My life was ordinary, born into a simple middle-class family. But fate has a way of turning on a dime, and mine came in the form of a light streaking straight toward me. I followed it, my heart pounding not with fear, but with a strange, pulling curiosity. And there, in the grass, I found him. A young man, so handsome he didn't seem real, but standing only three centimeters tall. He fit perfectly in the palm of my hand.
Suddenly, footsteps. My mom's voice cut through the magic, yelling for me to come to dinner. Her shadow fell across my doorway, but I couldn't let her see. I gently closed my hand around the tiny, living secret, feeling the delicate press of his form against my skin.
At the dinner table, I shared my food with him, hiding him in my lap. I wasn't afraid. I'd read enough stories to know that magic often arrives in strange packages. My parents scolded me for being on my phone too much, and I just nodded, my mind a universe away. When I finally returned to my room, he was waiting.
"Where did you come from?" I whispered.
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But before he could answer, a strange drowsiness washed over me. I fell asleep on my bed, and in that hazy space between dreams and reality, I felt him—a tiny, soft kiss on my lips.
I woke with a gasp, but the room was tilting. No—I was shrinking! The world expanded around me until I was his size, standing face-to-face with him on my rumpled duvet.
He smiled, his eyes holding galaxies. "My name is Elian," he said. "When the stars are out, you can come to my world. At sunrise, you will return to your own."
As dawn broke, my size returned, leaving me shocked and breathless. He had stolen my first kiss and turned my world upside down.
I work as a technician in a local lab, and the next day, Elian confessed his tiny spaceship was damaged. That night, in our small, shared size, we worked together under the glow of a desklamp I'd turned into our personal sun. Our fingers brushed as we passed microscopic tools, sending sparks through the air. He told me about his world, a constellation of floating islands in a sea of nebulae, and I told him about my small town with its quiet, kind weather.
Morning came, and I returned to normal. At the lab, my best friend, Leo, helped me analyze a strange, miniature alloy Elian had given me. Leo was shocked, then incredibly helpful, but I saw a flicker of jealousy in his eyes when I couldn't stop smiling, thinking of Elian.
Later, Leo confessed his feelings for me and proposed. My heart was a tangled mess. "I need time," I whispered.
That night, I asked Elian the question burning in my mind. "Why did my kiss change your size? Why me?"
He took my hand, his touch both gentle and electric. "A Shadow, a creature that devours light, followed me to Earth. In that moment, you were the only light I could find. I had no choice but to bind my fate to yours. In my size, you would be safe with me."
As he spoke, my bedroom door creaked open. My mother, looking for a missing book, froze. Her eyes widened, finding me, a three-centimeter-tall girl standing with a tiny prince on her daughter's pillow. She gasped, her hand flying to her heart, and collapsed to the floor.
"Mom!" I cried, my tiny voice a whisper.
I sat next to Elian on the edge of my notebook, our legs dangling over the vast drop to the floor. We were watching the sunrise paint my room in hues of orange and pink. "When the sun touches you, you'll return to your world," he said, his voice heavy.
Suddenly, he turned to me. His hands cupped my face, and before I could speak, he kissed me. It wasn't gentle like the first time. It was desperate, filled with a fear I didn't yet understand. A surge of energy rushed through me, and the world blurred. In an instant, I was back to my normal size, sitting alone on the floor.
My door flew open. My mom stood there, her face a mask of fury. "Why were you screaming? And why are you sitting there like that? You've been so distracted!" she scolded, her words sharp and confusing. I hadn't been screaming. Had I?
The scolding didn't stop. For days, it felt like the whole world was against me. My dad gave me disappointed looks about my grades. My older brother and sister teased me for being "spacey." The worst was when my mom, in a fit of frustration over a messy room, slapped me. I ran to my room, crying. Why was this happening? Why was everything falling apart?
But that night, everything changed again. My mom came into my room, her eyes red from crying. She sat on my bed and hugged me tightly. "I'm so sorry, my love," she whispered. "I've been having the most terrible dreams. A shadow... a horrible shadow that looks like you. It attacks me, it screams at me. I wake up so angry, and I take it out on you. I don't know why."
My blood ran cold. The Shadow. It wasn't just following Elian; it was attacking my family through their dreams, turning them against me.
That night, the nightmare visited me. I was trapped in a dark place, and a shadowy version of myself advanced on my mom, hitting her. She cried out my name in betrayal. I woke up screaming for real, my heart trying to beat out of my chest.
The Shadow's influence was seeping into our waking lives. I had no choice. I had to get small again. I had to fight this with Elian.
I found him, tiny and anxious, on my nightstand. "It's happening," I gasped, tears streaming down my face. "The dream... it's turning them against me."
He understood immediately. Without a word, he stood on his toes, pulled my head down, and pressed his lips to mine. It was a kiss of pure purpose, a key turning a lock. That now-familiar whirlwind sensation took me, and I shrank down to his size.
The moment my feet were firmly on the wooden landscape of the nightstand, I didn't think. I threw my arms around him, holding him tighter than I've ever held anyone. I buried my face in his chest, sobbing with fear, relief, and a terrifying, dawning realization.
"I don't know what to do," I whispered into his tunic.
He held me just as tightly, his voice a firm, steady anchor in the storm. "I know. But you are not alone in this. We face it together."
He pulled back slightly, his starlit eyes meeting mine. "The story you knew is over. The easy magic is gone."
I looked at our intertwined hands, so small yet now holding so much power.
He finished, his voice dropping to a whisper, "Our story begins now. The real one. The war for your family, for your home, and for our worlds has just begun."