clumps of hair fell out. His chest hair retreated to a small patch in the center and a little bit around each nipple.
Just then, Ethan walked in. “Ben! Where is Car—oh, Jesus Christ! Did you inject yourself?”
“Yes,” said Ben. “I saw the results and couldn’t wait. And you have to admit—“ he flexed a newly muscular bicep—“the enhancing effects are pretty amazing. I wasn’t this built when I was 30 before.”
“Yes,” said Ethan, “but there’s been a slight problem.”
“What problem?” grinned Ben as he actually grew a couple of inches taller. “Me being a 27-year-old total stud? Wait till I get to Throb tomorrow night. They’re gonna be all over me.”
“Well, that’s if you’re old enough to go,” said Ethan. “But the issue is that we don’t know the full effect. That’s why I’m looking for Carl. I want to see whether he’s regressed mentally or just physically, and whether a 16-year-old’s unstable brain chemistry and hormones have any affect on an adult mind.”
Ben grinned as he retreated to 21 years old or so. “So you mean I might have all my adult memories but still be young, dumb, and full of cum? A horny, tall, muscular alpha stud? Count me in for that bag of blessings.”
“Yeah, well,” said a high-pitched voice from the doorway, “it’s really more of a curse.” The door opened to reveal a young boy just on the cusp of puberty, wearing only an oversized striped shirt that was hauntingly familiar to the ever-youthening Ben.
“Carlyle?” gasped Ethan. “What happened?”
“It looks like there’s a knock-on effect after about six or eight hours,” said Carl. “I was walking down the hall and shrank out of my shoes. So here I am… an athletic, handsome stud of… a 13-year-old.”
Ben stared at Carl in horror as his view of the room dropped an inch or so. “So.. you shrank again? A few hours later?” He reached up to his face to scratch, as the rest of his beard came off in his hands, leaving only a dewy, wispy mustache. He looked in the mirror.
“When is this going to sToP? And what’s wrong with mY vOiCe?” he cried out.
“Looks like you’re going backwards through puberty,” said Ethan. “It appears to have stopped… for now… but you’re younger than Carl was when he stopped. You might be 15… maybe.”
Ben spun around and stared into the mirror. Gone were the new muscles. Gone was the new height. Chest hair, arm hair, beard… all nowhere to be found. He looked like a mid-adolescent, with gangly legs, square shoulders, thin arms, and outsized hands and feet. “German Shepherd puppy paws,” his father had called them.
“But… but…” Ben gulped. “That means that in a few hours I’ll be even younger than Carl. I’ll be a little boy. What the fUcK did I dO to mYsElF? And why is my vOiCe so wEiRd?”
“We don’t know what will happen,” said Ethan. “I haven’t checked on any of the others. It could just be a one-off thing or an aberration in Carl’s genetic makeup…”
“Thanks for calling me a freak in your fancy scientific language,” Carl sneered in his boyish alto. “And the reason your voice is all weird is because you’re literally in the middle of puberty, like I was at first. Of course, I was manlier than you are now…”
“Shut uP!” yelled Ben. “I gotta tHiNk!” He looked in the mirror again. “What is tHiS? Why do I have a B—“ his voice cut out—“a b—bOnEr? I’m not even thinking of anything sExY!”
“Random unwanted erections are part of growing up,” said Ethan. “If you don’t get younger, you’ll probably have nocturnal emissions again too. Wet dreams.”
“Jesus ChRiSt,” moaned Ben. “But I’ll grow up again, r— r— RiGhT?”
“I don’t know,” said Ethan. “You took a pre-experimental drug. There’s no way to know. You, Carl, and the others are patient zero.”
“WHAT!” screamed Carl. “You mean I might be stuck like this, in this weird fluffy-headed tweenage body, for the rest of my life?”
“Maybe you’ll get even yOuNgEr,” taunted Ben. “Maybe you’ll end up in DiApErS!” He laughed, a honky, goose-like chuckle.
“You’re headed the same direction, asshole,” said Carl.
“Yeah, we don’t know that. And at least I can have sEx. I’m ready. You’re not.”
“Boys! Boys!” yelled Ethan. “You’re starting to make me think there are mental effects here. Carl, I’m going to have Melissa go get some more clothes. Can you give your old ones to Ben please?”
Carl tossed the Hollister jeans, Nike Killshots, boxers, and socks over to Ben, who shucked his old adult unders and put them on.
“They’re too big,” he complained, “and I need a sHiRt.”
“Given that all Carl has is a shirt right now, you can go shirtless.”
“I don’t care. I’ll wear Ben’s old adult shirt. It’s going to be the same effect.” Carl took off the striped shirt and threw it at Ben.
Ben looked over at his nude boss, whose privates were fringed with just the beginnings of some downy blond hair, and shuddered. “God, I might not even be that mature in eight hours,” he thought to himself.