"Kaaarrrynn!" Jon whined, his voice cracking as his body tumbled backwards through another reverse growth spurt. Karyn loomed above him, bigger than ever, a smug smirk on her face.
Karyn tossed the rock up into the air, caught it, and palmed it again. "Well I was going to change you back, but I think I've changed my mind. You're much cuter like this," she teased, reaching down and pinching his cheek.
Jon pulled away. "C'mon, what the fuck, Karyn! I'm not a kid, for christsake!"
"Hey!" Karyn's eyes flashed with a mixture of humor and genuine anger. "Watch your mouth! You shouldn't curse out your babysitter, y'know." She paused, as if struck by an idea. "In fact "
"I wish that Jon would grow one year younger every time his little tush is spanked." She grinned wickedly. "There. That should motivate you to be a good little boy."
Younger! Eight years old was bad enough! "Karyn "“ " Jon began to growl, sounding like a frustrated puppy.
Karyn tsk-tsk'd, and raised her hand into the air threateningly. "Choose your next words carefully, Jon, or I swear I'll whack your behind back to a time when 'Goo-goo, ga-ga' is considered an accomplishment."
Jon froze, before begrudgingly closing his mouth. He glared at Karyn, calling her every cuss he could think of inside his own mind.
Karyn giggled, looking down on the adorably angry little boy. "Better!" Karyn tussled his hair affectionately. "There's hope for you after all. Now, I'll be back later. Be good, Jonny " She pocketed the stone and turned toward his bedroom door.
"What? Wait!" Jon cried, reaching after her with a hand. But she was already gone. He could hear her exchanging a few words with his mother downstairs, before the front door opened and slammed shut again.
Jon scampered over to the window, standing on tiptoes so he could see out through the glass. Karyn was walking down the front walk, away from the house. She looked back, smiling and giving him a little wave as she spotted him peeking out the window. Then she turned left onto the sidewalk and was gone.
Jon gaped, staring after her like she'd reappear. She hadn't really left him here as an eight-year old, had she? She was going to come back with the stone and grow him back up, right? Any minute now
When it became clear that that wasn't going to happen, Jon turned away from the window, feeling numb. The bedroom that greeted him only increased his shock, like plunging into a pool of ice cold water.
He hadn't noticed the changes to his room before but he certainly did now. His bedsheets were now bright red and covered in racecars. The pens and textbooks on his desk had morphed into crayons and coloring books. Posters of superheroes, dinosaurs, Pokémon, more, dotted the walls, like a collage devoted to his childhood interests. Culminating in the massive Master Chief poster that hung above his bed.
Heaps of dirty clothes and toys littered the floor. Jon took a tentative step forward and winced as he crushed a metal Iron Man action figure beneath his foot.
It was the perfect bedroom for an eight-year old boy. And staring back at him through the glass of the big, full-length closet mirror was a perfectly normal eight-year old boy, dressed in cute, baby-blue shorts that stopped above his knees and a bright yellow t-shirt emblazoned with an electrified Pikachu.
Jon watched as the boy clenched his fists, his lower lip warbling and tears pooling in his eyes. Jon looked away from the distraught child a moment later, unable to take any more.
"Jon!" He nearly jumped out of his skin as his mother called him from downstairs. "Dinner! Get down here!"
Jon wiped the wetness from his eyes, momentarily frozen, unsure what to do. But really, especially with the stipulations Karyn had placed on him, there was only thing he could do "“ listen to his mother. He slowly, hesitantly, made his way toward the bedroom door, taking a deep breath as he placed his hand on the doorknob, afraid of what he would find downstairs. But he had to confront it. He sighed, and opened the door, creeping timidly from his bedroom.
