REGRESSIONS OF A SUBURBAN HOUSEWIFE

Chapter 1
INFECTION

Click!

The strobe light above the laundry area flickered dimly before slowly lighting up the area. Stephanie placed the overloaded basket of dirty clothes on top of the dryer with a thud.

“Whew!” She expelled, moving the long strands of her dusky blonde hair from her sweaty face while opening the washing machine lid. “I can’t believe I’m this winded after carrying this load down to the basement.” To emphasize the point, she grabbed about an inch of flab on each side of her stomach and pinched them. “Yeah, I’m getting outta shape.”

Actually, at 38, Stephanie Farmer was still in pretty good shape. Granted, after years of sun worshipping, her tanned skin had stretched slightly with predominate freckling across her arms, shoulders and cleavage. But she had still had a decent, if not average, figure, she thought, as she grabbed the underneath of her 36D breasts through her grey short-sleeve blouse and gave them a lift. The cleavage through her V-neck plumped in response.

“Hurmpf!” She grunted and after a few seconds let them drop again. Even with underwire support, they still drooped more than she thought they should, just like her ass, which she loudly slapped with the palm of her hand. As if in unison, a sudden flash of light and a crackling boom from outside made her jump. After all these years, she still had a mild anxiety over thunderstorms.

“Jesus Stephanie, grow up!” She yelled at herself, as she turned back toward the washer and started the load.

Finished, she goes to turn off the light when she noticed the flickering of a monitor on the other side of the basement. Slowly she walked over to the opposite area and yanked down on the light chain.

Instantly, five or six tables covered with vials and beakers of different fluids, animal cages, books, notes, hard drives, laptops and other machineries appeared before her. It was her husband’s lab where he had been constantly conducting his genetic experiments.

Even after 15 years of marriage, Stephanie had never really looked over this area of the basement. It’s not like Adam had actually forbidden her from sneaking around his lab. In fact, he was a very open and loving husband, spending as much time with her and the house as he did with his work down here. It was just that she had never been very interested in the technical aspect of Adam’s vocation or if he was working, she never wanted to disturb him with stupid or boring questions. She did know he was trying to come up with some new breakthrough cure for cancer and hereditary diseases using stem cells and DNA samples, but as for the procedures or how far along his progress was, she hadn’t a clue.

Stephanie curiously walked around her husband’s work area, never physically touching anything, just simply reading a few pages here or looking at a piece of equipment there. She stopped and lightly tapped at a gerbil cage at the end of one of the tables. Instantly, blinding white light flooded the room through every basement window followed seconds later by a thunderous clap that literally shook the house’s foundation. Total blackness followed.

A frightened scream cut through the dark, and then silence, as Stephanie slowly calmed herself down while blindly trying to feel her way along the table’s edge. Suddenly one of her hands hit something smooth, which soon led to the infallible sound of glass breaking. Another scream, proceeded by all the lights suddenly turning back on.

“Fuck!” Stephanie covered her mouth, as she stared at the mess of broken glass and soupy fluid she had created on the floor. “Adam’s gonna kill me!”

Grabbing a towel off one of the table, she bent down and began picking up the larger chunks of glass. As she carefully placed the wet shards into the towel, she could swear there was constant activity going on in the solution. The movement was even more evident whenever she moved hand closer to the puddle’s surface. Even more puzzling was that it had slowly been changing color, from a light gray to a more translucent appearance. Stephanie just rationalized that the contents had simply settled, as she reached for another piece of glass. Unfortunately, she misjudged the distance and threw herself off balance.

As Stephanie fell forward, she instinctively stuck her hands out to brace her descent. Her right palm slammed into the mystery pool, causing a spray of liquid to backsplash all over her face and even some into her open mouth. Stephanie immediately stood up, spitting and wiping her face and eyes with her left hand. With her vision unobstructed, she brought up her right hand to check the damage. A half inch shard of glass was sticking out the center of her palm.

“One. Two. THREEEEE!” Stephanie grunted, swiftly yanking the glass out of her ooze-covered hand. Blood instantaneously poured out of the gash.

Running over to the sink, she quickly ran her wounded hand under the cold water. Reaching for the anti-bacterial soap, Stephanie watched as blood, slime and suds mingled together before circling down the drain. After drying her hands on a towel, she prepared herself as she raised her hand to check the damage. No trace of a wound was to be found.

“What the hell!” Stephanie touched the area on her palm where the glass shard had been. Other than a slight tingle, there was nothing there; no cut, no blood no scar, nothing. She looked back over at the puddle with a confused expression on her face. The tingling spread across her hand.

“I better call Adam.” Even though she knew he’d be back in a few hours, it was better to be safe then sorry. Reaching to turn off the light, Stephanie began to notice the faint tingle in her hand had increased to a more pronounced prickly sensation that was swiftly spreading up her right arm. Sweat began to dot her worrying brow as she quickly checked her pulse. Out of the blue, a searing pain engulfed her chest and she gasped for air. The pain had all the intensity of a literal bear hug. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Stephanie quickly made a bee-line for the stairs. The cell phone upstairs was her main objective.

Five feet from the bottom of the stairway, another shot of extreme pain, this time in the stomach, made her freeze in her tracks. Stephanie could sense a metallic taste, almost copper-like, in her mouth. It was her stomach bile, and she swallowed hard to tap the acidic fluid back down her throat. Another lunge for the stair railing was quickly thwarted, as the room started to spin in all direction.

“What’s wrong with me?” Her vertigo intensified, bringing her down to her hands and knees. So overwhelming was her internal anguish that the first signs of external changes went unnoticed. Sweat dripped over stinging skin that slowly was becoming lighter, her tan fading, taking sun-induced freckles and moles with it. Stretch marks ironed out between her cleavage and laugh lines and crow’s feet around her mouth and eyes were no longer visible. A wave of pain rippled from her chest down to her crotch, causing her breasts and belly fat to melt upward into her body little by little.

Entering her twenties, Stephanie began dry heaving. The once tight blue jeans shifted slightly as her ass shrank, causing space to open up around the front and sides of her stomach. The long blonde hair over her damp face had gain more body and sheen as the tips raised off the floor. The pain eased slightly. Gasping to gain her bearings, she lifted her head unsteadily. Hair sticking to her face like wet spaghetti. “Okay ... okay .... okay.” She panted, almost pleadingly, as she started coming to her senses. Suddenly, an intense sharp pain exploded in her side, like being kicked by a steel-toed boot, causing her to roll over onto her back. A pair of sandals flew into the air.

The Stephanie who ended up on her back was not the mature woman in her late twenties who had been her hand and knees. She now looked more like a fresh-faced college coed. The blouse and jeans were now at least three or four sizes too large. “Oh god, Adam, I’m so sorry.” Her blue eyes glazed over as tears cascaded down the sides of her face. Thoughts, memories, and even her concentration were beginning to jumble and slip from her grasp. Believing she could lose it at any second, she mustered one last moment of clarity and softly whispered, “I love you.”

But Stephanie did not lose consciousness. Her mind simply went numb as her insides throbbed with extreme discomfort. Large breasts shifted unnaturally under her gray top as they diminished to a C-cup. The nipples no longer touched the inside fabric of her bra. Eyes closed and arms folded over her flat stomach, Stephanie continued to whine in discomfort. Angular features soften and rounded across the high school senior’s face even as it held the same grimaced look through out. With the approach of her first reverse growth spurt, the physical changes really became apparent.

Slowly but surely, Stephanie’s feet creep toward her, eventually disappearing underneath the cuffs of her jeans. Arms and legs thinned as hips and shoulders narrowed. Jumping from high school to junior high, the outfit she had been wearing seemed to swallow her. Her breasts were now small, pert and quite visible through the ever expanding V-necked blouse. Swelling had also started to show around the lighter-hued nipples. The once full figured housewife was now a gawky thirteen year old. The ends her feet were now where her knees used to be under the deflating jeans. The focal swelling around her nipples increased while her breasts diminished to small bumps. Stephanie’s body mass continued to contract unabated as it raced to single digits in age. Smaller and smaller she got. Her chest had flattened out while her face grew rounder. Freckles appeared like weeds, framing her button nose. Suddenly, the pain had stopped as quickly as it had begun.

For several seconds, everything was quiet, expect for a load spinning in the washer. Suddenly, a small bulge underneath a pile of clothes began to move. A wide-eyed and very scared 4 year old stuck her head out through the V-necked opening. Leisurely she crawled out of the discarded garments, like someone emerging from a collapsed tent, and sat up. The naked child looked around her huge surrounding with fear and apprehension. Her thumb shot into her mouth straight away, and she sucked on it feverishly for some form of security. Nothing looked familiar.

Seeing the stairway, the blonde toddler somehow instinctive knew this way the way to go. Standing up on her pudgy legs, little Steffi scampered over to them and began to climb.

END OF CHAPTER ONE