Memory

Chapter 6
The Clock Stops Here

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Chapter Description: The conclusion of the story, 'Memory'.

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“Where are we going?” John asked.

“I need to tell you something!” Ms. Mer told him as they ran into the last room anyone would ever look for someone, the gym. It had no hiding places whatsoever, and everyone knew this This made it the last place John’s insane parents would ever look for someone.

“Listen, I sent those pictures to a friend, who compared them with some old pictures. Using your dreams and your parent’s speech, I think I have an explanation for you.

“What?”

“You were abducted by Nick and Marian for their experiments, the guinea pig, and they kept you as a son to test their radiation techniques on you. They’ve worked on you for nine years, but when you met me I was able to remind your old self, the teenaged self they regressed, who you were.”

“But how? Why?”

“It explains why you can’t make friends with the children, you’re still 19 at heart! It also explains all of the teenaged phases you’ve been going through, like your emotional stage and your ’fit-in-with-the-crowd’ stage. It also explains why you’ve been blushing whenever you look at me.” John blushed.

“It’s not just that! Its the things you do to! Before there . . ; people, regressed you, you were a star soccer player, andyou told me over the internet how far you could hit a ball. On your first try!”

“But most importantly, you told me that your dreams and these symptoms all started when I came to substitute for you. You’ve been dreaming about me, and as you got older, your dream’s mental picture of me got older to! The person you were is still inside you, trying to get out!” Ember was shaking John, making it difficult for anything she said to sin in. When she finally stopped, he paused to overcome the feeling of nausia in his stomach and looked up at her.

“But, then, who am I?”

“You were my boyfriend when I was 19. Miles Fox.”

At hearing that name, John began having flashbacks. Eating lunch with his mother and his father, his real mother and real father. Making friends, real and true friends with people. Dating his childhood friend Ember. Getting accepted into an Ivy League College. And then, it came together.

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Miles was walking down the street, bouquet of flowers in hand for his big date with Ember. Although he was only 19, he felt in his heart that his friend was the one he wanted to be with forever. He had a ring in his pocket and planned on proposing to her at dinner that night. As he walked through downtown, a man suddenly grabbed him and knocked him out with chloroform.

When he woke up, it was pitch-black, but he could see traces of starlight. His head hurt, but when he tried to raise his hand to his head, he couldn’t move. He felt the icy pressure of iron straps bolting him in place.

“You’re awake? Good! You’re going to be our test subject tonight, boy.” The man said with a dark tone.

“What the hell do you want!” Miles screamed furiously, trying to pry himself free.

“Tsk, tsk, little boys shouldn’t use language like that!” The ice woman answered.

“Fu-fommm!” Miles said as a piece of shining silver duct tape was attached to his mouth.

“Children should be seen and not heard!” The man gleefully said, “On with the test!” He handed the woman a shinny object.

“Hold still, punk, this’ll only hurt for a second,” A man’s voice said. Miles was trying to wriggle, kick, and scream at the top of his lungs, but the straps and tape prevented all of his efforts.

“Hush, up, dear, this will only hurt for a second,” A needle sunk deep into Miles’ skin.

“That’s it, punk, chill out. Sleep,” Miles fought the urge to rest, but it became stronger.

“Hey, quit squirming, its not our fault you’re unlucky,”

“Yeah, you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, dear.”

“What do you want to call him, dear?”

“Johnny sounds good. Common name no one will pay any attention too. He’s still fighting, what a spirit.”

“Kid, stop fighting it. It’s already done and over with. The straps aren’t breaking any time soon, so just accept it.” The man said with an unnerving calmness in his voice.

“Ooh, here’s an idea! Let’s let him watch!” The woman said with icy pouring from her mouth. The man left, and when he came back, a full-sized mirror was reflecting Miles’ image in the moonlight. However, Miles tried to scream as he watched years melt from his teenaged face, it was nothing less then the slide show from hell. A teenager’s face was swallowed by pre-puberty roundness, his five o’clock shadow disappearing as if it really were a shadow, and the sun was rising on his childhood. He couldn’t see it, but he felt the straps’ iron hold weakening, informing Miles that the same thing must be happening to the rest of his body, his manly strength giving way for a child’s energy. Soon his face showed only the signs of boyhood, and that was also melting away.

“Keep smiling for the camera, science needs proof after all!” The woman snickered as Miles peered over to see the blinking red dot of a video recorder. When he looked back into the mirror, an even smaller, younger face greeted him. This one was borderline ready for Training Pants. His vision and hearing were blurring fast, and Miles was having trouble remembering anything.

“And with that let’s say goodbye to test subject Number One, Miles Fox.”

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Miles’ eyes snapped open after remembering the terrible chain of events that had happened nine years ago. All of his dreams as Johnny finally made sense, but he has a strange feeling inside his mind. As Miles, he could remember things from his late toddlerhood to his encounter with the man, but he know had access to every memory that Johnny ever had, even as far back as babyhood.

“I remember now, Ember.”

“You, you do?” Ember Mer asked hopefully.

“Yeah! I was on my way to your house for our date, and a man abducted me and stabbed me with a needle that made me younger. It must have been the prototype of the radiation that Nick and Marian are using.

“Oh I knew you loved me! That you never left!” Ember hugged Miles with all her strength, crushing the young boy.

“Ow, Ember, I’m nine! You can’t be so rough!” Miles said into Ember’s bosom. She got the message.

“Yeah, we need to turn you back and everyone else. The screaming from outside means that Nick and Marian are still zapping people.” Miles hadn’t notices the screaming until now, he was engrossed with his teenaged memories.

“Right, we need to get the machine!”

“Yeah, and our best bet is in the Nurse’s Office. Since their weapon is radiation-based, lead cloaks should protect us!”

“Yeah, maybe we could bounce it back and shrink them!” Miles hopefully said.

“Its our best bet!”

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“Come out, come out wherever you are!” Nick said with Marian at his side. The rooms behind them were littered with small children amusing themselves like the children at the door.

“This is so much fun! And who said parents can’t have fun!” Nick added.

“We’ll be having more fun with the riches we accumulate from our machine.” Marian corrected.

“Infinitely rich and immortal! We’ll be gods on Earth!”

“Let’s check in here, Nick.” The pair walked into the Nurse’s Office.

“Hi Mommy1 Hi Daddy!” Nick and Marian whipped around to see Johnny standing in front of the bathroom.

“Oh, hey baby” Marian said.

“Whatcha doing?” Johnny asked.

“We’re, um, getting some more brothers and sisters for you.” Nick said.

“Really! How many!”

“Lots.” Nick said.

“Really!”

“Uh, huh. But will you do something for daddy?” Nick asked. Marian looked at him with a puzzled look.

“What?”

“Will you play ’Aliens and Space Heroes’ with papa?”

“YAY!”

“Alright, you’re the alien and I’m the Hero! Eat laser beams, alien!” Nick fired his laser at Johnny. At the last possible second, however, a woman jumped out of the bathroom, threw an X-Ray blanky over Johnny, and ducted behind it. The rays bounced harmlessly off and hit Nick square in the chest, green lightning surrounding him. When it disappeared, a boy of no older then three sat in Nick’s clothing. He instinctively began crying. When Nick was hit, he accidentally threw his blaster, which hit Marian’s blaster and both guns slid out of the door.

“What have you done!”

“Your scientist buddy should have known that lead blocks radiation! And with nowhere to go, it hit him instead!” Ember triumphantly said.

“Yeah!”

“I can see you’ve ruined my ’son’, who are you?”

“I’m Ember Mer, and I’m taking my boyfriend, Miles back!” Ember boldly said.

“Heh, little young for you, don’t you think? I, can change that!” Marian dove for a blaster and fired it. Ember shrunk before Miles’ eyes. When the light vanished, she was a baby, draped in her clothing and sobbing hard. Marian walked over and picked up the child.

“Stupid girl, I hold time in my hands! I control youth! Did you think you could possibly defeat me?” Miles crept over to the other remote as Marian made her villainous speech, praying that he could pull his plan off without Ember. He reached the second machine and was startled by what he saw. The machine was shapped like a Super Soaker, but it had almost no controls on it, except for a traditional gun trigger and three buttons with the numbers ’1’, ’2’, and ’3’ on its handle. Miles quietly gasped. The machine’s handle was identical to John’s ’Spying Sam’ doll’s remote, except different pictures were next to the buttons. Button ’1’ had a small picture of a brain, buttom ’2’ had an arrow pointing up and button ’3’ had an arrow pointling down. Even without his teenaged intellect, Miles knew what the buttons did..

“Well, well.” Miles looked up and saw Marian holding baby Ember, with the blaster pointed at her head.

“I doubt you know how to use that gun, but if in some miraculous way you do, fire it and I shrink you friend into the womb.”

“What!”

“Of course, she’s not in the womb, so she’ll die in a matter of minutes. Here’s your choice, Johnny, submit by putting down the gun. Both you and your girlfriend live, or you could fire and hit me, but kill your friend? What will it be?” The blaster was shaking in Miles’ hand. He couldn’t think of anything. He slowly put the gun onto the floor.

“Good boy, since you obeyed, you’ll here of my glorious plan!”

“What plan?” Miles said as he shifted his feet.

“Well, I’m going to take all the money you shrunken brats have, then open an adoption center and adopt all of the shrunken parents, now young children, and all of the shrunken children, now infants, away. With the money from this, I shall open a health clinic!”

“Oh, scary.” Johnny said, desperately stalling for time.

“Oh, but it is! We shall use the spa to rejouvanate the elderly to a more resonalble age and turn pesky, law-breaking teenagers into children again for profit! In an estimated eight weeks, I’lll have enough money to purchase and launch a satellite into space, which I can and will use to shrink everyone, body and mind, into a child. All in the world will stay as young, easily controlled children until I’m sure they will be easy-to-command adults. No revolutions ever or anything! I will be the supreme master of Earth for all of time!”

“What about ’papa’?” Miles sneered as he again shifted his feet.

“That oaf?” Marian pointed to Nick, who was sucking on his foot, “He’s better off this way! I’ll keep baby Nickie and baby Johnnie for my own! I need princes, after all!”

“I’d never be your prince!” Miles screamed.

“Silly boy, babies have no say in how they’re raised! Bye, bye!”

“Wait, can I have a last word, since I could be unable to do so for a while?”

“Sure, go ahead.” Marian had her blaster set on Miles.

“My name isn’t Johnny, it’s Miles!” At that moment, Miles stamped on the baster, which hit Marian’s shoe.

“What? No!” Marian shrieked. Instead of becoming younger, she was aging rapidly. Her hair turned silver and she couldn’t hold the blaster and the baby in a matter of seconds. The blaster fell with a crack and Miles dove, barely catching baby Ember in his arms.

“NOOO!!” Were Marian Memorian’s last words as her body broke apart into dust

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“Are you ok?” Miles asked a fully restored Ember.

“Yeah, me be ok. Thoughts be scrambled.” Ember said.

“What should we do with him?” Miles said as he pointed to Nick, who was clapping and giggling.

“Well, for starters . . .” Miles turned around to see Ember pointing the blaster straight at Miles. She fired, and Miles felt himself losing energy. He blacked out.

“Wow, I never got to see you like this!” Ember giggled. Miles woke up to see Ember standing over him, a younger then before and holding a baby boy who was wearing a make-shift diaper from what appeared to be the ripped, white shirt of a child.

“What happened?” Miles looked around and stopped. His voice was much deeper. He looked at himself, and found that he was completely naked and had his old, teenaged features back. He realized what Ember meant and, while blushing, covered himself up by curling into the fetal position.

“I’ve had plenty of time to look, silly, you’ve been out for thirty minutes. I’ve already fixed most of the guests.

“Who didn’t you fix?” Ember bounced the boy up and down.

“Oh.”

“Well hear! Put Nick’s suit on! We’ve got a party to go to!”

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“Oh Miles, we’ve done so much together these past nine years, its like a dream come true for me!” Ember said as she sat on a wooden bench on her front yard, bouncing a content baby on her lap. She was only slightly older then when she had first stumbled upon Johnny in her classroom.

“Dear me, the time’s flown by! It seems like only yesterday that you and I defeated Marian, reversed the horrid effects of her machine, and got married. You used Nick and Marian’s money to start new lives for us! Where we’ll be happy for all time! You even took a rain check from that date you skipped out on so long ago . . .” Ember stopped bouncing the baby on her lap and looked out into the vast field that surrounded their home in the plains of California. She gazed out to see two young boys playing together in the field.

“How did I skip that date? I was kiddnaped and turned into a baby! Besides, what’s all this about reminiscing? We’re not going to be old enough for that for millenia!” Miles asked as he stepped outside. His age change was much more dramatic than that of Ember. He was now a proud man of 28 instead of a teenage boy.

“How’s Nicky doing?” Miles asked, motioning to the baby.

“Still doing fine. A change from two years old to one isn’t that big, Miles.” Ember laughed.

“Heh, it is when you only let them grow a year every ten years, Ember!” Miles laughed back.

“Yeah, it’s amazing that they’re already 10, our twins Cain and Able, they’ve been little boys longer then most people will live.

“Unless those people go to ’Chez Marie’!” Miles added playfully.

“Yes. Honey, the boys look like they’re going to start fighting again, will you? They listen better to you.”

“Ugh, I have a Ph. D. in Nuclear Science, Chemistry, Biology, Pyshcology, and Art; but all you want be to do is break up fights between our 10-year-old children?” Miles trudged back into the house. Five minutes latter, a boy of fifteen with a smooth, hairless face and baggy clothes exited the house.

“Thanks, honey.” Ember called out to him.

“You can thank me later.” Miles said with all the enthusiasm of a teenager. Within minutes, the fighting had ceased and Miles and his sons were playing together.

“That’s my boys.” Ember smiled as she placed a bottle into a sleeping Nick’s mouth.

THE END

 

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