Page 5 of Wayward Witch

"Here we are," the shopkeeper finally announced, pulling a small vial from the cluttered shelf. The liquid inside shimmered with amysterious iridescence. "This potion should not take you where you don't want to go."

When I reached in my bag to pay for it, she shook her head and raised her hand. "It's on the house. I insist."

"You're the worst person ever," I replied, my voice trembling as I realized what was coming out of my mouth. As I reached for the potion, Evangeline's sly smile stayed with me, leaving me to wonder if she truly understood my plight or was simply amused by my strange behavior.

"I hope you have a splendid day too!" Evangeline called after me.

With the potion securely in my possession, Luna and I left Charley's Charms and Curiosities. Despite my lingering doubts, I knew that I had to trust in the shopkeeper's knowledge and hope that this potion would be the key to finding Spells Hollow and breaking my curse once and for all.

A sudden chill crept down my spine as an eccentric old witch emerged from the shadows behind the shop. Now that I thought about it, she had been observing me silently from a dark corner of the store. She must have been the presence that made me feel on guard in the shop when the rest felt welcoming. Her gaze danced over me, like she picked up everything there was to know about me in a single glance.

"Ah, dear girl," she greeted me with a knowing smile. "You seem to be in quite a predicament."

I shifted uncomfortably under her penetrating gaze. Something about her didn't feel right, so I wasn't about to offer information about myself. Not that I would be able to convey whatever it was I wanted to say, anyway.

"Perhaps this potion will help you," she said, gesturing to my bag. "This is a 'fix anything' potion. It can address a wide range of problems, though its effects can be unpredictable."

Her cryptic smile sent a shiver down my spine as I hesitated. Potions were wondrous little things, but there was a major downside to them. If you used the wrong one, they could have disastrous consequences, or just be expensive duds. Could this potion really help me to where I needed to go or even break my curse? Or would it simply lead to further complications?

"Unpredictable?" I managed to ask, my voice barely above a whisper. I pulled the bottle out and looked it over. "What do you mean?"

"Ah, well," she replied mysteriously, "Sometimes the solution we seek presents itself in ways we never could have imagined."

As I weighed the risks of using the potion I'd received, knowing that it could either be my salvation or my undoing, my attention was drawn to one of the four symbols from my dreams etched into the bottle. The magic lamp. This discovery both reassured and unnerved me.

"Is there something significant about this symbol?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.

"Perhaps," she responded enigmatically. "Symbols have power. It could be a sign that you're on the right path... or it could simply be an intriguing coincidence. Either way, the symbol is only visible to you, so that makes you wonder."

With my heart pounding in my chest, I decided to stick with the potion. It was a risk, but one I had to take. When I went to respond to the witch, she was gone. Not a single footprint orsound of steps as proof she ever existed. Just the bottle I still clutched in my hand inside my messenger bag. How strange?

Once I found a secluded spot in the nearby park, I sat down on a bench. I set the backpack where Luna was curled up inside on the bench next to me. Pulling the potion out of my bag, I cradled the potion in my hands. Luna sat in her backpack, watching me from the window.

"Why not?" I whispered, recalling the mysterious witch's warnings about the unpredictable nature of the potion. Could things really get worse?

Uncorking the bottle, I hesitated for just a moment before raising it to my lips. The bitterness of the potion hit me immediately, the taste making me grimace. But within seconds, I felt a surge of magic coursing through my veins, a sensation both exhilarating and terrifying. It was as if every fiber of my being had been set alight, the energy threatening to consume me from within. Then it faded away, leaving nothing changed. I still sat on the bench in the park.

What the hell?

It definitely wasn't a portaling potion… though it was supposed to fix something, not actually transport me anywhere. Maybe it had fixed the curse and I didn't have to deal with it anymore.

"I love this curse." Nope, hadn't fixed the lying thing either.

Then what had the potion done?

My fingers trembled as I clutched the now empty potion bottle, my heart racing with a strange mix of anticipation and fear. If the potion hadn't done what I'd intended, then it had done something unintended. My palms started to sweat as I examinedthe potion bottle, my thumb tracing the symbol of the magic lamp.

A tingling sensation crept up my fingertips, as if they'd fallen asleep and were just now waking up. The air around me seemed to shimmer, as though reality itself was bending and warping before my eyes.

"Selene," a sultry voice whispered, its tone both seductive and forbidden. Startled, I glanced around the park, trying to locate the source of the sound, but found no one there. Luna looked equally bewildered, her ears flicking back and forth in search of the mysterious speaker.

"Who's there?" I called out hesitantly, not entirely sure I wanted an answer.

Even as I posed the question, a figure began to materialize before me… a man who was both mesmerizing and utterly terrifying in his raw, naked beauty.

Naked beauty wasn't metaphor. He was naked. Like buck naked.

As in standing with hands on hips, back straight, and soft cock on display for anyone to see. Were they supposed to be that long? Didn't they get bigger when… uh. Nope, not going there. My face burned as I pulled my gaze away from his member and went to his face.

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