The drive home is long, silent, and rather awkward. You remain tucked between Sarah's breasts as she drives but eventually, the car pulls into your driveway. You never discussed a proper alibi for your shrinking but the sheer shock of your predicament would have overshadowed the underlying story anyway. Sarah rings your doorbell and your mom answers with a perplexed expression.

Before school, you lived with your mom: Catherine, two sisters: Brooke and Sydney, and a tabby cat named Penny. While Brooke was only a year apart from you, the two of your had grown up close whereas Sydney was much younger and wanted as little to do with you as possible. Now you were just a centimeter tall and in the palm of your mother's hand staring at a pupil the size of a house, tears swelling beneath it as she recognizes your tiny form.

As much as your family worked tirelessly to help cure you, there was no further information you could give them to help their case. Since its discovery, Dr. Wright's laboratory had been completely abandoned and its contents thoroughly hidden before the police could seize them. As for your own livelihood, you remained confined to an old hamster cage set up in your old bedroom. Prime real-estate... Whatever gas you had inhaled back in the vial had some significant changes in your abilities. While you lost your super-human senses, you noticed that if you concentrated hard enough, you could shrink smaller at will. Regrowing worked much the same, however, getting above a centimeter was still impossible. Perhaps it was intentionally designed to keep you smaller and easier to manage. You refrain from sharing this new power with your family, there was no need to have them worry more, but it could get you out of a tight squeeze.

It had been little over a month since your return home and so far you've suffered very few close calls. No one was allowed in your room during the day, your only connection to your family was at night where you'd be moved to the living room to watch a movie or join everyone for dinner. You had just been put to bed when you noticed something chilling. Although most of the lights had gone out, you could tell that the door to your room was slightly ajar. This never happened, mainly to prevent the cat from wandering in but also any house guests from stumbling upon you. You refused to sleep, looking through the wide metal wiring of the cage, you watch the bottom of the doorway for any signs of movement. Hours and hours go by without a sound until around 5:30 in the morning, you spot it. A colossal furry shadow slipping effortlessly through the crack and into your domain. You hear the thuds of Penny's paws hit the ground as she explores your bedroom. Her curiosity eventually leads her atop your bed and finally, the thin metal cage sitting on the nightstand. You hold your breath as your now dinosaur-sized kitty gazes down into your cage. Its large black pupils dance around your bedding, your food and water, and finally on you. They grow wide, and the inkling of hope you had that she might recognize you vanishes in an instant.

Paws big enough to engulf dozens of you in a single stride begin to swipe at the frame. The thin cross wires creak and groan from the impact, the loose latch holding the entrance closes rattles in response. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together and as much as your little legs can carry you to the other end of the cage, the cat only doubles its predatory efforts. After one powerful swipe, the cage door swings open violently and Penny slowly crawls inside, her fluffy mass encapsulating every inch of space around the entrance blocking your escape. You have only one card up your sleeve and this was the time to use it. You jump up onto the wire bars just as Penny begins to pounce. Your head throbs in concentration. Shrink! Shrink! Shrink! Then it happens, your now minuscule body pops through the gaps in the cage, followed by two building-sized fangs as Penny just misses you tiny form.

The shrinking, along with the absolute terror of being gobbled up by a house cat had you blacked out for almost an hour after your great escape. When you eventually woke up you noticed three very important details. 1.) You were on the floor. 2.) Penny was gone unable to find you again. 3.) You were regrowing very slowly and as grey light filtered in through the window, your family would be waking up soon. Coupled together, these facts put you in a very dangerous situation and you needed think fast about what you were going to do...