You prepare a large bowl of oatmeal and a glass or orange juice. As you scarf down the food, you remember the days in elementary school when your mother would insist that you eat your oatmeal to become big and strong. Well, here's hoping it will do just that. You've lost quite a few years and there must be something in this house to help you gain them back.
When you're finished eating, you retire to the study and begin transcribing your map onto a clean piece of paper, clarifying your chicken scratch handwriting and straightening the lines to be more proportional. As you work, you realize you have to reach farther and farther to write on the paper. A feeling in your gut tells you the oatmeal has caused another change...and it doesn't seem like a good one.
As you stand up out of the chair, your clothes fall straight off your body. The desk is much higher than it used to be, coming to your waist now. (Platform boots included.) You step out of the boots and feel your arm warmers loosen and slip off. Your stockings follow, and soon you're naked once again.
You run up to the bathroom on the second floor. You're so small now that the sink meets your chest. In the mirror you can see a young face peering back at you with the same pale complexion, oddly rosy cheeks and dark blue eyeshadow as you've grown accustomed to. Your breasts have melted away to nothing. Your pubic hair is but a memory. Your body has regressed to that of an eight-year-old.
Strangely enough, your hair is still quite long. It's looking thicker than ever. The waves it had been steadily developing look something closer to curls now, especially at the bottom where the pull is less extreme than the top. This curling brought your hairline up from your ankles, where it had been just previously, up to your calves.
You exit the bathroom, a four-foot-two, eight-year-old girl with an insane amount of black wavy hair and a gothy pale skin tone. As you make your way back to the study to continue working, your mind seems to wander. Now a part of you doesn't want to spend the entire day mapping out the hedge maze. Why couldn't you find something fun to do around the house? Surely there were plenty of rooms you hadn't been in that offered a world of new experiences.
You shake your head as you reach the first floor. You have to stay on task so you can get out of this house with your life.
In the study, you see the pile of clothes you left behind was gone. On the desk chair, however, was a slightly different outfit. The black-and-white-striped leggings and arm warmers were there, as usual, but the dress was frillier. It didn't have such a tightly-shaped bodice or wide-open collar. White fabric was sewn into the upper chest area up to the neck. You slipped it over your head once again, finding it a different fit than the old dress. You see a thick white ribbon on the chair and tie it around your waist, securing the dress. You make a large bow in the back of the waist, then you fasten the new, smaller black-and-white laced collar. The skirt of the dress is even wider than the one previously, though it still reaches your ankles. Now there are five layers to it, not three. There is a white frilly layer, a thin black layer, another white frilly layer, another thin black layer, and finally the black see-through lace layer. A fancy white curved line is sewn in a wave close to the bottom edge of the black dress, encircling it. These dresses seemed to be getting more elaborate the younger you got, though at least it covered you up a little more in the top.
You also notice, with absolute delight, that a pair of girl's panties is lying on the chair. You pick them up gingerly, hardly believing them to be real. How far this house has made you come: Here you are, simply happy just to be able to wear underwear again. Apparently the house wasn't that much of a pedophile and finally decided to let you dress properly.
The leggings and arm warmers came on next, finalizing your outfit. It didn't feel much different, really, until you came to the shoes. These new platforms didn't go up your legs quite as high as the old ones, but they were a whopping twelve inches in the heel. At least this time they were flat-footed instead of high-heeled, but an entire foot of sole was ridiculous!
You glanced around the room, realizing that maybe getting a foot of height back probably wasn't a bad idea. You jump into the chair and pull them on. These have only two buckles, and they fasten tightly. You slowly stand up, bracing yourself with the desk. You're back to a little over five feet in the height department. Not bad, although you seriously wondered how well you'd be able to walk around on the uneven dirt paths inside the hedge maze. You certainly didn't want to fall and have to wash up again, lest you regress to become a baby.
Your mind is in conflict. What are you going to do? Risk the maze, or appeal to your more youthful nature and explore some more of the house?