I'm posting this now because I have no sense of control haha

Anyway, knowing me, I'll probably end up posting what I got for chapters close together. And then y'all will have to wait ages for the next installment and for that I'm apologizing in advance. So with that out of the way, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

Oh, and once again, thank you SimonSays for helping me out with this chapter!

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe.

He made himself relax before plunging in. He could do this. He could do this.

Timothy had found a side door. One that was left untouched by all the vines. He knew he couldn't go out the front door. Too much attention. So when he found the side door, he knew it was where he needed to go.

One hand clutched his mother's purse, while the other reached for the oddly shaped door knob. It was like a cylinder rather than a regular circular one. One end was attached with more metal to the door, while the rest of it stuck out to the side, towards the center of the door. It looked very odd. Perhaps Timothy saw a similar design in one of the newer movies or shows he was allowed to watch, but he wasn't too sure.

He didn't know how to twist it. That was the problem.

The only way to know was through trial and error.

He tried twisting it up, counterclockwise. It didn't move.

He frowned. Then he tried twisting it down, clockwise. It moved!

Timothy smiled at that. Now the question was if it was a push or a pull. Pulling was the most common way to open a door, Timothy felt, so he did just that with a mighty heave.

And it worked!

It was true that there would be a fifty/fifty chance with each outcome, but it was still nice to be able to figure it out.

Of course there was also the fifty/fifty chance that it was locked. Which it wasn't.

But no matter how lucky Tim got, it all came down to just that. Luck. And Tim was sure that he would run out of it soon enough.

But maybe luck was still on his side as the door had led him outside… to an empty alleyway.

Very cautiously did he step out.

It was… strange. The cement, for that's what it had to be, was cold like the tiles within the building. But it wasn't smooth. It was rough with small, not quite sharp, pebbles scattered around. It did hurt his feet, Timothy would admit, but it was so interesting. True he never really got to feel cement before, since he went into the garage once or twice in his life with adult supervision and thus either in their hands or on their shoulders, but seeing and hearing about characters within stories scrape their hands or chins or anything really against the material and getting hurt? It never really connected. After all, seeing it and experiencing it are two different things.

Sirens were going off close by. People were screaming or yelling, but that sounded further away. Honking of horns or the screeching of cars suddenly stopping seemingly bounced around the buildings he was nestled between.

The air felt warm, but a cool breeze washed the heat away. Being in the building's shadow most likely helped keep the temperature down. Not only that, but the air smelt just like from when he was in his mother's purse… but stronger. There was a faint scent of the flowers, yet it was fading rather fast.

Not as fast as the door, closing shut. In fact it was closing rather slowly. Yes it took some of Timothy's strength to open it. However it closed as if the hinges could only go so fast.

Timothy thinks that might be a security hazard or something of the like.

He stared at it for a moment, watching it as it slowly, slowly, sealed his fate. As long as it was still open, Timothy was sure that he could go back inside… if he so chooses. Unfortunately Timothy had made up his mind. No going back inside for him.

Turning his attention back to the alleyway, he was slightly surprised by how clean it was. Usually in the movies or the like they would have garbage around. Although Timothy shouldn't've thought that it truly happens in real life.

And yet there were the giant plants… and Timothy being able to suddenly grow in size…

Perhaps this was just an outliner.

Behind him the door finally shut with a small, audible click. It might as well have been a big bang or even a clock chiming, signifying that his time was up and his fate had been sealed.

And then the whole building began to groan. Timothy… did not like the sound of that. He needed to get away. Fast.

Quickly looking around, he saw how one end led to the street, all bright with sunlight, while the other went further into alleyways, darkened by shadows. If Timothy went to the street he would get noticed right away…

Another groan.

He bolted down into the darker path.

His heart pounded to the beat of his feet slapping against the hard cement. Its rough surface and all those pebbles bit at the soles of his feet. Closed dumpsters, opened dumpsters, buildings made out of concrete, buildings made out of steel, they all flew past as Timothy ran. Turning corners, Timothy seemed to get lost in a maze unknown to him.

He… he had to slow down…

His breathing was heavy, just like his whole body. Feet were hurting, legs were trembling… his hand clutched his mother's purse as if it were a lifeline. His heart felt like it wanted to burst out of his chest.

Looking around him, Timothy could tell that he was no longer in the same area as his parent's company building. Instead the area he was in was more like the how the media had shown. Trash from paper to broken bottles littered the ground as dirt clung to the bricks that made up the buildings around him. There were rusty fire escapes, and the most repulsive scent he has ever encountered.

It was absolutely rancid. Bitter and sharp. It made his nose curl and his whole face grimace. There was the possibility that the smell was coming from the overflowing dumpsters, yet it was as if it were emitting from the alley itself. It was becoming too much.

Timothy needed to find his parents.

The buildings surrounding him weren't as tall as the one he came out of, but they were still tall enough to hide him in the shadows.

(Even grown, the world was just as big as he imagined.)

Looking around, Timothy could only find one way to go. Forward.

Forward he went. Slowly, slowly, the shadows lessened, and light began to trickle through the buildings. Through chimney tops and laundry hanging from strings. Tilting his head up just so, Timothy could see blue skies hiding behind smoke and clouds. And as the buildings became shorter and shorter, Timothy began to see something grow.

There, not as far as Timothy had originally thought, was Drake Industries. Glass glinted like still water in the sunlight as the grey materials that made up its outsides contrasted the stunning green of giant vines growing inside it, outside of it, curling around it like some sort of parasite. Much like vines growing on trees, it was squeezing it. Finding holds in order for it to support itself as it would suck the nutrients out of its host. But what type of nutrients would vines find from a building?

As Timothy stared at it, the more he could see the leaves unfurl. The little dots of color that were more than likely flowers blooming if they weren't already in bloom. Wind blew by, as evidenced by the clouds and smoke drifting by faster, and Timothy saw how the petals began to drift away.

Never in his short life had Timothy seen such a thing.

It was beautiful.

"Hey!" A male voice shouted, scaring Timothy half to death.

Whipping his head over to the voice, Timothy saw a man and woman at the end of the alleyway. Their backs were to the light. Their fronts were shrouded in shadow.

Timothy had been seen.

Trembling, Timothy took a step back.

The man and woman took a step closer.

Wind blows from the entrance of the alleyway… and a familiar scent reaches Timothy's nose.

Timothy hesitates. "Mother…? Father…?" He calls out, voice shaky.

He sees the male figure stiffen. The female figure took that as a cue to walk closer… The shadows seemed to melt away from her face as she moved her way closer to him. And then he saw it.

She was his mother.

Standing in front of him, his mother… was so much smaller than he was used to. Yet she still stood so tall that he had to crane his neck to see her face. Timothy stared in awe.

Her smaller hand cupped his face.

"Timothy." She said, tone clipped. "You've gown."

Timothy swallowed his own saliva. "Yes mother." He responded.

Her eyes glanced over him. His body. "You're naked."

Blood rushed to his face. "Yes mother. Whatever made me grow in size didn't make my clothes grow with me. I'm sorry, mother."

She just stared at him.

"I also kept your purse." He said before holding it up to show her, quickly covering himself with his other hand.

Mother sniffed. "So you did." Turning her head back to the entrance she called out. "Jack! Come here!"

So the man was his father.

Timothy's father ran up to the duo, quickly taking off his suit coat. Just like with mother, Timothy stared at his father in awe. Just as always Jack Drake was taller than Janet Drake, but was smaller than Timothy was used to.

No. Timothy was bigger than he was used to.

"Tim, you're naked! And you're out here in this dirty alleyway! Look at you! You're shivering!" Father scolded him. He looked… panicked compared to mother's cool, calm appearance.

Timothy wasn't aware of the fact he was shivering. But now that he was, he realized that he was shivering quite a bit.

Quickly he took mother's purse from Timothy in order to properly put his coat on the now shivering boy. Timothy let himself get dressed up. It was better than nothing.

He pulled the coat closer, taking in the scent of his father's calonge that had embedded itself into the suit's jacket. It was calming and warm. The whole thing seemed to swallow him up, it was so big.

It felt like a hug.

Turning his attention back to his parents, he saw how his mother held her purse with a critical eye as his father stared at him.

"Tim," his father started, "do you know how this happened?"

"I'm not sure." Timothy frowned as he recalled the events. "I was separated from mother, and the purse fell. I slipped out to the floor, and then the strangest thing happened! Giant vines were growing within the building! I saw them grow as if I was watching a time lapse right in front of me! Then all sorts of flowers began to bloom… and I got this intense pain…" He felt a blush rise up to his cheeks.

Father's eyebrows furrowed. "And then? What happened next?"

"Well, I was suddenly bigger and all of my clothes had been torn to shreds. I'm really, truly sorry about that."

He saw his father sigh through his nose. "That's… not something you could control. You don't look like you were hurt by it."

Timothy could only nod.

"So what did you do? How did you leave?"

"There was a side door that wasn't touched by the plants yet. I… I didn't know what to do, so I… I thought I would try to find you. So I left. I heard how the building was groaning under the weight of all the plant life… and I ran."

The alleyway was silent at Timothy's confession. Timothy… Timothy then realized that the sounds of people talking, shouting, screaming, was closer than before. And somehow so were the sirens.

"Did anyone see you?" Mother suddenly asked.

Snapping his attention to her, Timothy saw how sharp her eyes were.

"…no." At least he didn't think so.

She pursed her lips. Turning her attention to his father, she said, "pick Timothy up. We're going home."

Father jolted at this. "Wha- Janet! Shouldn't we take him to the hospital?"

"We'll have his doctor come to him," she snapped. "I'd rather we get him to the mansion than going to a place where we're bound to be unnecessarily questioned."

Father huffed at this. "Okay fine. Come here kiddo."

And just as easily as before, father picked Timothy up. But unlike before, father was holding Timothy like one would with a baby. Or at least that's how Timothy thought he was being held. It was… nice. Being held by his father in that way.

Timothy thinks he might want to be held like that again.

"Tsk." Mother clicked her tongue. "You got your feet bloodied."

Timothy blinked rapidly at that. He… had hurt his feet?

Twisting his leg, he put his foot up towards his face. Imbedded into his feet were some pieces of glass. Some parts were only cut instead. He frowned at this.

"We'll get that taken care of later." Mother said, as if she were cutting father off before he could speak. Timothy wasn't quite sure since it only happens every so often.

He could feel his father's grumbles through his chest.

"Just stay here until I get the car." Mother said. Her voice and gaze held no argument. Mother was a very determined person, after all.

And so there was not so little Timothy, being held in his father's arms like all other children for the first time. He felt the warmth of his father's embrace. Each and every breath and heartbeat.

Timothy thinks this is the most he's interacted with his father in years.

Certainly Timothy's birthday was shaping up to be the most interesting birthday in the history of existence. He just hopes no one got hurt due to the strange flora. Well, no one besides him and his feet.

His father didn't speak to him. He didn't speak to his father. It was fine.

Timothy grew tired as he waited.

He didn't want to fall asleep. He was outside, he had to burn everything into his mind.

And maybe, just maybe, his parents would allow him to go outside again. And then things wouldn't go wrong.

Maybe, maybe, this wasn't all some sort of fluke. That Timothy really, truly, grew big while giant plants overtook his parent's company. Hopefully, hopefully, Timothy wouldn't grow small again. He'll just stay big and grow like normal children do.

Maybe… hopefully…

He almost fully dozed off when the sound of a car came rumbling by. He felt how his father stiffen at the sound, and he too, froze.

"Come on Tim," he heard his father mutter, "that's our ride."

It was strange, how everything felt as his father carried him over to the car. How the arms cradled him rather than just a hand. How not all of him was supported. How he was dangling yet not in a similar way when he settled down. How his whole body ached in a way he hasn't quite understood nor quite known until that moment, like some sort of epiphany. How his feet stung in a way never truly known before much like his body.

It was strange, how everything looked. The darkened alleyways made the sunlight all the brighter as all the reflective surfaces made it even more so. Tim had thought of it before, how he imagined the world to be so… big yet now it wasn't as big before. Logically, he knew that since he's a child everything was going to be big nonetheless. But no matter what, the sky was so far away. With all those multihued flower petals danced upon the wind currents as if they were fairies dancing to their own music.

It was so strange, how everything smelt. The alleyway smells of probably rotten foods and who knows what else were starting to disperse as the scent of his father's calonge helped keep the alleyway scents away. How even as he was further away from the building, he could still smell the strange scents of those strange flowers. Underneath the alleyway, his father's cologne, and even street food that somehow came back to him, that smell of flowers remained.

It was so strange, how everything sounded. How his father's heartbeat and steady breathing weren't as loud as before. How the sounds of people's voices came together in a strange symphony with sirens going off in places he didn't know where. How he thinks those sirens that seemed to be everywhere yet nowhere at once must be from police cars. And just like the flowers dancing in the wind, the scent being carried over much like the petals, the sounds of Drake Industries groaning and even creaking still reached his ears.

Timothy was in a strange new world.

He thinks he likes it.

Father shuffled Timothy around to free one arm in order to open the back car door. Once opened, he set Timothy down into the seat.

The car smelled the same as the one Timothy and his mother went into the city in. The seats really were made out of leather and the texture was so much smoother than it looked. For some odd reason it reminded him of butter. It was very soft to the touch and quite comfortable to sit in. It was incredibly cold, but since the air conditioner was on, it made sense that it cooled down quite a bit. Although due to this cold, it once again reminded him of butter… only straight from the fridge.

"Think you can buckle yourself?" Father asked, bringing Timothy out of his thoughts.

Can he?

"I can try." He says instead of his insecurities.

Looking around, he found the belt. Honestly this would be simple enough in theory. But Timothy had never done it before. He was worried that he could get it wrong. If he did get it wrong then perhaps he wouldn't ever go into a car again.

Timothy quite liked being a car, he found.

Reaching, Timothy grabbed the metal piece, and pulled it towards him. It gave. He then went to find the buckle part on his other side and easily found it. Putting the metal key into the slot, he pushed a little and heard a click. He pulled away. The belt stayed.

Pride grew within Timothy. He did it! Turning to his father, Timothy smiled at him.

The car door was closed. Timothy's father wasn't there.

Looking forward, he saw how his father was getting into his own seat.

Timothy's smile fell. It made sense. If Timothy was able to properly buckle his belt, then there would be no need for his father to check. And Timothy was able to do it properly.

He was just slightly surprised by how focused he was, that he didn't hear the door close. Or the front passenger seat's door open. Internally he scolded himself for not paying attention. He should know better.

The car rumbled… and his mother began to drive the three of them away.

Now able to stare out of the window, Timothy took the whole world in. Skyscrapers reached up and beyond. All sparkling like the one his parents owned. There were other buildings of various sizes that matched the material of the ones that surrounded him in the alleyways, but what took Timothy's breath away was the giant tree growing in the not so distance.

It was larger than any other tree. Larger than a redwood. The trunk was absolutely thick, with vines crawling up it. Gigantic branches reached outward and upward. They were full to the brim with leaves, creating shade for anything underneath its shadow.

Timothy thinks that there might've been a connection between the vines that overtook his parent's building and that giant tree.

Slowly, the car rolled to a halt at a stop light, Timothy duly noted. Stop lights weren't as amazing as the giant tree.

And then something incredible happened. A bat shaped shadow flew through the air by a string! Eyes widening, Timothy tried his best to look closer. To his complete astonishment, it was a man dressed up as a bat! The wings were actually a cape cut to that shape! Or at least, it looked like a man.

The man flew in an arc, his cape billowing out behind him.

Then, flying behind him, was a smaller person wearing bright colors of red, yellow, and green with black on the cape. It could've been another man, but they were smaller in height. Like perhaps a teenager. He watched as they flew by with a grace that bat man didn't quite have. Then the person did something extraordinary! They did a flip in the air! But the person didn't stop, oh no they did not. They continued!

One.

Two.

Three.

Four!

This strange person was flying behind someone dressed up as a bat, and had done four flips in the air! He watched as the person reached out with something in their hand and a line shot out!

Timothy… Timothy was in awe.

Together the duo continued to fly over to the tree. As he watched them fly away, he began to wonder why they were going to the tree. Could it be that the tree was incredibly unnatural and that those flying bat and… acrobat(?) people were going to try to do something about it?

He didn't know, but he very much wanted to find out.