The Other World (Patreon)

Lauren was driving home when it occurred to her that she still had a few things left to do before she got home. After a busy week in the office, she was looking forward to a few days off work to relax and spend time with Charlie, her fiancé. As a political consultant, it was rare for her to get time off. Lauren’s candidate always moved across the country, giving speeches and generally doing their best to be elected president. It wasn't easy for women to get elected nowadays, even if there were already two women U.S. presidents.

Lauren parked her car in front of the bank and walked inside, her heels clacking the marble floor as she strutted towards the teller. She was there to pick up a check because, believe it or not, this weekend, she would make one of the most significant decisions of her life: She and Charlie were going in on a house together.

Lauren exchanged a few kind words with the teller, grabbed the check, and then got back into her car. The young political consultant who had a fondness for pantsuits had to admit that she had never felt so expensive in her life while carrying that check. While driving, Lauren’s phone rang, and she smiled when she saw who it was.

Charlie.

The man was the personification of the word perfection. Charlie had asked her to marry her a little over a week ago. It was a perfectly perfect moment. With his straight teeth, jet black hair, and dark eyes that mirrored pools of chocolate, Charlie had gotten down on one knee and popped the question. Of course, Lauren had said yes.

"LarBar!" Charlie's calm voice cut through the speaker. He always called her that when he was feeling gentle. "I've got dinner tonight if you're hungry."

Lauren shook her head. It was a stupid thing Charlie did, abbreviating everything. Even words that were already shortened got an abbreviation. Charlie was always insisting that one-day, words would be even shorter.

Lauren, who spent a lot of time writing, doubted that.

"Hey babe, I'm on my way home." Lauren turned her car onto the expressway heading to the city. "But the witch needs me tomorrow, early, so I gotta pass out tonight."

Charlie let out a groan. "For someone running for president, she's pretty needy."

"If she were a man, you'd call her assertive and say she "knows what she wants," Lauren shook her head. "Save me some food, babe. I'll see you soon."

"I'm just jealous she gets to spend more time with you than I do," Charlie's voice was muffled, signifying that he was moving around the house.

"Love you too, babe," Lauren said. "See you tonight."

Lauren hung up and laughed to herself. Charlie was always saying things that made her laugh. She wasn't going to complain about this. Lauren could always be stuck with a boring boyfriend who didn't go to the gym and spent his time playing video games. Instead, she had a compassionate man who listened to her, constantly put her needs first, and was willing to go and grab dinner from the Chinese place around the corner.

When Lauren arrived home, she had to smile when she smelled her favorite food warm on the table. She grinned when she felt Charlie's kiss on her cheek, and right before closing her eyes to drift off to another dimension, she couldn't help but insist in her sleepy mind that life was perfect.

***

Lauren smelled that something was off before she opened her eyes. Her brain alerted her that there was something different about the air she was breathing. There was this piney scent around her, almost like evergreen trees.

Wood.

Lauren's eyes flung open, and she blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the amount of light flooding the room.

"Charlie..." she mumbled, hoarse from lack of use overnight. "You forgot to close the curtains again." Usually, Charlie's job was to make sure the room was plunged into darkness at bedtime. She couldn't sleep.

But then Lauren's ears perked up too. A natural sound assaulted her senses; she heard something she had not heard in a while in the city.

Birds.

"Wait… what?" Lauren sat up and looked around her.

Panic flooded her mind. Instead of seeing the modestly decorated room where she and Charlie went to bed last night, Lauren saw pastel walls and shelves. The shelves, of which there were many, had various lotions, bottles, and folded squares on them. There were little quotes on the wall too, like "A Girl's Not Grown Up Until She's Married."

"Huh?"

Lauren stretched and felt a resistance between her legs and, for the first time in many years, a thickness she couldn't quite place. It was as if she were wearing an extremely full pad from her early days in high school before she figured out tampons. Lauren reached down and felt what was causing the issue.

Lauren was wearing what looked like a bright pink onesie. Only it wasn't sized for a baby. It was Lauren sized, complete with snaps that came between her legs. But to finish everything up, Lauren was wearing a thick diaper. It bulged between her legs, forcing them apart slightly. While the onesie hid the diaper itself, she could tell, based on the thickness, that there had to be something in there.

Lauren was wearing a wet diaper.

Lauren gagged slightly and decided at that moment she didn't want any part of this dream. Sure she and her boyfriend had experienced kinky things before, but this wasn't entirely her cup of coffee. Lauren blinked hard, pinched herself, and willed herself to wake up.

But when she opened her eyes, the room simply came back into focus. In fact, upon opening her eyes again, she was able to see that she wasn't in the bed she was in last night. She lay in a giant crib, equipped with bars and everything. The sheets were a soft pink with flowers on them.

What the fuck?

Lauren took a few deep breaths and muttered to herself a few times, wake up, wake up, wake up. But it was no use. Each time she tried, she was still in this nursery in this foreign bedroom where birds were happily chirping away outside.

Lauren frowned for a moment and took a few more deep breaths. She was not usually one to panic, but a few things didn't add up. Looking around the room, she couldn't find Charlie anywhere. She didn't even see his jacket, that stupid backpack he used to always sling over his shoulder, or even his watch.

None of that was in the room.

Instead, Lauren was confronted with a bunch of stuffed animals, bibs, soft pastel dresses, and what looked like a dimming night light shaped like a moon in the outlet.

Figuring she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, Lauren figured she might as well make herself more comfortable. She sat up with a slight squish and slowly raised herself up, so she was parallel to the crib bars. Then with the agility of a former college athlete, she hopped the railing and landed on all fours onto the nursery's carpet below. Lauren stood up and waddled over to the closet to look for a new outfit, flexing her legs slightly. There was no way she would be in a baby outfit in this dream. No matter how long it lasted.

Lauren swung open the closet door and peered inside, but most of what she saw were baby dresses, just scaled up for adults. She raised an eyebrow. The dresses were large and puffy, most of them with pastel colors or animal designs. Lauren pulled out one that featured a peter pan collar and ruffles on the sleeves and felt like she would vomit.

Lauren groaned and that's when it hit her. This bedroom was familiar for a reason. The room with all its wood and pastel colors was her childhood bedroom. She had grown up here.

Suddenly, Lauren felt dizzy.

Had she gone to bed in uptown and woken up in… downtown? That was unusual. Lauren took a deep breath and continued rummaging through the closet, looking for something presentable to wear.

Finally, Lauren found a pair of leggings and a tank top. The tank top said Big Girl in the most mocking font possible, but that couldn’t be helped now. Reach down, Lauren unsnapped her onesie, causing her diaper to sag downwards as a result. After grabbing the tapes and tearing off the plastic padding, Lauren hobbed to the bathroom, took a quick shower, and pulled on the white leggings and pink crop top. Lauren grabbed a hat, plopped it on her head, checked herself in the mirror, and smiled slightly. While this outfit did feel juvenile, it was better than a diaper and that horrid onesie.

Lauren crept down the now-familiar hallway and could hear some noises downstairs. There was the clinking of tableware, the noise of a vent, and - Lauren smiled - the smell of bacon. That meant Charlie was downstairs. He often woke her up to the smell of bacon on the skillet. At least in this dream, she could have that small pleasure. Her mouth started watering at the thought of the crispy pork she was about to encounter.

Lauren walked down the steps and bounded the corner, "Charlie," she said, entering the room, "This dream is cray-"

But she stopped dead at the sight before her. Charlie wasn't in the kitchen, even though there was clearly bacon. Instead, her parents sat in the kitchen chatting to one another while her mother, never one to hover over a stove (even when Lauren was a child), busied herself with breakfast.

"Baby!" Her father said, standing up when she entered. "Good morning and…" his eyes bulged out at her outfit. "What are you wearing? Where did your night-night clothes get to?"

Lauren's mother turned around, wiping her hands on her apron. "Oh honey, you look like a grown-up!" The woman turned around, lowered a burner, and then took a few steps in front of the shocked girl and embraced her. "This is adorable. Good morning sweetheart."

Lauren tensed at the embrace. Her mother wasn't usually one for gestures of affection, nor had she had her hair this long in a while. Why was her brain projecting this Norman Rockwell image of the all-American family right now?

Her parents continued to fuss over her while her father looked highly uncomfortable.

"Mom, dad?" Lauren cleared her throat. "Where is Charlie?"

Her dad grinned. "Charlie is probably at home. He and I caught the game after you were put to bed. I'm sure he'll come to see you and let you out for the day."

Lauren trembled for a moment. "Let me out?"

"Of course." Lauren's mom was fiddling with the stove again. "I'm surprised you're out of your crib; Charlie usually lets you out." She turned off the burners and wiped her hands on her apron in an attempt to rid her fingers of the grease. "Never mind that, we can just eat now." Then gesturing to her husband, Lauren's mom pointed to the table. "Do you need help getting into your chair?"

Lauren frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Your chair, sweetheart." Lauren's mom walked to the corner of the room and pulled out a highchair. Except, it wasn't like any highchair Lauren had ever seen before. This highchair was tall and sized for an adult. There was a seatbelt along the middle of the seat and a few restraints attached to the arms and legs.

"I have to sit in that?"

Lauren's dad folded up his newspaper and gave Lauren some serious side-eye. "Why are you being so difficult this morning?" He grabbed some bacon and proceeded to pour a helping of grits into his plate.

"There's no way in hell I'm sitting there," Lauren said firmly. "That's for babies."

Lauren's dad made an audible grunt from his side of the room. "So you are going to be difficult today."

"Don't worry about her; it wasn't fun for me either when I was young." Lauren's mom removed the tray from the high chair and faced a startled Lauren. "Come on sweetheart, it's time for - oh!"

Lauren's mom gasped in surprise.

"Is everything okay?" Lauren asked.

But suddenly, Lauren felt a wetness on her legs and feet and looked down at the ground in horror. She had just wet herself right there in her parent's kitchen. Lauren backed up in horror and tried to clamp down as hard as possible to stop the flow. But nothing she did stopped the flow. In fact, the pee only stopped when her body was good and empty.

But it was her parent's reaction that scared her the most.

Her mother grabbed a towel from the kitchen and placed it on the floor, while her father ignored the whole thing entirely. Lauren's brain was buzzing as she felt herself being led upstairs. Her mother walked Lauren through the house and into the bathroom, where she was told to strip out of her leggings and crop top. Her mother ran bathwater with bubbles and eased her into the tub.

"I'm not sure why you thought you could be a big girl yet; you know you're not potty trained," her mother clucked as she scrubbed Lauren down. "You know Charlie hasn't trained you yet. You're simply not ready."

Lauren frowned at this remark as it kept bouncing around in her head. Charlie hasn't trained you yet. What did that even mean? Lauren had been using toilets for the last few decades with no problem. Clearly, this was a mistake, probably just a lucid dream she had to accept for the time being before she woke up.

She would wake up. Right? Lauren will wake up, right?

But the scene kept moving forward. Lauren's mother led her back to her bedroom (or nursery) and laid her on the ground and put her into a new diaper. Lauren tried to fight back but was in such a state of shock that her mother simply placed her arms and legs into some light restraints and finished the job. Next, she pulled out a diaper cover and slid it up her legs. Lauren stood up, dazed and confused, and heard a slight click as her mother placed a magnet over the front of the cover.

"That will make sure you can't remove the cover until it's time." Lauren's mother slipped the key into her pocket and guided Lauren back into the crib in the corner of the room.

Lauren noticed that she had been crying for the first time during this entire process. She felt humiliated beyond belief to be put back in diapers at such a mature age.

"Just stay in here until you can calm down and stop being so emotional," her mother insisted, standing over the crying woman.

Lauren couldn't stop crying as her mother raised the bars up and shut the crib.

"Charlie can let you out when he comes over." Lauren's mom said before turning the lights out and drawing the curtains shut. "Please try to stop being such an emotional young woman; Charlie isn't going to want to marry someone who isn't ready to grow up.

And with that, her mother left the room and shut the door.