Shards

Chapter 2
Chaos Errupts

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Chapter Description: Taking advantage of people will lead to your own demise.

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Chapter Two:

Jeremy shivered as he stared blankly at his clothes. Or, at least he thought they were. They looked, bigger.

“Confused? You should be.” Jeremy spun around to see a prepubescent boy, no older then 11, clad in a dark colored robe. His bare feet poked out from underneath and his scrawny chest peered out as well, leading Jeremy to believe that the robe was all the child possessed. But the robe was enough, for as the boy moved closer to Jeremy and deeper into the candle light, it was clearly made from a fiber that shimmered and flowed like woven blood. Jeremy shivered again at both the cold and that thought of what that robe could have been made of.

“My name is Archnahinaoes, the Lord of this realm. I thank you for releasing me, foolish stranger.” Jeremy couldn’t help laughing at the child.

“You wear a bad Halloween costume and you expect me to be frighten of . . ,” Jeremy stopped as the sound of his own voice filled his ears, echoing in his skull. The boy’s face burst into a cruel smile.

“You don’t know yet, do you? Gaze at my power!” With a flick o flick of his wrist, a mirror formed right before Jeremy, revealing a horrid truth. Staring back into Jeremy’s eyes was a boy with the body of a second grader, about seven years old. Jeremy watched as the boy’s face erupted into fear. Jeremy touched the mirror, watching in horror as the child mimicked him perfectly. Jeremy was a child. At what’s worse, a naked one.

“Once again, if you didn’t release pure tears upon the soil, you wouldn’t have awoken my spirit. Naturally, I was imprisoned as an infant so as I couldn’t “reek any mayhem”, but with my powers, I was easy able to siphon your precious energy!”

“Muh . . my energy!”

“Naturally. Do you realize how much effort and energy the body wastes in growth. Ever wonder why you eat so much during puberty? Regardless, I can siphon the energy for my own purposes, with the added benefit of leaving my victim nearly helpless.” the child chuckled as he motioned to Jeremy’s bewitched state.

“But I haven’t the time to waste on one so young, so I’ll be off. Perhaps if you’re still alive when I return I can take whats left of your energy, and dignity.” With another flick of his wrists, the child’s robe swirled around him, creating a purple tornado. When it finally stopped, he was dressed like an ordinary boy, fresh from school. And in an instant, he was simply gone.

“What am I gonna do?” Jeremy wailed to his naked self.

“There! All set!” Kate proudly said as she admired her handiwork. Together, she and Austin removed all traces of the kiddie theme from the house and in their steed placed frothing cauldrons, motion-detecting ghosts, and dim, creepy lights. Spooky Halloween songs were meshed with punk, heavy metal, and hard rock musics as they gave the home a young teenaged theme - sophisticated enough to not be a child’s party but lacking more adult aspects, such as the lack of a costume. Austin gave the party list to Kate, who checked them off on a list as they came in. The parents didn’t mind that only Kate was there to guard their children, after all the original chaperon was a boy, and Kate was well-known for her babysitting.

“The party should be over at midnight, take care!” Kate called out to the last pair of parents as they walked away. Checking off the last name, she yelled to the kids.

“Now that everybody’s here, are we ready to party?” Kate was answered by a sea of “yeah”s, the sound almost deafening. For a moment, as the sun set, she really wished that Jeremy was there to see the party.

Unknown to Kate, Jeremy creped up to the house wearing an ancient pair of gray sweatpants and a light blue jacket. Back when his father had originally made the tree fortress, he had stocked it up with children’s clothing in case something ripped or tore while playing. Jeremy was both thankful and ashamed that they were there. He was pretty sure no other seven year old would wear something like this, but he picked it without question over the Power Ranger outfit. As he got nearer and nearer to the house, he could hear music and see flashing lights in the windows. Jeremy smacked himself in the face for forgetting the party. But perhaps he could sneak his way inside. At least, he held onto the hope until he tried to open the door into the kitchen and found it locked tight. He struggled and struggled to open it, and was slightly relieved when it swung open, forcing him back onto the grass with a loud plop. A child of about ten stood in the doorway, wearing a Wizard’s Robe as a Halloween costume. Jeremy recognized the design instantly, it was the costume that his mother had boughten last week for Austin. And Austin stood in the doorway, looking impatiently at Jeremy.

“What do you want, kid, you’re not even at the right door or wearing a costume.”

“Umm.” Jeremy remembered that tonight was Halloween. Of all the nights to release an age-sapping monster!

“Well?” Jeremy could see no other option but telling him the truth.

“Its me, Austin. Jeremy!”

“What, don’t make me laugh! You’re a squirt.” Jeremy told his brother exactly how he came to be four feet tall, 80 pounds and staring straight at the chest of his kid brother. Upon hearing his brother’s predicament, a fiendish thought sprouted into Austin’s mind.

“You don’t know how to get back?”

“Uh. Uh.”

“Well, I guess you better come with me.” Austin grabbed Jeremy’s hand and pulled him into the house. Jeremy’s eyes darted around the room, looking for people.

“I kinda don’t wanna be seen, kay Austin. Just let me go upstairs.” However, right about now Jeremy realized that Austin’s grip was much too tight for a mere invite inside, and was slowly being pulled into the den.

“Wha, what are you doing?” Jeremy squealed.

“Why, you’re gonna be the heart of the party little guy!” Austin smirked. Jeremy had to endure 30 minutes of young ladies telling Austin what a cute kid Jeremy was, and Jeremy was thankful when he finally made it to the stairs. He was on his way up when he spied rather large socks embalmed with a poofy swab of cotton on the heel. He slowly looked up for his fear to be confirmed, those socks belonged to Katie.

“Hey kid, aren’t you a little small for this party?” Katie used her best small child voice, and even with a body aged seven and a mind aged seventeen, Jeremy feel for it for a moment.

“I, um, well,” But before Jeremy could spit out his identity, Austin grabbed Jeremy and lifted him up into the air with effort.

“My cousin, umm, Jess, and he needed to use the bathroom!”

“Well, he’s not on my list.”

“Didn’t Jeremy tell you that we were gonna watch him for a little while?”

“Well, no, but couldn’t have you?”

“I forgot.” Austin ran upstairs with his big brother and without another word.

Austin hurried into Jeremy’s room and he threw Jeremy onto his bed. Then, Austin locked the door behind him.

“Its time for a little pay back, big brother.” Austin slowly began walking towards Jeremy.

“Wha, whatcha gonna do ta me?” Jeremy whimpered.

“I’m gonna do what I said, pay you back for making me cry and take my pants off in front of Kate.”

“You did what?” Jeremy was extremely surprised at how Austin said his last sentence.

“She made me show her where you spanked me! So I’m gonna give you some!” Jeremy scrambled to get off the bed, but this time Austin had the advantage of age, and Jeremy found himself placed over Austin’s knee with his sweatpants and his tiny briefs swept down.

“You can’t do this! I’m too old!”

“You’re never too old for punishment.” Jeremy was appalled at how cold his own words sounded as Austin smacked Jeremy with all his strength. If Jeremy was his normal size, it wouldn’t have been much, but seven-year-old Jeremy’s skin was extremely sensitive, and each smack felt like barbed wire. It only took two smacks to send Jeremy bawling. However, the music drowned out his cried for help and so it continued for ten minutes, just as Jeremy did to Austin. Jeremy was in shambles as Austin moved Jeremy onto his bed.

“You can chill out here until I figure what to do with you. Have fun, Jeremy.” Jeremy sniffled as the door closed and locked behind Austin. After ten minutes, Jeremy recovered from shock enough to take a look around his room. He was surprised at how huge everything now looked. His feet easily hung from the bed and he couldn’t reach the top of his bookcase. Jeremy stared out of the window, wondering how he was going to get out of his mess.

Meanwhile, Austin was in an incredible mood for putting his brother in his place, time-out in his own room. He smiled and greeted every one of his classmates that he bumped into. When he reached the dinning room, packed with kids, he was greeted by the aroma of freshly-made pizza. Austin grabbed a huge slice and sat down with his friends and started to chat with them.

And this was the course of Austin’s entire party. And he was enjoying his moment in the spotlight, his costume was a hit, his class was having a great time, and his brother was locked upstairs, replaced by a more pleasant and less controlling teen. It was almost 11:00, however, when his party began to fall apart. The doorbell rang once, and only once. From the kitchen, Austin heard Kate call to him.

“Can you check the door, Austin? I’m busy in the kitchen.”

“Sure.” Austin yelled back. He hopped off the couch and opened the door. At the door, a boy about his own age stared back at him. Austin had never seen him before, and he shuddered as he tried to look the boy in the eyes, they were colder then the air outside the house. Austin inspected the boy. He was dressed in ordinary school clothing, a pair of faded blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and tennis shoes. However, two small points protruded from his mouth, so Austin assumed his mother forced him to go out for Halloween.

“Hey.”

“Greetings.”

“What’s up?”

“The moon.” Austin looked over the boy’s shoulder, and the moon was indeed full and hanging above the neighborhood, shedding a malicious light. Austin turned back to the boy, who stared at him indifferently. Austin’s nerves were jumpy around the strange kid. He tried to close the door into the boy’s face, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. However, he didn’t have to, because Kate soon appeared at the doorway.

“Hey, aren’t you going to invite your friend in? Come in, come in!” But Kate soon regretted those words, for as soon as she invited the boy into the house, he snarled at Austin and jumped up, biting the boy in the shoulder. Austin screamed in shock as Kate tried to pry the boy off Austin, until she noticed something. Austin was shrinking. Kate fell back and watched in horror as Austin grew increasingly younger, his eyes still in a far-off plane. When the boy let go, Austin wasn’t able to speak. Or walk. Or put on his own clothes. Kate couldn’t imagine that Austin was any older then one, sitting naked in a pile of oversized clothes. Austin began to cry and all of his party guests turned around to see a baby in a preadolescence costume, a stupedifed teenager, and a young man, who at first wore nothing until a long, dark cloak materialized around him. He lifted his arms, and spoke to the children.

“Sup, sup, little homies! We partying here?” The children nodded their heads in response, confused about the appearance of this strange, west side slang-speaking man.

“Well, you ain’t partying no longa! Countie Drake’s gonna take care of dat!” And in an instant, the man, now known as Drake, waved his arms, and purple beams of light radiated forth, zapping the children. Kate watched in horror as they began to shrink behind couches, tables, and chairs until nothing was heard except for the uniform sound of bawling children.

“Awright little homies! Let’s be shakin’ to Drake’s new castle!” With another shake of his wrist, the toddlers disappeared as simultaneously a castle on top of a large hill located itself among the moon’s silhouette.

“That can’t be good.” Kate said sarcastically.

 

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