Old Habits Die Soft

Chapter 12
The Girls

Chapter Description: Ben and Chris reunite.

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“Eden!” he exclaimed, rushing up to meet her.

“Ben! What are you doing here? Is everything alright?” she asked, looking concerned.

“No, I came to warn you about Chris’ mom!” he explained, breathlessly.

“Rebecca? What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s turned Chris back into a baby! She’s going to do the same to me!”

“Yeah, what’s the problem?” she asked, unfazed.

Ben was completely stopped stone cold in his tracks. “What do you mean, ‘What’s the problem?!’” he asked, his voice shaking with fear.

“Isn’t that the whole point? I even prepared your final treatment for you. I thought it’s what you wanted.”

“Final treatment? What do you mean?!”

“Rebecca talked to me a few days ago, she gave me the powder for your final treatment, I mixed it in the water pitcher and left it out for you.”

The pit of his stomach dropped. The water he had drank before he left for the mall! Mrs. Heben had given Eden the final treatment and he had swallowed it without even realizing it. He already felt as stupid as a baby. His belt felt even looser.

“What’s wrong, Ben?” Eden asked, noticing the silence, “I figured this would be the best thing for both of us. You clearly were too childish to be in a relationship with me.”

Ben couldn’t even respond. He felt his pants slip down his hips as he became a teenager again, the belt buckle clanging loudly on the floor.

“You’re not ready to be a grown up, it’s okay. I understand, that’s why I was so willing to help you become young again, you know, to get rid of your old habits. This way, you can learn them the right way all over again! Isn’t that great?”

The darted white button-down that once elegantly covered his masculine chest now draped itself unceremoniously over the thin frame of a ten year old. His stomach gurgled. He felt like he was going to be sick. He tried to run but tripped over his fallen jeans.

“Aww, he’s so cute!” exclaimed Kim, a tall blonde co-worker of Eden’s that he had shared drinks with on several occasions, “Look at his little legs!”

Several of the other girls smiled down at the struggling pre-teen as he tried to regain his balance, but it was no use. Ben dropped down, down, down, becoming a small seven year old with thinning brown hair before dropping to his knees as a pudgy five year old. His rosy cheeks ballooned out as he ran backwards through his fourth birthday.

“He is a cutie, Eden,” remarked Ben’s former co-worker Alison, who bent down low to take the preschooler’s hand, “Let me help you out of these, sweetie-pie.” She tugged down his tangled boxers, revealing his dangling pee-pee, barely an inch long.

“Some things never change,” laughed Eden, pinching the toddler on the bottom as he tried to scamper away from the towering, intelligent women. He felt so insignificant, so completely impotent. He was just another silly baby to them, not a man. If he was put in a day care, there would be no way of distinguishing the former college graduate from any other bed-wetting, pull-up wearing, thumb sucking children. Ben unconsciously put his own thumb in his mouth as he became a two year old, his baby teeth now disappearing into his gums one by one.

“You’ll have to let me change his diapers, Eden. I just want to eat him up!” begged Kim, pulling the barely toddling two year old into her lap. She grabbed his bare legs and kissed them, making mocking gobbling sounds as she tickled the now nursery school aged Ben.

As the baby fat ballooned on little Ben’s body, Mrs. Heben rolled up casually with her infant son in tow. She smiled down at the infantile scene taking place, the former college graduate splayed out on all fours, completely naked in the middle of the mall as five women fawned over his babyish charms.

“Thank you, Eden, this wouldn’t have been possible without you,” Mrs. Heben said, smiling and inclining her head.

“No problem! How could I turn down free rent? And now I have twice the space!” she laughed, tickling the chubby infant Ben under the chin as a string of drool emerged from his toothless mouth. The one year old Ben crept slowly out of the lap of his captor. As he crawled on the floor on his hands and knees, entirely nude, the women watched the futile display. He felt so stupid! He did this to himself. He was nothing. Just a naked, wet little plaything. He drummed his chubby heels on the floor of the mall. People were staring at the tantrum, but no one helped. They just walked by as the man he was melted away into a prattling, thoughtless infant.

Becoming younger and younger, baby Ben could no longer support himself, turning over onto his back where he kicked his bare legs at the skylights above him, his tiny penis on full display, his eyes unfocusing. The Ben that used to love to read was gone. The incredible amount of information he had accumulated over the years, from college to pre-school was lost forever. He sucked on his thumb noisily, burbling passively as the women watched. As he became a six month old baby, he pushed a load of soft baby poop out of his body and onto the floor, not realizing what he had done. Passersby in the mall glanced over at the public display, walking past the messy infant splayed out on the cold floor.

“Oh no, honey! Don’t be upset! You made such a big poopy for mommy! You’re such a good baby, yes you are!” Mrs. Heben cooed, picking up the messy college graduate from the ground and holding him out at arm’s length.

“Eden, dear, fetch me a diaper and some wipes from my bag, please? I don’t want him to make another poopy until I get him cleaned up. I always figured he would be a stinky baby!” she laughed, holding the baby up while he kicked fruitlessly in the air.

Eden handed Mrs. Heben the box of baby wipes which featured a baby not unlike Ben on the cover, a rosy cheeked, chubby child clutching at his toes as he waited for his diaper on the changing table. She laid her infant son’s best friend down on a nearby mall bench and began wiping the brown curds from his legs and bottom. After that, she grasped him easily by the ankles while she slipped the soft white disposable diaper underneath him. Securing the tapes of his diaper, she kissed her new son on the forehead and placed him gently next to her other son.

“Time for dinner, sweeties!” she said, pulling out matching baby bottles and placing the nipples into baby Ben and baby Chris’ mouths, respectively. Ben closed his eyes and sucked the warm milk from the bottle, quickly falling asleep, while baby Chris suckled his noisily next to him.

The girls watched, motheringly, as the two best friends fell asleep in their stroller. After treating them to coffee at the mall, Mrs. Heben said her goodbyes to the girls and brought the two serenely sleeping infants home, their bottles still clutched in their tiny, pink hands. She laid them down softly in their crib next to one another. Even while asleep, the sound of Chris’ suckling on the bottle could be heard. His mother laughed.

“I guess some things never change.”