My head was spinning, and I had a large urge to make a run for it. This was all just too strange, too unbelievable.

And from the way Lexi was leaning against me, I was pretty sure she was feeling just as shaken as I was. She kept staring at the name and signature on the page, with a kind of haunted look in her eyes.

I glanced around nervously. I couldn't bring myself to look at the contract or the name on it any longer. And I was kind of scared to look at the blonde standing behind the counter too. The cat had woken up and was quietly watching me and Alexis, and even that gave me the creeps.

Things had gone from odd to surreal, and now it felt almost like a nightmare. Like I had no idea what we'd gotten ourselves into but it was way beyond anything I was prepared to deal with.

Lexi finally spoke up after a few quiet, tense minutes. Her voice wavered slightly, but she didn't sound anywhere near as freaked out as I felt. "Was that me? Was that my name?"

Selene nodded, "That's you kid. You came in here yesterday and convinced me to sell you a pretty powerful spell. I'm assuming you didn't bother to read all the warnings and cautions, and managed to screw things up."

She reached forward and tapped a sign on the back of the cash register, that read 'No Refunds - No Returns'

"Sorry kid, but that's store policy."

My mouth was totally dry now as I stared at the sign.

Lexi just glanced at it then looked back at the contract. She reached out and pointed at a line near the bottom, above the name and signature.

"Says here, 'Satisfaction Guaranteed'. And I'm not satisfied."

Selene turned the binder around and frowned as she looked closer. She shrugged as she looked back at Alexis, "Look if you kids screwed up, that's not my problem. It's none of my business what happens after you leave the premises."

"I'm hearing excuses," Lexi stated in a firm voice, "But I'm still. Not. Satisfied. And your contract says my satisfaction is guaranteed."

I stared wide-eyed at my friend. I couldn't believe she was really going to do this. She was going to get into an argument with a witch or a demon or whatever the hell this Selene person was. She obviously had magic and power, and we were in way over our heads. Yet my best friend seemed determined to stand there and antagonize her.

Selene scowled as she stared us both down. Finally she asked "And what exactly will it take to satisfy you?"

"Do the spell again, and do it right this time," Alexis insisted. "Give my friend the body she's supposed to have."

"I don't cast the spells, I just sell 'em." Selene replied in a cool tone.

Lexi sighed but stayed firm. "Then I want a do-over. Because I am not satisfied."

She and Selene locked eyes and I swear I was sure the woman was going to zap us both or something. If I didn't already know the front door was locked I'd probably have been dragging Lexi out and getting us as far away from here as I could.

The staring contest went on for about fifteen seconds, before Selene sighed and muttered angrily. I didn't understand the language, but I didn't have to. From her tone it was clear she was swearing.

She scooped up the binder and snapped it shut, then hunched down behind the counter again. I heard a drawer sliding out and the sound of paper shuffling.

After a minute or so she stood up again and slapped a large envelope on the counter. It was one of those big padded manilla ones, and from the way it bulged I could tell it was full of something. It had some faint writing in the top corner in pencil, but it was in a language I couldn't read.

Selene glared at Alexis and warned, "That's the last copy I have. So you're going to have to think carefully, kid. You can either fix what happened to you, or you can do what you want for your friend. But you can't do both."

Lexi didn't seem the least bit bothered by that. She just glanced at the envelope then looked back at the blonde and asked, "That's the spell I bought?"

"That's it," the young blonde replied. "Destiny Rewritten. Or some folks call it the Fate Editor. Everything you need's in there. Instructions, cautions, warnings, and I do suggest you read those carefully this time. And all the materials you need to make it work."

She added, "Use it at midnight tonight. The full moon was last night but it'll still be close enough tonight. Otherwise you'll have to wait till next month."

Finally she pointed at the door, "Now get out of my shop and I don't want to see you back here again!"

Lexi picked up the thick envelope from the counter, and I worked up the courage to quietly mention "You uh, locked the door..."

Selene was still pointing at the door, but she snapped her fingers and I heard the clunk of the lock opening, then the open/closed sign flipped around by itself.

I may have jumped slightly but I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one who made the little yelp noise. Or maybe I was.

"Thank you," Alexis stated with a small triumphant smile. "Assuming I'm satisfied with the outcome this time, we won't need to return."

She turned and casually walked back to the door and outside, with me following right on her heels.

Lexi remained calm as we walked back around onto Main Street, and the two of us started towards home.

My heart was still racing and I glanced back over my shoulder more than once, as if I was expecting Selene to be stalking after us or something.

We made it another half block before Lexi suddenly let out a happy shout, "Yeah! We did it!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin again when she did that, and wound up staring at her with wide eyes.

"Lexi what the fuck?!" I demanded. "I mean what the actual fuck? What were you thinking back there?!"

She gave me a confused frown, "What? I just wanted to be satisfied, like the thing said."

After a moment she rolled her eyes and added "Yeah I know, it was a total Karen move. But c'mon! We found what we wanted and I scored us a copy of the spell! You heard the lady, we can do this tonight!"

I shook my head as I stared at her.

Alexis grinned and grabbed my hand, "Come on Chloe! Let's get back to your place and start reading some instructions!"

She seemed almost giddy for the rest of the trip home, and I could only chalk that up to adrenaline or something. I was still half in shock from the whole experience, but I didn't want to talk about it out in public.

When we got back to my place I let out a deep sigh of relief, like we were finally safe at home. I stared at my friend again and asked "What the hell was all that? Like... Fuck Lexi! You saw the name on that contract. You know what that means?"

She sighed, and her expression became serious. "Yeah Chloe. It means all the weird shit you and me have been talking about since Friday is true. It means I really was a guy up till a couple days ago. And it means magic's real and we've got a chance at a do-over, to get it right this time."

I frowned, "You heard what she said though. We've only got one shot. We can't fix both you and me."

Alexis shrugged, "We talked about this already, right? I don't remember actually being a guy. I don't know what I looked like, what I was like as a person, who I was. Hell I wouldn't have even known what my name was, if I didn't see it on that contract. I'm Lexi now. That's what I know. That's who I am."

"But what if it's not who you were meant to be?" I sighed. "It's... Like I don't know? What if this is wrong for you?"

She shrugged again, "It feels alright? And anyways, like you just said, we've only got one shot. We're not going to waste it on me again. This is for you, Chloe. I want you to have it, and I'm not going to take 'No' for an answer."

She held out the envelope to me, "Take it Chloe. It's yours."

I hesitated. "Do you even know what it cost you? I mean... It couldn't have been cheap."

Lexi shook her head, "I have no idea. I guess whatever it was, maybe 'Alexander' paid for it?"

I sighed again but I took the envelope. "Thanks Lexi. You're the best friend I could ever imagine."

She moved closer and gave me a hug, "You too Chloe. Now let's open that up and figure out what to do? We've got like ten and a half hours till midnight."

After a moment she added with a smile, "Maybe we'll even find time to finish that game before it's spell-time."

I rolled my eyes but sat down with her at the kitchen table to look through the contents of the envelope.

Inside was a dozen sheets of paper stapled together, all typed double-sided. The pages included a contents list, a list of other stuff we needed, then instructions, cautions and warnings, and finally some charts and diagrams.

Along with the papers, there was a small dark-red candle and a cheap plastic candle-holder, a large zip-lock bag full of what could have been weed but was probably incense, and two smaller zip-locks full of fine grey powder. The large bag had '#1' written on it in black magic marker, the two smaller bags were labeled '#2' and '#3' respectively.

There was also a small knife blade, like basically a razor blade in a little paper envelope. And finally there was a square of heavy parchment paper, about eight inches by eight inches, and a weird old calligraphy pen. The nib on the pen was bizarre though. Instead of being made of some kind of metal, it looked for all the world like it was made from somebody's toenail or something. It looked totally gross, to be honest.

According to the instructions it was a 'Dragon Scale Stylus'. I sure hoped dragon-scale wasn't a euphemism for toenail, but at least it sounded less gross to think of it as being made of animal scale. The instructions also referred to the red candle as a 'Dragon Blood Candle', so it seemed there was a bit of a theme going on.

According to the 'not included but required' list we needed a match or lighter, a bowl, crucible, or cauldron six to eight inches across, and a small bowl or glass that could hold one to two fluid ounces. Finally it suggested a bandage or something might be handy as well, and maybe a towel or something incase of spills.

I grabbed a cereal bowl and a shot-glass from the kitchen cupboards, and found the BBQ lighter in the junk drawer. I made sure it still worked, then set it with the other stuff. Lexi went up to the bathroom and grabbed some bandaids from the first-aid kit, and we had a roll of paper towels in the kitchen.

"Ok, I guess that's all the stuff we need." I said as I stared at it all. I could feel my heart-rate climbing again, but we still had ages until midnight.

"So let's read the instructions and stuff," Lexi said. "Like we better not screw it up this time, right?"

We wound up sitting on the sofa in the den, so we could both read it together. We were basically cuddling again, but I certainly wasn't going to complain.

We read through it all, then we read through it all a second time. Despite being an incredibly powerful spell, it was actually pretty simple to cast. Like, even we could do it.

That stuff Selene said about magic being everywhere and not being in candles and incense and stuff turned out to be a total lie. In this case the magic was in the 'Dragon Scale Stylus', the 'Dragon Blood Candle', and whatever secret combination of eleven herbs and spices were in those ziplock bags.

The warnings were pretty straightforward about what not to do, how not to screw it up. The main thing was when reality was changed, only the person casting the spell would be aware of it. Unless they had someone help participate in the casting, then whoever helped would also know.

It mentioned that awareness might only last a couple days, then it'd fade. We might never forget the original timeline but it could become sort of fuzzy and distant as we got used to the new reality.

The big warning was if we messed up the most crucial part at the end, anything could happen and the results would be unpredictable. The only 'failsafe' was if things went totally wonky, at least one of the participants should remember something. Maybe not everything, but there should be some clues or whatever.

Which explained how Lexi had those deja-vu things. She must have helped me with the spell, then we screwed it up bad enough that it hit her instead of me, and all we had left were those clues.

We looked at each other and she said, "Ok, so let's agree right now not to screw it up again. Right?"

"Right," I agreed wholeheartedly.

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