As soon as Jeff hit "save," the screen flashed a brilliant, almost blinding light, and a strange hum filled the room. His body began to tingle as the transformation set in. He felt his muscles shrink, his skin tightening, and his posture shifting as if he were losing years, but with the sense of time accelerating all around him. The world felt distant, blurry, and everything around him seemed to grow larger as he became smaller. His clothes loosened, and with each passing second, he felt more like a child again.
But then—an error message popped up on the screen, blinking in bright red letters: "Error: System malfunction detected." Jeff frowned, confused, and quickly scanned the screen, but before he could react, his vision started to blur again. A sudden jolt of power surged through his body. His transformation was no longer just about becoming younger—it felt like the world itself was warping around him.
He felt dizzy, like the ground was moving under him, and suddenly the room stretched out, the walls elongating. His tiny hands flailed in an attempt to steady himself, but it was too late. Everything around him changed: the furniture, the pictures on the walls, even the lighting. The once familiar surroundings of his bedroom now appeared distorted, almost unfamiliar. The plush chair he had been sitting in looked like a mountain now. The desk, which he had used to configure the device, was now a towering object.
"Mom?" Jeff called, his voice small and high-pitched. His heart raced as he looked around, unsure of what had just happened. He tried to walk, but his legs felt awkward beneath him, almost too small to carry his body. His fingers grasped the nearest object—a lamp—and he clung to it for balance.
But what really shocked him was the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway.
He spun around and saw his mother standing in the doorway, but something was off. She was no longer the adult woman he knew. She was… a little girl? No, not just any little girl—she looked like she was no older than four. Her face was wide-eyed with innocence, and her voice trembled as she called out, "Jeff? Jeff, where are you?"
Jeff blinked, his brain struggling to process the changes. "Mom?" he said, a sense of panic rising in his chest. "What's happened to us?"
Before she could respond, a loud crash came from the kitchen, followed by the sound of something falling over. Both Jeff and his four-year-old mother rushed toward the noise. In the kitchen, everything seemed out of place. The fridge had transformed into something smaller, more modern, and the countertops were now entirely different, smaller too.
Everything felt off. The house—no, this wasn’t his house anymore. It was a completely different environment. The walls were now painted a bright, almost sterile white. The floor was hardwood, not the carpet he remembered. The air itself felt thinner, the whole place somehow more compact, more like an apartment than the spacious house he'd grown up in.
But that wasn’t the only thing that changed. Jeff felt a strange pressure on his chest, as if something was different about him in ways he couldn’t immediately place. When he looked down, he saw the distinct outline of a shirt and jeans that weren’t his anymore—clothes that fit perfectly to his new, child-sized frame. The feeling was uncanny.
"Jeff? What’s wrong?" his mom asked again, her tiny voice trembling in confusion.
"I… I don’t know…" he stammered. "I think the device… malfunctioned."
Just then, another strange shift happened. A loud, sudden ding came from the device in his room, and his body trembled again. He felt like he was being pulled in different directions, his body shifting through time. Before he could react, the change continued, and now he felt his bones stretch out, his features mature, his mind altering again. The sensation of growth felt entirely different this time—almost painful, as if the very fabric of his existence was being rewritten.
He looked down at his hands, which were no longer those of a small child. His fingers had elongated, and the smoothness of his skin had roughened. His body had changed, too. He was no longer four years old… he was 40. His face had taken on the more mature features of an older man, and his body was thicker, with the weight of age settling in. His hair, which had once been short and dark, was now peppered with streaks of gray.
Then, a new voice echoed from behind him.
"Jeff?"
He spun around to see…….