A Pickle of a Situation

Mason wanted something to make him more attractive to the woman in his life. She had started having wandering eyes and he was afraid he was going to lose her. He loved Daisy; he just didn’t know what else to do to keep her interested in him. He decided he would go to the local witch, Ms. Marcey.

He left his hovel and started the trek to Ms. Marcey’s hut outside of town. On his way he thought of what exactly he wanted; bigger muscles, cleft chin, blonde hair, and a few other things. He wrote this list on his hand, and wondered how much it was going to cost him.

When he arrived at the hut, Ms. Marcey met him outside. “What is it you want young man,” she asked, “What can I whip up for you today?” Mason looked at the hunched over hag and replied, “I need something to make me more attractive.” He gave her the list of what he wanted and she nodded. “I’ve got the perfect recipe for this,” she said, “I’ll get right on it. It’ll cost you $500, are you willing to pay?” He nodded in agreement and counted out the money, handing it over to her, he asked, “How long?” Ms. Marcey thought for a little bit and then said, “2 days young man.” Mason left the hut and could hear the hag cackling.

Ms. Marcey headed back into her hut with the list running through her mind. She started pulling ingredients off of the shelves; eye of newt, frogs’ tongues, raven’s feathers, and hair of the werewolf. She set all of the ingredients by her cauldron and started chanting her spell.

As the day went on Ms. Marcey started feeling tired. She needed energy to keep her awake while she added the ingredients, everything had to be perfectly measured or something bad would happen. She grabbed an energy potion and drank it all in one gulp. Immediately she felt energized and she began adding the ingredients one by one so as not to make a mistake. As she was adding the frog’s tongues, there was a knock at the door. She peered out her window and saw the 3 little kids that came every year to trick-or-treat. She carelessly turned grabbing her bowl of candy. She didn’t realize that she had knocked over a vial of vampire’s teeth in her haste to answer the door. After handing out her candy, Ms. Marcey turned back to her cauldron and noticed that the mixture had changed to a dark ruby color, the color was completely wrong for this attractiveness potion. She shrugged and started ladling the mixture into the special opaque vial that was needed for this potion.

The next day, Mason reappeared at the hut. Ms. Macey came out holding the vial and began giving him instructions on how to use it. “First, you must wait until precisely 4:30 this afternoon. Shake the vial 3 times, and then swirl it twice. Bite your tongue until there is the taste of copper, then open the vial and drink it all in one gulp,” she said.

Mason took the vial and looked at it; he saw the ruby color and gagged, “It looks like blood,” he said, “Why does it look like blood?” Ms. Macey replied, “It is supposed to look like that, don’t worry, it is sweet tasting! Now go! I have other things to do!”

Mason walked back to his hovel and sat watching the clock. At precisely 4:30, he followed the instructions and drank the potion. He watched himself in the mirror in the kitchen, waiting to see the changes. What he started to see wasn’t an attractive change; he started turning green and getting wrinkles. He sat down on the counter and looked deeper in the mirror. “Maybe this is part of it,” he said. Mason watched in horror as he started to shrink, smaller and smaller until he could barely see himself in the mirror. The last time he could see himself in the mirror, he looked like a large pickle. Mason began to scream, but his screams were too frail for anyone to hear.

Daisy returned to the hovel after being out talking to the village wizard. She looked around for Mason; she needed to tell him that she was leaving. When she couldn’t find him in the front room or the bedroom she went into the kitchen. Mason wasn’t there either. She looked around for a note, but only saw a pickle lying on the counter. She loved pickles, so she picked it up and took a giant bite out of it. She would never see Mason again. In a way, Mason got his wish; he had become more attractive to Daisy.

801 words, I was inspired by this year's theme, we have had so much scary stuff happen this year, I wanted to lighten the mood.