Chapter 2: A Shocking Side Effect
Evening fell over Moxxie and Millie's apartment. Moxxie was sat up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, watching a televised performance of his favourite musical Phantom of the Opera. He had just enjoyed an entire afternoon of pampering by his wife, however he still felt terrible about scolding her. It wasn't her he was mad at, it was Blitzo. The doorbell to the apartment rang. Moxxie proceeded to get up and answer it. "I'll get it." Millie said from his side, using her hand to keep him on the couch.
Millie answered the door to a delivery imp who was delivering the couple's takeaway. Millie had ordered the couple some curries from the authentic dining takeout local to their area in the Wrath Ring. She had ordered herself a chicken korma and her husband a tikka masala, his favourite. Moxxie could never resist the taste of that particular curry.
Millie lay the curries and the rice that went with them on each of the plates she had placed on the couple's kitchen bench. She then proceeded to sprinkle the Relax nice "n" EZ formula on Moxxie's food, still oblivious to the slight difference to the usual bottle. She then gave her husband his meal to his smile and thanks before getting her own meal. The imps ate together, smiling at each other between mouthfuls. "You ok my Millie?" Moxxie asked, licking his lips to remove his slightly slopped curry.
"I'm fine sweetie."
"I would just like to say…I'm sorry for…yelling at you. It was…wrong." Moxxie apologised, yawning heavily between his words. He found himself becoming very sleepy. He looked at his wife, he was now swaying sideways. Millie smiled at her helpless husband whose eye lids were now half way closed as he was succumbing to sleep. "It's ok baby. Don't you worry your fuzzy little head." Millie soothed him as she pulled his head into her shoulders and lay him on her shoulder and upper arm. Moxxie was now leaning on her, snoring. Millie ran her fingers through his smooth, white hair for a short while as her husband slept. She barely noticed him beginning to shrink in her arms, but she did notice his hair suddenly become slightly greasy. "I'll encourage him to take a shower in the morning." She thought to herself, before picking her husband up in her arms, getting ready to carry him to bed.
As Moxxie slumped in Millie's arms, Millie noticed that his trousers were now over the top of his hooved feet and that his sleeves were covering all of his hands, except his fingertips. "Huh?" She asked herself, placing Moxxie down on the couch to a sitting up position. She then gasped in shock, holding back a scream which came out in the form of a panicked squeak. Her husband's smooth skin was now covered in zits around the cheek area, the area she liked to stroke and soothe. He no longer looked 29, he looked 15. This couldn't be happening. Millie's mind was a racing car burning rubber on a tarmac track. "Maybe he's sick, maybe it's measles." She thought to herself with a sigh of relief.
Rapidly running to the bathroom and back, she grabbed the imp's thermomotor from the bathroom cabinet and raced back to her husband. This time she really did scream in terror. Her husband's clothes were now double his size; his strong stripy horns now 3/4s of their thickness; his white hair now reduced in length by ¼; the zits gone all together but replaced with larger freckles to cover his smaller and slightly more rounded face. Moxxie was now 10. She felt around his mouth and counted his adult and milk teeth. Moxxie had 15 adult teeth, 3 milk teeth and 2 gaps for adult teeth to grow in.
In near autopilot Millie's hands leaped to shake her husband awake, but then the rationale part of her recalled his anxiety. If it was as bad as it was at age 29 when he could have panic attacks which could lead to loss of consciousness, how bad would these attacks be for a 10-year-old Moxxie? She backed off her partner, seeing now he had shrunk another inch. He was now 9. He had lost 20 years within 3 minutes.
Racing to the phone, Millie attempted to call Mary Corey's Cures from the phone number on the bag she got from the shop that day. To Millie's dismay the shop was closed. She took another reluctant look at her husband. She had to speed over to stop him sliding of the couch. She lay her husband on his back. His clothes were now too large for him. She had no choice but to strip him down. Tears flooded down her face at her husband's small, smooth and hairless body. He was now covered in the remains of almost gone baby fat; his hands and feet were small and bony; his arms and legs now unbelievably thin; his hair just a little over his pointy ears; his horns now ¼ of their usual thickness and his tail hanging not much lower than his bottom. He was 5. Not much off a toddler. Just a little kindergartner and he was still getting younger. Millie had known Moxxie since pre-school and remembered his language delay where he still addressed himself and others in the third person until about 1/3 of the way through kindergarten and now, he was almost too young to go to kindergarten as he continued to visibly shrink and put on weight. Still getting younger and younger.
The only saving grace for Millie is that her husband was in the deepest of sleeps where he could not wake from. She knew all too well how horrified he would be if he knew what was happening to him. She was mortified herself, her eyes welled up with tears as she stared down at what was now a mere 2-year-old. She no longer had an adult husband; she had a toddler. She could only imagine him once he woke up. Struggling to walk, struggling to talk, all clumsy, probably even struggling to make it to the toilet on time. How angry, scared and anxious he'd be once he woke broke her heart. It only made matters worse when she was now no longer looking at a toddler but a mere infant of 6 months.
Moxxie laid there naked on the couch. No more than 30cm in length. All tubby and round in the torso and face with baby fat. His ears coming out of his thin white and just starting to shape hair. His tail and horns unbelievably skinny and weak. His legs sprawling, just as weak as his tail appendage. His hands now round and soft like clouds as well as his meaty hooved feet. Millie was relieved that he had finally stopped shrinking. She had no choice but to get a towel from the bathroom and wrap it around Moxxie's genital area to prevent any accidents on her couch. She opened his mouth, if was all just gum in there now. No teeth.
Millie had no choice but to check Mary's website for if something went wrong with a formula. Fortunately, she spotted an emergency number straight away and called it at the tap of a button. "Hey." Mary yawned from the other end of the phone, tired after a long day at the store.
"Why is my husband now a tiny tot?!" Millie yelled, abruptly down the phone, full of fury.
"What?" Mary questioned, confused.
"I gave my husband the formula I brought at your store for his nerves. Now tell me, right now, why it's turned him into a baby!"
"What formula did you buy."
"The Relax nice "n" EZ I normally do."
"Ok, I think I know what's gone wrong here. Does the bottle you used have an orange rim around the boarder."
Furiously, Millie picked up the bottle. Her face fell as she sheepishly admitted that it indeed did have the orange rim Mary had described and Millie had just read the words "regression formula." Her tail dropped between her legs with embarrassment. "Yes, it does. I didn't notice." Millie admitted feeling stupid.
"I'm sorry Millie, I should've thought. I have just got that new addition in. It regresses the drinker back to infancy for a week. Then the drinker grows gradually back to normal age over the space of the second week. It allows them to relive all stages of their life and return to a time where things were a lot simpler. It works a dream on their relaxation and mood once they go back to normal. Makes them more relaxed and happier. This will probably be a good thing in the long term."
"You don't understand Mary, he has anxiety. He's going to be mortified when he wakes and sees what has happened to him."
"Ok. Well, the first day the drinker is often very tired; their bodies have been through so much. They sleep most of the first 24 hours. They only wake for very brief moments. It'll be day two when he'll be fully awake. Just love him, talk to him, be gentle with him. Don't undermine him, his mind will still function at his original age. His body will not. He will cry, he won't be able to walk or talk, he will require all of the needs of an infant. Just be patient with him and reassure him. He hasn't been expecting this, he will feel embarrassed, but he may enjoy some of the aspects too."
"True." Millie admitted, now in a calmer state. Smiling at the fact that Moxxie would enjoy being cuddled for hours on end in her arms and being bathed by her every evening. "The only other concern I have is our boss often drops by unexpectedly and well, if he saw this, he will never let Moxxie live it down. He'll never let it go. He won't keep his mouth shut."
"Alright, well according to my psychic abilities Mr. Blitzo loves horses. I can send him a free two-week holiday to a horse-riding resort in the Sloth Ring which also has things a certain Loona will enjoy for him to take effective immediately; Blitzo will never turn it down. Loona may be sceptical at first but when she sees the other stuff the place has to offer, she won't be able to wait to get there."
"That's great. Thankyou."
"Before I go, I have baby supplies for demons who use the formula you've accidentally been given. I'll fetch them right away with a full refund on your purchase; 1000 devil dollars in compensation for your husband and two 50% off gift cards: one for each of you. How does that sound?"
"Perfect, thankyou Mary. Oh, and sorry for being so abrupt before."
"It's alright darling, I don't blame you, I would've reacted the same way. See you soon."
"See you soon."
Mary was at Moxxie and Millie's residence within minutes. She came in carrying a ton of baby supplies. Millie quickly got Moxxie in a diaper and an ultramarine onesie. Millie just looked down at her husband for a moment. She could not help but smile. He was so cute; her eyes welled up with tears, he was perfect. Mary put her hand on Millie's shoulders, distracting her. "I've set up the crib in your bedroom. I am going to head back home now. If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to call."
"We should be fine. Thankyou." Millie smiled. She picked Moxxie up in her arms. She was still in disbelief in how small he was. Even as an adult he was small and light, but this was a whole new perspective on him now almost all 29 of his years had been stripped away.
She placed him in the crib. Head on the pillow, body under a thin satin blanket of garnet. Moxxie's hand slowly went towards his face as his thumb instinctively slid into his mouth. "No." Millie cooed above of him as she slid a round pacifier with a pentagram on it into his mouth. She then watched her husband suck as she lingered over his crib for a while. She knew her husband did not have a decent childhood.
His parents. His mother a professional gambler and his father a mob boss, both rich in everything but love and compassion, pretty much just neglected Moxxie from birth. They only had him to show him off to their friends and colleagues. They couldn't give two of anything about him really. They never cared for him, played with him, or showed him any love, compassion, or attention. He was just something to gloat about. They only pleasure they got from their son was when their friends would scoop him up in their arms, nurse him and go on about how adorable he was. Millie first met Moxxie when they were four years old and in pre-school. He could barely walk because he'd been neglected so much. At one point the pre-school suspected he had special needs. No, he was fine, the only thing wrong in this picture was the parents. Throughout their child and teenage years Moxxie spent more time with Millie and at Millie's family home than he did at his own home. There was nothing for him at his own home. Millie, her schoolteacher's, and her family had practically brought Moxxie up. Moxxie had never known a happy family, because at the time Moxxie and Millie weren't family. They weren't family until they were married at 25.
Maybe this little fiasco was a blessing in disguise. Maybe now for a short time Moxxie could experience a childhood with love and compassion. Be shown and experience a way a parent should be to their offspring. He would need all the love and attention Millie could muster along with some nice days out as Moxxie progressed through the ages. This to Millie was a small and quick second chance for Moxxie to have a happy and proper childhood. "A blessing in disguise" she told herself as she glanced at the clock near her grown up bed. It was almost midnight. She needed to sleep and get some rest. She did have a six-month-old to care for after all. She got herself ready for bed and slept at the side closest to the crib. She gave it a quick rock before she fell asleep.
Millie awoke from her night's sleep. She could see Hell's sun peeking through her thick and well-sealed curtains through a small gap. She looked at her nightstand and saw the clock read 9:00am. She jumped in pure shock. She'd slept in and it was a workday. Blitzo was going to be mad. She scooped her phone up in her hand and was relieved to see a text from Blitzo informing both her and Moxxie that IMP was going to be closed for two weeks for himself and Loona to take a last-minute vacation. A long sigh of relief left her mouth in a swift breath. Still recalling the events of the night before, Millie crept over to the crib at the other side of the bed. Moxxie was still fast asleep in it. He was going to be sleeping for most of the day. He would only wake for brief moments.
Mary was outstanding at preparing everything Millie would need for the next two weeks, and due to her magical powers, it was done in a literal flash. Millie scooped Moxxie up in her arms, swaddling him in his blanket and carried him in her arms to the living room. Millie then sat down in a soft and comfortable rocking chair and laid Moxxie in her arms and on her chest whilst she watched the TV and cuddled him.
Moxxie woke up, his weak eyelids fluttering. He stared up at his wife, she looked humungous. He felt that he was laid in her giant and cushioned arms. She looked down at him with her warm and bug-like eyes and smiled a wide grin. "Hello sweetie" was the last words he heard before he slipped back to sleep, thinking that he was nothing but dreaming.
Millie kept checking on Moxxie every half an hour. Every time he was just sleeping in her arms. Around 1pm Millie heard what sounded like a mouse squeaking below her. It was Moxxie. His eyes were open but only halfway, his pacifier was spat out on his chest and his fist was in his mouth. "No", Millie told him calmly as she removed his fist. She then picked up a bottle of milk from beside her and put the nozzle in Moxxie's mouth just as his eyes had started to well up with tears. Moxxie's eyes had dried now, and he was smiling as he sucked on the creamy and sweet substance entering his mouth. Within 1-minute Moxxie was back asleep. Millie removed his bottle; he was just hungry. He'd woke up for a snack. Millie just managed to put the pacifier back in Moxxie's mouth just as his tail was sliding up towards it. "I love you; you are so cute." Millie whispered to her husband before turning back to the TV.