I’ll be the first to say that I never believed in any of that supernatural stuff besides ghosts. Weird, right? I just thought there was a big chance that ghosts exist. But demons, angels, and yes, even God didn’t exist to me. Neither did vampires, wendigos, etc.

Nothing made me believe what I did. I just happened to not believe in them. Now, if you’re reading this really closely, you’d know I said all that in the past tense. I used to not believe in supernatural stuff besides ghosts. Now, I do. Do you want to know why? Well, ‘course you do! You’re reading this, after all.

It all started when I woke up one morning and decided to have some grapes and a PBJ sandwich. I kid you not.

…It’d be an even bigger surprise when you learned exactly how all of this…happened.

I’m sorry if, throughout any time you’re reading this, you’re disturbed by my actions. I am myself. I mean, my nickname is the Magical Girl Of Suffering! Of course, this is going to be messed up!

Before I manage to talk myself out of this, I’ll start.
​

This all started when I woke up and decided I’d not eat grapes today.

I took the jelly from the fridge and the peanut butter from the cabinet and sat at the kitchen table. Since it was morning, Dad was upstairs getting dressed after showering, which meant I was alone at the kitchen table. Even the three dogs I had weren’t in the kitchen. They were busy eating their morning treats in the living room on the pillow and blanket I’d left on the couch last night.

I wasn’t bothered by being alone while eating. I was tired and, since I was recovering from nearly having a sore throat, while I may have escaped the sore throat, I still got a cold. I was feeling out of it and had a killer headache. That was why I was staring dumbly across the table with a small empty plate in front of my face, not even touching any of the ingredients to make the desired sandwich. By the time I snapped out of it, I decided to have some grapes. I took them from the fridge and sat back down. The old grapes had gone mushy since I’d gone on vacation and couldn’t eat them in time, so the ones I took were new and didn’t have the problem of being sticky on the bottom of the bag.

Once again, I found myself staring straight ahead, unable to bring myself to eat one. Once again, this lasted for a while until, finally, I snapped to my senses when I heard Dad coming downstairs. Thanking him in my head, I reached into the new bag of grapes and plucked off a random piece, ignoring how slightly mushy it felt. Well, it was either that or I didn’t exactly care in my sluggish state of mind.

I got the grape off the stem or whatever the tiny branch-like thing grapes are on and popped it in my mouth. I frowned slightly when I realized the grape was overly ripe but didn’t care nor give it much thought as I swallowed.

And that was one of the worst mistakes of my life.

By eating that overly ripe grape first thing in the morning, I kid you not—I died.

One moment I was staring at the wall after eating a grape, and the next I felt some weird sensation in my heart. Then—nothing but gray. I wasn’t sitting at the kitchen table anymore. I wasn’t in the kitchen anymore. I was in an endless light gray space. It was so sudden and so strange that I stared at the light gray void, doing nothing even though I wasn’t feeling out of it.

That was the next thing I noticed. I didn’t feel out of it. Well, I did, but not like before. I didn’t feel sick at all. However, I did feel like my body wasn’t right. When I tried to wave a hand in front of my face to see if something was wrong with me and, in extent, my body, I did see my hand. It was perfectly fine, much to my surprise.

Shaking my head, I rub my eyes to try and see if I could wake up from this irrational place I was seeing, not yet believing I was in this void. Why? Well, I was still sitting—it felt like I was sitting in a chair despite, and yes, I did check, there being no chair underneath me.

Just as I was about to pinch myself, I heard a deep and rich voice.

“Hello, Gabriel.”

I blinked in surprise and spun around, on edge. When I did so, whatever chair I was sitting on instantly disappeared, allowing me to stand up without bumping into it. It was like the chair had never existed in the first place.

In front of me was a tall man wearing red robes with a silver large circular chestplate. He looked like some kind of African warrior noble. From what period, I didn’t know—all I knew was that he looked weird yet sharp in his wear. Sitting atop his head was a red sokutai hat, something nobles and officials in Japan wore back during the time of swords. They may still wear those hats now, though probably only for festivals and such.

Despite how tall the man was and how…wise (?) his voice sounded, he did look to be somewhat young…though that is if you could count looking to be around forty young. The one thing that struck me odd, besides that I could tell he was bald even though he was wearing a red hat, was his light blue eyes. They looked unreal. They looked like those contacts you saw in movies where they didn’t have the budget to try and make the contacts look realistic. They also made him look like he was somewhat blind, or he’d been staring at the sun longer than he should have.

“I’m going to cut to the chase,” the man said, clasping his hands together. “Your soul left your body and now belongs to me.”

I felt my eyes narrow slightly as my expression went from confused to “Huh, I’m in some deep shit, aren't I?”.

“Do you know those things that you have no control over happening?” The man said as he started walking in circles around me, his hands clasped behind his back, “This is one of them.”

Before I could think of something to say, the man continued.

“You have no control over this, nor could you have ever predicted this would happen. In fact, this little rule, or trap for you if you’d like, was set so long ago that we never thought it would actually still work.” He stopped his pacing right in front of me. “But, atlas—it happened and pulled through. Now, your soul belongs to me.”

I wanted to speak or do something, but I found myself paralyzed. The man, if he knew this, did nothing to acknowledge my struggle…if you can call it that.

“Unfortunately, because of how old this trap is, there was a safety protocol attached to it. Also, I don’t care much about that trap at all.” The man added.

I shook my head. Then shook it again when I realized I could move again.

“So, do you care to explain what’ll happen to me or not?” I asked, instantly regretting yet at the same time not at how flippant my question sounded.

“…You’re mine now, Gabriel.” He didn’t answer my question. “But don’t worry. I’m reasonable, sensible, and nothing like what priests and popes say I am like if they ever hear or have heard about me.”

“So not the Devil?” I asked, hoping to understand who, or really what the man is.

He shook his head. “No, not the Devil.”

“But more powerful?”

“Depends on which Devil you are referring to, but yes, I am more powerful than the Devil you speak of.”

We didn’t say anything for a while after that. I had no questions to ask—well, none that I wasn’t sure would piss him off and not make me sound stupid. It wasn’t until I felt a slight twinge in my mind, a foreign sensation I couldn’t describe, did the man speak again.

“Oh, yes.” He snapped his fingers. “You’re a magical girl now.”

“…”

What?

“Excuse me?” I asked, my voice cracking at the end of my very important question.

“Magical Girl Grape. Has a nice ring to it, dontcha think?” He ignored my question, and the slight blush I had from my rather embarrassing voice crack.

“H-Hey! Do—” I began, stuttering when my voice cracked again—this time even higher. However, I realized my voice didn’t go back to normal when I started again.

“Ehh?!” I touched my throat, which was when I noticed something. “EHH?!”

My hands were now white, and yes, I was talking about the skin tone. My hands weren’t actually white. What was worse, my fingernails were long and purple, but they sharpened at the end, looking like claws. When I looked back at the man, I noticed he was taller than before.

A realization dawned on me and, with a frown and narrowed eyes, I slowly flipped the man off.

The man froze for a second before he burst out laughing. I could tell it was a real laugh and, for some reason, I found the fact that he was amused pleasing.

“A-Anyway,” the man said, “I need to explain s-some stuff about your condition.”

“What about my ‘condition’ is there to talk about?” I growled, keenly aware that quite a few of my teeth had changed shape, becoming sharper. The change brought me a slight toothache. If it wasn’t obvious, I was pissed off.

“Well, I’ll put it simply for you,” he said. “You’ll suffer mentally forever until the day you die unless you kill yourself.”

“…You’re telling me to commit suicide?” I pointed to myself.

“No, my new Magical Girl,” he chided, making me shiver in anger before I could get a hold of myself. “You should kill the copy of your soul that is inhabiting your previous body.”

“Excuse me?!” I yelped, feeling myself blush at how unbelievably different my voice sounded. I didn’t even sound angry!

“Back when the trap was made, we did all sorts of things like this. In order not to get caught, we made copies or clones of the victim’s soul and placed them inside the body.”

Although the victim was me and how messed up the man had said was, I realized how smart it was. Though I didn’t know who the man was hiding from—it was a clever way to hide kidnapping and killing people.

“So, if you don’t want to suffer mentally for no reason for the rest of your life, you should kill your clone. If not, that’s your choice.”

I thought it over before nodding. This seemed easy enough.

“Just want me to kill me, then? Alright.” I shrugged. “Just tell me if they have some crazy powers or are aware of me or something.”

The man smiled.

“I know you well, Gabriel. You would be okay with killing someone to save yourself…or so you think.” He gave me a creepy knowing smile.

“I’m killing myself—how hard can it be?”

“Heh heh heh. Yes, how hard can it be?” He said as he turned around. “Don’t forget your Magical Girl duties, though.”

“Wait a second...What am I going to be fighting back in my world? There are no monsters—”

“There are monsters, little Gabriel,” he chided once again, causing me to ball my fists in anger. “Whether or not you reveal yourself to the public is up to you.”

“H-How can I find these monsters?” I asked, cursing myself for stuttering.

“You’ll know. Plus, since the presence of a trap has been activated, there will be more of them. They will be more…well, less ‘secretive.’”

 

It was at this point that I realized something. Something pretty important to the whole Magical Girl thing...and a question I most definitely don't want to ask.

 

“And is there anything else I should know?” I asked, my eyes shifting to the side to avoid looking at the man. I didn't want him to notice my conundrum.

The man noticed my plight as his smile showed some of his teeth.

He leaned forward and lifted my chin. “What is it? What question do you want to ask, Gabriel?”

I tried to repeat the question I’d asked, but the words got caught up in my throat. When I finally managed to get the question out, it wasn’t a question I wanted to say.

“H-H-How d-do I tra-transform?” I asked, the word “meek” not even beginning to describe my voice.

“Just say grape for now," The man told me, giving me an absolutely beaming smile full of joy.

“…”

Clearly, he was reveling in my suffering.

Unable to describe my plight, I gave him another middle finger.

“Well then!” The man said as he clapped his hands and leaned forward to pull down my finger. “Shall I get you going?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I hissed. “Just give me an instruction manual or something.”

“There, there, I’ll get you your manual,” He told me while he patted my head. I hated the headpats, especially since it somehow felt nice.

I opened my mouth to say something back at him when he snapped his fingers. Instantly I felt dizzy and tingling all over. I stepped forward, my vision going crazy until I couldn’t tell if I was standing or not. When I did, I lurched forward horribly. When I recovered, I heard the roar of cars passing by. I looked around and realized I was standing underneath the freeway.

As my mind slowly recovered from whatever just happened, I felt a tingling sensation above me. I looked up just in time for a red and blue paper yet heavy book to fall right on my face.

I cursed, clutching my nose, and eyed whatever had just fallen. When I did, I felt a vein bulge in my head. What had just fallen on my head was a book with the big words in Arial font: Instructions.

“Oh Ha Ha HA! Fuck you!” I yelled, giving the sky one big middle finger…well, two.​