The Potion

Sitting on the picnic table was the potion that would change my life forever.

Or better yet, change his.

“Are you sure this is the what you really need to do?

The voice belonged to my cousin, Agatha, my closest, and well, only friend.

There were weeks of relentless argument. She pleaded with me not to tamper with the hands of time. I pleaded with her not to judge me.

“What if something goes wrong? What if you can never be you again?”

She didn’t know how often those questions haunted my nights.

Getting the potion hadn’t been easy.

I wasn’t even sure that it existed until I travelled to Glimmerbrook and met Emilia.

“You’re essentially taking a chance,” she told me. “Yes, you can age down but there’s no guarantee you will age back up–ever!“

Using my entire life savings, I purchased the two bottles.

Agatha attempted one last plea. ‘Yes, your past was hard, but look at the beauty now. The cottage, the animals, the garden…”

I sighed.

She had a point. Henford-on-Bagley was my world.

She was my world.

But it wasn’t enough.

“My plan is ambitious, but I’m realistic. This withered version of myself can’t execute it.”

But the young me inside?

Invincible.

Fearless.

She’ll take it all back.

From this excuse of a man.

Agatha finally relented. “I suppose there’e no stopping you.”

“Come with me,” every fiber of my being wanted to say. “Drink the other potion. We can do this–together.”

But, the words froze on my tongue.

The potion, my ticket to youth, my ticket to redemption, trembled in my hand.

A warm, prickling sensation took hold as I swallowed. A trilling sound, unearthly, filled the air.”

I looked in the mirror.

There was nothing stopping me now.