Jake woke up. For one second he had forgotten about the latest events but as soon as he remembered he immediately looked around. He had expected the same dark room but the truth was far from it.
There were toys around him as well as some bookshelves filled with juvenile books. “What the…?” He thought as he looked around. Even the sheets on the bed were childish. They were about some cartoon Jake didn’t know. One thought quickly came to him: “How come was I asleep on a kid’s room?”
He got out of bed at once but felt that something was weird as he stood up. The floor was much closer than it used to be. “No, it can’t be.”
He looked at his hands and feet: they were much smaller. His height had drastically dropped and he found no hair whatsoever on his armpits legs or in his pubic area. He was wearing pajamas with footballs, basketballs, baseballs, almost every ball from every game. Somehow he was a child again.
He was terrified. His heart was beating faster and faster and he couldn’t help it as a tear rolled down his face. He was a kid. That’s what those bastards had done to him. In his despair he looked around the room for something that would help him, anything at all. As he opened a door from the closet he found clothes that would fit a kid and a mirror. He looked at his own reflection. He looked like his 10 year old self. No, he WAS his 10 year old self. He noticed that the earring he had on the left ear was now gone just like his zits. At least his hair remained the same still curly and black just like when he was younger. He said some words but the voice wasn’t his own. It was higher pitched just like a kid’s voice. This couldn’t be real. This had to be a joke.
Unfortunately he found nothing useful. His ID and mobile phone were gone. Just how was he supposed to prove that he wasn’t a kid? And where was he? He recalled the strange man’s message. “Adopted by a loving family…” No, that can’t be it. He was stuck as a kid and now he had to deal with a strange family as well? Jake didn’t even know what to think anymore. He just felt angry and frustrated.
The door was opened and a man walked in. “Hey sport! Already up? Come on, you need some breakfast. You don’t want to be late for school, do you?”
Jake’s anger seemed to fade away and he actually smiled at the man. “Yeah, I’m coming!” Jake said happily with his new voice. The man smiled and closed the door.
“Dear god what’s wrong with me?” He asked in confusion after realising what he had said. This is a joke, this can’t be real. Suddenly the same man told him to hurry up. “Come on Logan, breakfast is ready! It’s pancakes!” A feminine voice shouted. Jake got dressed quickly. He just felt too hungry to care anymore. Still as he headed down the stairs he wondered how the other guys were doing.
---
Ryan couldn’t believe this. He had woken up in a weird room and found out he was 10 again. His neo-nazi tattoos were gone and worst of all he found out he was now living with a Korean family. Part of him wanted to just run away as far as possible but the man’s warning had been clear: “You will not be allowed to run away…” Ryan certainly wasn’t a coward but he wasn’t completely stupid. Those men had managed to regress his age back to 10. What would happen if he tried to run away? Would they make him what 6, 4, 3, unbirth? He wouldn’t play with fire. He would just play along and pretend to tolerate these morons until everything went back to normal.
His new “parents” were not really bad people. He found out they were Mr. and Mrs. Cho but they insisted on him calling them mom and dad. Ryan mentally called them Bitch 1 and Bitch 2, though. The room he’d slept in had a large amount of videogames and the latest consoles as well as a desk that was perfectly organized with books, notebooks, pens, pencils and erasers. It was a room meant for a hard working child that loved to play videogames. Too bad for his “parents” since Ryan didn’t really care about any of those.
When Mrs. Cho told him to hurry up to go to school Ryan almost choked on his cereal. He didn’t expect to go back to school. He wondered about telling them that he was actually 16 but that seemed foolish. Maybe they would think he was insane and probably get him to a shrink or worse: call the men who had done this and have them take him away. He couldn’t risk it. Besides school could be fun. A 16 year old in the fourth grade would be a piece of cake.
As he said farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Cho when he entered the school bus they shouted “Bye, Tom. See you later!” Confusion was stamped on his face even after the door was shut behind him.
---
Tony was actually enjoying his conversation with mom and dad. Well, they weren’t his real parents but they were much likeable than his own. He had woken up energetic but soon found out that he was 10 once again. In shock he shouted and cried and Mr. and Mrs. Brody soon stepped into his room thinking he had a nightmare. Now he was talking to them, ignoring the fact that he knew almost nothing about the couple. They seem nice people with light brown hair. His dark skin contrasted with their pale skin but that didn’t seem to matter. He felt loved by that couple and despite everything he thought that being raised by this couple was a good thing. The strangest thing was perhaps that this couple called him Andy. That was weird. He tried to wonder about that. Maybe Andrew was his middle name? Wait, that wasn’t his middle name. In fact he didn’t even remember his full name. What was happening?
He eventually stopped thinking about it. It’s not like he had any problem with being called Andy. He quickly got ready for school. It didn’t bother him much that he had to go to the fourth grade. It was probably better than a life of drug dealing anyway so he happily got on the bus waving goodbye to his new family.
---
When he woke up, Kevin noticed that his bed was far higher than it should be. After he looked down he realized why. It was a bunk bed and he had been sleeping on the top bed. He felt curious about who the person sleeping beneath him was. He looked down and found out that beneath him was a boy, around 10 years old who was still asleep. Looking around, Kevin felt that this room was meant for a kid. He eventually realized that it was weird that he could be sleeping in such a small bed without any problem. As he searched his brain for answers about his whereabouts and why he was sleeping in a kid’s room with another boy he remembered the strange man’s message from the previous day. “Those bastards! They really weren’t joking!” He thought.
Despite the panic he felt he quietly climbed down the ladder to avoid waking up the other boy. He needed to look at himself. He needed to confront his fears. Deep down he knew the answer but he couldn’t believe it. His age had gone down. Way down. He sprinted out of the bedroom and got into the bathroom. Kevin didn’t even wonder how he knew where the bathroom was despite his ignorance of the house and its occupants.
Yes, the mirror did reveal his worst fears. His hair was lighter just like when he was young. His freckles were more numerous and his once broken nose was now fixed. His heart kept beating faster and faster. He didn’t know what to do. He was trapped in a small cage. He couldn’t defend himself and he had no plan whatsoever. It was one of unfortunate moments when both his mental and physical abilities were virtually useless. All his ideas were far too risky.
“Are you done, Rob?” Asked a child’s voice “I gotta pee!”
Kevin felt angry for having his train of thought interrupted (what was he thinking about anyway?) “Calm down, Mike! I’m almost done!” He shouted with his high pitched voice. The adrenaline he felt before seemed to fade away by now. He suddenly realised that he knew the boy’s name. It did make sense; they were sharing a room after all. He consciously labeled that thought as unimportant. He had more important things to think about, although he didn’t remember what for a second. Eventually he managed to get his thoughts back on track. He needed to go back to his own age. He couldn’t give up. “I just got to find a way to make things go back to normal.” He thought “But how?” That seemed like a dilemma.