For John, the routine of reciting the words night after night, sometimes after practice, sometimes after youth group, began to become a mainstay. He’d heard good things about meditation online, maybe having a repeated routine of any meditated line had similar effects. He swore he could feel something getting stronger, but he wasn’t sure. It felt almost as if he could feel the very words he was speaking in preparation, as if he knew what he wanted.

Alexis had, to his relief, kept up on her end of the deal. It would’ve been so awkward to go through this alone, and scary. He hated to admit it, but he was looking forward to the full moon. He’d come to realize that being tall wasn’t ideal for him, and he found himself secretly tempted to wish for a smaller height, but no, couldn’t go too far, lest people notice. So instead, he focused on the exact amount he wanted to decrease in height.

They had agreed to meet up at John’s house for the last night, knowing that John’s mother would be inside but probably just watching shows in her room. Besides, the transformation didn’t make much sound, and they could always go out to the garage for a bit if it were really an issue of getting caught. John was still incredibly nervous about that, but somehow Alexis always managed to calm him down, no matter the situation.

He’d noticed that Luther, meanwhile, had become more averse to socializing with, well, anyone. He’d been worried that it had been about the subject of that night, but if that were so, Luther would probably be his normal peppy self to everyone else but him and Alexis. Instead, Luther seemed sullen, anxious, and jumpy. He would often seem to be staring at the ceiling, and when he noticed John was looking worriedly at him, he’d blush and look down.

John wanted to ask what was wrong, but Luther also seemed to be taking every opportunity to show up as late to school as possible and leave as early as possible. It made it nearly impossible to find him, especially when they had different lunch periods. Thus, two weeks passed, and John found himself in his father’s pickup truck, giddy from excitement.

His father would be out for the night with some of his friends, so it would be just his mother (who was no doubt taking a well-deserved break), himself, and Alexis in the house tonight. Perfect for his plan. As he slung his backpack down on the couch, his father switched the living room TV on.

He’d been the weather that morning, but now the same channel was on a pundit talking about how Democrats were acting in lockstep with “the globalists” to inject people with nanobots when they recited the spell. They used the word ‘curse’, of course, not ‘spell’. John found himself entranced, if not a little angry and nervous. He couldn’t believe people believed this stuff about something as harmless as a little spell, especially with how excited he was for it.

Strategically, he asked his father if the college tournaments were on, and his father nodded, and switched the channel to basketball. John tried to be as discreet as possible about the sigh of relief that followed the channel switch. After a few nervous hours that seemed like months to his anxious mind, his mother called in the kitchen for dinner, and they assembled.

The three sat down, saying grace before digging in. About halfway through half-picking at his food and half-shoveling it down, John heard a knock at the door. That was Alexis. His parents welcomed her in and smiled as they looked from him to her. He knew what those looks meant: they were expecting a relationship announcement soon, despite how many times both had told them they were just really good friends.

The awkward greeting gave way to Alexis joining them at the table, taking a small serving of mashed potatoes and gravy. She seemed collected, though John swore he caught hints of nervousness in her demeanor. Nevertheless, she was exceptionally well-composed. Later that night, as they finished cleaning dinner, John’s father said ‘goodbye’ and took the truck.

John then looked up at his mother’s room, finding the door closed with her presumably inside, and turned to Alexis, signaling his excitement. The full moon that night fell at a very convenient 8:30 pm, about an hour from then. That meant, according to instructions, they had 45 minutes. And so, the two began to occupy themselves as they could, while still both constantly checking the clock.

Locked doors weren’t allowed in John’s house, but they figured that locking it right when the full moon started would be better than them being walked in doing magic. And so, as the time wound down, John found himself staring into that lock, as if to make it turn by his will alone. However, he found that the lock did not turn, to his dismay, until exactly 8:13 pm, when he decided he couldn’t bear it and walked up to lock it, taking up, by the wall clock, exactly twelve seconds.

Alexis rubbed his back gently, assuring him it would be okay. Eventually, she patted him on the back, signaling it was time. She would go first, since if something went wrong, John could get help from his mother. As she closed her eyes and spoke the final magic words, a transformational energy enveloped a small part of her head.

She grabbed the hair in that spot, brushing it out of the way, to find a strip of dyed blue hair underneath her other locks. She grinned and tucked it back under the rest of her hair, giving a thumbs-up to John. As he looked at her, something stirred in his gut. She had really sort-of-permanently changed her body. She could change back, sure, but only if she wanted to. And it was permanent for a month, at minimum.

He found himself nervously glancing at the clock, to find it only just barely at 8:18. He still had minutes to recite something that would take him seconds, it was that easy. So why did it feel so hard.

Alexis walked up to him and spoke for the first time in almost fifteen minutes, both too nervous until now about missing it to distract themselves with small talk. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, John.”

“I know I don’t have to do it,” John said softly, “but that’s why I want to so bad, to have that choice.”

“And I’ll be here with you while you do,” she said, smiling as she hugged him.

She gave him the small slip of paper. He’d given it back to her for safekeeping at night’s beginning. He read the lines he was supposed to, but just as he finished the last word, remembered, fuck, I forgot to focus on losing just one inch.

He gasped as he dropped down at least two inches, hoping and praying it would stop there. At least then he could excuse it with new shoes or something. No such luck, as he found himself plummeting another half foot, and yet another! When he finished shrinking, he was certainly a good few inches shorter than Alexis.

He hated to admit it, but he liked it. He’d never felt the fluttering sensation that was now in his stomach, but he was okay with it sticking around. Even as her expression deepened first into intrigue, then concern, then horror, he couldn’t help but love that she was looking down at him for once. She mouthed words to him, but somehow as she began to speak, he felt his hearing go out, replaced by a ringing, and only coming back once she’d finished speaking.

He began to sway a little, finding himself disoriented by the sudden change in height and his ear structure. Alexis stepped forwards, saying his name as if to ask if it were really him. He tried to answer, 'yes, it's me!', but found himself too woozy to form words. As he slumped over, he felt someone catch him. And then, all went black.