Easter surprise

Complete Story

Marc was lonely on Easter Day as he was living too far away from his relatives to visit them.  He was 20 years old and moved away to live closer to his university.  Therefore, he didn’t think he would do anything special until he received a letter in the mail.  It was an anonymous letter inviting him to a party at a large house in his neighborhood.  With nothing else to do, he decided to accept the invitation.  

When he arrived at the mansion, he noticed, there was nobody else there and no cars in the parking lot.  He began to wonder if the event was canceled or if the letter was simply a mistake but just to make sure, he knocked at the door.  The door opened but he saw nobody inside, intrigued, he walked in to figure out what was going on.  But not long after he entered, the door close behind him and he felt a strange pressure like hands all around him crushing his body.  Then he passed out.  

He woke up in a bedroom.  He looked around and saw a basket and a note.  The note inside the basket said : "Thank you for participating in my easter egg hunt.  To win you must collect all 20 eggs hidden around the house.  But beware, every two minutes, you will lose a year of age, if your age goes below zero, you will die and nobody will remember you even existed.  The game starts when you pick up the basket."  Marc didn't wat to take part in this bizarre game so he didn't pick up the basket and tried to get out but he noticed that the door to the room was locked.

Not knowing what to do, he picked up the basket, and as soon as he did the door to the room opened.  This all seemed surreal.  Could there really be magic involved in this game?  If so he needed to find the eggs quickly because if what the letter said is true, he was in danger of being erased from existence.  He quickly scanned each room, the living room, the kitchen, the two other bedrooms and the basement.  He couldn’t find any eggs just by scanning the place.  Looks like they were well hidden, he would need to look better.  

He then felt the pressure sensation on him once more and a tingling sensation in his body but this time, he didn’t pass out.  It was also much less intense then last time.  

He started with the living room and inspected each area more closely.  He lifted the couch cushions and found his first egg there which he placed in his basket.  Then he lifted the curtains in the windows and found another egg behind one of them.  He then felt the strange sensation again.  This time, he noticed his body felt different.  He had lost some mass and he felt like he was ever so slightly shorter.  He went in front of a mirror to confirm this and saw that he indeed looked slightly different now.  He looked like he was 18 again.  This meant that the sensation he felt was taking years away from him.  He had to act fast or he would vanish.

He decided to search the high places first so that he wouldn’t have to worry about them once he gets too short to reach them.  He checked the bookshelves and found one egg between some of the books.  Before he moved on, he decided to remove some of the books from the shelves and it paid off.  He found another egg behind the books.  He felt the sensation taking away another year again and decided not to waste time putting the books back.  

He went to the kitchen to check the higher cupboards.  He found an egg there.  Then he looked up and saw another egg hanging in the chandelier. He had to use a chair to collect it.  As he climbed on the chair , he felt the sensation again and noticed that he got shorter, making it harder to reach the egg but he still managed.  He then searched the refrigerator and found an Easter egg in an egg carton with some normal eggs.  He then looked himself in the mirror and to his horror, the sensation hit while he was looking at his reflection so he saw himself get younger in real time.  He definitely looked like a teenager now.  

He hurried to one of the bedrooms.  He checked under the pillow and found an egg.  He checked behind the window curtains but there was nothing there.  He stoop on tippy toes and saw that there was an egg on top of the wardrobe.  Just then, he got another year younger and could only see a small part of the egg even standing on his toes.  He reached his arm to grab it.  He opened the wardrobe but found no eggs inside.  By the time he finished, looking through the clothes to make sure, he lost another year.  He ran to the second bedroom only to notice it was meant to be for children.  He looked under the pillow and saw nothing but felt a numb.  He reached inside the pillowcase and found an egg.  There was nothing behind the window curtains here either.  He reached his hand and felt no eggs on top of the wardrobe here although he wasn’t tall enough to look there anymore.  He looked through the wardrobe again and this time there was an egg hidden among the kid sized clothes.  While he was searching the wardrobe, he lost another year and thought to himself that these clothes would soon fit him.  That thought worries him but he reminded himself that he only had 9 more eggs to find and if his calculations were correct, he still had 12 years of age left.  He was making good time.

He then moved on to the basement.  Luckily, there were no high places the eggs could be hidden in because he wasn't sure he could still reach there.  He saw many gardening tools and a gas can.  By looking around closely, he saw that there was an egg hidden behind the gas can.  He then examined the tools just to make sure and saw that there was an tapped egg behind  a hand saw.  he tore off the tape and collected the egg.  While he was examining the tools, he lost another year of age.  

He then checked the bathroom.  It was small, there was a toilet, a cabinet, a sink and a trash can.  He had to climb on the toilet seat to reach the cabinet and found found egg hidden among the cleaning products inside.  He looked in the trash can but it was empty.  He lost another year of age.  He then lifted up the toilet seat and found an egg tapped to it on the inside.  He had now checked every room but there were still 5 eggs to be found.

He figured that now that he was small, it was time to look low.  He checked under the couch and saw an egg.  He had to push the couch to get to it which was now pretty hard at his current age but he managed.  He got younger again.  Then he started probing the kitchen and found an egg tapped to the bottom of the kitchen table.  He lost another year while looking around the kitchen to make sure there were no other eggs but found nothing.  He then went back to the bedrooms where he found another egg under the bed of the adult bedroom.  He lost another year while searching the room.  He then went to the children's room and found nothing.  He checked under the bed and everywhere else he thought of but couldn't find another egg and it cost him another year.  There were only two eggs left now but he was four years old and everything seemed so big and imposing now.  This was getting scary.   He rushed to the basement to find the last egg.  But again he found nothing and he was sure he looked everywhere there.  As he climbed up the stairs, he got younger again and he felt that it was getting very difficult to walk up these stairs.  But he mustered all of strenght to get up as fast as possible.  He didn't have much time left.  He went back to the children's room and tried to examine the bed more carefuly.  He then noticed that there was an egg tapped behind the back of one of the plushies in the bed.   It was the same color as the plushy itself which made it hard to notice.  As he was leaving the room, he got younger once again.  It got harder to walk and he had to sit for a few seconds to reclaim his energy but not too long because he didn't have much time left.  He couldn't lose now, there was only one egg left.  With his reduced mobility, he wouldn't have time to check every room again so he had to think.  What was the one place he wasn't sure he fully inspected.  He decided to go with the bathroom.  It was small so he didn't make as much effort to scout every corner of it the first time thinking there couldn't be more than two eggs there.  But as he arrived there, he noticed that he couldn't find any eggs and the the sink counter was now to high for him to even see.  Feeling desperate, he began throwing a tantrum like the toddler he had become.  But while he was doing so, he knocked down the trash can.  He stopped crying for a bit.  He noticed it made a strange sound when it fell.  But there couldn't be any eggs inside, he clearly remembered checking it and seeing that it was empty.  Unless...  He began removing the garbage bag and saw that there was an egg hiding under it.  The final egg!  But right at that moment, he lost another year and was now a one year old baby.  He tied to grab the egg but his dexterity was so bad that he was having trouble.  He just had to get it in the basket. once he managed to pick it up with both hands, he set it down in front of him and pushed it while crawling to the basket.  He then used both hands to carefully grab it and set it down in the basket.  

Was this it?  Did he win?  He felt a strange tingling sensation begin to envelop him and began to panic.  No he got all 20 eggs, he can't di like this.  But this sensation was somehow different, more pleasant.   Then he passed out.  He woke up in the starting room again and noticed he was back in his adult body.  He saw a note on the table saying : "Congratulations, you found all 20 eggs.  You won!  You only had 32 seconds left to spare though.  That was pretty close.  But for your prize, you get one wish.  What do you desire?

Marc thought about it.  He could ask for money but was it really what he wanted most?  Then this adventure made him remember how much fun he had with Easter egg hunts as a kid and he got an idea.  He wished to be 5 years old again.  He then noticed that his car that used to be in the driveway was now gone.  Then he shrunk down and his clothes morphed to adjust to his new age.  A few minutes later, his new parents came to pick him up and he started his new life.